Scandinavian Mythology
Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda
13th century, Icelandic: numerous copies in Iceland, Copenhagen.
When the warriors died they turned to stone and as dawn broke the next day they awakened to life once more.
King Hogni had a daughter and she was taken away by King Hedin Hjarrandason. Hogni pursued Hedin around the North Sea and finally caught up with him on the Isles of Orkney, north of the Scottish mainland.
Here the two sides faced one another with weapons drawn, on the top of a very tall sea stack known today as the Old Man of Hoy. There began a never-ending battle called the 'Fight of the Hjadnings', for however many men were slain during the course of the day, King Hogni’s daughter went around the corpses at night and by her magic, brought them all back to life again. When the warriors died they turned to stone and as dawn broke the next day they awakened. And so the battle continues, and will continue, Snorri tells us, until the end of the world; although other sources have claimed that the battle was brought to an end by the coming of Christianity, which itself is quite revealing.