hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a
Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,
though differently.

The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks
of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of
superficial resemblance. Helgi Hjörvardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,
Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_
Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is
a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfjötli; his first
fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,
Hödbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell
(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn
friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the
Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not
accidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this
is especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfjötli's Death_
also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfjötli; it is followed in this
by _Völsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing
_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. There is, of course, confusion over the
Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting
authorities by making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and
Sigurd kill the rest.

If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct,
the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems, must be
extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung
cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfjötli. It must not be forgotten that,
though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later
versions, both Scandinavian and German, he is in the main action