The great sagas of the Indogermanic tradition, Beowulf, Siegfried, Herakles, Theseus, Grettir, which present a hero who defeats some goblin foe either in the form of man or dragon, have been hitherto considered largely from the literary standpoint. The stories they tell have been regarded as a blend of myth and legend, but in any case as mere products of imagination. This is especially true of Beowulf, which Frederick Panzer, for instance, regards as a fairytale showing a strong resemblance to the well known son of the bear group of tales. The development of the sciences of anthropology and psychology in recent years has opened a field of research which provides, however, material which will enable us to go below these existing strata of myth and legend to inquire into the most primitive origin of tales that in so many diverse countries show such marked features in common. The similarity of the achievements of the heroes is accounted for, I think, by the explanation that Beowulf and Grettir and Herakles represent famous exorcists who practised a very old folk custom, the expulsion of demons, just as to this day it is practised in Indian and African villages. This custom is so widely spread over the whole Earth that it would be remarkable if it had been entirely unknown to the Indogermanic and the Germanic tribes. The reason why this explanation has not been found before lies in the fact that mostly the magician or medicine man is used to fight the supernatural dangers, the demons, because he is believed to be nearer to the supernatural than other men. The magician incorporates and cultivates the mastery, the expulsion of demonic moods, melancholies, panics and obsessions. In early Indogermanic and Germanic times there was practically no definite class of priests and magicians. Here the hero who has distinguished himself by his courage, independence, and physical force and thus proved his fame, is the main figure in his tribe. Is it then to be wondered at that the Sagas from Herakles to Beowulf portray the famous and strong hero as the victor in fights with ghosts and trolls, with human anddragon shaped demons?
 
The most plastic and realistic example of Germanic tradition of demonic obsession and its cure, its expulsion by a hero, is the Grettir Saga. Grettir Asmundarson is an historically authentic figure. He was born in the year 996, four years after the introduction of Christianity, at Bjarg in the north of Iceland. His desperate struggle as an outlaw, in which he persisted until he was slain in 1031, forms the real nucleus of his fame. He has in common with Beowulf the most important attribute, that of having repeatedly distinguished himself in courage and in manly strength, that strongest human reality which the Teuton was ready to trust in face of the demons. With confidence in his own strength, and doubtless because his fellow tribesmen attributed this ability to him, Grettir enters the haunted farms. On Thorhalstadir a mysterious dead shepherd Glam torments the imagination of the inhabitants. But the daring Grettir awaits him at night. The idea of the ghost develops autosuggestion from expectation to hallucination. All at once Glam stands before him in the semidarkness and stares at him with his terrifying eyes. But the hero refuses to yield. He lapses info an ecstasy of defiant opposition. He raves and strikes about himself in such a manner that the frozen earth and grassy plots with which the roof of the log hut was covered fall down, until at last he collapses and looses consciousness. But he must still have had so much strength on the morning after the fight that he felt conscious of a victory over the demon, which he then proclaimed to the terrified peasants. So the mental epidemic which had led to the desertion of the whole valley was stopped.
 
In the great Anglosaxon epic Beowulf the hero waits for the demon Grendel according to the same custom which one might call the demon's watch. The second expulsion here takes place at the abode of the demon itself in a cave under the water. The theory that the third demon, a dragon, is a ghost is illustrated by the fact that he lies in a tomb on the treasure of an extinct family. (For further details see Gustav Hübener, England und die Gesittunsgrundlage der europäischen Frühgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main, 1930.) In my opinion similar traditions may be found in every region where Germanic custom prevails, and elsewhere within the radius of Indogermanic influence. Moreover comparative ethnology will be able, I think, to prove that every predominantly heroic and aristocratic tribal culture trusts the hero and not the magician nor the priest in exorcism in conquering the demon.