In subsequent parts, Ogier turns into a rebel with cause, seeking refuge with the King of Lombardy and warring with Charlemagne for many years, until he is eventually reconciled when a dire need for him emerges after another Saracen incursion.
The Ogier character is generally believed to be based on Autcharius/Otker,[a] a Frankish knight who had served Carloman and escorted his widow and young children to Desiderius, King of Lombardy, but eventually surrendered to Charlemagne.
[3][b] The Ogier character could also have been partly constructed from the historical Adalgis (or Adelgis, Algisus), son of Desiderius, who played a similar role.
[c][8][7][9] The chanson de geste does parallel this, and Ogier does seek refuge with the Lombardian king Didier or Désier (as Desiderius is styled in French).
[10] An unrelated Othgerius (Otgerius), a benefactor buried at the Abbey of Saint Faro in Meaux in France,[d] became connected with Ogier by a work called Conversio Othgeri militis (ca.
[28] In the 14th-century and subsequent versions of the romance, Ogier travels to the Avalon ruled by King Arthur and eventually becomes paramour of Morgan le Fay (the earliest known mention of her as his lover is in Brun de la Montaigne[29]).
[34] Jean d'Outremeuse's Ly Myreur des Histors writes of Ogier's combat with the capalus (chapalu), which is a giant cat monster known from the Arthurian cycle.
It claimed Othgerius Francus ("Frankish") to be the most illustrious member of Charlemagne's court after the king himself,[36] thus making him identifiable with Ogier the Dane.
His remains were placed in a sarcophagus lidded with his recumbent tomb effigy lying next to that of Saint Benedictus, and the chamber was enshrined with erect statues of various figures from the Charlemagne Cycle.
This document was first commented on by Jean Mabillon in his Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti,[36] printed editions of which include a detailed illustration of the mausoleum at St. Faro.
Ogier is surrendered as a hostage to Charlemagne, but at the castle where he is kept, he becomes intimate with the castellan's daughter, who bears him a son, named Baldwinet (Old French: Bauduinet, dim.
[51][46][52] When Charles (Charlemagne), at the Pope's request, launches a war campaign against Saracens invading Rome, Ogier is there initially as an unarmed bystander.
[54] The amiral then decides his daughter should marry the brutish warrior Brunamont of Maiolgre (Mallorca), but she is unwilling, and appoints the captured Ogier as her champion to fight on her behalf.
[64][56][65] In the concluding branches (XI and XII), Ogier engages in a warring adventure in England, and marries the English princess whom he succors.
[69] or c. 1310[70]) which contained an ending plot where Ogier is invited to Avalon by Morgue la Fee (Morgan le Fay).
[86] The 16th-century Olger Danskes krønike was a Danish translation of the French prose romance Ogier le Danois by Kristiern Pedersen, started while in Paris in 1514–1515, probably completed during his second sojourn in 1527, and printed in 1534 in Malmö.
[86] The ballad also exists in Swedish (SMB 216) and tells the story of how Holger Dansk is released from prison to fight against a troll by the name of Burman.
[90][91] On the slopes of Rönneberga outside Landskrona in south Sweden (formerly a part of Denmark), there is a burial mound named after Höljer (Holger) Danske.
[92] According to the tour guides of Kronborg Castle, legend has it that Holger sat down in his present location after walking all the way from his completed battles in France.
[93] Vernon Lee's short story "A Wicked Voice" posits an opera called Ogier the Dane which the lead character Magnus attempts to finish under duress.
The largest armed group of the Danish resistance movement in World War II, Holger Danske, was named after the legend.
Ogier is the protagonist of The Viking (1951) by Edison Marshall, where he is portrayed as the child of Ragnar Lodbrok via his rape of the Northumbrian noblewoman Enid, mother of Aella of Northumbria; his chief rival is his paternal half-brother Hastein.
[99] The protagonist of Poul Anderson's fantasy novel Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961), World War II Danish resistance member Holger Carlsen, time warps and learns that he actually is Ogier of the legend.