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Updated: June 21, 2025
Sarrazin regards the cowardly, useless Hott, Bjarki's companion, as a personification of the sword Hrunting, which fails Beowulf in his fight with Grendel's mother. But Hjalti, as Hott is called after he has become brave and strong, he regards as a personification of the giant-sword with which Beowulf dispatches Grendel's mother.
Finally, "Hrolf and all his men" took part in the hunt; but, as already stated, when the bear appeared, "the men fled." The statement, "the men fled;" introduces a feature that is wanting in the account in the Hrólfssaga of how Bjarki's father, who had been transformed into a bear by his stepmother, was hunted down and killed.
Besides those already mentioned, the two stories have other features in common. It is said of Siward, that when he learned that his son Osbeorn had fallen in battle, he became so angry that he sank his sword into a rock. It is said of Elgfrothi, Bjarki's brother, that he swung his sword against a rock with such force that it sank in to the hilt.
His whole demeanor, from the moment he accedes to Bjarki's request to attack the beast, reveals the change in his nature. But the proof of this change consists, not in knocking over the dragon, but in his ability to wield the sword which the king himself says can "only be borne by a man who is both brave and daring." This must be conclusive proof to the king and to all present.
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.
The rímur must therefore be left entirely out of account in any attempt to identify Bjarki with Beowulf, or in attempting to connect Bjarki's deeds with those of other heroes, as, for instance, that of Hereward in Gesta Herwardi. In regard to some particulars, these conclusions differ from the conclusions at which others have arrived; in regard to others, they agree with them.
The Fróðaþáttr of the Hrólfssaga embodies an earlier form of the Hroar-Helgi story than is found in the Skjọldungasaga and the Bjarkarímur; and this confirms the idea that the story in the Hrólfssaga of Bjarki's fight with the winged monster is earlier than the corresponding stories in the Bjarkarímur.
In Beowulf, he thinks, the exploit has been transferred from Beowulf, the Danish king, to Beowulf, the Geat, and that the differentiation of the deed into two exploits has been retained Beowulf, as a king's retainer, slaying Grendel, and later, as a king, killing a dragon. This identifies Bjarki's slaying of the winged monster with Beowulf's slaying of Grendel.
Among the Icelandic legends collected by Jón Arnason is a story which, in certain important particulars, is very much like the story about Bjarki's fight with the troll-dragon. A portion of it is as follows: "A man named Gudmundur lived once upon a time at a farm called Silfrúnarstadir, in the bay of Skagafjördur.
Earlier Opinions in Regard to the BỌÐVARSÞÁTTR, the BJARKARÍMUR, and Related Matters. Gisli Brynjulfsson, the first writer, apparently, to call attention to the similarity between Beowulf's combat with Grendel and Bjarki's combat with the winged monster, identified the story in the Hrólfssaga of Bjarki's fight with the winged monster with the story in Beowulf of Beowulf's fight with Grendel.
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