Chapter 13
THE ACCOUNT OF HELGI HUNDINGSBANI IN ITS
RELATION TO ANGLO-SAXON EPICS.
Page 1
Saxo, moreover, confirms this theory. In his story of Helgo (for which he used Danish, not ON material) (3) he identifies Helgo Hundingi et Hothbrodi interemptor with Helgo, brother of Roe, and father of Rolvo.
Axel Olrik, however, in his excellent study to which have referred so often in this investigation, expresses the opinion that Helgi Hund. and the Shielding Helgi, son of Halfdan, are two entirely different saga-heroes. His first argument is: 'There is no agreement to be found except the name.' The facts that I have already adduced, and those that I shall adduce in what follows, will show, I trust, that this argument hardly holds good. I agree with Olrik in distinguishing two essentially different forms of the story; but I make the distinction between the more historical account, in which Helgi, son of Halfdan, is mentioned together with other Shielding kings, and the more poetic version, in which Helgi, the slayer of Hunding and Höthbrodd, appears as the sole representative of the Shielding kings. Yet I do not deny that in the former Helgi's real life is altered and reconstructed, and that in the latter there are historical elements. In my opinion, Helgi Hund. never existed as a real personage, if he is not to be identified with Helgi, son of Halfdan.
It was, as I believe, in England that some Danish poet made over the story of Helgi, son of Halfdan, into that of Helgi Hund., basing his work, in all probability, partly on an Anglo-Saxon story of the Shieldings, and partly on the Danish Shielding-story. This work then seems to have suffered two fates: on the one hand, it was carried over into Denmark, where it was united with the Danish story of Helgi, son of Halfdan, and took the form of which we find fragments in Saxo; on the other hand, it was worked over by Norse poets in Britain, and several parts of the poems thus reconstructed are preserved in the Eddic lays. (4)
Our oldest authority for the history of the Danish Shieldings, viz. the AS epos, mentions the Heathobards (not Höthbrodd) as the enemies of Hroar, Helgi, and Hrolf. The Danes, after a long struggle against the Heathobards (Heaðobeardna, gen. of *Heaðobeardan), i.e. 'the warlike Bards,' finally defeat their opponents in a bloody battle, in which Frôda, king of the Heathobards, was slain. In order to bring about permanent peace, Hrôthgâr, king of the Danes, son of Healfdene, and brother of Hâlga, gives his daughter in marriage to Ingeld, son of Frôda (Béowulf, 2225-30). But after a time Ingeld is egged on to revenge by an old warrior, and hostilities break out once more. In Béow., 82ff, it is predicted that, during Ingeld's attack in Hrôthgâr's old age, flames will ravage the Danish royal castle Heorot---i.e. Hart., which corresponds to the Norse Hleiðr. According to Wîdsîð (45-49), Hrôthulf and his uncle Hrôthgâr live long together as true friends after they have driven out the race of the Vikings, bent Ingeld's sword-point, and hewn asunder at Heorot the strength of the Heathobards. The war thus ends with the defeat of the Heathobards, which seems to have been decisive. We infer from Béowulf that Hrôthgâr, or Hrôthwulf, is a son of Hrôthgâr's youngest brother Hâlga, that the latter dies early, and that Hrôthgâr afterwards cares for his brother's son.
The race to which Frôda and Ingeld belonged, were evidently represented in English tradition as the constant opponents of the kinsmen of Healfdene. In Scandinavian and especially in Icelandic tradition, there are also stories of battles between Halfdan and the Shieldings of his race on the one side, and the kinsmen of Frothi and Ingjald on the other. (5) But in these Icelandic stories Frothi and Ingjald belong to another branch of the Shielding-race, while in the AS poem (which here certainly represents the original situation) (6) Frôda and Ingeld are kings of a neighbouring people.
There seems, moreover, to be a definite analogy between the wars with the Heathobards and those with Höthbrodd: (I) In the AS poem, the Heathobards attack the Danish king Hrôthgâr, and his nephew Hrôthulf. In Saxo, Höthbrodd attacks the Danish king Roe and his nephew Rolpho. (II) In the AS poem, the Heathobards direct thier attack against the royal seat Heorot. In Saxo, Rolpho is guarded in the castle of Leire during the war with Höthbrodd. (III) According to the Skjöldungasaga, as we know it from Arngrim Jónsson, Hroar survived Helgi, just as Hrôthgâr, according to AS tradition, survived Hâlga. (IV) In the Skjöldungasaga, Hroar is killed by Ingjald's sons, Rörik and Frodi. Since the AS poem states that the sons of Ingeld are Heathobards, we have here an additional agreement between the Heathobards and Höthbrodd; for, according to Saxo, Roe is killed by Höthbrodd. (V) Further, just as the fight with the Heathobards ends with their utter defeat, so the fight with Höthbrodd, as described both in Saxo and in the Edda, ends with the complete defeat of Höthbrodd. (VI) In Wîdsîð, the Heathobards are called Vikings; and we may, therefore, conclude that the conflict between the Danes and the Heathobards, like that between Helgi and Höthbrodd, is carried on by sea-warriors. (VII) From what Sinfjötli says in H. H., II, 20, it appears that Helgi has previously (i.e. before the expedition in which he slays Höthbrodd) subdued the land belonging to Höthbrodd's race. There has, therefore, been a long feud between the two races. According to AS heroic saga, the Shieldings (Scyldingas) had won victories over the Heathobards before these latter were finally overthrown.
The conclusion seems to me inevitable: Höthbrodd is a poetic representative of 'the warlike Bards' (Heathobards). (7)
Since Scandinavian tradition with reference to the Shieldings has nowhere else preserved any memory of the name Heathobards, or of the fact that these kings, who fought with the people of Halfdan, belonged to a race different from that of the Danes, I am of the opinion that it was in imitation of the Heoðobeardan of English tradition that a Scandinavian poet (probably a Dane) in England invented Höðbroddr as the enemy of the Danish king. It was common in old Norse epic poetry to invent a saga-figure as the representative of a whole race, and to give him a name formed from that of the people which he represents.
The last part of the ON word Höðbroddr is not the same as that of the AS Heaðobeardan; but the two words sound so much alike that in the transformation of the story the one could easily replace the other, especially if this transformation was due to a poet who lived in England. (8)
The war between Helgi and Höthbrodd in the Helgi-lays had, then, its origin in the more historical war between the Danish Shieldings and the kings of the Heathobards as sung in AS epic verse. (9)
There is one difficult place in the Second Helgi lay which, when looked at from this point of view, loses its obscurity. As has already been said, the word-combat between Sinfjötli and Guthmund has preserved, fragmentarily, an older conception of the war between Höthbrodd and Helgi than that which appears elsewhere in the Eddic lays. Sinfjötli says to Höthbrodd's brother Guthmund: 'Here can Höthbrodd learn to know Helgi, the never-fleeing, in the midst of the fleet. He has subdued the native land of thy race, the inheritance of worse men (Fjörsunga, from AS *wiersinga.)' To this Guthmund answers (II, 21):
því fyrr skulu
at Frekasteini
sáttir saman
um sakar dœma;
mál [kveð] ek, Höðbroddr!
hefnd at vinna,
ef vér lœgra hlut
lengi bárum.
'The sooner shall those who have been reconciled with one another decide their disputes at Wolfstone. It is time, O Höthbrodd! to take revenge, if (since) we long have lain underneath.' The expression sáttir saman, 'those who have been reconciled with one another,' (10) has not hitherto been understood, because it implies a more original conception of the war between Helgi and Höthbrodd than that which we find in the First Helgi lay and in some verses of the Second. It is, however, explained by Béow., 2024 ff. The Shieldings have conquered the Heathobards and slain their king Frôda. Thereupon peace is made between the two peoples. The agreement is confirmed by oath; and to make it still surer, the daughter of the Danish king Hrôthgâr is given in marriage to Ingeld, Frôda's son, the king of the Heathobards. The words in the Edda, 'those who have come to an agreement with one another,' refer to the people of Höthbrodd and those of Helgi, i.e. to the Heathobards and the Shieldings. Up to this time there has evidently been some agreement between them---the same agreement, doubtless, which is spoken of in Béowulf as confirmed by the marriage of Fréawaru with Ingeld. But the reconciliation between the kin of Helgi and the kin of Höthbrodd is preceded by Helgi's conquest of the land which Höthbrodd inherited from his fathers, and it is Höthbrodd's race who 'lie underneath' after the agreement is concluded. In replying to Sinfjötli's taunt that Helgi has subdued the inheritance of Guthmund's race, Guthmund admits that his race has long 'lain underneath'; 'but for that very reason,' he adds, 'there must soon come a battle: Höthbrodd (i.e. the Heathobards) must now revenge himself (themselves).'
Thus the rôle which Guthmund plays may be compared with that of the old warrior in Béowulf who, by constantly inciting the king of the Heathobards to take revenge on the Shieldings, brings about a rupture of the compact between the two nations.
It is important to note that it is in this form of the word-dispute between Sinfjötli and Guthmund (H.H., II, 20-21), which agrees more closely with the story as preserved in AS poetry than do the Helgi-lays in general, that we find the English loan-words to which I have already called attention---viz. eðli, II, 20, i.e. AS êðle from êðel, 'native land,' and fjörsunga, from AS *wiersinga, 'of worse men.' From this we may conclude that the strophes of the Second Helgi lay here under discussion (20-21) are a working over of AS verses which belonged to an epic poem on the war between the Shieldings and the Heathobards; also, that the word-combat between Guthmund and Sinfjötli is a working over of a similar dispute between a Heathobard and a Dane.
1.
In sögubrot, Helgi 'hvassi,' brother of Hrörek, is spoken of
as king of Zealand. Back
2. Some scholars regard Helgi Hund. as a different
saga hero from Helgi, brother of Hroar---among others Müllenhoff,
Ztsch. f. d. Alt., XXIII, 128, and A. Olrik, Sakses Oldhist., II, 144;
Aarb. f. n. Oldk., 1894, p. 161. On the other hand, Sijmons (Paul-Braune,
Beit., IV, 176 ff); Detter (Sievers, Beit., XVIII, 96-105), and Boer (Sievers,
Beit., XXII, 368 ft), think them identical. Back
3. See Olrik, op. cit., II, 142-146. Back
4. If we suppose in this way that the Helgi-saga
was formed by a Danish poet in England, partly on the basis of an AS work,
the theory that the Shielding Helgi, son of Halfdan, and Helgi, the slayer
of Hunding and Höthbrodd, have the same historical prototype, is
not refuted (as Olrik thinks, II, 144) by the fact that there are several
documents, not merely Icelandic but also Danish, in which Helgi is not
represented as the slayer of Hunding and Höthbrodd. Back
5. See especially A. Olrik, in Aarb. f. nord. Oldk.,
1884, pp. 158-162. Back
6. Kögel seems to me to be mistaken in his
ideas on this point; see Gesch. der d. Lit., I, I, pp. 153-158. Back
7. This opinion is vaguely suggested in my Studien
üb. die Entstehung der nord. Götter- u. Heldensagen, trans.
Brenner, 1889, I, 173 (Norw. ed., p. 166) Later, Boer also expressed the
same view (Sievers, Beit., XXII, 377 f). Back
8. To ON names in -broddr correspond English names
in -brord; yet instead of Wihtbrord we find also Wihtbord. Note also that
the German hero Sîfrit was called by the Danes Sivard, a name which
was nearly the same in sound, but etymologically different. Back
9. With Müllenhoff and most other scholars
I regard the account of the battle with the Heathobards, in Béowulf,
as historical. I cannot agree on this point with Detter, who expresses
himself in one place as follows (Sievers, Beit., XVIII, 90-105): 'Müllenhoff
geht........von der fassung der sage in Béowulf aus, wo ihre ursprüngliche
gestalt bereits verwischt ist. Diese ist bei Saxo erhalten und hier weist
alles auf einen mythus.' This theory gives too little heed to the account
of Hygelâc's expedition to the Franks and Frisians, in Béowulf,
with entirely historic Frankish sources show that Detter's conception
of Béowulf is erroneous. Back
10. With sáttir saman, cf. Old Dan. and
Old Swed. samsæt, 'reconciliation, agreement,' also ON samsætt;
Old Dan. samsættes, ON samsættaz, 'to become reconciled with
one another.' Sáttir in II, 21, is subject, and does not belong
to the predicate. Back
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