The story of how the freeman Rødh overthrew the tyranny of king Snø (“Snow”), with some help from the ettin Læ - the Hlér of Eddic fame - appears in a number of texts: the Chronicon Lethrense, Rimkrøniken, Annales Ryenses, Kongetallet E, Gesta Danorum paa danskæ, a short 16th-century chronicle by Petrus Olai, and several Swedish derivatives. Only one version links the story to Yule: the Legendary Chronicle.
This small chronicle, named The Stockholmian Legendary Chronicle by Marcus Lorenzen because it contains only legends, is preserved in Cod. Holm. K 46. It is a rather clumsy adaptation of earlier texts, such as the Annales Ryenses and, ultimately, Gesta Danorum, with the author frequently misunderstanding his sources or omitting material. Peter Skautrup dated the chronicle to around 1460, and it was most likely composed by the Franciscan monk Olavus Jacobi in Næstved.
The thirteenth was Snø the Shepherd. When he came to Denmark, he gathered many warriors about him, and with them he subdued all the people of the kingdom, so that they had never before endured such torment. These warriors whom he had gathered were the first to be called hirdmen.1
And because Snø had dealt with the king of Sweden in such a way that he himself became king of Denmark, and not his lord, the ettin Læ2 who had sent him there in the expectation that he himself would rule, chiefly because of his great cruelty and because he had three heads3, Læ thereafter conceived such hatred for king Snø that he sought to drive him from the kingdom.
At that time there was a freeman in Jutland named Rødh4, who had many supporters throughout the land. King Snø greatly feared him and wished to drive him into exile, but did not dare to do so. Then king Snø recalled that Læ was his ally, and so he sent the freeman to him, so that Læ might kill him.
Thus king Snø said to the freeman: “You shall go to Læ on Læsø, and tell him that I am sending you there to spend Yule with him.” 5 The freeman did not dare to disobey the king, and so he set out, arriving there on Yule Eve.
Læ dwelt in a barrow. Then Læ said to the freeman, “From where have you come?”
The freeman answered, “King Snø has sent me to you, that I might spend Yule with you.”
Then Læ said, “Before you take a single step from where you stand, you must tell me three true sayings.6 If you do not speak three sayings that I myself judge to be true, you shall not escape from me alive. But if you speak three things that seem true to me, then you shall spend Yule with me, and I will take good care of you.”
The freeman replied, “I have never been in a house with thicker walls than this.”7
Læ said, “That is certain.”
Then the freeman spoke again, “I have never seen a man with more heads upon his body than you.”8
Læ said, “That is true.”
The third saying the freeman spoke was this: “If that which is now here were to escape from this place, it would not return.”9
“That is true,” said Læ. “Now remain here for Yule, and you shall not be harmed.”
And the freeman remained there that Yule and suffered no harm.
When Yule had ended and the freeman was returning home, Læ sent king Snø a comb and two gloves as a gift and keepsake for his friend, since he had served him for so long. These gifts were brought to the assembly at Viborg. When the king received the gloves, they were fine and beautiful, and he immediately put one upon his hand.
At once he perceived that they were the work of Læ, and in that same moment so many worms, which we call lice, appeared upon his hand that they could not be counted. They spread over his whole body, and no man could remove them from him. The pain was so great that he could not defend himself. Then he rode to a mound near Viborg, and there they devoured him completely, leaving only his bones. And that mound is named Lice Mound 10 after him.
The author of the chronicle liked to invent etymologies, such as deriving hyrdæ drenghæ (“hirdmen”) from hyrdæ (“shepherd”).
Læ and Snø also appear in texts such as Fundinn Noregr and Hversu Noregr Byggðist.
Having multiple heads is a common trollish trait.
The name Rødh is identical to the evil counsellor Rauður in Icelandic legends and fairy tales, and to the knight Rød in Danish and Norwegian tales. In those traditions, he is typically a scheming antagonist. Chronicon Lethrense appears to realign, or distort, this figure, turning the usual villain into the protagonist. The motif of the evil counsellor sending the hero into the hands of ettins also appears in Gesta Danorum and Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra. As pointed out to me by J. G. Harker from Norse Mythology and Germanic Lore, Loki is also responsible for luring Þórr into the court of Geirrøðr in Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa, though it is unclear whether he was coerced into doing so.
In the Chronicon Lethrense and Gesta Danorum, the king and his counsellors plot to send the protagonist to his death under the pretense of discovering, respectively, what kind of death awaited King Snyo and what kind of afterlife awaited king Gorm as a reward for worshipping Ugarthiloc. In contrast, Snø conceals the danger behind a seemingly harmless invitation.
This is a common folkloric motif, also found in Gesta Danorum and Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra. As pointed out to me by Konrad Rosenberg from Gems of Germanic Philology, the ettin challenging whomever enters his mound to a contest of wisdom is also found in Vafþrúðnismál.
Illugi comments on the ettin’s dwelling in his saga as well.
The Legendary Chronicle omits the second part of Rødh’s quip, that he has never seen a man with more heads and fewer people in his household (“et minorem numerum familie”), thereby losing the pun in which “head” refers both to a body part and to a member of the household.
Thorkil expresses the same sentiment in Gesta Danorum.
This localization is absent from the Chronicon Lethrense and first appears in the Annales Ryenses. It represents a folk-etymological explanation of the widespread Jutish place name Lusæhøgh, mistaking lus meaning “light, fire” for lus, “lice.” It’s unclear whether the hilltop fires were beacons, cultic, or both. The place name also spread to the Danelaw, as in Yorkshire’s Loose Howe (ca. 1200 Lushov, Lushou), and possibly Lowsehowe in Cumberland.
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