r in their historical value. This
episode is probably to be regarded as legendary in part; and it would
seem also to contain a good deal of conscious fiction.

The _thattr_ falls naturally into three parts. The framework of
the story--the arrival of Guest at the hall of Olaf Tryggvason, his
inclusion in the King's retinue, and his baptism--forms a whole in
itself and contains nothing inherently improbable save the manner of
his death, where the folk-tale element creeps in. The first 'story
within a story,' the account that Guest gives of his wanderings and
more especially of the adventures of Sigurth, is legendary--or perhaps
rather made up from old legends with the help of the _Edda_ poems. As
in the case of the Anglo-Saxon poem _Widsith_--and indeed to a much
greater extent--the persons who figure in the stranger's stories lived
in reality in widely different ages. Sigurth and his brothers-in-law
belong to the early part of the fifth century, Harold the Fairhaired
and the sons of Lothbrok to the latter part of the ninth century.
Other characters such as Guthmund of Glasisvellir who is mentioned in
the first chapters are probably mythical.

The third part, which is perhaps the most interesting part of the
_thattr_, is the passage in which Guest explains how he came by his
name. There can be no doubt that here we are in the region of pure
folk-tale. The story of the visit of the Norns shows a very remarkable
resemblance to the Greek legend of Althaea and Meleager. The same
motif appears to some extent in the mediaeval French romances of
_Ogier the Dane_, and is familiar to everyone in a slightly different
form as the first part of the German folk-tale, _Sleeping Beauty_,
where the reference to spinning should be noted.

The poetry contained in this _thattr_, unlike that in the _Hervarar
Saga_, is all taken from the _Older Edda_. One of the poems, the
_Hellride of Brynhild_, is given almost complete and there are long
extracts from _Reginsmal_. There are, however, some references to
poems which no longer exist[9].

In many respects the story of Nornagest is among the most interesting
of the Romantic Sagas. It gives a vivid picture of life in a northern
court--the _naivete_ and friendliness of the conversation; the
personal interest that the King took in his men; the intimacy and
directness and simplicity of the intercourse between them. There is
something, too, of the same boyish indulgence--e.g. in King Olaf's
atti