Editing Aslaug (section)

==Aslaug in legend==
[[Image:Kung Heimer och Aslög.jpg|thumb|upright|King Heimer and Aslaug. Painting by [[August Malmström]] (1856).]]
According to the 13th-century ''[[Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok]]'', Aslaug was the daughter of [[Sigurd]] and the [[shieldmaiden]] [[Brynhildr]],<ref name="Jurich 160">{{cite book|last=Jurich|first=Marilyn|title=Scheherazade's sisters: trickster heroines and their stories in world literature|year=1998|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn.|isbn=9780313297243|page=160|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iEPNBUkkqzsC&pg=PA160|edition= 1. publ.}}</ref> but was raised by Brynhildr's foster father [[Heime]]r. At the deaths of Sigurd and Brynhildr, Heimer was concerned about Aslaug's security, so he made a harp large enough to hide the girl. He then traveled as a poor harp player carrying the harp containing the girl.<ref>{{cite book |title=Our Ancestors: A Journey through the Generations By Rowena Strittmatter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVsEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT33 |isbn = 9783732381432|last1 = Strittmatter|first1 = Rowena|date = 13 December 2016| publisher=Tredition }}</ref>

[[File:Mårten Winge-Aslög i harpan.jpg|thumb|Áke and Grima discover Aslaug. Painting by [[Mårten Eskil Winge]] (1862).]]
They arrived at [[Spangereid]] at [[Lindesnes]] in Norway, where they stayed for the night in the house of the peasants Áke and Grima. Áke believed the harp contained valuable items and told his wife Grima. Grima then persuaded him to murder Heimer as he was sleeping. However, when they broke the harp open, they discovered a little girl, whom they raised as their own, calling her Kráka ("Crow"). In order to hide her beauty – the accepted sign of her noble origins<ref name="Jurich 160" /> – they rubbed her in tar and dressed her in a long hood.<ref name="Jurich 160" />

However, once as she was bathing, she was discovered by some of the men of the legendary king [[Ragnar Lodbrok]]. Entranced by Kráka's beauty, they allowed the bread they were baking to burn; when Ragnar inquired about this mishap, they told him about the girl. Ragnar then sent for her, but in order to test her wits, he commanded her to arrive neither dressed nor undressed, neither fasting nor eating, and neither alone nor in company. Kráka arrived dressed in a net, biting an onion, and with only a dog as a companion. Impressed by her ingenuity and finding her wise, Ragnar proposed marriage to her,<ref name="Jurich 160" /> which she refused until he had accomplished his mission in Norway {{Clarify|date=November 2024}}