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INTRODUCTION.
“HACON, the subject of the following piece, was son of the celebrated Harold Harfax, whose death is recorded in Regner's ode. He was the great hero of the Norwegians, and the last of their Pagan kings. Hacon was slain about the year 960 in a battle with the Danes, in which eight of his brethren fell before him. Eyvindur his cousin, a famous scald, or poet, who was present at the battle, composed this poem to be sung at his funeral.———What seems to have suggested the plan of the ode, was Hacon’s surviving the battle, and afterwards dying of his wounds, which were not at first apprehended to be mortal. Although
