ving additional details of the
hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with Hoedbrodd,
Helgi killed all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew
him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened by
Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector
again adds a note: "Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been born again:
he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's
daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod, and she was a Valkyrie."

This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the _Kara-ljod_
having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund
Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid: while
she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging
his sword.

There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the
same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents and names
differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his
legend probably come from different localities. The collector could
not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental
to be overlooked; he therefore accounted for it by the old idea of
re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an
hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a
Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,
though differently.

The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks
of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of
superficial resemblance. Helgi Hjoervardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,
Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_
Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is
a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfjoetli; his first
fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,
Hoedbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell
(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn
friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the
Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not
accidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this
is especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfjoetli's Death_
also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfjoetli; it is followed in this
by _Voelsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing
_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. T