think of. He therefore invented a wolf story and placed it first; and,
as the examination of it has shown,[123] a late and very poor invention
it was, bearing manifest traces of the influence of the dragon story in
the saga.


_Conclusion_.

The principal results attained in the foregoing consideration of the
dragon story in the _Hrólfssaga_ and the corresponding stories in the
_Bjarkarímur_ may be stated briefly as follows:--

1. The story in Saxo is the earliest story we have of the slaying of an
animal by Bjarki in order that Hjalti may drink its blood and acquire
strength and courage.

2. Bjarki having acquired a reputed bear-ancestry from the fictitious
story about Siward, the saga consistently takes this into account and
substitutes a dragon, also acquired from the story about Siward, for the
bear, which, in Saxo's version, is the kind of animal that Bjarki slays.

3. To motivate Bjarki's going forth secretly to slay the monster at
night, a well defined type of Christmas-troll story is employed and the
dragon is given the nature of a troll that comes on Christmas Eve and
attacks the cattle of the king, who, on account of the terrible nature
of the monster, commands his men to stay in the house the night it is
expected.

4. That Bjarki may be given credit a) for slaying the monster and b) for
making a brave man of the coward Hott, and that c) Hott's change of