Hjalti (Hjalte)

Hjalti is Hrólf Kraki's loyal champion — the watchful warrior who raises the alarm when treachery comes to Lejre. When the king's treacherous sister Skuld and her husband fall on Hrólf's court by night with a hidden army, it is Hjalti who wakes the sleeping champions to their doom, rousing them with a famous summons to fight and die well beside their king — the kind of stirring battle-call the old Bjarkamál preserves. Once nicknamed for cowardice in his youth, Hjalti becomes in the last battle the very model of the faithful retainer, standing with the doomed king to the end. He embodies the heart of the heroic code that Hrólf's hall represents: that a warrior's worth is proven not in victory but in how he stands when all is lost, and that the truest glory is to fall beside one's lord rather than outlive him. The champion who wakes the others to their deaths, and shares it.