Notes on Orendel and other Stories. 305
Compare Mac la'ui Direach ^ : —
" And his muime took the feather in her hand, and she said : * I am setting it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the year on thee ; that thou be not without a pool in thy shoe, and that thou be wet, cold, and soiled, until thou gettest for me the bird from which that feather came.' And he said to his muime : ' I am setting it as crosses, and as spells, and as the decay of the year on thee ; that thou be standing with the one foot on the great house, and the other foot on the castle ; and that thy face be to the tempest whatever wind blows, until I return back.' "
Hjalmter went out on his journey, with his friend Olver and a mysterious swineherd, Hord, who helps him through his troubles. There are two other helpers, one a trollwife, Skinnhufa, and the other a fingdlkn, a kind of sphinx, named Vargeysa; and there are magic swords also, as in Svendal and (allusively) in Svipdag. Hervor is found at last, and greets Hjalmter : her father Hunding is more like the Welsh father than the amenable heathen king in the Danish ballad. There are tasks before the princess is won, as in Kulhivch; a bull to tame, a wrestling match, and a tug of war over a fire. The end is that of a Jason story transferred to Lat. 70 N. : the father pursues the ship in the form of a walrus ; and then there is a very neat piece of tactics — " Hord said : ' That is the being I like least, but there is nothing for it, fosterbrother, thou shalt have aid ; but see thou name me not while he is here, or I die.' Then he lays him down in the hold, and they put clothes over him." Hord, that is, goes to sleep in the manner of the Finns, and sends himself off in another shape against the walrus. " They saw a narwhal shoot from under their ship at the walrus, very sharply, and fall on him." Hervor like- wise changes her shape ; and the other two helpers, Skinnhufa and Vargeysa, come as eagles, and Hunding is killed.
The explanation of Hord is that he is the brother of
' Campbell, West Highland Tales, vol. ii., p. 328. VOL. VIII. X
