instance, of another mintage, of the Odin motive; as stated above, the
oldest authority in regard to the matter says nothing about Odin's
appearing to Hrolf on the expedition to Sweden; and, as we know, the one
has acquired important features (Bjarki's bear-ancestry and his
renunciation of his kingdom) from the other. These circumstances render
it highly probable that this is another of the Bjarki story's
acquisitions from contact with the Siward saga. Incidents of this kind
need not necessarily be used in one story as they are in another; saga
literature abounds in evidence of this fact, as, for instance, Saxo's
and the _Hrólfssaga's_ story of Hroar and Helgi, considered later.

A feature of the _Hrólfssaga_ that is much more noteworthy in this
connection and that has certainly been acquired from the Siward saga is
that concerning the kind of monster slain by Bjarki at the court of
Hrolf Kraki. When Siward's bear-ancestry had been transferred to Bothvar
Bjarki, it followed as a matter of course that Bjarki must no longer be
represented as killing a bear. Siward had driven a dragon, which had
killed men and cattle in great numbers, from one of the Orkney Islands;
and it is in imitation of this exploit that Bjarki is represented as
having slain a winged monster (dragon). This would be only another
instance, in addition to those already mentioned, of the influence
exerted by the story of Siward on the _Hrólfssaga_. Ordinarily, there
was nothing about Bjarki's person that revealed or suggested that his
father was a bear; but he was able to assume the shape of a bear, which,
according to the _Hrólfssaga_, he did with terrible effect in the last
battle of Hrolf and his warriors. Since he sustained such near
relationship to the bear-family, it would be inappropriate to represent
him as showing his prowess by killing a bear, for his sentiments toward
that animal would, as a result of his own ancestry and the treatment his
father had received, be those of sympathy rather than antipathy. His