Bödvar Bjarki


Bödvar Bjarki, meaning 'Warlike Little-Bear', is the hero appearing in tales of Hrólf Kraki in the Saga of Hrólf Kraki, in the Latin epitome to the lost Skjöldunga saga, and as Biarco in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.

Links with Beowulf

Some think Bjarki and the hero Beowulf in the Old English poem Beowulf were originally the same personage, while others instead accept some kinship between the two, perhaps pointing to the same distant source. Unlike Beowulf, Bödvar is a shapeshifter, and he is also said to have been Norwegian, which may be explained by the fact that his story was written by Icelandic authors who were mostly of Norwegian descent.
However, his brother was the king of Gautland and, like Beowulf, it was from Geatland that Bödvar arrived in Denmark. Moreover, upon arriving at the court of Denmark, he kills a monstrous beast that has been terrorizing the court at Yule for two years.

Bear-form

The famous poem Bjarkamál is understood as a dialogue between Bödvar Bjarki and his younger companion Hjalti which begins by Hjalti again and again urging Bödvar to awake from his sleep and fight for King Hrólf in this last battle in which they are doomed to be defeated.
In Hrolfs saga Kraka, it is explained that this rousing was ill-done, as Bjarki was in a trance and his spirit in the form of a monstrous bear was already aiding Hrólf far more than Bjarki could do with only his mannish strength: as Bjarki puts it on awakening, "You have not been so helpful to the king by this action as you think".