Introduction to the Danish Ballad of Angelfyr and Helmer the Warrior
Four different versions of the Danish ballad of Angelfyr and Helmer the Warrior are given by Grundtvig in Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser, Vol. i, number 19 (Copenhagen, 1853). Two of these, closely allied, are found in a ms. written in the sixteenth century1. The version which Grundtvig has called A is the one adopted for translation below.
An interesting study in ballad composition is afforded by a comparison of this Danish ballad with the Faroese ballads of the Sons of Arngrim. According to Axel Olrik2 the Danish ballad is founded on the Saga of Hervör and Heithrek. That the ultimate source of all the ballads of the Sons of Arngrim was the Saga there can be no doubt. But whether the Danish ballad is derived directly from the Saga or through some intermediate stage, Icelandic, Faroese or Danish, is problematical. A definite relationship between the Danish and the Faroese ballads would seem to be shown by several common features of the story which do not occur in the Saga itself, as well as by some striking verbal resemblances which have no foundation in the prose narrative.
Thus on the one hand both in the Danish and in the Faroese ballads translated above, Hjalmar and Angantyr are described as brothers3, whereas in the Saga they are not related. On the other hand the Danish and the two Faroese ballads are almost identical in their description of Angantyr and all his kin as “vile trolls,” though Version A given by Grundtvig describes him in accordance with the Saga as a “half-troll” (i.e. on his mother’s side).
Other close verbal parallels, surely indicative of cross-relationship or of a common source, are afforded by a comparison of certain passages of the Danish ballad and the Faroese Ballad of Arngrim’s Sons. Thus v. 5 of the Danish is practically identical with v. 74 of the Faroese, and we may compare v. 9 of the shorter Ballad of Hjalmar and Angantyr. May we also compare v. 6 of the Danish with v. 79 of the longer Faroese ballad; v. 8 with v. 81; v. 10 with v. 84; v. 14 with v. 79? Conventional as many of these phrases are, the identity can hardly be accidental in all cases.
The precise nature of the relationship between the two versions is not so clear. We may note, however, some of the features contained in the Danish version of the story which are not found in the Saga. In the first place neither Arngrim nor Samsø are mentioned, the names Offue and Uthiss-kier being substituted for them4; secondly, except in the refrain there is no mention of the sea or a voyage in the Danish ballad. Helmer bids them “saddle his steed,” and both he and Angelfyr ride to Upsala. Finally after v. 11 of our text, the Danish ballad differs entirely from the Faroese version of the story and also from that of the Saga of Hervör and Heithrek. Offue’s revenge is peculiar to the Danish, and here too no mention is made of Ingibjörg’s death.
From all these changes, and especially from the transference of names and places, it is obvious that the Danish version of the story is considerably more remote from the Saga than either of the two Faroese versions. At the same time, the absence of any reference to Samsø or any other Danish locality renders it highly improbable that its divergences are due to any (Danish) local tradition independent of the Saga.
On the whole it would seem that at an early date (fifteenth or early sixteenth century?) a ballad had been made from this portion of the Saga, either directly or through the intermediate stage of a lost rhymed version; and that it was composed in the Faroes themselves or in Iceland or some other region—the Orkneys and Shetlands are a possible suggestion—and acquired by the Danes not very long afterwards.
Footnote 1: Cf. Grundtvig, Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser, Vol. i, p. 252. Also Axel Olrik, Danske Folkeviser í Udvalg, Vol. i, p. 263.
Footnote 2: Cf. Olrik, op. cit., p. 78. For general information on the Danish ballads the reader is referred to Steenstrup, Vore Folkeviser (Copenhagen, 1891), translated by E. G. Cox (Boston, 1914).
Footnote 3: See, however, the Introduction to the Ballad of Hjalmar and Angantyr, p. 182 above.
Footnote 4: So ms. A; but cf. below v. 1 and note.