  hervarar saga ok heiÃ°reks (the saga of hervÃ¶r and heidrek) is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. it is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. it contains traditions of wars between goths and huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as a source for swedish medieval history. moreover, it was an important source of inspiration for tolkien when shaping his legends of middle-earth. however, the saga may be most appreciated for its memorable imagery, as seen in a quote from one of its translators, nora kershaw chadwick, on the invasion of the horde:  ==synopsis==  the saga deals with the sword tyrfing and how it was forged and cursed by the dwarves dvalinn and durin for king svafrlami. later, he lost it to the berserker arngrim from bolmsÃ¶ who gave it to his son angantyr. angantyr died during a fight on samsÃ¸ against the swedish hero hjalmar, whose friend orvar-odd buried the cursed sword in a barrow together with angantyr. from the barrow it was retrieved by angantyr's daughter, the shieldmaiden hervor who summoned her dead father to claim her inheritance. then the saga continues with her and her son heidrek, the king of reidgotaland. between his sons angantyr and hlod, there is a great battle about their father's heritage and hlod is aided by the huns. however, hlod is defeated and killed. in the end, the saga relates that angantyr, had the son heidhrekr ulfhamr who was king of reidgotaland for a long time. heidhrekr's daughter was hildr and she had the son halfdan the valiant, who was the father of ivar vidfamne. after ivar vidfamne follows a list of swedish kings, both real and semi-legendary, ending with philip halstensson, but this was probably composed separately from the rest of the saga and integrated with it in later redactions. ==versions== [[image:hjalmars avsked av orvar odd efter striden pÃ¥ samsÃ¶.jpg|right|thumb|orvar-
Ancient_Germanic_peoples Gothic_writing History_of_the_Germanic_peoples Legendary_sagas Sources_of_Norse_mythology Tyrfing_cycle