we have before us in this much discussed tale about Bjarki and the
troll-dragon. Regardless of where the author got the idea of the dragon,
he has made use of the popular story about the troll that comes
Christmas Eve and attacks those who venture out into the open after
dark. And when the saga-man transformed the story into one of this type,
he did it with the conscious purpose of providing a story that would
enable him to let Bjarki take Hott out secretly at night, kill the
dragon, compel Hott to eat of its heart and drink of its blood, put
Hott's newly acquired strength to the test, prop the dead dragon up in a
living posture, thus paving the way for further developments, and then
return to the hall--all unseen and without arousing a breath of
suspicion. The type of story is adapted precisely to the requirements of
the author's plan. That the propping-up of an animal that has been slain
is good saga-material, or has the sanction of earlier usage, is
admitted, and need not be dwelt upon here.

The type to which the dragon story belongs has a bearing on its
relationship to the Grendel story. Grendel is a hall-attacking monster;
the troll-dragon is not a hall-attacking monster. If the dragon story in
the saga is a modification of the Grendel story in _Beowulf_, or if it
is a modification even of the story about the fire-spewing dragon, there
has been a change, not only in the details of the story and the nature
of the monster, but it has been transferred from one well-defined type
of story to another. There is, indeed, a type of troll story in which
the troll comes Christmas Eve and attacks the inmates of the house, not
the cattle in the stable or in the folds. To this type belongs the
story in the _Grettissaga_ in which the troll-wife attacks the man of
the house[69] and which is often compared with the Grendel story.
Another story of the same type is that about Per Gynt, who, having been
informed that a certain house is invaded by trolls every Christmas Eve