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On the whole, as Olrik says, "Hvor værdifuld den islandske Skjọldungasaga end er, den er selvfölgelig ikke på alle punkter at foretrække for enhver anden kilde." When it disagrees with other documents, its statements should be scanned with care. A little ought to be said about Saxo's treatment of the problem, the solution of which in the Skjọldungasaga has just been considered.
And this was, indeed, the case. Olrik has unraveled the skein and shown that the bear-ancestry belonged originally to Siward and from him was transferred to Ulf and Bjarki.
Ingjald was finally aroused, and he drew his sword and killed all of Swerting's sons. The Ingjald lay has its roots in Beowulf. Its relationship to the corresponding episode in the Anglo-Saxon poem is explained in the following by Olrik: "Kun et eneste af Starkad-digtningens mange optrin kan fölges til ældre kilde end de nordiske.
The consistency observed in displacing the bear, as the animal killed by Bjarki has been noted, as has also the reason why the dragon was introduced as a substitute for the bear. It will be observed that the account of the dragon in the Siward story suggested the further development of the story in the Hrólfssaga. Olrik says: "I én henseende bar Sivard den digres kamp dog noget eget.
Axel Olrik, who, more extensively than any other writer, has entered into the whole matter, of which the problems here under consideration form a part, does not think there is any connection between Beowulf and the Hrólfssaga. He regards the stories in the Bjarkarímur of Bjarki's slaying the wolf and Hjalti's slaying the bear as earlier compositions than the corresponding story in the Hrólfssaga.
Olrik says that the story should have given us a real test of Hjalti's manhood; Lawrence says, "The beast-propping episode spoils the courage-scene"; and Panzer says that this part of the story is impossible, because Hjalti is represented as killing a dead monster, and Hrolf, although he perceives the deception that has been practiced, nevertheless gives the swindler the heroic name Hjalti.
The two conceptions of Odin on the one hand as appearing in the disguise of an old man; on the other, as riding his horse, Sleipnir, and taking those fallen in battle to Valhalla are quite different, the former being distinctly Norwegian, one of the circumstances that Olrik uses to show that the Siward saga originated under strong Norwegian influence, while the latter was the conception of Odin current in Denmark and Sweden.
Det er det engelske dragekamps-motiv". Olrik further calls attention to the fact that in English tales the object is not to kill the dragon, but to drive it away, as Siward did. But to fit the dragon into the Bjarki story, it had to be killed in order that the blood-drinking episode might be introduced.
He regards the stories in the Bjarkarímur of Bjarki's slaying the wolf and Hjalti's slaying the bear as earlier compositions than the story in the Hrólfssaga of Bjarki's slaying the winged monster, which, in agreement with Olrik, he regards as "a special late elaboration peculiar to the Hrólfssaga." He regards Saxo's story as earlier than the stories in the Bjarkarímur.
But the story of Bjarki's fight with the winged monster is not patch-work; it does not represent the poorest and latest form of the Bjarki legends, as Olrik says; it is not an impossible story, as Panzer says; nor is it "inconsequent and absurd," as Lawrence says.
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