Valhalla Scanlation: V9 Page 1

Valhalla Volume 9: Den Store Udfordring/The Big Challenge
Page 1
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This page's trivia: (its huge!)
The word I've translated here as 'Single Combat' was originally 'Holmgang'. It's the old norse term for this particular kind of duel between men. The translation I got for it was 'island walk' or 'island time'. Can't you just hear an enraged norseman shout "Oh that's it.. IT'S ISLAND TIME!"? XD
But anyway that's why the original sentence was 'they fight on an island, therefore that's why we call duels holmgang'. That doesn't work in english cos we don't have an amazing island-related word for beating each other up so I rephrased it a little.
And regarding the legendary figures namedropped in that little bit at the bottom:
* Uffe the Wise: Was wise, yet had a bad PR department apparantly. I'd never heard of him prior to this in my norse mythology textbooks and all I can get via google is a short page on the Danish wikipedia with a picture of a statue covered in bird poo. Poor guy
* Starkodder: Literally means 'Strong Otter' XD Somehow he ended up with this nickname over his long career, having started out as the more logical Starkad, meaning Strong Headubarden ('war-beard', a name of a tribe). He was famed for having eight arms and weilding four swords, and doing a lot of stuff in multiples XD He had many adventures of beating stuff up, beating stuff up on the orders of other people for money, etc. But not much luck with women- they tended to run and scream, commit suicide or attack him so he had to run them down.
Quite awesomely for a jotunn, he was also a bard and wrote his own poems about his adventures. (at least that's the story behind the tales we have to read nowadays~) He lived to a ripe old age, undefeated, and eventually realized his health was fading and picked a badass way to go. Tying a pouch full of his worldly riches around his neck, he skipped off singing into the roughest part of town and told everyone they could have his cash if they lopped off his head. A man named Hathor stepped up to the challenge, but had to jump back quickly after dealing the fatal blow, as Starkad's severed head clenched its teeth in its death throes hard enough to bite into the solid ground when it landed!
Oh, and the story mentioned here on this page is quite funny. When it says 'on behalf of Helge' it means 'Starkad decided Helge would just get in his way, punched him out and tossed him back in his house, then went to go fight the guy's battle for him' XD
* Hrungnir: Well, the story of him is what this volume's all about..XD Stay tuned..

valhalla belongs to peter masden, I am only translating it for the benefit of us english speaking folks~ Here's hoping an official translation comes out eventually!
original raw scans from data9724