Note 235 — Chapter VIII · THE USE OF FICTION IN THE HEROIC POEMS.

For the case of Widsith see p. 56 f. Supernatural beings, such as Grendel, and mythical personages of the past, such as Scyld, cannot fairly be regarded as exceptions, since it is not at all likely that they were invented by the poet himself. They figure largely in skaldic poems of the Viking Age (e.g. Hákonarmál) which probably never introduce fictitious contemporary characters. On the other hand some of the characters in the Edda poems may have been invented in the North.