The chapter from which the above is taken contains about a page more.
Olrik says, "Sagnet om Helge og Hroar er dog som helhed noget ganske
andet end den specielle Amledtype." He refers by way of comparison to
the life of Sigurd the Volsung, to the myth of Romulus and Remus, and
the corresponding myth of the Greek twins of Thebes, Thessaly, and
Arcadia; and concludes thus: "Er der fremmed indflydelse ved dens födsel
[i.e., the story of Hroar's and Helgi's childhood], må den være svag og
let strejfende. Snarere må man opfatte sagnet således, at dette æmne har
en livskraft til stadig at födes på ny, hver gang den unge belt vokser
op efter faderens drab. Motivet er så nærliggende, så ubetinget
heltegyldigt, at da Skjoldungsagaerne voksede frem på folkemunde, måtte
de åbnes med denne digtning; den var stadig--så at sige--lige nödvendig
for at stemple den store helteskikkelse."

The story about the Scylding kings in its various phases (except the
first, in _Beowulf_) is found in Denmark and in the Old Norse. Among the
Danes and Norwegians (including Icelanders), therefore, we must look for
an explanation of this last stage of development. But in the north of
England were many Danes and Norwegians, and, as has already been pointed
out, the story about Bothvar Bjarki was known in England and acquired
distinct features there.[129] To England, then, we turn for an
explanation of the main features of the Hroar-Helgi story.

Furthermore, the story is due to a combination of influences. Evidence
of this is the fact that it shows unmistakable influence of the Hamlet
story, which, however, does not furnish an explanation of the story as a
whole. And the fact that the story about Hroar and Helgi was not a
native product of England and had no roots in the soil of the country,
so to speak, which tended to hold it within bounds, but was an imported
story circulating rather loosely, far from the scene of the supposed