Alfaleith.org - Rydberg's Teutonic Mythology

Ynglingasaga 17 contains a passage which is clearly connected with Rígsþula or with some kindred source. The passage mentions three persons who appear in Rígsþula, viz., Rig, Danp, and Dan, and it is there stated that the ruler who first possessed the kingly title in Svithiod was the son of a chief, whose name was Judge (Dómarr), and Judge was married to Drott (Drótt), the daughter of Danp.

That Domar and his royal son, the latter with the epithet Dyggvi, "the worthy," "the noble," were afterwards woven into the royal pedigree in Ynglingasaga, is a matter which we cannot at present consider. Vigfússon (Corpus Poet. Bor.) has already shown the mythic symbolism and unhistorical character of this royal pedigree's Vísburr, the priest, son of a god; of Dómaldr-Dómvaldr, the legislator; of Dómarr, the judge; and of Dyggvi, the first king. These are not historical Uppsala kings, but personified myths, symbolising the development of human society on a religious basis into a political condition of law culminating in royal power. It is in short the same chain of ideas as we find in Rígsþula, where Heimdal, the son of a god and the founder of culture, becomes the father of the Jarl-judge, whose son is the first king. Dómarr, in the one version of the chain of ideas, corresponds to Rig-Jarl in the other, and Dyggvi corresponds to Konr. Heimdal is the first patriarch, the Jarl-judge is the second, and the oldest of kings is the third.

Some person, through whose hands Ynglingasaga has passed before it got its present form in Heimskringla, has understood this correspondence between Dómarr and Rig-Jarl, and has given to the former the wife which originally belonged to the latter. Rígsþula has been rescued in a single manuscript. This manuscript was owned by Arngrim Jonsson, the author of Supplementum Historiæ Norvegiæ, and was perhaps in his time, as Bugge (Norr. Fornkv.) conjectures, less fragmentary than it now is. Arngrim relates that Rig Jarl was married to a daughter of Danp, lord of Danpsted. Thus the representative of the Jarl's dignity, like the representative of the Judge's dignity in Ynglingasaga, is here married to Danp's daughter.

In Saxo, a man by name Borgar (Borcarus - Hist. Dan., 336-354) occupies an important position. He is a South Scandinavian chief, leader of Skane's warriors (Borcarus cum Scanico equitatu, p. 350), but instead of a king's title, he holds a position answering to that of the Jarl. Meanwhile he, like Skjold, becomes the founder of a Danish royal dynasty. Like Skjold he fights beasts and robbers, and like him he wins his bride, sword in hand. Borgar's wife is Drott (Drotta, Drota), the same name as Danp's daughter. Skjold's son Gram and Borgar's son Halfdan are found on close examination (see below) to be identical with each other, and with king Halfdan Berggram in whom the names of both are united. Thus we find:

(1) That Borgar appears as a chief in Skane, which in the myth is the cradle of the human race, or of the Teutonic race. As such he is also mentioned in Script. rer. Dan. (pp. 16-19, 154), where he is called Burgarus and Borgardus.

(2) That he has performed similar exploits to those of Skjold, the son of Scef-Heimdal.

(3) That he is not clothed with kingly dignity, but has a son who founds a royal dynasty in Denmark. This corresponds to Heimdal's son Rig-Jarl, who is not himself styled king, but whose son becomes a Danish king and the progenitor of the Skjoldungs.

(4) That he is married to Drott, who, according to Ynglingasaga, is Danp's daughter. This corresponds to Heimdal's son Rig-Jarl, who takes a daughter of Danp as his wife.

(5) That his son is identical with the son of Skjold, the progenitor of the Skjoldungs.

(6) That this son of his is called Halfdan, while in the Anglo-Saxon sources Scef, through his son Scyld (Skjold), is the progenitor of Denmark's king Healfdene.

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