For a treatment of the different versions of the story as it was known to men of old, the reader may be referred to Miss Clarke's _Sidelights on Teutonic History during the Migration Period_ (Cambridge, 1911), p. 190 ff., and to Chambers' _Widsith_, p. 100 ff. It may be mentioned here that in the main points of the story--the carrying off of Hild and the subsequent pursuit by the father--all the versions are agreed. The German version, however, differs in many respects from those of the North (except that of the _Hildina_)--especially in the fact that the combatants become reconciled. The various Scandinavian versions of the story also differ somewhat in detail among themselves. The story translated below is the only one which mentions the slaying by Hethin of Hˆgni's wife, and it is only here that Hethin is described as being of foreign origin. Moreover this is the only version in which the goddess Freyja is made responsible for the Unending Battle. Indeed the supernatural element, and especially the influence of charms and spells, is more prominent in this version than in any of the others. It is only here, too, that we find the story of Gˆndul and the "potion of forgetfulness." On the other hand our version contains no reference to the statement made in _Sk·ldskaparm·l_ and Saxo that it was Hild who by her magic spells restored the dead to life each night. In our version of the story the character of Hild is left wholly undeveloped. Indeed the writers of the Romantic Sagas are always so much more interested in incident than in character that highly individualised personality is rare. Even when as in the case of Hervˆr[7], the very nature of the story presents an interesting and somewhat unusual personality, we are sometimes left with a feeling of dissatisfaction and a conviction that the writer did not realise the full merits and possibilities of his material. Hˆgni is the usual type of hot-headed implacable sea-rover. The character of Hethin, however, presents some interesting features and strikes us as more modern in conception. Naturally gentle of disposition, he had been forced by malignant powers into a situation foreign to his nature. Hardly characteristic of a viking chief are his genuine regret for the harm he had done and his anxiety that the men of Hˆgni and himself should not be called upon to forfeit their lives for his "crimes and misdeeds." The conventional viking, clear-eyed and purely material in his view of life, would have stayed to brave out the consequences. Hethin only wished "to go away somewhere a long way off, where he would not each day have his wicked deeds cast in his teeth." His remorse had broken him down.--"You will find it an easy matter to slay me when I am left alive last of all!" The motif of the Everlasting Battle is not confined the story of Hethin and Hˆgni. Parallels can be found in many literatures, both ancient and modern[8].