[385] Jebb, Introduction to Homer, p. 147.
[386] Jómsvíkinga Saga, cap. 44 (Fornmanna Sögur, XI p. 136 ff.); Flateyiarbók, I 191 f. Snorri gives a different account of the battle in the Heimskringla (Olafs S. Tryggv. 43 ff.); but he was acquainted with at least part of the story given above.
[387] Styrbiarnar Tháttr, cap. 2 (Fornm. Sög., V p. 250).
[388] Olafs S. Tryggv. A (Heimskr.), cap. 71; Olafs S. Tryggv. B, cap. 213 (Fornm. Sög., II p. 182 f.).
[389] Víga-Glúms Saga, cap. 9, 26.
[390] Olafs S. Tryggv. (Heimskr.), cap. 27 f.
[391] This latter part of the poem is copied from Eiríksmál (cf. p. [15]), in which Othin sends out Sigmundr and Sinfiötli to meet Eiríkr. We do not know either the date or the author of Eiríksmál; but it would seem from the Saxon Chronicle that Eiríkr was still alive about the year 954.
[392] Porro, si etiam plures deos habere desideratis, et uobis non sufficimus, Ericum, quondam regem uestrum, nos unanimes in collegium nostrum asciscimus, ut sit unus de numero deorum.... Nam et templum in honore supradicti regis dudum defuncti statuerunt, et ipsi tanquam deo uota et sacrificia offerre coeperunt. Rembertus, Vita S. Anscharii, cap. 23.
[393] The first stage in the growth of such a story as this may be illustrated from the message of the Mysians given by Herodotus, I 36. The development which it may ultimately attain can be seen from the story of Kilhwch and Olwen.
[394] Cf. Macculloch, The Childhood of Fiction, p. 279 ff.