Chapter 5

THE FIRST HELGI-LAY AND THE IRISH STORY OF
THE BATTLE OF ROSS NA RÍG.

        In order to determine the circumstances under which the First Helgi lay was composed, and the influences to which the author was subjected, it is important to note that some parts of this poem, as I shall try to prove in what follows, are closely connected with Irish traditional tales. The story of which I shall first speak forms an episode in the description of 'The Battle of Ross na Ríg,' to be found in the Book of Leinster, an Irish MS. written a little before 1160. (1) Ross na Ríg (i.e. 'the Kings' Point,' or 'the Kings' Wood') lies on the shore of the river Boyne in the eastern part of Ireland. The battle is supposed to have taken place at the beginning of the Christian era.
        'The Battle of Ross na Ríg' forms a continuation of the great epic-cycle of the north of Ireland, the Táin bó Cúalgne (i.e. 'the cattle-spoil of Cúalgne'), of which the Ulster warrior Cuchulinn is the chief hero. The episode which here concerns us, is connected with that part of the story which tells how the Druid Cathbad comes to the Ulster King Conchobar when the latter is overcome with grief because his land has been harried by the armies of Ailill and Mebd from Connaught.
        Notwithstanding the fact that the names of persons and places in the Irish tales are entirely different from those in the First Helgi-lay, there still seem to be points of contact between the events described in the two accounts.
        In the first place, such resemblances are to be seen in several situations, on which, however, I should not lay particular stress if the points of agreement were confined to them. The account given by the Norse poet is as follows: When Helgi is making ready to attack Höthbrodd in the latter's own land, he sends messengers over the sea to summon troops to his aid, promising them money in return for their services; and a large and splendid fleet assembles. When this fleet sails out of the fjord into the sea, it encounters a terrible storm, but it nevertheless comes safely to its destination. One of Höthbrodd's brothers, who has been watching Helgi's fleet from the shore, inquires who the strangers are. He soon learns the truth, and men then ride to Höthbrodd to acquaint them with the situation. They tell of Helgi's arrival with magnificent ships and thousands of men. The poem concludes with an account of the ensuing battle, in which Helgi slays Höthbrodd.
        In the Irish tale, the Druid Cathbad advises King Conchobar, before invading his enemies' land, to despatch messengers, with information as to his plans, to the Irish hero, Conall Cernach, and to his friends among the Scandinavians in the North-Scottish isles and elsewhere in the north. Accordingly, Conchobar sends messengers out over the sea. They find Conall in the island of Lewis, where he is collecting the taxes. Conall receives Conchobar's men gladly. 'And there were sent then intelligencers and messengers from him to his absent friends through the foreign northern lands. It is then that there was made a gathering and muster by them too; and their stores were prepared by them also; and their ships and their galleys were secured in order; and they came to the place where Conall was…..Now set out the great naval armament under Conall Cernach and Findchad and Aed and the nobles of Norway. And they came forward out on the current of the Mull of Cantire. (2) And a green surge of the tremendous sea rose for them......Such was the strength of the storm that rose for them, that the fleet was parted in three.'
        We next learn how each of these three parts came to land. 'It was not long for Conchobar, when he was there, till he saw the pointed sail-spreaders (?) and the full-crewed ships and the bright-scarlet pavilions and the beautiful many-coloured standards and banners and the blue ships (?), which were as of glass, and the weapons of war.' Conchobar says to his men, who are standing about him, that he fears these are enemies who are coming with the great fleet which fills the mouth of the fjord. 'It is then that Sencha mac Ailella went forward to the place where the great naval armament was, and he asked them, "Who goes here?" It is this they said then, that they were the foreign friends of Conchobar who were there.' The king has the horses harnessed to the chariots, and receives his friends as is best fitting. In the ensuing battle Conchobar gains the victory over King Cairpre and his men of Leinster.
        The chief difference in situation between the Norse poem and the Irish tale consists in the fact (which I shall discuss later) that in the former the fleet comes united to the land of the enemy, whereas in the latter it comes to a friendly land and is in three separate divisions, having been scattered by the storm. But the agreement between these two accounts becomes more apparent when one contrasts the Helgi-lay with the poems on the Gjúkungs, in which we read of the doings of individuals, not of armies, and that, as a rule, on land, not at sea. Even in the poems on the youth of Sigurth the slayer of Fáfnir, in which sea-life is more emphasised, we find no great and magnificent fleets like those in the Helgi-lay and in the Irish 'Battle of Ross na Ríg.' As Vigfusson remarked, the descriptions in the Helgi-lay make us think of a land visited familiar from literature also, especially from that written in Latin, with the appearance of the powerful hosts and mighty fleets which were wont to be assembled in case of war. Evidently these descriptions cannot have been written in Greenland, which Finnur Jónsson regards as the home of the First Helgi-lay. Nor could an Icelander have found models for them in his native land.
        A number of expressions in the Irish prose text correspond to expressions in the Norse poems, and the agreements in some respects are so particular that historical connection between the two accounts is proved not necessarily by the different details taken separately, but by the whole series of points of contact. The similarity in situation, just pointed out, shows that the Irish tale imitated the Helgi-lay. We must believe, on the contrary, that the Helgi-lay was influenced by an Irish story. For in no other Eddic lay does the hero or another king despatch messengers to muster their services; while in several Irish stories, as in that before us, we read that 'intelligencers and messengers were sent out' to friends. Besides, the Irish account agrees, in this particular, with the facts of history.
        Let us now compare the corresponding Norse and Irish expressions. I would have it understood, however, that in these places in which I infer connections between the two accounts and point out how the phraseology of the Norse poems was affected by that of the Irish tale, I do not assert that all the Norse phrases in question were affected by this Irish story alone, and were not also influenced, in some degree, by other accounts. The discussion of this question in the next chapter will make clearer my ideas on this point.
        With the Irish expression: 'There were sent then intelligencers and messengers from him' (faitte dano fessa ocus techta uad), we may compare that in the Norse poem: 'The king sent messengers thence' (Sendi áru allvaldr þaðan, H. H., I, 21). Cf. the Irish: 'They came to the place in which Conall was,' with the Norse: 'There the king waited until they came thither, etc.' (þaðan beið þengill unz þinig kómu, H. H., I, 22); the Irish: 'Now set out the great naval armament.......under the nobles of Lochland' (Raergitar trá intromchoblach mór muride......ma mathib Lochlainne), with the Norse: 'Under the nobles (with the nobles on board) the king´s fleet drew away from land' (gékk und öðlingum lofðungs floti löndum fjarri, H. H., I, 27).
        In both poems the fleet encounters a terrible storm. In the Irish we read: 'And a green surge of the tremendous sea rose for them, and the seals and walruses (3) and craneheads (?) and the white heads (?) and the many billows of the tremendous sea rose for them too.' In like manner the Norse poet represents the billows as rising up against the fleet: 'When the billow (the sister of Kólga, the cold maiden) and the long keels dashed together, it sounded as if the breakers and the cliffs were crashing against one another.....The seamen did not hold back from the meeting with the billows, when Ægir's daughter (i.e. the billow) wished to trip up the steeds guided by the stays (i.e. the ships)' (H.H., I, 28, 29).
        We see that even in the Irish story the terrors of the sea are personified as mythical beings. The Norse poet, however, goes further, and brings in the daughters of Ægir, in whose creation the story of the daughters of Nereus and Oceanus probably had some share.
        H. H., I, 30 reads: 'The king's billow-deer (ship) twisted itself by main strength out of Rán's hand (snørisk ramliga Rán ór hendi gjálfrdýr konungs.)' The name of the sea-giantess, Ægir's wife, Rán, is probably a genuine Norse word, having its origin in *Ráðn, and coming from ráða, to rule. (4) It was probably because of the resemblance between Rán and the Irish róin that the Norse poet made Rán stretch out her hand in the storm against the ship; for in the Irish story which influenced his poem, we are told that róin (5) (seals) rise up in the storm against the ships.
        The descriptions of the ships in the two accounts also show agreements, which can scarcely be accidental, though, it should be said, the Norse expressions which I shall bring forward do not all occur in a single place in the poem. The ships are called in Irish, na-longa luchtlethna, 'the crew-broad,' i.e. 'the ships fully equipped with men'; in Norse, in the description of the assembling of the fleet, langhofðuð skip und líðundum (H.H., I, 24), 'the long-beaked ships with seamen on board.' The Norse poet seems here to have preserved the alliteration on l, and sought for a suitable Norse word, which should resemble the sound of the Irish longa as nearly as possible. Particulars of the ship's equipment are named in both accounts. That which is first given in the Irish story appears to mean 'pointed forks with which the sails were spread.' (6) The Norse poet mentions rakkar (in Shetland called rakies, rings, by means of which the sail is fastened to the mast and sail-yards). (7)
        After describing the ships, the Irish story speaks of 'the bright scarlet pavilions' (na-pupla corcarglana). The Norse poem mentions the ships' 'stem-pavilions' (stafntjöld) when telling how the fleet sails away (H. H., I, 26).
        Directly after, the Irish tale speaks of 'the blue bright ships (?), (8) a phrase which may be compared with the 'blue-black and gold-adorned ships' of the Norse poem (brimdýr blásvört ok búin gulli, H. H.., I, 50).
        The Irish account seems to help us in clearing up an obscure place in the Norse text. In H. H., I, 21, we read of Helgi, who sent messengers out to get help:
                        Sendi áru
                        allvaldr þaðan
                        of lopt ok um lög
                        leiðar at biðja.
'Thereupon the king sent messengers through the air and over the sea to solicit help.' The expression 'through the air,' is very curious; for battle-maidens cannot be called áru, 'messengers,' and neither they nor valkyries, so far as we can tell from the Eddic poems, were sent by mortals to bear messenges. It has therefore been thought that the passage should read: of land (or láð) ok um lög, 'over land and by water'; but this is not what stands in the MS., and, moreover, wherever in the poem troops are collected to aid in battle, only sea-troops, not land-troops, are mentioned. The Irish tale suggests another possibility. There the messengers journey 'over the surface (?) of the sea and of the great ocean.' This expression occurs twice. (9) It seems to me possible to suppose that the Norse poet misunderstood the difficult Irish expression, which he took to mean 'up over the sea (i.e. without touching the water) and over the great deep,' and thus formed his curious 'through the air and over the sea.'
        The Helgi-lay, after telling how Helgi's fleet was assembled, proceeds: 'Helgi inquired of Hjörleif, "Hast thou mustered the brave men?" But the young kind said to the other (i.e. to Helgi) that it would take long from Crane-bank to count the ships' (H. H., I, 23, 24). Helgi thus sent out another king called Hjörleif to inspect the fleet and see how great it was. In reply to Helgi's inquiry on his return, Hjörleif declared that the fleet was so great that it would take long to count it. (10)
        The situation in the Norse poem was doubtless influenced by the similar one in the Irish story. (11) Conchobar sent out the young hero Iriel to reconnoitre the hostile host at Ross na Ríg. Iriel, who, amongst other qualities, was highly esteemed for his 'kingliness,' went up on a hill by the river Boyne, from which he could see far, and there surveyed the forces of the enemy. On his return he gave Conchobar a description of what he had seen. 'How, my life Iriel?' inquired the king. 'I give my word truly,' said Iriel; 'it seems to me that there is not a ford on river, not a stone on hill, nor highways, nor road .......that is not full of their horse-teams and of their servants.' (12)
        The hostile Irish king who fell in the Battle of Ross na Ríg by Cuchulinn's hand, was called Carpre or Corpre, later Cairbre. It looks as if the Norse poet perceived a similarity between this name and that of the king who falls in the battle with Helgi, viz. Höthbrodd, (13) which was known to him from the older Helgi-lay. This accidental resemblance of names was, as I suppose, one of the reasons why the Norse poet transferred to the Helgi-lay features from the description of the Battle of Ross na Ríg.
        The Irish story seems to throw light on an expression which Sigrún uses of Höthbrodd in H. H., I, 18. Her words are: 'I have said that Höthbrodd the brave king is (obnoxious to me) as the son of a cat':
                        en ek hefi, Helgi!
                        Höðbrodd kveðinn
                        konung ÓNEISAN
                        sem KATTAR SON.
This expression, 'son of the cat,' the old Icel. author of the Völsungasaga found so strange and, indeed, unintelligible, that he changed it for another. That Kattar son is the surname of a particular man we may infer from an Icel. tale in which the same expression occurs. To Harald Harthráthi came the Icelander Stuf the Blind, son of Thórth Cat (son þórðar Kattar). 'Whose son art thou?' asked the king. 'I am Cat's son (Kattar son),' said he. 'What cat dost thou mean?' asked the king. (14) The race of this Thórth Cat had many relations with the Celts of the British Isles; and one of his sons was living at the beginning of the eleventh century,---at the time, therefore, when the First Helgi-lay was composed. It is probable, then, that 'Cat's son' in the lay is in like manner to be understood as a surname.
        King Carpre who fell in the Battle of Ross na Ríg, was surnamed nia fer, i.e. 'hero of the men.' But there was another King Carpre, often mentioned in Irish saga, whose surname was Cinnchait or Caitchenn, i.e. 'Cathead.' (15)
        Now Höthbrodd in the Helgi-lay was, as I have shown, taken to correspond to Carpre nia fer. This surname, 'hero of men,' has about the same meaning as the epithet, konung óneisan, (16) 'the brave king,' which Sigrún gives Höthbrodd, in H. H., I, 18.


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