Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek) is alegendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas inGermanic heroic legend. It tells of wars between theGoths and theHuns during the 4th century. The final part of the saga, which was likely composed separately from and later than the rest,^[3] is a source for Swedish medieval history.

The saga may be most appreciated for its memorable imagery, as seen in a quotation from one of its translators,Nora Kershaw Chadwick, on the invasion of the Huns:

Hervör standing at sunrise on the summit of the tower and looking southward towards the forest; Angantyr marshalling his men for battle and remarking dryly that there used to be more of them when mead drinking was in question; great clouds of dust rolling over the plain, through which glittered white corslet and golden helmet, as the Hunnish host came riding on.

The text contains several poetic sections: theHervararkviða, on Hervor's visit to her father's grave and her retrieval of the swordTyrfing; another, theHlöðskviða, on the battle between Goths and Huns; and a third, containing the riddles ofGestumblindi.

It has inspired later writers and derivative works, such asJ. R. R. Tolkien when shaping his legends ofMiddle-earth. His son,Christopher Tolkien translated the work into English asThe Saga of King Heidrek the Wise.

There are three medieval recensions of the saga, each of which is an independent witness to its lost archetype, and which together are the basis for all post-medieval manuscripts of the saga. These are known as versionsR,H, andU.^[4][5] The saga continued to be copied in manuscript into the nineteenth century, and the relationships of the surviving manuscripts and the ways in which they vary has been studied in detail.^[6]

R is the version found in the fifteenth-century parchment manuscript Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, MS 2845, formerly held in theDanish Royal Library at Copenhagen.^[7][4] The manuscript is fragmentary, today containing the saga only into chapter 12, that is within the poem on the battle of Goths and Huns.^[4][8] R is in most respects closest witness to the lost archetype ofHeiðreks saga.^[5][8][9]

U is the version best attested in a seventeenth-century paper manuscript, Uppsala, University Library, R 715. Another early witness to parts of this version is the seventeenth-century paper manuscript Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 203 fol. This contains a copy of R, but where R breaks off it then continues with text from a common ancestor with R 715.^[10] The version dramatically reworks the saga, adding a new opening chapter^[11] and including alterations sourced from other sagas, including from theRímur reworking of the same tale, theHervarar Rímur.^[12]

H (Hauksbók: Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, AM 544), dates toc. 1325. This parchment manuscript is today fragmentary, containing the story up to the end of Gestumblindi's second riddle, but two early copies (AM 281 4to) and (AM 597b) record parts of H now lost.[13] H is a conflation of an early version of the saga similar to that preserved in R, and the U-version of the saga. Thus although it is found in the earliest surviving manuscript, H is the third known recension of the saga.

There are many other paper manuscripts of the saga that were copied in the seventeenth century from the manuscripts mentioned above. These include AM 192, AM 193, AM 202 k, AM 354 4to, AM 355 4to, and AM 359 a 4to.^[14]

All the different manuscripts of the saga tell a similar story, though with many variations of detail (in particular, the U- and H-versions open with a mythic tale ofGuðmundr of Glæsisvellir).

The saga deals with the swordTyrfingr and how it was forged and cursed by thedwarfsDvalinn andDurin for kingSvafrlami. Later, Svafrlami loses it to the berserkerArngrímr ofBolmsö. The sword provides a common link throughout the saga, being passed down through the generations in Arngrímr's family, particularly the saga's main protagonists, Hervör and her son Heiðrekr. This magical sword shares a common property with other mythological weapons such asDáinsleif andBödvar Bjarki's sword inHrolf Kraki's Saga that, once it has been drawn, it cannot be sheathed until it has drawn blood.^[15]

Arngrímr passes Tyrfingr to his sonAngantýr. Angantýr dies during aholmganga (duel) onSamsø against the Swedish heroHjálmarr, whose friendÖrvar-Oddr buries the cursed sword in abarrow with Angantýr's body.

Tyrfingr is retrieved from the barrow by Angantýr's daughter, theshieldmaidenHervör, who summons her dead father to claim her inheritance. This section mixes prose with extensive quotations from a poem known today asHervarakviða, which largely comprises dialogue between Hervör and her father.

Then the saga relates how Hervör marries and has a sonHeiðrekr, who becomes king ofReiðgotaland. Heiðrekr spends his youth systematically contravening the good advice given to him by his father and fathering sons on several different women. Eventually, he settles down and becomes a wise king. At this point in the saga, Heiðrekr is killed after ariddle contest withÓðinn (who is disguised asGestumblindi). The riddles ofHervarar saga ok Heiðreks are all in verse and constitute the main surviving evidence formedieval Scandinavian riddling.^[16]

After Heiðrekr's death, his sonsAngantýr andHlöðr wage a great battle over their father's inheritance. Hlöðr is aided by the Huns, to whom his mother belonged, but nonetheless Angantýr defeats and kills him. This section of the saga too quotes extensively from a poem describing this battle between the Huns and Goths.^[17]

The end of the saga is only preserved in the U-recension.^[5] This version relates that Angantýr had a son,Heiðrekr Ulfhamr [es], who was king ofReiðgotaland for a long time. Heiðrekr's daughter Hildr was the mother ofHálfdanr the Valiant, who was the father ofÍvarr Víðfaðmi. After Ívarr, there follows a list ofSwedish kings, both real andsemi-legendary, ending withPhilip Halstensson. However, this king-list was probably composed separately from the rest of the saga and integrated into it in later redactions.^[3]

The saga tells the history of the family of Hervör and Heidrek over several generations. Then, the story turns to the sons ofArngrim, aViking Age tale also told in theHyndluljóð. Next, the tale tells ofHervör, daughter ofAngantyr; then ofHeidrek son of Hervör. At this point, the setting of the tale changes from the Kingdom of the Goths to somewhere inEastern Europe (c. 4th–5th century);[18] finally, the tale returns to the historically later date.^[19] Kershaw considers that the latter part of the tale involving the Huns and Goths has an origin separate from that of the earlier parts and, in chronological time, is actually taking place several centuries earlier.^[15]

In addition to attempts to understand the relationship between the events in the saga and real-world historical characters, events, and places (see§ Historicity), the manuscripts and contents are also useful to research into the attitudes and cultures of the periods in which they were composed or written down.^[20] Hall thinks the text derives ultimately fromoral tradition, not from the invention of an author.^[21]

Hall believes the poemHervararkviða (or 'The Waking of Angantýr') was composed specifically for a narrative closely akin to the tale told inHeiðreks saga, as it is consistent in style and forms a consistent narrative link between the events in the tale.^[22] Tolkien considers it unequivocally older than the saga itself.^[23] The exact nature of the original underlying narrative for the poem is a matter of scholarly debate.^[24] Some passages of the poetry inHeiðreks saga also appear in variant forms inÖrvar-Odd's saga (lines 97–9, 103-6), and the outline story of the duel between Arngrímr and Hjálmarr also appears in books 5 and 6 of theGesta Danorum.^[21][25] There are also elemental plot similarities between the saga andSturlaugs saga starfsama up to the point that a protagonist receives the magic sword from a female figure; Hall surmises that the two may share a narrative origin.^[26]

The section of the saga concerning Heiðrekr's disregard for his father's advice is common to a widely known family of tales (called byKnut Liestøl "The Good Counsels of the Father"). In general there are three counsels; in the saga, a set of three (1st, 2nd, and 6th) fit together.^[27] Tolkien proposes that after the counsels were introduced into the work, further counsels were added, further extending that theme through the saga.^[28]

The poemHlöðskviða (or "Battle of the Goths and Huns") has numerous analogues that overlap in topical coverage. The oldest of these is thought to be the Old English poemWidsith. Several of the characters who appear in the battle of the Goths and Huns appear are mentioned in this poem: Heiðrekr (Heaþoric),Sifka (Sifeca), Hlǫðr (Hliðe), and Angantýr (Incgenþeow).^[29][21] Tolkien considers that the poem, though seemingly considerably altered over time, once formed part of a continuous poetic narrative that gave a complete description of the Goth-Hun conflict and existed as a separate work.^[30]

In the 17th century, when the Norse sagas became a subject of interest to scholars, they were initially taken as reasonably accurate depictions of historical events. Later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, scholars realized that they were not completely historically accurate.^[20]

Carl Christian Rafn (Rafn 1850) considered that the battle between Goths and Huns was a legendary retelling of the battle between the Gothic kingOstrogotha and the Gepid kingFastida, which was described byJordanes in Ch. 17 of his history of the Goths.^[31][32]Richard Heinzel (Heinzel 1887), in his analysisÜber die Hervararsaga, suggested the battle described was the same as theBattle of the Catalaunian Plains (451 CE), identifying Angantyr as the Roman generalAetius and Hlothr as the FrankishChlodio, with the incorporation of parts of the generalLitorius, whereas the VandalGeiseric is the prototype for Gizurr Grytingalithi.^[33] Rudolf Much (Much 1889) proposed alternative attributions for the battles. One, recorded byPaul the Deacon, took place between theLangobards and theVulgaresBulgars; in that battle,Agelmundus (Agelmund) was killed, and his sister (conflated with Hervor) is taken prisoner. In the other battle, the new Langobardian king Lamissio is victorious; Much conflates this battle with that of the Goths and Huns. He also identifies the battlefields to be north of the RiverDanube in theCarpathian Mountains, near modern-dayKraków.^[34]

In the latter half of the 19th century, Heinzel's theory was predominant and widely accepted.^[35] Later,Gustav Neckel andGudmund Schütte further analyzed the textual and historical information. Neckel placed the events after the death ofAttila (d. 453 CE) during the later Gepid-Hun conflicts, whereas Schütte identified either Heithrekr or Heathoric as transformations of the name of the Gepid kingArdaric.^[36] In the early 1900s,Henrik Schück andRichard Constant Boer both rejected Heinzel's attribution and the link with Attila. Schück split the legend of the strife between brothers from that of the Goth-Hun war, as well as their geographic locations, and identified both sites as being in southern Russia. Boer associated the Dunheithr with theDaugava River but placed the battle further north in central European Russia, in theValdai Hills.^[37]

Further scholarship in the 20th century added more name and place attributions, withOtto von Friesen andArwid Johannson returning to the western end of the Carpathians; Hermann Schneider placing the Goths in theBlack Sea area (Crimean Goths); and Niels Clausen Lukman reanalyzing the tale, not in the context of Jordanes' history but in that ofAmmianus Marcellinus. Lukman shifted the date to 386 CE, when a mass migration of peoples underOdotheus (conflated with Hlothr) was destroyed by the Romans on theDanube; in his reconstruction Heithrekr is the visigothicAthanaric.^[38] In an analysis of parts of the tale, (Tolkien 1953) identifies the place where Angantyr revenges his father's (Heithrekr) killing by slaves as being at the foot of the Carpathians, using linguistic analysis based on consonant shifts (seeGrimm's Law) in the term "Harvath Mountains". The placeÁrheimar inDanparstathir mentioned in association is unidentified, though "Danpar-" has been assumed to be some form of the riverDnieper.^[39] Similarities with theBattle of Nedao (454 CE) have also been noted.^[40]

It is a testimony to its great age that names appear in genuinely Germanic forms and not in any form remotely influenced by Latin. Names for Goths appear that ceased to be used after 390 CE, such asGrýting (cf. the Latin formGreutungi) andTyrfing (cf. the Latin formTervingi). The events take place where the Goths lived during the wars with the Huns. The Gothic capitalÁrheimar is located on the Dniepr (...á Danparstöðum á þeim bæ, er Árheimar heita...), KingHeidrek dies in theCarpathians (...und Harvaða fjöllum), and the battle with the Huns takes place on the plains of theDanube (...á vígvöll á Dúnheiði í Dylgjudölum). The mythicalMyrkviðr [Mirkwood] that separates the Goths from the Huns appears to correspond to theMaeotian marshes.^{[citation needed]}

Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks was one source for the fifteenth-century Icelandic poemOrmars rímur (probably via a now-lost prose saga), in which the hero Ormarr visits his father's burial mound to convince his dead father to give him his sword.^[41][42]

Traditions appearing in the saga have also been preserved in severalScandinavian medieval ballads andrímur, i.e. the DanishAngelfyr og Helmer kamp, the FaroeseHjálmar og Angantýr,Arngrims synir,Gátu rima, and in the SwedishKung Speleman.^[43] The Faroese ballad,Gátu ríma ('riddle poem') was collected in the 19th century; it is thought by some scholars to derive from the riddle-contest in the saga.^[44]

At the beginning of the 18th century,George Hickes published a translation of theHervararkviða in hisLinguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus. Working from Verelius's 1671 translations (Verelius 1671), with the aid of a Swedish scholar, he presented the entire poem in half-line verse similar to that used inOld English poetry (seeOld English metre). It was the first full Icelandic poem translated into English, and it aroused interest in England in such works.^[45][46] The work was reprinted in Dryden'sPoetical Miscellanies (1716) and byThomas Percy in amended form as"The Incantation of Hervor" in hisFive Pieces of Runic Poetry (1763).^[47][48]

Hickes's publication inspired various "Gothic" and "Runic odes" based on the poem, of varying quality and faithfulness to the original.^[49] (Wawn 2002) states "[T]he cult of the ubiquitous eighteenth-century poem known as 'The Waking of Angantyr' can be traced directly to its door."^[50]

TheHervararkviða poem was translated fairly closely into verse by Beatrice Barmby and included in herGísli Súrsson: a Drama (1900); and into a more "Old English" style by (Smith-Dampier 1912) inThe Norse King's Bridal.^[49][51]Hjálmar's Death-Song was translated byW. Herbert in hisSelect Icelandic Poetry.^[52][53]

The French poetCharles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle adapted theHervararkviða in the poem"L’Épée d’Angantyr" [Angantyr's Sword] in hisPoèmes barbares.^[54][55]

Swedish composerWilhelm Stenhammar wrote the operaTirfing as an adaptation of the Hervor-section of the saga using her as the opera's lead protagonist.

There is much in this saga that readers ofJ. R. R. Tolkien's work will recognize, most importantly theriddle contest. There are, for instance, warriors similar to theRohirrim, braveshieldmaidens,Mirkwood, haunted barrows yielding enchanted swords (seeBarrow-downs), an epic battle, and twodwarfs namedDwalin andDurin.

• H, at f. 72v, the start of the saga
• R

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