Home of the Eddic Lays
Chapter 12
Höthbrodd, who on one occasion killed Ísung, killed Ægir on another; that is to say, he went from the south with a hostile army into Denmark over Eider, after having vanquished the Danish guard on the border.
According to Saxo (Bk. II, p. 82 ff), Höthbrodd (Hothbrodus) was a Swedish king. He makes him the son of the Swedish king Regnerus and Suanhuita, and father of the Danish king Adisl (Atislus), Hrólf's contemporary, and of Hotherus.
That this account is at variance with the older story is evident from the fact that Adisl, in ON works, is said to be a son of Ottar; and this statement is clearly correct; for the Swedish king Éadgils in Béowulf is represented as a son of Óhthere. Hothbrodus has then taken the place of Ottar as father of Adisl.
Saxo seems to have known Höthbrodd both from a Danish and an ON source. (10) It was from the latter that he knew him as son of the Swedish king Regnerus. But, as I shall point out when we discuss the poem of Helgi, son of Hjörvarth, the story of Regnerus and Suanhuita was composed at a later date, and borrowed motives and names from the Helgi lays. The designation of Höthbrodd as a Swedish king does not seem, therefore, to be based on any old story.
Granmar is the name of Höthbrodd's father in the story of Helgi Hund. Snorri (11) mentions a king in Sødermanland called Granmar, who was married to Hild, daughter of King Högni in East Gautland. This Granmar gets help in war from his father-in-law Högni. The Helgi lays tell of Höthbrodd, Granmar's son, whom Högni assists in war, and to whom he promises his daughter's hand. Helgi says to Sigrún after the battle against Höthbrodd and Högni: Hildr hefir þú oss verit, 'a Hild hast thou been to us.' These agreements, when taken in connection with the fact that the name Granmar does not occur elsewhere, seem to show that that Granmar whom Snorri makes King of Sødermanland, was really the same saga king as the Granmar of the Eddic poems. (12)
This same king is in Sögubrot (13) referred to East Gautland. There we read that Harald Hildetann 'set King Hjörmund, son of Hervarth Ylving, over East Gautland, which had been in the possession of his father and King Granmar.' The Hervarth Ylving here named is the same saga king whom Snorri calls more correctly Hjörvarðr Ylfingr in the Ynglingasaga (37-39), where we are told that he became Granmar's son-in-law. (14)
We thus see that Höthbrodd and his kin, both according to Saxo and to Icelandic tradition, belong to Sweden. But that does not at all agree with the First Helgi lay, for there Helgi sails from the east to Höthbrodd's home. The poet could not express himself thus if Höthbrodd's land, to which he represents the Danish king as coming, were Sødermanland or East Gautland. Moreover, the account of Helgi's expedition with his fleet to Höthbrodd's land, as explained in what precedes, also shows that the poet did not represent this expedition as undertaken by a Danish king against Sødermanland or East Gautland.
I have, I think, shown that the Helgi poet represents the war between Helgi and Höthbrodd as follows: It is a war waged by the Danish king against enemies from the south who attack his kingdom. The home of Granmar's sons was in the southwestern end of the Baltic Sea, in what is now Mecklenburg. Helgi sails against them from the east after having assembled his fleet at Rügen, and after having later sailed out of Warnemünde.
Moreover, the author of the First Lay was not alone in imagining Höthbrodd and Högni as enemies who threatened the Danish king from the south. Sigrún is called in both the First and Second Lays suðrœn, 'southern.' (15)
That Höthbrodd also was regarded in an older poem as a king who had his home south of Denmark is evident from the fact that he slays Ægir, i.e. the Danish border-guard at Eider; for Ægir is not a saga figure invented by the author of the First Lay: he is also mentioned in Saxo's account of Helgi.
We should note further that it is only in rather later Old Norse stories that Granmar and Högni are referred to Sweden; and the same thing may be said of Höthbrodd, since Saxo's statement that he was a Swedish king is based on a comparatively late account. We cannot believe that these localisations were originally present, for, as I hope to show more clearly in what follows, they are at variance with the oldest form of the saga. They are to be classed with other localisations in later Scandinavian stories, where the action is transferred to places nearer to Norsemen and Icelanders. In the saga of the Shieldings, the Svertings are removed from Saxony to Sweden; (16) Danparstaðir from the south of Russia (River Dnieper) to Denmark; Reiðgotaland from the south of Europe to Scandinvia.
A similar removal can be pointed out in the case of Svarin.
Saxo (Bk. I, pp. 26-32), following the ON authority, hands down a story, with verses interlaided, about Gram. This tale has borrowed a series of motives and expressions from the different Lays of Helgi Hundingsbani. (17)
Gram, son of the Danish king, begins war because he hears that Gro, daughter of the Swedish king Sigtrygg, is betrothed to a giant. Helgi begins war because he hears that Sigrún is betrothed to Höthbrodd, whom she hates as 'Cat's son.' Gram meets Gro, who is on horseback with other maidens. Sigrún comes with several maidens riding to Helgi. A versified conversation takes place between Gro and Gram's brother-in-arms, Besse. In H. H., II, 5-13, a conversation takes place between Sigrún and Helgi, who gives himself out to be his foster-brother. Svend Grundtvig was the first to see in some of the strophes in Saxo (18) a parallel to a couple of strophes in the Second Helgi lay.
In other places also the verses in Gram's saga, translated by Saxo, contain reminiscences of the Helgi lays. (19)
Gram kills Gro's father, and marries Gro. Helgi kills Sigrún's father Högni, and marries Sigrún. In Svarin's many brothers, who are all slain by the Danish king Gram, we must have an imitation of the many brothers of Höthbrodd, king of Svarinshaug, who are all slain by the Danish king Helgi.
Since the story of Gram has taken its names and incidents from the Helgi stories, we cannot believe that in referring Svarin to Gautland (Gothia) it is following any independent old account.
And finally, when Saxo (I, 32) tells how a high born Zealander, Ring(o), revolted against Gram and his father, but was conquered by them, the name Ring seems to have been introduced in that connection from the First Helgi lay, where Ring's sons are named among those whom Höthbrodd summons to help him against his opponents, and who must therefore have been conquered by Helgi. (20)
10. Cf. Olrik, Sakses Oldhist., II, 43.
11. In the Ynglingasaga (ed F. J., chaps. 36-39), possibly after the lost Skjöldungasaga.
12. Cf. Heinzel, Ueber die Nibelungensage, p. 19 (687).
13. Fornaldarsögur, I, 375.
14. Munch (Norske Folks Hist., I, I, p. 228, note 4) says that the name Granmar seems best to belong to East Gautland.
15. F. Jónsson (Litt. Hist., I, 262) makes Sigrún Norwegian; but in so doing he has no support in the sources.
16. Olrik, Sakses Oldhist., I, 23; cf. Steenstrup, Arkiv, XIII, 149 f, who holds the opposite opinion; but see Olrik's answer in Arkiv, XV, Heft I.
17. Many resemblances between the two stories are pointed out by Rydberg, Undersökningar, I, 136-140; but some of his resemblances are, in my opinion, based on wrong interpretations. Nor can I agree with Rydberg that Gram is identical with Helgi Hundingsbani or that 'Halfdan's youthful exploits proveded material which was freely worked over in the two Helgi lays.' These seem to me, on the contrary, older than the Gram story as we find it in Saxo.
18. Cf. Gro's questions and the verses in the reply:
Quis rogo vestrum Hoc duce belli
dirigit agmen? signa levamus
quo duce signa aurea, virgo!
bellica fertis?
with H. H., II, 19 (Grundtvig compares II, 5-6):
Hverr er skjöldungr
sá er skipum stýrir,
lætr gunnfana
gullinn fyr stafni?
'Who is the chieftain (Shielding) who guides the ships, raises the golden war-standard before the stern?'
19. With H. H., II, 30, hildingrum á hálsi stóð, 'he trod upon the necks of kings,' cf. Saxo, p. 30:
Regum colla potentium
victrici toties perdomui manu.
With H. H., II, 40, Hvárt eru þat svik ein, er ek sjá þikkjumk, eða....? 'Is it a mere phantom that I think I see, or .....?' with Saxo, p. 27:
Conspicor.....
aut oculis fallor.
20. Olrik's investigations in Sakses Oldhist. (I, in several places; II, 12), also makes it clear that the Gram story is later than the Helgi lays.
<< Previous Page Next Page >>
© 2004-2007 Northvegr.
Most of the material on this site is in the public domain. However, many people have worked very hard to bring these texts to you so if you do use the work, we would appreciate it if you could give credit to both the Northvegr site and to the individuals who worked to bring you these texts. A small number of texts are copyrighted and cannot be used without the author's permission. Any text that is copyrighted will have a clear notation of such on the main index page for that text. Inquiries can be sent to info@northvegr.org. Northvegr™ and the Northvegr symbol are trademarks and service marks of the Northvegr Foundation.
|