had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more
highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the case of the
Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The
earliest Norse references which can be approximately dated are in the
Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three
stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he gives in outline; his only
reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, "the Volsungs' drink," for
serpent. With the possible exception of the Anglo-Saxon fragments,
the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories
which are common to all, though, as might be expected, the Continental
sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These
German sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved
mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.

The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less
common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule merely in
their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their
material. The origin of these heroic motives may generally be found in
primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people
and woven into legend; sometimes linked to the name of some dead tribal
hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions
in still-varying combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson
and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the
myth. In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it
is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.

The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic
motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a dead man's
possessions with him. In the _Waterdale Saga_, Ketil Raum, a viking