WOMEN IN THE GERMANIC HERO-SAGAS' 



By Grace Fleming van Sweringen 



In about a quarter of the Germanic hero-sagas there are no 

 women characters. These are stories of men, and there is no sugges- 

 tion of a woman in them, much less a real feminine role. In several 

 others women are mentioned, but without their taking any active 

 part in the story. King Hrothgar's wife, Wealhtheow, 3 appears 

 at the banquet a time or two, the typical Germanic hostess. She 

 presents the gifts of the Danes to Beowulf in a few appropriate words, 

 and bids him be happy in the using of them. Hygd, 3 the wife of 

 Hygelac, has even less to do in the story than Wealhtheow. But her 

 wisdom, far beyond her years, and her generous hand, which spared 

 not the costly jewels, are held up to us in contrast to the unenviable 

 disposition of Thrytho. 4 All we know about Thrytho, too, is that 

 no man dared so much as raise his eyes in her haughty presence 

 but he paid for his boldness with his head. 



In the Ingeld Saga, Freawaru 5 was married to Ingeld to settle 

 a feud between the Heathobards and the Danes. When the feud 

 broke out again, Freawaru was cast aside by her husband, not from 

 any guilt of her own, but merely because she chanced to be her 

 father's daughter. V^lundr, the magic smith, wreaks a diabolical 

 vengeance upon the innocent Bogvildr 6 for the same reason. In this 

 group might also be mentioned the two innocent victims of a hus- 

 band's jealousy, Wolfdietrich's mother, 7 and Swanhilde, 8 the beauti- 

 ful young wife of Eormanric. Both of them are, like Desdemona, 

 made to suffer through jealousy aroused by the poisonous whisper- 

 ings of an evil counsellor. Unlike Desdemona, neither of them has 



1 Reprinted from Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. VIII, pp. 501-512, with permission of 

 the editor. Footnotes and list of sources added. 



• Beowulf, U. 613 ff.; 1163 ff. < Ibid., 11. 2023 ff. 



* Ibid., 11. 1927 ff. 6 "Velundarkvipa," Edda, p. 211. 



« Ibid., 11. 1932 ff. » " Wolfdietrich A," Deutsche; Beldenbuch, B. 3. 



' " Guprunarhvpt," Edda, p. 443; " Hambism^l," Edda, p. 451; Saxonis, Lib. 8, pp. 280 ff.; Jordanis, 

 XXIV. 



135 



