Beowulfian Echoes in the Icelandic Ectors saga

Abstract

For as long as the study of the Old English Beowulf has existed, scholars have searched for sources and analogues to the epic poem as a means of understanding the genesis and development of the work. The present article is concerned with analogues from the corpus of Old Norse sagas, which have long occupied an important place in the debate. This discussion proceeds by providing an account of the research currents in this area of Beowulf studies over the last one and a half centuries. With the appropriate context established, two previously unidentified analogical episodes are adduced from the Icelandic romance Ectors saga. The connections between these episodes and the first half of the Beowulf narrative are assessed in turn, and their shared basis in folktale is established. This paper concludes with some reflections on the importance of Ectors saga in the debate about Beowulf’s Scandinavian analogues.