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INTEODTJCTION. 61
and of the hero Half and his warriors. It abounds
in quotations from old poems, and dates from about
the thirteenth century. 2. Sagan af Hr61fi Konlingi
Kraka ok Koppum bans. The history of Eing
Hr61f Kraka and his Champions. Hrolf Kraka is
the chief personage of the mythic race of Skjoldun-
gar, with whose name is connected the Mstory of
the most celebrated Old-Danish Heroes, so that we
have rafher a complete Book of Heroes than a
single Saga. It is thus divided into sections comprising
the histories of King Fr65i, of Hroar ^nd
Helgi, of Svipdagr and his brothers, of Bodvar
Bjarki and his brothers, of Hjalti the Meek, of
Adils the Upsala-King and the Expedition of Hrolf
and his Champions into Sweden, of the End of King
' Hrolf and his Champions.
These may have been independent Sagas origi-
nally, which were afterward collected from old tra-
ditions by the Saga writer. In their present form
they are not older than the fourteenth century, but
the subjects are far niore ancient, as is seen by the
Bjarka-m£l, a poem in it which was known, in the
early part of the eleventh century, as a very ancient
song. 3. Saga af Eagnari Konungi L65br6k ok
Sonum bans— ^The history of King Eagnar L&6br6k
and his sons. Kagnar LoSbrok approaches Hrolf
Kraka in mythic glory, but is more historical, as he
was the hero of the sea-roving life of the Northmen,
especially in the plundering expeditions by
which England was laid waste after the close of the
eighth century. As these expeditions first brought
the North out of its mythic clair-obscwrii!/ into his-