[The Danish History Books I-IX by Saxo Grammaticus (Saxo the Learned)]@TWC D-Link bookThe Danish History Books I-IX INTRODUCTION 102/114
So are the Nausicaa incident of the "king's daughter going a washing", the hero disguising himself as a woman and winding wool (like a second Heracles). There are a certain number of stories, which only occur in Saxo and in our other Northern sources with attributions, though they are of course legendary; such are: The "Everlasting Battle" between Hedhin and Hogne, a legend connected with the great Brisinga-men story, and paralleled by the Cordelia-tale among the Britons. The story of the "Children preserved" is not very clearly told, and Saxo seems to have euhemerized.
It is evidently of the same type as the Lionel-Lancelot story in the Arthurian cycle.
Two children, ordered to be killed, are saved by the slaying of other children in their place; and afterwards by their being kept and named as dogs; they come to their own and avenge their wrongs. The "Journey to Hell" story is told of Eric, who goes to a far land to fetch a princess back, and is successful.
It is apparently an adventure of Swipdag, if everyone had their rights.
It is also told of Thorkill, whose adventures are rather of the "True Thomas" type. The "Test of Endurance" by sitting between fires, and the relief of the tortured and patient hero by a kindly trick, is a variant of the famous Eddic Lays concerning Agnar. The "Robbers of the Island", evidently comes from an Icelandic source (cf.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|