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62 raTEODTTOTION.
torical light, Eagnar is tlie personage who represents
the transition of the proper Saga into History.
While he appears as a mythic Hero in the Icelandic
songs and narrations, he is a purely, historical
character in the Chronicles of the Old Annalists of
England, France, and Germany. There is no certain
proof of the existence of the more ancient Tng-
lingar, Skjoldungar, &c., but we may aflfirm that
Kagnar LoSbrok lived about the close of the eighth
and beginning of the ninth century-. All the rapa-
city and wild adventure which characterized the
early piratical expeditions to England, became con-
nected with his name, and he thus gradually became
a legehdary being—a personification of the
Yiking-life. It is that spirit, in" its wild and dreadful
reality, that appears in this Saga. It was written
down in the fourteenth century, and contains many
poems of older date, among, them the celebrated
"Death Song of Kagnar LoSbrok" (L65br6kar-
kviSa), which belongs to the Golden Age of Skaldic
literature, i. e., about the tenth century. A short
sketch of Kagnar's Sons (J)ittr af Ragnars Sonum),
and another fragment on the Upland Kings (af
Upplendinga Konungum), are connected with this
Saga. 4. Sogubrot—a Historical Fragment of some
of the Old Kings of Denmark and Sweden, which
is regarded by some as a fragment of the lost Skjolddnga
Saga.
There are other Sagas which might be called
mythic, as the material of some of them is taken
from heathen traditions, and others are founded
upon ancient songs, but they are so fantastically