Í grindur vandist grábjọrn einn í garðinn Hleiðar, var sá margur vargrinn beinn og víða sveiðar. Bjarka er kent, að hjarðarhunda hafi harm drepna, ekki er hónum allvel hent við ýta kepna. Hrólfur býst og hirð hans ọll að húna stýri, sá skal mestr í minni họll er mætir dýri. Beljandi hljóp bjọrninn framm úr bóli krukku, veifar sínum vónda hramm, svó virðar hrukku. Hjalti sér og horfir þá á, er hafin er róma, hafði hann ekki í họndum þá nema hnefana tóma. Hrólfur fleygði að Hjalta þá þeim hildar vendi, kappinn móti krummu brá og klótið hendi. Lagði hann síðan bjọrninn brátt við bóginn hægra, bessi fell í brúðar átt og bar sig lægra. Vann hann það til frægða fyst og fleira síðar, hans var lundin lọngum byst í leiki gríðar. Hér með fekk hann Hjalta nafn hins hjartaprúða, Bjarki var eigi betri en jafn við býti skrúða." (V, 4-13).[106] These stories seem, indeed, at first sight more rational than the story in the saga, and have features more in harmony with the account in Saxo; but this does not prove that they are earlier than the version in the saga. In the first place, by introducing two animals, where the other versions have only one, the author of the _rímur_ has broken the unity of the story, a feature in which the story in the _Hrólfssaga_ remains intact and as a consequence is nearer to the primitive form of the story as we find it in Saxo. In the second place, the author of the _rímur_ made precisely the changes that were necessary to remove the most irrational features of the story as we find it in the _Hrólfssaga_. The troll-dragon, which is an unusual creature, has been supplanted by the more conventional creatures, a wolf and a bear; and by the employment of two animals, the necessity of causing a dead animal to be propped up and be apparently killed again, is avoided. Consistency in the treatment of Bjarki as the descendant of a bear is also observed to the extent that he is said to kill a wolf, not a bear; but this consistency has begun to fade and suffer to the extent that Bjarki accompanies Hrolf on a bear hunt. It is probable, however, that consistency in the treatment of Bjarki in this respect is not contemplated, but that when he is said to kill a wolf it is only that the larger and more dangerous animal may be reserved as the one on which Hjalti is to show his strength and courage and in order that an animal worthy of the king's attention may be reserved for the royal hunt. To eat wolf meat in order to gain strength has just as good warrant in Old Norse literature as to drink the blood of a bear;[107] this, in so far, justifies the introduction in the _rímur_ of the wolf. But when Hjalti is made to _drink the blood_ of the wolf, it seems to be another instance of the author's keeping in mind the version of the story in the _Hrólfssaga_, where Hjalti drinks the