[1] The exact equivalent to Hrōðgar is found in O.N., in the form Hróðgeirr. The by-form Hróarr, which is used of the famous Danish king, is due to a number of rather irregular changes, which can however be paralleled. The Primitive Germanic form of the name would have been *Hrōþugaisaz: for the loss of the g at the beginning of the second element we may compare Aðils with Ēadgils (Noreen, Altisländische Grammatik, 1903, § 223); for the loss of ð before w compare Hrólfr with Hrōðwulf (Noreen, § 222); for the absence of R- umlaut in the second syllable, combined with loss of the g, compare O.N. nafarr with O.E. nafugār (Noreen, § 69).
[2] Corresponding to O.N. Aðils we should expect O.E. Æðgils, Æðgisl. The form Ēadgils may be due to confusion with the famous Eadgils, king of the Myrgingas, who is mentioned in Widsith. The name comes only once in Beowulf (l. 2392) and may owe its form there to a corruption of the scribe. That the O.E. form is corrupt seems more likely than that the O.N. Aðils, so well known and so frequently recorded, is a corruption of Auðgisl.
[3] It must be remembered that the sound changes of the Germanic dialects have been worked out so minutely that it is nearly always possible to decide quite definitely whether two names do or do not exactly correspond. Only occasionally is dispute possible [e.g. whether Hrothgar is or is not phonetically the exact equivalent of Hroarr].
[4] See below, pp. 8-10.
[5] Chochilaicus, which appears to be the correct form, corresponds to Hygelac (in the primitive form Hugilaikaz) as Chlodovechus to Hludovicus.
[6] The passages in Beowulf referring to this expedition are:
1202 etc.. Frisians (adjoining the Hetware) and Franks mentioned as the foes.
2354 etc. Hetware mentioned.
2501 etc. Hugas (= Franks) and the Frisian king mentioned.
2914 etc. Franks, Frisians, Hugas, Hetware and "the Merovingian" mentioned.
[7] The identification of Chochilaicus with Hygelac is the most important discovery ever made in the study of Beowulf, and the foundation of our belief in the historic character of its episodes. It is sometimes attributed to Grundtvig, sometimes to Outzen. It was first vaguely suggested by Grundtvig (Nyeste Skilderie af Kjøbenhavn, 1815, col. 1030): the importance of the identification was worked out by him fully, two years later (Danne-Virke, II, 285). In the meantime the passage from Gregory had been quoted by Outzen in his review of Thorkelin's Beowulf (Kieler Blätter, iii, 312). Outzen's reference was obviously made independently, but he failed to detect the real bearing of the passage upon Beowulf. Credit for the find accordingly belongs solely to Grundtvig.
[8] Ongentheow is mentioned in Widsith (l. 31) as a famous king of the Swedes. Many of the kings mentioned in the same list can be proved to be historical, and the reference in Widsith therefore supports Ongentheow's historic character, but is far, in itself, from proving it.
[9] Strictly Anganþér. See Heusler, Heldennamen in mehrfacher Lautgestalt, Z.f.d.A. LII, 101.
[10] ll. 2382-4.
[11] ll. 2612-9.
[12] Whether it be accuracy or accident, these names Ottar and Athils come just at that place in the list of the Ynglinga tal which, when we reckon back the generations, we find to correspond to the beginning of the sixth century. And this is the date when we know from Beowulf that they should have been reigning.
[13] But the accounts are quite inconsistent. Saxo (ed. Holder, pp. 56-7) implies a version in which Athils was deposed, if not slain, by Bothvar Bjarki, which is quite at variance with other information given by Saxo.
[14] Unless they are among the fragments carried off to the Stockholm Museum. Little of interest was found in these mounds when they were opened: everything had been too thoroughly burnt.
[15] See Schück, Folknamnet Geatas, 22 etc.
[16] See below, p. 98 and Appendix (E); The "Jute-Question."
[18] Olrik (Heltedigtning, I, 22 etc.). The Danish house—Healfdene, Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga, Heoroweard, Hrethric, Hrothmund, Hrothulf: the Swedish—Ongentheow, Onela, Ohthere, Eanmund, Eadgils: the Geatic—Hrethel, Herebeald, Hætheyn, Hygelac, Heardred. The same principle is strongly marked in the Old English pedigrees.
[19] ll. 3018 etc.
[20] As is done, e.g., by Schück (Studier i Beowulf-sagan, 27).
[21] "Dragon fights are more frequent, not less frequent, the nearer we come to historic times": Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 313. The dragon survived much later in Europe than has been generally recognized. He was flying from Mount Pilatus in 1649. (See J. J. Scheuchzer, Itinera per Helvetiae Alpinas regiones, 1723, III, p. 385.) The same authority quotes accounts of dragons authenticated by priests, his own contemporaries, and supplies many bloodcurdling engravings of the same.
[22] Cf. on this point Klaeber in Anglia, XXXVI (1912) p. 190.
[23] l. 2382.
[24] l. 2393.
[25] Of course, even if Beowulf's reign over the Geatas is not historic, this does not exclude the possibility of his having some historic foundation.
[26] Attempts at working out the chronology of Beowulf have been made by Gering (in his translation) and by Heusler (Archiv, CXXIV, 9-14). On the whole the chronology of Beowulf is self-consistent, but there are one or two discrepancies which do not admit of solution.
[27] l. 468.
[28] l. 2161.
[29] Widsith, l. 46.
[30] Beowulf, l. 2160. Had Hrothulf been a son of Heorogar he could not have been passed over in silence here. Neither can Hrothulf be Hrothgar's sister's son: for since the sister married the Swedish king, Hrothulf would in that case be a Swedish prince, and presumably would be living at the Swedish court, and bearing a name connected by alliteration with those of the Swedish, not the Danish house. Besides, had he been a Swedish prince, he must have been heard of in connection with the dynastic quarrels of the Swedish house.
[31] ll. 1163-5.
[32] ll. 1188-91.
[33] ll. 1180 etc.
[34] Doubts are expressed, for example, in Trap's monumental topographical work (Kongeriket Danmark, II, 328, 1898).
[35] For example Sweyn Aageson (c. 1200) had no doubt that the little village of Leire near Roskilde was identical with the Leire of story: Rolf Kraki, occisus in Lethra, qvae tunc famosissima Regis extitit curia, nunc autem Roskildensi vicina civitati, inter abjectissima ferme vix colitur oppida. Svenonis Aggonis Historia Regum Daniae, in Langebek, I, 45.
[36] Ro ... patrem vero suum Dan colle apud Lethram tumulavit Sialandie ubi sedem regni pro eo pater constituit, qvam ipse post eum divitiis multiplicibus ditavit. In the so-called Annales Esromenses, in Langebek, I, 224. Cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 188, 194. For further evidence, see Appendix (G) below.
[37] We must not think of Heorot as an isolated country seat. The Royal Hall would stand in the middle of the Royal Village, as in the case of the halls of Attila (Priscus in Möller's Fragmenta, IV, 85) or Cynewulf (A.S. Chronicle, Anno 755).
[38] Lethram pergitur, quod oppidum, a Roluone constructum eximiisque regni opibus illustratum, ceteris confinium prouinciarum urbibus regie fundacionis et sedis auctoritate prestabat. Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p. 58).
[39] His cognitis Helgo filium Roluonem Lethrica arce conclusit, heredis saluti consulturus (p. 52).
[40] A Roe Roskildia condita memoratur. Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p. 51). Roe's spring, after being a feature of the town throughout the ages, is now (owing perhaps to its sources having been tapped by a neighbouring mineral-water factory) represented only by a pump in a market-garden.
[41] I owe this paragraph to information kindly supplied me by Dr Sofus Larsen, librarian of the University Library, Copenhagen.
[42] It was once believed that, in prehistoric times, the sea came up to Leire also (Forchhammer, Steenstrup and Worsaae: Undersøgelser i geologisk-antiqvarisk Retning, Kjøbenhavn, 1851). A most exact scrutiny of the geology of the coast-line has proved this to be erroneous. (Danmarks geologiske Undersøgelse I.R. 6. Beskrivelse til Kaartbladene Kjøbenhavn og Roskilde, af K. Rørdam, Kjøbenhavn, 1899.)
[43] The presence at Leire of early remains makes it tempting to suppose that it may have been from very primitive times a stronghold or sacred place. It is impossible here to examine these conjectures, which would connect Heorot ultimately with the "sacred place on the isle of the ocean" mentioned by Tacitus. The curious may be referred to Much in P.B.B. XVII, 196-8; Mogk in Pauls Grdr. (2) III, 367; Kock in the Swedish Historisk Tidskrift, 1895, 162 etc.; and particularly to the articles by Sarrazin: Die Hirsch Halle in Anglia, XIX, 368-91, Neue Beowulfstudien (Der Grendelsee) in Engl. Stud. XLII, 6-15.
[44] This seems to me much more probable than, as Olrik supposes, that Froda fell in battle against Healfdene (Skjoldungasaga, 162 [80]).
[45] Saga of Rolf Kraki, cap. IV.
[46] Olrik wishes to read the whole of this account, not as a prediction in the present future tense, but as a narrative of past events in the historic present. (Heltedigtning, I, 16; II, 38.) Considering the rarity of the historic present idiom in Old English poetry, this seems exceedingly unlikely.
[47] ll. 2047-2056.
[48] Verba dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio; ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam, sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid Hinieldus cum Christo? See Jaffé's Monumenta Alcuiniana (Bibliotheca Rer. Germ. VI), Berlin, 1873, p. 357; Epistolae, 81.
[49] Saxo, Book VI (ed. Holder, 205, 212-13).
The contrast between this lyrical outburst, and the matter-of-fact speech in which the old warrior in Beowulf eggs on the younger man, is thoroughly characteristic of the difference between Old English and Old Scandinavian heroic poetry. This difference is very noticeable whenever we have occasion to compare a passage in Beowulf with any parallel passage in a Scandinavian poem, and should be carefully pondered by those who still believe that Beowulf is, in its present form, a translation from the Scandinavian.
[50] Saxo, Book VIII (ed. Holder, p. 274); Helga kviþa Hundingsbana, II, 19. See also Bugge, Helge-digtene, 157.
[51] Þáttr Þorsteins Skelks in Flateyarbók (ed. Vigfússon and Unger), I, 416.
[52] Similarly, there is certainly a primitive connection between the names of the Geatas (Gautar) and of the Goths: but they are quite distinct peoples: we should not be justified in speaking of the Geatas as identical with the Goths.
[53] Müllenhoff (Beovulf, 29-32) followed by Much (P.B.B. XVII, 201) and Heinzel (A.f.d.A. XVI, 271). The best account of the Heruli is in Procopius (Bell. Gott. II, 14, 15).
[54] See also Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 21, 22: Sarrazin in Engl. Stud. XLII, 11: Bugge, Helgi-digtene, 151-63; 181: Chambers, Widsith, p. 82 (note), pp. 205-6.
[55] Saga of Rolf Kraki: Skjoldungasaga.
[56] Best represented in Saxo.
[58] ll. 1180-87.
[59] ll. 1188-91.
[60] ll. 1163-5.
[61] ll. 1017-19.
[62] ll. 45-6.
[63] For a contrary view see Clarke, Sidelights, 100.
[64] Saxo has mistaken a title hnøggvanbaugi for a father's name, (hins) hnøggva Baugs "(son of the) covetous Baug."
[65] Langfeðgatal in Langebek, I, 5. The succession given in Langfeðgatal is Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Rolf, Hrærek: it should, of course, run Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Hrærek, Rolf. Hrærek has been moved from his proper place in order to clear Rolf of any suspicion of usurpation.
[66] l. 1189.
[67] See Olrik, Episke Love in Danske Studier, 1908, p. 79. Compare the remark of Goethe in Wilhelm Meister, as to the necessity of there being both a Rosencrantz and a Guildenstern (Apprenticeship, Book V, chap. v).
[68] ll. 587-9.
[69] ll. 1165-8.
[70] Perhaps such murder of kin was more common among the aristocratic houses than among the bulk of the population (Chadwick, H.A. 348). In some great families it almost becomes the rule, producing a state of things similar to that in present day Afghanistan, where it has become a proverb that a man is "as great an enemy as a cousin" (Pennell, Afghan Frontier, 30).
[71] This is proposed by Cosijn (Aanteekeningen, 21) and again independently by Lawrence in M.L.N. XXV, 157.
[72] ll. 467-9.
[73] ll. 2155-62.
[74] See Widsith, ed. Chambers, pp. 92-4.
[75] See Rickert, "The Old English Offa Saga" in Mod. Phil. II, esp. p. 75.
[76] The common ascription of the Lives of the Offas to Matthew Paris is erroneous: they are somewhat earlier.
[77] The identification of Fifeldor with the Eider has been doubted, notably by Holthausen, though he seems less doubtful in his latest edition (third edit. II, 178). The reasons for the identification appear to me the following. Place names ending in dor are exceedingly rare. When, therefore, two independent authorities tell us that Offa fought at a place named Fifel-dor or Egi-dor, it appears unlikely that this can be a mere coincidence: it seems more natural to assume that the names are corruptions of one original. But further, the connection is not limited to the second element in the name. For the Eider (Egidora, Ægisdyr) would in O.E. be Egor-dor: and Egor-dor stands to Fifel-dor precisely as egor-stream (Boethius, Metra, XX, 118) does to fifel-stream (Metra, XXVI, 26), "egor" and "fifel" being interchangeable synonyms. See note to Widsith, l. 43 (p. 204). It is objected that the interchange of fifel and egor, though frequent in common nouns, would be unusual in the name of a place. The reply is that the Old English scop may not have regarded it as a place-name. He may have substituted fifel-dor for the synonymous egor-dor, "the monster gate," without realizing that it was the name of a definite place, just as he would have substituted fifel-stream for egor-stream, "the monster stream, the sea," if alliteration demanded the change.
[78] The Deeds of Beowulf, LXXXV.
[79] See below, pp. 105-12, and Appendix (D) below.
[80] Wihtlæg appears in Saxo as Vigletus (Book IV, ed. Holder, p. 105).
[81] Nibelungen Lied, ed. Piper, 328.
[82] Book IV (ed. Holder, p. 102).
[83] Kemble, Beowulf, Postscript IX; followed by Müllenhoff, etc. So, lately, Chadwick (H.A. 126): cf. also Sievers ('Beowulf und Saxo' in the Berichte d. k. sächs. Gesell. d. Wissenschaften, 1895, pp. 180-88); Bradley in Encyc. Brit. III, 761; Boer, Beowulf, 135. See also Olrik, Danmarks Heltedigtning, I, 246. For further discussion see below, Appendix (A).
[84] Beo—Scyld—Scef in Ethelwerd: Beowius—Sceldius—Sceaf in William of Malmesbury. But in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle five generations intervene between Sceaf and his descendant Scyldwa, father of Beaw.
[85] "Item there is vii acres lond lying by the high weye toward the grendyll": Bury Wills, ed. S. Tymms (Camden Soc. XLIX, 1850, p. 31).
[86] I should hardly have thought it worth while to revive this old "cesspool" theory, were it not for the statement of Dr Lawrence that "Miller's argument that the word grendel here is not a proper name at all, that it means 'drain,' has never, to my knowledge, been refuted." (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 253.)
Miller was a scholar whose memory should be reverenced, but the letter to the Academy was evidently written in haste. The only evidence which Miller produced for grendel standing alone as a common noun in Old English was a charter of 963 (Birch, 1103: vol. III, p. 336): þanon forð eft on grendel: þanon on clyst: grendel here, he asserted, meant "drain": and consequently gryndeles sylle and grendles mere in the other charters must mean "cesspool." But the locality of this charter of 963 is known (Clyst St Mary, a few miles east of Exeter), and the two words exist there as names of streams to this day—"thence again along the Greendale brook, thence along the river Clyst." The Grindle or Greendale brook is no sewer, but a stream some half dozen miles in length which "winds tranquilly through a rich tract of alluvial soil" (Journal of the Archaeol. Assoc. XXXIX, 273), past three villages which bear the same name, Greendale, Greendale Barton and Higher Greendale, under Greendale Bridge and over the ford by Greendale Lane, to its junction with the Clyst. Why the existence of this charming stream should be held to justify the interpretation of Grendel or Gryndel as "drain" and grendles mere as "cesspool" has always puzzled me. Were a new Drayton to arise he might, in a new Polyolbion, introduce the nymph complaining of her hard lot at the hands of scholars in the Hesperides. I hope, when he next visits England, to conduct Dr Lawrence to make his apologies to the lady. Meantime a glance at the "six inch" ordnance map of Devon suffices to refute Miller's curious hypothesis.
[87] It is often asserted that the same Beowa appears as a witness to a charter (Müllenhoff, Beovulf, p. 8: Haak, Zeugnisse zur altenglischen Heldensage, 53). But this rests upon a misprint of Kemble (C.D.S. V, 44). The name is really Beoba (Birch, Cart. Sax. I, 212).
[88] Beaf er ver kollum Biar, in the descent of Harold Fairhair from Adam, in Flateyarbók, ed. Vigfússon and Unger, Christiania, 1859, I, 27. [The genealogy contains many names obviously taken from a MS of the O.E. royal pedigrees, not from oral tradition, as is shown by the miswritings, e.g., Beaf for Beaw, owing to mistaking the O.E. w for f.] "This is no proof," Dr Lawrence urges, "of popular acquaintance with Bjár as a Scandinavian figure." (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 246.) But how are we to account for the presence of his name among a mnemonic list of some of the most famous warriors and their horses—mention along with heroes like Sigurd, Gunnar, Atli, Athils and Ali, unless Bjar was a well-known figure?
[89] en Bjárr [reið] Kerti. Kortr, "short" (Germ. Kurz), if indeed we are so to interpret it, is hardly an Icelandic word, and seems strange as the name of a horse. Egilsson (Lex. Poet. 1860) suggests kertr, "erect," "with head high" (cf. Kahle in I.F. XIV, 164).
[90] See Appendix (A) below.
[91] Müllenhoff derived Beaw from the root bhū, "to be, dwell, grow": Beaw therefore represented settled dwelling and culture. Müllenhoff's mythological explanation (Z.f.d.A. VII, 419, etc., Beovulf, 1, etc.) has been largely followed by subsequent scholars, e.g., ten Brink (Pauls Grdr. II, 533: Beowulf, 184), Symons (Pauls Grdr. (2), III, 645-6) and, in general outline, E. H. Meyer (Mythol. der Germanen, 1903, 242).
[92] Uhland in Germania, II, 349.
[93] Laistner (Nebelsagen, 88, etc., 264, etc.), Kögel (Z.f.d.A. XXXVII, 274: Geschichte d. deut. Litt. I, 1, 109), and Golther (Handbuch der germ. Mythologie, 1895, 173) see in Grendel the demon of combined storm and pestilence.
[94] E. H. Meyer (Germ. Mythol. 1891, 299).
[95] Mogk (Pauls Grdr. (2), III, 302) regards Grendel as a "water-spirit."
[96] Boer (Ark. f. nord. Filol. XIX, 19).
[97] This suggestion is made (very tentatively) by Brandl, in Pauls Grdr. (2), II, i, 992.
[98] This view has been enunciated by Wundt in his Völkerpsychologie, II, i, 326, etc., 382. For a discussion see A. Heusler in Berliner Sitzungsberichte, XXXVII, 1909, pp. 939-945.
[99] Cf. Lawrence in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 265, etc., and Panzer's "Beowulf" throughout.
[100] The tradition of "the devil and his dam" resembles that of Grendel and his mother in its coupling together the home-keeping female and the roving male. See E. Lehmann, "Fandens Oldemor" in Dania, VIII, 179-194; a paper which has been undeservedly neglected in the Beowulf bibliographies. But the devil beats his dam (cf. Piers Plowman, C-text, XXI, 284): conduct of which one cannot imagine Grendel guilty. See too Lehmann in Arch. f. Religionswiss. VIII, 411-30: Panzer, Beowulf, 130, 137, etc.: Klaeber in Anglia, XXXVI, 188.
[101] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 1282-7.
[102] There are other coincidences which may be the result of mere chance. In each case, before the adventure with the giants, the hero proves his strength by a feat of endurance in the ice-cold water. And, at the end of the story, the hero in each case produces, as evidence of his victory, a trophy with a runic inscription: in Beowulf an engraved sword-hilt; in the Grettis saga bones and a "rune-staff."
[103] Vigfússon, Corp. Poet. Boreale, II, 502: Bugge, P.B.B. XII, 58.
[104] Boer, for example, believes that Beowulf influenced the Grettis saga (Grettis saga, Introduction, xliii); so, tentatively, Olrik (Heltedigtning, I, 248).
[105] For this argument and the following, cf. Schück, Studier i Beowulfssagan, 21.
[106] Even assuming that a MS of Beowulf had found its way to Iceland, it would have been unintelligible. This is shown by the absurd blunders made when Icelanders borrowed names from the O.E. genealogies.
[107] Cf. Olrik, A. f. n. F., VIII (N.F. IV), 368-75; and Chadwick, Origin, 125-6.
[108] Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXVII, 208 etc.
[109] Cotton. Gnomic Verses, ll. 42-3.
[110] Fornmannasǫgur, III, 204-228.
[111] Hammershaimb, Færōiske Kvœder, II, 1855, Nos. 11 and 12.
[112] A. I. Arwidsson, Svenska Fornsånger, 1834-42, Nos. 8 and 9.
[113] Boer, Beowulf, 177-180.
[114] ll. 1553-6.
[115] l. 455.
[116] The attacks have taken place at Yule for two successive years, exactly as in the Grettis saga. [In Beowulf it is, of course, "twelve winters" (l. 147).] Is this mere accident, or does the Grettis saga here preserve the original time limit, which has been exaggerated in Beowulf? If so, we have another point of resemblance between the Saga of Rolf Kraki and the earliest version of the Beowulf story.
[117] Beowulf, ll. 801-5.
[118] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 590-606.
[119] Beowulf, l. 679.
[120] Beowulf, ll. 1508-9, 1524.
[121] It is only in this adventure that Rolf carries the sword Gullinhjalti. His usual sword, as well known as Arthur's Excalibur, was Skofnungr. For Gyldenhilt, whether descriptive, or proper noun, see Beowulf, 1677.
[122] Cf. Symons in Pauls Grdr. (2), III, 649: Züge aus dem anglischen Mythus von Béaw-Biar (Biarr oder Bjár?; s. Symons Lieder der Edda, I, 222) wurden auf den dänischen Sagenhelden (Boðvarr) Bjarki durch Ähnlichkeit der Namen veranlasst, übertragen. Cf. too, Heusler in A.f.d.A. XXX, 32.
[123] See p. 87 and Appendix (A) below.
[124] Heltedigtning, I, 1903, 135-6.
[125] Beowulf, 1518.
[126] See Heusler in Z.f.d.A. XLVIII, 62.
[127] Cf. on this Heusler, Z.f.d.A. XLVIII, 64-5.
[128] Cf. Skjoldunga saga, cap. XII; and see Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 201-5; Bjarka rímur, VIII.
[129] Similarly Skáldskaparmál, 41 (44).
[130] Bärensohn. Jean l'Ours. The name is given to the group because the hero is frequently (though by no means always) represented as having been brought up in a bear's den. The story summarized above is a portion of Panzer's "Type A." See Appendix (H), below.
[131] ll. 704, 729.
[132] ll. 691-6.
[133] In the Beowulf it was even desirable, as explained above, to go further, and completely to exculpate the Danish watchers.
[134] From the controversial point of view Panzer has no doubt weakened his case by drawing attention to so many of these, probably accidental, coincidences. It gives the critic material for attack (cf. Boer, Beowulf, 14)
[135] ll. 2183 etc.
[136] ll. 408-9.
[137] It comes out strongly in the Bjarki-story.
[138] It can hardly be argued that Stein is mentioned because he was an historic character who in some way came into contact with the historic Grettir: for in this case his descent would have been given, according to the usual custom in the sagas. (Cf. note to Boer's edition of Grettis saga, p. 233.)
[139] P. E. K. Kaalund, Bidrag til en historisk-topografisk Beskrivelse af Island, Kjøbenhavn, 1877, II, 151.
[140] The localization in en stor sandhaug is found in a version of the story to which Panzer was unable to get access (see p. 7 of his Beowulf, Note 2). A copy is to be found in the University Library of Christiania, in a small book entitled Nor, en Billedbog for den norske Ungdom. Christiania, 1865. (Norske Folke-Eventyr ... fortalte af P. C. Asbjørnsen, pp. 65-128.)
The sandhaug is an extraordinary coincidence, if it is a mere coincidence. It cannot have been imported into the modern folk-tale from the Grettis saga, for there is no superficial resemblance between the two tales.
[141] Cf. Boer, Beowulf, 14.
[142] Yet both Beowulf and Orm are saved by divine help.
[143] Panzer exaggerates the case against his own theory when he quotes only six versions as omitting the princesses (p. 122). Such unanimity as this is hardly to be looked for in a collection of 202 kindred folk-tales. In addition to these six, the princesses are altogether missing, for example, in the versions Panzer numbers 68, 69, 77: they are only faintly represented in other versions (e.g. 76). Nevertheless the rescue of the princesses may be regarded as the most essential element in the tale.
[144] I cannot agree with Panzer when (p. 319) he suggests the possibility of the Beowulf and the Grettir-story having been derived independently from the folk-tale. For the two stories have many features in common which do not belong to the folk-tale: apart from the absence of the princesses we have the hæft-mēce and the strange conclusion drawn by the watchers from the blood-stained water.
[145] Ipse Scef cum uno dromone advectus est in insula Oceani, quae dicitur Scani, armis circundatus, eratque valde recens puer, & ab incolis illius terrae ignotus; attamen ab eis suscipitur, & ut familiarem diligenti animo eum custodierunt, & post in regem eligunt.
Ethelwerdus, III, 3, in Savile's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam, Francofurti, 1601, p. 842.
[146] See Chadwick, Origin, 259-60.
[147] Sceldius [fuit filius] Sceaf. Iste, ut ferunt, in quandam insulam Germaniae Scandzam, de qua Jordanes, historiographus Gothorum, loquitur, appulsus navi sine remige, puerulus, posito ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens, ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus, ab hominibus regionis illius pro miraculo exceptus et sedulo nutritus: adulta aetate regnavit in oppido quod tunc Slaswic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur. Est autem regio illa Anglia vetus dicta....
William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Regum Anglorum. Lib. II, § 116, vol. I, p. 121, ed. Stubbs, 1887.
[148] Although Saxo Grammaticus has provided some even earlier kings.
[149] Cf. Müllenhoff in Z.f.d.A. VII, 413.
[150] In Grímnismál, 54, Odin gives Gautr as one of his names.
[151] See below.
[152] Excluding, of course, the Hebrew names.
[153] Scyld appears as Scyldwa, Sce(a)ldwa in the Chronicle. The forms correspond.
[154] See Part II.
[155] armis circundatus.
[156] For a list of the scholars who have dealt with the subject, see Widsith, p. 119.
[157] Beovulf, p. 6 etc.
[158] Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 259 etc.
[159] This objection to the Scyld-theory has been excellently expressed by Olrik—at a time, too, when Olrik himself accepted the story as belonging to Scyld rather than Sceaf. "Binz," says Olrik, "rejects William of Malmesbury as a source for the Scyld story. But he has not noticed that in doing so he saws across the branch upon which he himself and the other investigators are sitting. For if William is not a reliable authority, and even a more reliable authority than the others, then 'Scyld with the sheaf' is left in the air." Heltedigtning, I, 238-9, note.
[160] The discussion of Skjold by Olrik (Danmarks Heltedigtning, I, 223-271) is perhaps the most helpful of any yet made, especially in emphasizing the necessity of differentiating the stages in the story. But it must be taken in connection with the very essential modifications made by Dr Olrik in his second volume (pp. 249-65, especially pp. 264-5). Dr Olrik's earlier interpretation made Scyld the original hero of the story: Scefing Olrik interpreted, not as "with the sheaf," but as "son of Scef." To the objection that any knowledge of Scyld's parentage would be inconsistent with his unknown origin, Olrik replied by supposing that Scyld was a foundling whose origin, though unknown to the people of the land to which he came, was well known to the poet. The poet, Dr Olrik thought, regarded him as a son of the Langobardic king, Sceafa, a connection which we are to attribute to the Anglo-Saxon love of framing genealogies. But this explanation of Scyld Scefing as a human foundling does not seem to me to be borne out by the text of Beowulf. "The child is a poor foundling," says Dr Olrik, "he suffered distress from the time when he was first found as a helpless child. Only as a grown man did he get compensation for his childhood's adversity" (p. 228). But this is certainly not the meaning of egsode eorl[as]. It is "He inspired the earl[s] with awe."
[161] See below (App. C) for instances of ancestral names extant both in weak and strong forms, like Scyld, Sceldwa (the identity of which no one doubts) or Sceaf, Sceafa (the identity of which has been doubted).
[162] "As for the name Scyldungas-Skjöldungar, we need not hesitate to believe that this originally meant 'the people' or 'kinsmen of the shield.' Similar appellations are not uncommon, e.g., Rondingas, Helmingas, Brondingas ... probably these names meant either 'the people of the shield, the helmet,' etc., or else the people who used shields, helmets, etc., in some special way. In the former case we may compare the Ancile of the Romans and the Palladion of the Greeks; in either case we may note that occasionally shields have been found in the North which can never have been used except for ceremonial purposes." Chadwick, Origin, p. 284: cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 274.
[163] Sweyn Aageson, Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse, in Langebek, S.R.D. I, 44.
[164] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 246; Lawrence, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. XXIV, 254.
[165] It is odd that Binz, who has recorded so many of these, should have argued on the strength of these place-names that the Scyld story is not Danish, but an ancient possession of the tribes of the North Sea coast (p. 150). For Binz also records an immense number of names of heroes of alien stock—Danish, Gothic or Burgundian—as occurring in England (P.B.B. XX, 202 etc.).
[166] Beovulf, p. 7.
[167] Chadwick, Origin, p. 278.
[168] The scandals about King Edgar (infamias quas post dicam magis resperserunt cantilenae: see Gesta Regum Anglorum, II, § 148, ed. Stubbs, vol. I, p. 165); the story of Gunhilda, the daughter of Knut, who, married to a foreign King with great pomp and rejoicing, nostro seculo etiam in triviis cantitata, was unjustly suspected of unchastity till her English page, in vindication of her honour, slew the giant whom her accusers had brought forward as their champion (Gesta, II, § 188, ed. Stubbs, I, pp. 229, 230); the story of King Edward and the shepherdess, learnt from cantilenis per successiones temporum detritis (Gesta, II, § 138, ed. Stubbs, I, 155). Macaulay in the Lays of Ancient Rome has selected William as a typical example of the historian who draws upon popular song. Cf. Freeman's Historical Essays.
[169] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 245.
[170] Origin, pp. 279-281.
[171] Brand, Popular Antiquities, 1813, I, 443.
[172] Henderson, Folklore of the Northern Counties, 87-89.
[173] Hone's Every Day Book, 1827, p. 1170.
[174] The Tamar and the Tavy, I. 330 (1836).
[175] Raymond, Two men o' Mendip, 1899, 259.
[176] Miss M. A. Courtney, Glossary of West Cornwall; T. Q. Couch, Glossary of East Cornwall, s. v. Neck (Eng. Dial. Soc. 1880); Jago, Ancient Language of Cornwall, 1882, s. v. Anek.
[177] Notes and Queries, 4th Ser. XII, 491 (1873).
[178] Holland's Glossary of Chester (Eng. Dial. Soc.), s.v. Cutting the Neck.
[179] Burne, Shropshire Folk Lore, 1883, 371.
[180] "to cry the Mare." Blount, Glossographia, 4th edit. 1674, s.v. mare. Cf. Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. VI, 286 (1876).
[181] Wright, Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v. neck.
[182] Frazer, Spirits of the Corn, 1912, I, 268. The word was understood as = "neck" by the peasants, because "They'm taied up under the chin laike" (Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. X, 51). But this may be false etymology.
[183] Wright, Eng. Dial. Dict. Cf. Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. X, 51.
[184] Heltedigtning, II, 252.
[185] The earliest record of the term "cutting the neck" seems to be found in Randle Holme's Store House of Armory, 1688 (II, 73). It may be noted that Holme was a Cheshire man.
[186] Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, Strassburg, 1884, 326 etc.
[187] Quod dum servi Dei propensius actitarent, inspiratum est eis salubre consilium et (ut pium est credere) divinitus provisum. Die etenim statuto mane surgentes monachi sumpserunt scutum rotundum, cui imponebant manipulum frumenti, et super manipulum cereum circumspectae quantitatis et grossitudinis. Quo accenso scutum cum manipulo et cereo, fluvio ecclesiam praetercurrenti committunt, paucis in navicula fratribus subsequentibus. Praecedebat itaque eos scutum et quasi digito demonstrans possessiones domui Abbendoniae de jure adjacentes nunc huc, nunc illuc divertens; nunc in dextra nunc in sinistra parte fiducialiter eos praeibat, usquedum veniret ad rivum prope pratum quod Beri vocatur, in quo cereus medium cursum Tamisiae miraculose deserens se declinavit et circumdedit pratum inter Tamisiam et Gifteleia, quod hieme et multociens aestate ex redundatione Tamisiae in modum insulae aqua circumdatur.
Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson, 1858, vol. I, p. 89.
[188] Chadwick, Origin, 278.
[189] Olrik, Heltedigtning, II, 251.
[190] But is this so? "The word Sämpsä (now sämpsykka) 'small rush, scirpus silvaticus, forest rush,' is borrowed from the Germanic family (Engl. semse; Germ. simse)." Olrik, 253. But the Engl. "semse" is difficult to track.
See also note by A. Mieler in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, X, 43, 1910.
[191] Kaarle Krohn, "Sampsa Pellervoinen" in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen IV, 231 etc., 1904.
[192] Cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, II, 252 etc..
[193] I do not understand why Olrik (Heltedigtning, I, 235) declares the coming to land in Scani (Ethelwerd) to be inconsistent with Sceaf as a Longobardic king (Widsith). For, according to their national historian, the Longobardi came from "Scadinavia" [Paul the Deacon, I, 1-7]. It is a more serious difficulty that Paul knows of no Longobardic king with a name which we can equate with Sceaf.
[194] So, corresponding to O.E. trīewe we have Icel. tryggr; to O.E. glēaw, Icel. glǫggr; O.E. scūwa, Icel. skugg-.
[195] Olrik, Heltedigtning, II, 1910, pp. 254-5.
An account of the worship of Pekko will be found in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, VI, 1906, pp. 104-111: Über den Pekokultus bei den Setukesen, by M. J. Eisen. See also Appendix (A) below.
Pellon-Pecko is mentioned by Michael Agricola, Bishop of Åbo, in his translation of the Psalter into Finnish, 1551. It is here that we are told that he "promoted the growth of barley."
[196] l. 15.
[197] That Heremod is a Danish king is clear from ll. 1709 etc. And as we have all the stages in the Scylding genealogy from Scyld to Hrothgar, Heremod must be placed earlier.
[198] Of Grein in Eberts Jahrbuch, IV, 264.
[199] A good example of this is supplied by the Assyrian records, which make Jehu a son of Omri—whose family he had destroyed.
[200] This reconstruction is made by Sievers in the Berichte d. k. sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1895, pp. 180-88.
[201] The god Hermóðr who rides to Hell to carry a message to the dead Baldr is here left out of consideration. His connection with the king Hermóðr is obscure.
[202] On this see Dederich, Historische u. geographische Studien, 214; Heinzel in A.f.d.A. XV, 161; Chadwick, Origin, 148; Chadwick, Cult of Othin, 51.
[203] Chadwick, Cult of Othin, pp. 50, etc.
[204] puerulus ... pro miraculo exceptus (William of Malmesbury). Cf. Beowulf, l. 7. In Saxo, Skjold distinguishes himself at the age of fifteen.
[205] omnem Alemannorum gentem tributaria ditione perdomuit. Cf. Beowulf, l. 11.
[207] This relationship of Frothi and Skjold is preserved by Sweyn Aageson: Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse.... A quo primum.... Skioldunger sunt Reges nuncupati. Qui regni post se reliquit haeredes Frothi videlicet & Haldanum. Svenonis Aggonis Hist. Regum Dan. in Langebek, S.R.D. I, 44.
In Saxo Frotho is not the son, but the great grandson of Skioldus—but this is a discrepancy which may be neglected, because it seems clear that the difference is due to Saxo having inserted two names into the line at this point—those of Gram and Hadding. There seems no reason to doubt that Danish tradition really represented Frothi as son of Skjold.
[208] Those who accept the identification would regard Fróði (O.E. Frōda, 'the wise') as a title which has ousted the proper name.
[209] Boer, Ark. f. nord. filol., XIX, 67, calls this theory of Sievers "indisputable."
[210] Sievers, p. 181.
[211] Beowulf, 2405. Cf. 2215, 2281.
[212] So Regin guides Sigurd: Una the Red Cross Knight. The list might be indefinitely extended. Similarly with giants: "Then came to him a husbandman of the country, and told him how there was in the country of Constantine, beside Brittany, a great giant".... Morte d'Arthur, Book V, cap. V.
[213] Beowulf, 895.
[214] l. 2338.