Drink or die

a king Cnut and jarl Ulf holiday special

In a previous post, I discussed how quarrels at feasts were resolved through violence. This post builds on that theme, offering a cautionary example of how Christmas gatherings with in-laws can spiral into disaster. The excerpt is not taken from Gesta Danorum but is my translation of a 15th-century Old Danish version of Annales Ryenses (Danmarks Middelalderlige Annaler, edited by Erik Kroman, 1980, pp. 222–223). The previous post can be read here:

The excerpt requires some backstory. In king Cnut the Great’s absence, duke Ulf Sprækeleg forged letters falsely claiming that the king had appointed him as the ruler of Denmark and had granted him marriage to Cnut’s sister, Æstrid. Despite the Danish court’s suspicions, Ulf married her and consummated the union. However, the court alerted the king, who returned in fury. Ulf fled to Scania and made a stand at Kävlinge Bridge, where he massacred many of the king's men. Ultimately, Cnut and Ulf reconciled, and Ulf was granted Scania as his dukedom.

Not many winters after, the king drank Yule in Roskilde and invited the duke, his brother-in-law, and his sister Æstrid to his Yule, and they came. On the eve of Yule, before they dined, the king and the duke sat and played chess. When the king had won three games, he asked the duke for his own amusement, to take the ladle and go out to the roasting-house. Then the duke answered, and said to the king, " You did not offer me your ladle, when I drove your men into the deep at Kävlinge bridge. I killed as I pleased, and I spared as I pleased." The king resented being rebuked, but remained calm and continued to answer politely.

At the time when they drank water after the meal, the king said to his Yule brothers: "If one of us does not come tonight to the first mass at Lauds, he shall empty a horn called Skinbroki filled with broth as punishment", and they all agreed.

On the night of Yule, when the bell rang for Lauds, the king and his followers rose and went to an old stone house, which at the time stood halfway between the king's estate and the church. There they awaited the duke's arrival. The duke lay in bed, intending to rise and attend Lauds—not only because of the holiday but also because he would not drink punishment. Æstrid, his wife, advised him to wait until dawn. He sent his chaplain to the church, along with a servant boy carrying a hand lamp to light the way. He gave the boy his cloak to wear, as the weather was wet and rainy. He bade him see if the king, bishop, and clergy had arrived at the church.

The chaplain went to the church, but when he reached the old stone house, the king and his followers mistook him for the duke because he was wearing the duke's cloak. They killed him on the spot. When they realized that they had not taken the right man, they detained the torchbearer, refusing to let him return. Instead, they remained there, waiting for the duke to arrive.

The duke lay in bed, wondering why the priest was taking so long. At last, the bell rang for Lauds. He got up and began dressing for church. Æstrid advised him to wait until dawn, warning him of what she had learned the previous day—that her brother, the king, was furious over the duke’s rebuke, when the duke had shamed him by bringing up that he had slaughtered his men and driven them into the deep at Kävlinge bridge. He replied that he would [not] drink her brother's scornful cup. He readied himself and set off for church.

When the duke reached the old stone house, the king’s henchmen stood waiting. There, they murdered him.

Another dramatic feast. Palnatoke and Swen Forkbeard, Louis Moe, Danmarks Historie i Billeder, 1898.

The tale contains the motif of drinking as punishment, a theme with parallels in Norse mythology and sagas. Readers may recognize the motif from Þórr’s exploits in the court of Útgarða-Loki, where Þórr is forced to empty a horn that turned out to contain the ocean. There, the punishment horn is called vítishorn (lit. “punishment-horn”), a term also found in Halldórs þáttr Snorrasonar inn síðari. In that story, Halldór attends king Harald’s Yule feast and is similarly compelled to drink as punishment, with phrases like “scyldu drecca vitin”, and “konvngr biðr hann drecca vitit”. We find the same wording in the Danish tale, “drickee eth horn […] til vithæ”, where the horn contains broth (“soth”).

The shame associated with being forced to drink broth from a horn is puzzling at the first glance. Why, besides the physical discomfort of consuming a large amount of liquid, is drinking broth from the horn humiliating? Two possible explanations come to mind:

The broth might be the dregs scraped together after the feast. Forcing someone to chug the sludge aligns with the kind of humiliation one might expect from a drunken royal entourage; essentially, medieval frat bros with swords.

Another possibility is that drinking from a horn was a mark of infirmity. A parallel can be drawn to Ynglinga saga, where king Aun of Sweden supernaturally prolongs his life through sacrifices. In the end, he is reduced to being nourished like an infant, drinking exclusively from a horn. I think it’s reasonable to interpret whatever sustenance was in the horn as either milk, thin gruel or broth. Emptying the horn would then be akin to being forced to drink from a baby bottle, a humiliating symbol of dishonor in a warrior society where preserving one's status was of utmost importance.