Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes, page 18
Ægir, also known as Gymir; the host of the gods’ feasts and a being associated with the sea. He is a giant (or rather, a jǫtunn), and in commonplace Norse poetic language, his “daughters” are the waves. [10]
Agnafit, a shore in Sweden from which Hjálmar departs for Samsø. [3]
Alrek (Alrekr), called “the Bold” and said to be a ruler among the English. [11]
Andađ (Andaðr), unknown individual mentioned in the solution to a riddle. [10]
Angantýr (1), a berserker, the oldest son of Angrím who inherits the sword Tyrfing from him. [1]
{142} Angantýr (2), the oldest son of Hervor (1) and Hofund. He is killed in his youth by his brother Heiđrek. [5]
Angantýr (3), son of Heiđrek and Helga, who becomes king after his father and reclaims the sword Tyrfing from his father’s killers. [11]
Árheimar, settlement in southeastern Europe, within the kingdom of Angantýr (3) and apparently his capital. [11]
Arngrím (Arngrímr), Viking chieftain who marries Eyfura and inherits the sword Tyrfing from Sigrlami. Their son is Angantýr (1). [1]
Baldr, a famously handsome god and son of Óđin, who was killed through the treacherous plotting of the scheming god Loki. [10]
Berserker (berserkr), a type of warrior famous from Norse sagas, myths, and even art, but of uncertain historical reality. The Old Norse word is probably to be interpreted “bear (animal)-shirt,” but possibly also “bare shirt.” The berserker is said to be a warrior, usually a bully, who goes into a wild frenzy after biting his shield, but who is extremely fatigued after the frenzy passes. Berserkers are often impervious to fire and/or iron, and their powers are said to be the gift of the god Óđin. Berserkers are typically seen either singly or in groups of twelve (as with Angantýr (1) and his brothers). [1]
Bjarmar (Bjarmarr), a jarl, and the maternal grandfather of Hervor (1) who raises her. [2]
Bólm (Bólmr), island home of Arngrím and birthplace of Angantýr (1). [1]
Carpathian Mountains, a mountain range in southeastern Europe. The Old Norse term used in the saga, Hervaðafjǫll, “Hervaða-mountains,” is apparently an extremely archaic borrowing from Greek or another language of that region, showing the sound change known as Grimm’s Law, which had occurred in the Proto-Germanic language (ancestral to Old Norse) much more than a thousand years before the saga was written. [11]
Delling (Dellingr), a name that occurs in some lists of dwarf names, as well as in Vafthrúđnismál in the Poetic Edda as the name of the father of Dagr “Day,” and in Hávamál (st. 160; see The Wanderer’s Hávamál). The words fyr Dellings durum “before Delling’s doors” also occur in five of the riddles Óđin poses to King Heiđrek in chapter 10. [10]
Denmark (Danmǫrk), roughly coterminous with the modern country, but in the medieval period it included much of what is now southern Sweden. [15]
{143} Dísir, plural designation for supernatural creatures that might have been minor goddesses of home and hearth, or spirit-like beings that protected certain families. [7]
Dnieper (Danpar), a river in southeastern Europe. [11]
Dúnheiđ (Dúnheiðr), site of the battle between Angantýr (3) and Hlođ. [13]
Dvalin (Dvalinn), a typical name for a dwarf. Hervor (1) calls the sword Tyrfing “that sword that Dvalin made” in the poem The Waking of Angantýr in chapter 4, though she may use this expression merely as a poetic way of saying “that sword that a dwarf made.” [4]
Dwarf (dvergr), a mythical, humanlike creature. Dwarves are represented as master craftsmen, and many of them have shape-changing abilities (for instance, Andvari lives as a fish and Otter as an otter in The Saga of the Volsungs) and the power to enter solid stone in order to hide themselves. [1]
England (in Old Norse also England), roughly coterminous with the modern country in Great Britain, though it was not one unified kingdom during the early Middle Ages. [9]
Eyfura, daughter of Sigrlami, wife of Arngrím, and mother of Angantýr (1). [1]
Foreigners, a term used, capitalized, in this translation to render Old Norse Valar. The Old Norse word is related to the English word Welsh, and must have come from a Proto-Germanic word that designated a foreign people. For the early English, the quintessential foreigners were the Welsh, while in Norse literature this term generally denotes French-speaking peoples. However, the poem The Battle of the Goths and Huns in which the term occurs is very archaic, and “Romans” is not an unthinkable translation in that context, especially given that their ruler is named as Kjár, a derivation from Caesar (which of course was also a title used by rulers of the medieval Holy Roman Empire in France and Germany, among many other pretenders to Roman greatness in the following centuries). [11]
Fróđmar (Fróðmarr) (1), a name Hervor seems to use as a (typical?) slave’s name when insulting what she thinks is her slave father. [4]
Fróđmar (Fróðmarr) (2), a jarl in England who fosters Hervor (2). [9]
Geats, adapted from Old English as a translation of Old Norse Gautar, the people of Götaland. [11]
{144} Gestumblindi, an enemy of Heiđrek who sacrifices to Óđin and asks him to take his place in Heiđrek’s court. Óđin goes to Heiđrek, disguised as Gestumblindi, and proposes riddles to him in chapter 10. [10]
Gizur (Gizurr) (1), called “the Old,” the foster-father of Angantýr (3). [5]
Gizur (Gizurr) (2), mentioned as a king of Götaland. [11]
Glasisvellir, lands of King Guđmund and later of his son King Hofund. [4]
Götaland (Gautland), a region of modern Sweden that was once politically distinct from Sweden proper; in Old English its people were called “Geats” (Bēowulf, famously, was a Geat). Götaland is the Swedish spelling that can be found on modern maps. [15]
Goths (gotar), a Germanic people of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Beginning in chapter 11, the people of Angantýr (3) are identified as Goths. [11]
Graf River (Grafá), a river mentioned in chapter 11. While the geography of the saga is vague and as often points toward southeastern Europe as to Scandinavia, there is a river in Nord-Trøndelag, Norway called Gravåa, the Modern Norwegian cognate of this name, and the river does empty into a lake as described in the saga. [11]
Grýtings (Grýtingar), a Gothic tribe to which Gizur (2) belongs. [12]
Guđmund (Guðmundr), king in Glasisvellir. [4]
Hadding (Haddingr), a name shared by two brothers, both berserkers, and the fifth and sixth sons of Angrím. [1]
Harald (Haraldr), aged ruler of Reiđgotaland. [6]
Heiđrek (Heiðrekr), the younger son of Hervor (1), who begins as an ill-tempered youth who accidentally kills his brother Angantýr (2) and then is given the sword Tyrfing by his mother after his father banishes him for the crime. Eventually he becomes a powerful king in his own right. [4]
Heiđrek Wolf-skin (Heiðrekr úlfhamr), son of Angantýr (3). [15]
Hel, the underworld to which most people are committed for the afterlife. According to the classic understanding of Norse mythology, men who die in battle go to Valhalla instead, but in fact the Norse conception of the afterlife seems to have been very vague. Especially in archaic poems, Hel may also mean simply “the grave,” as it seems to in the poem The Waking of Angantýr in chapter 4. [4]
{145} Helga, first wife of Heiđrek, and daughter of Harald. She is the mother of Angantýr (3). She kills herself after her husband kills her father in battle. [6]
Hervarđ (Hervarðr) (1), a berserker, the third son of Angrím. [1]
Hervarđ (Hervarðr) (2), a man’s name assumed by Hervor (1) when she departs for Samsø in disguise. [4]
Hervor (Hervǫr) (1), daughter of Angantýr (1) and Sváva. She grows up in the lands of her maternal grandfather Bjarmar before leaving for Samsø (disguised as a man, under the name Hervarđ) to retrieve the sword Tyrfing from her father’s grave mound. [4]
Hervor (Hervǫr) (2), daughter of Heiđrek with his unnamed third wife. Like her grandmother, Hervor (1), Hervor (2) is a shieldmaiden. [9]
Hjálmar (Hjálmarr), known as “the Bold.” He is a warrior in the service of King Ingjald, and fights a duel against Hjorvarđ and his brothers on Samsø to contest Hjorvarđ’s proposal to marry Ingjald’s daughter Ingibjorg. “Hjálmar’s killer” or “killer of Hjálmar” is a poetic way of referring to the sword Tyrfing. [2]
Hjorvarđ (Hjǫrvarðr), a berserker, the second son of Angrím. He swears to marry Ingibjorg. [1]
Hlođ (Hlǫðr), son of Heiđrek and Sifka. He grows up with his mother’s people in Hunland, fostered by his maternal grandfather King Humli. [7]
Hnefatafl, a Norse board game similar to chess, but with one side limited to defensive actions and the other to offense. Note that the board game in ch. 5 is specifically referred to as “chess” (skáktafl), not hnefatafl. [10]
Hofund (Hǫfundr), son of Guđmund, who marries Hervor (1). [5]
Hrani, a berserker, the fourth son of Angrím. [1]
Humli, king in Hunland. [7]
Hunland, a mythical kingdom. The Huns were an Asian people of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages whose raids in Europe reached their peak in the fifth century AD and brought them into both conflicts and alliances with the Goths and other Germanic peoples. Numerous human characters in the Norse sagas are referred to as Huns. [7]
Ingibjorg (Ingibjǫrg), daughter of Ingjald, for whose hand in marriage Hjálmar (with Odd) fights Hjorvarđ (with his brothers). She is not named in the saga until Hjálmar’s death poem. [3]
Ingjald (Ingjaldr), a king in Sweden. [2]
{146} Ítrek (Ítrekr), unknown individual mentioned in the solution to a riddle. [10]
Jarl, Norse title for a powerful nobleman. [2]
Jassar Mountains (Jassarfjǫll), an unknown range, apparently in southeastern Europe. [13]
Kjár (Kjárr), a name likely derived from the title Caesar. [11]
Mirkwood (Myrkviðr), a famous forest mentioned in several poems and sagas of human heroes. It is associated vaguely with “the south” and with the Goths. [11]
Munarvág (Munarvágr), Old Norse name for an unknown harbor on the Danish island of Samsø (possibly in its south, based on a vague hint in Bjarmar’s response to Hervor (1) in chapter 4). It is also a setting in The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok. [3]
Mǫrk, a monetary unit, based on the weight of the precious metal involved, of the Norse Middle Ages. [6]
Norn, one of the female beings who determine the fate of gods and mortals. [14]
Norway (Noregr), roughly coterminous with the modern country, but it is a region of small independent chiefdoms, rather than a unified nation, in the early Middle Ages. [15]
Odd (Oddr), known as “the Traveler” or more often as “Arrow-Odd” (Ǫrvar-Oddr). He is the hero of his own long saga (Ǫrvar-Odds saga or “Arrow-Odd’s Saga”), and appears in The Saga of Hervor and Heiđrek as a companion in arms to Hjálmar during his fight on Samsø against Hjorvarđ and Angantýr. He wears a silk shirt that is impervious to weapons. [3]
Óđin (Óðinn), a god associated with poetry and war. He is often portrayed as a shrewd figure pursuing his own selfish interests, including the dispatching of human warriors so that they may join his army in Valhalla (the “hall of the slain” where his Valkyries bring dead warriors). Óđin is very frequently seen in disguise and takes many names, but even in disguise he is usually recognizable to the reader as an old man with one eye, often dressed in a gray or blue cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. [3]
Ormar (Ormarr), foster-father of Hervor (2). [13]
Reiđgotaland (Reiðgotaland), lands ruled by Harald and later Heiđrek and Angantýr (3). The location at times seems vaguely within Scandinavia {147} and other times (especially in chapters 11–14 and the poetry within them) to be in southeastern Europe along the Dnieper. [6]
Rus, a term for the people of an early medieval Swedish tribe, or the Slavic people of the kingdoms they founded in modern Russia and Ukraine. The word appears in this volume in translating Garđaríki, an Old Norse term for the Rus kingdoms, and Garđakonungr, the king of these regions. [1]
Samsø (Sámsey), a small island in Denmark where Hjálmar (with Odd) fights Hjorvarđ and Angantýr (1) (with their brothers) and where Angantýr and the other combatants are later buried. The island seems to have had a special association with magic, as it is also mentioned as a place where Óđin practiced magic in the poem Lokasenna in the Poetic Edda, and where a talking wooden idol is encountered at the end of The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok. [2]
Saxony (Saxland), a region and former independent kingdom in Germany, corresponding to the northern rather than eastern region with that name today. [8]
Sifka, daughter of Humli and concubine of Heiđrek. She cohabitates with Heiđrek before and after his second marriage, and she is the mother with him of Hlođ. Heiđrek kills Sifka before his third marriage. [7]
Shieldmaiden (skjaldmær), Norse designation for a woman who fights in battles. [9]
Sigrlami, Rus king and original owner of the sword Tyrfing. [1]
Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Óđin. [10]
Sóti, a place where Hjálmar recollects fighting. [3]
Sváva, wife of Angantýr (1) and mother of Hervor (1). [2]
Sweden (Svíþjóð), in the Middle Ages, refers chiefly to the eastern part of the modern country centered around Uppsala. Much of the southern part of what is now Sweden belonged to Denmark until early modern times, and in the early medieval period Götaland was also a distinct kingdom. [3]
Tyrfing (Tyrfingr), a sword, famously unable to be resheathed until it had drawn a man’s blood. [1]
Valdar (Valdarr), mentioned as a king of Denmark. [11]
Valhalla (Valhǫll), hall of Óđin, where men who die in battle are said to reside. [3]
Yule, translation used in this volume for Old Norse jól, a holiday held at approximately the winter solstice. Oaths sworn on Yule Eve were considered especially binding. [2]
{149} Glossary of Names and Terms:
The Saga of Hrólf Kraki and His Champions
Note that the alphabetization of this glossary is based on American rather than Scandinavian conventions. Æ is treated as A+E, Ð is treated as D, Ø and (in Swedish placenames) Ö are treated as O, ǫ is printed as and treated as O, and Þ is printed as and alphabetized as TH. The length of vowels is printed but ignored in alphabetization. More details on the anglicization of Old Norse used in this volume can be found in the Introduction. The chapter in which a given name or term is first mentioned is enclosed in square brackets. Where the conventional spelling of a name in Old Norse is different from the more anglicized spelling used in the translated narrative, or when an English-language or present-day Scandinavian form of a place-name has been substituted for the Old Norse name, I have indicated the Old Norse spelling in parentheses following the name.
Ađils, a Swedish king who marries King Helgi’s daughter and former wife Yrsa after Yrsa divorces her father. [14]
Agnar (Agnarr) (1), son of Hróar and Ogn. [12]
Agnar (Agnarr) (2), a berserker that Bođvar alludes to killing, though the story is not told in the saga. [50]
Beigađ (Beigaðr), a son of Svip and brother of Svipdag. He assists his brother Svipdag in the battle in which Svipdag is maimed fighting for King Ađils of Sweden, and then follows Svipdag when he joins the champions of King Hrólf of Denmark. [18]
Bera, daughter of a wealthy farmer and lover of Bjorn. Her name means “(female) bear.” [25]
Berserker (berserkr), a type of warrior famous from Norse sagas, myths, and even art, but of uncertain historical reality. The Old Norse word is berserkr, probably to be interpreted “bear (animal)-shirt,” but possibly also “bare shirt.” The berserker is said to be a warrior, usually a bully, who goes into a wild frenzy after biting his shield, but who is extremely fatigued after the {150} frenzy passes. Berserkers are often impervious to fire and/or iron, and their powers are said to be the gift of the god Óđin. Berserkers are typically seen either singly or in groups of twelve. [16]
Bjálki, a warrior in the service of King Hrólf of Denmark. [22]
Bjorn (Bjǫrn), son of Hring. He is cursed to spend his days as a bear by his stepmother Hvít after he refuses her advances. His name means “(male) bear.” [24]
Bođvar (Bǫðvarr), third of the three sons of Bjorn and Bera. He is often called Bođvar Bjarki “Little-bear.” In his adulthood he becomes a great hero in the court of King Hrólf Kraki and marries Hrólf’s daughter Drífa. In his final battle in the saga, it seems that he takes the form of a bear as his father once had. [26]
Denmark (Danmǫrk), roughly coterminous with the modern country, but in the medieval period it included much of what is now southern Sweden. [1]
Drífa, daughter of King Hrólf of Denmark. She is married to Bođvar after he joins Hrólf’s court. Another daughter, Skúr, is mentioned in ch. 22, but never again, and Drífa is called “the king’s only daughter” when she is next mentioned in ch. 37. [22]
Elf (álfr), a creature described only in the vaguest terms in Norse mythology. Elves seem to have human-like appearance but also a strong association with magic and (sometimes) the pagan gods. In some contexts, though not in this saga, they seem to be much the same kind of creature as dwarves. [15]
Finnmark (Finnmǫrk), region in far northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle. [24]
Fróđi (Fróði), an early Danish king, and brother of Hálfdan (in Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, though never in the saga, their father is identified as Friđleif). He invades his brother Hálfdan’s territory and kills him. He dies when his hall is burned by his nephews Helgi and Hróar. [1]
