poem _Deor_ is supposed to be spoken
by a _scop_ or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of
his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, another singer: "Once I was the
Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had
a good service and a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda
received the rights which the protector of men once granted me." Like
Heorrenda, Horant in the _Gudrun_ is a singer in the service of the
Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with
the Heathnings, but gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active
part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin
of the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the
correct form.

The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun,
founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In the Norse
story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost
eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild accompanies him,
though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is
her only object. It is her mediation which brings about the battle,
when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and
her arts which cause the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle
among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured
by, if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: Hoegni and Hedin and
their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and feast
at night, Hild is a war-goddess. The conception of her character,
contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German
heroines (who are rather the causes than the inciters of strife),
can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.

Hoegni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic
weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims a victim
whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have
arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.

_The Sword of Angantyr_.--Like the two last legends, Angantyr's
story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by
Snorri. Yet poems belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good
fortune in the late mythical _Hervarar Saga_) which among the heroic
poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story
possesses besides a striking originality, and is connected with the
name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry