Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Part 35

_No blade would wound Hrongvith._ It is not uncommon to hear that a warrior, usually an unsympathetic character, was immune through spells from wounds inflicted by weapons; cf. _Beowulf_, l. 804, where this is stated of Grendel.

III. _Hebrides._ The word _Suthreyjar_, here translated Hebrides, properly means all the islands off the west coast of Scotland. The modern form of the word is _Sodor_, surviving in the name of the diocese of 'Sodor and Man.'

_Ghosts._ It will be seen from the context that the word _draugr_ here translated 'ghost,' is in reality the animated corpse of the dead man.

This is a common feature of Norse stories (e.g. the _Saga of Grettir the Strong_, ch. 18).

IV. _Valland_, i.e. France, lit. the 'Land of the _Valar_,' i.e.

of the Celts or Romans. In Anglo-Saxon literature the French are sometimes called _Galwalas_, i.e. the 'Walas (Welsh) of Gaul'. See also the _Thattr of Nornagest_, ch. 9 and note.

_And he added_, etc. Are we to a.s.sume a lacuna here? The composition of this saga is however far from perfect. In certain pa.s.sages (e.g. at the beginning of this chapter) one is inclined to suspect that someone has tried to combine two different texts of the story.

_Finger nails_, etc. Cf. the physiological fact of the growth of the finger nails after death, and the legend of Charlemagne according to which his beard grew through a stone table after his death.

_Gunnloth._ Other doc.u.ments appear to make Hromund a Norwegian, and this is what we should gather from _Landnamabok_ quoted above (p. 231, note). See _Hversu Noregr Bygist_, ch. 2.

_Mistletoe_, the name of the sword again connects this story with that of Balder who is stated in _Voluspa_, str. 32 and _Gylf.a.ginning_, ch.

49 to have been killed by a piece of mistletoe.

V. _Dagny_, the wife of Ingjold, who was the friend of Grim Lothinkinni. See the _Saga of Grim Loinkinni_, ch. 3.

_Halogaland._ See _Hervarar Saga_, ch. 1 and note; and also the Sagas of _Ketil Haeng_ and _Grim Loinkinni_.

_Voli and Bild_, etc. At this point the writer of the saga has omitted part of the dialogue in which Olaf threatens to hang Hromund. Cf.

_Griplur_, p. 383, str. 20, 21.

VI. _Helgi_ is known elsewhere as Helgi Haddingjaskati, e.g. in the short text called _Hversu Noregr Bygist_, ch. 2 (_Fornaldar Sogur_, II, p. 7). According to the prose at the end of _Helgakvia Hundingsbana_ II, Helgi Haddingjaskati and Kara were reincarnations of Helgi Hundingsbani and Sigrun, the hero and heroine of this poem.

Their story was given in a poem called _Karuljo_ which is now lost.

See however Vigfusson and Powell, _Corpus Poetic.u.m Boreale_, vol. I, pp. 129 and 130.

_On the frozen surface of Lake Vener._ This story is perhaps taken from that of the battle related in _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. 43 and _Ynglingasaga_, ch. 33. Cf. _Beowulf_, l. 2392 ff.

_Kara._ For the form _Lara_ which appears in the printed editions see p. 62, note, above. In the prose at the end of _Helgakvia Hundingsbana_ II, Kara is called a valkyrie.

VIII. _Hagal._ The story of Hagal and Blind is given also at the beginning of _Helgakvia Hundingsbana_ II; but here the person disguised as a grinding-maid is Helgi, the hero of the poem.

X. _Who was also called Bavis_; cf. _Helgakv. Hund_. II, str. 2, where he is called _Blindr enn bolvisi_ ('skilled in harmful doings').

SAGA OF HERVoR AND HEITHREK

I. _Finnmark_, i.e. the northernmost part of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

_Jotunheimar_, i.e. the homes of the _jotnar_ or giants. This name occurs frequently in Norse stories, though it is not elsewhere connected with Finnmark.

_Ymisland_, i.e. the land of _mir_; see below.

_Halogaland_, i.e. the northern part of Norway stretching from about lat. 65 as far as Finnmark.

_Guthmund._ Cf. the _Thattr of Nornagest_, ch. 1 and note.

_Glasisvellir._ Cf. the _Thattr of Nornagest_, ch. 1, and note.

_Fields of immortality_, i.e. lit. 'Fields of the not dead'

(_odainsakr_). Cf. the _Saga of Eirikr Viforla_, ch. 1, and the _Saga of Halfdan Eysteinsson_, ch. 1. See also Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan.

Hist._, p. 129.

_Hofund._ The name means lit. 'Judge.'

_Ymir_, i.e. the old 'Rime-giant,' the first being created out of Chaos, from whom the giants sprang; cf. _Voluspa_, str. 3; _Vafrunismal_, str. 21; _Grimnismal_, str. 40; _Hyndluljo_, str.

33; _Gylf.a.ginning_, chs. 5-8.

_Starkath Aludreng._ See _Gautreks Saga_, ch. 3, according to which this Starkath is the grandfather of his more famous namesake, for whom see the _Thattr of Nornagest_, ch. 7 and note. See also Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, pp. 224, 225.

_Elivagar._ See _Vafrunismal_, str. 31; _Gylf.a.ginning_, ch. 5; _Hymiskvia_, str. 5.

_Alfheimar_, a name given to the region between the Gtaelv and the River Glommen, in the south-east of Norway (now mainly in Sweden). The royal family of this region is frequently mentioned in the history of Harold the Fairhaired and his father, and also in the stories of Sigurth Hring. See the _Thattr of Nornagest_, ch. 7 and note.

_Ey-grim Bolm_, i.e. 'Grim of the Island of Bolm.'

_Arngrim._ See Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, p. 203 ff.

_Berserk._ See _Ynglingasaga_, ch. 6.

II. _Dwarfs._ Cf. the story of Svegir in _Ynglingasaga_, ch. 15.

_Dvalin_ is the name of a dwarf in _Voluspa_, str. 11, 14; _Havamal_, str. 143, and in other of the _Edda_ poems. It is, in fact, the typical name for a dwarf. Cf. also _Gylf.a.ginning_, ch. 14, and _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. 3, 57. _Dulin_ does not occur elsewhere, though _Durin_ is found in _Voluspa_, str. 10.

_Standing in the doorway of the stone_, etc. Cf. _Voluspa_, str. 48.

_Your sword_, etc. Cf. _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. 49. "Now I have drawn _Dainsleif_, which the dwarfs made and which must cause a man's death every time it is drawn, and never fails in its stroke."

_Tyrfing._ It has been suggested that this name is derived from _tyrfi_, 'resinous fir-tree,' owing to its flaming like resinous fir-wood. In early times it was customary for swords to be called by names ending in _-ing_. Cf. the swords _Hrunting_ in _Beowulf_, l.

1457, etc., _Nagling_, _ibid._, l. 2680, and _Mimming_ in _Waldhere_, l. 3, etc., etc.

_Perms._ The text has _um Bjarmaland_ 'in the land of the Bjarmar,'

i.e. the _Beormas_ of Ohthere's Voyage in Alfred's translation of _Orosius_. It is generally reached, not as here, apparently, by the Baltic, but by voyages round the North Cape. The name is generally supposed to be connected with _Perm_, and in early times may have comprehended the Zyrianians, as well as the Permians proper and the Votiaks. There is some evidence from place-names that this group of languages was once spoken as far west as the White Sea. Cf.

Abercromby, _The Pre- and Proto-historic Finns_, p. 10 f.

_Svafrlami._ The text (H) followed by the Reykjavik edition here has Sigrlami--which can hardly be right. Rafn's ed. reads Svafrlami.

_Twelve sons._ For Arngrim's Sons, Cf. _Hyndluljoth_, str. 23, 24; Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, pp. 203-205; _Saga of orvar Odd_, ch.

14.

_Twins._ See the _Saga of Harold the Fairhaired_ (_Heimskringla_), ch.

18, where again we find twins both receiving the same name.

_Mistletoe._ A sword of the same name occurs in the _Saga of Hromund Greipsson_ (see above).

_Hrotti._ Cf. _Hrunting_, the sword of Hunferth in _Beowulf_, l. 1457 etc. See also the note to _Tyrfing_, p. 235.