Hadingus: Godkiller or monster slayer?
The last half of Gesta Danorum 's first book is dedicated to the hero Hadingus. Much ink has been devoted to interpreting to this story. Proposed scholarly interpretations range from an otherwise unknown *Haddingja saga , pure fabrication, dioscuric relic, and finally the frankly ludicrous idea that it's an euhemerized biography of Njǫrdr. Let's spend some time on the most promising interpretation, Axel Olrik's idea of a *Haddingja saga , which has more recently been picked up by Annette Lassen. As with many things Saxo, we immediately descend into a Lovecraftian realm of mad reconstructions, ancient puzzles, weeping and frustrated gnashing of the teeth. If it ever existed, *Haddingja saga has not been transmitted in the existent textual corpus, which is why the title should rightly be marked with an asterisk. True to form, Saxo does not refer to any source, and Olrik's speculations about what Saxo did or did not "get" must be considered pure conjecture.