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 "narrow shelter", an euphemism evidently of Saxo's, for
the scene is comic. The king comes forth when the hero is victorious,
and laughing at his hairy legs, nick-names him Shaggy-breech, and bids
him to the feast. Ragnar fetches up his comrades, and apparently seeks
out the frightened courtiers (no doubt with appropriate quip, omitted by
Saxo, who hurries on), feasts, marries the king's daughter, and begets
on her two fine sons.

Of somewhat similar type is the proud "Maiden guarded" by Beasts. Here
the scene is laid in Gaulardale in Norway. The lady is Ladgerda, the
hero Ragnar. Enamoured of the maiden by seeing her prowess in war, he