ibed by him, or rather his authorities,
to definite persons, which had, even in his day, probably long been the
property of Tis, their original owners not being known owing to lapse
of time and the wear of memory, and the natural and accidental
catastrophies that impair the human record. Such are the "Dragon-Slayer"
stories. In one type of these the hero (Frithlaf) is cast on a desolate
island, and warned by a dream to attack and slay a dragon guarding
treasure. He wakes, sees the dragon arise out of the waves, apparently,
to come ashore and go back to the cavern or mound wherein the treasure
lay. His scales are too hard to pierce; he is terribly strong, lashing
trees down with his tail, and wearing a deep path through the wood and
over the stones with his huge and perpetual bulk; but the hero, covered
with hide-wrapped shield against the poison, gets down into the
hollow path, and pierces the monster from below, afterward rifling its
underground store and carrying off its treasure.

Again the story is repeated; the hero (Frode Haddingsson) is warned by
a countryman of the island-dragon and its hoard, is told to cover his
shield and body with bulls' hides against the poison, and smite the
monster's belly. The dragon goes to drink, and, as it is coming back,
it is attacked, slain, and its treasure lifted precisely as before. The
analogies with the Beowulf and Sigfred stories are evident; but no great
poet has arisen to weave the dragon-slaying intimately into the lives of
Frode and Frithlaf as they have been woven into the tragedy of Sigfred
the wooer of Brunhild and, if Dr. Vigffisson be right the conqueror of
Varus, or into the story of Beowulf, whose real engagements were with
sea-monsters, not fiery dragons.

Another type is that of the "Loathly Worm". A king out hunting (Herod
or Herraud, King of Sweden), for some unexplained reason brings home two
small snakes as presents for his daughter. They wax wonderfully, have
to be fed a whole ox a day, and proceed to poison and waste the
countryside. The wretched king is forced to offer his daughter (Thora)
to anyone who will slay them. The hero (Ragnar) devises a dress of a
peculiar kind (by help of his nurse, apparently), in this case, woolly
mantle and hairy breeches all frozen and ice-covered to resist the
venom, then strapping his spear to his hand, he encounters them boldly
alone. The courtiers hide "like frightened little girls", and the king
betakes him to a "narro