Part 1

The University of Chicago.

The Relation of the _Hrólfs Saga_ _Kraka_ and the _Bjarkarímur_ to _Beowulf_.

A Contribution to the History of Saga Development in England and the Scandinavian Countries.

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH).

BY

OSCAR LUDVIG OLSON

A Private Edition

Distributed By The University of Chicago Libraries

A Trade Edition Is Published By The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.

1916

THE RELATION OF THE HRÓLFS SAGA KRAKA AND THE BJARKARÍMUR TO BEOWULF.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF SAGA DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND AND THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES.

PREFACE

It was at the suggestion of Professor John M. Manly that I took up the study which has resulted in the following dissertation, and from him I have received much encouragement and valuable assistance on numerous occasions. I have profited by suggestions received from Professor Tom Peete Cross and Professor James R. Hulbert; and Professor Chester N. Gould has been unstinting in his kindness in permitting me to draw on his knowledge of the Old Norse language and literature. In addition to the aid received from these gentlemen, professors in the University of Chicago, I have received bibliographical information and helpful suggestions from Professor Frederick Klaeber, of the University of Minnesota; I have been aided in various ways by Professor George T. Flom, of the University of Illinois, particularly in preparing the manuscript for the press; and from others I have had assistance in reading proof. To all these gentlemen I am very grateful, and I take this opportunity to extend to them my sincere thanks.

INTRODUCTORY.

The following pages are the result of an investigation that has grown out of a study of _Beowulf_. The investigation has been prosecuted mainly with a view to ascertaining as definitely as possible the relationship between the Anglo-Saxon poem and the _Hrólfs Saga Kraka_, and has involved special consideration of two portions of the saga, namely, the _Bọðvarsþáttr_, and the _Fróðaþáttr_, and such portions of the early literature in England and the Scandinavian countries as seem to bear some relationship to the stories contained in these two portions of the saga. Some of the results achieved may seem to be outside the limits of the main theme. But they are not without value in this connection, for they throw light on the manner in which the _Hrólfssaga_ and some of the other compositions in question came to assume the form in which we now find them. Thus these results assist us in determining the extent to which the saga and the _Bjarkarímur_ are related to _Beowulf_.

As the field under consideration has been the object of investigation by a number of scholars, much that otherwise would need to be explained to prepare the way for what is to be presented lies ready at hand, and this is used as a foundation on which to build further.

In order to give the reader who is interested in the subject, but has not made a special study of it, an idea of the problems involved, and the solutions that have been offered, the discussion is preceded by a brief summary of the principal conclusions reached by various scholars.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONS

_Aarb._--_Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1894._

_Ark._--_Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi._

_Ang._--_Anglia._

_Ant. Tid._--_Antiquarisk Tidsskrift._

_Beow._--_Beowulf._ The line numbering used is that of A.J. Wyatt's edition.

_Beow._, Child--_Beowulf and the Finnesburh Fragment_, translated by C.G. Child, 1904.

_Beow. Stud._--_Beowulf-Studien_, by Gregor Sarrazin, 1888.

_Beow. Unt._--_Beowulf, Untersuchungen_, by Bernhard ten Brink, 1888.

_Beow. Unt. Ang._--_Beowulf, Untersuchungen über das angelsächsische Epos und die älteste Geschichte der germanischen Seevölker_, by Karl Müllenhoff, 1889.

_Camb. Hist. Lit._--_The Cambridge History of English Literature._

_Chron._--_Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland_, by Raphael Holinshed, edition of 1808.

_Helt._--_Danmarks Heltedigtning_, by Axel Otrik, vol. I, 1903; vol. II, 1910.

_Dan. Nor. Rig._--_Danske og norske Riger paa de britiske Öer i Danevældens Tidsalder_, by Johannes C.H. Steenstrup, 1882.

_Eng. Nov._--_The Development of the English Novel_, by Wilbur L. Cross, 1914.

_Dictionary of National Biography_.

_Eng. Stud._--_Englische Studien_.

_Ext. Ch. Rol._--_Extraits de la Chanson de Roland_, by Gaston Paris, 1912.

_Gest. Dan._--_Gesta Danorum_, by Saxo Grammaticus, edited by A. Holder, 1886.

_Elton's Saxo_--_The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus,_ translated by Oliver Elton, 1894.

_Gesch. Alteng. Lit._--_Geschichte der altenglischen Litteratur_, by Alois Brandl (Paul's _Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_, 1908).

_Heimsk._--_Heimskringla, eller Norges Kongesagaer_, by Snorre Sturlasson, edited by C.R. Unger, 1868.

_Hist. Reg. Wald._--_Historia Regis Waldei_, by Johannes Bramis, edited by R. Imelmann, 1912.

_Hist. Mer._--_Historia Meriadoci_, edited by J.D. Bruce, 1913.

_Hrs. Bjark._--_Hrólfs Saga Kraka og Bjarkarímur_, edited by Finnur Jónsson. 1904.

_Icel. Leg._--_Icelandic Legends_, collected by Jón Arnason, translated by George E. Powell and Eiríkur Magnússon, 1864.

_Mort. d'Arth._--_Morte d'Arthur_, by Sir Thomas Malory, Globe edition, 1871.

_Norroen Fornkvæði_, edited by Sophus Bugge, 1867.

_Nor. Tales_--_Norse Fairy Tales_, selected and adapted from the translations of Sir George Webbe Dasent, 1910.

_Folk. Huld. Even._--_Norske Folke-og Huldre-Eventyr i Udvalg_, by P. Chr. Asbjörnsen, revised edition by Moltke Moe, 1910.

_Event. Sagn_--_Norske Folkeeventyr og Sagn_, by O.T. Olsen, 1912.

_Nor. Hist._--_Det norske Folks Historie_, by P.A. Munch, 1852.

_Sagn--Norske Sagn_, Christiania, 1902.

_Notes, Beow.--Notes on Beowulf_, by Thomas Arnold, 1898.

_Oldn. Lit. Hist.--Den oldnorske og oldislandske Litteraturs Historie_, by Finnur Jónsson.

_Grundr._--Paul's _Grundriss der germanischen Philologie._

_P. B. B._--Paul and Braune's _Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur._

_Pop. Tales--Popular Tales from the North_, by George Webbe Dasent, 1859.

_P. M. L. A.--Publications of the Modern Language Association of America._

_Grettis.--The Saga of Grettir the Strong, Everyman's Library._

_Sc. Folkl.--Scandinavian Folk-lore_, by William A. Craigie, 1896.

_Sc. Rer. Dan.--Scriptores Rerum Danicarum_, edited by Jakob Langebek, 1772.

_Macb._--Shakespeare's _Tragedy of Macbeth_, edited by William J. Rolfe, 1905.

_Skjs.--_Skjọldungasaga (_Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie_, 1894).

_Sn. Ed.--Snorri Sturluson, Edda_, edited by Finnur Jónsson, 1900.

_St. germ. Sag.--Studien zur germanischen Sagengeschichte_; I _Beowulf_, by Friedrich Panzer, 1910.

_St. Sag. Eng--Studien zur Sagengeschichte Englands_; I Teil, _Die Wikingersagen_, by Max Deutschbein, 1906.

_Vọlsungasaga (Fornaldarsogur Norðrlanda_, edited by Valdimar Asmundarson, vol. I, 1891).

_Widsith_ (_The Oldest English Epic--Beowulf, Widsith_, etc.--translated by Francis B. Gummere, 1909).

_Yel. Fair. Bk.--The Yellow Fairy Book_, by Andrew Lang.

CONTENTS.

Preface I

Introductory 1

Bibliography and Abbreviations 3

The Relation of the Hrólfs Saga Kraka and the Bjarkarímur to Beowulf

I Bọðvarsþáttr 7

II Fróðaþáttr 61

III General Summary 98

THE RELATION OF THE HRÓLFS SAGA KRAKA AND THE BJARKARÍMUR TO BEOWULF.

I

_BỌÐVARSÞÁTTR._

The question whether Saxo Grammaticus' account of Biarco's fight with a bear or the account in the _Hrólfssaga_ of Bjarki's fight with a winged monster is the earlier version of the story has been the subject of much discussion, as has also the possible identity of Bjarki's (Biarco's) exploit with one or both of Beowulf's exploits (his slaying of Grendel and the dragon). The latter problem is still further complicated by the introduction of two beasts in the _Bjarkarímur_ where Saxo and the _Hrólfssaga_ have only one, and the introduction in _Beowulf_ of Grendel's mother, who makes her appearance in order to defend her offspring and also is slain.

In this dissertation an attempt will not be made to clear up the whole of this complicated matter. But an attempt will be made to solve some of the problems involved. It will be shown that the stories in the _Bjarkarímur_ of the slaying of the wolf and the bear at the court of Hrolf Kraki[1] are based on the story in the _Hrólfssaga_ of the slaying of the winged[2] monster. The explanation of the origin of the dragon and the interpretation of the whole dragon story in the _Hrólfssaga_, both of which have hitherto been wanting, will be given. From this it will be seen that this story in the _Hrólfssaga_ is based on the story, related in the second book of Saxo's _Gesta Danorum_[3], of Bjarki's slaying the bear.

_Earlier Opinions in Regard to the_ BỌÐVARSÞÁTTR, _the_ BJARKARÍMUR, _and Related Matters_.

Gisli Brynjulfsson, the first writer, apparently, to call attention to the similarity between Beowulf's combat with Grendel and Bjarki's combat with the winged monster, identified the story in the _Hrólfssaga_ of Bjarki's fight with the winged monster with the story in _Beowulf_ of Beowulf's fight with Grendel. That it was a sea-monster (havjætte) that caused the trouble in Denmark, while it was a mountain-troll that caused the trouble in Norway, he thought was as characteristic as anything could be.[4]

Gregor Sarrazin would identify Bjarki with Beowulf. He calls attention to striking similarities between the stories about the two men and attempts to identify the word "Bọðvar," etymologically, with the word "Beowulf." The translator, as he calls the author of _Beowulf_, may, through misconception, have regarded "var," the second part of the name "Bọðvar," as "vargr" and translated it faithfully into AS. "wulf." This, combined with other changes, which he discusses and illustrates, that might have taken place in the name in its passage from very early Danish to Anglo-Saxon, could have caused the Scandinavian name "Bọðvar" to be rendered "Bēowulf" in Anglo-Saxon.[5]

Sophus Bugge thought that saga-characteristics earlier ascribed to Beowulf had been transferred, in Danish tradition, to Bjarki. The story of Bjarki's fight with the winged monster he regarded as acquired from contact with the story of Beowulf's fight with the dragon. He showed that the words "Bọðvar" and "Bēowulf" are not etymologically related, but that "Bọðvar" is the genitive of "bọð," meaning "battle," so that "Bọðvar Bjarki" means "Battle Bjarki." He called attention to the fact that Saxo regarded Bothvar's real name as Bjarki (Lat. Biarco), that the _Bjarkamál_ was called after that name, and, furthermore, that Saxo ascribed to Bjarki the words "belligeri cepi cognomen".[6]

Sarrazin regards the story of Bjarki's journey from Sweden to Denmark and subsequent exploit there, with which he identifies the corresponding journey and exploit of Beowulf, as an embodiment of the Balder and Frey cult. He thinks it may be interpreted as the southward journey of the sun in the autumn and its contest with frost and mists when it reaches its southern limit (i.e., Denmark, according to the ancient conception of the people of the Scandinavian peninsula); or it may be interpreted as the introduction of the Balder-cult from Sweden into Denmark.[7]

Bernhard ten Brink agreed with Karl Müllenhoff,[8] that, on the one hand, there is really no similarity between the Beowulf story and Saxo's account of Bjarki, in which the blood-drinking episode is the main point, and, on the other, between Saxo's account and that in the _Hrólfssaga_, which has too much the nature of a fairy tale to be ancient tradition. He agreed with Bugge, that Bjarik's combat with the winged monster shows contact with the story of Beowulf's fight with the dragon.[9]

Sarrazin, replying to ten Brink, scouts the idea that a poem, such as _Beowulf_, which was completely unknown in England after the eleventh century, should, after this time, be well known in Scandinavian countries and exert a notable influence there.[10]

G. Binz does not think that Sarrazin's attempt to identify Bjarki with Beowulf is sufficiently substantiated and shows by a list of names,[11] dating from the twelfth century and found in the Northumbrian _Liber Vitae_, that the story about Bjarki was probably known at an early date in northern England.[12]

Sarrazin thinks that perhaps Beowulf married Freawaru, Hrothgar's daughter, as, similarly, Bjarki, according to the _Hrólfssaga_, married Drifa, the daughter of Hrothgar's nephew, Hrolf Kraki; that the troll which supports Hrolf Kraki's enemies in Hrolf's last battle is a reminiscence of the dragon in _Beowulf_; and that, owing to the change of taste and other causes that occurred in the course of time, the Beowulf story developed into the form in which it is found in the Bjarki story in the _Hrólfssaga_.[13]

Thomas Arnold concedes that there may be a faint connection between the Bjarki story and the Beowulf story, but he rejects Sarrazin's theory that the Anglo-Saxon poem is a translation from the Scandinavian (see p. 8).[14]

B. Symons takes the story of Bjarki's fight with the winged monster to be a fusion of the story of Beowulf's fight with Grendel and that of his fight with the dragon.[15]

R.C. Boer identifies Bjarki with Beaw. In the West-Saxon line of kings, Beaw succeeded Scyld; in the poem _Beowulf_, Beowulf, the Danish king, succeeded Scyld; in Saxo's account, Frothi I succeeded Scyld. Frothi is represented as having killed a dragon.

According to the _Hrólfssaga_, Bjarki killed a dragon. As Beaw in one account occupies the same position in the royal line as Frothi in another and Beowulf, the Dane, in a third, Boer thinks that Bjarki's exploit and Frothi's exploit are the same one and that to Beowulf, the Dane, the same exploit was also once attributed. In Saxo's account, Bjarki is a king's retainer; and Boer thinks his exploit has been differentiated from that of Frothi, who is a king. In _Beowulf_, he thinks, the exploit has been transferred from Beowulf, the Danish king, to Beowulf, the Geat, and that the differentiation of the deed into two exploits has been retained--Beowulf, as a king's retainer, slaying Grendel, and later, as a king, killing a dragon. This identifies Bjarki's slaying of the winged monster with Beowulf's slaying of Grendel. In Saxo's account of Bjarki, Boer thinks that the dragon has been stripped of its wings and changed to a bear.[16]

Finnur Jónsson regards the story in the _Hrólfssaga_ of Bjarki's slaying the winged monster as a reflection, though a feeble one, of the Grendel story in _Beowulf_.[17]

Axel Olrik, who, more extensively than any other writer, has entered into the whole matter, of which the problems here under consideration form a part, does not think there is any connection between _Beowulf_ and the _Hrólfssaga_.[18] He regards the stories in the _Bjarkarímur_ of Bjarki's slaying the wolf and Hjalti's slaying the bear as earlier compositions than the corresponding story in the _Hrólfssaga._[19] The addition of "Bothvar" to Bjarki's name he thinks was acquired among the Scandinavians in the north of England,[20] where the Bjarki story, by contact with the story of Siward, Earl of Northumberland, acquired the further addition of Bjarki's reputed bear-ancestry.[21] The stories in the _Grettissaga_, _Flateyjarbók_, and _Egilssaga_ to which counterparts are found in _Beowulf_, he believes to have been acquired by contact either with the Beowulf legend or, perhaps, with the Anglo-Saxon epic itself.[22]

Finnur Jónsson thinks that the stories in the _Bjarkarímur_ of Bjarki's slaying the wolf and Hjalti's slaying the bear are later compositions than the story in the _Hrólfssaga_ of Bjarki's slaying the winged monster, and supports this opinion by maintaining that the monster in the saga is a reminiscence, though altered and faded, of Grendel in _Beowulf_.[23]

Sarrazin regards the cowardly, useless Hott, Bjarki's companion, as a personification of the sword Hrunting, which fails Beowulf in his fight with Grendel's mother. But Hjalti, as Hott is called after he has become brave and strong, he regards as a personification of the giant-sword with which Beowulf dispatches Grendel's mother. Sarrazin would also identify the giant-sword, which is said to have a golden hilt (gylden hilt), with the sword Gullinhjalti in the _Hrólfssaga_.[24]

Max Deutschbein sees a connection between the Bjarki story and the _Gesta Herwardi_ that would tend to establish the story in the _Bjarkarímur_ as earlier than the corresponding story in the _Hrólfssaga_.[25]

H. Munro Chadwick, basing his opinion on the similarity between the career of Bjarki and that of Beowulf, thinks there is good reason for believing that Beowulf was the same person as Bothvar Bjarki.[26]

Alois Brandl does not think that Beowulf and Bjarki were the same person. He calls attention to the difficulty involved in the fact, which, he says, Olrik has emphasized, that "Bjarki" is etymologically unrelated to "Biár"; and of troll fights, he says, there are many in Scandinavian literature.[27]

William Witherle Lawrence thinks that "we may have to do with late influence of _Beowulf_ upon the _Hrólfssaga_".[28] He identifies "gylden hilt" with Gullinhjalti.[29] He regards the stories in the _Bjarkarímur_ of Bjarki's slaying the wolf and Hjalti's slaying the bear as earlier compositions than the story in the _Hrólfssaga_ of Bjarki's slaying the winged monster,[30] which, in agreement with Olrik, he regards as "a special late elaboration peculiar to the _Hrólfssaga_." He regards Saxo's story as earlier than the stories in the _Bjarkarímur_.[31] He refers to Mogk as believing that the Bjarki story in the saga is a werewolf myth into which the Grendel motive is woven.[32] He quotes a passage from Heusler, in which Heusler states that he regards the story in the _Bjarkarímur_ of the fight with the bear as earlier than the story in the saga of the fight with the winged monster and that, furthermore, Beowulf's fight with Grendel has been transferred to Bjarki.[33] Lawrence also calls attention to the fact that Gering thinks there is unmistakable similarity between the Grendel story and the story of Bjarki's fight with the winged monster.[34]

Friedrich Panzer identifies Bjarki with Beowulf and regards the story in question in the _Hrólfssaga_ as a later composition than the corresponding stories in the _Bjarkarímur_, which he identifies with the Grendel story.[35] "Gylden hilt" he identifies with Gullinhjalti;[36] and Hott-Hjalti, whom Sarrazin regards as a personification of swords in _Beowulf_, he identifies with Hondscio, Beowulf's companion who is devoured by Grendel.[37]

_The Story in the_ HRÓLFSSAGA _of Bjarki's Slaying the Winged Monster_.

It appears to the writer that the key to the explanation of much that has been the subject of dispute, or has remained unexplained, in the story about Bothvar Bjarki in the _Hrólfssaga_ is the influence of the fictitious (in part, also historical) life of Siward, Earl of Northumberland under Canute the Great and succeeding kings.

The life of Siward, briefly summarized from the _Dictionary of National Biography_,[38] is as follows.

Siward, Earl of Northumberland, called Digera, or the strong, a Dane, is said to have been the son of a Danish jarl named Biörn. According to legend he was descended from a white bear and a lady, etc.[39] As a matter of fact, he probably came to England with Canute and received the earldom of Deira after the death of Eadwulf Cutel, the Earl of Northumbria, when the Northumbrian earldom appears to have been divided. He married Ælflæd, daughter of Ealdred, Earl of Bernicia, the nephew of Eadwulf Cutel. In 1041 he was employed by Hardecanute, along with Earls Godwin and Leofric, to ravage Worcestershire. Later he became Earl of Northumberland and probably also of Huntingdon.

He upheld Edward the Confessor in his quarrels with Godwin in 1051. In pursuance of the king's command, Siward invaded Scotland both by sea and land with a large force in 1054. The King of Scotland was Macbeth, who had slain his predecessor, Duncan I, the husband of a sister or cousin of the earl, and Siward's invasion was evidently undertaken on behalf of Duncan's son Malcolm. A fierce battle took place on July 27th; the Scots were routed, Macbeth fled, and Malcolm appears to have been established as King of Cumbria in the district south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde. Siward died at York in 1055. Siward and his son Osbeorn, called by Shakespeare "Young Siward," appear in _Macbeth_.

The legendary life of Siward is found in two Latin versions in Langebek's _Scriptores Rerum Danicarum_, vol. III. These two versions Olrik designates as A (anonymous; p. 288) and B (Bromton; p. 300).[40] According to B, an earl of royal descent in the kingdom of the Danes had an only daughter, who went with her maidens for a walk in a neighboring wood. They met a bear, whereupon the maidens fled and the daughter was seized by the bear and carried off. In the course of time she gave birth to a son, whose name was Bern and who bore marks, in the shape of a bear's ears, of his paternity. Bern had a son, whose name was Siward. According to A, Siward is removed by three generations more from his bear-ancestor, the line of descent being Ursus (the bear), Spratlingus, Ulsius (should be Ulfius), Beorn (with the cognomen Beresun), Siward.

According to A, where the account is a little more detailed than in B, Siward, who was given the cognomen Diere (large), was a brave and powerful man, who, disdaining the succession to his father's earldom in Denmark, set sail with one vessel and fifty chosen companions, and arrived at the Orkney Islands. On one of the islands was a dragon that had done much damage by killing men and cattle. To show his strength and bravery, Siward entered into a combat with the dragon and drove it from the island. Thence he set sail for Northumberland, and there, he heard, there was another dragon. During the search for this dragon, he met an old man sitting on a hill. He inquired of the man as to the whereabouts of the dragon. But the man, calling him by name, told him that he sought the dragon in vain, and directed him to continue his journey and proceed till he came to a river called Thames, on whose bank was situated a city by the name of London. "And there," he said, "you will find the king of that region, who will enlist you in his service and in a short time bestow land upon you." As a token of the trustworthiness of his prediction, the old man drew from the folds of his garment a banner, called Ravenlandeye, and presented it to Siward.

Siward accepted the banner and proceeded to London, where he was summoned by King Edward to meet him at Westminster. Siward obeyed the summons and was enlisted in the service of the king, who promised him the first position of honor to become vacant in the kingdom. On this visit to the king, he slew Tosti in order to avenge an imagined insult and demanded and received Tosti's earldom of Huntingdon, which had thus become vacant. Some time after he also received the earldoms of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland.

Later the Norwegians made war on the king; but Siward defeated them and avenged many fold the insults and injuries sustained by the king, thus fulfilling the prophecy "that Divine Providence would permit to be born from the union of a rational with an irrational creature, i.e., from the union of a woman with a bear, a man who would wreak vengeance on the enemies of the illustrious and glorious King of England."