Note 19 — The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane

This stanza looks like an interpolation, and there is little or nothing to connect it with the slaying of Granmar’s sons. In the manuscript line 2, indicated as the beginning of a stanza, precedes line 1. Hlebjorg (“Sea-Mountain”) and Styrkleifar (“Battle-Cliffs”): place names not elsewhere mentioned. Of Hrollaug’s sons nothing further is known. Starkath: this name gives a hint of the origin of this stanza, for Saxo Grammaticus tells of the slaying of the Swedish hero Starkath (“The Strong”) the son of Storverk, and describes how his severed head bit the ground in anger (cf. line 4). In all probability this stanza is from an entirely different poem, dealing with the Starkath story, and the annotator’s attempt to identify the Swedish hero as a third son of Granmar is quite without foundation.