Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/84

66 prove themselves to have been composed in a comparatively late period; and yet this circumstance has not induced the author to make any effort to give the traditions an external appearance of trustworthiness by connecting them with well known historical persons. Hrolf Krake's saga is manifestly based on various groups of songs corresponding to the several stories in the saga. Each of these groups has to a certain extent constituted an independent whole, but on a more careful examination they will also be found to form links of one long poem, in which the celebrated Hleidra king, the ideal of a royal hero until the viking age raised other heroes on the throne, is the centre, and to whose glory all the songs contribute. However independent the separate stories may appear, still the poetic unity of the whole group is far more marked than it is in the Volsunga traditions as we find them in the Volsunga saga. Of great importance, especially for the study of Danish traditions, is also, which in spite of its romantic and fabulous dress is interesting on account of its graphic description of the restless viking age. The same may be said of a which tells of  and of the (the death of Harald Hildetooth) and other things, and is possibly a fragment of the, mentioned by Snorre, but not now extant.

A remarkable blending of history and myths is the , which pretends to belong to the age of Olaf Trygvason and seeks in a truly masterly manner to make historical characters of Sigurd, the Slayer of Father, Starkad and others. A characteristic example, illustrating the effort to establish a more or less immediate connection between the traditions and the historic time, is furnished by the, which presents to us the remarkable and truly Norse heathen tale of the endless conflict between Hedin and Hogne, a conflict which, produced by an incantation, is finally ended by one of Olaf Trygvason's warriors. Some of the sagas were doubtless originally based on facts, but the telling and