We find precisely the same situation in Icelandic tradition some seven centuries later, except that not Hrothgar and Hrothulf, but Hrothulf (Rolf) alone is represented as ruling the Danes, and the sword with the golden hilt has become a sword named "Golden-hilt." It is conceivable for a situation to have been reconstructed in this way by mere accident, just as it is conceivable that one player may have the eight or nine best trumps dealt him. But it does not seem advisable to base one's calculations, as Olrik does, upon such an accident happening.
The parallel of Bjarki and Beowulf seems to have been first noted by Gisli Brynjulfsson (Antiquarisk Tidsskrift, 1852-3, p. 130). It has been often discussed by Sarrazin (Beowulf Studien, 13 etc., 47: Anglia, IX, 195 etc.: Engl. Stud. xvi, 79 etc., XXIII, 242 etc., XXXV, 19 etc.). Sarrazin's over-elaborated parallels form a broad target for doubters: it must be remembered that a case, though it may be discredited, is not invalidated by exaggeration. The problem is of course noted in the Beowulf studies of Müllenhoff (55), Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 55) and Boer (Die Beowulfsage, II, in Arkiv f. nord. filol. XIX, 44 etc.) and discussed at length and convincingly by Panzer (364-386) and Lawrence (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 1909, 222 etc.). The usual view which accepts some relationship is endorsed by all these scholars, as it is by Finnur Jónsson in his edition of the Hrólfs Saga Kraka og Bjarkarímur (København, 1904, p. xxii).
Ten Brink (185 etc.) denied any original connection, on the ground of the dissimilarity between Beowulf and the story given by Saxo. Any resemblances between Beowulf and the Hrólfs Saga he attributed to the influence of the English Beowulf-story upon the Saga.
For Olrik's emphatic denial of any connection at all, see Danmarks Heltedigtning, I, 134 etc. (This seems to have influenced Brandl, who expresses some doubt in Pauls Grdr. (2) ii. 1. 993.) For arguments to the contrary, see Heusler in A.f.d.A. XXX, 32, and especially Panzer and Lawrence as above.
The parallel of Gullinhjalti and gyldenhilt was first noted tentatively by Kluge (Engl. Stud. XXII, 145).
Section IV. Parallels from Folklore.
Hitherto we have been dealing with parallels to the Grendel story in written literature: but a further series of parallels, although much more remote, is to be found in that vast store of old wives' tales which no one till the nineteenth century took the trouble to write down systematically, but which certainly go back to a very ancient period. One particular tale, that of the Bear's Son[[130]] (extant in many forms), has been instanced as showing a resemblance to the Beowulf-story. In this tale the hero, a young man of extraordinary strength, (1) sets out on his adventures, associating with himself various companions; (2) makes resistance in a house against a supernatural being, which his fellows have in vain striven to withstand, and succeeds in mishandling or mutilating him. (3) By the blood-stained track of this creature, or guided by him in some other manner, the hero finds his way to a spring, or hole in the earth, (4) is lowered down by a cord and (5) overcomes in the underworld different supernatural foes, amongst whom is often included his former foe, or very rarely the mother of that foe: victory can often only be gained by the use of a magic sword which the hero finds below. (6) The hero is left treacherously in the lurch by his companions, whose duty it was to have drawn him up...
Now it may be objected, with truth, that this is not like the Beowulf-story, or even particularly like the Grettir-story. But the question is not merely whether it resembles these stories as we possess them, but whether it resembles the story which must have been the common origin of both. And we have only to try to reconstruct from Beowulf and from the Grettis saga a tale which can have been the common original of both, to see that it must be something extraordinarily like the folk-tale outlined above.
For example, it is true that the departure of the Danes homeward because they believe that Beowulf has met his death in the water below, bears only the remotest resemblance to the deliberate treachery which the companions in the folk-tale mete out to the hero. But when we compare the Grettir-story, we see there that a real breach of trust is involved, for there the priest Stein leaves the hero in the lurch, and abandons the rope by which he should have drawn Grettir up. This can hardly be an innovation on the part of the composer of the Grettis saga, for he is quite well disposed towards Stein, and has no motive for wantonly attributing treachery to him. The innovation presumably lies in the Beowulf-story, where Hrothgar and his court are depicted in such a friendly spirit that no disreputable act can be attributed to them, and consequently Hrothgar's departure home must not be allowed in any way to imperil or inconvenience the hero. A comparison of the Beowulf-story with the Grettir-story leads then to the conclusion that in the oldest version those who remained above when the hero plunged below were guilty of some measure of disloyalty in ceasing to watch for him. In other words we see that the further we track the Beowulf-story back, the more it comes to resemble the folk-tale.
And our belief that there is some connection between the folk-tale and the original of Beowulf must be strengthened when we find that, by a comparison of the folk-tale, we are able to explain features in Beowulf which strike us as difficult and even absurd: precisely as when we turn to a study of Shakespeare's sources we often find the explanation of things that puzzle us: we see that the poet is dealing with an unmanageable source, which he cannot make quite plausible. For instance: when Grendel enters Heorot he kills and eats the first of Beowulf's retinue whom he finds: no one tries to prevent him. The only explanation which the poet has to offer is that the retinue are all asleep[[131]]—strange somnolence on the part of men who are awaiting a hostile attack, which they expect will be fatal to them all[[132]]. And Beowulf at any rate is not asleep. Yet he calmly watches whilst his henchman is