indecisive fighting, Harald accepted the Swedish king as a friend and brother-in-law. When Ingjald passed away at a later time, his adolescent son Hring inherited him, while Harald appointed suitable guardians for the boy. A new incident in Norway draw Harald's attention, as King Olaf of the Thrøndir was attacked by the shield-maidens Stikla and Rusla. Again reacting to undue female agency, Harald intervened and slew the two women in person. He next overcame a Frisian raider called Ubbe who had attacked Jutland. When Ubbe was captured after great feats of strength, he agreed to become Harald's housecarl and married one of the sisters of the king. Harald furthermore undertook successful expeditions of conquest along the Rhine, in the lands of the Slavs, Aquitania, and Humbria in England. His fame attracted warriors from various parts of the world, who formed a mercenary guard. The mighty Danish ruler spent 50 years in peace, meanwhile subjecting his personal troops to hard military drill. The Battle of Bråvalla When Harald realized that he was about to die of old age, he suggested to Hring, king of Sweden, that a great battle should be fought between them. The place was chosen to be at the moor of Bråvalla, and so the legendary Battle of Bråvalla came to be. Harald hoped to die in this battle and go to Valhalla instead of dying in his bed and end up in Niflheim. The Gesta Danorum gives a partly different background to the war. Harald and his nephew Hring of Sweden both trusted a councilor called Brune. When Brune drowned on a journey, Odin, who had by now abandoned Harald's cause, took his likeness and began to weave a web of intrigues, successfully pitting the two kings against each other. The opposing sides therefore spent seven years in military preparations. By this time, Harald's old age and cruelty had made him a burden to his subjects. Hring gathered warriors from Sweden, Västergötland and Norway, while Harald assembled troops from Denmark, the Baltic region and Germany. The two armies finally moved by sea and land towards the fixed place of the contest at Bråvalla. Sögubrot says that this was a moor beneath the forest of Kolmården, close to the Bråviken bay in Östergötland. Hring came first to the battle site and bade his army to rest until the Danes arrived. This took time for the ships were so