The Red Arrow of Gondor

"In his hand he bore a single arrow, black-feathered and barbed with steel, but the point was painted red......'The Red Arrow!' said Theoden, holding it, as one who receives a summons long expected and yet dreadful when it comes."

"namque sagitta lignea ferreae speciem habens nuntii loco viritim per omnes mitti, quoties repentina belli necessitas incidisset" Saxo Grammaticus, History of the Danes, Book V

"for a wooden arrow, having the appearance of being of iron, is to be sent man by man to every place as a message whenever the sudden necessity happened for war."

"Auðbjarnar konungr lét skera upp herör ok fara herboð um allt ríki sitt." Egils Saga, 3

" King Audbjorn allowed the war-arrow to be cut out and the war-summons to be sent around the entire kingdom."

Clearly Tolkien got the idea of the summons to war being an arrow from the Old Norse sources. I am sure he was familiar with both Egil's Saga and Saxo. It is interesting that he added the detail of the black arrow having the tip painted red. Maybe this is to separate it from the black arrow that Brand used to kill Smaug. Or to give its appearance an extra helping of horror since it appears to have been dipped in blood. Maybe we should vote on that.

Hamlet

I wonder what is the true source for Shakespeare's Hamlet. While reading Finn and Hengest by Alan Bliss and J.R.R. Tolkien and especially Appendix C which deals with the nationality of Hengest, I noticed that Bliss argues that Withlæg, who is Eomer's great-grandfather in the Anglo Saxon genealogies is the same man as Vigletus in Saxo Grammaticus. Vigletus killed a Jutish king called Amlethus, who is the historical Hamlet.

The two stories are similar, i.e. Hamlet kills his uncle, who has murdered his father, married his mother and taken the throne but few details after that are as Shakespeare made them. Amlethus took the throne, married and had a son. It is viewed as unlikely that Shakespeare read Saxo, probably on the basis of Jonson's comments that Shakespeare knew little Latin. I read a book called Shakespeare and Ovid, by Jonathan Bate, where he argued (and rather convincingly to me) that Shakespeare knew more Latin than he was given credit for. However, Shakespeare was not concerned with historical accuracy but art and satire in his plays.

Bliss' argument was for Eomer to be Hengest's real name, making his great-grandfather Hamlet's killer. Only thing is that, in Beowulf, there is a digression on Eomer as well as the Finnsburg Episode so why would the poet talk about them as separate persons if they were one and the same? I have ordered Saxo's book. It looks like a good read.

Bodvar in Saxo Grammaticus

I was reading through Saxo Grammaticus's History of the Danes and I spotted my friend, Boðvar Bjarki. In Saxo, Hrothgar's nephew Hrothulf is called Rolf. He is also the Hrolf in Hrolf's Saga Kraki.

In Saxo, the scene, in which Boðvar finds Hottr hiding in a pile of bones, takes place in Heorot but, instead of killing a dragon and letting Hottr drink the blood for courage, Boðvar kills a bear. Boðvar´s brother is king of Gautland (Geats). This might make you wonder if Boðvar is an alternative view of Beowulf´s adventures in Denmark and you would not be far off.