SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

30 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
found its way to England as well as to Iceland. More than
that, not a simple tale, but a heroic lay because of the
ominous poetical term hepiisax." In this case we should
not exaggerate the impact of Irish tales on the Beowulf; 9
the Danish source, a lay of rather small dimensions,
contained a heroic encounter with a monster; it was
provided with some interesting details, it told the scene
with such vigour and fullness that the name of the sword
could maintain itself in the English as well as in the
Icelandic tradition.
What then was the function of the Irish tale? Schneider
is of the opinion that the description of the landscape with
lake and moor as well as the elegiac atmosphere evoked
by it are as uri-Germanic as the character of the demon
and its home on the bottom of a lake."? But then we must
ask again: an Irish story, told by some casual visitor to
the author of the Beowulf? It would be an almost
incredible instance of accident. A gifted monk eager to
write a large epic about a Scandinavian hero, whose
exploits he has become acquainted with through some
Danish poem, meets at this period, when his work is
ripening in his mind, an Irish story-teller, and he is so
captivated by his curious tale that he decides to substitute
it for that of his Scandinavian source. I am not quite at
ease with this supposition, though I cannot deny the mere
possibility of it. Why not rather a tradition nearer to the
Northumbrian monk? Why not a tale, well-known in
the neighbourhood of the monastery, a tale perhaps he
may have heard from country-people when still a child?
This supposition, which may seem at first sight a very
natural one, does not sufficiently explain the fact that
we find the elements of Celtic inspiration in the Grettis
saga as well. The heptisax may have come from Denmark
8 Schneider, loco cit. 27, stresses that heptisax points to a poetic source; on
p. 28 he seems prone to accept Irish models for this episode of the saga.
• R. W. Chambers, Beowulf: An Introduction (and ed.), 45I ff., seems not
much convinced of Celtic influences.
10 loco cit. 28.