Denmark -- History -- To 1241; Folklore -- Scandinavia
Again the story is repeated; the hero (Frode Haddingsson) is warned by
a countryman of the island-dragon and its hoard, is told to cover his
shield and body with bulls' hides against the poison, and smite the
monster's belly. The dragon goes to drink, and, as it is coming back,
it is attacked, slain, and its treasure lifted precisely as before. The
analogies with the Beowulf and Sigfred stories are evident; but no great
poet has arisen to weave the dragon-slaying intimately into the lives of
Frode and Frithlaf as they have been woven into the tragedy of Sigfred
the wooer of Brunhild and, if Dr. Vigffisson be right the conqueror of
Varus, or into the story of Beowulf, whose real engagements were with
sea-monsters, not fiery dragons.
Another type is that of the "Loathly Worm". A king out hunting (Herod
or Herraud, King of Sweden), for some unexplained reason brings home two
small snakes as presents for his daughter. They wax wonderfully, have
to be fed a whole ox a day, and proceed to poison and waste the
countryside. The wretched king is forced to offer his daughter (Thora)
to anyone who will slay them. The hero (Ragnar) devises a dress of a
peculiar kind (by help of his nurse, apparently), in this case, woolly
mantle and hairy breeches all frozen and ice-covered to resist the
venom, then strapping his spear to his hand, he encounters them boldly
alone. The courtiers hide "like frightened little girls", and the king
betakes him to a "narrow shelter", an euphemism evidently of Saxo's, for
the scene is comic. The king comes forth when the hero is victorious,
and laughing at his hairy legs, nick-names him Shaggy-breech, and bids
him to the feast. Ragnar fetches up his comrades, and apparently seeks
out the frightened courtiers (no doubt with appropriate quip, omitted by
Saxo, who hurries on), feasts, marries the king's daughter, and begets
on her two fine sons.
Of somewhat similar type is the proud "Maiden guarded" by Beasts. Here
the scene is laid in Gaulardale in Norway. The lady is Ladgerda, the
hero Ragnar. Enamoured of the maiden by seeing her prowess in war, he
accepts no rebuffs, but leaving his followers, enters the house, slays
the guardian Bear and Dog, thrusting one through with a spear and
throttling the other with his hand. The lady is won and wed, and two
daughters and a son (Frithlaf) duly begotten. The story of Alf and
Alfhild combines several types. There are the tame snakes, the baffled
suitors' heads staked to terrify other suitors, and the hero using
red-hot iron and spear to slay the two reptiles.
The "Proud Lady", (cf. Kudrun and the Niebelungen, and Are's story
of the queen that burnt her suitors) appears in Hermintrude, Queen of
Scotland, who battles and slays her lovers, but is out-witted by the
hero (Hamlet), and, abating her arrogance, agrees to wed him. This seems
an obvious accretion in the original Hamlet story, and probably owing
not to Saxo, but to his authority.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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