Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/112

104 Northumberland named Ælfgar and Gudric in Æthelstan's day (their names come from a later time). There never were earls of Bretland called Hring and Adils. The two Anlafs have been rolled into one. Constantine is ignored altogether, as is Æthelstan's brother. There is no local knowledge. The bribery story recalls a passage in Saxo drawn from some late saga. Every detail of the battle, arms, armour, tactic and strategic, is palpably false. Landnáma-bóc witnesses to Thorfinn the Strong having been Thorolf's standard-bearer, and so he is made to fight here, though for this there is no authority. It is not, indeed, unlikely that Egil fought and Thorolf fell, and that Æthelstan at some time gave Egil treasure tradition certainly seems to hold (though the story of Egil's concealment of his treasure is a repeat of his father's similar behaviour). The stories of Arnliot and Bard, of Ake, of Berg-Onund, of Liot the Pale, show no sign of truth.

Chapters lxii-lxiv speak well and briskly of the meeting of Egil and the king at York, and give the curious tradition (told of other poets) of a prisoner saving his head by his powers of verse. Some genuine lines are used to support the attribution of this tale to Egil.

Chapter lxviii has a bit of antiquarian lore in it, but the story seems baseless; and chapter lxxii mentions the Frisian dykes.

Chapters lxxiii-lxxviii are unhistorical, referring to events suiting a later date, such as that of St. Olave and of Sighwat (on whose famous journeys they may indeed be founded). The drinking story is probably a folk-tale.

Chapters lxxxi, lxxxii, lxxxiii, lxxxiv, and chapter xc with the Epilogue, are part of the genuine Egil's Saga.

Chapters lxxxv-lxxxix tell the story of Thorstan Egilsson and his feuds; they are perhaps founded on fact, but can hardly, if we may trust Egil's own words in his poems, give anything like the true story.

To sum up, there are out of this saga of ninety-two chapters, perhaps nine relating to Egil and four to his