Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/496

 454 Reviews.

parallels from Halfdan Berg-gram and Halfdan Borgarson's stories are not considered ; but in Chapter XIII. (in opposition to Dr. Olrik) Halga Halfdan's son, Hrothgar's brother, is of course identified with Helgi Hundingsbane. "It was, I believe, in England that some Danish poet made the story of Helgi, Half- dan's son, into that of Helgi Hundingsbane, basing his work in all probability partly on an O. E. story of the Shieldings, and partly on the Danish Shielding story. This work . . . was carried into Denmark, where it was united with the Danish story of Helgi Halfdan's son, and took the form of which we find fragments in Saxo; on the other hand it was [also] worked over by Norse poets in Britain, and several parts of the poems thus reconstructed are preserved in the Eddie lays." Hothbrodd is held to be a mere corruption of O, E. Heathobeardan, Granmare is Fr6de, Starcadr is Starc-hoardr, and means " the strong Heath-bard." These Battle- bards are the kin of the Long-bards [Lombards] that stayed behind in the North from Hamburg to Altmark, east of the Angles, west of the Elbe. Chapter XIV. deals with the connection of the Scandinavian Helgi with German tales. Sevill = Seafola = Sabini- anus, the enemy of Theodric the East Goth's family ; Hunding = Hundyng Marcolf's son ; Helgi is brought into connection with the Sidings, hence his love is Sigrun, his father Sigmund ; Sigrun's character is drawn from Irish analogues, such as Findchoem, Cuchuland's love, and from Atalanta, Meleager's mistress. In the following chapters the theory is advanced that in the " first Helgi- lay" we have the work of a Court Norwegian poet editing the earlier poems of a " Danish poet in Britain," whose work may be seen in the flyting between Sinfjotli and Gudmund, and who was stimulated to sing of Helgi by the Danish expeditions of Swegen Forkbeard to Wendland. The flyting of Eric in Saxo was com- posed by one acquainted with the Helgi-lays and with such Irish tales as the Wooing of Emer. The Death of Helgi shows that it was composed by one who knew the Wolsung cycle, and a Norwegian born, residing probably at Anlaf Cuaran's court. The old sources upon which he drew probably made Woden Helgi's slayer. Chapter XIX. deals with the Hri'mgerth episode ; it is connected with the tales of Wolf-Dietrich, and Ulysses (known through the Second Vatican Mythograph, or a similar collection of classic tales), Hlothward is Laertes, Atli is Atlas, etc. Chapter XX. derives the tale of how Hjorward won Sigrlinn from the Thidrec's