[38] Lethram pergitur, quod oppidum, a Roluone constructum eximiisque regni opibus illustratum, ceteris confinium prouinciarum urbibus regie fundacionis et sedis auctoritate prestabat. Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p. 58).
[39] His cognitis Helgo filium Roluonem Lethrica arce conclusit, heredis saluti consulturus (p. 52).
[40] A Roe Roskildia condita memoratur. Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p. 51). Roe's spring, after being a feature of the town throughout the ages, is now (owing perhaps to its sources having been tapped by a neighbouring mineral-water factory) represented only by a pump in a market-garden.
[41] I owe this paragraph to information kindly supplied me by Dr Sofus Larsen, librarian of the University Library, Copenhagen.
[42] It was once believed that, in prehistoric times, the sea came up to Leire also (Forchhammer, Steenstrup and Worsaae: Undersøgelser i geologisk-antiqvarisk Retning, Kjøbenhavn, 1851). A most exact scrutiny of the geology of the coast-line has proved this to be erroneous. (Danmarks geologiske Undersøgelse I.R. 6. Beskrivelse til Kaartbladene Kjøbenhavn og Roskilde, af K. Rørdam, Kjøbenhavn, 1899.)
[43] The presence at Leire of early remains makes it tempting to suppose that it may have been from very primitive times a stronghold or sacred place. It is impossible here to examine these conjectures, which would connect Heorot ultimately with the "sacred place on the isle of the ocean" mentioned by Tacitus. The curious may be referred to Much in P.B.B. XVII, 196-8; Mogk in Pauls Grdr. (2) III, 367; Kock in the Swedish Historisk Tidskrift, 1895, 162 etc.; and particularly to the articles by Sarrazin: Die Hirsch Halle in Anglia, XIX, 368-91, Neue Beowulfstudien (Der Grendelsee) in Engl. Stud. XLII, 6-15.
[44] This seems to me much more probable than, as Olrik supposes, that Froda fell in battle against Healfdene (Skjoldungasaga, 162 [80]).
[45] Saga of Rolf Kraki, cap. IV.
[46] Olrik wishes to read the whole of this account, not as a prediction in the present future tense, but as a narrative of past events in the historic present. (Heltedigtning, I, 16; II, 38.) Considering the rarity of the historic present idiom in Old English poetry, this seems exceedingly unlikely.
[47] ll. 2047-2056.