But if so, it becomes at once of prime importance. For by a comparison of Beowulf and Grettir we must form an idea of what the original story was, from which both were derived.
Another parallel, though a less striking one, has been found in the story of Orm Storolfsson, which is extant in a short saga about contemporary with that of Grettir, Ormsþáttr Stórólfssonar[[110]], in two ballads from the Faroe Islands[[111]] and two from Sweden[[112]].
It is generally asserted that the Orm-story affords a close parallel to the episodes of Grendel and his mother. I cannot find close resemblance, and I strongly suspect that the repetition of the assertion is due to the fact that the Orm-story has not been very easily accessible, and has often been taken as read by the critics.
But, in any case, it has been proved that the Orm-tale borrows largely from other sagas, and notably from the Grettis saga itself[[113]]. Before arguing, therefore, from any parallel, it must first be shown that the feature in which Orm resembles
Beowulf is not derived at second hand from the Grettis saga. One such feature there is, namely Orm's piety, which he certainly does not derive from Grettir. In this he with equal certainty resembles Beowulf. According to modern ideas, indeed, there is more of the Christian hero in Beowulf than in Orm.
Now Orm owes his victory to the fact, among other things, that, at the critical moment, he vows to God and the holy apostle St Peter to make a pilgrimage to Rome should he be successful. In this a parallel is seen to the fact that Beowulf is saved, not only by his coat of mail, but also by the divine interposition[[114]]. But is this really a parallel? Beowulf is too much of a sportsman to buy victory by making a vow when in a tight place. Gǣð ā wyrd swā hīo scel[[115]] is the exact antithesis of Orm's pledge.
However, I have given in the Second Part the text of the Orm-episode, so that readers may judge for themselves the closeness or remoteness of the parallel.
The parallel between Grettir and Beowulf was noted by the Icelander Gudbrand Vigfússon upon his first reading Beowulf (see Prolegomena to Sturlunga saga, 1878, p. xlix: Corpus Poeticum Boreale, II, 501: Icelandic Reader, 1879, 404). It was elaborately worked out by Gering in Anglia, III, 74-87, and it is of course noticed in almost every discussion of Beowulf. The parallel with Orm was first noted by Schück (Svensk Literaturhistoria, Stockholm, 1886, etc., I, 62) and independently by Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 58-68).
The best edition of the Grettis saga is the excellent one of Boer (Halle, 1900), but the opinions there expressed as to the relationship of the episodes to each other and to the Grendel story have not received the general support of scholars.
Section III. Bothvar Bjarki.