of names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars,
the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic and
a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story
became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of
Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in stories like
the _Golden Bird_, told by both Asbjörnsen and Grimm.

* * * * *

_Helgi._--The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the
heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hjörvardsson
being sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but
essentially the stories are the same.

In _Helyi Hjörvardsson_, Helgi, son of Hjörvard and Sigrlinn, was dumb
and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he
saw a troop of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter,
named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a former
wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a
magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava, having escaped
from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie
bride and the wit of a faithful servant. His brother Hedin, through
the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he
told his brother, who, dying in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged
Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds "Helgi and Svava
are said to have been born again."

In _Helgi Hundingsbane I_., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and
Borghild. He fought and slew Hunding, and afterwards met in battle
Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, Högni's