The tale of Lardin Ingen and the elven queen

Statue of Ingen at the city of Ingensborg that is ruled by the Ingenföd house that claims descendants of Ingen

The tale of Ingen and the elven queen starts the journey of the legendary hero Ingen that later on became a great drotin over a large kingdom of his own.

The original tale

Once in the days of tales long since gone by, before the songs of second high kings and before the river kings had grown into the power they hold today so were there a young Svenne that set out looking for fame and glory.

His original name has long been lost and is only known by the gods themselves, for it was amongst the golden gates he had been raised as a squire in the service of Bel. He held no great titles and had no great wealth besides his hauberk, his darts, his spear, his kite, his helmet, his axe and his horse. Jet out he set looking for fame and glory.

As he travelled the land did he pass the border between the kingdom of the river and a small elven kingdom up to the north. Here did he hear how their queen looked for a husband and offered a great sum of wealth, artefacts and horses to the man that wished to marry her. However he had also heard how the queen sacrificed men that did not please her and that she had so far slain not only five kings of human blood, but also one dwarven king, two chieftains of trolls and six kings amongst elves. He also knew that she held a great alliance with a great and powerful demon that she sent after her enemies.

He thought long and hard before he travelled to a chronological temple and ordered the priest to in the name of the gods give him the name Ingen (English: Nobody) before he hired a stable boy and rode forth to the elven castle. Well there did he play the woman like a harp for he had also spent a lot of time with the goddess of love and knew of her tricks and ways and before the sun rose again had the elven queen fallen deeply in love with him. He spent three nights in her bedchambers and three days in her hall before he excused himself and withdrew.

The day after did he send the stable boy that explained that he served the lord that had visited her and asked if she wanted to marry nobody. Hearing her words did the queen explode in happiness and screamed that she would be happy and that he could take the dowry.

However as the queen had agreed to marry nobody did they take the dowry and made their way out in the world with their new found riches.

The elven queen however was furious over this and summoned her demon ally and demanded that he would kill nobody. Confused by this did the demon leave her and she furiously summoned him again demanding that he would kill nobody. For three days and three nights did she summon her demon and he left. However after the third day and the third night did the demon slay the elven queen and left her hall in flames.

Lardin Ingen however built a large castle on her land and claimed it as his own and lived happily ever after.

Historical evidence

While the idea of the queen actually marrying several humans and trolls before Ingen is often dissmissed by most historians as most races at the time had laws against extra special marriages and no elven runestones mentions any kingslaying so is the tale still seen as a true tale. However so is it suspected that the elven queen did not have any husband before Ingen or that if she did so would they have died of natural causes.

However there are a large number of evidence that speaks about Ingen being a real man and that he did trick himself to a kingdom in the way the story said and there are a few treasures that remains that used to belong to the queen both in the holds of the "auf Ingenföd" house that claims Ingen as their ancestor and several such as "drotninga hornet" or "the queens horn" and "Silfer bågen" or "the silver bow" are part of the federal crown jewels.