[5-8]: The information that Hálfr was twelve years old when he began his viking career is in the prose text (Hálf 1981, ch. 5, 177, ll. 1-3). From a statement in the same chapter (Hálf 1981, ch. 5, 178, l. 33) that he carried on harrying for eighteen years (cf. Hálf 36/1-4), it can be deduced that he was thirty years old when he died. The age of twelve seems to have been regarded as traditionally the age of majority for Viking-Age rulers, like Óláfr Haraldsson (cf. Foote and Wilson 1980, 116).
References
- Bibliography
- Foote, Peter G. and D. M. Wilson. 1980. The Viking Achievement. 2nd edn. Great Civilizations Series. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
- Hálf 1981 = Seelow, Hubert, ed. 1981. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. RSÁM 20. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.
- Internal references
- Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 36 (Innsteinn Gunnlaðarson, Innsteinskviða 16)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 333.