With this point perfectly established, it is possible to analyse Saxo's narrative point by point, resolve it into its constituent parts, and refer them to the one of the two myths concerning Hoder and Oder to which they belong.[7] It has already been noted that Saxo was unable to unite organically with his narration of Hoder's adventure the episode concerning the sword of victory taken from Mimingus. The introduction of this episode has made the story of Hotherus a chain of contradictions. On the other hand, the same episode naturally adapts itself to the Svipdag-Oder story, which we already know. We have seen that Svipdag descends to the lower world and there gets into possession of the Volund sword. Hence it is Svipdag-Oder, not Hoder, who is instructed by the moon-god Gevar as to where the sword is to be found. It is he who crosses the frost-mountains, penetrates into the specus guarded by Mimingus, and there captures the Volund sword and the Volund ring. It is Svipdag, not Hoder, who, thanks to this sword, is able as thursar thjódar sjóli to conquer the otherwise indomitable Halfdan—nay, even more, compel Halfdan's co-father and protector, the Asa-god Thor, to yield.
Thus Saxo's accounts about Otharus and Hotherus fill two important gaps in the records preserved to our time in the Icelandic sources concerning the Svipdag-myth. To this is also to be added what Saxo tells us about Svipdag under this very name (see Nos. 24, 33): that he carries on an implacable war with Halfdan after the latter had first secured and then rejected Groa; that after various fortunes of war he conquers him and gives him a mortal wound; that he takes Halfdan's and Groa's son Gudhorm into his good graces and gives him a kingdom, but that he pursues and wars against Halfdan's and Alveig-Signe's son Hadding, and finally falls by his hand.
Hotherus-Svipdag's perilous journey across the frosty mountains, mentioned by Saxo, is predicted by Groa in her seventh incantation of protection over her son:
thann gel ek thér in sjaunda,
ef thik sækja kemr
frost á fjalli há
hávetrar kuldi
megit thinu holdi fara,
ok haldisk æ lik at lidum.
102.
SVIPDAG'S SYNONYM EIREKR. ERICUS DISERTUS IN SAXO.
We have not yet exhausted Saxo's contributions to the myth concerning Svipdag. In two other passages in his Historia Danica Svipdag reappears, namely, in the accounts of the reigns of Frode III. and of Halfdan Berggram, in both under the name Ericus (Eirekr), a name applied to Svipdag in the mythology also (see No. 108).
The first reference showing that Svipdag and Erik are identical appears in the following analogies:
Halfdan (Gram), who kills a Swedish king, is attacked in war by Svipdag.
Halfdan (Berggram), who kills a Swedish king, is attacked in war by Erik.