the prose at the
end of _Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II_, where it is stated that they
were reincarnations of Helgi Hundingsbani and Sigrun--just as the two
latter were themselves reincarnations of Helgi the son of Hjoervarth
and Svava--"but that is now said to be an old wives' tale."

Chapter 4 also has a special interest of its own. Breaking into
barrows was a favourite exploit of the Norsemen, no doubt for the sake
of the gold which they often contained. References to the practice are
very common in the sagas, e.g. _Grettissaga_, ch. 18; _Hartharsaga_,
ch. 15; cf. also Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, p. 200 ff., etc. The
ruthlessness with which the Norsemen plundered the Irish barrows is
mentioned with great indignation in the Irish Chronicles. In the
_War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, cap. XXV, we read that certain
Norsemen plundered in Ireland "until they reached Kerry, and they left
not a cave there under ground that they did not explore." In the same
work cap. LXIX, we are told that--

Never was there a fortress, or a fastness, or a mound, or a
church, or a sacred place, or a sanctuary, when it was taken
by that howling, furious, loathsome crew, which was not
plundered by the collectors and accumulators of that wealth.
Neither was there in concealment under ground in Erin, nor the
various solitudes belonging to Fians or to Fairies,
anything that was not discovered by these foreign, wonderful
Denmarkians, through paganism and idol worship.

Finally in the _Annals of Ulster_ we read (sub anno 862) that

The cave of Achadh-Aldai (i.e. probably New Grange, near
Dublin) and [the cave] of Knowth, and the cave of Fert-Boadan
over Dowth, and the cave of the smith's wife were searched by
the foreigners (i.e. Norsemen, etc.) which had not been done
before.

And in England as late as 1344 Thomas of Walsingham records the
slaying of the dragon that guarded a barrow, and the recovery of a
great treasure of gold by the retainers of the Earl of Warrenne.

Popular imagination believed that barrows were occupied by a ghostly
inhabitant 'haugbui,' who guarded the treasure. This was sometimes a
dragon, as in _Beowulf_, or a reanimated corpse, as in our saga; but
whatever he was, he inspired the outside world with such fear that
the breaking into a grave-mound came to be regarded as a deed of the
greatest courage and prowess. The 'hogboy' (_haugbui_) of Maeshowe, a
barrow in