Studies in Heroic Legend and in Current Speech

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STUDIES IN H E R O I C LEGEND A N D I N C U R R E N T SPEECH

STUDIES IN HEROIC LEG EN D AND IN C U R R EN T SPEECH BY

KEMP MALONE

ED IT E D B Y

STEFÁN E IN A R S S O N AND

N O R M A N E. E L I A S O N

COPENHAGEN R O SEN K ILDE A N D BAGGER 1959

Printed in Denmark by Centraltrykkeriet, Copenhagen

FOREWORD On his sixtieth birthday ten years ago, Kemp Malone's colleagues and former students presented him with Philologica: The Malone Anniversary Studies, containing a number o f papers which they contributed. In the introduction the editors, Thomas A . Kirby and Henry Bosley Woolf, gracefully expressed the esteem which all o f us have for Malone as a scholar and our warm regard for him as a friend — sentiments which the passing decade has further deepened. On the present occasion we wished to honor Malone again, but this time we felt the festschrift should consist o f his own brilliant papers. The selection which he made at our request is a happy one, for though it fails to reflect the wide range o f his publications (listed in Philologica and supplemented in the present volume) it brings together a number o f related papers — some o f them not readily acces­ sible — representing two o f his main scholarly interests. A s editors we have the pleasant duty o f acknowledging permission to reprint these papers, o f thanking the many friends and colleagues o f Malone listed in the Tabula Gratulatoria who have made it pos­ sible to publish the volume, and — pleasantest o f all — o f wishing Kemp Malone hearty and heartfelt greetings on his seventieth birthday, March 14, 1959. Stefan Einarsson Norman E. Eliason

The nineteen papers in this volume were first published in the following places: 1. Modern Philology XXVII (1930), 257—76; The Germanic Review XIV (1939), 235—57; Journal of English and Germanic Philology XXXIX (1940), 76—92. 2. Essays and Studies in Honor of Carleton Brown (1940), pp. 1—22. 3. Classica et Mediaevalia VIII (1946), 116—20.4. AmericanJournal of Philology XLVII (1926), 319—46. 5. Modern Language Quarterly I (1940), 37—44. 6. Acta Philologica Scandinavica IX (1934), 76—84. 7. Studies in English Philo­ logy, A Miscellany in Honor of Frederick Klaeber (1929), pp. 135—58. 8. Modern Philology XL (1942), 1—18. 9. Studia Germanica tillägnade E. A. Kock (1934), pp. 192—99. 10. Englische Studien LXXIII (1939), 180—84. 11. Acta Philologica Scandinavica XIII (1939), 201—14. 12. Names I (1953), 153—62. 13. Names II (1954), 109—12. 14. English Studies XVII (1935), 141—44. 15. ELH VII (1940), 39—44. 16. Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi LXI (1946), 284—85; Language XX (1944), 87—88. 17. The Review of English Studies III (1927), 257—71 and IV (1928), 257—69. 18. Studies for IV. A. Read (1940), pp. 133—165. 19. Studies in Honor o f A. M. Sturtevant (1952), pp. 5—21. Numbers 1, 16, 17, 18, and 19 have been revised by the author, 1 and 18 rather drastically; the rest are reprinted here with little or no change.

TABLE OF C O N TEN TS

Page

1. The Tale of Ingeld.....................................................................

1

2. Hagbard and Ingeld.....................................................................

63

3.

Ubbo Fresicus at Brávellir.........................................................

82

4. Agelmund and Lam icho.............................................................

86

5. Ecgtheow.......................................................................................

108

6. The Theodoric of the Rök Inscription...................................

116

7.

The Daughter of Healfdene.......................................................

124

8.

On Deor 1 4 - 1 7 ...........................................................................

142

9.

Secca and Becca...........................................................................

158

10.

Becca and Seafola.......................................................................

164

11. Humblus and Lotherus.................................

168

12. Royal Names in Old English Poetry.......................................

181

13. Epithet and E ponym ...................................................................

189

14. Herlekin and Herlewin...............................................................

193

15. Freaw aru.......................................................................................

197

16. H run g n ir.......................................................................................

202

17. Etymologies for Hamlet...............................................................

204

18.

The Phonemes of Current English..........................................

226

19. The Phonemes of Modern Icelandic........................................

268

The Writings of Kemp Maloneafter 1948 .....................................

283

Index of Proper Names........................................................................

287

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THE TALE OF INGELD T H E EARLIEST datable reference to the Ingeld story is the one found in a letter

o f Alcuin’s w ritten in A .D . 797. To quote, Verba D ei legantur in sacerdotali convivio. Ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam; sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium . Q uid Hinieldus cum Christo? . . . N on vu lt rex coelestis cum paganis et perditis nominetenus regibus com m unionem habere, . . . [The words o f God are to be read at a corporate priestly m eal. There it is fitting to hear a reader, not a harper; sermons o f the fathers, n ot songs o f the heathen. W hat (has) Ingeld (to do) w ith Christ? . . . The heavenly king w ill n ot have to do w ith so-called kings, heathen and damned, . . J 1

From this passage one learns that a song existed about a heathen king named Ingeld, and that the tale was popular enough to w in favor, even in strictly clerical gatherings, at the expense o f H oly W rit and edifying hom ilies. M uch earlier, in all likelihood, is the reference to Ingeld in Widsith, though w e can date neither poem nor passage w ith precision: 45 H roþ w u lf & H roðgar heoldon lengest sibbe ætsomne, suhtorfædran, siþþan h y forw rzcon W icinga cynn & Ingeldes ord forbigdan, forheowan set H eorote Heaðobeardna þrym . [H rothw ulf and Hrothgar held friendship together longest, nephew and unde, after they drove away the tribe o f W ïc-dw ellers and low ered Ingeld’s spear, cut to pieces at H eorot the army o f the Heathobards.]

Here three persons are named: King Hrothgar o f the Danes, his nephew H rothwulf, w ho later overthrew and killed Hrothgar and usurped the Danish throne,2 and King Ingeld o f the Heathobards or W lc-dwellers. The elem ent He a do- o f the tribal name means ‘war* and the name as a w hole means 'warlike 1. See letter N o . 124 in Duem m ler’s ed., Monumenta Germaniae Historica . . . Epistolarum IV (Berolini 1895) 183. 2. See m y paper in PM LA 42 (1927) 268 ff. and cf. R. W . Chambers, Beowulf, An Introduction, 2d ed. (Cambridge 1932), pp. 447 f. 2

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Bards.’ That is to say, the true name o f the tribe was Beardan ‘Bards’ and Heado- was a com plim entary or descriptive epithet, becom e conventional through long use and convenient as a w ay o f distinguishing this tribe o f Bards from the kindred Langobards. The alternative name Wicingas ‘m en o f W ie’ enables us to localize the tribe w ith som e precision: they must have lived in and about Bardowiek on the Ilmenau river (in the valley o f the low er Elbe), the district where lived the Bardi o f the 12th-century chronicler H elm old. Certainly no other wiek or wie is know n that has historical associa­ tions w ith the Bardish nam e.3 The Widsith poet in this passage speaks from the point o f view o f the Danes. His main interest lies not in Ingeld but in the relations betw een the tw o kinsmen o f the Danish royal house. O n the face o f it his words im ply that Hrothgar and H rothw ulf fell out repeatedly, periods o f enm ity altern­ ating w ith periods o f friendship. The longest o f the periods during w hich their relations were friendly was the one that follow ed the defeat o f the Bards at Heorot. A t that tim e uncle and nephew made com m on cause against the invaders and their fellowship lasted for a good w hile after the battle w ith the Bards. But it is possible to take lengest as an absolute superlative and i f w e so take it the poet’s words carry no im plication o f repeated quarrels, though they do im ply “that at length the bond betw een H rothw ulf and Hrothgar was broken.”4 The break (or the final break), w hen it came, proved fatal not only to Hrothgar but to all the royal house: it set going a blood feud that did not end until there were no more princes left to kill. The English poet in five lines o f verse brings to mind both the triumph and the fall o f the Scylding dynasty. The meaning o f ord 48 is uncertain. Taken literally, ord means ‘point.’ It was said especially o f a spear-point and by synecdoche could mean ‘spear,’ the most important part o f the weapon giving name to the w hole. If this is its meaning here, w e may reasonably think that Ingeld fell in the batde: the Danes brought low his spear by killing him . In typical English fashion the poet reports Ingeld’s death indirectly, by understatement. But ord need not be so taken. It may mean ‘body o f men at the forefront o f the fight.’ If w e take it in this sense, Ingeldes ordforbigdan means ‘they brought low Ingeld’s front rank’ (i.e. they broke his line o f batde). O n this interpretation the poet’s words apply to the batde as such and give us no inform ation about Ingeld’s fate as an individual. The poet in telling o f the battle uses the rhetorical figure o f hysteron 3. See, further, m y ed. o f Widsith (London 1936), pp. 155 if. 4. R. W . Chambers, Widsith (Cambridge 1912), p. 82.

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proteron, first giving the outcom e o f the fight (the invaders were driven off), then the course o f the fighting (the Danes killed Ingeld — or broke his battle array — and cut his army to pieces). And w e are told where the battle took place: at H eorot. This localization was perfectly clear, no doubt, to the poet’s hearers. The m odem reader, how ever, w ould be none the wiser but for the happy chance that the Beow ulf codex, though badly scorched, was not burnt up in the fire o f 1731 at Ashbumham House. The B eow ulf poet has much to say about H eorot and from him w e leam that it was the Danish royal hall, built by Hrothgar him self at the height o f his pow er and fam e. K now ing this, w e realize that the Bards had made their w ay to the heart o f Denmark and were attacking the capital o f the country. From Beow ulf w e also learn w hy the Bards made their attack. A blood feud had arisen betw een Bard and Dane. W e are not told how it started or how long it had gone on. W e know only that the Bards attacked H eorot to wreak vengeance for a defeat they had suffered at the hands o f the Danes. In an effort to com pose the feud, and stave o ff this attack, King Hrothgar had betrothed his daughter to Ingeld. B ut his m ove failed, the feud broke out anew, and Ingeld led a Bardish army to another defeat, the one spoken o f in Widsith. W hen B eow u lf visited the Danish court the betrothal had taken place and the peace had not yet been broken but trouble was brewing and B eow u lf (in the report he made, after his hom ecom ing, to his uncle, King H ygelac o f the Geatas) predicted that there w ould be a renewal o f the feud. The Beow ulf poet touches upon the feud in one other passage. After tel­ ling how King Hrothgar built the hall H eorot, he goes on to say, 81

Sele hlifade, heah ond hom geap ; heaðow ylm a bad, laðan liges ; ne wæs hit lenge þa gen þæt se ecghete aþumswerian æfter wælniðe wæcnan scolde.

[The hall towered, high and w ide-gabled; it awaited war-flames, foeman’s fire; it was not yet tim ely that war should break out betw een son-in-law and father-in-law in the wake o f deadly hatred.]

Here the poet, unlike B eow ulf, is making no prediction; he speaks after the event. O f course Ingeld is the son-in-law , Hrothgar the father-in-law, and w e leam from the passage that Ingeld set fire to H eorot. Presumably he did this in connection w ith the battle spoken o f by the Widsith poet.5 6 W e shall 5. R. Girvan contends, it is true, that the poet was mistaken about the hall-bum ing (i.e. that H eorot was not burned on this occasion). B ut see m y paper in RES 13 (1937) 462 f. 2*

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find Ingeld setting fire to halls in Scandinavian sources as w ell; in one story his father-in-law is the victim o f such a hall-burning- According to this same story Ingeld ends by burning him self in, and in another story his enemies bum him in. It seems clear that hall-burning is a persistent feature o f the tale o f Ingeld and w e shall hardly go wrong if w e trace this feature back to the burning o f Heorot as recorded in Beowulf. The so-called Ingeld Episode o f Beowulf makes part o f the hero’s report to King Hygelac, as w e have seen. B eow ulf begins his report by speaking briefly o f his fight w ith Grendel, whose overthrow had brought relief to the Danes and shame to the w hole race o f monsters. After these introductory remarks he mentions his audience w ith Hrothgar and the honorable seat that the king gave him. Here the Episode begins: 2014 Weorod wæs on wynne; ne seah ic widan feorh under heofones hwealf healsittendra medudream maran. Hwilum mæru cwen, friðusibb folca, flet eall geondhwearf, 2018 bædde byre, geonge; oft hio beahwriðan secge (sealde) ær hie to setle geong. Hwilum for (d)uguðe dohtor Hroðgares eorlum on ende ealuwæge bær; 2022 þa ic Freaware fletsittende nemnan hyrde, þær hio (næ)gled sinc hæleðum sealde. Sio gehaten (is), geong, goldhroden, gladum suna Frodan; 2026 (h)afað þæs geworden wine Scyldinga, rices hyrde, ond þæt ræd talað þæt he mid ðy wife wælfæhða dæl, sæcca, gesette. Oft seldan hwær 2030 æfter leodhryre lytle hwile bongar bugeð, þeah seo bryd duge. Mæg þæs þonne ofþyncan ðeoden Heaðobeardna ond þegna gehwam þara leoda 2034 þonne he mid fæmnan, on flett gæð, dryhtbeam Dena, duguða biwenede : on him gladiað gomelra lafe, heard ond hringmæl Heaðabear[d]na gestreon 2038 þenden hie ðam wæpnum wealdan moston, oð ðæt hie forlæddan to ðam lindplegan swæse gesiðas ond hyra sylfra feorh. Þonne cwið æt beore se ðe beah ge syhð — 2042 eald æscwiga, se ðe eall genam, garcwealm gumena; him bið grim sefa —, onginneð, geomormod, geong(um) cempan þurh hreðra gehygd, higes cunnian,

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2046 wigbealu weccean, ond þæt word acw yð: “M eaht ðu, m in w ine, m ece gecnawan þone þin fæder to gefeohte bær under heregriman hindeman side, 2050 dyre iren, þær hyne D ene slogon, w eoldon wælstowe, syððan W iðergyld læg, æfter hæleþa hryre, hwate Scyldungas? N u , her, þara banena byre nathwylces, 2054 frætwum hrem ig, on flet gæð, morðres gylpeð, ond þone maðþum byreð þone þe ðu m id rihte rædan sceoldest.” M anað swa ond m yndgað, mæla gehw ylce, 2058 sarum wordum , oð ðæt sæl cym eð þ xt se fæmnanþegn fore fæder dædum æfter billes bite blodfag swefeð, ealdres scyldig. H im se oder þonan 2062 losad (li)figende; con him land geare. Þonne biod brocene on ba healfe adsweord eorla dan Ingelde weallad wælnidas ond him wiflufan 2066 æfter cearwælmum colran weordad. Þ y ic Headobear[d]na hyldo ne teige, dryhtsibbe dæl Denum unfæcne, freondscipe fæstne. [The band (o f retainers) was in bliss; I have never seen under the vault o f heaven more m ead-joy o f hall-sitters. N o w the w orthy queen, pledge o f peace between peoples, w ould g o all round the hall, w ould urge on (i.e. inspire?) the youths, the young men; often (i.e. as a rule) she w ould give a ring to one o f the men before going to her seat. N o w Hrothgar’s daughter w ould bear the ale-cup before the retainers, the warriors, on to the end (i.e. she left nobody out); I w ould hear the hall-sitters call her Freawaru w hen she gave the studded treasure (i.e. the ale-cup) to the men. Young, gold-adorned, she is betrothed to the gracious son o f Froda (i.e. to Ingeld); the friend o f the Scyldings (i.e. Hrothgar), keeper o f the kingdom , has made up his mind to that, and he reckons it w isdom to settle a deal o f (Le. many) deadly feuds and quarrels through that wom an. [But] it is always seldom anywhere that the deadly spear rests a little w hile (i.e. for long) after m an-fall, though the bride be good. That (i.e. what he sees) gives offense to the lord o f the Heathobards and to each o f the fighting-m en o f that nation whenever he goes to hall and maiden, to the Danish retainers, when the follow ings (Le. the Danish and Bardish warriors) are feasted: on them (i.e. on Danes) gleam heirlooms o f (Bardish) m en o f old, hard and engraved treasures (that were the property) o f Heathobards while they could w ield those weapons, until they (i.e. the Bardish leaders) brought dear com ­ rades and their ow n lives to destruction at that battle. [Then at the beer-drinking he w ho fled (i.e. a Bardish survivor o f the battle) speaks and says — the old spearman, he w ho took all (w ithout flinching), took men’s death by the spear; his is a grim spirit — , begins, gloom y o f m ood, to probe the mind o f a young kemp through thought o f hearts, (begins) to stir up war, and says these words: “M y friend, dost thou recognize the sword, the precious iron that thy helmeted father bore to

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battle for the last tim e, where the Danes slew him , (where) they held the battlefield, the valiant Scyldings, after W ithergyld lay dead, after the fall o f the (Bardish) heroes? N o w , here, the son o f I know not which one o f those slayers, exulting w ith decorated war-gear, walks (about) on the floor (o f the hall), boasts o f the slaying, and bears the weapon that by rights thou shouldst ow n.” H e urges and reminds thus, each tim e (i.e. whenever the young Dane shows off), w ith bitter words, until the tim e com es when the fæmnanþegn, after bite o f sword, sleeps stained w ith blood for the father’s deeds, ow ing his life. The other (i.e. the Bardish slayer) escapes thence alive; he know s the country w ell. The oaths o f men w ill then be broken on both sides when Ingeld’s deadly hates w ell up and his love for the wom an grows cooler after seethings o f sorrow. Therefore I do not reckon a great deal (i.e. any) o f the friendship and loyalty o f the Heathobards to the Danes to be sincere, I do not reckon the alliance to be secure.]

The Episode falls into six parts, as follow s: (1) lines 2014-2024a give a description o f life at the Danish court, ending w ith Hrothgar’s daughter to the fore; (2) lines 2024b-2031 give the news o f the Danish king's stroke o f statecraft, the betrothal o f his daughter to Ingeld, w ith B eow u lf’s words o f wisdom on the futility o f this method o f com posing feuds; (3) lines 2032-2040 give an account o f the insulting behavior o f some Danish retainers toward the Bardish guests in the hall ; (4) lines 2041-2062introduce tw o o f these Bards, an old spearman and a young kemp, give a sample o f the old man’s whetting words, and predict the young man’s reluctandy undertaken deed o f vengeance, the slaying o f a young Dane whose insults in the end w ill prove intolerable; (5) lines 2063-2066 give B eow ulf’s forecast o f renewed war between Dane and Bard; (6) lines 2067-2069a give B eow ulf’s view o f the state o f things as between Dane and Bard at the tim e o f his departure from Denmark. B eow ulf in part (1) pictures the Danish court in idyllic terms but in part (2) he gives us a glimpse o f the serpent and from parts (3) and (4) w e see that the betrothal made for trouble, bringing m en o f both tribes under one ro o f as it did. And in part (5) w e are told that the end w ill be war. Hrothgar’s w ellmeant stroke did harm rather than good. The course o f the action m oves steadily downward: w e begin w ith feasting in Heorot and end w ith the hall in flames6 and Hrothgar’s policy o f peace and friendship in ruins. It is w orth

6. This event is not m entioned in the Episode itself, it is true; w e learn o f it from an earlier passage only (lines 82b-83a). But it was a feature o f the tale fam iliar to the poet’s pubh'c, w ho needed no m ore than B eow u lf’s forecast o f war to be reminded o f the burning o f H eorot.

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noting, too, that parts (3) and (4) give only the Bardish point o f view , whereas part (6) sums things up from a Danish point o f view . The other three parts are objective enough, except that part (1) paints too rosy a picture o f the Danish court, a picture that shows the surface o f things and hides the realities beneath. It reflects the point o f view o f the visitor, the outsider that B eow ulf is. The hero in his report makes clear his understanding o f the outer tension, that betw een Dane and Bard, but he says nothing, here or elsewhere, about the inner tension, that between Hrothgar and Hrothwulf. He does not have the omniscience o f the poet, w ho repeatedly alludes to the Scylding fam ily feud. Part (1) serves not only to give an idyllic picture o f the Danish court but also to introduce Freawaru, the king’s daughter, and in so doing makes easy the transition to the story o f her unhappy betrothal. But at this point B eow ulf shifts from the preterit to the present tense, and he keeps this tense (except for a few clauses in w hich for obvious reasons the preterit must be used) throughout; that is, to the end o f the Ingeld Episode. H ow are w e to take these present-tense forms? In part (2), at least, they make no problems: B eow u lf uses a universal present in the piece o f gnom ic wisdom that ends the part, and ordinary presents elsewhere.7 W hen w e are told in this part, then, that Freawaru is betrothed to Ingeld, w e have a right to conclude that at the tim e o f B eow u lf’s visit to the Danish court she was in a betrothed but not yet in a married state. This conclusion is supported by evidence from part (1) and from parts (3) and (4). W e know from part (1) that Freawaru was still at Heorot, performing duties proper to a Danish princess, w hen B eow u lf visited Denmark. This w ould hardly have been the case if at that tim e she was already Ingeld’s w ife.8 In part (3) B eow u lf calls Freawaru a f temne ‘virgin’ and in part (4) the young Dane doom ed to be killed by the son o f W ithergyld is called se ftemnanþegn; that is, the thegn w ho stands in some special relation to Freawaru, a relation that B eow u lf does not further define. The word

7. These are found in an elaborate hysteron proteron. B eow u lf says first that Freawaru is betrothed to Ingeld; secondly, that Hrothgar has decided upon that; and thirdly, that he considers it good advice to settle things in this w ay. The logical order o f events would be for the king first to consider the advice he gets, then make up his m ind what to d o , and finally take action. But the betrothal itself is by far the m ost im portant member o f this sequence and it is therefore put first, the other members being added by w ay o f explanation and am plification. 8. According to A xel O lrik, in Danmarks Heltedigtning ii (1910) 38, Freawaru had been married, divorced, and sent back to her father before B eow u lf’s visit to the Danish court, but this theory cannot be reconciled w ith the rest o f the Episode.

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fcemne w ould be grotesquely inappropriate in both places if Freawaru were already Ingeld’s w ife.9 In parts (5) and (6), too, the present-tense forms are clear enough. The hioð o f line 2063 is a sign or mark o f future tim e. The present indicative o f beon need not be so taken, it is true, in generalizations and the like. Thus, line 2043b is a general statement, w ithout restriction to any particular tim e or occasion, and its bid is therefore to be taken in a present, not in a future sense. In line 2063, how ever, a particular event is referred to; nam ely, the breaking o f specific oaths at a definite tim e.101If for biod w e put sint in this line, the meaning is not otherwise changed but the tim e is changed from future to present. The forms weallad 2065 and weordad 2066 go w ith biod and ac­ cordingly have a future sense. Part (5) as a w hole, then, is to be taken as a prediction. Part (6) is a statement o f the political situation as B eow u lf sees it at the end o f his visit to the Danish court, and telge 2067 must be taken in its ordinary present sense. The interpretation o f the verb forms in parts (3) and (4), how ever, makes trouble. The prevailing view is that the present forms here have a future sense; that is, B eow u lf is here thought to be making predictions about events that had not yet occurred when he left the Danish court for the land o f the Geatas. A xel Olrik challenged this view sharply years ago, but only in a footnote, and w ithout discussion.11 He took it that B eow ulf was reporting events o f the past, and presumably he interpreted the verb forms as historical presents. But the historical present was little used in O ld English, as Steadman has shown,12 and it seems unlikely that the Beow ulf poet w ould have used this stylistic device for making his narrative more vivid. 9. That ‘virgo* is the regular meaning o f fcemne in O ld English admits o f no doubt. B ut Klaeber in his edition o f the poem glosses fcemne not only w ith ‘maiden’ but also w ith ‘woman,* and the latter sense, o f course, carries w ith it no presumption o f virginity. In his note on lines 2034 £ , Klaeber says (p. 204 top), “ . . . the noun fcemne, originally perhaps ‘maiden,* could (like meowle, mcegS) w ell be used in the broader sense o f ‘woman.* . . . ” But in a supplementary note (p. 457) he adds, “I f w e insist on the rigid interpretation o f fcemne = virgo (see also M alone, Eng. Studies xvii, 226 f.), its use here (2034,2059) m ight w ell be held to indicate that B eow ulf, w ho is foretelling an event o f the future, applies to Freawaru an epithet suitable to her at the tim e o f his report to H ygelac — he know s her only as a fcemne.” O n the evidence (or rather the want o f evidence) for ‘wom an’ as a possible meaning o f fcemne in O ld English, see especially m y discussion in M L N 53 (1938) 32 ff. As forftemnanþegn, A . J. Bam ouw long ago pointed out that this is a com pound and must not be taken as tw o words; see his Textkritische Untersuchungen, p. 23. 10. The tim e is specified in terms o f Ingeld’s feelings: the oath-breaking w ill occur w hen (1) his hate w ells up and (2) his love cools. This is definite enough for a rational prediction. 11. Danmarks Heltedigtning ii (1910) 38, note 1. 12. M L N 45 (1930) 522 ff. For examples o f its use in dependent clauses see Klaeber’s Beowulf, 3d ed., p. xciii, note 11.

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Y et the interpretation o f B eow u lf’s precise and detailed account as prophecy makes him speak out o f character and is hard to believe. I f the poet had represented his hero as a seer, a man w ith private means o f seeing into the future, means denied to ordinary men, then w e m ight be content to take parts (3) and (4) as prophetic. But this is by no means the case. B eow u lf is no M erlin. T he predictions he makes earlier in the poem (lines 1830 if.) are solidly based on present inform ation and require no m agic powers or visions from on high. The same m ay be said o f the forebodings o f trouble w ith Franks and Swedes that the messenger o f W iglaf utters (lines 2910 ff.), and i f B eow u lf makes predictions to H ygelac about Ingeld and Freawaru w e have a right to expect these predictions, too, to be rationally based. But the inform ation given in our passage (lines 2032-2062) is too precise and detailed to have any such basis, except in the m outh o f a prophet or wizard. Since B eow u lf is neither o f these, the prophetic interpretation o f the passage must be rejected. But i f the present-tense verb-form s are neither historical presents nor futures, w hat are they? I take them to be consuetudinal presents. Let us examine the form s w ith this interpretation in mind. The passage begins w ith mag 2032. This, taken literally, means ‘can’ but w e have here, I think, a rhetorical understatement (there can be no doubt whatever that Ingeld and his m en do take offense at what they see) and mag ofþyncan means not 'can give offense’ but ‘does give offense’ or rather ‘gives offense.’ Each man o f the Bards goes to the hall every day and what he sees there he finds offensive. This daily displeasure is quite naturally and properly given linguistic expression by mag ofþyncan. M ore precisely, the use o f a present-tense form serves to bring out the dailiness o f the displeasure. B eow u lf is describing the state o f things dining the period o f betrothal or, better, during the first part o f that period (for there is no indication that the betrothal has com e to an end, whether by marriage or otherwise). The displeasure o f the Bards presumably began the first day they w ent to the hall, continued up to the m om ent o f B eow u lf’s departure from the Danish court, and at that tim e gave every indication o f indefinite continuance into the future, inasmuch as the parties concerned, Hrothgar and Ingeld, seemed bent on the match.13 The tim e to be expressed by the verb, then, was not present or past or future but all three at once. The poet therefore made use 13. Their m otives for stubbornness may have been different. In lines 2026 if. w e hear that H rothgar has his m ind made up about the marriage and maintains (talaS) that it w ill bring peace; pride o f opinion m ay have held him to his course. Ingeld’s love o f the lady is m entioned in line 2065, and it is possible that this love explains his willingness to sw allow his pride and take the Danish insults day after day.

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o f the consuetudinal present, quite as w e should do today and quite as the Phoenix poet did when faced w ith a like problem. B eow u lf tells Hygelac that each o f the Bards takes offense when he goes to the hall. But what offends him? The insulting conduct o f some o f the Danes, w ho make a habit o f wearing, in the presence o f the Heathobards, heirlooms that once belonged to them and that the Danes had taken from them in battle. That this insulting reception o f the Bards happens many times is unmistakably brought out by the mcela gehwylce o f line 2057 (every time it happens the old spearman speaks up). The plural present-tense form gladiað 2036 is therefore to be explained as consuetudinal.14 The next present form is cwið 2041. W ith this form w e com e to the old spearman, the Starkad o f Scandinavian story. W e are told that he cwið cet beore ‘speaks at beer,’ and this I take to mean that he speaks up when drink loosens his tongue (and that is every day). As a Bard he is naturally incensed at the conduct o f the Danes. M oreover, if I read the passage aright, he speaks as one w ho took part in the batde w ith the Danes and in the flight o f the Heathobards after the fall o f W ithergyld; see further below . In the formula cwið . . . ge syhd ‘speaks and says’ both verbs are consuetudinal presents:1561 the old spearman speaks up not once but many times, day after day, as w e are specifically told in lines 2057 f.; he makes a habit o f speaking up. The next present form , bid 2043, belongs to a characterization o f Starkad that transcends all temporal lim its except those imposed by man’s m ortality.18 Our next present-tense form is onginneð 2044. The corresponding noun angin has among its meanings the follow ing (BT Suppl.): ‘persistent effort, enterprise, endeavor, pertinacity,’ whence the further meanings ‘practice, study’ and ‘action, proceeding, behavior, treatment.* A like meaning o f the verb has been noted by Klaeber in another connection.17 H ow did such meanings arise? As I see it, the notion o f commencement came to involve continuation besides. Once you get properly started you gain a mom entum that keeps you going until you have got something done. Here, then, onginned means ‘begins and continues.’ W e know from the text that the old spearman

14. T he verb chosen brings out, neatly enough, the insulting intention o f the Danes, w ho choose conspicuous pieces o f plunder to wear or, alternatively, make the plunder they wear conspicuous, glittering, presumably by giving it a high polish. 15. I take syhð to be a variant o f segð ‘says’; here g became h before [þ] in the regular w ay (the spelling sehd occurs in ME) and the regular sound-change -ehþ> -ihþ took place; see K. Luick, Gram., pp. 246 ff. The eg still found in the syncopated form after these changes com es, by analogy, from the unsyncopated form . The y o f syhd is a late W est Saxon spelling for earlier i. 16. Klaeber w rongly glosses this bid as a future; it is in fact a timeless present. 17. Ed., p. 138. See also E. A . K ock, Anglia 46, 84 f. (on or).

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not only began but also continued to probe the young kem p’s m ind and stir up war; he kept at it. The present here is therefore consuetudinal. Acwyd 2046 m erely repeats cwid 2041 and needs no special com m ent. O f the present form s in Starkad’s speech, meaht 2047 (like mceg 2032) seems to be a case o f rhetorical understatement: the speaker has no real doqbt that the young Bardish kemp recognizes the sword, and meaht ðu . . . gecnawan ‘can you recognize’ means ‘do you recognize’ (a rhetorical question). Here how ever the present is not consuetudinal; it applies to a single tim e and occasion, and is to be taken as an ordinary present. The same must be said o f the other three presents, though these are durative rather than punctual and therefore denote actions that take up a certain amount o f tim e; even gceð here seems to mean ‘walk about (in an ostentatious or strutting manner)’ and thus becom es durative in meaning. In this connection som ething must be said about swa 2057. This w ord marks the preceding speech as a mere sample; the old spearman made many such speeches. Manad and myndgað 2057 are excellent examples o f consuetudinal presents, but cymeð 2058, though grammatically linked w ith the other tw o verbs, differs from them in function. The clause oð ðcet seel cytned ‘until the tim e com es’ gives every indication o f being a future. It cannot be called consuetudinal, for it obviously refers to a specific occasion, and to that occasion only. And the tim e it indicates is obviously later than the tim e o f manað and myndgað. The next tw o presents, swefed 2060 and losað 2062, are also futures, since the tim e o f the actions they denote is the same as the tim e o f cymeð. O n the other hand, con 2062 is a present, not a future. The word carries w ith it the idea o f a permanent state o f things. It is not restricted to any particular tim e or occasion. This brings us to the end o f our survey o f the present-tense forms in parts (3) and (4) o f the Ingeld Episode. Since the linguistic forms show no signs o f a future until w e reach line 2058b, w e have a right to conclude that only lines 2058b-2062 give us forecasts. U p to this point B eow u lf was sim ply reporting events that were going on w hen he left Denmark. His use o f the consuetudinal present indicates that they were already going on when he reached Denmark and that he thought they w ould go on for som e tim e to com e (though not, o f course, forever). H e does not say whether he actually witnessed these events or learned o f them from others; it is also possible that he saw som ething o f the events him self and learned more by hearsay. After reporting the events as such B eow u lf makes tw o predictions: one particular and one general. The particular prediction is that the old spearman’s w hetting w ill prove successful in the end: the son o f W ithergyld w ill finally kill the Danish fæmnanþegn. The general prediction is that war w ill break

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out again when Ingeld’s hates w ell up and his love for the princess cools. Both these predictions seem em inendy rational and call for no prophetic powers. Attached to the particular prediction about the slaying o f the fæmnanþegn, how ever, is the statement that the slayer w ill escape, because he knows the country w ell. This forecast smacks o f wizardry, so much so that one may reasonably doubt that it belongs to B eow u lf’s speech. I incline to the belief that it is a kind o f footnote, proceeding from the poet’s omniscience. If not, one must take it for an interpolation, made by som eone familiar w ith the story. A number o f matters need further discussion. Freatvaru can hardly be a genuine name; see below , pp. 197 ff. I takeþeoden 2032 to be a late OE variant o f þeodan, dat. sg. o f þeoda ‘lord,’ a w ord that occurs in Widsith (line l l ) . 18 The he o f line 2034 refers to the Heathobards, taken singly; each one o f them, not only Ingeld him self but also every man o f his follow ing. The old view that he refers to the dryhtbearn o f the next line is not only unlikely in itself but impossible unless one takes dryhtbearn to be a singular. Elsewhere I have shown that it must be plural ;19 the reference o f he, then, must be to a person mentioned earlier, in strict accordance w ith normal usage. According to Clark Hall, the preposition mid may mean ‘into the presence o f’ (Diet., s.v.) and this meaning tits beautifully the mid o f line 2034; compare Latin apud. But I have not found a parallel passage in w hich mid clearly has this sense, and it seems safer to take the construction here as parallel to that in Widsith 5 & : H e m id Ealhhilde . . . Hreðcyninges ham gesohte . . .

18. See Anglia 63 (1939) 106. But Klaeber is skeptical o f the existence o f þeoda ‘lor d, in spite o f the þeoda gehwylc o f the Widsith poet. H e contends that “apart from a very few negligible instances, gehwile, when used in OE poetry w ith a noun or an> appears invariably w ith a preceding partitive gen. plur.; there are m ore than a hundred such passages. H ence, [die] þeoda [o f Widsith] must be understood as genit, plur. o f þeod or should be emended to þeodtta” (ed.9 p. 468). Since the context keeps us from taking þeoda as gen. pi. o f þeod, Klaeber in effect looks upon em endation o f the Widsith text to þeodna as com pulsory. But his “invariably” is contradicted by the “very few ” instances which he w rongly regards as “negligible”. In m y opinion a text should not be em ended i f one can make good sense out o f it as it stands. An em endation is seldom convincing unless it gives a reading that agrees w ith prevailing usage, but an exceptional or even unique form that actually occurs ought not to be emended out o f existence sim ply because it is unusual. If w e make a practice o f em ending on this ground w e eliminate the unusual altogether from the old texts, and everyday experience teaches us that departures from the normal exist in current speech and must have existed in past speech too, not least in poetry. 19. Anglia 63 (1939) 107 f.

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[He w ent to the H rethgothic king’s hom e and Ealhhild]. The abode that W idsith w ent to was King Ermanric’s hall, where Queen Ealhhild was to be found too; hence the poet’s mid Ealhhilde. In going to the Gothic royal hall, W idsith was also going to Ealhhild, and the poet gives the queen first place by m entioning her before he mentions the hall. I take it that, fo r the poet, W idsith’s visit to Ealhhild was the primary thing; in visiting her the scop must needs go to her husband’s hall but she, not the hall or even the husband, was the main attraction. This special interest in Ealhhild also comes out later in the poem , where w e find a passage, lines 97-102, devoted w holly to the Gothic queen. If w e set aside the lines about King Offa, the English national hero, w e find that W idsith in his long speech makes more o f Ealhhild than he does o f anybody else he mentions, not excepting Ermanric himself. W ith this parallel before us, w e may reasonably think that B eow ulf20342035a makes a threefold variation: þonne he mid fæmnan, on flett gæð, dryhtbeam D ena,. . .

[whenever he goes to the hall, (to) the Danish retainers and the m aiden,. . . ] . Here as in the Widsith passage the lady is given first place, and for a like reason: Ingeld goes to see his betrothed and though in doing so he also, in the nature o f the case, goes to the royal hall and to the Danish retainers there assembled, his visits are to her, and he takes what goes w ith her because he has to.20 W e m ay be sure that Ingeld during his visit to the Danish court paid his respects to his betrothed many tim es, going repeatedly to the Danish hall, where the princess was to be found. There, too, the Danish retainers lived w hen on duty, and dryhtbeam Dena is a poetical w ay o f designating them .21 Since Ingeld’s retainers w ould go w ith him when he w ent to court, tw o bodies o f men, Ingeld’s ow n follow ing and that o f the Danish king, w ould be present in the hall on such occasions and w ould be served w ith drink in more or less formal style.22 The form ality o f things at the Danish court

20. See m y discussion in Anglia 63 (1939) 109 ff. O n the mid o f the Widsith passage see especially F. Klaeber, Beiblatt zur Anglia 49 (1938) 131. Ingeld and his m en w ere doubdess lodged in a guest-house; cf. Beowulf 1300. W e are not told o f private m eetings and I w ill n ot speculate on the extent to w hich such m eetings o f the betrothed pair took place (if they were allow ed at all). 21. The phrase beam Dena ‘children o f the Danes’ is a poetical equivalent o f the sim ple Dene ‘Danes’ and the elem ent dryht, taken literally, means ‘com itatus, body o f retainers.’ 22. In m y interpretation o f line 2035b, I follow Else v . Schaubert, w ho translates thus: w enn die (beiden) Gefolgsscharen bewirtet werden. See Anglia 63 (1939) 111.

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is made much o f by the English poet and may w ell reflect actual conditions. Certainly it reflects the poet’s conception o f courtly life. The phrase on him ‘on them ’ o f line 2036 refers back to dryhtheam Denn 2035, o f course, but w e have no reason to think that all the Danish retainers were wearing plunder taken from the Heathobards. The supply o f captured heirlooms w ould not be great enough for that, even if all the retainers were w illing to behave in this w ay, risking the wrath o f King Hrothgar. The dis­ courteous conduct, in all likelihood, was restricted to the fæmnanþegn him ­ self and his confederates in trouble-m aking. Klaeber glosses gestreon 2037 (along w ith its modifiers, the adjectives heard and hringmcet) as a nom . sg., though he mentions, in brackets and w ith a question mark, the possibility that it is a plural. But since gestreon is a variation o f the plural noun lafe ‘heir­ loom s’ and applies, along w ith lafe, to the weapons m entioned in line 2038, one must take it for a plural. The poet him self drives the plurality o f gestreon hom e when he says ðam wœpnum ‘those weapons’ and represents them as individually ow ned and heritable (see line 2056). The poet says nothing about ordinary weapons. The weapons he speaks o f are those o f the Bardish leaders, each an heirloom and a treasure in the eyes o f its owner, som ething to be handed dow n from father to son. Taken together, they are heirloom s and treasures. Their loss in battle was a disaster comparable to the loss o f life itself. The conduct o f the Danish retainers w ho wore weapons taken from the Bards was insulting in the extrem e to their Bardish guests; to the young kemp o f line 2044, w ho saw his father’s sword borne by a Danish boaster and swaggerer, the insult proved intolerable. The word beah 2041 is com m only taken to be a norm, but since OE beag means ‘ring’ this interpretation makes a crux o f the passage: the only parti­ cular piece o f plunder singled out for special m ention in the Episode is the mece ‘sword’ o f line 2047, and ring and sword are not readily identified, though the commentators attempt this feat. Klaeber comments as follow s (3d ed.) : “There is no doubt that the mece (2047) is meant. It seems entirely possible to credit beah ‘ring,’ then ‘ornament,’ ‘precious thing’ . . . Or does beag signify ‘hilt-ring’? . . . ” (p. 204). In a supplementary note, he says, “As to beah 2041, it seems to signify a hilt-ring by w hich the eald cescwiga recognizes the sword (2047) o f the Heaðobard warrior o f former days.” (p. 457). Klaeber does not give any reason for dropping the first o f his tw o explanations but I flatter m yself that a paper o f mine23 convinced him that this explanation was untenable. His alternative is no less so. N ow here in O ld English, so far as I can discover, is the word beag used to denote a hilt-ring, though bring seems 23. See Beiblatt zur Anglia 52 (1941) 179 f.

The Tale o f Ingeld

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to have som e such sense — not as a sim plex, it is true, but in the com pound hringmcel, literally ‘ring-marked’ (i.e. marked, perhaps on the hilt, w ith a ring-like pattern o f decoration). M odem students translate both beag and hring w ith ‘ring’ but the tw o words do not have the same range o f meaning. In particular, beag neither by itself nor in compounds is ever used to name a decorative pattem . It w ill hardly do, then, to take the beah o f line 2041 in the sense ‘hilt-ring,’ let alone ‘sword.’ W hat other possibility exists? Grundtvig, in one o f the notes appended to his Beow ulf translation o f 1820, took beah for a verb, and if w e do likew ise w e shall find ourselves on the right track. In m y opinion, beah here means ‘fled’ and is the prêt. sg. o f the strong verb bugan ‘bow , fall back, give (ground), turn, retreat, flee.* In line 2042 the form genam, recorded in Thorkelin’s B transcript, is com m only emended to geman but emendation seems needless, since genam ‘suffered, endured, experienced’ makes excellent sense here. W hen w e take the passage as it stands, w ithout em endation, the stylistic parallelism o f se be beah 2041 and se be eall genam 2042 becomes obvious. The tw o preterits beah and genam give each other support, and emendation seems the more objectionable since there is a connection in meaning as w ell as in form . I f genam means ‘sustulit’ (Thorkelin), then beah means ‘cessit’ and is a special case, one o f the many things that the old spearman had to suffer. In the preceding passage the poet has told o f the- Bardish warriors w ho fell in the battle. He now tells us o f one w ho survived. Since the Danes w on the battle, any Bards w ho survived could have done so only by flight or retreat (or by subm itting to capture). The old spearman, then, was he w ho had experienced everything, even the supreme hum iliation o f having to fall back before the enem y. This character, nameless in Beowulf, goes by the name Starkad in Scandi­ navian story. It is especially pertinent here that, according to Saxo Gram­ maticus,2452 Starkad made one o f forty kemps, in battle against the Danes, w ho fled from the battlefield after the fall o f their leader Regnald, the Scan­ dinavian equivalent o f the W ithergyld o f Beow ulf 26 Saxo represents Starkad’s flight as a discreditable episode in the hero’s career. N ot so B eow ulf, w ho has a better sense o f military realities and is him self, in H ygelac’s last campaign, to do the same thing.26 Y et even if B eow u lf (i.e. the English poet) as w ell

24. Gesta Danorum VU, v ; ed. O lrik & Ræder (Copenhagen 1931), p. 190. 25. For this correspondence, see m y discussion below , pp. 70 f. Klaeber, in his note on the Beowulf passage, plausibly suggests that “the battle turned after W iðergyld, a great leader, was slain” (ed., p. 204). 26. See line 2362b : þa he to holme beag ‘w hen he fell back to the sea.’ If w ith K em ble one reads stag the nature o f the action is not changed, though it is no longer called a retreat.

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as Saxo had thought o f the flight as discreditable, it need not follow that he w ould have left out any allusion to it.27 One o f the m ost characteristic features o f the story o f Starkad, as w e find it in the Scandinavian monuments, is discreditable conduct. His repeated departures from the path o f honor were not left w ithout mention in Scandinavia. W hy should an English poet expurgate the tale? The phrase se ðe beah w ould seem to im ply that Starkad was the only survivor, the other Bards having been slain on the field o f battle,28 and the lines imm ediately preceding actually tell o f the fall o f these comrades o f Starkad. It is not needful, however, to take se ðe beah in this w ay. The battle seems to have been fought many years before (the avenger o f W ithergyld slays not W ithergyld’s bane but the son o f that bane), and B eow u lf may mean only that no survivors other than Starkad are still living, the rest having died in the meantime. The fact that Starkad appears in B eow u lf’s report as an old man lends support to this view , and it w ill be remembered that Saxo makes Starkad one o f forty w ho fled. Alternatively, Starkad m ay be the only survivor o f the fight w ho happens to be present w hen the fæmnanþegn and his confederates behave in the insulting manner that B eow u lf has just described. This w ould be possible enough i f the action o f the Episode took place at Heorot, to which only a small group o f Bards w ould com e. But se de beah has other functions too. It helps to explain the bittemess and thirst for vengeance still up in the old man’s m ind after all these years. The Danes forced him to flee, and the humiliation rankles still. Again, as w e have seen, se ðe beah and se be eall genam are parallel; beah is a particular case, an exem plification o f the general statement eall genam. But how general is eall genam? Does it apply only to the battle o f w hich B eow u lf has just spoken or to the w hole o f Starkad’s career? I incline to the second o f these interpreta­ tions. Starkad, I think, is here represented as a veteran, a man experienced in war. He is now too old to w ield weapons but in his day he endured every­ thing: every hardship, every danger, even (worst o f all) the hum iliation o f defeat and flight. He took all this like a hero and, old though he n ow is, he is unbroken still. He not only survived dangers and pressures that w ould have broken a lesser man; he survived them unscathed, w ith his fighting spirit as strong and uncompromising as ever. He is the veteran par excellence. The young kemp w hom the old spearman egged on so persistently and at last so successfully seems to have been the son o f the Bardish hero W ither­ gyld. The fæmnanþegn w hom he killed was o f course the byre o f line 2053, 27. For a contrary view see Klaeber, ed. cit., p. 468. 28. N ote that B eow u lf’s case is parallel in that he was the only survivor o f H ygelac’s expedition to the Low Countries.

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son o f a Danish warrior w ho had taken part in the slaying o f W ithergyld and had got W ithergyld’s sword in the division o f the booty after the Danes w on the batde. In due course the sword passed from father to son, and the son, the fæmnanþegn, was foolish enough to wear it in the presence o f the Bards and to boast o f his father’s exploit (i.e. the slaying o f W ithergyld). He may or may not have know n that W ithergyld’s son was among those present. He did know , o f course, that Bards as w ell as Danes were there and were listening to what he said. His conduct was meant to be insulting to the Bards. W hy should he behave in this way? Here I w ill say only that I take him to have been a rival suitor for the hand o f Freawaru, resentful o f the fact that Hrothgar had set him aside in favor o f a foreign hereditary foe.29 His behavior was obviously disloyal to the king, being an attempt to thwart the policy o f peace and friendship w ith the Bards that Hrothgar had adopted, and for such disloyalty there must have been a strong personal m otivation. He enlisted confederates among the Danish retainers, it w ould seem, and they tried hard to prevent the marriage by constantly insulting Ingeld and his men, but in so doing the fæmnanþegn lost his life and Hrothgar and Ingeld carried out their agreement nevertheless.30 The activity o f the fæmnanþegn and his confederates, disloyal though it was to Hrothgar, broke no oath or pact between Danes and Bards. N or did the slaying o f the fæmnanþegn by the son o f W ithergyld break any such oath or pact. I once thought otherwise. To quote from m y paper o f 1930 (in M P 27, 259 bottom ), After the maiden-thane’s death, “the oaths o f men stand broken on both sides.” First the Danes had violated the spirit if not the letter o f the treaty by flaunting their spoils in the faces o f the Heathobards and by boasting o f their slayings. A young Heathobardish warrior, urged on by an old comrade, had retaliated by killing one o f the boasters.

I fell into this error by follow ing the traditional interpretation o f lines 20632064a, according to w hich the oath-breaking there spoken o f has reference to the events mentioned in the preceding lines. If so, these events must be

29. For further discussion see below , p. 74. 30. R. Girvan takes the fæmnanþegn to have been the Danish equivalent o f Bede’s comes: for his view s see M LR 28 (1933) 246. But this theory makes the conduct o f the fæmnanþegn mysterious indeed. So responsible an official w ould hardly have acted w ith such com plete disloyalty to his lord. The Beowulf poet makes the fæmnanþegn anything but a high functionary, charged w ith an important diplom atic m ission. From B eow u lf’s account o f him w e gather that he was an irresponsible youth, a trouble-m aker, about as undiplom atic a figure as could w ell be im agined. Girvan’s parallel has little to com m end it.

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interpreted in terms o f oath-breaking, o f course, and I duly provided such an interpretation. Klaeber, unw illing (or so I take it) to classify mere boasting and strutting as oath-breaking, supplied another slaying, not m entioned in the text, in order to get oath-breaking on both sides. In his note on the passage he says (ed., p. 204), “This im plies that, by w ay o f retaliation, a Dane kills a Heaðo-Bard.” Klaeber’s view has the advantage o f giving us a dead man on each side, but the disadvantage o f reading into the text an im portant event (a slaying) not there m entioned. M y view read no slayings into the text but made the bad manners o f individual retainers in m ead-hall a matter subject to regulation (by im plication at least) in a treaty o f peace and friendship betw een tw o nations. The existence o f such a clause in the treaty betw een Hrothgar and Ingeld now seems to me inherently improbable,81 and m y old explanation o f the oath-breaking on ba healfe (2063b) cannot be maintained. The explanation given by Klaeber likew ise fails to fit the evidence; indeed, the version o f the story recorded in Saxo’s second book supports the plain meaning o f the, English text, for there only the counterpart o f the fæmnanþegn is killed. Our exegetical problem vanishes, how ever, if the oath-breaking applies not to the events that B eow u lf has already told o f in his report but to events o f the future. I now read and punctuate the passage accordingly. The interpretation here given is obviously supported by the fact that bioð 2063 is future in sense. A few details need attention at this point. I once took Ingelde 2064 for a dative o f disadvantage, but Ingeld’s seedlings o f sorrow can hardly be sepa­ rated from the deadly hates that w ell up. Since Kemble’s day it has been customary to emend to syððan the ban o f line 2064. The inherited text makes good sense as it stands, how ever. The particle ban or bon m ay mean ‘then’ in parataxis, whence the sense ‘when’ in hypotaxis, as here. But the ban o f our passage may also be explained as a form o f bonne ‘when’ in which the final e has been elided before the strong vow el im m ediately follow ing, and in which the nn has been sim plified under weak stress. Emendation to sybban need not appreciably affect the meaning o f the lines, o f course, though the correlative pairs þonne . . . cer and þonne . . . sybban seem to be rare,88 whereas þonne . . . þonne is com m on.231 31. A like clause does occur in the agreement betw een Finn and H engest (Beowulf 1099-1106), but this is no treaty betw een tw o nations but an agreement betw een a lord and a group o f men about to enter his service as retainers. Here local police regula­ tions have a proper place. 32. þonne ...c e r occurs in Elene 446 f.; þonne . . . siþþan, in Christ 1039-1041. N o te also the follow ing from the OE Boethius (ed. Sedgefield, pp. 63 f.) : þonne bið . . . his wela for nauht, siððan hi ongitaðþcet . . . ‘then his wealth w ill count for nothing, after they, grasp the fact that . . . ’ C f. also E. A . K ock, Anglia 46, 81.

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The statement about the oath-breaking may be (and probably ought to be) taken as a case o f rhetorical understatement. B eow ulf means that war w ill break out but he puts it more m ildly, saying only that the oaths w ill be broken on both sides. The death o f the fæmnanþegn, it w ould seem, did not bring war; it only show ed w hich w ay the w ind was blow ing. Indeed, it m ay have hastened the marriage. Presumably the oaths to w hich B eow u lf refers were sworn at the tim e o f the marriage. Another indication that the marriage took place is to be found in the poet’s aþumswerian 84. B ut if W ithergyld’s son was breaking no oath w hen he killed the faemnanþegn, he made trouble for him self by his deed. From the text w e learn that he knew the country w ell and thus succeeded in escaping alive. W hat country? This brings up a question much debated by students o f the story: did the action o f the Episode take place in Denmark or in Bardowiek? In both the Saxonian versions o f the tale (that in Saxo’s second book and that in his sixth) the Danish court is the scene o f the action, and the Ingeld Episode o f Beow ulf certainly begins at the Danish court, where, by B eow u lf’s report, Freawaru is present and active, helping her mother by serving the warriors cerem onially w ith drink.88 Many critics, how ever, contend that at line 2032 the scene changes from the Danish to the Bardish court, even though there is nothing in the text to indicate a change o f scene. They base their contention chiefly on the statement that the slayer o f the fæmnanþegn knew the country w ell (2062b). The argument runs thus: the slayer was a Bard and w ould know his ow n country w ell but not the Danish countryside; therefore the slaying took place in Bardowiek. In dealing w ith this argument I w ill begin by asking a question which, so far as I know , has not been asked before. W hy are w e told anything about the slayer’s know ledge o f the countryside? If the killing took place in the slayer’s ow n country, such know ledge w ould be taken for granted and this item o f inform ation w ould be pointless. If how ever the slaying took place in Denmark, the inform ation that the Bardish slayer knew the country w ell w ould be very much to the point. B y virtue o f this special know ledge o f his he was enabled to make an escape that otherwise w ould have been im possible, and our know ledge o f his know ledge gives credibility to the report o f his escape. W e do not know how the slayer got his special know ledge but w e do know that such know ledge has always been obtainable and has always been obtained by som e foreigners in each generation. Presumably the slayer was one o f these. There are other indications that the slaying took place in Denmark. The 3 33. The queen herself performs this service som etim es; see lines 611 if. 3*

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insulting conduct o f the fæmnanþegn and his confederates was possible enough in Heorot, where the Danes were many and the Bards were at the mercy o f their hosts. But at the Bardish court the Danish insults could lead only to a general slaughter o f the Danish visitors, a slaughter o f w hich w e hear nothing. Again, it is not for a m om ent to be believed that a picked party o f Danes on a friendly mission to the Bardish court w ould equip themselves w ith weapons plundered from their hosts. Such tactics w ould obviously defeat in advance the purpose o f the mission, even if they led to nothing worse, and w ould get the members o f the mission into serious trouble w ith King Hrothgar. The Danish king, w e may be sure, w ould have chosen for such a mission nobody but sympathizers w ith his policy o f peace and friendship, and given a mission made up o f such sympathizers the situation that B eow u lf describes in his report w ould never have arisen. M oreover, the evident reluctance o f W ithergyld’s son to slay the fæmnanþegn, in spite o f the gravest provocation, is explicable enough if the insulting con­ duct took place at the Danish court, where, vengeance once taken, the life o f the avenger w ould obviously be hard to save. But the reluctance o f w hich w e learn from our text, a reluctance so great that the old spearman’s w hetting had to be repeated a number o f times (see line 2057) before the burden o f shame and disgrace grew unbearable — this reluctance, I say, becomes a mysterious business indeed on the theory that the action o f the Episode took place in Bardowiek, and the flight that follow ed the slaying loses its m otiva­ tion altogether. The Bardish slayer could count on the sympathy o f all his Bardish tribesmen, o f course, and in particular his blood kin m ight be expected to stand by him in w ord and deed. And even the Danes w ould not fail to recognize that he was w ithin his rights in doing what he did. N obody w ould consider him guilty o f a crim e; on the contrary, all w ould admit that he had done no more than his duty. W hy, then, should he flee? W e are not told whether the slaying took place in public (i.e. before w it­ nesses) or in private. If the former, the slayer had nothing more to do; if the latter, it was his duty to announce the slaying and proclaim him self the slayer. After that he w ould have to keep his eyes open, o f course, for the dead man’s fam ily (if any member o f it was at hand) w ould feel honor-bound to take some action, when a good opportunity presented itself, but the posi­ tion o f the slayer w ould be a strong one, backed up as he must have been by fellow-tribesm en, kindred, and friends, whereas the w ould-be avenger, a Dane in a hostile land, w ould be practically helpless. A ll this on the theory that the slaying took place in Bardowiek. But such was not the actual course o f events. W e are told that the slayer escaped alive because he knew the country w ell. Evidently there was a hot

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pursuit by the Danish avengers, and the slayer’s ow n fam ily, and his Bardish fellow s, did nothing to stop this pursuit. The slayer therefore had to take to the w ilds like any outlaw . This is exacdy what one w ould expect if the slaying took place in Denmark, where Ingeld and his men presumably saved their lives by remaining passive and letting their compatriot save kts life as best he could. It is incredible that this should have been the course o f events i f the slaying took place in Bardowiek, where the few Danes present w ould fear (and rightly so) for their ow n lives and w ould never dare pursue a Bard in his ow n land. W e m ay conclude w ith certainty that the events o f the Episode took place in Denmark, not in Bardowiek. W hat happened after the Bardish slayer made good his escape? W e are not told, but w e m ay be sure that the slaying gave great satisfaction to Ingeld, to w hom the conduct o f the fæmnanþegn must have been just as offensive as it was to the son o f W ithergyld. King Hrothgar, too, in all likelihood grieved but litde over the death o f the disloyal, irresponsible fæmnanþegn. B oth kings in the circumstances w ould do the diplom atic thing. The killing w ould be proclaimed a strictly private matter, w ithout political significance. The fæmnanþegn and his slayer quarreled (they w ould say) over the owner­ ship o f a sword, and m ost unluckily the quarrel had a fatal ending. If need be, Ingeld, the lord o f the slayer, w ould see to it that a proper wergeld was paid to the fam ily o f the dead man. This done, the wedding w ould take place as soon as possible: neither king was w illing to give up the alliance but both must have seen that Ingeld’s visit to the Danish court could no longer w ith safety continue. I take it, then, that shordy after the slaying the betrothal o f Ingeld and Freawaru ended in marriage and that the married couple, w ith Ingeld’s follow ing, then left Heorot for the land o f the Bards. B eow u lf ends the political part o f his report w ith a forecast and an opinion. H e predicts that the oaths o f m en w ill be broken on both sides (i.e. that war w ill break out) when Ingeld’s deadly hates w ell up and his love for the wom an grows cooler after seethings o f sorrow (2063-2066). The main clause o f the forecast is probably a rhetorical understatement, as w e have seen. The subordinate clause sets a tim e for the outbreak o f war, in terms o f changes in Ingeld’s feelings. The last o f these changes, it w ould seem, is the cooling o f his love for his w ife. Here again, in all likelihood, w e have a rhetorical understatement: war w ill com e after Ingeld divorces his w ife.34 If the version o f the story know n to the Beowulf poet included a divorce (like the version in Saxo’s sixth book), one w ould expect a reference to it, and such a reference m ight w ell take this rhetorical form. 34. So also Klaeber, ed., p. 204.

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After the forecast comes the opinion, the conclusion that B eow u lf has com e to about the worth and stability o f the new ly made ties between Dane and Bard. His final judgm ent is that the Danes cannot trust the Bards to keep the treaty. Logically this judgm ent should com e before the forecast; w e have here another example o f hysteron proteron. But in this case there is a special reason for using the figure o f speech: the poet did not w ish to separate the particular prediction (that the fæmnanþegn w ould be slain) from the general one. From our English sources w e can distinguish three acts in the drama o f Ingeld: Act I, the betrothal, w ith the slaying o f the fæmnanþegn; A ct II, the marriage; and Act III, the divorce, w ith the renewal o f the feud and the fall o f Ingeld. The Beow ulf episode (Unes 2014-2069a) gives us A ct I and, taken w ith the earlier passage (lines 81b—85), establishes the existence o f the other tw o acts. The chief piece o f evidence for A ct II is the poet’s aþumswerian 84, w hich informs us that Ingeld and Hrothgar were son-in-law and father-in-law. This inform ation enables us to say w ith safety that the betrothal o f Freawaru to Ingeld was follow ed by marriage. If lines 2065b2066 refer, by understatement, to Ingeld’s divorce o f Freawaru, w e have ano­ ther piece o f evidence that the tw o were married. These same lines are our only English evidence for the first event o f Act III, the divorce. They are in­ conclusive, o f course. Lines 2063-2064a predict a renewal o f the feud be­ tween Dane and Bard, and lines 84-85 present this renewal as predestined. The evidence o f Widsith 45 if. makes it certain that Ingeld renewed the feud by invading Denmark at the head o f an army and that he penetrated to Heorot itself, where he was decisively defeated in battle; the passage may (but need not) also report the fall o f Ingeld. From Beow ulf 82b-83a w e learn that Heorot was burned in connection w ith warfare between son-in-law and father-in-law (i.e. Ingeld and Hrothgar), and w e may reasonably think that the hall-burning took place as part o f the batde mentioned in Widsith.36 W e have no definite inform ation about the intervals between the acts o f 53 35. A xel O lrik in The Heroic Legends o f Denmark (N ew York 1919), pp. 15 if., reduces the English accounts o f Ingeld to “a single episode” (p. 19) o f the lon g feud betw een Dane and Bard, a "bloody w edding” (p. 20) in w hich the bridegroom is killed and the feud brought to an end by a crushing Danish victory (p. 18). According to O lrik the tw o Beowulf passages and the Widsith passage are all “accounts o f the same event, even i f the emphasis is not always laid on the same points and w e find slight [!] divergences in the recitals” (p. 19). It is true enough (and few i f any have ever doubted it) that Beowulf 84 f. and Widsith 47 ff. refer to the same event, but this event was a battle, not a bloody bridal, and i f w e go by our text (as w e must) the Ingeld Episode o f Beowulf deals w ith an earlier set o f events and ends w ith a prediction and a statement o f the situation pointing to the event that the Widsith poet records. OIrik’s theory does such violence to the old texts that it must be rejected out o f hand.

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our drama. I conceive that the marriage took place at Heorot shortly after the slaying o f the fæmnanþegn and the escape o f his slayer (see above). From B eow ulf2063 ff. one w ould judge that it took tim e for Ingeld’s hates to w ell up and his love to cool, and lines 2067 ff. give no indication o f an immediate break. W e m ay conjecture, then, that a few months or even one o r tw o years came betw een the marriage and the divorce, though the traditional length o f a honeym oon is one m onth only. W hat can w e learn about this interval from the Scandinavian sources? The old Lay o f Ingeld, happily preserved to us, after a fashion, in Saxo’s Latin rendering, throws a little light. In one passage Starkad urges Ingeld to part from his w ife, saying, T u quoque, rex, sævam, si quid sapis, effuge nuptam, ne lupa consim ilem sibi fetum gignat et ex te belua consurgat proprio nocitura parenti. [Shun thou likew ise, O king, thy fierce bride (or w ife), i f thou art at all w ise, lest the sh e-w olf bring forth a brood w h olly like herself and a monster that w ill be harmful to its ow n father rise up from thee.]**

If w e had a story in which a son o f Ingeld harmed his father w e m ight plausibly conjecture that this passage was a reference to the story. (Altern­ atively, the passage, or rather its Danish original, m ight have given rise to the story.) In fact, how ever, no story o f this kind has com e dow n to us and w e have no reason to think that such a story ever existed. Our passage, then, is to be taken at its face value: Starkad is urging Ingeld to rid him self o f his w ife before she bears him any offspring. It w ould seem to follow that Ingeld had not been married long, and since it is dear from other sources that Ingeld took Starkad’s advice, the Lay o f Ingeld bears witness to the shortness o f the interval between A ct II and Act III o f our drama. From the verses quoted it also appears that Ingeld and his w ife were child­ less. According to a prose passage in Saxo’s sixth book, it is true, a passage rejected by O lrik & Ræder as interpolated (ed., p. 157 bottom ), Ingeld had sons by his w ife: Frotho, Fridlevus, Ingellus, and Olavus. The passage tells us further that, by report o f som e, Olavus had Ingeld’s ow n sister for mother (i.e. he was a fruit o f incest). These item s o f inform ation are also found in a genuine passage at the beginning o f the seventh book, where however only Olavus has a name; the other three sons go w ithout names and are said to have fallen in battle. The three nameless sons are figures too late and shadowy to offset the witness o f the Lay o f Ingeld. Olavus, and Ingeld’s sister63 36. Gesta Donorum VI, ix , 19; ed. Olrik & Ræder, p. 179, lines 12-14.

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Asa, seem to have been, taken from the Skâne version o f the Ingeld story, recorded by Snorri in his Ynglingasaga. The incest m otif does not appear in this version, it is true, but the relations o f Ingeld and his daughter Asa are extraordinarily close. But if the witness o f the Lay o f Ingeld leads us to think that Ingeld had no son, a poem even older, the Bjarkamdl, gives him a son named Agnar w hom Olrik, at least, takes to be historical. W e shall now take a look at the verses in w hich Agnar figures. The Bjarkamdl seems to have been composed circa A .D . 900,3783though it has com e dow n to us (apart from a few fragments found in Icelandic sources) only in Saxo’s Latin rendering, made in the 12th century. The poem is an account o f the fall o f H rothw ulf and his m en in a battle w ith which Ingeld had nothing to do, and w e have no right to expect any inform ation whatever about him from such a source. B y a happy chance, how ever, the poet makes one incidental reference to Ingeld. H rothw ulf’s retainer Bjarki, in a passage o f reminiscence, tells o f a fight he once had w ith Ingeld’s son Agnar. To quote, Ecce m ihi videor cervum penetrasse ferocem Theutonico certe, qui Snyrtir dicitur, ense, a quo belligeri cepi cognom en, ut Agner Ingelli natum fudi retulique trophæum. . . . Hercule nem o illo visus m ihi fortior umquam: sem ivigil subsedit enim cubitoque reclinis ridendo excepit letum mortemque cachinno sprevit et Elysium gaudens successit in orbem. Magna viri virtus, qui risu calluit imo supremam celare necem summumque dolorem corporis ac mentis læto compescere vultu!** [Behold, I feel that I pierced a truly gallant stag w ith the short sword that is called Snirtir, (a deed) from w hich I took the epithet böðvar, w hen I overcame Agnar son o f Ingeld and brought back a victory.. . . Truly I have never seen a braver man. For half-alive he sank dow n and, propped on his elbow , took death laughing and w ith a jeer spumed the grave and rejoicing passed into Valhalla. Great the man’s spirit which knew how to hide w ith a single laugh the last hour, death, and w ith a merry face to curb the greatest pain o f body and mind.]

These verses leave us in doubt about many things. Let us first consider the circumstances o f the fight. W ere Bjarki and Agnar fighting a duel or was their encounter part o f a battle? The latter alternative seems the likelier. As Olrik says (op. cit., p. 77), 37. So O lrik, Heroic Legends o f Denmark, p. 214. 38. Gesta Danorum II, v ii, 19; ed. O lrik & Ræder, pp. 58 f.

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I f w e are satisfied to decide d ie issue by the help o f the Biarkamal alone, w e do best to think it |i.e . the fight o f Bjarki w ith Agnar] an episode in som e batde between the armies o f H rolf and Ingiald [i.e. H rothw ulf and Ingeld].

N ote also w hat he says later on in the same book (p. 143), The figure o f Biarki certainly must ow e its origin to som e historic reality. The greatest exploit o f his life, the slaying o f Agnar, is indeed an integral part o f the victorious struggle o f the Danes against the Heathobards. It is the only episode o f that great struggle . . . w hich was remembered in later Northern tradition.

N o w the only battle betw een H rothw ulf and Ingeld that w e know o f is the one m entioned in Widsith and alluded to in Beowulf, the one in w hich Ingeld attacks H rothw ulf and Hrothgar at H eorot but is defeated and probably slain. It is natural enough that the poet should make Bjarki speak reminiscently o f this battle and boast o f his supreme achievem ent in it, his victory over Agnar.39 If now w e look into the later Scandinavian monuments w e find that the Icelanders treat the fight as part o f a batde, whereas Saxo in his prose version makes it a duel. W e are justified, I think, in reckoning the duel an outgrow th o f the older batde episode; in other words, Saxo’s prose account represents a tradition in w hich the original batde setting has been lost, or nearly so (see further below , p. 34). But w ho was Agnar? D id such a kemp actually exist and was he actually slain by Bjarki in the batde at H eorot betw een the Bards and the Danes, as Olrik thinks?40 Into this question I do not intend to go. So far as Agnar, at least, is concerned its determination w ould not help us much in any case. The important question is not so much Agnar’s historicity as his paternity. The Bjarkamal makes him the son o f Ingeld. W as this the original conception o f Agnar or is it a later development? If w e look into the English monuments w e find Ingeld represented as betrothed to a young Danish princess w hom , it w ould seem, he marries but soon divorces and shordy afterwards he meets defeat and probably death in batde. N o son o f his is mentioned and the existence o f such a son seems highly unlikely. W e may be sure that no son o f Ingeld could have taken part in the battle between Danes and Bards w ith which w e are concerned.41 The parentage o f Agnar, then, as given in the Bjarkamal, does not agree w ith the evidence found in the English sources and can hardly be taken for historical. 39. Compare B eow u lf’s reminiscences, lines 2426 if. and 2510 if. 40. Op. cit., pp. 78, 254, 501. O n Agnar in Widsith see m y edition o f the poem , pp. 41 and 44. 41. O n the chronological difficulties see especially P. Herrmann, Erläuterungen zu den ersten neun Büchern der dänischen Geschichte des Saxo Grammaticus ii (1922) 168 f.

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There is further evidence that Agnar was no prince. In a masterly discus­ sion42 Olrik has made it seem probable that Agnar, when he died laughing, thereby revealed him self as a kemp o f coarser grain. Such a death does not befit a prince but, as Olrik puts it, “is characteristic o f the strong warrior, his defiant consciousness o f strength worked out to its last consequence — worked out to a grimace.” Kings and princes, by virtue o f their station, meet death in a soberer, more dignified fashion. In real life, it is true, a prince m ay be w ild and reckless enough, but in heroic tradition dignity and sobriety are his portion. Agnar’s laugh, then, gives us ground for thinking that in the original form o f the tradition he was no king’s son but sim ply a leading warrior, a kemp. Compare the Hrólfssaga kraka and the Bjarkarimur, where Agnar is called berserkr.43 But w hy should Agnar be turned into a prince and made Ingeld’s son? In the English account o f the battle Ingeld is the only Bard mentioned and it is very likely that in the original Scandinavian account, too, the fall o f Ingeld was the great event. But as tim e w ent on, Agnar for some reason took the center o f the stage, and w ith his increase in importance w ent a rise in rank: he came to be thought o f as son o f Ingeld. The fact that Agnar’s name allit­ erates w ith Ingeld’s may have facilitated the process, though alliterative name­ giving was not customary in the Bardish royal house. H owever that may be, once Agnar became a major figure in the story o f the battle his parentage w ould be a matter o f interest and Ingeld was at hand to serve as father. It may be that Agnar ow ed his rise in fame to his opponent in the battle. It is clear from all the Scandinavian sources that the poetic interest early came to He w ith the hero Bjarki. This interest m ight w ell bring about a like interest in Agnar; the worthier the foe the greater the glory in overcom ing him . And it is not impossible that in the historic battle the fall o f Agnar at Bjarki’s hands not only occurred but proved the turning-point o f the struggle and led to the victory o f the Danes. If so, it w ould be poetically fitting to give Agnar royal rank. But whatever the explanation, the fact remains that the fall o f Agnar eclipsed and finally replaced the fall o f Ingeld in the Danish tradition about the battle. Danish tradition as w e find it in the Bjarkamdl shows another change o f great importance. The English sources make it clear that the Bards under Ingeld attacked the Danes under Hrothgar and H rothwulf. During the battle itself the leader o f the Danish army was presumably the younger man, Hrothwulf, but for the Beowulf poet Hrothgar, though aged, was the chief

42. Op. cit., pp. 142 f. 43. In F. Jónsson’s edition, p. 102 (saga) and p. 153 (rimur).

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Danish figure. In the account o f the battle recorded in Widsith, H rothw ulf is named first and this fact m ay (though it need not) indicate that the center o f poetic interest was beginning to shift from uncle to nephew. In all the Scandinavian monuments w e find this shift com plete: Hrothgar does not appear at all in connection w ith the battle and Bjarki is sim ply H rothw ulf’s retainer in the fight w ith Agnar. The com plexity o f the historical situation was thus sim plified in terms o f H rothwulf, w ho became the sole object o f the enm ity o f the Bards. The sim plification was even more thoroughgoing than this, indeed. The national enm ity betw een Bards and Danes fell into the background and finally was forgotten altogether. In its stead w e find a personal conflict be­ tw een Agnar and Hrothwulf. This does not appear in the Bjarkamdl, it is true, and perhaps for the author o f that poem the battle was still one between tw o nations. But even here the nationalistic nature o f the struggle is open to doubt and w hen w e com e to the later monuments w e find that those in w hich the fight w ith Agnar makes part o f a battle interpret the fighting as a struggle for supremacy betw een the rival kinsmen Agnar and H rothw ulf.4454 This is what w e find in the Bjarkarimur and in A m grim ’s epitom e, w hich were based on the lost Skjöldungasaga. Here Agnar has taken the place o f Ingeld, as in the Bjarkamdl, and Agnar’s opponent Bjarki serves sim ply as H rothw ulf’s instrument in getting rid o f his rival.46 W e saw above that on the basis o f the English evidence w e may divide the tale o f Ingeld into three acts. O f these, Act II, the marriage o f Ingeld, is a mere event, separate from the stories told in the other tw o acts but not itself a story. In the Scandinavian versions this division into three acts is not found. Instead, w e have (1) versions in w hich the three acts are combined into one; (2) versions in w hich the lady is dropped and the first and third acts appear as independent stories, each w ith Bjarki for hero but otherwise unconnected; and (3) versions in w hich the stories o f Ingeld and o f the Scylding fam ily feud are com bined. The first course is follow ed in both the versions o f Saxo Grammaticus, but each version goes its ow n w ay in bringing this unity about. I w ill take up first the Version found in Saxo’s second book. It reads as follow s (II, vi, 9-11; ed. cit., pp. 50 f.): 9. Per idem tempus Agnerus quidam Ingelli filius sororem Rolvonis, Rutam nom ine, m atrim onio ducturus ingenti convivio nuptias instruit. In quo cum pugiles om ni petulan-

44. For an explanation o f the change whereby the tw o men became kinsmen, see below , pp. 127 if. 45. See Bjarkarimur, F. Jónsson’s ed., pp. 160 f., and Am grim ’s epitom e, A . O lrik’s ed., in the Aarboger for 1894, p. 115 bottom .

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tíæ genere debacchantes in H ialtonem quendam nodosa passim ossa conicerent, accidit, ut eius concessor, Biarco nom ine, iacientis errore vehem entem capite ictum exciperet. Q ui dolore pariter ac ludibrio lacessitus, osse invicem in iacientem remisso, frontem eius in occiput reflexit idem que loco frontis intorsit, transversum hom inis animum vultus obliquitate multando. Ea res contum eliosam ioci insolentiam temperavit pugilesque regia abire coegit. 10. Qua convivii iniuria permotus sponsus ferro cum Biarcone decernere statuit, violatae hilaritatis ultionem duelli nom ine quaesiturus. In cuius ingressu utri prior feriendi copia deberetur, diutule certatum est. . . . Praelato ob generis dignitatem Agnero, tanta v i ictum ab eo editum constat, ut prima cassidis parte conscissa supremam capitis cuti­ culam vulneraret ferrumque mediis galeae interclusum foraminibus dim itteret. Tunc Biarco mutuo percussurus, quo plenius ferrum libraret, pedem trunco adnixus medium Agneri corpus praestantis acuminis mucrone transegit. Sunt qui asserant, morientem Agnerum, soluto in risum ore, per summam doloris dissimulationem spiritum reddidisse. 11. Cuius ultionem pugiles avidius expetentes sim ili per Biarconem exitio multati sunt. . . . Talibus operum meritis exsultanti novam de se silvestris fera victoriam praebuit. Ursum quippe eximiae magnitudinis obvium sibi inter dumeta factum iaculo confecit, com item que suum H ialtonem , quo viribus maior evaderet, applicato ore egestum beluae cruorem haurire iussit. . . . His facinorum virtutibus clarissimas optimatum familiaritates adeptus etiam regi percarus evasit, sororem eius Rutam uxorem ascivit victique sponsam victoriae praemium habuit. . . . [9. During this period (o f H rothw ulf’s reign) a certain Agnar, Ingeld’s son, w ho was to marry H rothw ulf’s sister, Hruta by name, provided for the w edding w ith a great feast. A t this, w hile the kemps, behaving like w ild men, w ith every kind o f freakish conduct, were throwing spine-bones heedlessly at a certain Hjalti, his messmate, Bjarki by name, happened to take a hard blow on the head by a thrower’s mistake. H e, provoked equally by pain and m ockery, in turn sent the bone back to the thrower, bent his forehead about and twisted the back o f his head to the forehead’s place, punishing the man’s crooked soul by (giving him ) a visage awry. This business tamed the insolent extravagance o f the sport and made the kemps leave the hall. [10. The bridegroom , deeply stirred by this spoiling o f the feast, decided to measure swords w ith Bjarki, seeking vengeance for broken mirth in a duel. A t the start it was disputed a w hile, to w hich one the right o f giving the first blow belonged. . . . Agnar having been preferred by worthiness o f birth, he assuredly put forth a blow w ith such force that he shattered the fore part o f (Bjarki’s) helm et, giving a scalp wound, and he had to let the sword go, caught as it was in the holes o f the head-piece. Then Bjarki, about to strike in his turn, set his foot against a tree-trunk, whereby he m ight swing his sword w ith a wider sweep, and drove the sword, w hich was o f excellent sharpness, through Agnar’s body. There are those w ho maintain that the dying Agnar gave up the ghost w ith his mouth merry in laughter, by the utm ost disregard o f pain. [11. The kemps w ho eagerly tried to avenge him were punished by Bjarki w ith a like death. . . . W hile he was exultant over such w orthy deeds a w ild beast o f the woods gave him a new victory. For happening upon a bear o f enormous size in the thornbushes he killed it w ith a dart, and bade Hjalti, his mate, drink up, w ith m outh fixed on (the w ound), the blood pouring forth from the beast, whereby he w ould becom e stronger. . . . H aving w on the friendship o f men o f high rank by these heroic deeds, he ended as one very dear to the king too, whose sister Hruta he took to w ife, and had the bride o f the vanquished one (i.e. o f Agnar) as reward o f victory.]

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N . F. S. Grundtvig seems to have been the first to point out a connection betw een this story and the tale o f Ingeld as found in Beowulf. U nluckily he made no systematic comparison o f the tw o texts. T o quote, G ift maa Ingel im idlertid dog nok være blevet, thi den Agner Ingelsön, der skulde være g ift m ed R olvs Syster Rude, m en blev paa sin Bryllupsdag usaattes m ed Bjarke o g faldt sm ilende for hans Sværd, ligner ham op ad D age. (Ingeld must nevertheless have been married (to Freawaru), how ever, for the Agnar Ingeld’s son w ho was to have been married to H rothw ulf’s sister Hruta but quarreled w ith Bjarki on his wedding day and fell sm iling by his sword is the very im age o f him .]4*

In the latter part o f the same century G. Sarrazin pointed out the same con­ nection. In his Beowulf-Studien (1888), p. 43, he said, Saxo erwähnt auch einen Ingellus als Zeitgenossen K önig Roes und erzählt dass zwar nicht er selbst aber sein Sohn Agnerus m it einer dänischen K önigstochter, R o lf Krake’s Schwester, verlobt gew esen, indessen vor der H ochzeit erschlagen worden ist. Das ist nun ziem lich abweichend von der Ingeldsage im Beowulf.

Eight years later, in Englische Studien xxiii 231, Sarrazin added the follow ing: Auch das Beow ulflied berichtet in der Ingeld-episode von einem m ord, der bei oder bald nach einer hochzeit begangen w ird; der bräutigam der dänischen königstochter ist dort Ingeld selbst, nicht Ingeld’s sohn, und nicht der bräutigam sondern ein anderer w ird zunächst erschlagen. T rotz dieser abweichungen dürfen w ir doch w egen der über­ einstimmenden namen und Verhältnisse annehmen, dass eine gemeinsame sage zu gründe liegt.

Sarrazins tw o tries at comparing Saxo’s story w ith the Ingeld Episode o f Beow ulf fail to make clear the correspondences and they fail because Sar­ razin did not realize that the English version o f the tale falls into three acts whereas Saxo’s version is not so divided. The duel between Agnar and Bjarki belongs, as w e have seen, to Act III, the battle between the Danes and the Bards o f w hich w e are told in Widsith. This duel cannot properly be equated w ith the slaying o f the fæmnanþegn by the son o f W ithergyld, a deed that belongs to A ct I. The Beow ulf episode gives us Act I only, and in comparing it w ith Saxo’s tale w e must restrict ourselves to the events o f that tale that precede the duel. Let us make the comparison, then, w ith this restriction in mind. First, the (prospective) bridegroom. He is Ingeld in Beowulf, Agnar son o f Ingeld in Saxo. W e know already that in the Scandinavian tradition an46. Brage og Idun iv (1841) 504.

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swering to Act III o f the English version Agnar took Ingeld’s place and Ingeld survived only as Agnar’s father. It w ould be quite natural for the replacement to be carried over into Act I, and here it is. Further com m ent seems needless, and w e turn to the bride. In Beow ulf the lady is a Danish princess, identified as King Hrothgar’s daughter. As such, she w ould also be H rothw ulf’s fostersister.47 In Saxo the lady is a Danish princess, identified as H rothw ulf’s sister. The change from foster-sister to true sister w ould be easy, as history became story, and the correspondence betw een Beow ulf and Saxo here is obviously close.4894 N ext, the festivities. In both Beow ulf and Saxo trouble arises am ong the retainers and a slaying takes place, but the circumstances in the tw o cases are not the same. In Beow ulf w e learn o f an old enm ity between the bride’s nation and that o f the prospective bridegroom ; at the festivities this enm ity crops up again, taking the form o f insulting conduct on the part o f some Danish retainers, and the resentment that this conduct arouses am ong the Bards leads, in tim e, to the slaying o f the worst o f the Danish baiters. In Saxo w e also learn o f baiting, but this is m otivated not in terms o f national hatreds but rather in terms o f mere rowdiness at celebrations. W e are not told w hy Hjalti was made the butt. He took the bone-throw ing w ithout hitting back but his messmate Bjarki, w hen a bone hit him , at once threw it back and killed the thrower. Saxo’s account o f the bone-throwing incident is extrem ely brief and various points remain obscure. Comparison w ith the story o f Bjarki’s bear-fight reveals that Hjalti was a protégé o f Bjarki’s. The Icelandic versions o f the bone-throw ing bring out the same feature. From the Hrólfssaga kr aka w e learn that Hjalti was a country lad w ho w ent to tow n one day to amuse him self. B y an ill chance he fell into the hands o f H rothw ulf’s retainers, w ho baited him to their hearts’ content. W hen he showed his resentment they made him their prisoner and set him in the bone-heap at court.4* And Bjarki knew o f Hjalti’s predicament before his ow n arrival (as a stranger) at the Danish court. Hjalti’s parents, w ho had given him food and shelter for a night on the w ay, told him the sad tale at parting and he promised them to make their son his comrade. T o quote his words, as given in Bjarkarimur iv, 37 Likast er eg lem i hann smátt; launa eg ilia gullaz gátt og ei góðu greiðann þinn e f granda eg honum nökkut sinn. 47. H rothw ulf was Hrothgar’s foster-son; see Beowulf 1184 if. 48. O n the difference in name see below , pp. 197 ff. 49. See F. Jónsson’s edition, pp. 63 ff.

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38 H eldur skulutn, e f hann v ill það, hjálpast okkur báðir að; vera kann það e f v ið erum tveir, að virðar lem i hann ekki að m eir.

[It is m ost likely I lam him little (i.e. not at all); I reward the housew ife ill and thy ever good guesting i f I harm him at any tim e. Rather m ust w e, i f he is w illin g, both help each other out; it m ay be that i f w e are tw o , the m en w ill lam him none the more (i.e. less, or n ot at all)]

Bjarki proved as good as his w ord: w hen he got to the Danish court he pulled Hjalti out o f the bone-heap, made him sit beside him , put a stop to the bone-throw ing (at the cost o f a life), and finally had him drink the blood o f a ferocious beast; this last turned him into the doughtiest o f kemps. The Icelanders also give us the inform ation that Bjarki was no Dane, but a Stranger at the Danish court, although after the bone-throw ing episode he was taken into H rothw ulf’s service. The feasters in Saxo’s story, then, are to be divided into tw o groups: on the one hand, the Danish retainers; on the other, Bjarki and his protégé Hjalti. Similarly, in the B eow ulf episode the feasters m entioned as such in fine 2035b fall into tw o groups: the Danish and the Bardish retainers. It is a striking feature o f the Episode that although a number o f Bards are present the poet singles out tw o o f them for special treatment: a veteran and a youthful warrior. Saxo’s Bjarki may be taken to answer to the veteran o f Beowulf ; his Hjalti, to the youth o f Beow ulf In the English poem the Danish retainers treat their guests in a generally insulting w ay but the poet’s attention is concentrated on the particular insults that one o f them , the fæmnanþegn, offers to the Bardish youthful warrior. Similarly, in Saxo, the hum iliating treatment given to Hjalti is emphasized, though w e are not told that a particular Dane is the chief offender. In Beow ulf the Bardish veteran takes a special interest in the youthful war­ rior. He tries to make a man o f him . He points out to him that he must not submit tam ely to the insults o f the fæmnanþegn but must assert him self by slaying the man. Similarly, in Saxo the veteran fighter Bjarki takes a special interest in the inexperienced Hjalti. He tries to make a man o f him . His methods, how ever, are different from those o f the veteran in Beow ulf He shows Hjalti h ow to act by exam ple: he does not submit tam ely to the bone­ throw ing and kills the man w ho hit him . This activity on the part o f the veteran is characteristic o f him in Scandinavian story (as opposed to English story); it is by no means confined to the version found in Saxo’s second

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book. Thus, in his sixth book, where Starkad plays the veteran’s part, he and the young man (here the king) together do the deed o f vengeance.80 Saxo’s account o f the festivities at the Danish court before the duel be­ tw een Bjarki and Agnar differs from the Ingeld Episode o f Beow ulf in that (1) the fatal quarrel among the retainers is m otivated in terms not o f a feud between nations but o f rowdiness (more specifically, bone-throwing) ; and (2) the kemps Bjarki and Hjalti, w ho certainly were not Bards, play the parts o f the tw o Bardish retainers (veteran and young warrior). These tw o differ­ ences have an obvious relation. Characteristic o f the Scandinavian tradition was the loss o f the Bards as such. B y virtue o f this loss, the difficulties that led to a retainer’s death at the feast could no longer be m otivated in nationa­ listic terms and some other m otivation had to be found. A t the same tim e, for w ant o f Bards, outsiders like Bjarki and his protégé had to be used to play parts originally Bardish.81 Saxo says nothing about the nationality o f either Agnar or Bjarki but since the Danish retainers take Agnar’s side and he takes theirs w e m ay infer that here Agnar was thought o f as a Dane, Bjarki as an outsider. This agrees w ith the witness o f the Icelanders, w ho make Agnar Danish, Bjarki a foreigner w ho takes service w ith Hrothwulf. Agnar’s original Bardish nationality may have been know n to the Bjarkamal poet (see above) but it was obviously un­ know n to Saxo and no indication o f it appears in any other Scandinavian source. But though Saxo’s Agnar seems to have been taken for a Dane, he had not yet become a member o f the Danish royal fam ily, as he is in the Icelandic monuments. Hence he could still be betrothed to a Danish princess, a feature o f the story necessarily lost after he came to be thought o f as a Danish prince. The Bjarki o f history (if there was such a historical character) may perfectly 50. O n this and other versions in w hich the veteran is a man o f deeds as w ell as words, see A . O lrik, Danmarks Heltedigtning ii (1910) 81 f. O lrik recognizes that the English and Scandinavian traditions differ here but states that the old Lay of Ingeld (preserved to us by Saxo in a Latin verse rendering) makes an exception to the general rule for Scandinavia, agreeing w ith Beowulf in that its veteran too is a man o f words only. But O lrik ignores the follow ing verses o f the old Lay, verses that agree strictly w ith Saxo’s prose account: Fac age, fundamus reliquos nullusque periclum effugiat quod quisque pari ratione meretur. . . . D ic, Rotho, perpetue tim idorum irrisor, an ultos Frothonem satis esse putas, qui funera septem vindictæ unius impendimus? {ed. cit., p. 179) [To work now , let us bring dow n the others, and may none escape the danger (i.e. the death) w hich each in equal measure deserves. . . . Say, H rothi (i.e. W oden), ever mocker o f the faint-hearted, thinkest thou that w e have avenged Froda enough, w e w ho have devoted seven deaths to vengeance for (the death) o f one?] 51. N ote that the use o f outsiders for these parts is a relic o f the originally nationalistic m otivation.

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w ell have been a foreigner on a visit to the Danish court like the Bjarki o f the Icelanders, since in the heroic age such visits were customary enough, usually taking the form o f service for a tim e in the dright (i.e. comitatus) o f some famous king; compare Beow ulf 1836 ff. I w ill not discuss the theory that Bjarki was B eow u lf under a like name, though there is m ucli to be said for the identification.5235 In Beow ulf and Saxo alike the slaying spoiled the festivities and made trouble for the (prospective) bridegroom. The English poet does not tell us what happened next but w e have every reason to think that Ingeld sym­ pathized w ith the slayer, w ho was a fellow Bard, and laid the blame on the dead man.58 The case became very different, o f course, when the bridegroom was given Danish nationality. This change put him and the slayer into opposite camps and made him and the slain man fellow tribesmen. In Saxo’s account, then, the bridegroom quite naturally blames the slayer for spoiling the w ed­ ding feast. N o w in the battle story Bjarki and Agnar were antagonists from o f old and nothing could be easier or more natural than to give Agnar the same antagonist in the wedding story by identifying w ith Bjarki the stranger at court w ho slew a Danish retainer and by this deed spoiled the wedding feast. But in Beow ulf w e find tw o trouble-making (or rather insult-resenting) strangers, an old and a young warrior, whose relation was that o f master and pupil, redebane and handbane. The reluctance o f W ithergyld’s son to serve as handbane, resentful o f the insults o f the fæmnanþegn though he was, is made much o f by the Beow ulf poet, but w e are told that the repeated whettdngs o f the old spearman finally overcame this reluctance and in the end the young man slew his baiter. In Saxo, however, it is the experienced fighter Bjarki w ho does the slaying and the reluctant avenger o f the English poem becomes, in Saxo, the craven taker o f insults. N ot until he drinks the bear’s blood does Hjalti w in the courage he needs. Certain features remain to be noted. The bone-throwing m otivation seems to have arisen in the eleventh century.54 It reflects an actual custom at feasts. In Saxo w e read that Bjarki’s return throw o f the bone that hit him twisted the baiter’s head about, so that his face was turned to the back. The human neck cannot undergo such treatment w ithout breaking, o f course, and w e have every right to draw the inference that Bjarki killed the man, but the Icelandic sources give us the statement to that effect wanting in Saxo. 52. See m y Literary History o f Hamlet (Heidelberg 1923), pp. 90 if. and cf. R . W . Cham­ bers, Beowulf, An Introduction, 2d ed. (Cambridge 1932), p. 449. 53. See above, p. 21. 54. A . O lrik, Heroic Legends o f Denmark, p. 226. 4

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The deliberate com bination o f wedding and battle stories which the intro­ duction o f Bjarki into the wedding story involved is the point o f greatest technical interest in Saxo’s version. Saxo tells us that Agnar, angry at Bjarki for disturbing the wedding feast, challenged him to a duel. In other words, the fight between Agnar and Bjarki, as soon as it became attached to the wedding story, lost its battle setting and Agnar’s followers or comrades in the original battle appear in our tale as Danish retainers. Traces o f the old setting are to be found nevertheless. "We are told that after the death o f Agnar the kemps tried to avenge him on Bjarki but lost their lives in the attempt. This finale is out o f place if the fight was a duel but is proper enough if the fight was part o f a battle. I take it, then, that the attack o f the kemps upon Bjarki is a relic o f the original battle setting. Olrik takes Saxo’s story to be an example o f the familiar type in w hich an unwelcom e suitor o f low birth is slain, at the last m om ent, by a hero w ho is duly rewarded w ith the hand o f the bride.65 But this explanation o f the tale does not agree w ith the evidence. There is nowhere the slightest indication that Agnar’s suit was unwelcom e. And though Agnar, the historical person (if he was one), did not have princely rank, as w e have seen above, Agnar the hero o f Northern tradition always appears as a man o f high station. In the Bjarkamdl he is recorded as son o f Ingeld, and from this w e are war­ ranted in inferring that the poet thought o f him as a prince. Saxo him self, in the story w e are now studying, informs us that Agnar was o f higher rank than Bjarki. The Icelanders tell us specifically that he was a prince. Even the Hrólfssaga, w hich in one passage calls him berserkr, adds, “but no less a king for that.” A ll our sources treat Agnar w ith great respect and nowhere is he represented in anything but a favorable light. Bjarki, in the wedding story, does not rescue an unw illing bride from the clutches o f an unwelcom e bridegroom o f low birth. His activity is w holly different. In a quarrel at a wedding feast he kills one o f the retainers. His subsequent fight w ith Agnar had no original connection w ith the w edding, as Olrik him self w ould be the first to admit, but was brought in by a delib­ erate com bination o f the wedding story w ith the battle betw een the Danes and the Bards. The com bination was presumably made by som e Danish sagaman, but evidence is w holly wanting that he, or anybody else, looked upon Bjarki as Hruta’s rescuer. The story ends, indeed, w ith Bjarki’s victory over Agnar and the Danish kemps. A little further on, Saxo, after he has told o f another achievement o f Bjarki’s, sums things up as follow s: “Having *5 55. Op. cit., pp. 234 ff. O lrik w isely adds, “I do not w ish to stress this solution as cer­ tain.” Herrmann, less cautious, says, “Olriks Annahme . . . trifft zw eifellos das R ichtige” (op. cit. ii 171).

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w on the friendship o f men o f high rank by these heroic deeds, he ended as one very dear to the king too, w hose sister Hruta he took to w ife, and had the bride o f the vanquished one as reward o f victory.” From this passage, separated from our story by a good stretch o f text, it ought to be clear enough that Saxo’s afterthought, to the effect that the bride o f the conquered was the reward o f the conqueror, is a mere conceit, highly characteristic o f Saxo’s style and utterly worthless in a serious investigation o f the tale w e are studying. If Bjarki w on Hruta for w ife, he did it, no doubt, by virtue o f his achieve­ ments in battle, and the chief o f these was the slaying o f Agnar. But Agnar as a bridegroom is playing another man’s part, as w e have seen. The proper and original bridegroom o f Hruta was Ingeld, and he, as w e know from Beow ulf 2026 f f , was a m ost w elcom e and eagerly desired suitor, w ho gave up his bride, or rather w ife, o f his ow n free w ill and was killed not at the w edding but in a battle that took place later on. Saxo presents us w ith a com ­ bination o f tw o separate and distinct stories, and this com bination cannot be taken as O lrik takes it w ithout doing violence to the text itself and to all the evidence w e have o f the actual developm ent o f the story from its begin­ nings, recorded in the English monuments, dow n to its Saxonian form . The Icelandic sources say nothing whatever about the wedding o f Agnar, though they tell in some detail, as a story for itself, the bone-throw ing episode. The absence o f the wedding from Icelandic tradition is easy to explain. The Icelanders had worked Agnar into the Danish royal fam ily, and obviously it w ould never do for H rothw ulf to give his sister in marriage to a close kinsman. The wedding feast was therefore changed into a simple feast, uncon­ nected w ith weddings, and the bone-throw ing, first used to m otivate the quarrel at the wedding, came to serve merely as the starting-point o f Hjalti’s education. O lrik has argued that the bone-throw ing was a separate story to begin w ith and was later inserted into the wedding story,66 but the course o f events in Beow ulf and Saxo is too closely parallel to admit o f this explana­ tion. The bone-throw ing was som ething new in the tale, indeed, but it was only a new m otivation and the old tale survived almost intact in spite o f the change in m otivation. The follow ing analysis, w hich includes only the traits com m on to Beowulf and Northern tradition, w ill make it clear that Saxo’s tale goes back to the old Tale o f Ingeld: 1. A Danish princess, foster-sister [Beowulf ] or sister [Saxo] o f the Danish king Hroth­ w ulf, is betrothed to a prince [Beowulf] or about to marry a man o f high rank |Saxo] named Ingeld [Beowulf] or Agnar son o f Ingeld [Saxo]. 56. Op. cit., pp. 233 f. 4*

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2. A feast takes place in die hall o f the Danish king [all versions] to w elcom e the pro­ spective bridegroom [Beowulf] or to celebrate the w edding [Saxo] or for no special reason [Icelanders]. 3. A t the feast one or more Danish retainers heap insults upon a certain young m an. not named [Beowulf ] or H jalti by name [Saxo, Icelanders]. 4. The young man is a Bard [Beowulf] or a captive [Icelanders]. 5. A t first he takes d ie insults m eekly [all versions]. 6. An older warrior, him self a Bard [Beowulf] or a stranger [Icelanders], gives him advice [Beowulf] or has him for messmate [Saxo, Icelanders]. 7. The young man [Beowulf] or the older warrior [Saxo, Icelanders] kills the Danish retainer w ho has insulted him . 8. The marriage is broken o ff by the slaying o f the bridegroom [Saxo] or b y divorce

[Beowulf}].

The Scandinavian account differs from the English one in som e w ays, o f course. The quarrel am ong the retainers is differently m otivated, and in Saxo the fight between Bjarki and Agnar, elsewhere a separate story, replaces the divorce in trait 8. But the Icelanders, though they know nothing o f Bards at the Danish court, make it clear that Bjarki and Hjalti were n ot retainers o f the Danish king, and the same situation is im plied in Saxo. W e m ay be sure, then, that the Scandinavian tale goes back to an older version substantially the same as the one preserved to us in Beowulf. Saxo’s account o f the wedding suffers from extrem e brevity, but it is consistent enough except at the very end, where the attack o f the retainers on Bjarki does not agree w ith the duel m otif, as I have already pointed out. Since Saxo’s consistency has been severely attacked,671 w ill discuss the matter briefly. Saxo has been explaining how H rothw ulf’s generosity brought about him a great flock o f kemps. He now proceeds to tell us som ething o f these. First comes Agnar, son o f Ingeld, w hom H rothw ulf esteemed so highly that he gave his sister, the princess Hruta, to him for w ife. T o the poet o f the Bjarkamdl Agnar’s patronymic doubtless indicated royal descent. T o Saxo the patronymic seems to have been em pty o f meaning; at any rate, Agnar is represented merely as a man o f high rank, not as a prince, and Saxo appar­ ently thought o f him as one o f H rothw ulf’s retainers. W hen Saxo tells us that Agnar ingenti convivio nuptias instruit w e are not to suppose that Agnar had a hall o f his ow n where the feast was spread. Comparison w ith Beow ulf and the Icelandic accounts makes it certain that the feast took place at the hall o f the Danish king. But if Agnar was, for Saxo, a Danish retainer, he o f course lived in H rothw ulf’s hall and there he w ould naturally give his wedding feast. The supposed disagreement w ith the Ice57. C f. Herrmann, op. cit., ii 171.

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landers, then, in this matter turns out to be no disagreement at all but perfect harmony. Again, the Danish retainers consistendy stand w ith Agnar against the tw o outsiders Bjarki and Hjald. This is best explained on the theory that Agnar was looked upon as a fellow retainer. Finally, the duel betw een Agnar, the retainer, and Bjarki is proper enough, but if w e suppose Agnar to be, for Saxo, a prince sitting in his ow n high seat and presiding over a feast in his ow n hall, the duel becom es at once im possible; kings and princes do not fight such duels. The interpretation o f Saxo’s Agnar as a Danish retainer makes Saxo’s tale consistent and reasonable and needs no further justification. I w ill point out one thing more, though. Saxo’s Agnar in all likelihood took shape in terms o f Saxo’s Bjarki. N o w Bjarki became a retainer o f H rothw ulf and a kinsman o f his by marriage. As a kinsman he follow ed in Agnar’s steps. The parallelism w ould be com plete, and therefore poetically satisfying, if he succeeded Agnar as retainer too. It was perhaps som e such artistic process as this that made Agnar into a retainer o f H rothwulf. A very different version o f the Ingeld story has com e dow n to us in Saxo’s sixth book. This version first took form in the 10th-century Lay o f Ingeld, a Danish poem that survives only in Saxo’s Latin rendering. The poem is a dramatic m onolog, put in the m outh o f the veteran warrior Starkad. The scene is the hall o f Ingeld, King o f the Danes. The old warrior begins by asserting the right o f one like him to be treated w ith honor and respect, especially by unwarlike youth. He goes on to contrast his experience at the court o f King Froda (Ingeld’s father), where he had a high place, w ith the treatment he is getting in the hall o f Ingeld, where he is put w ith the low est, insulted, and hum iliated in every w ay, instead o f being made w elcom e as a guest should be. A t this point (ninth strophe) he declares him self an advena ‘stranger, foreigner’ w ho w ould like to know what is going on in Denmark. W ith the tenth strophe Starkad turns to King Ingeld him self and addresses him directly. He denounces him at great length and in the strongest language for his m any sins: chiefly for his failure to avenge the death o f Froda but also for his gluttony, his idle life, his want o f interest in warfare, and his uxori­ ousness. H e also denounces Ingeld’s w ife for her love o f luxury, her frivolity, and her introduction o f German ways into Denmark. From this w e gather that she is a foreigner. Toward the end o f the strophic part o f the Lay w e get more inform ation about her: Ecce Suertingo genitus tyranno Dania post te potietur heres, cuius ignavam retines sororem foedere turpi.

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D um gravem gem m is nitidamque cultu aureo gaudes celebrare nuptam, nos dolor probro sociatus urit, turpia questos. [Lo, an heir arisen from Swerting the tyrant, w hose slothful sister thou holdest b y virtue o f a shameful treaty, shall possess Denmark after thee. W hile thou takest delight in doing honor to thy bride (or w ife), w ho is loaded dow n w ith gem s and glitters w ith golden ornaments, grief and dishonor gall us, bew ailing shameful things.]"

From these strophes w e learn that Ingeld had married a daughter (or possibly a sister) o f a certain Swerting and that Starkad looked upon this marriage as disgraceful. That the lady was a daughter, not a sister o f Swerting appears from Saxo’s prose account and from Icelandic tradition as recorded by Amgrímur Jónsson in his epitom e o f the Skjöldungasaga,69 Perhaps the Danish text o f the Lay was less ambiguous than is Saxo’s Latin. W e learn further, from the first o f the tw o strophes quoted above, that a son o f Swerting was destined to succeed Ingeld on the Danish throne. Saxo in his prose account ignores this prophecy o f Starkad’s, w hich stands com­ pletely isolated in Scandinavian tradition. One may therefore plausibly take it that the prophecy was meant to be conditional only: i f Ingeld continued in his craven course, then he w ould end by making a son o f Swerting his heir. But Starkad’s w hetting stirred Ingeld to take vengeance (for his father’s death) upon the sons o f Swerting and the conditional prophecy therefore never came true. Starkad ends the strophic part o f his song w ith an apostrophe to the dead Froda: Re magis nulla cuperem beari si tui, Frotho, iuguli nocentes debitas tanti sceleris viderem pendere poenas. [N othing w ould make m e happier, O Froda, than to see those guilty o f thy death pay the penalty due for so great a crime.]

The verses break o ff here and Saxo continues in prose, inform ing us that Starkad’s reproaches, at first little heeded, finally m oved Ingeld to take action. He and Starkad together took vengeance upon the sons o f Swerting, slaying them then and there, even though they were Ingeld’s guests at a feast in the Danish hall. In the midst o f the slaughter (or so it w ould seem) the old warrior resumed his song, w hich Saxo now renders in Latin hexameters. In these 58. Gesta Donorum VI, ix , 16; ed. O lrik & Ræder, p. 178. 59. See p. 112 o f A . O lrik’s ed., in Aarboger for 1894.

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concluding lines Starkad sang the praises o f the reformed Ingeld, denounced anew the slayers o f Froda, forbade their burial, consigned their bodies to the vultures, and urged Ingeld to divorce his w ife before she bore him a child o f the hated Swerting blood. B y w ay o f finale he hailed Ingeld as now m ore w orthy to rule Denmark than he had been. T he author o f the old Lay took it for granted that his hearers w ould know the story, and his poem is far from giving us the full course o f events. From Saxo’s prose account w e get the supplementary inform ation w e need. The story opens w ith the accession o f Froda to the throne o f Denmark at the age o f tw elve. T w o rulers o f Saxony (i.e. Germany), Hanev and Swerting by name, took advantage o f Froda’s m inority to rebel against the hated Danish overlordship, but Froda overcame them in battle and reduced them to vassalage. Later on, the Saxons (i.e. the Germans) became restless once m ore and challenged Froda to a duel. Froda’s veteran retainer Starkad took up the challenge on his king’s behalf. The Saxons hired a kemp named Hama to represent them . In the duel Starkad w on, killing Hama after an initial reverse, and the Saxons remained subject to Froda. N ext, Hanev again raised the standard o f revolt, but Froda defeated and killed him in battle. Finally, Swerting in his turn tried to free the Saxons, but he (ed. cit., p. 156), qui cum convivii sim ulatione exceptum regem incendio consumere statuisset, ab eodem occupatus, tam etsi ipsum m utuo peremisset, occiditur, [w ho had decided to “bum in” the king, trapped under pretence o f a feast, was attacked first and slain by him , though he (Le. Swerting) killed him (Le. Froda) in turn.]

Here the exact course o f events is not clear. W e do not know whether the hall-burning actually took place, or how Froda found out what was up. Evidently, how ever, he anticipated Swerting’s treachery and in the hall-fight both men were killed. In the next section o f Saxo’s history (ed. p. 157) w e are told that Froda’s son Ingeld succeeded him on the throne, and that the filii vero Suertingi, veriti, ne Ingello poenas paterni facinoris darent, sororem ei in matri­ m onium contulerunt, ultionem beneficio praecursuri, [sons o f Sw erting, fearing that they w ould suffer for their father’s crim e at Ingeld’s hands, bestow ed their sister upon him in marriage, forestalling vengeance by (this) means.]

The marriage, and Ingeld’s readiness to make peace w ith the sons o f Swerting, aroused Starkad’s indignation, and brought him back from Sweden (whither he had gone after Froda’s death) to the Danish court. There, by his bitter words, he drove Ingeld to slay Swerting’s seven sons (w ith Starkad’s help) and to put aw ay his w ife, the daughter o f Sw erting.

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Am grím ur, in chapters ix and x o f his epitom e,60 gives us a different account. According to him , Froda was king o f Denmark and his half-brother Onela (Áli in Icelandic) was king o f Sweden. Froda and his barons persuaded Starkad to kill Onela for a price. Starkad w ent to Sweden, entered Onela’s service and became a trusted retainer. One day he served as Onela’s bodyguard at the bath and took advantage o f this opportunity to murder him . 61 After­ wards Froda overcame and made tributary tw o Swedish lords, Jörund and Swerting by name. The former was king o f Sweden; the latter, a Swedish baron. Ingeld, the son and heir o f Froda, married Swerting’s daughter, and the marriage was supposed to reconcile Swerting to his fate as a tributary, but it did not: he and Jörund conspired to slay Froda. The Swedish king by gifts kept Starkad in Sweden w hile Swerting and his tw elve sons took Froda by surprise one night (in Denmark, it w ould seem) and slew him . Swerting now made his peace w ith Ingeld, but Ingeld’s half-brother Halfdan wreaked vengeance for his father’s death, slaying the sons o f Swerting, w ho were the handbanes. A t Starkad’s instigation Ingeld put away his w ife. W e are not told what became o f Jörund and Swerting. O bviously Saxo and Amgrimur give us tw o versions o f the same tale, a tale concerned (1) w ith warfare between Froda, King o f Denmark, on the one hand, and three rulers or representatives o f a foreign country on the other; and (2) w ith Froda’s death and the taking o f vengeance that follow ed. Saxo in telling the tale lays great stress on its nationalistic features, whereas Amgrim ur relegates these features to the background. The tale as a w hole falls into five episodes, w hich I list in Saxo’s order (Am grím ’s order is 2, 1, 4, 3, 5): 1. Froda conquers a foreign country (Saxony or Sweden) ruled by Swerting and another (Hanev or Jörund). 2. Starkad kill« a representative (Hama or Onela) o f this country. 3. Swerting and his fellow ruler rebel against Froda and Swerting kills Froda. 4. Froda’s son Ingeld marries Swerting’s daughter and makes friends w ith her fam ily. 5. Starkad persuades Ingeld to put away Swerting’s daughter (and to slay Swerting’s sons).

Let us now consider these episodes one by one. (1) First episode. Our tw o versions agree in giving tw o rulers to the foreign country but disagree in the relative rank assigned to the rulers : Saxo does not distinguish them in rank, whereas Amgrimur makes one a king, the other a mere baron. B oth versions name Swerting as one o f the rulers; they disagree on the name o f the other 60. Ed. cit., pp. 110 ff. 61. Saxo tells this story in another connection (VIII, v i, 2 f.) and Snorri in his Ynglingasaga, cap. 25, mentions the murder.

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ruler. Saxo makes Froda’s conquest a youthful venture and justifies it by representing Hanev and Swerting as rebels; these tw o traits are w anting in A m grim ’s account. Starkad does not figure in either version o f the episode. (2) Second episode. Here, on the face o f it, the tw o versions give us stories quite distinct. Close analysis, how ever, reveals a number o f likenesses. In both versions Starkad acts for King Froda, but in Saxo this fact is know n to the Saxons from the beginning, whereas in A m grim ’s epitom e it is not know n to the Swedes until the end. In the epitom e Starkad is hired to murder Onela, whereas in Saxo it is Starkad’s opponent w ho is the hireling. In both versions Starkad is armed w ith a sword w hile his opponent goes unarmed; but Hama fells Starkad w ith a blow o f the fist, whereas Onela holds Starkad o ff (unwit­ tingly enough) w ith a mere glance o f the eye. Hama and Onela are alike in that neither has the slightest fear o f Starkad, but they differ in their reasons for n ot fearing him : Hama thinks Starkad too old to be dangerous, whereas Onela thinks him too loyal to be dangerous. Starkad surprises and overcomes Hama by show ing unexpected strength; he surprises and overcomes Onela by show ing unexpected treachery. W e m ay say that in Saxo the duel between Starkad and Hama is physical, whereas in the epitom e the duel betw een Starkad and Onela is psychological (up to the m om ent when Onela, in the bath, shuts his eyes and thus unwit­ tingly enables Starkad to make use o f his sword). In Saxo the opponent o f Starkad was a pugil o f the Saxons but his Saxon nationality seems to have been unoriginal, if one may judge by his mercenary attitude;62 in the epitom e, Onela was a (usurping) king o f Sweden but was him self no Swede. The m otivation for the action o f the episode is political in both versions: Starkad kills both Hama and Onela to keep Froda from losing part o f his domains. But in Saxo the threat to Froda’s authority is represented as real, whereas in the epitom e it is represented as a slanderous accusation, not borne out by any w ord or deed o f Onela’s. In both versions the action begins w ith a group o f trouble-makers w ho approach Froda: in the epitom e they are tw elve Danish barons; in Saxo, an unspecified number o f Saxons. In both versions Froda is represented as slow to make up his mind what to do. From all this it seems clear that the tw o versions o f the second episode o f our tale are not unrelated. But if they go back to a com m on source their differentiation must be old, for in Starkad’s Death Song, recorded by Saxo, in Latin translation, in his eighth book, and dated by Olrik at A .D . 1100 (D H ii 151), the tw o slayings are mentioned as separate and distinct exploits.

62. His behavior in this respect contrasts markedly w ith the patriotic fervor o f the other Saxons.

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The Hama passage o f the Death Song throws no light on the Hama version o f our episode, but the Onela passage is more helpful. It reads thus: Hercule non tunc me ferro spoliare petebas quando ter O lonis summo discrimine nati expugnator eram. Nam que agmine prorsus in illo aut gladium fregit manus aut obstantia fudit; hæc gravitas ferientis erat.** [Verily, not then did you seek to take m y sword from m e, when I was conqueror o f O nela (O lo), a man bom for the very utm ost danger. For on that march, to make a long story short, m y hand either shattered the sword or broke dow n the obstructions; such was the w eight o f the striker (i.e. m y arm).]

The fact that the caesura o f the second line lies w ithin the fourth foot gives us a hint that ter ‘very’ is to be construed w ith summo; for metrical reasons Saxo preferred to put ter between quando and Olonis (instead o f before summo).** Here Starkad represents him self as having overcom e Onela not by treachery but in battle, by the sheer w eight o f his arm. Onela is praised as a bom kem p, and Starkad’s deed is thus made the more heroic. This the battle form o f the Onela version is, as such, more like the fight w ith Hama than are the later, assassina­ tion forms recorded by Saxo (VIII, vi, 2 f.) and in A m grim ’s epitom e. Per­ haps the Hama version is the Danish, the Onela version the N orw egian or Icelandic form o f what was originally one and the same episode in our tale o f Froda and Ingeld. If so, the Danish version made its w ay north and there became known as a story for itself.6 66 5643 (3) Third episode. Saxo and Amgrimur agree here on the main point; namely, that Swerting killed Froda. The details, how ever, differ a good deal in the tw o versions. In Saxo the sons o f Swerting do not take part but in the epitom e they accompany their father and, it w ould seem, serve as handbanes, Swerting him self having only the general direction o f the under­ taking.66 In Saxo, again, the rebellion o f Hanev and the plot o f Swerting 63. Saxo, ed. cit., p. 227. O lrik & Ræder read Fridlevi for the ter Olonis and propugnator for the expugnator o f the inherited text, but these changes are arbitrary and misleading and are here disregarded. 64. For further discussion o f the passage see m y Literary History of Hamlet, pp. 70 ff., and P. Herrmann, op. cit., ii 561 f. Herrmann and I render summo discrimine nati alike; w e came independently to the same conclusion. But Herrmann takes ter in its literal sense ‘thrice’ and therefore cannot construe it w ith summo. H is argument against the sense ‘expedition’ for agmine is inconclusive, and his em endation o f Olonis to Haconis is m etrically as w ell as otherwise objectionable. 65. Cf. A . O lrik, op. cit., pp. 71 ff. (Hama) and 131 ff. (O nela). For an attempt to explain the treachery m otif, see m y Literary History o f Hamlet, pp. 70 ff. 66. This is the easiest w ay to reconcile what Am grim ur says in his ninth w ith what he says in his tenth chapter.

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are different events, whereas in the epitom e the tw o Swedish lords join hands in plotting against Froda’s life. M oreover, Starkad does not appear in Saxo’s version o f the episode but he does appear in A m grim ’s version, where he is im m obilized by Jörund, Froda being left to Swerting. In Saxo, Swerting loses his life in the attack on Froda; not so in the epitom e. In Saxo, Froda is killed at a feast; in the epitom e, at a religious rite. (4) Fourth episode. In the epitom e, as w e have seen, this episode comes before the third; in other words, according to A m grim ’s account Ingeld marries the daughter o f Swerting before Swerting plots against the life o f Froda. Here, then, it is Swerting, not (as in Saxo) the sons o f Swerting, from w hom Ingeld receives the lady in marriage. And since, according to the epitom e, Swerting lives on after the death o f Froda, it is w ith Swerting, not (as in Saxo) w ith the sons o f Swerting, that Ingeld makes peace. (5) Fifth episode. In the epitom e, Ingeld has a half-brother named Halfdan w ho wreaks vengeance for Froda by killing the sons o f Swerting. N o such half-brother appears in Saxo,67 and Ingeld is the one w ho wreaks vengeance, at the instigation and w ith the help o f Starkad. In Saxo, then, the activity o f Starkad is not confined (as it is in the epitom e) to persuading Ingeld to put his w ife away. The sons o f Swerting number seven in Saxo but tw elve in the epitom e. It has long been recognized that Saxo’s tale o f Froda and Ingeld goes back to the Scandinavian counterpart o f the Ingeld Episode o f Beowulf. But if w e proceed on the assumption that this counterpart differed little if at all from what the Beow ulf poet gives us, w e need to explain, so far as w e can, the changes that the story underwent in Denmark between the sixth century and the tw elfth, when Saxo recorded it in his Latin rendering. These changes were many and great, and require much study. 67. The Haldan quoted in the Lay o f Ingeld (strophe 20) and repeatedly m entioned in the prose o f Saxo’s sixth book is to be identified w ith A m grim ’s earlier Halfdan, the one w ho according to Snorri’s Ynglingasaga made him self king o f Sweden by force o f arms. Am grim ur makes this Halfdan the elder son o f Froda III (pacificus), Ingeld’s great­ grandfather. According to Saxo, Haldan was the son o f Froda Ill’s sister and g o t his Swedish realm not by conquest but by inheritance from his father, Ericus disertus. The tw entieth strophe o f d ie Lay o f Ingeld reads (ed. tit., p. 172), Claret Haldani ratus esse sermo qui brevi nobis cecinit futurum, quod patri gnaro generandus esset filius excors. (T hey have evidendy been fulfilled, the words o f Haldan, w ho told us it w ould shortly befall that from a w ise father (i.e. Froda) w ould spring a foolish son (i.e. Ingeld).] W e have here a pun on the father’s name: the old Scandinavian adjectivefróðr or fróði means ‘w ell inform ed, learned’ (compare OE frod or froda). Starkad was thought to have heard the prophecy w hile he served as Halfdan’s retainer.

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Let us begin w ith Froda and Ingeld. In the English monuments, as every­ body know s, these princes are not Danes but Bards; it is their opponents, Hrothgar and Hrothwulf, w ho are Danes. In the Scandinavian story w e are studying, the Bardish kings lost their proper nationality and appear as Danes. The warfare told o f in our story, how ever, continued to be presented in nationalistic terms. This being the case, Hrothgar and H rothw ulf could no longer be suitable opponents o f Froda and Ingeld. They w ould have remained suitable enough, it is true, had their Danish nationality been taken from them . But this was not what actually happened.68 Instead, Hrothgar and H rothw ulf were replaced, as opponents o f Froda and Ingeld, by Swerting and his fellow ruler (Hanev in Saxo, Jorund in the Skjoldungasaga tradition). These substi­ tutes w ere non-Danish in nationality and the nationalistic nature o f the warfare was thereby preserved. But w hy w as Swerting the one chosen to replace Hrothgar, and w hy do the versions disagree on the substitute for H rothwulf? As so often in the study o f Scandinavian story, w e turn to Beow ulf for light. A man named Swerting is once m entioned in the poem ; he was an uncle o f King Hygelac o f the Geatas.69 N o w w e have reason to think that the Geatas were allied w ith the Danes in the struggle against the Bards.70 If the tw o tribes were in fact allied, it is not impossible that Swerting him self, or his sons, or both Swerting and his sons, actually fought on the Danish side in the battle between Danes and Bards told o f in Widsith. If so, Swerting as w ell as Hrothgar was a historical opponent o f the Bards and could readily be made use o f to play Hrothgar’s part, once Hrothgar him self came to be felt unsuitable for that part. Certainly he answers to Hrothgar in the story as told by Saxo and Am grim ur. His daughter, like Hrothgar’s daughter in Beowulf, is given in marriage to Ingeld in the hope that she may serve as fridusibb ‘pledge o f peace,’ and this hope in both cases proves vain. Swerting’s fellow ruler, be it Hanev or Jörund, answers w ith equal clarity to the H rothw ulf o f the English poem . H rothw ulf was traditionally associated 68. T hey w ere too w ell know n in story to lose their Danish nationality; H rothw ulf in particular became one o f the great hero-kings o f the N orth, the central figure in a w hole cycle o f stories. 69. T lie English poet in line 1203 calls H ygelac nefa Swertinges ‘nephew o f Swerting.* The king’s identification in terms o f his m other’s brother is an interesting survival o f prim itive custom . Klaeber in the glossary o f his edition gives, w ith a question mark, the meaning ‘grandson’ alongside ‘nephew’ for the nefa o f line 1203, but the alternative is a m ost unlikely one, since nefa does not occur in the singular, so far as I know , in the sense ‘grandson’ or ‘great-grandson’ (pronepos). Such a sense has been assigned, it is true, to the nefa o ( Beowulf1962, but it is obtainable only by em ending the text, and the em en­ dation can hardly be justified; see m y discussion in the Germanic Review 14 (1939) 235 f. 70. See m y discussion, Literary History o f Hamlet, pp. 82 f.

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with Hrothgar in the governm ent o f Denmark, as appears from Beowulf 1015 if. and 1163 ff. Their join t rule comes out in Widsith besides, where they are named as the Danish leaders in the war against the Bards. But it is Hrothgar, not H rothwulf, w ho plays the important part in the Ingeld story, which centers on the marriage that Hrothgar arranged betw een his,daughter and Ingeld. In Saxo and the epitom e, too, it is Swerting, not his fellow ruler, w ho takes and holds the center o f the stage. The name and activities o f Swerting’s associate differ w ith the version, since the associate in the original tale had nothing in particular to do and therefore could readily be made to fit any setting.71 In the original tale the opponents o f Froda and Ingeld were Danes. W hen Froda and Ingeld themselves became Danish, their opponents presumably were turned into Geats. The presumption rests upon the fact that a Geat, Swerting, replaced Hrothgar in the tale. The baronial rather than royal rank o f Swerting in the epitom e is, I think, a relic o f this stage o f the story: the Swerting o f Beowulf, though an uncle o f King Hygelac, was clearly not a member o f the royal fam ily (since his name does not alliterate w ith the names o f any o f the Hrethlings), and w e may reasonably reckon him a nobleman whose sister was married to King Hrethel. In later tim es, w hen the Geatish kingdom had been forgotten, the Geadshness o f the opponents became unsuitable for a tale w ith nationalistic m otivation. The enemies o f Froda and Ingeld were more appropriately localized in countries still in existence and actually hostile to the Danes. In the epitom e the opponents are accordingly Swedes; in Saxo, Germans. Hrothgar and H rothw ulf were unde and nephew. W ith the substitution o f Swerting for Hrothgar, then, one m ight expect to find the substitution o f H ygelac for H rothw ulf, since Swerting and H ygelac too were uncle and nephew . The Jorund o f the epitom e m ay w ell have replaced an earlier H ygelac (w ho was his cousin according to the Ynglingasaga) but if so he shows no marks o f the man he replaced, unless his royal rank be such a mark. The Hanev o f Saxo, how ever, in the matter o f his death reminds one o f H ygelac: both are killed in Germany, in battle w ith the overlord o f that country. The deaths o f H ygelac and Hanev differ, it is true, in three im portant particulars: (1) the overlord o f Germany concerned was Theodric o f the Franks in H ygelac’s case but Froda o f the Danes in Hanev’s case; (2) Hygelac was a Geat and, as such, was not a rebel but m erely an enem y o f the overlord whereas Hanev was a Saxon (i.e. a German) and, as such, not m erely an enem y but also a rebel against the overlord; (3) Hygelac’s fall took place on the 71. It is w orthy o f note that B eow u lf in his report to H ygelac says nothing about H rothw ulf.

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Rhine, Hanev’s at Hanover. These differences, however, are readily explained if w e begin w ith the assumption that Swerting and his nephew (a) replaced Hrothgar and his nephew and (b) were given Saxon (i.e. German) nationality. Froda, the historical enemy o f Hrothgar and his nephew, w ould in the nature o f the case become the enemy o f their substitutes and w ould accordingly replace King Theodric both as overlord o f Germany and as slayer o f Swerting’s nephew, w hile this nephew, once he had been made into a Saxon, w ould necessarily be not only an enemy o f his overlord but also a rebel. The change in the place o f death was no doubt due to a popular etym ology. This brings us to a more difficult problem, that o f explaining the change o f name from Hygelac to Hanev. Here one can only make conjectures. It may be that Hygelac was literally or figuratively high-nosed and that Saxo’s Hanev goes back to a nickname (Hdnefr) that drove out o f use the true nam e.7237 The loss o f the historical trait according to which Swerting (earlier Hrothgar) and his associate were uncle and nephew also wants accounting for. Here again no obvious explanation suggests itself, but the kinship may have been forgotten simply because it played no part in the tale. So far, w e have considered tw o opponents o f Froda. But a third one figures largely in our tales: Onela in the version o f Amgrimur, Hama in that o f Saxo. In both versions this opponent is dealt w ith not by Froda him self but by his retainer Starkad. In both versions the opponent serves as a represen­ tative o f the same country that Swerting and his fellow represent. In both versions his service differs from that o f Swerting and his fellow in that it proceeds from an irregular or temporary kind o f representation: Onela is a usurper and Hama is hired for the occasion. Hama makes such difficulties for the investigator that w e shall set him aside for the m om ent and begin w ith Onela. At least tw o kings named Onela figure in Icelandic tradition: Á li the Norwegian and Á li the Dane. In A m grim ’s epitom e both appear in one passage: Fridleifus H ildam Alonis Opplandorum regis in N orvegia filiam rapuit, sibi con­ ju gio vinxit; ex ea filius A lo, ex altera Frodo. A lo, natus ex rapta foem ina, non visus est ad regim inis successionem idoneus; successit igitur Frodo. | Fridleiv abducted H ild, daughter o f King Onela o f the Uplands in N orw ay; he attached her to him self by physical union (i.e. w edlock or concubinage); by her the son Onela; by another, Froda. Since Onela was bom o f an abducted w om an, he was not considered fit to succeed the ruler (i.e. Fridleiv); Froda therefore succeeded.]7* 72. But Herrmann says (op. cit., p. 442), “H anef hängt kaum m it dem Beinamen Háneír ‘hochnäsig* zusammen, der bis Saxo nur in N orw egen und auf Island zu belegen ist.” For the name Hdnefr see E. H . Lind, Norsk-Isländska Dopnamn . . . , colum n 482. 73. Chapters viii (end) and ix (beginning); ed. cit., p. 110.

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Here the tw o Alis are represented as grandfather and grandson. In his ninth chapter Am grim ur goes on to say that the younger Á li w on fam e as a viking and came to be called hinn frektti ‘the brave.’ H is ch ief exploit was his con­ quest o f Sweden and seizure o f the Swedish throne. It was after he had becom e king o f Sweden that the tw elve Danish barons (o f w hom w e have already heard) began to plot against him and induced Froda to consent to his murder. T hey w on Starkad to serve as handbane by paying him 120 marks o f silver. Am grim ur does not tell us w ho A ll’s opponent was w hen he usurped the Swedish throne, nor does he say how long A li ruled as king o f Sweden. Accor­ ding to Snorri Sturluson, how ever,74 A li deprived a certain Atm o f the Swedish throne and drove him into exile; Aun fled to W est Gaudand. W e also learn from Snorri that A li inn frokni was king at Uppsala for tw enty years before Starkad killed him . Snorri also knew the other A li that Am grim ur mentions. In Chap. 29 o f the Ynglingasaga w e are told that K ing Athils o f Sweden átti deilur milclar v ið konung þann, er Á li h ét inn uplenzki; hann var ór N óregi. Þeir áttu orrostu á V znis ísi; þar fell Á li konungr, en A ðils hafði sigr; frá þessari orrostu er langt sagt í Skjöldunga sögu. |had m uch strife w ith the king called O nela the U plander; he was from N orw ay. T hey had a battle on the ice o f Lake Vaenir; there K ing O nela fell and A thils w on ; a great deal is said about this battle in the Skjöldungasaga.]7* k

It was presumably from the Skjöldungasaga that Snorri got the m ore detailed account that he gives in his Edda. According to this account, Athils felt unable to cope w ith A li and called on K ing H rothw ulf o f Denm ark to com e to his help, prom ising pay to the Danish king’s m en and any three presents he chose to the king him self. H rothw ulf could n ot go in person but sent his tw elve kemps. In the battle A li fell and Athils w on a decisive victory. The tw elve kemps now asked for their pay (36 pounds o f gold), and the three presents for H rothw ulf. B ut Athils kept both pay and presents and the kemps w ent back to Denmark em pty handed and ill pleased.74 A certain Ah is m entioned, besides, in the 14th strophe o f the Hyndluljóð, a poem o f the 10th century. The first tw o lines o f the strophe read thus: A li var áðr, öflgastr manna, Halfdan fyrri, haestr Skjöldunga. [O nela was earlier, strongest o f m en, Halfdan (still) earlier, highest o f the Scyldings.] 74. Heimsleringla, ed. F. Jónsson (Copenhagen 1911), p. 19. 75. Heimskringla, ed. cit., p. 23. 76. Skáldskaparmál 43: the section is usually so num bered but in F. Jónsson’s Copen­ hagen edition o f 1931 it is split up into tw o sections, num bered 54 and 55 (pp. 139 f.) ; our story begins the 55th section. Am grim ur tells m uch the same story in the tw elfth chapter o f his epitom e (ed. cit., p. 116). H e makes no attem pt to connect the A li o f this chapter w ith the elder A li o f his Chap, v iii, although the tw o are m anifestly doublets.

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Here Halfdan is obviously the Healfdene o f Beow ulf 57, and Á li is presumably King Onela o f Sweden,77 represented in Beow ulf 62 f. as Healfdene’s son-inlaw. Both Snorri and Amgrimur, as w e have just seen, knew a King Á li o f Sweden, but they represent him as a member o f the Danish royal house. It seems likely that this was also the view o f the Hyndluljóð poet, since he gives him a Danish setting. The passage does not tell us whether the poet thought Á li a son or a grandson o f Halfdan, but the Ó li o f Frd Fomjóti (other­ wise known as Hversu Noregr bygðist) is a grandson o f Halfdan gamli ‘Healf­ dene the old’ and w ith this Ó li the Á li o f Hyndluljóð 14 is obviously identi­ cal.78 In Snorri and Am grim , King Á li inn frokni o f Sweden was son o f King Fridleiv o f Denmark and, accordingly, nephew o f Halfdan (w ho is represented as Fridleiv’s brother). In Beowulf, o f course, Onela is no Scylding but a Sdlfing; that is, a member o f the Swedish royal house. He and his elder brother Ohthere (Óttarr in O ld Icelandic) were sons o f the Swedish king O ngenþeow , the Egül o f Ynglingasaga and Ynglingatal. After Ohthere’s death Onela took the throne and drove into exile the sons o f Ohthere, Eanmund and Eadgils (*Aunmundr and Aðils in O ld Icelandic) w ho fled for refuge to King Heardred o f the Geatas. The Geatdsh king received them hospitably and thereby incurred the enm ity o f Onela. In the war that follow ed, Onela was victorious and Heardred and Eanmund both fell in battle. But Eadgils escaped, and at a later tim e, thanks to King B eow ulf o f the Geatas, w ho helped him w ith men and arms, he defeated and killed Onela and took the Swedish throne. The life o f Ali inn frokni, as w e have it in the Skjöldungasaga, falls into tw o parts: (1) his struggle w ith King Aun for the Swedish throne, and (2) the events that led to his death. Let us consider these parts separately. Else­ where79 I have conjectured that Eanmund or rather *Aunmundr (to use the classical Icelandic name-form) came to be called Aun; in other words, that he came to be know n by a short or familiar form o f his name. If so, he w ould inevitably becom e confused w ith his great-grandfather as soon 77. So also Klaeber, Beowulf, 3d ed. (1936), p. xliii, note 2. 78. Compare Hyndluljóð 18. The distinction that the Skjöldungasaga makes between Halfdan son o f Fróði inn friðsami (padficus), the m ythical Danish K ing Froda, and Halfdan son o f Fróði inn frokni, the historical Heathobardish K ing Froda, was probably unknown to the Hyndluljóð poet, for w hom (as for the Beowulf poet) only one ancient K ing Halfdan existed: Halfdan gam li. For further discussion o f the Hyndluljóð passage, see m y Literary History o f Hamlet, pp. 65 f. and 100 ff. O lrik recognized that the Á li o f the Hyndlutjóð was A li inn frokni, king o f Sweden; see his Danmarks Heltedigtning ii (1910) 139 ff. O ddly enough, how ever, he failed to connect him w ith the historical Swedish king Onela o f Beowulf. Possibly the edition o f Beowulf that he used did not read Onelan in line 62. 79. Literary History of Hamlet, pp. 67 ff.

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as that king’s name, once Auðwinn, had by phonological processes become A un.80 And in fact w e find the Aun o f the Ynglingasaga playing the very part that Eanmund plays in Beowulf : he is defeated in batde by Onela (Áli) and flees to the land o f the Geats (W est Gaudand), where he is hospitably received. In both cases, m oreover, Onela (Áli) is a usurper, w ho drives out the law ful king or heir. Eanmund, the elder son o f King Ohthere (Óttarr), was the natural and proper successor o f that king, and Onela in seizing the throne and driving Eanmund from the country was guilty o f an act o f usur­ pation, though o f course he was a member o f the royal fam ily and thus had claims which the Á li o f Snorri’s narrative did not have, since in Scandi­ navian tradition this Swede o f the Swedes had lost his proper nationality. As w e have seen, the Icelanders thought o f ÁU as a member o f the Danish royal fam ily w ho took the Swedish throne by right o f conquest. But, as Olrik notes, det har blot været en m id e, hvorpâ sagafortællingeme klarede sig med svenske konger der ikke forekom i Ynglingatal: de gjorde dem til danskfodte erobrerkonger. [that was only a story-teller’s device for explaining Swedish kings not included in the Ynglingatal: they were made into conquerors o f Danish birth.]*1

It is odd that Olrik did not carry this thesis to its logical conclusion and identify Áli w ith the historical King Onela o f Beowulf, and this the more since Onela was connected by marriage w ith the Scylding house o f Danish kings, a connection w hich made it easy for the Scandinavians to insert Onela’s name in the Skjöldung genealogy.82 The tale o f King Onela’s death, as w e know it from Beowulf, likew ise has its reflections in Icelandic story. The Beow ulf passage (lines 2391 ff.) is nowadays regularly connected w ith Snorri’s accounts o f the death o f Áli inn uplenzki. I believe.that the death o f A li inn frokni is to be given the same connection. Let us study the changes that befell the tale, as history 80. For these processes see A . N oreen, Altisl. Gram., 4th ed. (1923), p. 165. 81. Op. cit., p. 141. 82. If the Eymundr o f Hyndluljóð and Frá Fornjóti is properly identified w ith Eanmund (so Klaeber, ed. cit., p. xliii), w e have another reason for thinking that in Icelandic tra­ dition K ing Aun and his great-grandson were confused: Eymundr, as father-in-law o f Halfdan gam li, corresponds in genealogical age to the Aun o f the Ynglingatal, Halfdan him self being a contem porary o f Aun’s son O ngenþeow or Egill. The nam e-form Eymundr can be accepted as a side-form o f *Aunmundr if w e make tw o presumptions: (1) that the prince’s name occurred both w ith and w ithout a medial i in proto-Scandinavian speech, and (2) that in Icelandic the first n o f the name m ight be lost before m. The OE form Eanmund makes us certain, o f course, that a prehistoric form w ithout m edial i occurred; it is certainly possible enough that a variant *Aunimundaz, w ith m edial i, also occurred. The Icelandic evidence for loss o f n before m is scanty and dubious; see N oreen, op. cit., p. 221.5 5

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became story. Here it w ill be needful to begin by com paring the death o f Onela w ith that o f Á li inn uplenzki, as found in Beow ulf and the Snorra Edda respectively. If w e make this comparison, w e see at once that the Geatish allies o f Eadgils in Beow ulf have becom e Danish allies in Skdldskaparmdl. The Hrólfr o f Snorri’s tale plays the part that B eow u lf plays in the English poem : he sends help to A ðils and thus enables him to overcom e Á li. T w o further changes may be m entioned here. First, the action has becom e m ore heroic (and less realistic) : the Geatish army that helped Eadgils is replaced by tw elve Danish kemps, whose prowess is enough to turn the scales in favor o f Aðils. Secondly, the m otivation has becom e distinctly unheroic: the Geatas in helping Eadgils were wreaking vengeance for their king, the hapless Heardred, w hom Onela had slain, but the Danes help A ðils as mere mercen­ aries, and Aðils him self is no longer thought o f as the avenger o f his brother or even as an exile — indeed, no m otivation at all is given for the enm ity betw een Á li and Aðils, whose kinship and rival claims to the Swedish throne have been forgotten. The pattern o f the Skdldskaparmdl tale, nevertheless, remains the same as that o f the Beow ulf passage. Opposed to King O nela stands a group made up o f (1) the handbane, Eadgils or A ðils; (2) his helpers, the Geatish army or the tw elve Danish kemps; and (3) the redebane, the Geatish or Danish king, w ho takes no active part in the business but w hose backing makes the attack upon Onela possible. The English poet, it is true, does not say in so many words that B eow u lf stayed behind, but from the w ording o f the pas­ sage one may reasonably infer that the Geatish king did not him self go on the expedition, and this inference is supported by the fact that the Danish king, in Snorri’s version, lent aid to Aðils but him self stayed behind. Turning now to the story o f Onela’s fall as Am grim ur tells it, in the ninth chapter o f his epitom e, w e find that this version conform s in pattern to the other tw o. The correspondences in the matter o f dramatis personae may be tabulated thus :

victim handbane helpers redebane

B eow ulf, 2391—6 Onela Eadgils Geatish army Geatish king

Skáldskaparmál 43 & Ynglingasaga 29 Á li inn uplenzki A ðils 12 Danish kemps Danish king

Am grím ur, chapter ix Á li inn frokni Starkad 12 Danish barons Danish king

M oreover, the follow ing agreements and disagreements are w orth noting. The victim is King o f Sweden in B eow ulf and Am grim ur but a N orw egian king in Snorri. The handbane is a king in Snorri but a destitute exile in Beowulf ;

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in Amgrim ur he is a Danish retainer. In Snorri the handbane, in his capacity as king, gains helpers by promising them liberal pay, but in B eow ulf and Am grim ur the handbane receives rather than gives — he is him self paid for his services as slayer o f Onela. In Amgrim ur this paym ent is made in cash; in Beow ulf it is made in kind (2395a: wigum ond weepnum ‘w ith men and arms’); in both it is made in advance, not merely promised as in Snorri’s account.83584 In all three versions the redebane approves and authorizes the attack upon Onela but in Snorri and Amgrimur he takes no initiative in the matter; in B eow ulf w e are not told w ho took the initiative. The handbane takes the initiative in Snorri; the helpers take it in Amgrimur. In Beow ulf and Snorri the helpers go w ith the handbane on a military expedition against Onela. In Am grim ur the helpers associate themselves rather w ith the redebane; that is, they take no active part but content themselves w ith hiring a slayer. I conceive that in an earlier form o f A m grim ’s version the helpers w ent w ith Starkad and the attack on Ali was made as a military expedition, like the attack in the other tw o versions. This earlier form , i f I am right, is recorded as the Onela passage o f Starkad’s Death Song (Saxo VIII, viii, 9). This passage gives us a stage o f the story in w hich Starkad has taken the place o f the origi­ nal handbane Eadgils but in w hich the attack on Onela is still a m ilitary expedition, a march {agmen) that Starkad and his helpers make together.88 But w hy should Starkad replace Eadgils as handbane? In seeking an explan­ ation w e must, as usual, turn to Beow ulf This poem , as w e have seen, repre­ sents Onela as Healfdene’s son-in-law . The English poet was probably mistaken in thinking that this Danish king had a daughter; Onela was actually married, in m y opinion, to Healfdene’s daughter-in-law Yrsa, w idow o f Healfdene’s son Halga.86 But even so, Onela was allied by marriage to Hrothgar and H rothw ulf; that is, to the great historical opponents o f Froda and Ingeld. It is not surprising, therefore, to find in Scandinavian tradition a King Onela o f Sweden w ho has a place am ong the opponents o f King Froda and is slain by Froda’s henchman Starkad. The hostility betw een Froda and Onela, though fabulous enough as Amgrimur presents it, clearly has historical roots. And it is no more surprising to find Froda and Onela represented as brothers than to find Froda and Healfdene, or Ingeld and Healfdene, so represented.

83. The fact that the handbane in Snorri does not pay his helpers for their services (though he had promised to do so) m ay reflect the historical fact that Eadgils’ expedition against O nela cost him nothing but was financed by backers (i.e. by the Geatas). 84. I f agmen means ‘army,* as P. Herrmann contends, the army in question was pre­ sumably an expeditionary force led by Starkad against K ing O nela. 85. See below , pp. 124 ff. 5*

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Here as elsewhere historical warfare between hostile tribes has been turned into fratricidal strife, a favorite m otif in Scandinavian story. The Amgrimur version (ninth chapter) agrees w ith Skdldskaparmdl 43 in that the Geatas have been replaced by Danes, but the tw o versions disagree in the particular Danes used. In other words, the Eddie version o f Onela’s death belongs to the H rothw ulf cycle whereas the Am grim ur version belongs to the Starkad or Heathobard cycle. In the latter version som e m em ory had survived o f the fam ily ties betw een Onela and the Scylding dynasty o f kings, though the true relation had been set aside or, rather, replaced through the introduction o f the fratricide m otif. This m otif did not w in entry into the Eddie version, where the original handbane had been kept and where H rothw ulf him self appears as redebane. The choice o f H rothw ulf for this part seems to have been suggested by the fact that he was the stepson o f Eadgils. In the tradition w hich gave us the H rothw ulf cycle, only tw o o f Yrsa’s three marriages were remembered: her first, to Halga (by w hom she bore H rothw ulf), and her third, to Eadgils. Her second marriage, to Onela, had been forgotten and, in consequence, H rothw ulf became the proper man for Eadgils to turn to for support in his warfare w ith Onela. In fact, as I have tried to show elsew here,86 the H rothw ulf o f history not only had nothing to do w ith the expedition o f Eadgils against Onela (this w e know definitely by the witness o f Beowulf ), but as soon as he heard o f Onela’s defeat he made an expedition to Uppsala, presumably to avenge the death o f his stepfather Onela and rescue his mother from the clutches o f Eadgils. But Eadgils by marrying the w idow made H rothw ulf his stepson and turned him from his purpose. Snorri quite righdy connects H rothw ulf’s expedition to Uppsala w ith the death o f Onela, but gives a late and unsatisfactory m otivation for the expedition. So much for Onela. W hat o f Hama, his Saxonian counterpart? The name Hama occurs elsewhere in Saxo: VIII, ii, 6; VIII, iii, 12; and IX , iv , 14. In the last case, the h is inorganic, for the Hama in question is represented as the father o f Hella — that is, the upstart Northum brian king Ælla, killed in A .D . 867 — and this pair reappears in Saxo VIII, ii, 1 as “Ambar et Ella” and in Sögubrot x as “Áma ok Ella’’ (in the latter m onum ent they are said to be brothers). The form Ambar answers to Icelandic Ámr, a name that occurs in Hyndluljóð 18 and in Frd Fornjóti.87 Be it noted, besides, that the names o f father and son alliterate, in accordance w ith old Germanic custom. 86. Literary History o f Hamlet, pp. 107 ff. 87. Am(b)r and Am a are sim ply strong and weak forms o f the same name, though one w ould have expected the weak form to be *Ami, the Icelandic equivalent o f Saxo’s Hamo IX , iv , 34.

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The h o f Hama VIII, ii, 6 is organic, as the alliteration shows. The hero so named is best taken as an eponym , the poetic representative o f a Finnish tribe, the H äm e, know n as especially warlike. A xel Olrik, it is true, preferred to connect the Häm e w ith Saxo’s Hama VIII, iii, 12, but in this he was mis­ taken, as I shall prove in a m om ent. Let me add that Olrik localizedH am a VIII, ii, 6 in the east as early as 1894, though his reasons for the localization were bad.*® Saxo’s Hama VIII, iii, 12 cannot properly be connected w ith the Häme because the h o f his name is inorganic. The passage reads as follow s (ed. dt., p. 217), A t O lonem septem reges manu consilioque prom ptissim i stipavere, H olty videlicet et H endil, H olm ar, Levy et Ham a; quibus Regnaldus Rutenus, Rathbarthi nepos, ascribitur; praeterea Sywaldus undecim salum paronibus sulcat.

This prose passage is based on a thula fragment w hich I venture to reproduce in English alliterative verse: H old and H endill, H olm r and Leifi, and Ám a eke w ith O li served; then Regnald the Russian, Rathbarth’s nephew , and Sigw ald seventh, w ith sloops eleven.

The Ámr o f Hyndluljóð and Frá Fornjóti was the brother o f Ó li (as the latter m onum ent inform s us), and Ó li both here and in Frá Fornjóti is none other than A li inn frokni, the A li o f Hyndluljóð 14, the Onela o f Beowulf. In his discussion o f the passage ** O lrik arbitrarily reduces the seven kings to six, transferring Sigwald to Saxo’s next group. In making his identifications he overlooks the brotherhood o f Amr and Ó li, even though recognizing that Ó li is A li inn frokni, and he says nothing o f Widsith, though in line 21 o f that poem , Hagena H olm rycgum ond H enden G lom m um ,

he w ould have found connections for Hendill and H olm r.8 90 98 Let us n ow return to the Hama o f Saxo’s sixth book. W hether the h o f his name is organic or not cannot be determined w ith certainty, but i f w e proceed on the assumption that the h is inorganic the difficulties o f the epi­ sode becom e less serious, since w e can then presume that Amr replaced his brother A li as victim o f Starkad, and the Saxon nationality given to Hama 88. For Ham a VIII, iii, 12 see O lrik, Danmarks Heltcdigtning ii, 98 w ith footnote; for Hama VIII, ii, 6 see Arkiv x (1894) 242. 89. Arkiv x (1894) 254 f t 90. T he suffixal variation betw een n and / in the pair Henden / Hendill m ay be compared to d ie same variation in the pair M H G Sabene / OE Seafola.

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can be explained as having com e about by confusion betw een Amr the brother o f Ah and Ama the Englishman.91 The same confusion w ould also account for the fact that Hama’s name is English rather than Scandinavian in form . It must be added that Áma, if truly an English nam e,92 cannot be equated, etym ologically, w ith Icelandic Áma, the weak form o f Ám r; the tw o names were confused because o f their phonetic identity. W e have no w ay o f know ing whether the historical King Onela actually had a brother nam ed Amr, nor whether this brother, if he existed, actually fought on the Danish side in the wars between Dane and Heathobard. W e com e now to the death o f Froda. This king is m entioned in B eow ulf 2025, but only as Ingeld’s father; his name appears in the kenning sum Frodan ‘to the son o f Froda,’ that is ‘to Ingeld.’ The w ord leodhryre 2030 has been taken for a reference to Froda’s fall in battle against the Danes, but this inter­ pretation is hardly admissible; the w ord means ‘man-fall’ or possibly ‘national calam ity’ and occurs in a gnom ic passage, an aside, in w hich the speaker remarks upon the futility o f marriage as a m ethod o f com posing a feud. So far as his death goes, the Froda o f Saxo and Amgrimur answers to the W ithergyld o f the Beow ulf episode. In like manner, Hrothgar does not appear in Beow ulf as Froda’s bane and Hrothgar’s substitute Swerting, in his capacity as bane o f Froda, answers to the unnamed bane o f W ithergyld in the English poem . Again, the Ingeld o f Beow ulf and Widsith is not represented as taking vengeance for his father’s death, and Saxo’s Ingeld, when he slays the sons o f Swerting, is playing the part that the unnamed son o f W ithergyld plays in Beow ulf Finally, the sons o f Swerting answer not to the sons o f Hrothgar but to the fæmnanþegn o f Beow ulf the unnamed son o f W ithergyld’s bane. The correspondences may be presented in tabular form thus: Beowulf

Gesta Donorum

Froda, father o f Ingeld W ithergyld, victim o f die Danes Ingeld, king o f the Heathobards son and avenger o f W ithergyld Swerting, a Geatish lord Hrothgar, father-in-law o f Ingeld Danish bane o f W ithergyld Freawaru, daughter o f Hrothgar son o f W ithergyld’s bane whetter o f W ithergyld’s son

Frotho, father o f Ingellus Frotho, victim o f the Saxons Ingellus, king o f the Danes Ingellus, son and avenger o f Frotho Swerdngus, a Saxon lord Swerdngus, Ingeld’s father-in-law Swerdngus, Saxon bane o f Frotho unnamed daughter o f Swerdngus unnamed sons o f Swerdngus Starkatherus, whetter o f Ingellus.

91. The English were often called Saxons in the early M iddle Ages, especially am ong the Celts, as everybody know s. 92. The name o f Æ lla’s father does not occur in the English records; w e know it only from Scandinavian sources.

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It is dear from the above that in the version o f Saxo’s sixth book the historical com plex o f events has been greatly sim plified. The number o f characters is m uch smaller and the characters that are kept have m ore w ork to do. O n the w hole, the changes must be reckoned an artistic im provem ent, though history suffered in the process. From the narrative in B eow ulf it appears that W ithergyld was slain in the course o f a pitched battle betw een the Danes and the Heathobards. N o particular bane is named. W e are told (line 2050) that the Danes slew him and they are referred to (line 2053) as ‘those slayers.’ A son o f one o f the slayers is m entioned (though not by name) as bearing a sword that evidently had been taken from W ithergyld’s body on the battlefield. From this w e m ay infer that the father o f this young Dane was W ithergyld’s handbane and had had by rights the plundering o f the body. He may how ever have been sim ply the leader o f the band o f Danes that killed W ithergyld. It is therefore interesting to note that in Saxo one man, Swerting, kills Froda, whereas in Am grim ur a group o f men, the sons o f Swerting, kill kim , Swer­ ting him self serving m erely as their commander. From Beow ulf one gathers that W ithergyld’s handbane had died before the taking o f vengeance; certainly the bane’s son appears as owner o f the mece that had once belonged to W ithergyld, and presumably he had inherited the w eapon from his father.98 The avenger therefore slays not the bane but the bane’s son. In Saxo too the bane, Swerting, dies early (by the hand o f Froda him self!) and the avenger accordingly slays not Swerting but Sw erting’s sons. In A m grim ’s epitom e Swerting survives Froda but Froda’s avenger nevertheless slays not Swerting but Swerting’s sons. Possibly the Swerting o f the Skjöldungasaga, like W ithergyld’s bane in Beowulf, died before the taking o f vengeance and the epitom ist sim ply left this detail out. O n the other hand, the existence o f the trait according to w hich the sons o f Swerting were Froda’s handbanes indicates that the action o f the avenger in slaying them (rather than Swerting him self) wanted explanation; i f so, the Skjöldungasaga presumably did not record Swerting’s death. A prom inent feature o f the English version is the reluctance o f the avenger. It is the function o f the w hetter, o f course, to overcom e this reluctance and drive the avenger to do his duty. The whetter’s speech in Beow ulf is a master­ piece o f its kind, but it is not enough. The avenger has to be w hetted again and again (2057 f.), before he can be brought to take action. W e are not told w hy the avenger was so reluctant to act. Presumably it did not occur39 93. Com pare Beowulf 2610 if., w here W ig la f bears a sword inherited from his father W eohstan, w h o had taken it as booty on the battlefield from the body o f Eanmund after he killed him in the fight.

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to the poet that the trait needed explanation, and in fact it needed none if the Danish court was the scene94 — obviously a Bardish avenger could not kill a Dane at the Danish court w ithout running the gravest risk o f losing his ow n life at the hands o f the Danes. In Saxo, however, the reluctance has lost its original point, for there the avenger is represented as him self a Dane — king o f the Danes, indeed — and for him the Danish localization, far from making the vengeance dangerous, makes it easy and safe. In spite o f this change in the circumstances the trait persists. Ingeld’s reluctance clearly goes back to the son o f W ithergyld’s reluctance and it is overcom e by the same means: long-continued reminders and exhor­ tations on the part o f the whetter. But since the circumstances are different the m otivation for the reluctance must needs be different. Saxo (i.e. the old poet from w hom he drew) explains the trait sim ply enough: Ingeld is the degenerate son o f a noble sire, preferring peace and com fort to war and hardship. The older, prudential m otivation is thus replaced by a newer, moralistic one, and the reluctance o f the avenger to act is interpreted accord­ ingly. It w ould have been possible to take another tack. Ingeld’s reluctance m ight have been related to the fact that he was married to the sister o f the very men upon w hom it was his duty to take vengeance. But Saxo takes the mar­ riage otherwise — as a mere sym ptom o f Ingeld’s degeneracy. This point o f view holds for the prose and verse alike o f Saxo’s text. But Ingeld’s de­ gradation is not com plete: Starkad succeeds at last in rousing him , and makes a man o f him . Ingeld in Saxo is a weakling w ho by Starkad’s exhortations is transformed into a truly kingly figure. N o such characterization appears in Beowulf, but the reluctance o f W ithergyld’s son, and the exhortations o f the old spearman which lead at last to the deed o f vengeance, give us the basis for Saxo’s characterization o f Ingeld, since Ingeld in Scandinavian tra­ dition took over the part originally played by W ithergyld’s son. Starkad’s speech, the old Lay o f Ingeld, answers to the Ingeld Episode o f Beowulf, not merely to the speech o f the old spearman. Starkad begins by speaking o f the insults he receives when he enters the Danish hall; he resents these insults but nevertheless puts up w ith them. In the same w ay, Ingeld and his men are insulted when they enter the Danish hall (B eow ulf2032 ff.) ; they resent these insults but nevertheless put up w ith them. In both cases it is the Danish retainers w ho do the insulting. Starkad in Saxo answers to the w hole group o f Heathobards in Beowulf, one hero serves for a host o f ordinary

94. This localization was urged by E. A . K ock, Anglia 46 (1922) 174 f.; see also above, p p .19 ff.

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m en.9 96 5 Starkad continues by reproaching Ingeld for his ill-spent life, his marriage, and, m ost o f all, his failure to avenge his father. The last reproach answers to the speech o f the old spearman in Beowulf; the other reproaches are Scandinavian additions to the original speech, additions w hich became appropriate after Ingeld had replaced W ithergyld’s son as the recipient o f the old spearman’s exhortations. In his conclusion, Starkad urges Ingeld to put away his w ife, a matter hinted at in the conclusion o f the Beow ulf episode (lines 2063 ff.). W e also learn from Starkad’s conclusion that he and Ingeld together killed the seven sons o f Sw erting.98 This answers, o f course, to B eow ulf2058 if., though in Beow ulf only one man is killed, the old spearman is a whetter only, and W ithergyld’s son does the slaying w ithout help. In the English version o f the Ingeld story the action begins and ends at the Danish court.97 It is therefore not surprising to find that in Saxo’s tw o versions the w hole action takes place at the Danish court.98 This unity o f place brought in its train the other tw o unities. The unity o f time is most marked in the second book, where the w hole action takes place in a single day; indeed, in a few minutes, it w ould seem. In the sixth book a like unity was achieved, but in a somewhat different w ay; the marriage itself is ex­ cluded from the action proper and turned into a kind o f prolog; the other events are concentrated into, say, an hour’s tim e. The action becomes unified too. Both versions sim plify things by merging betrothal and marriage. But the tw o versions go different ways in their handling o f the events that w ent w ith the betrothal in the original tale. In the second book (where the divorce is wanting) these events take place in connection w ith the marriage; in the sixth book (where the fall o f Ingeld is wanting) they take place in connection w ith the divorce. In consequence, the lady appears as a bride in the second book but as a w ife in the sixth. This the chief difference between the tw o versions goes back to the fact that in the sixth book Ingeld is identified w ith the avenger o f W ithergyld, whereas in the second book no such identification is made. It is perhaps not going too far to say that the fall o f Ingeld, wanting in the sixth book, was replaced by the events originally associated w ith the betrothal. Once Ingeld became an avenger, his divorce w ould be thought

95. In Saxo’s prose account, Ingeld’s w ife as w ell as the retainers insults the old man. For a discussion o f this see below , pp. 200 f. 96. In Saxo VIII, v iii, 9 (the Death Song) Starkad tells us that he slew the sons o f Swer­ ting and says nothing o f Ingeld’s part in the deed. 97. W e are not told where the marriage or the divorce took place but w e may plausibly conjecture that Denmark was the scene o f the one, Bardowiek o f the other. 98. But no place o f marriage is given in the sixth-book version.

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o f as part o f his vengeance, and the vengeance therefore took shape in con­ nection w ith the divorce. In the second book, how ever, where the fall o f Ingeld was kept (w ith Agnar as Ingeld’s surrogate), this fall seems to have been thought enough to part the man from the w om an and the divorce was dropped as superfluous. In Saxo’s sixth book, as w e have seen, the Tale o f Ingeld goes w ith another story, the Tale o f Froda. The father’s saga was an outgrow th o f the son’s. U nlike the son’s, it answers to nothing that could be called a story in Beow ulf where w e learn only that the Danes defeated the Bards in a battle in which, am ong others, the Bardish kemp W ithergyld fell. This battle took place before (apparently years before) the action o f the Beow ulf episode opens. Froda w on entry into the Tale o f Ingeld w hen he and his son took over the parts originally played by W ithergyld and his son. But his part in the Ingeld story was o f course a passive one: like the man he replaced, he was the father whose death it was the son’s duty to avenge. In tim e the poetic interest in Ingeld led to an interest in Ingeld’s father, and the sagamen gave Froda deeds o f his ow n. In this w ay a Tale o f Froda came into being. Here how ever the death o f Froda, the only event o f interest to start w ith, remained the chief event o f the king’s life. The tale was built up in terms o f foes o f his w ho sought to kill him or take from him part or the w hole o f his domains. He defeated them repeatedly but in the end he lost his life. This is the account o f Froda that w e find in Saxo. It is filled out w ith praise o f the king, w ho serves as a m odel rider and thus makes a striking contrast to Ingeld. The contrast betw een father and son is made much o f in the Lay o f Ingeld itself and is elaborated in Saxo’s prose account. Its practical purpose in the mouth o f Starkad is obvious: the old warrior hopes thereby to put Ingeld to shame and m ove him to a vengeance that w ill prove him w orthy, after all, o f his illustrious father. B ut the praises o f Froda in the end turn into a characterization made sim ply to exalt the king, whose story has com e to be told for its ow n sake. Amgrimur gives us a fundamentally different picture o f both Ingeld and Froda. His Ingeld, unlike Saxo’s, neither avenges his father’s death nor other­ w ise behaves as a good kinsman should. H e grow s worse instead o f better and ends as a thoroughgoing villain. T o quote (ed. cit., pp. 112 f.), Cæso igitur Frodone quarto, Svertingus IngiaUdum generum et occisi hsredem per legatos placavit. Ast Halfdanus Ingialldi frater consangvineus Scaniam comparat: is duodecim filiorum Svertingi cede . . . patris necem ultus est, Ingialldus . . . tertiam regni sui partem fratri Halfdano, paterne necis ultori, con trib u it.. . . Ingialldus porro Halfdanum regnandi cupiditate cum exercitu ex im proviso superveniens occidit. . . . Sed

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Roas et H elgo filii . . . patruo suo Ingialldo par pari retulerunt, Halfdani patris cædem Ingialldi nece vindicantes. [After the murder o f Froda IV, Swerting by legacies (Le. wergeld) appeased Ingeld, his son-in-law and heir o f the slain man. But Halfdan, Ingeld’s brother o f the same blood (i.e. his brother on the father’s side) obtains Skine : by killing the tw elve sons o f Swerting . . . he avenged his father’s death and Ingeld assigned a third part o f his kingdom to his brother Halfdan, avenger o f their father’s m urder. A fterwards Ingeld, out o f lust for supreme power, fell upon Halfdan by surprise w ith an army and slew him . . . . B ut (Halfdan’s) sons Hrothgar and H aig a paid Ingeld, their uncle, back in the same coin, avenging the murder o f their father Halfdan by slaying Ingeld.]

In the Bjarkarimur, which, like Am grim ’s epitom e, were based on the now lost Skjöldmgasaga, w e find a significant detail that the epitom ist left out: Ingeld bum s Halfdan in and Hrothgar and Halga retaliate by burning Ingeld in. The same tw o hall-burnings appear in the Hrólfssaga kraka, but here Froda, not Ingeld, is guilty o f the first and accordingly becomes the victim in the second. These hall-burnings both go back to the burning o f Heorot by Ingeld, recorded in Beow ulf 82 f." And since w e know from our English sources that Ingeld was the original and proper hall-burner, it is perfectly clear that in the tradition represented by the Hrólfssaga the wicked deed was transferred from son to father. A m grim ’s Froda, like his Ingeld, was stained w ith fratricide: he and his barons sent Starkad to Sweden to assassinate Onela, and Starkad duly carried out Froda’s orders. W e are told, how ever, that it was the barons, not the king, w ho took the initiative in the matter, Froda show ing som e reluctance but allow ing him self to be persuaded to send Starkad on this dastardly mission. The responsibility was clearly Froda’s but the king’s guilt is somewhat m iti­ gated by the traditional device o f evil counselors. It follow s that A m grim ’s Froda is less w icked than his Ingeld, w ho slew Halfdan on his ow n initiative, w ithout benefit o f counsel. The slaying o f blood kinsmen is a trait foreign to the Tale o f Ingeld proper and no such trait appears in either o f Saxo’s tw o versions. It is the main feature o f another story, that o f the Scylding fam ily feud. The Skjöldmgasaga gives us a com bination o f the tw o tales: here the tw o royal families, the Danish and the Bardish, have been made into one, and the wars between the tw o nations have becom e fratricidal strife. This com bination occurs in the Hrólfssaga too, but here Ingeld him self does not appear, his father Froda taking his place.9 100 9

99. For an explanation o f the fact that one hall-burning became tw o, see below , p. 130. 100. For a detailed discussion, see below , pp. 124 if.

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These sagas also include tw o stories about the hero Bjarki that go back to Act I and A ct III respectively o f the Tale o f Ingeld but have becom e inde­ pendent o f that tale: the story o f Bjarki’s dealings w ith Hjalti and the story o f Bjarki’s fight w ith Agnar. The tw o stories are told each for itself; they are not linked either w ith each other or w ith a wedding story, as they are in Saxo’s second book. The story o f Bjarki and Hjalti is wanting in Am grim ’s epitom e but it is fully treated in the Bjarkarimur and in the Hrólfssaga. The story o f Bjarki’s fight w ith Agnar gets a mere m ention in the epitom e and in the Hrólfssaga but a good deal is made o f it in the Bjarkarimur. Snorri in his Ynglingasaga has much to say about King Ingjaldr inn illráði (i.e. the ill-plotting one) o f Sweden, and both in character and in deeds this king reminds one strongly o f the wicked Ingeld o f the Skjöldmgasaga tradi­ tion. The follow ing sketch o f the Swedish king’s life is based, o f course, on Snorri’s account:101 King Önundr o f Sweden had a son named Ingjaldr. As a child Ingjaldr was a weakling but his foster-father Svipdagr gave him a w o lf’s heart to eat and the meal made him allra manna grimmastr ok verst skaplundaðr ‘o f all men the grimmest and worst minded.’ W hen he was grown his father married him to Gauthildr, daughter o f King Algautr o f Gaudand. B y her he had a daughter Ása, as evil-m inded as her father, and a son Olafr, nicknamed trételgja ‘woodcutter’ (an opprobrious epithet). After his father’s death Ingjaldr became king at Uppsala. His first deed as king was a hall-burning, in which perished his father-in-law King Algautr, three other kings, and tw o princes. Ingjaldr then made him self master o f his victim s’ realms. In his next attempt to enlarge his kingdom he resorted to open warfare and was badly defeated, but later he took tw o o f his foes by surprise (at a feast), burnt them in, and annexed their kingdoms. Snorri sums up thus: pat er sögn manna, at Ingjaldr konungr drcepi xii komnga ok sviki allai griðum ‘men say that King Ingjaldr slew tw elve kings and betrayed tham all in truces’ (i.e. his method was to make a truce and then attack, taking his foe vmawares). Ingjaldr married his daughter Ása to the Danish king Guðroðr o f Skâne. She made trouble between her husband and his brother Halfdan, and drove Guðroðr to murder Halfdan. Afterwards she brought about her husband’s death too (we are not told how ), and then went back to her father in Sweden. But Halfdan’s son Ivarr took possession o f Skâne after his uncle’s death and proceeded to invade Sweden. The end o f the story takes the appropriate form o f another hall-burning. To quote, 101. Heimskringla, ed. cit., pp. 25 ff.

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þóttisk Ingjaldr engan styrk ha fa til at berjask v ið ívar; honum þótti ok sá sýnn kostr c f hann legðisk á flótta, at hvaðanæva mundu fjandmenn hans at dtífa. Tóku þau Ása þat ráð, er fhcgt er orðit, at þau gerðu fólk alt dauðadrukkit, siðan létu þau leggja eld í höllina; brann þar höllin ok alt fólk þat er inni var, m eð Ingjaldi konungL |It seemed to Ingjald that he did not have the forces to fight w ith ívar; that also seemed evident to him i f he settled upon flight, that his foes w ould rush at him from every side. H e and Ása took the plan (w hich has becom e famous) to make the people all dead drunk and then to have the hall set on fire. The hall there burnt and everyone in it, along w ith K ing Ingjald.]

In an earlier paper I have given reasons for thinking that Guðroðr and ívarr answer to Hrothgar and H rothw ulf respectively.102 If so, Ása presumably goes back to the Hrúta o f the older tradition, w ith the curious difference that her father and her bridegroom have exchanged parts. Asa’s active nature and evil career are a secondary developm ent but one not peculiar to Snorri’s story; w e find som ething o f the same thing in Saxo’s sixth-book version o f the Ingeld story, where Ingeld’s w ife is far from colorless.103 The change o f name from Hrúta to Asa goes naturally w ith the change o f nationality: a name beginning w ith h, highly proper for a Danish princess, w ould never do for a Swedish one, whose name to m eet the proprieties must begin w ith a vow el. In Snorri’s version the Danes, w ho are localized in Skâne, keep their nation­ ality and their enemies the Bards appear as Swedes. The general course o f events may be outlined thus: one king gives his daughter in marriage to another king but the marriage turns out badly and the daughter must return to her father; hostilities now break out between the tw o nations and end in a hall-burning. This outline agrees w ith the course o f events as found in the English sources. M oreover, an Ingeld appears as the opponent o f a Danish dynasty and the struggle ends w ith a Danish victory and Ingeld’s death, as in Beow ulf and Widsith. But the Danish kings, though uncle and nephew, are not called Hrothgar and H rothw ulf but Guðroðr and Ivarr, and the prin­ cess, w ho in Beow ulf is daughter o f the Danish king and marries the foreign king, in Snorri is daughter o f the foreign king and marries the Danish king. Again, Snorri says nothing about disturbances at the wedding and motivates the failure o f the marriage otherwise: Asa serves as evil counselor, prom oting the Scylding fam ily feud. Finally, it is the Danish king, not Ingeld, w ho does the attacking at the last, and the hall that Ingeld fires is not his foe’s but his ow n. The main Scandinavian versions o f the Tale o f Ingeld differ w idely among

102. PM LA 42 300 fL 103. For m ore about the lady, see below , pp. 197 f£

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themselves and seem to be independent growths out o f the original set o f events, though not w ithout reciprocal influences. T w o o f the versions, that o f Snorri and that found in the Skjöldmgasaga, show a com bination o f the Tale o f Ingeld and the Scylding fam ily feud. Snorri’s version is localized in Skâne and probably represents the tradition as it developed in that Danish province. The version in Saxo’s sixth book obviously tells the tale from a Bardish point o f view , even though Ingeld has been turned into a Dane; it belongs to the cycle o f stories that gathered round the Bardish hero Starkad. The version in Saxo’s second book just as obviously belongs to the H rothw ulf or Bjarki cycle. The Skjöldungasaga version evidently took shape in Iceland; it includes much from both cycles. The differentiation o f the versions pre­ sumably came about through differences in orientation and poetic interest. As the centuries rolled by, the versions grew further and further apart and but for the English evidence their relations w ould make a puzzle indeed. But when w e bring the English evidence to bear, w e see what the relations are and how the developm ent proceeded. Here as in so many problems o f Scan­ dinavian philology the solution can be had only by making full use o f the English literary monuments.

HAGBARD AND INGELD

IN THE SEVENTH book o f his Gesta Danorum,1 Saxo Grammaticus tells one o f

the great love stories o f the w orld, the story o f Hagbard and Signe (Hagbarðr and Signy).1 2 The follow ing may serve as an outline o f the tale: K ing U ngw inus (Yngvinn) o f the Danes fell in battle against one Regnaldus (Ragnaldr), leaving a son Sywaldus (Sigvaldr) and a daughter Sygrutha (Sigþrúðr). Sywald had a daughter Syritha (Sigríðr), w ho married a certain Otharus. In due tim e Sywald sought to wreak vengeance for the death o f his father. The battle betw een Sywald and Regnald took place on the Danish island o f Sjælland. It was decided in Sywald*s favor by the valor o f Otharus, w ho broke through the Swedish ranks and cut Regnald dow n in the m idst o f his m en. N o less than forty o f Regnald*s Swedish champions, including their leader Starcatherus (Starkaðr), disgraced them selves by fleeing from the battlefield. A fter the death o f Regnald they took service w ith H aco (Haki), son o f Hamundus (H ámundr) ; Saxo calls H aco maximus piratarum ‘the greatest o f vikings.* U pon the death o f Sywald, his son Sygarus (Sigarr) becam e king o f the Danes. Sygar had three sons, Sywaldus, A lf, and Algerus, and a daughter, Signe. O ne spring, A lf and A lger, in the course o f a viking expedition, came upon three other sons o f Hamund, the brothers H elw in, Hagbarthus, and Hamundus. The tw o Danish princes and their m en fought against the three sons o f Hamund all day, but w ere unable to overcom e them . The tw o sides made a truce for the night, and made friends the next day, com pelled b y mutual exhaustion. Thereafter, Hagbard (and his brothers as well?) accom panied A lf and A lger to the Danish court, where Hagbard saw and fell in love w ith the princess Signe. She already had a suitor, a German o f noble birth and good looks named H ildigisleus, but she thought little o f him because he had performed no feats o f valor and she held him to be a cow ard. H er love was turned rather to H aco, because she had heard o f his great deeds. Hagbard paid court to her by stealth, and she agreed to becom e his secret mistress. H er brothers knew nothing o f this, but H ildigisle suspected what was going on, and bribed B olw isus (Bölvíss) the blind, an evil counselor o f King Sygar’s, to sow dissension betw een the sons o f Sygar and the sons o f Hamund. The slanders o f Bolw isus led A lf

1. The latest and best edition o f the Gesta is that o f O lrik and Ræder, Copenhagen, 1931. O ur story begins in VH, iii, 2; ed. cit., p. 187. 2. In the present paper, Saxo’s Latin forms o f proper names, and their Danish equiva­ lents, e .g ., Hagbarthus and Hagbard, Starcatherus and Starkad, are given w ithout special indication, w hile the corresponding Icelandic forms are given in round brackets.

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and A lger to slay H elw in and Hamund w hile Hagbard was away, but Hagbard took sw ift vengeance for his brothers’ death, killing A lf and Alger in battle. H ildigisle was pierced through the buttocks w ith a spear, and slunk away in disgrace. Hagbard now returned to the Danish court, alone and disguised as a pugnax Haconis famula (vii, 6) or bellatrix Haconis vernula (vii, 8). H e claimed that Haco had sent him on a mission to Sygar. B y virtue o f his disguise he gained admission to Signe, w ho received him and backed him in all he said. They spent a night o f love together. But he was betrayed by maidser­ vants, and Sygar sent armed men to take him . H e fought hard and long against them , and killed many at the door, but had to yield in the end. A t his trial he was defended by the good counselor Bilwisus (Bilviss), but the arguments o f the evil counselor Bolwisus prevailed, and he was condemned to death on the gallow s. Shortly afterwards the queen, handing him a cup, told him to slake his thirst before he died. H e took the cup, but, since she had given it to him in m ockery, he paid her back in the same coin, boasting that he had killed her tw o sons, and dashing the drink into her face. M eanwhile Signe made ready to die the same death that was about to befall her lover. She had a watch set, and, when the watcher told her that Hagbard was being hanged, she and her faithful maid­ servants set fire to the palace and hanged them selves. But Hagbard had asked that his mantle be hanged first, and it was this m antle, not Hagbard him self, that the watcher saw. B y this ruse Hagbard learned, before his ow n death, that Signe had died for him ; w hen he saw the palace burst into flames he w ent happy to his death. H is brother H aco, as soon as he learned what had happened, left his Irish kingdom and set sail for Denm ark, where he overthrew and slew King Sygar in battle. Sygar’s only remaining son, Sywald, now took up arms, but was killed in battle w ith H aco Hamundson’s comrade H aco Fastuosus, a battle in w hich Haco Fastuosus also fell. H aco Hamundson w ent away to the land o f the Scots, and died there tw o years later.

O f the characters named in the tale, Sygar (Sigarr) answers to the Sigehere o f Widsith 28 and is generally reckoned a historical figure.3 The elem ent Sig- appears not only in Sygar’s name but also in the names o f other members o f the fam ily: Sywald (Sigvaldr), Sigrutha (Sigþrúðr), Syritha (Sigríðr), and Signe (Signý). These names have a genuine look, and may w ell have belonged to historical persons, members o f Sygar’s fam ily. It was contrary to old custom, however, to use the same name tw ice in a given fam ily. O f the tw o Sywalds, then, only one can have been historical — whether Sygar’s father or his son w e have no w ay o f saying w ith certainty. Hagbard, in his flyting or war o f words w ith the queen, speaks o f her as orba natis ‘w ithout sons’ (vii, 13) ; the passage is in verse, and is older than Saxo’s prose account according to which Sygar had a son left to avenge him. This passage w ould seem to indicate that o f the tw o Sywalds it is the younger rather than the elder w ho must be set aside.4 W e com e now to those members o f the 3. H e lived in the fifth century, according to P. Herrmann, Erläuterungen zu . . . Saxo Grammaticus, II (1922), 490. 4. Herrmann, op. cit., p. 498, also rejects the younger Sywald, though on other grounds. C f. also A . O lrik, Kilderne, II (1894), 231 and 248.

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fam ily whose names do not begin w ith the elem ent Sig-, nor w ith any other elem ent w hich w ould alliterate w ith Sig-. The grandfather o f Sygar is called U ngw inus (Yngvinn). This name answers to the Ingwine o f English poetical tradition, a name applied to the Danes. In other words, U ngw inus is an epo­ nym , comparable to Saxo’s earlier eponymous figure, Dan. W e are told, it is true, that U ngw inus was a Gothic king, w ho became king o f the Danes not by right o f descent but by virtue o f the last w ill and testament o f his pre­ decessor on the Danish throne. But in the nature o f the case an eponym com es at the beginning, and if for any reason he is put elsewhere he seems out o f place and his new position in the line must be regularized by arbitrary or artificial devices. The very oddness o f U ngw in’s claim to the Danish crown befits his eponym ous character. W hat claim, indeed, w ould one expect an eponym to have? The failure o f his name to alliterate in s- also needs no ex­ planation i f he is an eponym . The names o f father and child need not alliterate if the father is mythical, the child historical. U ngw in’s tw o children, Sygrutha (Sigþrúðr) and Sywaldus (Sigvaldr), have names that alliterate w ith each other and w ith the other fam ily names in Sig-; their names belong to the pattern characteristic o f the Sikling fam ily. N o t so their father, w ho begat them, not in reality but in poetry only.5 6 The names A lf and Alger likewise fail to fit the Sikling pattern o f nomenclature. The historical Sigehere may w ell have had sons, but it is w holly unlikely that they bore such names. The A lf and Alger o f our story, by virtue o f their names, stand revealed as late poetical creations rather than historical persons; they date from a tim e when the old custom o f alliterative nam e-giving had died out or, at the least, was no longer follow ed w ith rigor. The Danes under Sikling rule have as opponents, first, Regnald, and, later, Haco (Haki) and his brothers. Starkad and his fellow champions link Regnald and Haco together, in some sort; they appear as followers o f Regnald but after his death they take service w ith Haco. The Swedish nationality which Saxo gives them is, no doubt, a reminiscence o f the Swedish localiza­ tion o f Haki’s kingdom .6 Regnald’s connexion w ith Sweden, then, such as it is, derives, at bottom , from Haki. But Haki, though he usurped the Swe­ dish throne, was no Swede. His true nationality cannot be considered apart from that o f his retainer Starkad. In the Lay o f Ingeld, the oldest poem o f the Starkad cycle, Haki is represented as the king in whose service Starkad learned 5. See further the discussion in m y edition o f Widsith (1936), p. 189. 6. This localization is recorded in the Ynglingasaga o f Snorri, but Saxo elsewhere (VI, v, 10-13, and VH, v iii, 1) localizes H aki’s kingdom in Ireland. In both Snorri and Saxo, Haki w on his kingdom by conquest from K ing H uglec (H ugleikr). Saxo calls Haki a Swede in VIII, iii, 11. 6

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the art o f war and the standards o f conduct proper to a cham pion.7 The poet tells us that Starkad was imberbis (beardless) w hen he took service w ith Haki. It seems not unreasonable, then, to presume that the poet thought o f Haki and Starkad as compatriots. And Saxo makes it clear (VII, viii) that their nationality was not Danish,8 in his view at least. B ut w e happen to know , from an English source, the tribe to w hich Starkad belonged. It has long been recognized that Starkad is the old spearman o f Beow ulf 2042, a veteran o f the Heaðobeardan. This tribe had a feud o f long standing w ith the Danes, and this feud, taken as a historical background for our story, makes that story more intelligible. The Heaðobeardan or Hadbards seem to have been forgotten at an early date in Scandinavia. As A. Olrik has pointed out,9 their name does not once occur in the w hole body o f Scandinavian literature. Their wars w ith the Danes, however, were by no means forgotten, and their leaders in these wars figure largely in Northern story. Even the tribal name, indeed, left traces o f its former existence. The name o f the Swedish king Hothbrodus mentioned in Saxo’s second book has been derived from the Hadbardish name, and the king him self explained as an eponym ,101 and the name o f Haki’s brother Hagbard can be given a like etym ology.11 One explanation o f the name Starkad makes it mean ‘the strong Hadbard.* M oreover, the Hadbards had an alternative name. In Widsith 47 they are called W idngas (vikings), and this, in all likelihood, not because they were given to piracy but because they lived in Bardowiek.12 In other words, the viking name, as applied to them, was tribal or geographical in sense, and this is the earliest sense o f the w ord on record. N ow w e have seen that Haki was know n to Saxo as the greatest o f vikings, the viking par excellence. If he was actually a Hadbard, the viking name w ould obviously be particularly appropriate for

7. Saxo, Gesta Danorum, VI, ix , 12 and 20; ed. cit., pp. 174 f. and 179. 8. Be it noted also that Starkad, speaking .in the Danish hall, calls him self an advena (foreigner) (VI, ix , 5 ; ed. cit., p. 171). 9. Danmarks Heltedigtning, II (1910), 40. 10. S. B ugge, Home o f the Eddie Poems (1899), p. 160. It w ill be noted that H aki, like Hothbrodus, is localized in Sweden. 11. There are three possibilities here. Hagbard can be derived, by dissim ilation, from earlier *Hadbard. Alternatively, if, as seems likely, the Hadbards spoke an Anglo-Frisian dialect, their name for themselves may have been *Haoðubardan (compare OE H eaðobeardan from earlier *Hæoþubæordan), and in Scandinavian mouths the ð o f this name form w ould becom e g; see A . N oreen, Altisl. Gram., 4th ed. (1923), p. 188. Subsequent leveling between H að- and H aogu- m ight have given rise to the extant H ag-. In any case, the change from d to spirant g is phonetically easy, especially before -u -. A gain, Hagbard may mean ‘skilful Bard’; cf. Icel. hagr ‘skilful*. 12. See the discussion in m y edition o f Widsith, pp. 155 f.

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him , and w e should have an explanation o f the fact that he rather than some other pirate o f history or story came to be thought o f as the viking par excel­ lence, and as the leader in w hose service Starkad learned how to live the life o f a hero. The association o f Haki w ith Starkad is the more indicative because Starkad in heroic story represents the Hadbard o f Northern tradition. As Herrmann puts it,13 Dass der alte Speerkämpfer des B eow . bereits den Nam en Starkad gehabt habe, ist natür­ lich nicht zu beweisen. Aber ein Greis ist er sicher schon gewesen, und ebenso hat er eine bevorzugte Stelle am H ofe innegehabt; darum darf man weiter annehmen, dass er auch durch Stärke, Unbesiegbarkeit und rauhes, rücksichdoses Auftreten berühmt war. . . D ie dän. H eldendichtung hat in ihm die Eigenschaften verkörpert, die die Dänen ihren Erb­ feinden, den Hadbarden, beilegten: Stärke, Streidust, grim m igen Trotz. . . .

It is not impossible, indeed, that the viking name came to lose its geogra­ phical or tribal sense, and to w in its heroic im plications, because the original bearers o f the name, the men o f Bardow iek, and in particular the tw o Hadbardish tribesmen Haki and Starkad, became symbols o f heroic piracy. Here, too, w e may have an explanation o f the fact that the Hadbard tribe came to be forgotten: i f in the N orth Wicingas drove out Heaðobeardan as the tribal name, the tribe w ould be left w ith a name w hich in tim e ceased to be distinctive o f the tribe and finally lost all tribal application. A peculiar — indeed, an enigm atic — feature o f our story is the relation­ ship between Signe and the brothers Haki and Hagbard. Saxo writes (VII, vii, 2-5; ed. cit., pp. 192 if.): 2. Per idem tempus H üdigisleus, claro Theutonum loco ortus, formæ et nobilitatis fiducia Sygnem Sigari filiam postulabat. Apud quam m axim um ei contem ptum obscuritas peperit, quod fortitudine vacuus aliena probitate fortunam instruere videretur. Præcipue eandem in amorem Hakonis magnalium eius spectata deflexit opinio. . . . 3. Hagbarthus vero cum Sigari filns Daniam petens iisdem que ignaris sororis eorum alloquio potitus, tandem eam ad clandestini concubitus promissionem fide sibi obligandam adduxit. Quæ postm odum , forte pedissequis insignes procerum titulos conferentibus, H üdigisleo Hakonem praetulit, in illo nihil præter speciem laudabile repetiti, in isto oris lituram anim i flore pensari testata. . . . 5. Quæ v o x ita ad astantium aures delapsa est, ut Hagbarthus Hakonis laudari vocabulo putaretur. . . . [At that tim e H üdigisle, a German o f illustrious descent, sought the hand o f Signe, daughter o f Sygar, counting on his good looks and noble birth. But his want o f fame gave her the greatest contem pt for him , because, w ithout courage him self, he thought to build up his fortune on the w orth o f others. W hat m oved her to love Haco was particularly the proved fame o f his w onderful deeds. . . . N o w Hagbard w ent to Denmark w ith the 13. Op. cit., pp. 419 f. 6*

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sons o f Sygar and w ithout their know ledge managed to pay his addresses to their sister, and finally he brought her to give him her w ord that she w ould becom e his mistress in secret. Afterwards, w hen her w om en fell to com paring the princes* titles to distinction, she gave Haco the preference over H ildigisle, saying that in the latter there was nothing w orthy o f praise except his looks, but in the form er high-m indedness fu lly made up for a scarred face. . . . These words led the bystanders to think that she was praising Hagbard under the name o f Haco.]

The natural interpretation here is the one w hich Saxo seems to make; nam ely, that Haco and Hagbard are tw o names for the same person. But, later on, our historian represents Haco as the brother and avenger o f Hagbard. I conceive that Saxo (or his source) knew and com bined tw o versions o f the tale. In one version, the earlier, the hero’s death was left unavenged14 and the hero’s name was Haki Hagbard (originally Haki the Hadbard). In the other version, the hero’s death was duly avenged; the hero w ent by his surname, Hagbard, w hile his true name, Haki, was given to the avenger, w ho, appro­ priately enough, was made the hero’s brother. Alternatively w e m ay say that in the later version the hero as lover figured under his surname Hagbard, w hile the hero as viking was made into a separate figure, the avenger, under his true name Haki. Such a differentiation need not give us pause. In real life the same man m ay w ell be both a great viking and a great lover, but in popular story the com plexities o f reality tend to be sim plified, and characters tend to represent one aspect or ‘humor’ only, becom ing typical or even ideal in the process. The Starkad o f history presumably had love affairs, but love w on no place in his literary life. And in the course o f tim e love came to be felt equally unsuitable for Starkad’s master, Haki, the greatest o f vikings. His love affair w ith Signe was therefore attributed to an alter ego, the Hagbard o f our story, for w hom , as it happened, a name was available, since Haki had a surname as w ell as a true name. But the differentiation was late, and remained incom plete. Hagbard in particular, though primarily the lover, kept much o f the viking, and this the more since the ideal lover was expected to be a fighter too (compare Chaucer’s squire). The secrecy o f the lovers and their failure even to consider the possibility o f marriage suggest yet another explanation o f the fact that the hero in Saxo’s version is called both Haco and Hagbard.15 From the Icelandic version (to 14. Saxo’s verse source stops w ith the death o f Hagbard, and Herrmann, op. at., p. 497, inclines to the b elief that the original story w ent no further. 15. The oldness o f the tale keeps us from explaining this secrecy and avoidance o f mar­ riage in terms o f courtly love convention. Herrmann (op. cit., II, 493) compares the tale to Romeo and Juliet, where the secrecy is a natural consequence o f the hostility o f the houses to w hich hero and heroine belong. But our tale differs from Shakespeare’s play in that the hostile parties have made friends, for the tim e being at least. Saxo makes no attem pt to m otivate either the secrecy or the avoidance o f marriage.

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be considered below ) w e m ay infer that the hero came to the Danish court to seduce Signe, by w ay o f taking vengeance on Sygar for his rape o f the hero’s sister. If Haco had this in mind, he w ould make friends w ith the Siklings, and w in an invitation to visit the Danish court, under an assumed name, w ithout revealing the fact that he belonged to a hostile house. And Hagbard (an arbitrarily m odified form o f his surname Hadbard) may have been the name w hich he assumed for the occasion, and Signe's recognition o f him as Haco may have been added as a dramatic touch. But, whatever the hero’s intentions when he came, he fell in love w ith her and she w ith him , and both felt it needful that their love be kept secret. The love story may be said to begin when Hagbard first came to court, but w e are told (VII, vii, 2) that even before she saw him Signe was inclined to love him (under the name Haco) because o f his achievements — an inclination which does credit to her head, certainly. Her conduct after he came was none too discreet, the rival suitor suspected the w orst, and his jealousy led to a renewal o f the old feud between the Siklings and the sons o f Hamund, w ith tragedy behind. The tale o f Hagbard and Signe has many points o f likeness to the tale o f Ingeld. The background o f both tales is the old blood feud between Danes and Hadbards, and the course o f events in the tw o tales runs in the same direction. In the follow ing, I have undertaken to analyze the stories and to compare them trait by trait. Analysis and comparison may be expected to throw light on various features and to make more precise any relationships which may be found. I begin w ith the traits themselves, presented in out­ line form : Hagbard and Signe (Saxo)

Ingeld (Beowulf and Widsith)

1. Danes defeat Swedes in battle. Regnald killed, and forty Swedish champions (including Starkad) flee.

1. Danes defeat Hadbards in battle. W iðergyld killed,and other Hadbards (including Starkad) retreat or flee.

2. Starkad and other Swedes take service w ith H aco (Hagbard).

2. Starkad and other Hadbards take service w ith Ingeld the Hadbard.

3. Danish princes after drawn battle make friends w ith Hagbard and brothers.

3. Danish king (occasion not recor­ ded) makes friends w ith Hadbards.

4. Danish princess looks w ith favor on H aco (Hagbard).

4. Danish princess offered to Ingeld the Hadbard.

5. Hagbard (presumably w ith broth­ ers and follow ers) com es to Danish court for visit.

5. Ingeld w ith follow ers com es to Danish court for visit (w ith be­ trothal or marriage in view ).

6. Danish princess agrees to becom e Hagbard’s mistress.

6. Danish princess betrothed to Ingeld.

7. Fetid breaks out anew .

7. Feud breaks out anew.

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a. A bribe from the rival suitor m oves an old counselor (B olwis) to make trouble.

a. The insolence o f the fæmnanþegn m oves an old spearman (Starkad) to make trouble.

b. H e incites the sons o f Sygar against the sons o f Hamund.

b. H e incites the son o f W iðergyld against the fæmnanþegn, the son o f the slayer o f W iðergyld.

c. The sons o f Sygar slay Hagbard’s tw o brothers.

c.

d. Hagbard slays the sons o f Sygar.

d.

e. The rival suitor gets a spear through his buttocks.

e. The fæmnanþegn is slain by the son o f W iðergyld.

f.

f. The son o f W iðergyld is pur­ sued by the Danish avengers, but gets away safely because he know s the country w ell.

g-

g . Ingeld’s love cools and his thoughts turn to the old feud.

8. Hagbard returns to Danish court, alone and in disguise, bent on love.

8. Ingeld returns to Danish court at the head o f an army, bent on war.

9. Hagbard is caught by the Danes and put to death.

9. Ingeld is defeated in battle w ith the Danes and presumably falls.

10. In connexion w ith Hagbard’s death the Danish hall bum s to the ground.I

10. In connexion w ith Ingeld’s defeat and death the Danish hall bum s to the ground.

I add the follow ing comments on the various traits : Trait 1. W e learn o f this defeat o f the Hadbards from the speech o f the old spearman (Starkad) in Beow ulf 2047-2052. The inform ation given is general in character, except for one detail, the fall o f W iðergyld. W e are told that the Danes weoldon wœlstowe (2051); in other words, the Hadbards were defeated and had to retreat or flee. Starkad speaks as se de eall genam (2042). His know ledge o f the battle was evidently that o f a participant, and, since he survived to tell the tale, he must have been am ong those Hadbards w ho saved them selves by retreat or flight. It is customary to presume that Froda as w ell as W iðergyld fell in this batde, but the English text, taken for itself, does not admit o f this presumption; in later Scandinavian story, Froda is killed and W iðergyld is not m entioned, but this may (and probably does) mean that, as history became story, Froda was substituted for W iðergyld. The Regnald o f Saxo’s seventh book answers in part to W iðergyld, in part to the Froda w ho took W iðergyld’s place in Scandinavian tradition. He is like W iðergyld in tw o respects: (1) he was killed in battle w ith the Danes, and (2) his fall brought w ith it a retreat or rout o f the opponents o f the Danes,

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Starkad included.1* He is like Froda in tw o respects: (1) he is represented as a king, and (2) he was slain as an act o f vengeance. W iðergyld was only a retainer, o f course, and the English poet does not say or im ply that the Danes attacked the Hadbards in retaliation for a previous attack o f the Hadbards on the Danes. According to later Scandinavian story, how ever, Froda had killed Halfdan, and, therefore, deserved death at the hands o f HaUBan’s heirs; in like manner, Regnald had killed U ngw in, and, therefore, deserved death at the hands o f U ng w in’s heirs. The vengeance m o tif seems inconsistent w ith the localization o f the battle on the Danish island o f Sjælland; i f Sywald was trying to wreak vengeance for his father’s death, one w ould expect him to take the offensive and invade Sweden. In the original story o f the battle, how ever, the Danes in all likelihood were m erely repelling a Hadbard raid and Sjælland was actually the scene o f the conflict. Saxo’s localization, therefore, is best taken as a survival from the original form o f the story. That the Hadbards reappear as Swedes is not w ithout parallels {see above), and is in any case a mere detail; the important thing about them was not so much their nationality as their enm ity to the Danes, and this enm ity w ould be better marked by making them Swedes, once the Hadbard tribe had been forgotten. The change o f nationality took place by the viking route, o f course: the opponents o f the Danes began as Hadbards or Vikings; later they were know n sim ply as vikings (w ith a small v); finally they became Swedish vikings or Swedes. Saxo tells the story from a Danish, the Beow ulf poet from a Hadbardish, point o f view . This difference brought it about that the central event, the fall o f W iðergyld or Regnald, is presented differently. In Beow ulf no particular bane is mentioned by name; indeed, w e are given to understand that it took many Danes (certainly several) to fell him . In Saxo’s account the matter is reversed: Sywald’s son-in-law Otharus singlehanded overcom es Regnald and the bravest o f the Swedes together. The heroic stature which Saxo gives to Otharus thus originally belonged to W iðergyld, I take it; the transfer presumably took place in Danish tradition.61 16. O nly in connexion w ith the fall o f Regnald and that o f W iðergyld do w e find Starkad taking part in such a retreat or rout. For a different view , see A. O lrik, Danmarks Heltedigtning, II (1910), 80 and 124. O ddly enough, Olrik overlooks the Beowulf passage. The parallels to the fall o f Regnald w hich he does cite are beside the mark. In them , Starkad fights (or refuses to fight) in single com bat w ith a formidable opponent (w ho is the center o f interest and by w inning gains m ore glory than w ould otherwise be possible), and a w ound, usually a very serious one, is given Starkad by that opponent. Here both these fundamental features are wanting. Starkad does not have a single com bat w ith any particular hero, and receives no wound. N or is his flight an individual matter ; he flees w ith the rest. Our interest lies not in Starkad or his opponent but in Regnald and his bane. The Saxonian and B eowulfian passages agree in all these points.

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Trait 2. In Saxo the Swedish retainers are represented as followers o f Regnald w ho upon his death entered the service o f Haco. In Beowulf, how ever, the Hadbards w ho retreated from the battlefield were retainers not o f W iðergyld but o f Froda, and their service w ith Froda’s son Ingeld began w ith the death o f Froda. Since w e do not know when Froda died w e cannot say just w hen Starkad and his fellow s entered Ingeld’s service. W e can say only that this new service began after the events o f trait 1 and before the events o f trait 3. Trait 3. The drawn battle, leading to a truce and com pulsory friendship for a season, is a m otif that plays an important part in the Finnsburg tale, where, how ever, it is combined w ith another m otif; nam ely, the defense o f the hall. In Saxo the drawn battle m otif serves as a device whereby the Danish princes make friends w ith their enemies, the sons o f Hamund (i.e., the Had­ bards). In Beow ulf no such formal device is em ployed, but the underlying principles at work are the same. In the one case a hard-fought battle, in the other a weelfcehda dcel, ends in war weariness and longing for peace, and the tw o sides make friends. A difference remains, nevertheless: in Beow ulf it is the Danish king him self w ho makes friends w ith the Hadbard leader, w hile in Saxo it is only the king’s sons w ho make friends w ith Hagbard and his brothers. In the English tale, the attempt at reconciliation is a political matter, a stroke o f statecraft, w hile in the Danish tale it is a personal matter only, w ithout effect on the political situation (so far as one can judge). This differ­ ence answers to a general distinction between English and Scandinavian heroic story: the national or tribal elem ent remains in English tradition, but tends to becomes confused or lost in Scandinavian versions o f the old stories, and this tendency is particularly marked in the traditions about the warfare betw een Danes and Hadbards, presumably because the Hadbard tribe early came to be forgotten. The brothers A lf and Alger, as w e have already seen, were hardly at hom e among the original Siklings, and there is good evidence that Sygar (Sigarr) him self once figured more largely in the tale than he now does.171 suspect that A lf and Alger, w hen they made friends w ith Hag­ bard, were playing a part which earlier belonged to their father. In any case, the drawn battle m otif can readily be explained as a dramatic sharpening o f a deal o f deadly feuds and quarrels. Trait 4. Ingeld’s love o f his w ife (or betrothed) is m entioned in Beow ulf 2065 f., where w e are told that it became cooler. The poet says nothing about the lady’s love o f Ingeld, and, in general, the love m otif is played dow n in our episode, and the betrothal presented as an affair o f state, in w hich it 17. p. 43.

N ote the allusion in cap. 25 o f the Völsungasaga (ed. W . Ranisch, Berlin, 1891),

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was the lady’s function, (like her m other’s before her) to do what she was told and becom e a friðusibb jolca. Since the English poet’s interest lay not in the personal but in the political aspect o f the betrothal, he makes the Danish king play the active part which, no doubt, he played in real life, w hile the Danish princess gets a passive part equally realistic. In Saxo’s tale, how ever, the interest lies in the personal not in the political aspect o f the affair. Here, then, w e find the active and passive parts interchanged: the Danish princess is active throughout, w hile her father does nothing until all is lost.18 The princess even betrothes herself, in effect, w hen she feels inclined to Haco (Hagbard) before seeing him , and rejects his rival. This choice betw een rivals her father presumably made for her in real life (like Hroðgar in Beowulf), but in Saxo’s tale she herself made the decision, w ithout the advice or even the know ledge o f her father. Her reason for choosing as she did has its interest in this connexion. She preferred the man w ho had already made his mark in the w orld, unattractive though he was in physical appearance. Such rea­ soning and such a decision w ould gladden a father’s heart in any age, but strikes one as a bit cold and calculating, and not w holly in harmony w ith the passionate, reckless Signe that w e learn to know as the story proceeds. It seems not im possible that the father originally made the choice, and made it for the very reason w hich Saxo puts in Signe’s m outh. Certainly none but a man whose fame was secure could forgo vengeance and marry his foe’s daughter. Trait 5. Hagbard’s visit to the Danish court took place by invitation o f his new friends and former foes, the sons o f Sygar. In the story this new friend­ ship had the function o f bringing Hagbard to court and so to the lady. In like manner, the friendship betw een Ingeld and the Danish king had for its specific purpose the bringing together (in betrothal or marriage) o f Ingeld and the Danish princess, and this purpose was accomplished w hen Ingeld came to court.19 But the sons o f Sygar, unlike Hroðgar, did not invite Hagbard to the Danish court for betrothal or marriage, or indeed for any particular purpose other than a demonstration o f friendship. Trait 6. Hagbard here figures as secret lover, whereas Ingeld plays the part o f betrothed or bridegroom . The great difference betw een the tales lies, o f course, in the fact that one is a love story w hile the other is a political event (or series o f events) in w hich the lovers (if w e m ay so call them) are mere pawns. The political marriage m otif does not appear in the tale o f Hagbard 18. W e have already seen that not he but his sons make friends w ith Hagbard. 19. That the Ingeld episode o f Beowulf deals w ith the betrothal or w edding o f Ingeld at the D anish court seems reasonably clear; see above, passim.

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and Signe. The lovers, therefore, since they belong to hostile houses, must keep their love secret, w hile Ingeld and Freawaru, though their houses too are traditionally hostile, are duly betrothed — betrothed, indeed, for that very reason. Trait 7. A satisfactory interpretation o f the fæmnanþegn in the Ingeld episode o f Beowulf has never been found. His immediate function, it is true, offers no difficulties to the interpreter. He is there to give the old spearman an opening whereby the feud may again be set going. But w hy is he called a fæmnanþegn, and what is his m otive for behaving as he does? Clearly he, no less than the old spearman, wishes to make trouble. The latter’s m otives are evident: his side had lost in the last fight, and the blood o f the Hadbards then slain was still crying out for vengeance. N o such m otives can be imputed to the fæmnanþegn, w ho belonged to the winning side and had no slain kinsmen to avenge. B y all the rules the fæmnanþegn ought to have supported his lord, King Hroðgar, in the m ove for peace and reconciliation. The key to his disloyal and deliberately provocative conduct may be found, I think, in the epithet fœmnanþegn which the poet applies to him . This epithet in the editions is regularly printed as tw o words, but, since it is preceded by the nom . sg. masc. se o f the definite article, it must be taken as one w ord.20 The meaning o f this word is not im m ediately obvious. In an earlier study, I put it into m odem English as ‘maiden-thane’ and, comparing such m odem expressions as ‘maiden voyage’ and ‘maiden effort,’ suggested that a maidenthane was a young man w ho had had no experience in battle.21 N ow the H ildigisle o f Saxo’s tale seems to be such a man; certainly he lacks the scars o f batde. But he qualifies as a fæmnanþegn in another sense besides: he dances attendance on Signe, pays court to her— is, in short, a suitor for her hand. M oreover, his troublemaking is w ell motivated. Naturally enough he hates to see his rival preferred and him self rejected. I conceive that the fæmnanþegn o f the Beow ulf episode was in like case, and revenged him self by conduct designed to stir up the feud anew and thus hinder or spoil the marriage. The old spearman struck at the root o f the trouble when he pointed to the fæmnanþegn, although the latter may w ell have found confederates, as lines 2036 f. w ould indicate. Saxo represents Hildigisle as a German, and gives him a name to fit. N o indication o f the rival’s name and nationality, however, appears in Saxo’s verse source (preserved to us by Saxo in a versified Latin rendering), and it seems not unlikely that Saxo him self was responsible for Germanizing the rival, a change which enabled him to vent yet once again 20. A . J. B am ouw , Textkritische Untersuchungen (1902), p. 23. 21. MP, X XV U (1930), 259.

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his w ell-know n hatred o f the Germans. Since the hero was an enem y o f the Danes, the proprieties w ould call for a Danish rival, and w e have reason to think that the rival was originally a Dane, answering in this respect to the fæmnanþegn o f Beowulf. That Saxo made the rival a German on the m odel o f Haldan’s rival Siwar (whose story Saxo tells in the same book) is a conjecture o f A. Olrik’s,22 w hich seems reasonable enough. If, how ever, Olrik meant to say that not only the Germanism o f the rival but the very existence o f a rival in the Hagbard tale was due to the influence o f the story o f Haldan, I cannot agree. Hildigisle is specifically m entioned (though not by name) in the verses, w hich show not the slightest indication o f any influence o f the Haldan story. The follow ing lines speak for themselves (VII, vii, 4; ed. cit., p. 193): H uic [i.e., the hero] pretium non form a facit, sed fortior ausus armisque parta claritas Ast illum [i. e., the rival] capitis decor approbat et nitor oris vertexque crine fulgidus.

M oreover, even in Saxo’s prose Hildigisle has litde in com m on w ith Siwar; on the contrary, the careers o f the tw o are markedly different. The story o f Haldan’s love affair w ith Guritha may be summarized as follow s (VII, ix, 9-20): T he Danish princess Guritha, granddaughter o f Sygar and only survivor o f the Sikling fam ily, vow ed to remain chaste rather than marry one beneath her in station. Haldan (son o f Borgar, a chieftain o f Skâne), how ever, urged his suit. She denied him , because o f his rank and misshapen m outh (a m utilation w hich he had com e by honorably in battle). H e did n ot lose hope, how ever, but told her he w ould com e back after winning glory enough, in war, to make up for his rank and m outh; he urged her n ot to take a man to her bed until she knew he (Haldan) had com e back or was dead. Haldan now w ent abroad to w in fame in warfare. H e was away for som e tim e, and a rumor reached Denm ark that a certain H ildiger had overthrown him in single com bat (he had actually killed H ildiger in this duel). Then Siwar, a Saxon o f high birth, became a suitor for the hand o f Guritha. She finally accepted him (though at heart she preferred Haldan), being constrained or overpersuaded by her guardians, w hom Siwar had bribed, and the tw o were form ally betrothed. Haldan learned o f this and hurried hom e. H e reached the Danish court just before the w edding festivities began. After talking to the bride, and learning the true state o f her heart, he killed the bridegroom and (with som e help from his followers) cut dow n all the Saxon guests. The w edding then proceeded, but w ith Haldan as bride­ groom .

In this story the rival does not pay court to the heroine until the hero has left the scene, w hile in the Hagbard tale the rival pays court to the heroine 22. Kilderne, II (1894), 246.

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before the hero appears on the scene. M oreover, Signe rejects the rival and accepts the hero, w hile Guritha rejects the hero (for his scars, the very reason that m oves Signe to accept Hagbard!) and accepts the rival. The return o f the hero to the Danish court is the culminating event o f both love stories, but here the rival does not figure at all in the Hagbard tale, w hile he figures largely in the Haldan tale. The rival does bribing in both tales, but for quite different purposes. The contrasted pictures o f hero and rival are given great prominence in the Hagbard tale, but in the Haldan tale hero and rival are not contrasted at all. Hildigisle and Siwar are not alike even in name. W hen w e say that both are represented as Germans o f high birth, w e have exhausted their likeness. The Germanism o f the rival is w holly appropriate in the Haldan tale, where the hero is a Dane, but inappropriate in the Hagbard tale, where the hero is an enem y o f the Danes. Here one may agree w ith Olrik that the Haldan tale was the lender. Otherwise the tw o rivals must be reckoned independent literary figures. The fate o f H ildigisle gives us a further clue to his proper connexions. He is disposed o f by a spearcast through the buttocks. Here w e have the handi­ w ork o f Starkad, as Olrik noted (loc. cit.), though he did not draw the logical conclusion; nam ely, that Starkad, the faithful retainer o f Haco (Hagbard), was the man w ho gave Hildigisle that kldmhögg. Saxo does not tell us w ho cast the spear through H ildigisle’s buttocks,23 but the old spearman was just the man for the job and w e have good reason to think that in an earlier form o f the tale he threw the weapon. Saxo, it is true, says nothing o f Starkad’s presence at the Danish court w ith Hagbard. Here he was presumably follow ­ ing the later version o f the tale (see above), a version in w hich the lover (Hagbard) was distinguished from the viking avenger (Haco). In this version Starkad o f course served the viking, not the lover, and consequently had to be relieved o f the spear-throw, w hich therefore is told o f w ithout m ention o f the thrower. The manner in w hich the rival was put to shame, how ever, reveals Starkad at work, even though he has been rem oved from the scene. In Beow ulf too the old spearman downs the rival (that is, the fæmnanþegn), but he does it by word, not by deed. He incites the son o f W iðergyld to attack the fæmnanþegn. The difference between the English and Scandinavian accounts here is characteristic. In the English poem , Starkad is a man o f words; in the Scandinavian monuments, he is everywhere a man o f deeds (in spite o f his age), though he has words enough besides.24 It follow s naturally enough 23. T he com m on presumption that Hagbard was the spearman is not borne out by Saxo’s text. 24. A . O lrik noted this difference (Danmarks Heltedigtning, II, 81 £ ), but w rongly repre­ sented the Lay of Ingeld to be an exception to the rule; see above, p. 32.

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that in the Hagbard tale no character appears w ho answers to the son o f W iðergyld. Such a character, a son o f Regnald, in all likelihood figured in an early form o f the story, and slew H ildigisle at Starkad’s prom pting. But when Starkad took the deed for him self, the son o f Regnald became super­ fluous, and was accordingly dropped from the tale. A mark o f his'form er presence, and o f Starkad’s original function o f whetter, remains in the tale, how ever. The w hetting speech characteristic o f Starkad was not discarded when the man that Starkad whetted was dropped. The speech was kept and given to another old man, the evil counselor Bolwisus. This character does not belong to the Ingeld tale, but he probably had a place in the Hagbard tale from an early date, though not in the very earliest form o f the story. His original function w ill be considered below in connexion w ith trait 9. Here it is enough to say that his existence as one o f the characters o f the Hagbard tale made him available for the part o f whetter w hen the w hetting m otif was shifted from the Hadbardish to the Danish side (that is to say, w hen the son o f Regnald dropped out o f the tale, leaving Starkad w ith nobody to w het).85 The correspondence o f Hildigisle to the fæmnanþegn o f Beow ulf now becomes clearer. Hildigisle was originally a Dane, and his father in all likelihood was one o f the banes o f Regnald. W hen Otharus, the son-in-law o f Sywald, was brought into the story (a late change), and took the place o f Regnald’s banes, H ildigisle’s father lost all connexion w ith the tale and Hildigisle him self in consequence lost his function as victim o f an avenger and served henceforth only as rival o f the hero. For this reason his death became needless and the fatal billes bite o f B eow ulf2060 answers to the hum iliating but not fatal spearcast o f the Hagbard tale. W e have already seen that A lf and Alger were late poetical creations (or importations), not original members o f the Sikling fam ily. I conceive that their father Sygar once did the deeds which, in Saxo’s version o f the story, are given to them .86 This conception helps greatly in reconciling Saxo’s version w ith the Icelandic version alluded to in the Völsungasaga but unluckily not otherwise preserved. The Icelanders knew Sigarr and his daughter Signý;625

25. In the version o f the Hagbard tale alluded to in the Völsungasaga (see note 17 above), the w hetting was kept on the Hadbardish side, although here too the son o f Regnald seems to have been dropped. The developm ent in this version was parallel to that in the Ingeld tale as told in Saxo’s sixth book: the duty o f taking vengeance was shifted from the son o f Regnald (compare the son o f W iðergyld) to the brothers Haki and Hagbarðr (compare Ingeld), w hose father H im undr (compare Froda) presumably had replaced Regnald (compare W iðergyld) as victim o f the Danes. The w hetter is not m entioned by name in the Völsungasaga passage, but w e m ay safely presume that Starkaðr was the whetter. 26. See the discussion o f trait 3 above, where I suggest that in the original tale it was Sygar rather than his sons w ho made friends w ith Hagbard.

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they likewise knew Hámundr and his tw o sons, the famous vikings Haki and Hagbarðr. They knew nothing o f any sons o f Sigarr, or o f any other sons o f Hámundr. The Volsungasaga passage, however, makes reference to certain unspecified members o f the fam ily o f Haki and Hagbarðr. The reference reads as follow s (loc. cit.) : M iklir váru þeir [i. e., H aki and Hagbarðr] ok ágætir, en þó nam Sigarr systur þeira, en hefir aðra inni brenda, ok eru þeir seinir at hefha.

The aðra ‘others’ o f this passage I take to be the brothers H elw in and Hamund named in Saxo as victim s o f A lf and Alger. In spite o f Saxo, however, the Hamund in question was not Hagbard’s brother but his father, as it w ould be contrary to old custom in nam e-giving for Hagbard to have both a father and a brother o f the same name. The other victim , H elw in, if brother o f Hamund, w ould be Hagbard’s uncle.27 Sigarr burnt his victim s in, while A lf and Alger defeated and killed their victim s in a naval battle. Presumably, Sigarr took Hagbard’s sister in order that Hagbard’s seduction o f Sigar’s daughter m ight be motivated as an act o f vengeance, on the principle o f an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In other words, this deed o f Sigar’s had no place in the original story, but was added later by some sagaman concerned to make vengeance rather than love the driving force behind Hagbard’s seduction o f Signe. The other deed attributed to Sigarr in the Volsungasaga passage had a more com plex history. According to Saxo, as w e have seen, the Danes under Sywald defeat the Swedes and kill the Swedish leader Regnald. Some forty Swedish champions, including Starkad, survive the battle and take service w ith Haco (who according to Snorri was King o f Sweden). It seems clear that Haco and his men are duty bound to avenge the defeat o f the Swedes and the death o f Regnald, and Haco finally takes vengeance on the Danes, but this vengeance is long delayed. Haco’s brother Hagbard actually makes friends w ith the Danes and visits the Danish court. This visit, however, leads to a second attack by the Danes in w hich H elw in and Hamund, the brothers o f Haco and Hagbard, are defeated and killed. Hagbard avenges his brothers by killing the Danish princes A lf and Alger, but is him self captured and put to death by King Sygar o f the Danes. Haco then bestirs him self and avanges his brother’s death by killing Sygar. This long and complicated business makes a striking contrast w ith the brevity and clean-cut lines o f the Icelandic version, where Sigarr answers to three 27. The rarity o f the name Helwin (on which see H . Naumann, Altnordische Namenstu­ dien, p. 90) may be reckoned an argument for H elw in’s antiquity in the tale, although the Icelanders say nothing o f such a character. His name duly alliterates w ith his kinsmen’s.

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generations o f Danes (Sywald, Sygar, and the brothers A lf and Alger) in Saxo’s account, and the bum ing-in answers to tw o Saxonian battles. The sim plicity o f the Icelandic version reflects, I think, an older stage o f the tra­ dition, an earlier form o f the tale, than that recorded in Saxo. Sigarr, the Sigehere o f Widsith, was the one and only antagonist o f the brothers originally ; his father and his sons hardly played a part in the tale when it first took shape, and never w on entry to the story am ong the Icelanders. The sons, indeed, properly belong to another story, that o f A lf and Alvilda, and were brought into the Hagbard tale by means o f an arbitrary genealogical construction, in the course o f an attempt to build up a group o f stories dealing w ith the them e o f love.28 And Saxo’s tw o Danish victories (the fall o f Regnald and the fall o f the brothers H elw in and Hamund) are merely variant accounts o f one and the same battle.2903But the version o f Saxo has its points for the historian. In it old and new appear side by side, w ith no attempt to iron out the inconsistencies; thus much old material has been kept, relatively unchanged. The Icelandic version, on the contrary, is beautifully balanced, and neatly rounded, w ith an eye to a unified, symmetrical, artistic effect. This effect has been triumphantly achieved, but at great cost to the historian. W e have already seen that Sigar’s rape o f Hagbard’s sister was added to the tale, to balance Hagbard’s seduction o f Signe. In the same w ay, Sigarr burns his victim s in, to balance the burning o f Sigar’s hall at the end o f the tale. There is good reason to think that the sagaman m odified the love story for the sake o f perfection in the taking o f vengeance. For the same reason the fall o f Regnald was discarded, or, rather, replaced by the fall o f Hámundr (the father o f Haki and Hagbarðr), and the w hetting was obviously directed not at the son o f Regnald but at the sons o f Hámundr, w ho (w e are told) were seinir at hefna ‘slow to take vengeance.’ The pressure upon the brothers to act was made as strong as possible: their sister had been ravished, and the others, the rest o f the fam ily (apart from themselves), had been burnt in. The allusion takes us no further, and, though by conjecture w e can supply the rest, it w ill be wiser, no doubt, to forbear. W e may be certain that H agbarðr seduced Signý but was caught and hanged by Sigarr.80 But did H agbarðr go tw ice or only once to Sigar’s court? In other words, did the Icelanders keep or give up the trait according to which the Siklings made friends w ith the sons o f Hámundr? M y guess is that they kept this trait; hence the seinir 28. Compare A . Heusler, in J. H oops's Reallexikon, IV, 178. 29. It is characteristic o f Saxo’s literary art that he neither chooses between these variants nor tries to com bine them , but records them both as separate and distinct episodes. C f. note 25. 30. Snorri in Skdldskaparmdl, 64, tells us that Sigarr hanged Hagbarðr.

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at hefna o f the allusion. If so, did Haki and Starkaðr go w ith Hagbarðr on his first visit, and did the old spearman do the w hetting in its proper dramatic place; namely, the court o f his foes, as he did in Beowulf ? One wonders also whether a fæmnanþegn or rival suitor figured in the Icelandic version, and just how the sons o f Hámundr and their m en got away w ith w hole skins. Hagbarðr presumably returned to Sigar’s court in disguise, but hardly in the guise o f a wom an.311 fancy he was betrayed much as he is in Saxo’s version. It seems evident that Haki avenged his brother, but one cannot say whether Sigar’s hall was burnt as part o f Haki’s vengeance or in connexion w ith Signý’s death; indeed, one cannot be sure that Signý died w ith her lover in the Ice­ landic version; she may have died w ith her father. Let us now leave the Icelanders and return to Saxo. After the feud had broken out again, Hagbard was no longer safe, o f course, on Danish soil. W e are not told how or when he left the Danish court, nor is anything said o f the parting o f the lovers, but obviously they were parted by events, even though bound to each other by vow s. W e find a like situation in Beowulf, where Ingeld and Freawaru are parted by events, though bound to each other by vow s. But there is a great difference here: Ingeld’s love cooled and vengeance got the upper hand, w hile the reverse was true o f Hagbard. This brings us to the next trait. Trait 8. Here the tragic conflict between love and honor ends. In this trait w e see Hagbard giving him self w holly to love, and Ingeld giving him­ self just as w holly to vengeance. The other differences between the tw o stories follow logically enough. Trait 9. The Widsith poet gives us no details o f Ingeld's last expedition. W e are not even told that Ingeld was killed. W e know only that the Danes defeated him decisively at Heorot, and the presumption is that he fell in the battle. Saxo, on the contrary, tells in detail the story o f Hagbard’s night o f love and death. Here w e w ill confine ourselves to tw o features o f this story: the disguise and the betrayal. The Eddie hero H elgi once disguised him self in w om en’s clothes, as w e learn from Helgakvida Hundingsbana, IT, a certain Blindr inn bölvísi saw through the disguise (in spite o f his name). The bearded Hagbard o f Icelandic tradition could not have disguised him self in this manner, and it seems likely that Hagbard’s disguise, as w e have it in Saxo, did not belong to the original tale, but was borrowed from the Eddie story, along w ith the blind Bolwisus, w ho obviously answers to Blindr inn bolvisi. Dis­ 31. As Herrmann points out (op. tit., II, 492), Kormdkssaga gives a beard to Hagbarðr. The hero’s return meant, possibly enough, that his vengeance had miscarried: he fell in love w ith the wom an w hom he had set out to seduce. I f so, Saxo and the Icelanders are n ot so far apart after all, except in the beginnings o f the love affair.

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guise in w om en’s clothes goes w ith betrayal by the blind Bolwisus, but Saxo (or his source) took from this character his original and proper function (presumably because he thought a blind man unsuitable for this function) and gave him other w ork to do. The betrayal by maidservants belonged, in all likelihood, to another version o f Hagbard’s death, a version in w hich he did not disguise him self as a w om an. If so, Saxo has taken the disguise from one version, the betrayal from another version o f the tale. In the Hagbard tale, the hero dies for love. In the Ingeld tale, he dies for honor. The tw o deaths are correspondingly different. But in each case the tragic end is, in som e sort, a triumph. Ingeld sacrifices love and life itself in order to wreak vengeance; he does his duty, and does not count the cost. Hagbard puts him self in the hands o f his foes in order to be w ith his love once again; he too does not count the cost. Hagbard and Ingeld are heroes o f equal stature, though o f different ideals. Trait 10. From Beow ulf 82 ff. w e learn that the fall o f Ingeld brought w ith it the burning o f H eorot, the Danish royal palace. The Danes overcame their foe, but their hall was burned. This trait is unusual. Ordinarily, in story at any rate, it is the hall o f the vanquished, not that o f the victors, that bums. The appearance o f this same trait in the Hagbard tale is, therefore, w orthy o f remark. So far as I know , these are the only tw o stories in w hich the trait occurs, and the agreement o f the Hagbard and Ingeld tales here can hardly be dismissed as a coincidence. W e have finished our analysis and comparison o f the tw o tales. W hat conclusions are w e entitled to draw? It w ould probably be unduly sim plifying the matter to say that the stories o f Hagbard and Ingeld are different treat­ ments o f the same historical material: King Sigehere m ay in fact have hanged his daughter’s lover. B ut it seems clear that our stories have too much in com m on to be fully separable in origin or developm ent. B oth have their roots in the same feud betw een Danes and Hadbards, though this feud may have involved tw o Danish dynasties, the Siklings as w ell as the Scyldings. And both make use o f the same sequence pattem o f events, how ever much they diverge in their treatment o f the item s that make up the pattern.

7

UBBO FRESICUS AT BRÁVELLIR T w o accounts o f the Battle o f Brávellir have com e dow n to us: that o f Saxo and that in Sögubrot1. Saxo's account is not .only the older but also the simpler. It begins (VII 12) by explaining how hostilities arose between King Harald hilditönn o f Denmark and his nephew King Hring o f Sweden. Here Saxo seems to have had tw o sources o f information. A t any rate, he gives tw o explanations for the outbreak o f hostilities: (1) the war was instig­ ated by Óðinn, w ho took, for the purpose, the shape o f a certain Bruno, the chief counselor o f both Harald and Hring; (2) the war was instigated by the aged Harald, w ho, “preferring the sword to the torments o f disease, wished rather to put an end to his life in battle than in bed." Saxo’s account continues w ith tw o long lists o f champions: those o f Harald (VIII 2, 1—8) and those o f Hring (VIII 3, 1— 12). Before listing the champions, however, Saxo tells us (VIII 1) that he has his information about the 'Swedish war’ from an oral account composed in Danish by Starkað, ‘w ho was him self an outstanding champion in the fight’. B y Danish he presumably means Scan­ dinavian, and certainly w e have good reason to think that the oral account w hich Saxo heard was an Icelandic fornaldarsaga about Harald, a saga in w hich had been incorporated a Brdvallaþula that listed the champions on both sides. In all likelihood the sagaman attributed to Starkað the author­ ship o f the thula, and named him as his source o f inform ation about the course o f the battle. That Starkað was actually the author, however, or a source o f information, direct or indirect, cannot seriously be maintained. Indeed, it seems clear that Starkað had no place in the original tradition about Brávellir, and that he owes to the Icelandic sagaman his introduction into the tale1 2. I pass over the gathering o f the hosts and take up next the speech o f King 1. Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danomm, ed. O lrik & Rxder (Copenhagen, 1931) pp. 213-220; Fomaldarsögur Norðrlanda I (Reykjavik 1891), 295-304. 2. See P. Herrmann Die Heldensagen des Saxo Grammaticus (Leipzig, 1922), pp. 539-548.

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H ring to his troops (V III 4, 2) just before battle is joined. In this speech Hring points out the im potence o f Harald and gives us an important piece o f inform ­ ation about Harald’s army: it included very few Danes, but a multitude o f Saxons ‘and other effeminate races.. . Slavs and Germans'. In effect, Hring and his m en w ere resisting an invasion made by non-Scandinavians. The emphasis w hich Saxo lays on the inactivity o f Harald him self and on the non-D anish character o f Harald’s army goes w ell w ith the course o f events in the battle proper. Here U bbo the Frisian dominates the scene. T o quote

(vm 4, 7), . . . U b b o d ie Frisian, Harald’s m ost resolute fighting-m an, and the tallest o f them all, w ounded 11 on the field o f batde, and slew 25 picked champions, all Swedes or Gauts in race. H e pushed forward against the forem ost ranks, w here the foe stood duckest. H ie Swedes shuddered w ith fear; he scattered them in every direction w ith sword and spear. H e had alm ost put all o f them to flight when [die Þilir] Hadder, Rolder, and Gretir made bold to attack the [Frisian] hero, em ulating his bravery and risking their lives to save the day. Nevertheless they dared n ot com e to close quarters w ith him , but shot their missiles at him from a distance. T he bolts flew thick and fast and riddled U b b o from afar, since nobody ventured to fight him in hand-to-hand conflict. Into d ie hero’s; breast 144 arrows had penetrated before he sank to d ie ground, w orn out and done for. Then at last, at the hands o f the Throwends and the m en o f the D ale, a colossal defeat befell d ie Danes. For the batde broke out again in force by virtue o f the quantity o f bow m en, and nothing else was m ore calamitous for our men.

In section 6, Saxo had told o f Vébjörg, the skjaldmcer, w ho killed one o f Hring’s champions only to fall at the hands o f a man from Þelam örk; this maiden warrior hardly goes back to the original tale o f the battle. In section 5, the deeds o f Starkað are celebrated; w e have already seen that these must be set aside as unoriginal. So far as the battle proper is concerned, only U bbo and his opponents remain. Other details are recorded in Sögubrot, but they do not shake the centrality o f U bbo. I f w e prune the tale o f late accretions like Starkað and Vébjörg, what w e have left is a battle betw een the great Frisian champion and the army o f Hring, a battle in w hich the bow m en o f Þelam örk save the day for Hring at the eleventh hour. But w hat o f King Harald? O ne m ay w ell suspect that Harald and his Danes, w ho play so small a part in the battle as it has com e dow n to us, played no part at all in the original, historical, battle. The tim e, place, and circumstances o f this historical batde are duly considered in A xel Olrik’s famous paper o f 19148. Olrik’s view s, presented w ith classical clarity, seem to have w on general acceptance; at any rate, I have found no attempt at a refutation. In brief, O lrik considers that circa A. D . 550 the Danes, led by 3 3. “Brávellir”, in Namn och Bygd H 297-312. 7*

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King Harald hilditönn, made an attack in force against the East Gauts. There, on the great plain o f Brä härad, the East Gautish king, Hring by name, m et the invaders and defeated them so decisively that the expansion o f the Danish realm to the north was halted for good. The Gauts, how ever, suffered such heavy losses in the battle that they were unable to repel the Swedes w hen these, a little later, in their turn invaded Gaudand. In other words, the Swedish conquest o f Gautland which took place in the latter part o f the sixth century was made possible by the earlier Danish invasion, even though that invasion proved a failure. The importance o f the Batde o f Brávellir lies in the fact that it paved the w ay to Swedish leadership in the North. M uch o f Olrik’s analysis can be accepted, and his discussion has cleared the ground for future investigators. In particular his localization o f the battle-ground, and o f the royal seat o f Hring, has advanced our under­ standing o f the course o f events4. But his treatment o f the subject suffers from one very serious defect: he ignores the evidence o f Beowulf. His reason for so doing is clear. Olrik to the end o f his days believed that the Geatas o f the Old English poem were Jutes, not Gauts; for him , therefore, Beowulf had no relevancy to the problem o f Brávellir. Today the iden­ tification o f the Geatas w ith the Gauts must be reckoned certain, and the statements o f the Beowulf poet about the Geatas must be taken into account in any study o f the Battle o f Brávellir. Indeed, the English poet is our most important witness; unlike Saxo and the author o f Sögubrot, he knew the historical facts. W hat inform ation does Beow ulf give us about Brivellir? In a famous passage toward the end o f the poem the messenger o f W iglaf utters fore­ bodings about the future o f the Gautish people. He fears, first o f all, that the Franks and Frisians w ill attack the Gauts when they hear that B eow u lf is dead. He fears also that there w ill be trouble w ith the Swedes. He does not expect any Danish attack. These forebodings were composed by the poet after the event, o f course. W e may therefore take it for granted that they reflect actual attacks made upon the Gauts by the external foes specified. It is w ell know n that the Swedes conquered the Gautish kingdom at some tim e in the latter part o f the sixth century. The attack by the Franks and 4. According to Sögubrot VI & VII, K ing Hring ruled over Sweden and W est Gautland. O lrik rightly denies him the Swedish kingdom , on the ground that his name does not begin w ith a vow el, but he w rongly ignores H ring’s W est Gautish kingdom , saying only that H ring ruled East Gautland. O ne m ay conjecture that Sögu­ brot is right in giving him a double kingdom ; not indeed Sweden and W est Gautland {an odd com bination in any case), but East and W est Gautland. H e m ay have fallen heir to W est Gautland after the death o f W iglaf. Both the East and W est Gautish royal houses used names alliterating in h, and the tw o houses may w ell have been akin.

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Frisians, foreboded in Beow ulf 2910 if., presumably came first, and, though successfully repelled, so weakened the Gauts that they could not stave o ff the later attack o f the Swedes. The B eow ulf poet evidently thinks o f the Franks and Frisians as making com m on cause against the Gauts. Presumably the Frisians, w ho in those days w ere masters o f the northern seas, supplied the ships. The Franks helped to man these ships w ith fighting-m en. H ow great the Frankish contribution was, w e have no means o f know ing. In the Scandinavian accounts o f the Battle o f Brávellir, the Frisian champion, as w e have seen, is central, but no Franks are m entioned. Instead, w e hear o f Saxons, or, more generally, Germans. In m y opinion the particular German tribe specified in the original Brávellir tradition was the Franks, but the Saxons replaced the Franks in the traditional story after the Frankish royal house lost the imperial throne and a Saxon royal house gained this throne in the tenth century. In other words, the rise o f the Saxons to predominance in Germany had literary as w ell as political effects. As I have said, the Beow ulf poet expected no attack upon the Gauts by the Danes. Since he was w riting after the event, it follow s that no Danish attack upon the Gauts took place, and Saxo’s emphasis upon the fewness o f the Danes and upon the inability o f King Harald to do any fighting points definitely to an earlier form o f the story o f Brávellir, a version in w hich the Danes do not appear. In general, the witness o f Beow ulf tells against Olrik’s brilliant reconstruction o f the original batde. It w ould be hard, and highly speculative, to trace the prehistory o f the lost source upon which Saxo drew. I w ill not try to undertake this task. But I believe that Harald and his Danes, and the Óðinn machinery through w hich the tale got its extant shape, were absent from the oldest form o f the story o f the battle. If so, this story can plausibly be connected w ith the forebodings o f the messenger o f W iglaf, and Beow ulf throw s light on the m ost famous battle o f Scandinavian antiquity5 6.

5. Widsith too may throw ligh t on the B attle o f Brávellir, i f I was right in con­ jecturing that the Þilir furnished a contingent to H ygelac’s army w hen that king made his fateful attack on the Low Countries (see m y ed. o f Widsith, London [1936] p. 192). Herrmann, op. cit., p. 548, n. 1, speaks o f the prominence o f the Þilir in the Battle o f Brávellir as “auffallend,” but this prom inence m ay be older than he thinks, and readily explicable. I f a contingent from Þelamörk took part in H ygelac’s expedition, the Þilir as w ell as the Gauts w ould thereby becom e enem ies o f the Franks and Frisians, and w ould be called upon to help the Gauts repel a Frisian attack. For echoes o f Widsith in the Brdvallaþula, see above, p. 53.

AGELMUND

AND

LAMICHO

IT is the purpose o f the present paper to examine w ith some care the story o f Agelm und and Lamicho (or Lamissio), as told by Paulus Diaconus in his Historia Langobardorum, B ook I, secs. 14-18. Paulus w rote his Historia toward the end o f the eighth century. There is another work, however, w hich deals w ith the same events and is over a century older than Paulus’s w ork. I refer to the anonymous Origo Gentis Langobardorum. Since moreover Paulus used the Origo as one o f his sources, it w ill be convenient to begin w ith that work. I quote from G. W aitz’s edition in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Est insula qui dicitur Scadanan . . . in partibus aquilonis, ubi multae gentes habitant; inter quos erat gens parva quae W innilis vocabatur. Et erat cum eis mulier nom ine Gambara, habebatque duos filios, nom en uni Ybor et nom en alteri A gio; ipsi cum matre sua nom ine Gambara principatum tenebant super W in n ilis. . . . Ab illo tempore W innilis Langobardi vocati sunt. Et m overunt se exhinde Langobardi, et venerunt in Golaidam, et postea possiderunt aldonus1 Anthaib et Bainaib seu et Burgundaib; et dicitur, quia fecerunt sibi regem nom ine Agilm und, filium A gioni, ex genere Gugingus. Et post ipsum regnavit Laiamicho (v. 1. Lamicho) ex genere Gugingus. Et post ipsum regnavit Lethuc (v. 1. Leth), et dicitur, quia regnasset annos plus minus quadraginta. Et post ipsum regnavit Aldihoc, filius Lethuc. Et post ipsum regnavit Godehoc. Illo tem pore exivit rex Audoachari de Ravenna . . . et venit in Rugilanda et im pugnavit Rugos et occidit Theuvane regem Rugorum. . . . Tunc exierunt Langobardi de suis regionibus, et habi­ taverunt in Rugilanda annos aliquantos. Post eum regnavit Claffo, filius Godehoc. Et post ipsum regnavit Tato, filius Clafifoni. Sederunt Langobardi in campis Feld annos tres. Pugnavit Tato cum R odolfo rege Herulorum, et occidit eum . . . . Et occidit W acho, filius Unichis, Tatonem regem barbanem* suum. . . . Mortuus est W acho, et regnavit filius ipsius W altari annos septem farigaidus:* isti omnes Lethinges fuerunt.1234

From this account it w ould appear that in early days tw o royal dynasties ruled over the Langobards: first the line o f the Gugings, to w hich Agelmund and Lamicho belonged; and secondly the line o f the Lethings, which began 1. 2. 3. 4.

Aldonus ‘half-free.’ See W . Bruckner, Sprache der Langobarden, p. 201. Barbanem 'paternal uncle.’ Bruckner, p. 202. Farigaidus ‘childless.’ Bruckner, p. 203. Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum Saec. V I-IX , pp. 3 f.

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w ith Leth or Lethuc and ended w ith W altari. W hen did these kings live? The war betw een Odoacer and the Rugians is represented, by the author o f the Origo, as having taken place in the reign o f Godehoc. N o w w e know o f this war from other sources, and it is usually put in the year 487.5 This gives us a date for Godehoc. M oreover, Procopius gives a full account o f the war betw een the Langobards and the Eruli,6 and w e are able to say w ith assurance that Tato flourished at the beginning o f the sixth century. I f now G odehoc reigned in the 480’s, and if his grandfather (or father) Leth ruled the Langobards for som ething like 40 years (as the Origo says he did), then Leth’s reign presumably began som ewhere in the 430’s, i f not earlier, and Agelm und and Lamicho are to be put in the early part o f the fifth century or the end o f the fourth. As for Gambara and her sons Ybor and A gio (i.e., Pig and Sword), these look like m ythical figures o f som e sort: divinities or cult objects. Agelm und, the first king, is apparendy made son o f A gio much as the early English kings traced their ancestry to W oden. Paulus gives us a much more detailed account. I quote only that part o f his story w hich concerns Agelm und and Lamicho: 14. M ortuis interea Ibor et A ione ducibus, qui Langobardos a Scadinavia eduxerant et usque ad haec tem pora rexerant, nolentes iam ultra. Langobardi esse sub ducibus, regem sibi ad ceterarum instar gentium statuerunt. Regnavit igitur super eos primus A gelm und, filius A ionis, ex prosapia ducens originem Gungingorum , quae aput eos generosior habebatur. H ic, sicut a maioribus traditur, tribus et triginta annis Lango­ bardorum tenuit regnum . 15. H is temporibus quaedam m eretrix uno partu septem puerulos enixa, beluis omnibus mater crudelior in piscinam proiecit negandos. H oc si cui inpossibile videtur, relegat historias veterum , et inveniet, non solum septem infantulos, sed etiam novem unam m ulierem sem el peperisse. Et hoc certum est m axim e apud A egyptios fieri. C ontigit itaque, ut rex Agelm und, dum iter carperet, ad eandem piscinam deveniret. Q ui cum equo retento miserandos infantulos miraretur hastaque, quam manu gerebat, huc illucque eos inverteret, unus ex illis iniecta manu hastam regiam conprehendit. Rex misericordia m otus fâctumque altius ammiratus, eum magnum futurum pronuntiat. M oxque eum a piscina levari praecepit, atque nutrici traditum om ni cum studio mandat alendum; et quia eum de piscina, quae eorum lingua ‘lama9 dicitur, abstulit, Lamissio (v. L Lamisio) eidem nom en inposuit. Q ui cum adolevisset, tam strenuus iuvenis effectus est, ut et bellicosissim us extiterit et post Agelm undi funus regni gubernacula rexerit. Ferunt hunc, dum Langobardi cum rege suo iter agentes ad quendam fluvium pervenissent et ab Am azonibus essent prohibiti ultra permeare, cum earum fortissima in fluvio natatu pugnasse eam que peremisse, sibique laudis gloriam , Langobardis quoque transitum paravisse. H oc siquidem inter utrasque ades prius constitisse, quatenus, si Am azon eadem 5. O n the authority o f the so-called Cuspiniani Anonym us. C f. T . H odgkin, Italy and her Invaders* II, 211-12, for som e account o f this m onum ent. For the war between Odoacer and the Rugians, see H odgkin m , 186 f£ 6. De Bello Gothico I I 14 (ed. Haury, VoL H, pp. 208 f£).

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Lamissionem superaret, Langobardi a flum ine recederent; sin vero a Lamissiöne^ ut et factum est, ipsa vinceretur, Langobardis eadem permeandi fluenta copia praeberetur. Constat sane, quia huius assertionis series minus veritate subnixa est. Omnibus etenim quibus veteres historiae notae sunt patet, gentem Amazonum longe antea, quam haec fieri potuerint, esse deletam; nisi forte, quia loca eadem, ubi haec gesta feruntur, non satis historiographis nota fuerunt et v ix ab aliquo eorum vulgata sunt, fieri potuerit, ut usque ad id tempus huiuscem odi inibi mulierum genus haberetur. N am et ego referri a quibusdam audivi, usque hodie in intim is Germaniae finibus gentem harum existere feminarum. 16. Igitur transmeato Langobardi de quo dixeramus flumine, cum ad ulteriores terras pervenissent, illic per tempus aliquod commorabantur. Interea cum nihil adversi sus­ picarentur et essent quiete longa minus solliciti, securitas, quae semper detrimentorum mater est, eis non modicam perniciem peperit. N octu denique cum neglegentia resoluti cuncti quiescerent, subito super eos Vulgares inruentes, plures ex eis sauciant, multos prosternunt, et in tantum per eorum castra dibachati sunt, ut ipsum Agelm undum regem interficerent eiusque unicam filiam sorte captivitatis auferrent. 17. Resumptis tamen post haec incom m oda Langobardi viribus, Lamissionem, de quo superius dixeramus, sibi regem constituerunt. Q ui, ut erat iuvenili aetate fervidus et ad belli certamina satis promptus, alumni sui Agelm undi necem ulcisci cupiens, in Vulgares arma convertit. Primoque m ox proelio com m isso, Langobardi hostibus terga dantes, ad castra refugiunt. Tunc rex Lamissio ista conspiciens, elevata altius voce, om ni exercitui clamare coepit, ut obprobriorum quae pertulerunt meminissent revocarentque ante oculos dedecus, quom odo eorum regem hostes iugulaverint, quam miserabiliter eius natam, quam sibi reginam optaverant, captivam abduxerint. Postremo hortatur, ut se suosque armis defenderent, melius esse dicens, in bello animam ponere quam ut vilia mancipia hostium ludibriis subiacere. Haec et huiuscem odi dum vociferans diceret, et nunc minis nunc promissionibus ad toleranda eorum animos belli certamina roboraret; si quem etiam servilis conditionis pugnantem vidisset, libertate eum simul cum praemiis donaret: tandem hortatu exemplisque principis, qui primus ad bellum prosilierat, accensi, super hostes inruunt, pugnant atrociter, et magna adversarios dade prosternunt; tandemque de victoribus victoriam capientes, tam regis sui funus quam proprias iniurias ulciscuntur. Tunc magna de hostium exuviis praeda potiti, ex illo iam tempore ad expetendos belli labores audadores effecti sunt. 18. Defuncto post haec Lamissione, qui secundus regnaverat, tertius ad regni guberna­ cula Lethu (v. 11. Lethuc, Leth) ascendit. Q ui cum quadraginta ferme annos regnasset, H ildeoc (v. 1. Hildeoch) filium , qui quartus in numero fuit, regni successorem reliquit. H oc quoque defuncto, quintus Gudeoc (v. 1. Gudeoch) regnum suscepit.7

Before proceeding w ith the discussion, it may be w ell to give an analysis o f the story as told by Paulus: 1) The Langobards chose Agelmund, son o f A io, as their first king. 2) Agelmund reigned thirty-three years. 3) During his reign a certain harlot gave birth to a Utter o f seven boys. 7. W aitz, pp. 54 ff.

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4) She threw them into a fish-pond, to drown them. 5) Agelm und, happening to ride by, stopped to look at the drowning litter. 6) He stirred them about w ith his spear. 7) One o f the boys clutched the spear. 8) This impressed the king, and he had the boy fished out and cared for. 9) He named him Lamissio, i.e ., ‘the fish-pond man.’ 10) Lamissio grew up and became a great warrior. 11) O n one occasion Agelmund and his army tried to cross a certain river. 12) His passage was disputed by Amazons. 13) It was agreed that the matter should be settled by a duel between Lamissio and the strongest o f the Amazons. 14) Lamissio killed his opponent; the fight took place in the river itself, the antagonists apparently swim m ing as they fought. 15) Lamissio thus w on for the Langobards a passage across the river. 16) The Langobards now settled in the lands beyond the river. 17) There follow ed a long period o f peace. 18) The Langobards, lulled into a false security, were caught unawares by the Vulgares in a night attack; the. Vulgares slew Agelmund and carried o ff his daughter into captivity. 19) The Langobards eventually recovered from the disaster. 20) They chose Lamissio as their king. 21) He entered upon a campaign against the Vulgares. 22) In the first battle the Langobards were put to flight, and sought refuge in their camp. 23) There Lamissio, by a fiery speech, restored their courage. 24) Led by Lamissio, they attacked the Vulgares, and overthrew them; the campaign thus ended w ith a second battle as successful as the first had been disastrous. 25) From this tim e on the Langobards were bolder in war-making. 26) Lamissio died, and was succeeded by Leth, w ho reigned nearly 40 years. The story as w e have it in Paulus is obviously the saga o f Lamicho; the other characters are subordinated to him throughout. In considering the saga w e may as w ell begin at the beginning, i.e ., w ith the birth story. The story belongs to a type which J. Grimm long ago sketched for us : Sichersten aufschlusz gewährt uns also der mythus von den W elfen. . . . D ie an manchen orten vortauchende sage m eldet von drei, sieben, zw ö lf auf einmal gebom en knäblein,

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die, w eil sich ihre mutter fürchtete, oder eine böse schwieger es veranstaltete, ausgetragen und ersäuft werden sollten, durch dazwischenkunft des vaters aber, dem man sie für blinde w elfer angab, zur rechten stunde gerettet wurden. Hiernach em pfangen sie den namen W elfe, Hunde oder Eitelwelfe, Eitelhunde und werden stammherm berühmter geschlechter. Auch die abweichung kom m t vor, dasz man die neugebom en drillinge dem priester spöttisch als hunde oder w elfer zur taufe dargetragen habe.8

Paulus departs from this sketch in more than one particular, it is true. Thus, his Agelm und is not stated to be the father o f Lamicho. But here the Origo gives us an indication that Paulus has om itted som ething, for it tells us that Lamicho, like Agelmund, was a Guging, and from this w e may reasonably infer that the author took the tw o kings for blood kinsmen, perhaps father and son as in Grimm. Again, when Paulus tells us that Agelm und rescued only one o f the hapless brood, he may be reporting an old and legi­ timate variant o f the tale. He departs entirely from Grimm’s m odel, however, in the etym ology which he gives for the hero’s name. H e derives Lamissio from a Langobardish lama ‘fish-pond,’ whereas the name ought to mean ‘whelp’ or ‘dog’ to accord w ith Grimm’s type. Paulus’s etym ology, though rejected by M ommsen9 on the ground that lama is an Italian w ord, is accepted by Bruckner, w ho defends the Germanicism o f lama.101But w e shall soon see that this word, whatever its provenience, has nothing to do w ith the hero’s name. Paulus’s is only a popular etym ology, o f course, and has no authority. Let us begin, then, w ith the evidence, not w ith Paulus’s etym ological conjectures. The name occurs in a variety o f forms: Laiamicho, Lamicho, Lamissio, Lamisio. But the last three are phonetically identical, as ch, ssi, si are merely various ways o f writing the same sound, viz., the sound o f ch in German words like ich.11 W e may confine ourselves, then, to the first tw o forms, both o f which occur in our oldest and hence m ost authoritative m onument, the Origo. O f the tw o readings, W aitz puts Laiamicho into the text. The reading Lamicho, however, in view o f its support in the Historia, must also be taken into account. Our problem is that o f reconciling the tw o readings. This cannot be done by starting from Paulus’s lama. Such a m ethod o f recon­ ciliation amounts to throwing Laiamicho, the better reading, out o f court, and basing the etym ology exclusively on the one reading Lamicho. A true reconciliation can be effected in only one w ay. Laiamicho must be regarded as the earlier, Lamicho as the later form . The phonetic change involved is 8. Gesch. d. deut. Spr. (4th ed.) I I 595. C f. R. M uch, ZfdA L X II121 f. 9. Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fü r altere deutsche Geschichtskunde V 68. 10. Bruckner, pp. 44, 275. 11. Bruckner, p. 156.

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the loss o f the sem i-vow el j in intervocalic position. In O ld H igh German an intervocalic j is preserved not infrequently, if the preceding vow el is long; it tended to vanish even in this position, how ever. There is some evidence that a similar situation existed in Langobardish, which, after all, is in many important respects a H igh German dialect.12 W e may thus postulate a long vow el before the j and a sound-change Läjamicho > Lämicho. But the Germanic lama, if it existed, had a short stem -vow el,12 w hile the Romanic lama is o f course to be excluded in any case. Paulus’s etym ology, therefore, cannot be right. W hat is the true etym ology o f the name? Läjamicho seems to be a dim inutive o f *Läjamo, formed by the addition o f a familiar suffix, the Langobardish equivalent o f English -ca, Icelandic -hi. The name *Läjamo, in turn, is obviously com pound; w ith it m ay be compared the extant Langobardish name Agimo.1* The tw o names have in com m on a second elem ent -mo. The first elem ent o f *Läjamo seems to be an extended base *lä-ja-. W hat did this base mean? T he simple base *lâ- probably occurred in W est Germanic, in a verb *läjan ‘bark, revile’ = Gothic laian ‘revile.* Cf. Icelandic Id ‘blame.’ The same base w ith suffixal -m appears in O ld Icelandic Ubmingr ‘lemming,* w hich according to Torp originally meant ‘barker.’16 The extended base, compounded w ith -m, presumably meant much the same thing. The name *Läjamo, then, probably means ‘barker,’ that is, ‘dog,’ for dogs are the barkers par excellence. And the extant dim inutive form Läjamicho means ‘little dog.’ W e thus have to do here w ith a nickname; the true name o f the hero has not survived to us. The imperative o f our W est Germanic verb *läjan w ould doubtless be *läi > *lai. This survives, perhaps, in the O ld English ejaculation lä. The N ew English Dictionary gives no etym ology for lä. The editors by their silence seem to agree w ith Skeat, w ho tells us that the w ord is “a natural inteijection, to call attention.” But since Skeat compares it w ith the Latin lä-träre ‘to bark,’16 w e have som e support from him in connecting lä w ith a W est Germanic *läjan ‘to bark, revile.* The semantic developm ent is parallel to that o f M odem English damn, w hich in the imperative has com e to be a simple ejaculation, almost or quite as meaningless as an O h! The M odem English lo ‘look’ probably does not go back to the O ld English ejaculation, in spite o f the phonetic correspondence. 12. Bruckner, p. 135. 13. Bruckner, p. 183. 14. Bruckner, p. 218. 15. Nynorsk Etymol. Ordbok sv. Lernende; cf. R. M uch, ZfdA LVII 153, and (for EE material) Uhlenbeck, Etymol. Wb. der gotischen Sprache sv. laian. 16. W . W . Skeat, An Etymol. Diet, o f the English Language sv. lo .

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Is the nickname ‘dog’ appropriate to a king o f the Langobards? There can be no doubt o f its appropriateness, in view o f the researches o f R. Much, w ho has made it appear altogether probable that the Langobards were the Hundingas (i.e., ‘dog’s sons’) o f Widsith, and that the feud between W ülfings and Hundings o f which w e learn in the Edda was a feud between W ülfings and Langobards.17 The Northern monuments have given us some account o f this feud, from the point o f view o f the W ülfings. Paulus, I think, is telling us o f the same feud in his story o f Lamicho, but he tells the tale, o f course, from the view point o f the Hundings. Paulus knew the opponents o f the Langobards as Vulgares. This name is readily identified, formally, w ith that o f the Bulgare, but the identification cannot be right, since the Bulgare did not appear in Europe until A .D . 479,18 whereas Agelmund and Lamicho flourished circa 400 at latest, as w e have seen. In 1889, R. M uch took up and elaborated an earlier conjecture o f K. M iillenh off’s that the Vulgares o f Paulus were the H u n s.19 But w e have no evidence that the Langobards ever waged war against the Huns (much less the Bulgare), and if they ever had done so, one w ould expect the Hunnish name to main­ tain itself in the Langobardish tradition about such a war. I wish to venture an entirely different explanation o f the tribal name. W e have reason to think that the W ülfings were the great foes o f the Langobards in their early history. N ow the name Wulfing can be turned into a contemptuous epithet by making its base feminine. W ith this change it w ould become * Wulging ‘son o f a shew olf.’ Compare Icelandic ylgr ‘she-w olf’ and note the English phrase son o f a bitch. I suggest that in Langobardish tradition the name o f their foes was handed dow n in some such contemptuous form . Vulgares can be taken for a latinized form o f Langobardish *Wulg(w)aras,20 and this can be analyzed into a base wulg- ‘she-w olf’ and a familiar Germanic plural suffix (answering to OE -waras and Icelandic - verjar) found in tribal names and equivalent to -ingas in meaning and function alike. The form is discussed more fully in the next paper o f this book, in connection w ith a Beow ulf passage. W e may compare the follow ing story from the Edda: H elgi the W ulfing, after doing a little spying at the court o f his enem y, king Hunding, takes refuge w ith his foster-father Hagall. But Hundingr konungr sendi menn til Hagals at leita Helga. En Helgi mátti eigi forðaz annan veg, en tók klæði ambóttar ok gekk at mala.21 17. ZfdA L V II160 £ , L X I109 f., L X II120 ff. 18. Joannes Antiochenus 211. 4 (Frag. Hist. Graecorum edd. C. and T . M üller IV 619); cf. H odgkin III 121. 19. ZfdA XXXIII 9 ff. 20. For the ending -as see Bruckner, p. 179. 21. Helgakuiða Hmdingsbana 2.

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Agelmund and Lamicho

And a little further on, in the verse, H elgi is called Ylftnga man ‘maid o f the W ülfings.’ Evidently the Hundings had some excuse for giving to their op­ ponent a fem inine epithet. Before entering upon a comparison o f the relevant Northern monuments w ith the Langobardish story o f Lamicho, it is desirable to compare' these monuments w ith one another, and to reconstruct, so far as possible, the prim itive Scandian version o f the wars between Hunding and W ulfing. In essaying this task I build, o f course, on the researches o f many predecessors. I m ay m ention in particular Sophus B ugge’s epoch-m aking book, The Home oj the Eddie Poems, and Rudolph M uch’s important essays in vols. LVII and LXI o f the Zeitschrift jü r deutsches Altertum. In the follow ing I w ill present in a continuous narrative, and in highly condensed form , the material, the argument and the conclusion. The reader, unless he is at hom e already in the monuments under discussion, is urged to go to them for the full account; lack o f space alone w ould prevent me from reproducing them here! Three characters named H elgi appear in the Helgakviður: H elgi Hjörvarðsson, H elgi Hundingsbani and H elgi Haddingjaskati. The last is barely men­ tioned, how ever, and w e hardly know enough about him to take him into account here. The three H elgis, and their respective mistresses Sváva, Sigrún and Kára, are said to be successive incarnations o f the same pair o f lovers, and are thus identified, after a fashion, by the author (or authors) o f the prose parts o f the Helgakviður. The characters in the Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar (abbreviated H H v) that concern us are as follow s : Iðmundr A di

Eylim i Sváva

Svafhir A lfhildr m. Hjörvarðr m. Sigrlinn H eðinn H elgi

Hróðmarr Alfr

According to the story, king Hjörvarðr at Glasislundi had three w ives; by one o f them, A lfhildr, he had a son, Heðinn. He heard o f the beauty o f Sigrlinn, daughter o f king Svafnir o f Svávaland, and desired her as a fourth w ife. He sent his retainer A di, son o f Iðmundr, to ask Svafnir for the hand o f Sigrlinn. A di’s mission was unsuccessful, how ever; Svafnir rejected the suit o f Hjörvarðr. The king thereupon decided to go him self to Svávaland, accompanied by A di and, apparendy, a force o f men. W hen he arrived he found that another (rejected) suitor o f Sigrlinn’s, Hróðmarr by name, had arrived before him , on the same errand. Hróðmarr had killed Svafnir and devastated Svávaland, but since Sigrlinn was w ell hidden he had not found her. A di found and captured Sigrlinn for his lord, how ever, and Hjörvarðr

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w ent back hom e w ith her in triumph. She bore him a son, H elgi, w ho fell in love w ith a valkyrja, Sváva, daughter o f Eylimi. Sváva gave him a sword, and helped him in battle. H elgi, in an expedition to avenge the slaying o f his grandfather Svafnir, killed Hróðmarr, but was later killed by Hróðmarr’s son Alfr. In H elgi’s absence his brother Heðinn, through the curse o f a trollwom an, made a vow to w in for him self Sváva, his brother’s betrothed. He had hardly made the vow before he repented o f it, and, seeking his brother out, confided to him what he had done. H elgi, w ho knew he was fey, con­ soled Heðinn, and then w ent o ff to his fatal duel w ith Alfr. H eðinn swore to avenge H elgi, but w e are not informed whether he did so, or whether he finally w on Sváva. The persons that concern us in the tw o Helgakviður Hundingsbana (abbre­ viated H H i and H H 2) are as follow s: Sigmundr son o f Völsungr, Sinfjötli Sigmundarson, H elgi Sigmundarson by Borghildr; H ögni and his children Sigrún, Bragi, Dagr; Hundingr and his sons Eyjólfr, Alfr, Hjörvarðr, Hávarðr (and Hem ingr); Granmarr and his sons Höðbroddr, Guðmundr, Starkaðr. According to the story, H elgi kills king Hundingr o f Hundland after certain vicissitudes. He also slays four sons o f king Hundingr in a second battle, after refusing them wergeld for their father and thus forcing them to attack him. According to H H 1 he slays all the sons o f Hundingr, but H H 2 mentions a son, Hemingr, w ho is not reported as slain in either kvida. He meets the valkyrja Sigrún, w ho tells him that her father has pledged her hand to H öðbroddr, and begs him to save her from this unwelcom e suitor. The pair betroth themselves to each other. A battle follow s between H elgi and the combined forces o f H ögni and the sons o f Granmarr. H elgi wins the fight; H ögni, his son Bragi, and all the sons o f Granmarr, fall. H elgi later meets his death at the hands o f Dagr, w ho thus avenges the slaying o f his father H ögni. From the prose piece, Frd dauða Sinfjötla, w e glean a little more information. Besides Sinfjötli himself, the follow ing are mentioned in the piece: m

Völsungr Eylim i Borghildr m. Sigmundr m. Hjördís H elgi, Hámundr Sigurðr

m.

Hjálprekr Alfr.

W e learn nothing about H elgi, apart from the names o f his father and mother, Sigmundr and Borghildr. W e are told that Sigmundr fell in battle against the sons o f Hundingr, and that his second w ife Hjördís thereupon married a certain Alfr, son o f Hjálprekr. From the Regittstndl w e learn that

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L yngvi, son o f Hundingr, was the slayer o f Sigmundr, and that Sigurðr avenged his father's death by slaying Lyngvi and his brothers. The Sörlaþdttr gives us the follow ing genealogical inform ation:

From other sources w e know that Heiðrekr úlfham r (or úlfheðinn) was the son o f Guðmundr i Glasisvöllum. Halfdan and his son H ögni are represented as kings o f Denmark; Hjarrandi, as king o f Serkland (i.e., Africa). Heðinn and H ogni act much like their namesakes in the Helgakviður, w ith the dif­ ference, o f course, that no H elgi figures in the tale, which is the familiar story o f the Hjadningavig. This story also appears in Snorri,22 where the name o f H ögni’s kingdom is not given, and in Saxo ,28 w ho says H ogni was king o f Jutland. T o be compared, further, are Sögubrot IV and V , and the Ynglingasaga secs. 37 ff. The genealogies there given are as follow s: Sögubrot V Hildibrandr Hildir, Hildr

Ynglingasaga H ögni Sögubrot IV Hildir, Hildr m . Granmarr = Granmarr H ildiguðr m . Hjörvarðr = Hárvarðr ylfingr

Hildibrandr is king o f Reiðgotaland. The H ögni o f the Ynglinga rules East Gautland. Granmarr’s realm is Suðrmannaland according to the Ynglinga, East Gautland according to Sögubrot IV. Hjörvarðr is represented as a “seaking.” H e goes by the epithet Ylfingr, but H ildiguðr in her toast, Allir heilir Ylfingar at Hrólfs minni kraka, seems to identify Ylfings and Skjöldungs. Y et w e need not assume that Hjörvarðr was actually a Skjöldung.24 Granmarr and Hjörvarðr were binned to death, in their hall, by king Ingjaldr o f Sweden, w ho made a surprise attack on them one night. According to Sögubrot IV, Hárvarðr’s son Hjörmundr eventually became king o f East Gautland. Saxo identifies H elgi Hundingsbani w ith H elgi the Danish prince, o f the Scylding or Skjöldung race. His opponent Hunding appears as son o f the Saxon king Syricus. H elgi first defeats this Hunding, then challenges him to a duel and slays him . But Saxo knows also a king o f Sweden named 22. SkáUskaparmál cap. 49. 23 Gesta Danorum, B ook V , ed. H older, pp. 158 ff. 24. See m y Literary History o f Hamlet, p. 104.

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Hunding. This king is represented as a close friend o f the Danish king Hading. The death o f Hunding takes place in a curious fashion. False news arrives o f the death o f Hading. In honor o f his friend, Hunding prepares a wake, but unluckily falls into a vat o f beer and drowns. W hen Hading hears o f this, he hangs him self rather than outlive his friend. Hunding leaves a son, Regner, whose career is strikingly parallel to that o f H elgi Hundingsbani, as told in the Helgakvidur. In fact, one may go so far as to say that Regner is simply H elgi under another name. Regner in turn leaves a son, Hothbrod, w ho conquers Denmark. But H elgi frees his country from its foreign dom i­ nation, and in a naval battle defeats and slays Hothbrod. Students o f this material are agreed that w e must reckon w ith at least three distinct tales: the story o f Hildr, the story o f H elgi and the story o f the Völsungs. The first goes back (since Heðinn seems to have been a W ulfing) to warfare between the W ülfings, w ho lived in Pomerania, and their neigh­ bors to the east, the Rugians, w ho lived at the m outh o f the Vistula. The second goes back to warfare between the W ülfings and their neighbors to the west, the Langobards (o f w hom the Heaðobards o f Beow ulf are a branch). The third is a Frankish story that has no proper connexion w ith either W ül­ fings or Hundings. The confusion o f these three tales was probably due, in some measure at least, to resemblances in plot, though other factors, o f course, were at work as well. Let us first examine the story o f Hildr. Her father is called H ögni every­ where except in Sögubrot V, where his name is Hildibrandr. His kingdom is variously located; the localizations may be tabulated thus: Widsith + Jordanes mouth o f Vistula Sögubrot V

Reiðgotaland

Saxo

Judand

Snorri’s Edda

not named, but apparendy W est Gaudand

Ynglingasaga

East Gaudand

Sörlaþdttr

Denmark

I have elsewhere shown25 that Reiðgotaland was originally the land o f the Gauts, but that from a very early date the name was applied also to the old hom e o f the Goths by the Vistula. The same name was also in use for Jut­ land; it was brought thither by the Gauts w ho setded there after the overthrow o f the Gautish kingdom by the Swedes. The localizations listed above thus 25. “King Alfred’s Geats” printed in Modern Language Review X X 1-11.

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hang together perfectly. H ögni properly belonged in the Vistula region, whence his localization in Reiðgotaland, the only Germanic kingdom in those parts w hich survived the m igration period. But since the name was often used for Gautland and Jutland, H ögni m ight easily be transferred, by tradition, to either o f these regions. And since Jutland was eventually'm corporated in Denmark, its sovereign w ould be subject to interpretation as a Danish king. A ll the localizations are thus easily explicable on a single hypo­ thesis, viz., that H ögni, originally and properly king o f the Rugians, came to be thought of, in Scandian tradition, as king o f the neighboring R eiðgotaland. The story o f Hildr is told in full only in Saxo, Snorri and the Sörlaþdttr. The chief characters are H ögni, his daughter Hildr and Hildr’s lover Heðinn. Snorri represents H eðinn as kidnapping Hildr w hile her father is away from hom e. H ögni pursues and finally overtakes the pair. They try their best to effect a reconciliation w ith H ögni, but he repulses them harshly and fights it out w ith Heðinn. The battle lasts all day. During the night Hildr by her magic revives the dead, and the next day the fight is renewed. This con­ tinues indefinitely, and according to Snorri it w ill continue to the end o f the world. Snorri gives a m atter-of-fact account, w ith little m otivation, though one gathers that Hildr is a w illing captive. Saxo and the Sörlaþdttr give essentially the same story, but their tone is decidedly different. Saxo makes Hildr and H eðinn fall in love w ith each other through mere hearsay, before their first m eeting! N o kidnapping takes place; in fact, Heðinn is a blameless hero. The blame is put on certain slanderers, w ho make H ögni believe that H eðinn seduced his daughter before their betrothal. -Högni him self is pictured as an honorable, even a generous man, although his folly in believing the slanders is emphasized. He is defeated in his first encounter w ith Heðinn. In his second (a duel) he wins, but generously spares H eðinn’s life, out o f pity for his youth and beauty. In his third encounter w ith Heðinn, seven years later, he slays his opponent, but only at the cost o f his ow n life. Saxo mentions Hildr’s resuscitation o f the dead, and explains that she did this out o f longing for her lover. Great is the contrast between Saxo and the Sörlaþáttr. This monument makes H eðinn’s deeds even more evil than they appear in Snorri. Nevertheless w e are able to sympathize w ith Heðinn, for he is bewitched. A wicked sorceress gets him into her power by virtue o f a magic potion, and all his evil deeds are really hers. W hen he is released from the spell, he does what he can to mend matters — but it is too late. Högni is portrayed very sympathetically. He is just and generous throughout. The friendship between H ögni and Heðinn is emphasized. They are represented as swearing brotherhood to each other, and the breaking o f this brotherly 8

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relationship is the central tragedy o f the saga. Heðinn’s murder o f Hervor, H ögni’s w ife, is the crime which H ögni cannot forgive, and for that one can hardly blame him. It is w ell know n that the Hildr story influenced the authors o f the Helgakviður, but the extent o f its influence was even greater than has been generally supposed. Let us first examine H H v and see what w e find. Here Heðinn appears as brother o f H elgi. Through the arts o f a wicked sorceress he is forced to make a vow to w in for him self H elgi’s mistress, Sváva. As in the Sörlaþdttr, Heðinn repents bitterly as soon as the sorceress removes her spell, and makes what amends he can. The Helgi o f H H v stands for the H ögni o f the other story, o f course, and Sváva corresponds to Hildr. The situation differs in that H elgi is the lover, not the father o f Sváva, and the plot develops differently because H elgi shows him self as eager as Heðinn to become recon­ ciled. Nevertheless, H elgi’s fight w ith Alfr may be taken as a substitute for the fight w ith Heðinn that the parallel w ith the Hildr story demands. M oreover, the half-brotherhood o f Helgi and Heðinn is parallel to the sworn brotherhood o f H ögni and Heðinn. Finally, Sváva as a valkyrja has obvious points o f resemblance to Hildr, w ho likewise is a woman o f supernatural powers. The particular version o f the Hildr story used by the author o f H H v was obviously a version close to the Sörlaþdttr. In the H H the influence o f the Hildr story is even more important, and here a version close to that o f Saxo was used. H ögni appears in person, w ith a daughter called Sigrún, the representative o f Hildr. H elgi stands for Heðinn. H ögni is a rather colorless figure in the H H . He is simply the instrument o f Höðbroddr, the rival suitor and true villain o f the piece. As in many a story o f this kind, the rival is the father’s favorite, the hero the daughter’s. H öðbroddr takes the place o f the slanderers in Saxo, w ho influenced H ögni to action contrary to his ow n interests and to his daughter’s wishes. Sigrún reminds one o f Saxo’s Hildr by her passionate love for H elgi: she loved him before she ever saw him , and she had a passionate love-scene w ith him , in the barrow, after his death. Like the Sváva o f H H v, she is a valkyrja. H ögni and H elgi fight over Sigrún much as H ögni and Heðinn fight over Hildr, although the nightly resuscitation o f the dead survives only in the scene at H elgi’s barrow. The kidnapping does not appear, any more than it does in Saxo. Corresponding to the three encounters between H ögni and Heðinn, w e have (1) the battle o f Frekastein, in which H ögni and his son Bragi are killed by H elgi; (2) the encounter between H elgi and Dagr (son o f Högni), in which Dagr is spared; (3) the slaying o f Helgi by Dagr, some years later. Here the victory and the generosity have been transferred from opponent to hero, in the second encounter, and the H ögni o f Saxo is repres­

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ented by both H ögni and his son Dagr, but the relationship is astonishingly close nevertheless. N ote in particular the lapse o f tim e between the second and the third encounter, and the emphasis in both Saxo and H H on the evil fruits o f generosity. The oath o f loyalty w hich Dagr took to H elgi is only slightly reminiscent o f the brotherhood-in-arms m entioned by Saxo. Perhaps H eðinn swore to be loyal in a pre-Saxonian version o f the second encounter. In Saxo, H ögni and H eðinn kill each other. In H H , where H ögni has been split up into father and son, H elgi kills the father and is killed by the son. H H 2 does not stand alone in giving H ögni a son. W e have seen that he has a son, Hildir by name, in the Ynglinga, and his doublet Hildibrandr has a son Hildir in Sögubrot V . This fragment is too short to give us much inform ation, but one thing is clear: the son, not the father, is to make the trouble for Hildr (although here he w ill sim ply be carrying out his father’s instructions). Similarly, Dagr, not H ögni, is the one w ho brings Sigrún to grief, and in so doing he was reluctantly carrying out what he evidently thought to be his dead father’s wishes. In the Ynglinga w e find a Hildr H ögnadóttár w ho is not betrothed to Granmarr’s son (like Sigrún in H H ) but married to Granmarr him self. This gives us a hint as to the course o f events in Sögubrot V , where Hildir is instructed by his father to marry Hildr his sister langt 1. brott. Other conjectures m ight be advanced, but the material is too meager to give a good basis for them . Suffice it to say that the story o f Hildr seems to have had a considerable grow th in directions only hinted at in the versions extant. The Granmarr o f the H H properly belongs among the dwarfs, or, m ore accurately, am ong the elves.26 He is from Svarinshaugr, a hill w hich according to Snorri2782was the original hom e o f certain dwarfs (w hom he names). The elves lived inside the hill, be it understood. In the Völuspá this hill is called salar steinn28 presumably because o f Granmarr’s palace inside it. The name Granmarr ‘beard-famous one’ is likew ise appropriate to a dw arf or elf; these beings, as is w ell know n, made up for their small size by grow ing inordinately long beards. The fairy hill or elf-m ound is a familiar localization o f the earthly paradise, over which Granmarr no doubt originally ruled. Further evidence is afforded by Granmarr’s relation to Guðmundr. The tw o are represented as father and son, and since their names alliterate the connexion may be ancient. N o w the name Guðmundr, as M uch has amply established, has definite associa­ tions w ith an earthly elysium , the so-called Glasisvellir. Granmarr and G uð-

26. See m y discussion, Literary History o f Hamlet p. 40. 27. Gylfaginning X IV . 28. Strophe 14, line 3.

8*

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mundr, then, as father and son, go very appropriately together. M oreover, w e have other indications o f a connexion between Granmarr and the Guðmundings. The Granmarr o f the Ynglingasaga is married to Hildr Högnadóttir. But H ögni’s w ife was Hervör o f the Guðmunding fam ily, if w e follow the Sörlaþdttr. Again, Hjörvarðr ylfingr marries Granmarr’s daughter Hildiguðr. But according to the Sörlaþdttr Hervör’s father was Hjörvarðr, and this Hjörvarðr certainly m ight have called him self “ylfingr,” since his father’s by-name was Ulfham r. The various monuments do not agree, obviously, on the nature o f the relationships. But just as obviously they do agree on the existence o f relationships between Granmarr and the Guðmundings. Granmarr cannot have been both great-grandfather, father-in-law and grand­ son-in-law o f Hjörvarðr ylfingr, but the evidence may lead us to conclude that the tw o were probably related in some w ay! But there was another tradition about Granmarr. B y virtue o f his name he could easily be connected w ith the Bards (whether Lango- or H eaðo-). W hat name, indeed, could be more appropriate for a Bard than ’the beardfamous one*? Granmarr’s seat, moreover, Svarinshaugr, is to be located in old Bardish territory.29 It is not surprising, then, to find Granmarr as father to Höðbroddr, the poetic representative o f the Bards, or to Starkaðr, the famous old Bardish warrior. But the presence o f Guðmundr as the third brother is due to a fusion o f the tw o traditions. Let us now address ourselves to the task o f separating the story o f H elgi from the story o f the Volsungs. H elgi Hundingsbani is represented as son o f Sigmundr and Borghildr. But this is obviously w rong. H elgi is no Völsung, and hence is out o f place as son o f Sigmundr. Likewise Borghildr is no proper mother for H elgi. As a character she belongs in the story o f Sinfjöth and so w ith the Volsungs, w hile her name, according to Bugge, is to be derived from the Hildburg o f the W olfdietrich saga. W ho was H elgi’s mother? It has often been pointed out that Sigrlinn and Hjördís have changed places. Sigrlinn corresponds to the German Sigelint, w ife o f Sigmundr. But if Sigrlinn ought to be w ife o f Sigmundr and mother o f Sigurðr, then presum­ ably Hjördís ought to be w ife o f Hjörvarðr and mother o f H elgi. This o f course identifies our tw o Helgis at once. And the Eylim i o f H H v can now no longer be kept apart from Eylim i the father o f Hjördís. Hence Sváva must seek a new father, and she finds him in king Svafhir o f Svávaland, where she obviously belongs. But if M uch is right, Sigrún’s epithet fra Sefafjöllum refers to the land o f the Semnones, the Svebi par excellence, and Sigrún too comes from Svávaland. The tw o valkyrjur thus become identical, 29. See S. B ugge, Home o f the Eddie Poems, p. 137.

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like their lovers the tw o Helgis. Finally, the Hundings obviously have no business in the Völsunga. Their feud is w ith the W ülfings; more particularly, w ith H elgi Hundingsbani. They probably made their w ay into the story o f the Völsungs along w ith their victim Eylim i and his daughter.30 If so, the Hróðmarr that the first H elgi killed to avenge his grandfather is probably connected w ith the Hundingr that the second H elgi killed for no reason that is apparent (note that both Hróðmarr and Hundingr have a son Alfr, and that Lyngvi Hundingsson’s suit, like Hróðmarr’s, is rejected). H elgi’s fam ily, then, is that o f Hjörvarðr at Glasislundi. But this character can hardly be separated from Hjörvarðr son o f Heiðrekr úlfhamr and grand­ son o f Guðmundr á Glasisvöllum. H elgi thus probably inherited his epithet “ylfingr” from his father, w ho in turn ow ed it to his father’s ability to shift into the shape o f a w o lf (whence his nickname “úlfhamr”). The W ulfing tribe presumably got its name from this epithet, properly applicable, at first, perhaps, only to members o f the royal fam ily, but easily extended. The royal seat ‘at the amber grove’ or ‘on the amber fields’ probably points to a tim e when the W ülfings (w ho lived on the Pomeranian coast) participated in the amber trade and profited by it. Such nomenclature, how ever, could easily be given a mythical interpretation, the fields or groves o f amber being put in an earthly paradise, and such an interpretation seems in fact to have been made from an early date. The story o f H elgi properly begins w ith the story o f H elgi’s father Hjörvarðr alias Sigmundr. Here the point o f primary interest is the manner o f the father’s death. From the story o f the Völsungs w e learn that Sigmundr, together w ith his father-in-law Eylimi, fell at the hands o f Lyngvi son o f Hundingr. Before the fusion o f the Helgasaga w ith the Völsungasaga this story was doubdess told, not o f Sigmundr, but o f Hjörvarðr. W e may compare the account in the Ynglingasaga, where Hjörvarðr ylfingr, together w ith his father-in-law Granmarr, fell at the hands o f Ingjaldr. This Ingjaldr is identified w ith the Swedish king o f that name, it is true, but from the Beow ulf w e know that Ingeld is a Bardish royal name, and the story seems to be a frag­ ment o f a version o f the wars between the W ülfings and the Hundings (Bards). In H H v Hjörvarðr him self escapes, though his father-in-law falls. His safety perhaps grew out o f the mythical characteristics w hich he had acquired; a ruler o f an earthly elysium could hardly be made to die! Bugge has pointed out another factor, viz., the influence o f certain Frankish stories on the Northern episode, an influence w hich shifted the emphasis to Hjörvarðr’s w ooing. The prim itive form o f the episode probably ran somewhat as follow s : King 30. For Eylim i as victim o f the Hundingssynir, see the Reginsmál strophe 15.

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Hjörvarðr the W ulfing and his father-in-law Eylim i (Granmarr) are slain in battle w ith the Hundings (Bards), w ho w in a great victory and conquer the w hole land o f the W ülfings. The leader o f the Hundings seems to have had various names in the various versions: Ingjaldr, Hundingr, Hróðmarr, Lyngvi, the Hundingssynir. The original kingsbane was probably Lyngvi, as w e shall see. Betw een the first and second episodes w e must suppose an interval o f many years. During this tim e the hero, H elgi, is grow ing up. From the H H it is clear that Helgi grew up in obscurity. The country was incorporated in the domains o f the Hundings. M uch conjectures that H elgi’s mother had fallen into the hands o f the Bardish king. Certainly H elgi was in the power o f his enem y throughout his boyhood, as is to be seen from the opening o f H H 2. From the statement in the prose o f H H v that H elgi sat d haugi one may legitim ately infer that the hero was given the menial task o f m in d in g cattle. The inference derives support from the Saxonian story o f Regner ( = H elgi), for Regner too appears as a herdsboy. One may cite also the follow ing verses from H H 1 (strophe 5) : Eitt var at angri ok Jpeiri meyju

Ylfinga nið er munuð fœddi.

These lines look like a fragment o f some version in w hich H elgi’s father was slain by an enem y just after his son’s birth (or even before his birth), as Sigmundr was slain in the Völsungasaga. One may conjecture that mother and child fell into the hands o f the conqueror, in whose court H elgi was brought up as a menial. In the second episode H elgi avenges the slaying o f his father and his maternal grandfather. Our accounts o f his vengeance are all brief. According to H H v he led an expedition against Hróðmarr and slew him . The Reginsmdl tells us how Sigurðr (i.e., Helgi) fought a great battle against Lyngvi Hundingsson and his brothers, and defeated them. Lyngvi was captured alive, and was put to death by torture (the blood-eagle was cut on him ). In the H H w e learn that H elgi killed Hundingr, and that later, after refusing wergeld to the Hundingssynir, he defeated and slew them in battle. The defeat o f the Hundings seems to have been decisive. The division o f the struggle into tw o parts — the slaying o f Hundingr and the overthrow o f the Hundingssynir— is w orthy o f special notice. The third episode is devoted to H elgi’s rape o f Sigrún. Rape is the right word, for he w on the lady by force, w illing though she was to become his bride. This episode has been so greatly affected by the Hildr story that it is hard to determine its original form . In view o f the presence o f Bardish

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antagonists like Höðbroddr and Starkaðr, however, w e must conclude that the rape was part o f the struggle w ith the Hundings. And if H elgi killed his bride’s father in the original tale, w e can understand how the Hildr story gained entry: in both tales the bride has to face the same tragic situation. O n the other hand, the romantic m otivation (rival suitor, favored' by the lady’s father; hero favored by the lady) can hardly be primitive, and certainly must be discarded if the father was originally a Hunding along w ith the hero’s other opponents in the rape. N ot that w e need eliminate love from the primi­ tive story. The herdsboy o f King Hundingr may w ell have fallen in love w ith the king’s daughter, and she w ith him ; certain details in the Helgakviður seem to point in that direction, indeed. But the root o f the matter is necessarily the feud between W ulfing and Hunding, and the present episode must go back to that feud along w ith the rest o f the Helgasaga. The rape o f Sigrún, then, was originally included in episode tw o, as given above. H elgi carried o ff the daughter o f Hundingr as part o f his scheme o f vengeance. His first stroke was his slaying o f the father and his rape o f the daughter. His second stroke was his overthrow o f the sons, w ho sought in vain to avenge their father’s death. The fourth and last episode records the fall o f H elgi at the hands o f the avenger. This avenger was naturally a son o f the king w hom H elgi had slain: in H H v, Alfr son o f Hróðmarr ; in H H 2, Dagr son o f H ögni. W e have seen that the name Högni came .in through contamination w ith the Hildr story. The name o f H ögni’s avenger, too, is late, as M uch has pointed out. N or have w e any evidence that Hróðmarr and A lfr are names that go back to the primitive form o f the tale; they are stock heroic names, w ith nothing to bind them specifically to our story. The name Lyngvi, on the other hand, is highly characteristic and deserves careful examination. I think it can be equated w ith the Langobardish Laiamicho. The Northern equivalent o f Laiamicho w ould develop through *Lâim- and *Laim- to *Leimke, whence, w ith shortening and assimilation, to *Lenke. Since the n o f *Lenke was velar, not dental, the native Sprachgefühl w ould dictate a (phonetically sound) analysis o f the name into a stem *Leng- and a dim inutive suffix he. Alongside the dim inutive *Lenke, then, m ight readily appear an undiminished *Lenge (where the -e is an ordinary weak ending, added to the abstracted stem *Leng~). This *Lenge w ould be considered the original and proper name, whereas *Lenke w ould be looked upon as only a dim inutive. B y a regular phonetic process *Lenge w ould become *Linge in the frequent formula *Lenge H undingsson, where Hund- was the significant syllable and consequently w ould take the main stress.81 Finally, by popular etym ology *Linge w ould be as31. See A . Heusler, Altisländisches Elementarbuch*, § 117.

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sociated w ith the word *lingua > lyng ‘lin g / whence the extant forms Lyngvi (.Reginsmdl) and Lyngi (Völsungasaga). If Lyngvi really was the same person as the Lamissio o f Paulus, he surely, in the primitive tale, avenged on H elgi the death o f his father Hundingr, even as Lamissio avenged on the Vulgares the death o f his foster-father Agelmund. But in that case, o f course, w e must assume that the Northern monuments have departed from the original story when they represent Sigurðr as slaying Lyngvi. This point cannot be settled until w e have returned to Paulus, for a tim e, and to Paulus, accordingly, let us return. The story which he tells, though doubtless closer to history than that preserved in the N orth, nevertheless cannot safely be taken as so much gospel. The Amazons in particular are obviously an interpretatio Romana. W e cannot be quite sure what stood in their place in Paulus’s source, but in view o f H elgi’s wom an’s clothes, his feminine epithet Ylfinga man and the valkyrjur w ho aided him in all his incarnations, w e have a right to suspect that the Amazons were merely the W ülfings in disguise. Paulus seems to have used tw o sources in com piling his story o f Lamissio. One o f these sources dealt w ith the youth o f the hero, the other w ith the events imm ediately preceding and follow ing Lamissio’s accession to the throne. The latter source, so far as w e can tell, was essentially historical. The former, however, bears every sign o f poetic elaboration and modification, and this in the direction o f the supernatural. Hence the romantic story o f the hero’s birth, and the equally romantic account o f his fight w ith the leader o f the Amazons. The birth story clearly grew out o f the hero’s name (or rather nickname), which, as w e have seen, means ‘dog.’ Similarly, the Amazons seem to be a poetic modification o f the enemies o f the Bards. These enemies, the W ülfings, m ight be called W ulgings, i.e ., she-w olf’s sons, or, more sim ply, she-wolves. And by a romantic or mythical development these human she-wolves m ight be turned into a race o f valkyrjur or Amazons. Hence Paulus, w hile he is follow ing one source, uses the term Amazons to denote the enemies o f the Langobards; when he uses his other source, he calls these same enemies Vulgares. The primitive (as distinguished from the Pauline) Langobardish story may therefore be summarized:1 1) Agelmund, king o f the Langobards ( = Hundings), overruns the kingdom o f the W ulgaras; in the battle which decides the issue, Laiamicho, the young son (or foster-son) o f Agelmund, slays the king o f the Wulgaras. The Langobards ( = Hundings) hold for many years the lands thus conquered.

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2) The Wulgaras rise unexpectedly, slay Agelm und and take captive his daughter. They restore the kingdom o f the W ulgaras. 3) The Langobards ( = Hundings), under Laiamicho, later attack the W ulgaras, to take vengeance, but are badly defeated and put to rout. 4) Finally, through the efforts o f Laiamicho, they are brought to< attack the W ulgaras once more, and this tim e w in a decisive victory. For comparison I offer a summary o f the prim itive form o f the Helgasaga: 1) The Hundings ( = Langobards) overrun the W ulfing kingdom ; in the battle w hich decides the issue, Lyngvi, son o f the Hunding king, kills Hjörvarðr, king o f the W ülfings. The Hundings hold for many years the lands thus conquered. 2) Eventually H elgi, son o f Hjörvarðr, attacks and kills king Hundingr o f the Hundings and captures his daughter. H e restores the W ulfing kingdom . 3) T he Hundings, under Lyngvi, later attack H elgi, but are badly beaten and Lyngvi him self is killed. 4) Finally H elgi falls at the hands o f som e son o f the king o f the Hundings. Thus the W ülfings are finally overthrown. The chief difference in the tw o accounts lies in the fact that H elgi is repres­ ented as slaying Lyngvi, w hile according to the Langobardish version Lai­ amicho survives and wins the final victory. Here, I think, the Northern account has departed from the prim itive story. Otherwise the parallelism is so close that further discussion is hardly needed. But w e have not exhausted our literary material. There is a certain amount o f inform ation to be had from the follow ing passage in the English poem Widsith : 117

Eadwine sohte ic ond Elsan, Æ gelmund ond Hungar ond þa wloncan gedryht W iþ-M yrginga.

O f the names in this passage, Eadwine and Ægelmund are to be interpreted w ith certainty as the English equivalents o f the Audoin and Agelmund o f Paulus. Wiþ-Myrgingas in all likelihood is the name o f a tribe setded in the val­ ley o f the W ith River (Danish Vid) in western Sleswick. After their overthrow by King Offa (in the fourth century),82 they probably left their old seats and joined the Langobards in the south. I have nothing new to offer on the name Elsa, but I certainly agree w ith Chambers w hen he says,3 33 2 32. See m y paper in M LR 39 (1944) 55 f. 33. Widsith p. 220 note sv.

106

A gelm m d and Lamicho

“Com ing between Eadwine and Ægelmund, Elsa ought to be the name o f a Lombard hero.”34 There remains Hungar. The name is usually equated w ith that o f Attila’s interpreter Onegesius. This interpreter is know n to us from Priscus and from a passage in the Acta Sanctorum.35 Priscus calls him ’O vtjyrjaiog and gives him a brother Sxórtag. In the Acta Sanctorum his name appears in the (latinized) Frankish spelling Hunigasius (where the h is unorganic, as often, if w e may judge from the Greek). From the spellings w e may conclude that the third vow el in the interpreter’s name was a long open e. This w ould be represented in Greek by an rj, o f course. Am ong the Franks the sound w ould become an 5, in accordance w ith the familiar W est Germanic soundchange. The neatness o f the correspondence between the Greek and Frankish spellings forbids emendation to *Hunagaisus, o f course, and prevents us from taking the name to be Germanic. M oreover, the name o f the interpreter’s brother is not only un-Germanic in itself, but has no formal relation o f any kind to the name o f the interpreter, whether by alliteration or by com position. The Germanidsm o f Onegesius is thus more than doubtful. In m y opinion Hodgkin was right in supposing that the interpreter o f Attila was a Hun. The -si- spelling is best interpreted, w ith Hodgkin, as equivalent to M odem English sh, and the name is best englished as Onégash. But w ho was Hungar? The position o f his name in a passage devoted to the Langobards gives us a right to look for him in Paulus, and w e find him , I think, in Agelmund’s successor Lamicho. The Hungar o f the text I derive phonetically from an earlier *Hundgar ‘dog-spear,’36 and find in the name a reflexion o f the birth-story o f Lamicho. The spear w hich the king stuck into the fish-pond, and which the infant hero w ith so opportune an inspiration grasped, here reappears; and as for ‘dog,’ the appositeness o f that name is by now sufficiently clear. The English name o f the hero thus reflects the circumstances o f his birth, even more com pletely than the name w hich has com e dow n to us through Langobardish tradition. Naturally both are nick­ names, but they w ill have to do us, since the true name has not survived. Bruckner points out that the birth-story which Paulus attaches to Lamicho appears in Agnellus attached to the Langobardish king A istulf or Astolf.37 He explains the transfer as due to the first elem ent ast- ‘stick’ o f the king’s name; this name-element was associated w ith the stick or spear in the story. To this the English form o f the name affords a good parallel. 34. See m y discussion, PMLA XL 769-813. 35. Bibliography in Chambers, IVidsith pp. 220 f. 36. For the OE loss o f d between n and g, see K. BUlbring, Altenglisches Elementarbuch § 533. 37. Bruckner, pp. 23 f. and p. 337.

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W hen did Agelm und and Lamicho live? W e have seen that they could not have flourished later than the beginning o f the fifth century. But there is nothing to prevent us from making them much earlier. Between the dynasties o f the Gugings and the Lethings a long series o f kings may have reigned, for aught w e know . Paulus and his sources may have closed the gap w ithout warning us o f the fact, or they may have said nothing because, like us, they knew nothing. The first king o f the Langobards, and his immediate successor, were clearly famous in story, and their names and deeds were preserved in m em ory. But a long line o f inglorious kings may have follow ed, whose very names perished. Indeed, in Elsa w e probably have a king rememb­ ered am ong the English but forgotten by his ow n people. And surely his was not the only name that tradition failed to preserve. For our chronology, then, w e must turn elsewhere. And in fact w e find a clue in the Northern monuments. These represent the wars between Hunding and W ulfing as taking place on the Baltic and its hinterland. W e must therefore conclude that the historical events out o f which the stories grew took place before the southward migration o f the Langobards. The date o f this migration is itself a matter o f dispute, and into this dispute it is not m y purpose to enter. But if it took place in the latter half o f the second century, as it may have done,88 then the story o f Agelmund and Lamicho is an old story indeed, perhaps the oldest that has com e dow n to us from Germanic antiquity.83

38. See H odgkin V 88 f.

ECGTHEOW FOUR passages in Beowulf give us information about Ecgtheow. W hen the shore guard o f the Danes challenges B eow ulf and his men at the tim e o f their landing, B eow ulf includes in his answer a statement about Ecgtheow. He says, 262 Wæs m in fæder folcum gecyþed, æþele ordfruma, Ecgþeow ha ten; gebad wintra worn, ær he on w eg hwurfe, gam ol, o f geardum; hine gearwe geman 266 witena w elhw ylc w ide geond eorþan. From this passage w e learn (1) that Ecgtheow was B eow u lf’s father, (2) that he was an internationally famous man, (3) that he was an eeþele ordfruma, (4) that he lived to a ripe old age, and (5) that he died before the tim e o f B eow ulf’s expedition to Denmark. The meaning o f the œþele ordfruma o f line 263 can hardly be determined w ith certainty. The adjective may indicate Ecgtheow’s high birth, but may refer primarily to his glorious career. The noun may indicate his leadership in general, but may apply more specifically to his place in the forefront o f the fighting, a place appropriate for the cham­ pion w hich he presumably was. The passage w ould not lead us to conclude that Ecgtheow was a royal personage. A little later in the story, W ulfgar, a Danish court official, reports to King Hrothgar the arrival o f Beow ulf, and the king answers his retainer as follow s : 372 Ic hine cuðe cnihtwesende; wæs his ealdfæder Ecgþeo haten; ðæm to ham forgeaf Hreþel Geata angan dohtor; is his eaforan nu, 376 heard, her cumen, sohte holdne w ine. This passage has to do w ith B eow ulf him self, first o f all, but from it w e learn a good deal more about Ecgtheow. W e are told (6) that his w ife was

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a Geatish princess, the only daughter o f King Hrethel, and are inevitably reminded o f Eofor, whose marriage is told o f (lines 2997 f.) in strikingly similar terms. M oreover, if Hrothgar had know n the child B eow ulf, w e may reasonably infer that Ecgtheow and fam ily lived in Denmark (for a tim e, at least) during B eow u lf’s childhood. Again, Hrothgar in calling him­ self B eow ulf’s trusty friend was presumably extending to the son an earlier feeling toward the father, since B eow u lf’s childhood associations w ith the Danish king hardly amounted to friendship. Confirm ation o f this view is to be found in a later passage, w hich w e shall take up in a m om ent. Y et another passage sheds fight on Ecgtheow’s movements. In a speech o f remi­ niscence, before the dragon-fight, B eow ulf says, 2428 Ic wæs syfanwintre, þa mec sinca baldor, freawine folca, æt minum fæder genam; heold mec ond hæfde Hreðel cyning, geaf m e sine ond symbel, sibbe gemunde; næs ic him to fife laðra ow ihte, 2433 beom in burgum, þonne his beama hw ylc. From this passage it appears that w hen B eow u lf was seven years old Ecgtheow took him to the Geatish court and gave him to King Hrethel to foster. Presumably it was thought proper that the grandson o f the Geatish king be brought up as one o f the Geatish royal fam ily, in the royal court itself, and i f w e follow B eow ulf’s ow n words this was the upbringing which he in fact received. But this upbringing seems to have involved the separation o f father and son, and w e may therefore w ith plausibility conclude that Ecgtheow him self did not five at the Geatish court. W here did he five? King Hrothgar in his speech o f w elcom e to B eow ulf answers our question for us, I think. H e says, 459 Gesloh þin fæder fæhðe mæste: wearþ he Heaþolafe to handbonan m id W ilfingum ; ða hine gara cyn for herebrogan habban ne mihte. Þanon he gesohte Suðdena folc ofer yða gewealc, Arscyldinga. 465 Ða ic furþum w eold folce Deniga . . . 470 Siððan þa fæhðe feo þingode: sende ic W ylfingum ofer wæteres hrycg 472 ealde madmas. He me aþas swor.

110

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Hrothgar here informs us that Ecgtheow lived, first, in the land o f the W ylfings, and later, when he got into trouble there, came to Denmark. The Danish king not only received him hospitably but also paid in his behalf the wergeld needed to compose the feud w ith the fam ily o f Heatholaf. In return, Ecgtheow swore oaths to Hrothgar; that is, he entered Hrothgar's service. W e have already seen that he was living in Denmark (presumably at the Danish court) when his son B eow ulf was a small boy, and it seems reasonable to suppose that he was still living there when Beow ulf, having reached the age o f seven years, was taken to Geatland to be brought up by King Hrethel. W e are not told where he lived, or what he did, the rest o f his days. The story o f the feud w ith Heatholaf and his fam ily needs further attention. This feud is not elsewhere mentioned, and in our study o f it w e are compelled to rely w holly upon Hrothgar’s words. U nluckily these words have not com e dow n to us as the poet composed them : line 461 wants alliteration and the gara o f the text represents a tribal name which has suffered at the hands o f the copyist. Thorpe emended gara to wara, and this reading was adopted by Grein, Heyne and WUlcker. It gives us the needful alliteration, but is unsatisfactory for tw o reasons, the one graphic, the other ethnic: (1) the scribal error presumed (misreading o f w ynn as g) is a most unlikely one, and (2) the tribal name Waras or Ware which the emendation produces is otherwise unknown and cannot plausibly be emended into existence. Grundtvig accordingly rejected Thorpe’s emendation, and proposed emendation to Wedera. This reading gives us not only the needful alliteration but also a familiar tribal name. Paleographically considered, however, the emendation is drastic: w hy should a scribe copy Wedera as gara? M oreover, Wedera makes great difficulties o f interpretation. W e are asked to believe that King Hrethel o f the Geatas refused asylum to his ow n son-in-law, for fear o f the avengers o f Heatholaf! Such conduct on the part o f Hrethel w ould have been proper enough, it is true, if the deed had taken place in his ow n kingdom . In a case o f hom icide, the banishment o f the slayer for a period o f years was a punish­ ment (or a precautionary measure) not infrequently resorted to among the ancient Germans, and this irrespective o f the merits o f the case1. Holthausen, w ho accepts Grundtvig’s emendation, is only taking the consequences o f the reading when he makes the W ylfings “ein gautisches Geschlecht” (ed., Glossary o f Proper Names). Klaeber, however, rightly glosses Wilfingas as “a Germanic tribe (prob, south o f the Baltic sea).”1 2 It w ill not do to give to this w ell-know n 1. Such measures were taken, o f course, in order to prevent indefinite continuation o f the feud. Cf. F. Klaeber. Beowulf, 3d ed., p. 146. 2. See also m y edition o f Widsith, pp. 199 f., w ith the references there given.

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heroic name a special (and otherwise unrecorded) sense in this particular passage in order to make plausible a drastic emendation o f the inherited text! Sound m ethod prescribes that w e take Wilfingas here as elsewhere in its ordinary sense, and any emendation o f the text should be consistent w ith this sense.8 The slaying o f Heatholaf took place among the W ylfings, not am ong the Geatas; his slayer was therefore presumably banished from the land o f the W ylfings and gara cyn is nothing more than an alternative form o f the W ylfing name, a form here used for stylistic reasons (namely, to avoid repetition). N o w the only extant alternative name for the W ylfings is Vul­ gares, the name w hich Paulus Diaconus uses for the tribe.3 45I therefore emend gara cyn to Wulgara cyn. The emendation presupposes that the scribe, in copying the text before him , skipped the alliterative syllable and wrote gara instead o f Wulgara. One may compare the same scribe’s elan for Onelan in line 62. The gen. pi. Wulgara presupposes a nom . pi. Wulgaras, w hich I derive from earlier *Wulg-waras, w ith loss o f the second w by dissimilation, or by reduction o f the heavy consonant-group Igw. The elem ent wulg- answers to Icelandic ylgr ‘she-w olf’ and is the feminine equivalent o f wulf-, the first elem ent o f Wylßngas. The use o f the feminine rather than the masculine form o f the first elem ent was originally, no doubt, a device for expressing contem pt, and had its origin among enemies o f the tribe (most likely among the Hundings), but by dint o f frequent use and phonetic change the term lost its bad sense (like so many terms o f reproach) and came to be simply an alternative form o f the tribal name, useful in the technic o f variation. The second elem ent -waras answers to Icelandic -verjar ‘people’ and is familiar as second elem ent o f tribal and personal names. Menner contends, it is true,8 that in Old-Germanic usage -waras could be compounded w ith local or regional names only. This contention, however, is a mistaken one. The follow ing Old-Germanic tribal names in -var(i)i are recorded: Am(p)sivar(i)i Anglevarii Angrivar(i)i Baivar(i)i

Boructvarii Chasvar(i)i Chattvar(i)i

Falchovarii Raetobarii Teutonoari Vidivarii

The name o f the Ampsivarii was early interpreted as “Ems-Anwohner” or “dwellers by the Ems river,” but since the earliest known seats o f the tribe 3. C f. m y discussion, in ELH V 58 f., o f the critical principle involved. 4. See the preceding paper in this book. 5. Scandinavian Studies and Notes 14, 8 (1937), 206.

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were on the Rhine, it seems more reasonable to explain the name as meaning “offshoot o f the Amps(i)ani.” The Ampsiani were a tribe which w e know to have dw elt somewhere west o f the Elbe; if w e may judge by their name, their seats were by the Ems.* Similarly the name o f the Anglevarii seems to mean “offshoot o f the A ngli.” The name Angrivarii, on the other hand, is probably to be taken in the sense “meadow-dwellers, W iesenbewohner.” The Baivarii or Bavarians have a name derived from that o f the B oii, an ancient Celtic tribe. In like manner, the name Borudvarii can only be derived from the tribal name Bruderi. The Chasvarii were presumably so called because they had seats by the Hase river. Chattvarii, however (OE Hetware), is derivable only from the tribal name Chatti.'1 The Falchovarii seem to have got their name from the name o f the region in which they dw elt. Raetobarii is derivable either from Rhaetii or from Rhaetia. The Teutonoari (i.e., T eutonovari) were presumably an offshoot o f the Teutoni, as their name w ould indicate. The first elem ent o f Vidivarii is o f obscure origin, and throws no light on our problem. From this survey one gathers that the function o f -waras or -ware in tribal names was parallel to that o f - ingas. Both serve as second elements, and indicate a derivative relationship o f some kind. W hen the first elem ent is a territorial name, -ingas and -waras alike indicate products o f the soil, i.e ., the people bom and brought up in the place specified by the first element. W hen the first elem ent is itself a tribal or group name, -ingas and -waras alike serve to mark offshoots o f the specified tribe or group. Thus, the H attuarii were an offshoot o f the Hatti or Hessians; the W ylfingas or W ulgaras were an offshoot o f the Glomman or “w olves.”6 87 Menner’s rigid distinction between regional names and group names does not agree, in fact, w ith the psychology o f the ancient Germans or even w ith that o f the O ld English. Alfred’s Angelcynn “England” names both the people and the land they lived in, OE nuegþ means not only “tribe” but also “province, district,” and such plurals as Seaxe were used indifferently to denote population and territory. W hether the Baivarii were a germanized offshoot o f the Celtic B oii or a totally different tribe settled in territory formerly held by the B oii is a m oot question but one on which linguistic evidence throws no light, since, to the Germans o f old, land and folk w ent by the same name and were not habitually 6. Strabo’s variant form KoLfiynavoi probably arose by contraction from xou ’Aftiptavoí. But see M . Schönfeld, Wörterbuch der aîtgermanischen Personen- und Völkemamen, p. 60. 7. Schönfeld (op. cit., p. 131) duly defines the name as “Nachkom m en oder Nach­ folger der Chatten.” 8. For the meaning o f the tribal name Glomman, see m y edition o f Widsith, p. 150, w ith the references there cited.

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distinguished. The Baemi “Bohemians” o f Ptolem y have a name derived from a word meaning “hom e o f the B oii,” and these Baemi in all likelihood were identical w ith the Baivarii o f later times. There w ould be a certain plausibility, then, in contending that whereas Baemi illustrates the formation o f a tribal name from a regional name, its alternative Baivarii illustrates the form ation o f a tribal name from another tribal name. But in fact Boii and its Germanic equivalent were at once tribal and regional: the tw o concepts were hardly distinguishable in O ld Germanic tim es.9 In an earlier paper I have discussed in some detail the story o f the Vulgares as Paulus Diaconus tells it,101and it is needless to repeat the discussion here. The interesting thing for us in the present connexion is the nationality o f Ecgtheow. Quite possibly he was a man o f the W ylfingas or Wulgaras. If so, w e can understand w hy, after his banishment from his proper tribe, he w ent to the Danish court. Hrothgar’s w ife, Queen W ealhtheow, was herself a W ylfing, as appears from Beow ulf620, where she is called ides Helminga,11 and Ecgtheow presumably hoped that she w ould prove a friend in tim e o f need. Certainly Ecgtheow w on favor w ith King Hrothgar, w ho, as w e have seen, gave him asylum and even setded his feud w ith the avengers o f H eatholaf by a m oney payment. He was able to act as peacemaker in virtue o f his friendly relations w ith the W ylfm gs, a relationship strengthened by a royal marriage. It seems less likely that Ecgtheow was by birth a man o f the Geatas, since in that case he w ould hardly have escaped from the land o f the W ylfm gs w ith a mere sentence o f banishment; a stranger in a strange land, he could have saved his life only by flight, and there is no indication o f such a flight in our text, where, on the contrary (as the commentators have recognized), everything points to a judicial sentence o f banishment for a term, follow ed by an open and dignified departure.12 M oreover, there is no indication that Ecgtheow ever had a Geatish estate, as one w ould have expected him to have if he had 9. According to the usual etym ology, ~var(i)i, OE -waras, ware, Icelandic -verjar etc. are connected w ith OE war “protection” and werian “protect” (so in F. Holthausen, Ae. Etym. Wb., p. 384). These waras or protectors were presumably the members o f the tribe w ho lived along the frontiers o f the tribal territory, the inhabitants o f the marks or border regions; they it was w ho had to bear the brunt o f any attack upon the tribe. Such frontier land was usually o f a less desirable kind, and had been settled at a later date than the central holdings. The markmen were therefore offshoots and defenders alike o f the main body o f the tribe. In this w ay waras came to mean “offshoot.” Such an offshoot m ight in tim e grow into a separate and independent tribe, o f course, but m ight continue to bear the old name. The developm ent o f the meaning “dwellers” is also readily explicable, but does not concern us here. 10. See note 4 above. 11. H elm ruled the W ülfings according to Widsith 29. 12. O ne m ay contrast the situation in Beowulf 2061 f., where the bane is a stranger in a strange land, and saves his life by flight. 9

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Ecgtheow

been a Geat by birth, or even by residence. W iglaf the W ægmunding inherited landed property from his father, as w e learn from lines 2606 if. N ot so Beo­ w ulf, whose lands (mentioned in lines 2195 ff.) came to him by royal gift.13 This difference indicates that Ecgtheow, unlike W ihstan, was no Geat. W e may reconstruct the life o f Ecgtheow, then, somewhat as follow s. A W ylfing by birth and upbringing, he early took service w ith King Hrethel o f the Geatas, and served so w ell that he w on the hand o f the king’s daughter. U pon his return hom e he killed a certain Heatholaf and thereby brought about a feud w ith the fam ily o f his victim . In order to prevent further blood­ shed, the W ylfings imposed upon him a sentence o f banishment. He then took ship w ith his fam ily and sought out the Danish court, where King Hrothgar received him w ell and composed the feud in his behalf w ith a substantial wergeld. In return, Ecgtheow became Hrothgar’s man, and re­ mained in his service for some tim e. W e do not know whether he died in Hrothgar’s service or whether he w ent back to the land o f the W ylfings in due course. He lived to a ripe old age and w on fame for him self as an ordfruma. N ot all the items o f this reconstruction can be looked upon as certainly right, o f course. Our evidence for determining Ecgtheow’s native tribe is obviously too scanty to permit o f more than a w eighing o f the alter­ native possibilities, namely, Geatish vs. W ylfing nationality.1451In addition to the reasons against Geatish nationality advanced above, it may be said that the failure o f the names Ecgtheow and Beow ulf to alliterate w ould be odd in a Geatish fam ily. U nluckily w e know nothing o f the habits o f the W ylfings in this matter, but w e do know that their old neighbors to the west, the Langobards and the Heathobards, did not practice alliterative nam e-giving,18 and geography seems to have something to do w ith customs o f this kind. In spite o f all these more or less w eighty considerations, however, w e cannot 13. The crown property w hich he received was no doubt thought to be his due, not m erely because o f his heroic deeds but also because o f his maternal descent. 14. Swedish nationality is also a possibility, for tw o reasons: (1) Ecgtheow ’s name begins w ith a vow el, and thus fits the alliterative pattem characteristic o f the Scylfings, the Swedish royal dynasty; and (2) W ihstan the W ægm unding, w ho was a kinsman o f B eow ulf, had Swedish connexions, and W ihstan’s son W iglaf is actually called a man o f the Scylfings in line 2603 o f the poem . But neither B eow u lf nor his father is ever called a Scylfing, though the poet w ould hardly have failed to give them that name i f they had a right to it. W e are, therefore, justified in concluding that W ig la f got his Scyl­ fing blood not through his father but through his m other, w ho was presumably the daughter or sister o f the Æ lf here m entioned in line 2604 as a kinsman o f W iglaf. M oreover, w e have no reason to think that Ecgtheow was a W ægm unding. His name certainly does not fit the alliterative pattem proper to that fam ily, and B eow u lf’s W ægm unding blood in all likelihood came to him through his m other: possibly B eow u lf’s maternal grandmother (Hrethel’s w ife) was a W ægmunding. 15. See H . B . W oolf, Old-Germanic Principles o f Name-Giving, pp. 231 f.

Ecgtheow

115

say w ith certainty that Ecgtheow was a W ylfing. The circumstances which brought about his marriage to the daughter o f Hrethel are not on record and must remain conjectural; the particular conjecture which I have made seems to me the m ost plausible one. The rest o f m y reconstruction is more firm ly grounded, and may be looked upon as reasonably certain. It needr to be added, however, that w e are dealing only w ith relationships and events as recorded or im plied in a w ork o f literary art. It is not m y purpose here to delve deeper, or to enquire to what extent these relationships and events correspond to objective historical reality.

9*

THE THEODORIC OF THE RÖK INSCRIPTION THE identity o f the Þiaurikr o f the Rök inscription has long been a subject o f controversy. Recent critical opinion, how ever, inclines decidedly to the view that Þiaurikr is to be identified w ith D ietrich von Bern. It m ay be w orth our w hile to review the evidence w hich has brought so many scholars to so strange a conclusion.1 First o f all, let us consider the inscriptional passage itself. I quote from the edition o f v. Friesen1 2: II. 2

þatsakum%na/rthuaRfurniualtum%nurþifiaru/miRhraiþkutumauktu/miR%nubsakaR

3

raiþiaurikRhinþurmuþistiliR/flutnastr^ntuhraiþmaraRsitiRnukaruR%/kutasinum skialtiubfatlaþRskatimarika.

In dividing into words this sequence o f symbols, I follow in part v. Friesen (pp. 38 ff.), in part Pipping3: II. 2

þat sakum %nart, huaR fur niu altum %n urþi fiaru miR Hraiþkutum auk tumi iR %n ub sakaR:

3

raiþ Þiaurikr hin þurmuþi, stihR flutna, str^ntu HraiþmaraR; sitíR nu karuR \ kuta sinum, skialti ub fatlaþR, skati Marika.

1. That the identification serves only to make a riddle o f the passage has been admitted by Heusler (AÜgermanische Dichtung, p. 83, note 1), and Heusler's despair can hardly have been dispelled by anything which has appeared in print since the publication o f his w eighty volum e. 2. O tto v . Friesen, Rökstenen (1920), p. 28. 3. H . Pipping, in SNF XXII, 1 (1932), pp. 25 ff.

The Theodork o f the RSk Inscription

117

"That I say second, w h o nine generations ago landed on the shore am ong the H reidgoths and he is spoken o f in a poem : Þíaurikr the bold, the sea-king, rode (or ruled) on the strand o f the Hreidmarr; n ow he sits ready on his horse, his shield slung about h im , the chieftain o f the M xrings.’

Here the pressing problem is that o f defining the proper names. In 1878, Sophus Bugge identified the Hreidgoths w ith the (East) Gauts (ATS V 36); cfi the Reidgotahmd ‘Gautland’ o f Snorri (Skaldskaparmál cap. 65) and the Hreðmenn 'Gauts* o f B eow ulf (line 445)4.5 I f B ugge was right in making this identification, then the Hreidmarr was presumably the Baltic, and Þiaurikr him self in all likelihood was som e king w ho had w aged war on the Gauts (a possibility w hich B ugge did not consider, it is true). Ten years later, how ever, B ugge turned to another interpretation, according to w hich the H reidgoths were the O strogoths; cf. OE Hredgotan ‘Ostrogoths’*. I f B ugge was right in making this new identification, then the Hreidmarr was pre­ sumably either the Mediterranean or one o f its extensions (e.g. the Adriatic), and Þiaurikr was none other than Theodoric the Great, the O strogothic conqueror o f Italy. Before choosing betw een the earlier and the later interpretation o f B ugge, one must search the historical records, o f course, in order to determine whether in fact a war was ever waged betw een a Theodoric and the Gauts. As it happens, the records tell us in som e detail o f just such a war. In or about A .D . 520, the Gautish king Chochilaicus (Gregory o f Tours) or Hygelac (Beowulf) made a piratical inroad upon the Frankish kingdom , then ruled by Theodoric, eldest son o f C lovis. The forces o f Theodoric, how ever (led by the king’s son), inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Gauts, H ygelac him ­ self losing his life in the battle. The fall o f King H ygelac was still remembered in thirteenth-century Scandinavia, and the story o f his death is told by Snorri in the Ynglirtgasaga, where he appears (cap. 22) as King o f Sweden, w hile 4. In the Beow ulf C odex tbe half-line reads reads magert hreð manna, w ith w ide spacing betw een magen and hreð, and narrow spacing between hreð and manna. Zupitza accordingly transliterated magen hreâ-matma (B eow ulf Autotypes, p. 22), and in fact narrow spacing betw een the parts o f a com pound is o f frequent occurrence in the M S, w here it seems to serve m uch the same purpose as does the m odem hyphen. O f late, how ever, various editors o f Beowulf, on metrical grounds, have em ended the half-line to magenhreð manna. I have elsew here (JECPh X X V II 323) show n that the metrical argument is inconclusive, and that the half-line stands in no need o f em endation; so also J. H oops, Kommentar zum B eow ulf (1932) p. 69. The old interpretation o f Hreðmanna as a reference to the Danes is stylistically im possible (see H oops, loc. tit.). O n the Sk óldskaparm41 passage, see M LR X X (1925), p. 9. 5. K. Vitterhets Historie och Antiquitets Akademien! Handlingar, N . F. X I, 3 (188), p. 16.

118

The Theodoric o f the Rök Inscription

Saxo in B ook IV o f the Gesta Danorum gives him a Danish kingdom , in B ook VI an Irish one. The difficulty about his proper kingdom was occasioned, o f course, by the disappearance o f the Gauts as a separate nation. But at the time when the Rök inscription was made the old Gautish kingdom was doubtless still remembered (among the Gauts at any rate), and w e may w ith confidence presume that the ninth-century Gautish runemaster o f Rök knew Hygelac (Hugleikr) as an ancient king o f Gautland.

If now w e look at Snorri’s account, w e find that Hugleikr’s death is localized not abroad but at hom e: the king is said to have fallen in battle w ith Haki, a sea-king w ho invaded the country and usurped the throne.* One may conjecture that the Rök inscription gives us a stage intermediate between the historical course o f events (related by Gregory and the Beowulf poet) and the late tradition recorded by Snorri: the opponent o f Hugleikr still bears his historical name, but he has been changed into a sea-king (i.e. an exile) and his victory over Hugleikr has in consequence been transferred from Frankish to Gautish soil. The verses quoted in the Rök inscription conclude, it w ould seem, w ith a reference to a statue, generally identified w ith the equestrian statue o f Theodoric the Great then at Aachen. Presumably the poet w hom the runemaster is quoting had visited Aachen and, naturally enough, had taken for a statue o f Theodoric the Frank the Theodoric statue which he saw in the Frankish capital. M oreover, if w e accept A .D . 835 as the approximate date o f the inscription (cf. Pipping, p. 109), and reckon back for nine generations as the runemaster bids us, allotting to each generation 35 yeárs (i.e. half the traditional life-span), w e arrive at A .D . 520 as the date o f Þiaurikr’s attack upon the Gauts. N ow it was about the year 520, as w e have seen, that the army o f Theodoric the Frank attacked and destróyed the forces o f the Gauts.6 7 It is notew orthy, besides, that the historical records tell us o f ho other Theodoric w ho had dealings w ith the Gauts. The obvious connexion for Þiaurikr, then, w ould seem to be Theodoric the Frank, not

6. On Snorri’s characterization o f Hugleikr the Chadwicks make the follow ing obser­ vations (Growth o f Literature I 287) : “ . . . the description o f K ing H ugleikr seems to be entirely derived horn his name. H e is said to have been no warrior, but to have kept at his court all kinds o f players, harpers and fiddlers. The name seems to have been inter­ preted as ‘one w hose mind (hugr) is devoted to play (leikr)’. But he is probably to be identified w ith H ygelac, the uncle o f B eow ulf, w ho was a great warrior. Apparently nothing was remembered o f him in N orse tradition, except that he had lost his life in a great disaster”. 7. R. W . Chambers, Beowulf, An Introduction*, pp. 381 if.

The Theodoric o j the Rök Inscription

119

Theodoric the O strogoth nor yet the hypothetical Samlandish Theodoric o f V. Friesen. Theodoric the Frank was a king famous'alike in history and in story. In Ger­ many he came to be know n as W olfdietrich; in France, as Floovant (i., u q/ for the smooth, making twelve straits in all. These m ay be tabulated as follow s:

palatals rough sm ooth

vibrants surds vibrants surds

simple dentals

labials V

i

z s ð

f u

X

Þ

q

palatalized dentals V

z

V

s

234

The Phonemes o f Current English

The phonemic character o f these straits is shown b y such oppositions as

you vs. hue for the palatals, azure vs. Asher for the palatalized dentals,, mouse (vb.) vs. mouse (n.) vs. mouth (vb.) vs. mouth (n.) for the simple dentals, veil vs. fail vs. wail vs. whale for the labials, grazier vs. grazer vs. graver for the rough vibrants, shell vs. sell vs. fell for the rough surds, yea vs. they vs. way for the smooth vibrants, and thigh vs. why for the smooth surds. T w o o f the twelve straits, the semivowels /1/ and /u/, are resonants and as such, though always consonantal in strong syllables, m ay be sonantal in weak syllables. The other ten straits are consonantal whether the syllable they belong to is strong or weak. English has no rough palatal straits. O f the tw o smooth ones, the semivowel /1/ in conventional English writing is represented b y i, as in piano, onion,

famine; b y ie, as in view, caddie; b y e, as in pew, women; b y ea, as in beauty, Swansea; by ei, as in mullein; b y ey, as in money; b y a, as in storage; b y ai, as in murrain; b y ay, as in Murray; b y oi, as in chamois; b y u, as in lettuce; b y ui, as in biscuit; and by y, as in yet, city. In this paper the sym bol for it is dotless i. Its surd counterpart /x/ is represented in English orthography by he, as in hew /xu/ or, if u follows, b y simple h, as in hue /xu/. Since it nor­ m ally occurs only before /u/ or /u/, it is heard in few words. M any analysts, indeed, do not recognized its existence and set up /hi/ instead. Such analysts transcribe hew and hue w ith /hiu/. The phoneme /x/ is comparable, phone­ tically, with the palatal allophonic type o f German /x/, heard in words like

ich, but the German sound is a rough strait, always surd throughout, whereas /x/ in English is smooth and has allophones w ith a vibrant offset. It contrasts w ith most o f the other consonants, witness the following series: hue vs. boo, coo, chew, do, goo, je w , loo, moo, pooh, rue, Soo, shoe, too, w oo, yew , zoo. N ote also the minimal pair hewn vs. noon. I have found no m in im al pairs, however, in which /x/ is opposed to /ð þ v f q/, though it contrasts with twosomes headed by /þ v f/ in the oppositions hue /xu/ vs. thew, view,

few , flue /þiu viu fiu flu/. Since /g/ and /z/ do not head words, /x/ is never opposed to them, o f course. O f the tw o palatalized dental straits, /z/ does not occur initially or finally except in a few French words current in English, as genre and rouge. M edially it occurs in many words but in some o f these, as equation and Persian, it varies w ith /s/, Americans commonly having the vibrant, British the surd.11 Minimal pairs showing the opposition /z/ vs. / 5/ are almost w holly wanting in British speech. Even the pair azure vs. Asher given above is not valid for the many

11. In transition Americans have the surd, British the vibrant.

The Phonemes o f Current English

235

British speakers w ho have an allomorph o f azure beginning w ith /e/.u For British English, then, one m ight reasonably set up a single palatalized dental strait phoneme w ith tw o allophonic types [z] and [s]. In Am erican speech, however, several m in im a l pairs occur in which /z/ is opposed to /s/. Besides the pair azure vs. Asher w e have allusion vs. Aleutian, confusion vs. Confucian,

delusion vs. dilution, and glazier vs. glacier. This opposition is also heard in non-minimal pairs like vision vs. mission, where the members are distinguished b y tw o contrasts: /v/ vs. /m/ and /z/ vs. /5/. The latter is not stricdy necessary, o f course, to prevent hom ophony but neither is the form er. Either contrast w ould be enough but both in fact serve. N ote also minimal pairs like vision vs. villain and treasure vs. tremor, where /z/ is opposed to /1/ and /m/ respec­ tively. The phonemic character o f the members o f the vibrant-surd pairs /z s, ð þ, v f/ is unquestionable and need not detain us. The pair /u q/, however, calls for discussion. A good m any Am erican and most British speakers have only one phoneme here; in their speech no /q/ exists and members o f w o rdpairs lik e wail vs. whale are homophones. Since however a substantial m ajority o f speakers o f English distinguish the members o f such word-pairs, the analyst must take this opposition into account. Instead o f setting up a phoneme /q/ for the surd, some analysts write /hu/; that is, they take it that words like

whale begin w ith the sequence /hu/, not w ith a single consonant. B ut this sequence, though pronounceable, does not occur in normal English speech. Thus, whale is made up o f three phonemes only, whether the speaker begins w ith a surd or a vibrant. The sem ivowel /u/ is made w ith pursed Ups and this pursing is its distinc­ tive feature. A secondary feature important for its sonantal allophones is an articulation o f the tongue towards the velum ; this articulation m ay be wanting in the consonantal allophones. In strong syllables /u/ is always con­ sonantal but it m ay serve as the sonant o f a weak syllable. In English ortho­ graphy consonantal /u/ m ay be represented b y u», as in wire; b y u, as in per­

suade and quick; b y ou, as in ouija ; or b y o, as in choir. Sonantal /u/ m ay be represented b y ow, as in pillow; b y ough, as in borough; b y o, as in obey and piano; or b y u, as in supreme. In this connection the note under -ow in Kenyon and Knott’s Pronouncing Dictionary o f American English is o f interest. T o quote,12

12. In m any settings these speakers have the m inim al pair azure /e ia / vs. Asia /eia /, it is true, b at since in other settings the allom orph /eia r/ is used for azure this pair can hardly be reckoned valid for their speech.

236

The Phonemes o f Current English

The ending -ow is seldom pronounced (except w ith artificial care) w ith a full [o] as in elbow. The com m onest pronunciations are w ith an advanced [ö], nearly like [q], and w ith [a]. [Ö] differs from [a] chiefly in its lip-rounding. . . . An [ö] sound, nearly [q |, is also heard in medial syllables o f such words as whatsoever.1*

The [ö] o f the quotation represents not a front vow el, as one might suppose from the usual value o f the symbol, but a sound made higher and further back in the mouth than [a] and thus describable as “ nearly [q].” I reckon this sound a member o f the /u/ phoneme and write it accordingly.

In pretonic syllables /u/ is often replaced by /a/, as in obey /ube, abe/ and superfluous /sup3 fluas, sap3fluas/. Less often, in the mouths o f pseudo-refined or artifically precise speakers, such a syllable is given more or less stress in order to make possible the use o f /o/ or /u/ instead o f /u/ or /a/. In choosing between /o/ and /u/ such speakers go b y the traditional orthography. In this w ay obey becomes /obe/ and superfluous becomes /sup3fluas/ or even /siup3fluas/. In the posttonic syllable o f words like piano /piaenu, piæna, piæno/,

sorrow /saru, sara, saro/, and statue /stæcu, stæca, stæcu, stætiu/ a like variation is heard. In words like elbow, where there is no weak syllable, neither /u/ nor /a/ is ever heard, o f course. The corresponding surd labial /q/ is spelt wh in English orthography. It occurs only at the head o f a syllable and therefore contrasts only w ith other consonants that are free to stand in this position. Examples for the stops: whirl vs. girl, curl, churl, pearl; whale vs. gale, kale, jail, dale, tail, bale, pale. Examples for the liquids and nasals: white vs. right, light, night, m ight. Examples for /h/ and the straits: wheel vs. heel, zeal, seal, veal, feel, w eal; w h y vs. high, shy, sigh, thy, thigh, vie, fie, W ye. N ote that /q/ does not contrast w ith /x/, which heads its syllable indeed but occurs only before /u/ or /u/, positions in which /q/ is o f rare occurrence for obvious phonetic reasons. In the most widespread form o f English the broads are 17 in num ber:

13 vowels, 2 glides, the breathing /h/ and the semivowel /a/. The vowels fall into three groups: five are front and not round, five are round and not front, and three are neither front nor round. The five front vowels are /i j e ç æ/ as in peat pit pate pet pat /pit pit pet pçt pæt/. The five round vowels are/u q o ç o/ as in boot put boat bought pot /but pqt bot b çt pot/. The three not-front not-round vowels are /3 a a/ as in berm bum balm j b 3 m bAm bam/. M any 13 13. This quotation differs typographically from the original in that roman is used for K enyon’s italics and boldface, and italics are used for his roman. The brackets o f the quotation are wanting in the original, where boldface type marks the phonetic sym bols as such. The sym bol [q] for the vow el o f book etc. replaces K enyon’s sym bol for the same sound. The other sym bols in the quotation are those o f the original.

237

The Phonemes o f Current English

speakers, how ever, have only four round vow els: /u ij o ç /. For them / 0/ is a member o f the not-front not-round group: it is identical in quality w ith /a/ but differs from it in length, the members o f such ft m inim al pair as bomb vs. balm being distinguished by the fact that bomb /to rn / has a short, balm /bam / a long vow el. In yet another form o f E nglish, also widespread, in the U nited States at least, there are only 12 vow els, / 0/ being w anting, and bomb and balm are hom ophones. W e have, then, three vow el systems, very like but not identical. T hey m ay be put into tabular form thus: 5-3-!5 system L fron Lt n o t - f ro n t not-:round r