Princess Ælfhild

Intro Princess Ælfhild’s royal chamber was guarded by a lizard and a snake. Men who sought Ælfhild’s hand in marriage would inevitably be killed by her reptiles, and the King would have their heads mounted on spears. A Danish prince named Alf fought the reptile guards and won, but the King said it was still Ælfhild’s decision to marry or not. Ælfhild didn’t want to marry the prince, so she ran away and became a shieldmaiden. She eventually took charge of a pirate fleet and was so good at piracy that she hurt a large part of the Danish economy. Prince Alf set out to stop the fleet, not knowing the pirate captain was Princess Ælfhild. There are two alternate endings to the story: -In later versions of the story, the Prince and Princess recognized each while fighting. They instantly fell in love, Ælfhild stopped pirating and married Alf, and became queen of Denmark. -In the original Viking tale, however, Ælfhild killed Alf then put his head on a spear and continued pirating.