Wilhelm Stenhammar: Tirfing – Arnold Östman

It’s the Viking era. The hero Angantyr has fallen. In his grave he has taken with him the magical sword Tirfing, a sword that never misses to kill the enemy. His daughter Hervor needs the sword to protect herself from the cruel world of the Vikings. From his grave Angantyr, who had no sons, demands that his daughter for ever must appear as a man in order to retrieve and use the sword. Hervor dresses as the warrior Hervardur, receives the sword which makes him/her an always unbeatable hero in the battlefields. However, the disguise will eventually prove to be her undoing. A love triangle develops between Hervardur and Vidar, “his” brother-in arms who in his way is in love with Hervor/Hervardur, and Vidar’s sister Gullväg who has fallen in love with the hero Hervardur, not knowing that he in fact is a woman. Gullväg is courted by the three kings Gestur, Svasur and Harald. Encouraged by her father, King Gudmundur, Gullväg asks three riddles to be solved by the courting cavaliers. She will marry the one who can solve them all. But she is in fact in love with Hervardur who succeeds in solving the riddles to Gullväg’s joy. But Hervardur must (for obvious reasons) reject Gullväg which makes Vidar furious, meaning that this is an unforgivable insult to his family. He therefore challenges Hervardur to a duel, whereupon he is killed by the invincible sword Tirfing. Hervardur is proclaimed an outlaw by King Gudmundur. Brokenhearted Hervardur tells Gullväg of her true origin and once again search out her father’s grave, returns the sword Tirfing and dies.