Home of the Eddic Lays
Chapter 21
ATLI'S TWO ENCOUNTERS WITH A SUPERNATURAL BIRD
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Rigen Raadengaard, while riding alone in the grove in the early morning, listens to the cry of the eagle of Bejerlund (i.e. 'the grove by the dwelling'). The eagle says that it will visit him, and asks what food he will give it. Raadengaard offers oxen, cows, and fat horses. But the bird declares that it must have his two fair foster-daughters. (2) 'God forbid!' says Raadengaard; whereupon the eagle exclaims, 'I will do thee still greater harm; I will devour thy betrothed.' Then Raadengaard writes runes under the eagle's wings, so that it is bound fast. He rides to his betrothed, and weds her without delay.
This ballad came to Norway and to the Faroes from Denmark. It is localised in Vendsyssel.
Its resemblance to the Eddic poem is not confined to the general feature that a bird begins a conversation with a young chieftain; there is close similarity in details: [1] Atli, like Raadengaard, talks with the bird when he is alone in a grove. [2] The bird demands of Atli gold-horned cows, which (as we may infer from the words in the lay) Atli pledges himself to give. In the ballad Raadengaard promises the eagle oxen, cows, and fat horses. [3] Atli says to the bird that it must not demand Hjörvarth or his sons or his fair wives. In the ballad, the eagle says that it must have Raadengaard's foster-daughters (sisters)---which the hero begs God not to allow---and, finally, that it must have his betrothed. [4] The ballad concludes with Raadengaard's binding of the eagle with runes, and with his speedy marriage to his betrothed, whom the eagle has threatened to eat up. According to the Eddic poem, the magician Fránmar, in the form of an eagle, sits on the house in which his foster-daughter Sigrlinn, and his daughter Alof have taken refuge, and tries to guard them by magic. But one night, when the bird is asleep, Atli comes and pierces it with a spear. He takes both women away with him. Sigrlinn, of her own free will, marries King Hjörvarth, while Atli weds Álof. This has some similarity with the conclusion of the ballad.
In the poetry of the later Christian Middle Ages, the binding of a dangerous being with runes is a favourite feature. In opposition to this, the Eddic poem represents the eagle as pierced by a spear. A similar difference may be observed between the old Icelandic tale of how Ketil Høng shot a mermaid with an arrow, and the modern Swedish story of how Kettil Runske bound a mermaid with his rune stick. (3)
Raadengaard, who binds the eagle with runes, is identical with the hero of the same name in the ballad of 'King Didrik and his Champions'; (4) for there we read of him: 'He knows well the runes,' and he bears in his shield 'the brown eagle.'
But this Raadengaard, who in the Danish ballad last named is one of Didrik's champions, was evidently regarded (as Grundtvig has pointed out, vol. i, p. 73), as identical with Rüdegêr von Bechelaren in German heroic saga, who is connected in many ways with Dietrich. In the þiðrekssaga he is called Róðingeir af Bakalar.
In one redaction of the þiðrekssaga (chaps. 43, 44), this Róðingeir woos the daughter of Ósangtrix on Attila's behalf. I have pointed out above that Róðingeir, as Attila's messenger, corresponds to Atli in the ON Lay of Hjörvarth. Since, now, the poem concerning Atli and the bird is, as I have shown, related with the ballad of 'Raadengaard and the Eagle,' we may suppose that Atli has taken the place of Róthingeir or Raadengaard, not only as the messenger, but also as the person who converses with the bird.
Some form of the West-Germanic story of Attila's wooing, current in Britain, may be supposed to have had an episode, lacking in the þiðrekssaga, regarding Attila's messenger Róthingeir and a supernatural bird, which episode corresponded to the Danish ballad of 'Raadengaard and the Eagle,' and recurs in the incident of Atli and the bird in the Hjörvarth lay.
The hero's name, in the ballad of 'Rodengaar (Raadengaard) and the Eagle,' must have been drawn (directly or indirectly) from an English, and not from a German source. This is another circumstance which strengthens the supposition that the hero Rodengaar got his name from an English source. In the ballad published by Grundtvig (No. 13) under the name 'Ravengaard and Memering,' which was also known in England and Scotland, there appears a person of the same name as the hero who binds the eagle with runes; and he is called in English, in Percy's Folio MS., Sir Aldingar (from the pronunciation Rådingår); in Scotch, in Sir Walter Scott's collection, Rodingham; in a biography of Edward the Confessor, written in French somewhat before 1272 (which appears to have been translated from Latin), Rodegan, this form of the name arising from Rodingar by the influence of Mimecan, which is the name of his opponent in the ballad. Finally, the same person is called in John Brompton's English chronicle (second half of the fourteenth century), Roddyngar, and in an old marginal note in an English MS., Rodingarus. (5)
There are several circumstances (6) which go to show that this slanderer was regarded as identical with Didrik's champion of the same name (in Grundtvig's No. 7), who bound the eagle with runes.
We may suppose therefore that the Scandinavians in England had a story, probably in poetic form, corresponding to the Lay of Hjörvarth and Sigrlinn, in which the king's messenger who set out to woo for him, bore the name Rodingâr (which was borrowed from English), and met a supernatural eagle.
That the Rodengaar who in the ballad binds the eagle with runes, in the more original form of the story met the eagle when he set out to woo for his king and for himself at the same time, agrees well with the fact that in the ballad his marriage takes place after his meeting with the eagle. Since it is said, in the other Danish ballad of which we have spoken (No. 7), that he has the eagle as a mark in his shield, we see further that the meeting with the eagle must have taken place in his youth.
The eagle episode as found in the Eddic Lay is obscure and curious. In the conversation between Atli and the eagle, the eagle seems to be regarded as a god in bird form, who wishes to help Hjörvarth, just as Odin aids the Völsungs. (7)
But even if we accept this view, the nature of the bird is still obscure; for we learn nothing of its later doings. It would, moreover, be very remarkable if the poem from the outset had two great supernatural birds different from each other. Further, this theory would also leave unexplained the relation of the poem to the Danish ballad; for the eagle in the ballad corresponds, on the one hand, to the bird with which Atli talks, and on the other, to the eagle which he kills.
I am, therefore, of the opinion that in a more original form of the story the bird with which Atli talks was identical with that which Atli kills, viz. the magic wise earl transformed into an eagle. (8)
We may also suppose that a story known in England, corresponding to the Hjörvarth lay, had the motive that an earl at the court of the king whose daughter was wooed, opposed her marriage with the chief hero of the poem. He sought to hinder it by magic, and therefore transformed himself into an eagle; but in this form he was killed by the messenger Rodingâr, who thereby won a bride for the king and another for himself.
There is no trace of the supernatural eagle in the þiðrekssaga, where Róthingeir or Rótholf brings Attila his bride, and where Ósangtrix's earl Hertnit and the latter's brother Hirthir enthusiastically support the suit of Attila's rival. Nor is there any trace of it in the Frankish story, where Aurelianus plays a role which corresponds to Atli's in the ON poem, and to that of Rótholf or Róthingeir in the þiðrekssaga, and where Aridius at the court of the King of the Burgundians, like Fránmar at that of the King of Sváfaland, opposes the marriage of the king's daughter with the chief hero of the tale.
How did the motive of the supernatural bird arise? On this point I would make the following suggestion.
In the ON story we read that the earl Fránmar transformed himself into an eagle, and guarded the two women by magic. This Fránmar, who advises the king to reject King Hjörvarth's suit, corresponds to Aridius in the Frankish tale, who by his representations induces the Burgundian king to send out an army to recover Chrodechildis and to prevent her marriage with Chlodovech. Now, Aridius is called in Fredegar sapiens and prudentissimus. A corresponding expression might easily have been taken by the Scandinavians to mean 'wise in magic,' just as a similar development in meaning may be traced in ON fjölkunnigr, fræði, fróðleikr, kunnátta.
What connection there is between the name Aridius, or Aredius (as it is also written in Gregory of Tours, and in Lib. Hist. Francorum), and Lat. aridus, I shall not say. But by Germanic peoples, at any rate, the name might easily have been regarded as a compound, Ari-dius, Are-dius. The Franks had very many names of men of which the Latin form of the last part was –deus, as e.g. in Irminos Polyptychon, Acledeus, Aldedeus, Agedeus, Ansedeus, and many others. It should be mentioned also that the Franks could write in Latin –eus instead of –ius. This we see from forms like Galleae, osteum, palleis, etc., in the oldest MSS. of Gregory of Tours. Such compound names in –deus, as e.g. Ansedeus, had in different West-Germanic dialects forms in –deo, -dio, -diu. Further, Are-, Ari- could be used as the first part of Frankish names of persons, e.g. Arigis, pol. Rem., Aregis, pol. Irm., Arehildis or Arechildis, pol. Rem. This first part of the compound must be explained by a word corresponding to Goth. ara, ON ari, 'eagle,' but could easily be confused with Hari-, Chari-, from a word corresponding to Goth. harjis, 'army.' Among other Germanic races occurs the name Arintheo, in Latin written Arintheus, in Greek Arinqaioj. Frankish names in –deus correspond to ON names in –þér, -ðir, e.g. Hamðir. In ON no special meaning was attached to this element –þér, -ðir; for we see that Egðir, Eggþér is used by poets as the name of an eagle, and Sigðir, Sigþer as Odin's name. It was, therefore, natural for the Germanic peoples to give to the name Aridius, Aredius, the meaning 'the eagle man.'
The story of the wise Aridius, 'the eagle man,' who opposed the marriage of Chlodovech and Chrodechildis, was told, as I suppose, by Englishmen to heathen or half-heathen Scandinavians, and from it some ON poet made up the story of the magic wise earl who transformed himself into an eagle to hinder the marriage of Hjörvarth and Sigrlinn. This story took its present form in the imagination of the ON poet under the influence of mythical and romantic conceptions of supernatural birds, especially eagles, with which the poet may have been familiar from native tales, or from those which came from the West. We are reminded, e.g., of the giant Thjassi who, in eagle form, demands his fill of the ox that the gods wish to cook. Hræsvelgr (corpse-devourer) is the name of a giant who had the form of an eagle; the motion of his wings causes the winds. Odin himself takes the form of an eagle.
1.
Grundtvig, Danm. gl. Folkev., No. 12; Bugge, Gamle norske Folkeviser,
No. 3. This similarity has already been pointed out be Grundtvig, l. c.,
I, 174. Back
2. Danish A has sister, C sisters, B 'førster,' 6(3), but sisters
8(1); the Norw. ballad foster-daughters. Originally it was possibly fostrer
(=ON fóstrur) or foster (from et foster, a foster-child). In favour
of this view we have the following words in the ballad: 'I have kept them
so honourably ever since their father died'; for, if sisters were right,
we should expect 'our father,' not 'their father,' although the latter
could, indeed, pass for half-sisters. Back
3. Grundtvig, l. c., II, 92. Back
4. In the ballad 'Raadengaard and the Eagle,' Danish A has Raffuenngard,
Rauffuenngaard; B, Raanegaardt, Ronegaard; C, Raadengaard; the Norwegian
ballad Rodenigår. In the ballad 'Didrik and his Champions,' Danish
A H has Raadengaard; G, Radenngaard; D, Rauffengaard. Back
5. For full information on this ballad, see Child,
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, III, 37-38. Back
6. [1] The maligned queen's husband in the Faroe and Icelandic versions
(Grundtvig's D, E, F) is called Didrik. [2] Raadengaard's opponent Mimmering
is also mentioned as Didrik's champion. [3] Moreover, Iselgrim and Hercules
Graa, who are mentioned in the Norwegian version of the ballad (Grundtvig,
II, 644), also belong to the Didrik cycle. Likewise the sword Adelring
in Danish A. Cf. Grundtvig, I, 203. Back
7. This view Müllenhoff (Ztsch. f. d. Alt., XXIII, 142) thinks correct.
Simrock, moreover (in his translation), is of the opinion that the bird
who talks with Atli is a god, and has no connection with the bird which
Atli kills. Back
8. This opinion is shared by Grundtvig, I, 174, and F. Jónsson,
Litt. Hist., I, 246. Back
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