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Updated: May 23, 2025
In support of this idea, Sarrazin and, following him, Thomas Arnold have stated that perhaps we have a reminiscence of her nationality in that of Ögn. But, as we have seen, there is no connection between the two women. Finally, let it be stated that not all has been said about the Hroar-Helgi story that one would like to say.
The version of the Hroar-Helgi story which we find in the Skjọldungasaga and the Bjarkarímur is the result of an attempt to harmonize conflicting traditions emanating from events about which we now find the first account in Beowulf and Widsith, as is also Saxo's treatment of the same matter in his sixth and seventh books.
But Bruce's statement quoted above, "This Welsh version, no doubt, passed through the hands of a French romancer before reaching the author of our Latin text," would account for the "confusion of motifs"; and the fact that we have not now that form of the story with which the Hroar-Helgi story came in contact would obscure some of the points of relationship between the two.
It is not necessary to repeat the story; it has all the characteristics of the "exile-return" type. As a whole, it has no connection with the Hroar-Helgi story; and it contains the only instance known of the use of Frothi outside the story where he originally belongs.
The paralleling of the two lines of kings also furnishes the key to the explanation of how the different names and a different setting for the Hroar-Helgi story, from those found in other versions, got into Saxo's version.
But even if we had the Meriadoc story in its original form, we should not expect to find it exactly reproduced in the Hroar-Helgi story. Various causes would operate to introduce changes. Such features as mountain-rocks with their eagle-nests would be modified to bring the topography more into harmony with that of Denmark, so that the caverned rock would naturally become an earth-cave.
In the Hroar-Helgi story, the usurper is represented as consulting a witch in regard to the whereabouts of the young princes.
But in the north of England were many Danes and Norwegians, and, as has already been pointed out, the story about Bothvar Bjarki was known in England and acquired distinct features there. To England, then, we turn for an explanation of the main features of the Hroar-Helgi story. Furthermore, the story is due to a combination of influences.
Both Saxo's version of the Hroar-Helgi story, and the Hrólfssaga, show to what use a dog's name could be put; and this specific reference to the dog in Meriadac, and the use that might have been made of him in an earlier version of the story, arouse a strong suspicion that here is the source of the suggestion of using dogs' names in the Hroar-Helgi story to aid in saving the boys.
In Saxo's version of the Hroar-Helgi story, the children are concealed in a hollow tree, food being brought to them under the pretence that they are dogs, and dogs' names are applied to them. In the Hamlet story, the rescue is supplied by the insanity motive, but friends at court are not wanting.
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