Note to Anon Krm 5VIII
[4] Herruðr: According to RagnSon, where it occurs as Herrauðr (see Hb 1892-6, 458), Saxo’s account, where it occurs as Herothus (see Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 4-5 and 4. 17, pp. 634-5, 644-5), and Ragn, where it has the form Herruðr (see Ragn 1906-8, 116-17), this is the name of the jarl in Götaland (so Ragn; in Västergötland, RagnSon) or, as Saxo has it, the king of the Swedes (rex Sueonum), who offers his daughter Þóra/Thora in marriage to the man who can destroy a hypertrophic serpent (two such serpents in Saxo’s account). Ragnarr succeeds in doing so, thus winning Þóra as his first wife (so Ragn and RagnSon; Thora as his second wife in Saxo). Cf. st. 1, Note to ll. 2-10 above. Only in Saxo’s account (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 17, pp. 644-5) is the death of Herothus mentioned, and then only in passing, with no mention of the manner of his death: thus it cannot be said for certain whether it is the Herr(a)uðr/Herothus of these accounts who is mentioned here.
References
- Bibliography
- Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
- Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
- Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 18 April 2024)
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars sona þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 777. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=85> (accessed 18 April 2024)