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Title: The Relation of the Hrolfs Saga Kraka and the Bjarkarimur to Beowulf A Contribution To The History Of Saga Development In England And The Scandinavian Countries

Author: Oscar Ludvig Olson

Release Date: February 2, 2005 [EBook #14878]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HROLFS SAGA KRAKA ***

The University of Chicago.

The Relation of the Hrólfs Saga Kraka and the Bjarkarímur to Beowulf.

A Contribution to the History of Saga Development in England and the
Scandinavian Countries.

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH).

BY

OSCAR LUDVIG OLSON

A Private Edition

Distributed By The University of Chicago Libraries

A Trade Edition Is Published By The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.

1916

THE RELATION OF THE HRÓLFS SAGA KRAKA AND THE BJARKARÍMUR TO BEOWULF.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF SAGA DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND AND THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES.

PREFACE

It was at the suggestion of Professor John M. Manly that I took up the study which has resulted in the following dissertation, and from him I have received much encouragement and valuable assistance on numerous occasions. I have profited by suggestions received from Professor Tom Peete Cross and Professor James R. Hulbert; and Professor Chester N. Gould has been unstinting in his kindness in permitting me to draw on his knowledge of the Old Norse language and literature. In addition to the aid received from these gentlemen, professors in the University of Chicago, I have received bibliographical information and helpful suggestions from Professor Frederick Klaeber, of the University of Minnesota; I have been aided in various ways by Professor George T. Flom, of the University of Illinois, particularly in preparing the manuscript for the press; and from others I have had assistance in reading proof. To all these gentlemen I am very grateful, and I take this opportunity to extend to them my sincere thanks.

INTRODUCTORY.

The following pages are the result of an investigation that has grown out of a study of Beowulf. The investigation has been prosecuted mainly with a view to ascertaining as definitely as possible the relationship between the Anglo-Saxon poem and the Hrólfs Saga Kraka, and has involved special consideration of two portions of the saga, namely, the Bọðvarsþáttr, and the Fróðaþáttr, and such portions of the early literature in England and the Scandinavian countries as seem to bear some relationship to the stories contained in these two portions of the saga. Some of the results achieved may seem to be outside the limits of the main theme. But they are not without value in this connection, for they throw light on the manner in which the Hrólfssaga and some of the other compositions in question came to assume the form in which we now find them. Thus these results assist us in determining the extent to which the saga and the Bjarkarímur are related to Beowulf.

As the field under consideration has been the object of investigation by a number of scholars, much that otherwise would need to be explained to prepare the way for what is to be presented lies ready at hand, and this is used as a foundation on which to build further.

In order to give the reader who is interested in the subject, but has not made a special study of it, an idea of the problems involved, and the solutions that have been offered, the discussion is preceded by a brief summary of the principal conclusions reached by various scholars.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONS

Aarb.—Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1894.

Ark.—Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi.

Ang.—Anglia.

Ant. Tid.—Antiquarisk Tidsskrift.

Beow.—Beowulf. The line numbering used is that of A.J. Wyatt's edition.

Beow., Child—Beowulf and the Finnesburh Fragment, translated by C.G. Child, 1904.

Beow. Stud.—Beowulf-Studien, by Gregor Sarrazin, 1888.

Beow. Unt.—Beowulf, Untersuchungen, by Bernhard ten Brink, 1888.

Beow. Unt. Ang.—Beowulf, Untersuchungen über das angelsächsische Epos und die älteste Geschichte der germanischen Seevölker, by Karl Müllenhoff, 1889.

Camb. Hist. Lit.—The Cambridge History of English Literature.

Chron.—Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by Raphael Holinshed, edition of 1808.

Helt.—Danmarks Heltedigtning, by Axel Otrik, vol. I, 1903; vol. II, 1910.

Dan. Nor. Rig.—Danske og norske Riger paa de britiske Öer i Danevældens Tidsalder, by Johannes C.H. Steenstrup, 1882.

Eng. Nov.—The Development of the English Novel, by Wilbur L. Cross, 1914.

Dictionary of National Biography.

Eng. Stud.—Englische Studien.

Ext. Ch. Rol.—Extraits de la Chanson de Roland, by Gaston Paris, 1912.

Gest. Dan.—Gesta Danorum, by Saxo Grammaticus, edited by A. Holder, 1886.

Elton's Saxo—The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, translated by Oliver Elton, 1894.

Gesch. Alteng. Lit.—Geschichte der altenglischen Litteratur, by Alois Brandl (Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, 1908).

Heimsk.—Heimskringla, eller Norges Kongesagaer, by Snorre Sturlasson, edited by C.R. Unger, 1868.

Hist. Reg. Wald.—Historia Regis Waldei, by Johannes Bramis, edited by R. Imelmann, 1912.

Hist. Mer.—Historia Meriadoci, edited by J.D. Bruce, 1913.

Hrs. Bjark.—Hrólfs Saga Kraka og Bjarkarímur, edited by Finnur Jónsson. 1904.

Icel. Leg.—Icelandic Legends, collected by Jón Arnason, translated by George E. Powell and Eiríkur Magnússon, 1864.

Mort. d'Arth.—Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory, Globe edition, 1871.

Norroen Fornkvæði, edited by Sophus Bugge, 1867.

Nor. Tales—Norse Fairy Tales, selected and adapted from the translations of Sir George Webbe Dasent, 1910.

Folk. Huld. Even.—Norske Folke-og Huldre-Eventyr i Udvalg, by P. Chr. Asbjörnsen, revised edition by Moltke Moe, 1910.