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Widsith and the Hervararsaga

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Kemp Malone
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Extract

The English poem Widsith (composed in the 7th century) contains two passages (v. 116 and v. 119 ff.) that refer to stories known to us also from the Icelandic Hervararsaga. The present paper is primarily an attempt to determine the form and relationship of these stories as the Widsith poet knew them. Any such attempt, however, necessarily involves an examination of the Hervararsaga. This saga has been much studied, but never investigated with the Widsith primarily in mind. Even R. W. Chambers, in his monumental edition of Widsith, relegates to a few footnotes his comments on the relation of the English poem to the Icelandic saga. That there is much to be said, the length of the present paper will suffice to demonstrate! It is my hope, moreover, that my discussion will serve likewise to clear up some of the obscurities of the saga.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 1925 , pp. 769 - 813
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1925

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References

1 Mod. Philol. XI, 363 ff.; XVIII, 93 ff.; XXI, 187 ff.

2 Örvaroddssaga, ed. Boer, p. 101.

3 ed. Holder, p. 160.

4 Cf. ed. Verelius, pp. 136, 176, for the name-form Gautar.

5 “Studier i Hervararsagan,” Uppsala program, 1918.

6 “Über die Hervararsaga,” W S B, CXIV, 428.

7 Op. cit., p. 450 f.

8 For Alíus's sword in AK, see R. C. Boer, “Zur dänischen Heldensage,” P.B.B. XXII, p. 355ff.

9 A. f.n.F., I, 258.

10 Lit. Hist. of Hamlet, I (Anglistische Forschungen, 59), 133ff.

11 Op. cit., p. 442f.

12 Lit. Hist. of Hamlet, I, 155ff.

13 “King Alfred's Geats,” Mod. Lang. Rev., XX, 1-11.

14 Op. cit., p. 46.

15 I, 67ff.

16 Mod. Lang. Notes, XXXIX, 223ff.

17 v. Friesen, Rökstenen, pp. 108ff.

18 ed. Holder, pp. 154ff; see also p. 122ff and p. 144f.

19 Op. cit., p. 463.

20 P. Herrmann, Die Heldensagen des Saxo Grammaticus, p. 360.

21 ed. Holder, p. 186f ; see also p. 24.

22 Cf. Sievers, Ags. Gram., §26 note.

23 Op. cit., p. 486, note 1.

24 Cf. Herrmann, op. cit., p. 392, although he does not make this point.

25 Eigennamen im Beowul f s.v.

26 Lit. Hist. of Hamlet, I, 168ff.

27 Op. cit., I, 158f.

28 Cf. J. V. Svensson, Namn och Bygd, V, 127 note.

29 Op. cit., p. 16.

30 Op. cit., p. 491.

31 For a reconstruction of the history of the short-lived Greater Geatland, see my Literary Hist. of Hamlet, I, 44f.

32 ed. Mommsen, p. 76; see Müllenhoff's note, p. 143.

33 I, 164ff.

34Op. cit., p. 463f.

36 ed. Mommsen, p. 59.

37 Namn och Bygd, V, 131.

37 Namn och Bygd., V, 133 note.

38 Chambers, Widsith, p. 252f.

39 For an interesting discussion of the Widsith (from a point of view entirely different from mine) in its relations to Scandian story, see G. Schütte, in A. f. n. F. XXXVI 1-32.