"Like his father, Halfdan was the fruit of a double fatherhood, a divine and a human. Saxo was aware of this double fatherhood, and relates of his Halfdan Berggram that he, although the son of a human prince, was respected as a son of Thor, and honoured as a god among that people who longest remained heathen; that is to say, the Swedes. In his saga, as told by Saxo, Thor holds his protecting hand over Halfdan like a father his son."Indeed Rydberg not only claims Halfdan to be a son of Thor but also claims that he is the divine Germanic patriarch Mannus, referred to in Germania 2.2 by Tacitus. He argues that Frigg or Jord is the mother of Mannus' father Tuisto who is "a god brought forth from the earth" (Rives translation of Germania) or "an earth-born god" (Mattingley/Handford translation). Jord (Old Norse 'the earth') is an ancient earth Goddess who is referred to as the mother of Thor in the Eddas. It may be that she is far more ancient than Frigg but as we know it was common practice in our mythology for the functions of older deities to be subsumed by newer ones. If Tuisto is the son of Jord then it is possible that Tuisto may equate with Thor or that is the reasoning of Rydberg. What he does not appear to have considered is that Tuisto and Thor may have been brothers and the interest that Thor shows in Halfdan could be that of an uncle for his nephew which we know to have been a strong and sacred bond amongst our ancestors which rivalled that of father and son.
Rudolf Simek in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology speculates that Tuisto was an hermaphrodite and the manuscript form of this name, Tuisco points to the "same basic meaning". Rydberg points out that like Mannus Halfdan has three sons:
"While Mannus has a son Ingaevo, Halfdan has a stepson Yngve, Inge (Svipdag). The scond son of Mannus is named Hermio. Haldan's son with Groa is called Gudhormr. The second part of this name has, as Jassen has already pointed out, nothing to do with ormr. It may be that the name should be divided Gud-hormr, and that hormr should be referred to Hermio. Mannus' third son is Istaevo. The Celtic scholar Zeuss has connected this name with that of the Gothic (more properly Vandal) heroic race Azdingi, and Grimm has again connected Azdingi with Hazdiggo (Haddingr). Halfdan's third son is in Saxo called Hadingus." (Teutonic Mythology Volume 1, Chapter 25)In Our Fathers' Godsaga Rydberg refers to Halfdan as "the first Germanic king". Again Rydberg argues that Tacitus refers to him as Mannus. Now turning to the original sources there are some intriguing references in Saxo Grammaticus' The History of the Danes (English translation by Oliver Elton) to a 'champion' called Thore who fights alongside Halfdan:
"When Halfdan had by this man's help regained his full strength, he summoned Thore, a champion of notable capacity, and proclaimed war against Erik. But when the forces were led out on the other side, and he saw that Erik was superior in numbers, he hid a part of his army, and instructed it to lie in ambush among the bushes by the wayside, in order to destroy the enemy by an ambuscade as he marched through the narrow part of the path. Erik foresaw this, having reconnoitred his means of advancing, and thought he must withdraw for fear, if he advanced along the track he had intended, of being hard-pressed by the tricks of the enemy among the steep windings of the hills. They therefore joined battle, force against force, in a deep valley, inclosed all round by lofty mountain ridges. Here Halfdan, when he saw the line of his men wavering, climbed with Thore up a crag covered with stones and, uprooting boulders, rolled them down upon the enemy below; and the weight of these as they fell crushed the line that was drawn up in the lower position. Thus he regained with stones the victory which he had lost with arms. For this deed of prowess he received the name of Biargramm ("rock strong"), a word which seems to have been compounded from the name of his fierceness and of the mountains. He soon gained so much esteem for this among the Swedes that he was thought to be the son of the great Thor, and the people bestowed divine honours upon him, and judged him worthy of public libation." (Book 7)
Halfdan is also pictured in Saxo as often fighting with an oak club. This was also the weapon of choice of Hercules who the Germanic peoples equated with Donar, the southern Germanic version of Thor. Donarkeule or Donar Clubs were worn as a protective amulet by the early Germanic tribes, certainly until it was later replaced by the more popular Hammer amulets. The Hammer is a later development of the Axe, all three being symbolic of the Germanic and Indo-Germanic Thunder God. There are several English and Scandinavian folktales that refer to Thor or the 'Devil' (a demonised Thor) throwing rocks down upon his enemies, usually from the top of a mountain. The oak and the mountain are strongly associated with the northern European Thunder God.
. "Halfdan, stung with this shameful affront, accepted the challenge; meaning to wipe out with noble deeds of valour such an insulting taunt upon his celibacy. And while he chanced to be walking through a shady woodland, he plucked up by the roots all oak that stuck in his path, and, by simply stripping it of its branches, made it look like a stout club. Having this trusty weapon, he composed a short song as follows:" (Book 7, Elton translation)Oak is of course sacred to the Thunder God and you will note that Halfdan must have possessed supernatural strength to uproot an oak by its roots! On an earlier occasion he also used a club as a weapon:
"After this he attacked Sweden, and destroyed its king in the field. Afterwards he prepared to meet the king's grandson Erik, the son of his own uncle Frode, in battle; and when he heard that Erik's champion, Hakon, was skillful in blunting swords with his spells, he fashioned, to use for clubbing, a huge mace studded with iron knobs, as if he would prevail by the strength of wood over the power of sorcery." (Book, Elton translation)
Iron of course is also sacred to Thor and the metal which his second Hammer was later constructed from. On a third occasion he again uses a club as a weapon:
"Presently he cut down an oak-tree and fashioned it into a club, fought the twelve single-handed, and killed them." (Book 7, Elton translation)
Earlier in Book 3 of Saxo there is a reference to Thor wielding a club:
"However, Thor was swinging his club with marvellous might, and shattered all interposing shields, calling as loudly on his foes to attack him as upon his friends to back him up." (Elton translation)
We are told that Hother (Hodr in the Eddas) "hewed off the club at the haft":
"Thus the victory would have passed to the gods, but that Hother, though his line had already fallen back, darted up, hewed off the club at the haft, and made it useless. And the gods, when they had lost this weapon, fled incontinently. But that antiquity vouches for it, it were quite against common belief to think that men prevailed against gods. (We call them gods in a supposititious rather than in a real sense; for to such we give the title of deity by the custom of nations, not because of their nature.)" (Elton translation)
This caused the Aesir to lose the battle. In the Skaldskaparmal in the Younger Edda we have an explanation as to why the handle of Thor's Hammer was short. Loki had turned into a fly and had on several occasions bit the dwarf smith Sindri, the latter time on his eyelid which distracted him and caused the handle of the Hammer to be made shorter than desired. In the latter of the three accounts which refer to Haldan fighting with his oak club the later part of the tale suddenly and unaccountably refers to his weapon as being a 'giant hammer':
"Then with the remaining band of his champions he attacked Halfdan, who crushed him with a hammer of wondrous size, so that he lost both victory and life; paying the penalty both to Halfdan, whom he had challenged, and to the kings whose offspring he had violently ravished." (Book 7)
