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According to views common during the Romantic period, the heroic legends were at once mythical and historical, and thus closely allied to the myths of the gods. More recent scholarship, which reckons only to a slight degree with domestic legendary traditions dating from a remote antiquity, has formed quite a different opinion. At the present time the heroic legends are studied not only according to their contents, according to their motives; considered as a complete whole, the heroic legend exists merely in and by means of the literary form it has assumed; consequently, for the proper investigation of the heroic legend a peculiar literary-historical method must be adopted, differing from the method used in the study of mythology, in that the literary forms dealing with the gods must be correlated with the fixed, distinctly local ceremonies having to do with the worship of the gods. The heroic literature has for its subject human destinies which by their elevation above the commonplace have made a strong appeal to the poet. In their most compact form, where the chief interest gathers about strong-willed personalities moulded by the great moments of life, we come across the heroic legends in brief epic lays which can be traced back to the period of the national migrations and which in pre-Christian times ran their course among all of the Germanic tribes. Heroic lays of this type, in their more uncontaminated |
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ancient forms or in literary adaptations of Norse origin (dialogue verse without direct narration) provide the bulk of the heroic poetry of the Poetic Edda. During historic times in Norway and Iceland, this heroic poetry had a continued existence in the so-called “sagas of antiquity” (fornaldarsogur), saga-like stories which drew their themes from antiquity, from a prehistoric, pagan era. The legendary materials in these sagas frequently have their roots in prose adaptations of ancient heroic lays;1 yet newer materials make their appearance during the Viking Age, and popular taste takes another direction.2 These heroic sagas, which lack the firm outlines of the ancient heroic lays, are subjected to influences from all sorts of vagabond themes, for instance folk-tale themes, and at length we find an entire group of sagas of antiquity which must be regarded as nothing more than independent compositions dealing with arbitrarily invented personages whose lifetime is laid in the era of the petty kings anterior to the unification of Norway.3 Of the heroic legends as a whole it is to be said in general that, contrary to the practice of historians of a generation ago, they are not to be treated as historical sources. The poetic elements have gained the ascendancy over the historical elements and created 1 Hervarar Saga, p. 130 ff; Volsunga Saga, note to p. 159. |
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combinations of a kind that bids defiance to history and chronology alike. What may be authentic history in such poetic versions of the legends we can not discover so long as we have to rely solely on the legends themselves; we must seek the aid of veracious historical documents and the testimony of trustworthy foreign historians to get at the residuum of truth, as, for example, in the case of the legends dealing with Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. As a rule the outcome of such a procedure is that the legends disclose no historical facts not already known through these foreign sources. In a number of the legends even this expedient is denied us, since history fails to confirm the events recited in the legends; this holds true, for instance, with the Helgi legends, for which reason it is difficult if not impossible to ascertain their origins. Other legends have made their way to the Northern nations from neighboring countries, for example, the legends of the Volsungs and the Gjukungs; but these also have suffered many changes in form in the fresh soil to which they were transplanted. Among the heroic legends there are several that show a closer mutual relationship, and therefore are designated as a legendary cycle; still others are isolated, showing no connection with anything else. It has been further demonstrated that the legendary process tends in the course of time to draw together various originally distinct legends and thus to create new cycles. Among the great cycles, those of the Volsungs, the Niflungs, and the Gjukungs are most prominent. Among the independent legends, those dealing with |
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Wayland Smith, with Frodi and his handmaidens, and with the Battle of the Hjadnings emerge above the rest. WAYLANDThe legend of Wayland runs as follows: Once upon a time there were three brothers, named Slagfinn, Egil, and Wayland; their father was king of the Finns. It so befell that they went out on their skis to hunt and came to a place called Wolf Dales, lying near a body of water called Wolf Lake; there they built themselves a house. One morning they chanced to see three beautiful women sitting on the shore weaving linen; beside them lay their swan cloaks, by which token the brothers knew them to be Valkyries. They carried the three women home and wedded them. Slagfinn took to wife Ladgunn Swanwhite; Wayland took Hervor Allwise; and Egil took Olrun. The first two were the daughters of king Lodvi, and the third a daughter of king Kiar of Valland. When they had lived together seven years, a longing for battle came over the Valkyries, and in the absence of the brothers they flew away. Egil and Slagfinn at once set out in search of their wives; Wayland remained alone at home in the Wolf Dales, busying himself in his smithy with the forging of objects of price. While he awaited the return of his wife, he sped the time in fixing precious stones in settings of gold and in fashioning magnificent rings. The fame of his handiwork reached the hearing of Nidud, the evil and greedy king of the Njarir. One night, in the waning of the moon, he |
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marched forth with an armed band and reached the house in the Wolf Dales while Wayland was away a hunting. By this time Wayland had finished seven hundred rings, which he had left hanging all together on one rope; Nidud lifted one of them off, and lay in wait for the homecoming of Wayland. Wayland returned, sat down before the fire to roast bear’s meat, and in the meantime counted his rings. Missing one of them, he thought that his wife must surely have come home; but while he sat pondering the matter, he fell asleep. Awakened by the weight of heavy fetters on his hands and feet, he asked who had laid shackles upon him. Nidud called out to learn how Wayland had dared to seize his treasures in the Wolf Dales, to which Wayland answered that all of his possessions were his by right. Nidud now carried Wayland off to his own court, took from him even his splendid sword, and gave the ring to his own daughter Bodvild. But Nidud’s queen, fearing the vengeance of Wayland, spoke words of warning to her husband. “His eyes glitter like those of a serpent every time he sees the sword and catches sight of Bodvild’s ring,” she said; “sever his sinews and expose him on the island of Sævarstead.” They did her bidding; having severed Wayland’s sinews at the knees, they placed him on the island, where he was employed in forging for the king all manner of precious things, and where none but the king was permitted to visit him. Many a time Wayland bemoaned his fate; without sleeping a wink he plied his task at the smithy and never ceased to meditate on means of repaying Nidud for his treachery. |
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At last fortune favored his designs. One day Nidud’s two sons came out to the island and asked leave to look at his treasures. Opening a chest, he showed them many magnificent things; on the next day they were to return in secret-, and he would give them all that he possessed. They came as they had promised, and no one in the palace knew of their coming. Wayland once more opened the chest; and while they stood looking down into it, he let the heavy lid fall in such a way as to cut off their heads. The bodies he hid beneath the floor, but the skulls he silvered over and sent them to Nidud for drinking vessels; the eyeballs he employed as jewels in ornaments for the queen; and from the teeth he fashioned brooches for Bodvild. Now after a time it so happened that Bodvild was unfortunate enough to crack the ring Nidud had given her. Not daring to let her father find out about her misadventure, she secretly sought out Wayland to have him mend it for her. He promised to do so. Since he treated her with great kindness, she suspected no evil when he offered her something to drink; the liquid being strong, she grew giddy and drowsy and so fell an easy prey to his purposes. Now Wayland donned a feather cloak and in this guise flew into Nidud’s courtyard, where he settled to rest on the palings. He found Nidud sitting sleepless, brooding over the fate of his sons; divining that Wayland had caused their death, the king questioned him about them. Wayland then told how it all had come about, how the king’s sons had been killed, how gems had been framed from their skulls, their eyes, and their |
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teeth, and how Bodvild had been dishonored. Wayland flew away laughing, and Nidud had to stand in helpless rage watching him escape. He called Bodvild to him and asked if it was true that she and Wayland had sat together on the island. “Yes, it is true,” replied Bodvild; “we sat together one whole fearful hour — I had no power to resist him.” THE HJADNINGSThe legend of the Battle of the Hjadnings is recounted as follows in the Prose Edda: King Hogni had a daughter named Hild. Once upon a time, when Hogni had gone to a meeting of kings, she was taken captive by king Hedin Hjarrandason. As soon as Hogni learned that his realm had been sacked and his daughter carried off, he set out at the head of his soldiery in pursuit of Hedin. He got news that Hedin had taken flight toward the north; but when Hogni reached Norway, he was told that Hedin had shaped his course over the western seas. Hogni set sail in the wake of his enemy and at length touched the Orkney Islands, where he encountered Hedin off the island of Haey. Hild went to her father and offered him terms of peace in Hedin’s name; or, in case he refused, an alternative struggle for life or death. Hogni would not accept the proffer of conciliation. The two kings thereupon landed on the island and marshaled their warriors for battle. Once again Hedin made overtures of peace; calling out to his kinsman, he offered him by way of recompense a heap of gold. But Hogni answered: |
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“It is too late; I have already drawn the sword Dainsleif, forged in the smithy of the Dwarfs; each time it is bared some man must lose his life; its stroke can never be arrested; and the wounds it makes are never healed.” “You boast of your sword,” said Hedin; “but that does not mean that you shall boast of the victory; that sword is the best which does not fail its master at his need.” Then they began the battle, to be known ever afterward as the Battle of the Hjadnings. During the whole day they fought on, and at night the kings went aboard their ships. In the course of the night Hild went out upon the field of battle and by means of her magic roused into life all of the fallen warriors. The next day the kings marched up on land and began the struggle anew, and with them all those who had been slain the day before. Thus they continued their warfare day after day. All who fell and all weapons and shields that were left on the field turned to stone; but as each new morning broke, the slain rose up armed and ready for the fray. In this way the Battle of the Hjadnings is to go forward until the coming of the Twilight of the Gods. THE LEGEND OF TYRFINGAnother sword, a match for Dainsleif, bore the name Tyrfing. It was forged under durance by the Dwarfs Dulin and Dvalin for Svafrlami, the brave grandson of Odin. Svafrlami had surprised them outside of their rock and had made haste to cast spells over them to prevent their getting back into the stone. He then |
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threatened to take their lives unless they promised to forge for him a sword with hilt and handle of gold, a sword which would never rust, which would always bring victory, and which would cut iron as if it were so much cloth. The Dwarfs gave unwilling assent and finished the sword within the designated time; but when Dvalin had given it into the king’s hand, and while he was still standing at the door opening into the rock, he said: “Your sword will take the life of a man each time it is unsheathed, and with it three dastard’s deeds will be done; it will also bring death upon yourself.” Svafrlami struck at the Dwarf with the sword, but failed to touch him. After that day he kept the sword in his possession a long time and with it won many a victory in battle and in single combat. On the island of Bolm dwelt a great Berserk named Arngrim, who fared fair and wide as a Viking. It so happened that in harrying the domains of Svafrlami he came face to face with Svafrlami himself. Svafrlami aimed a blow at Arngrim with Tyrfing, but succeeded only in striking his shield, from which he cut off a portion, while Tyrfing buried its point in the earth. In a moment Arngrim severed Svafrlami’s hand from his body, laid hold of Tyrfing, and cleft Svafrlami’s body in twain from head to foot. Thus a part of the prophecy of the Dwarf came to be fulfilled. Arngrim now took Svafrlami’s fair daughter Eyfura captive, carried her off to Bolm, and made her his wife. They had twelve sons, all of them tall men, strong and warlike, who from their earliest years sped |
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the time in Viking forays, to their own increasing renown. The eldest, named Angantyr, was a head taller than his brothers and as strong as any two of them; the others bore the names Hervard, Hjorvard, Saeming, Rani, Brami, Barri, Reifnir, Tind, Bui, and the two named Hadding, who were twins. Angantyr fell heir to Tyrfing, Hervard had the sword Rotti, Sæming had Mistiltein. Now and again the Berserk rage came over them, and during such periods it chanced a time or two that they killed some of their own men; in order to prevent happenings of this sort, when they felt the Berserk rage taking hold of them they went ashore out of their ships and fought with boulders or with the timbers of the forest. No king ever crossed their purposes, to such a degree were they held in awe for their wildness and cruelty. One evening at Yuletide the champions of Bolm sat making vows over their flowing bowls. Angantyr avowed his intention of possessing the fair Ingeborg, daughter of king Yngvi of Uppsala. The following summer the brothers journeyed to the court of Yngvi and at once marched into the hall; Angantyr recounted his vow and demanded an immediate answer. On hearing what was said, Hjalmar the Haughty promptly came forward. For a long while he had spent his winters in the retinue of Yngvi and had rendered him most important services. Reminding the king of all his services, he asked Yngvi rather to bestow Ingeborg upon himself than upon so evil a Berserk as Angantyr. Yngvi declared that Ingeborg herself must make the decision, and she chose Hjalmar; whereupon Angantyr |
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challenged him to single combat on the island of Samsey. Hjalmar promised to appear at the designated place the next summer, and so the brothers returned home. In the spring the sons of Arngrim first paid a visit to Earl Bjartmar, where Angantyr wedded Svava, the earl’s daughter. At the time agreed upon, both Hjalmar and the sons of Arngrim set sail for Samsey; in Hjalmar’s company went his brother in arms, the mighty and famous Norseman Orvar-Odd (Arrow-Odd). Hjalmar elected to fight against Angantyr, and Orvar-Odd against the eleven other brothers. The combat now began, and Odd was fortunate enough to slay all of the eleven; but when he came to see what had befalled Hjalmar, he saw Angantyr lying dead at his enemy’s feet, while Hjalmar himself was sitting on a hummock, pale as death. Odd asked how the battle had gone with him, to which he answered: “I have sixteen wounds, my byrnie is worn with the fray, and Tyrfing has pierced me beneath the heart; draw this ring from my finger and carry it to Ingeborg in token of my love.” Thus his life ended. Odd laid all the Berserks fully armed in barrows, but Hjalmar’s body he bore with him to Sweden. Ingeborg died of a broken heart and was buried in the same mound with Hjalmar. Some time later Svava, wife of Angantyr, gave birth to a daughter whom they gave the name Hervor and who became the foster child of Bjartmar. She grew up to be tall and well-favored, but even at an early age she showed a vehement and headstrong character; she inclined more to the use of sword and |
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shield than to employments befitting a woman. When she was fully grown, she set out to visit her father’s barrow in Samsey, meaning to reclaim Tyrfing from burial. Dressing in men’s clothing, she took the name Hervard, joined a band of Vikings, and sailed to the coasts of Samsey. Here she went ashore alone, her companions being afraid of the spectres and evil spirits that were said to harbor there. She did in fact meet with many manifestations of devilry; the barrows appeared to be on fire; not a whit deterred, she strode straight through the flames to the barrows of the Berserks. There she called to Angantyr and his brothers with many incantations, thus compelling her father to answer her summons. Angantyr charged her with madness in rousing dead men in such a way from their repose; he refused to deliver Tyrfing up to her and even maintained that the sword was not in his keeping. Then she demanded it still more vehemently, asserting that the Æsir would grant him no further rest if he denied to his only child her rightful inheritance. “Beware of Tyrfing,” Angantyr then answered; “it will destroy all your kindred; it is lying beneath my shoulders, swathed in fire; no maiden I know will dare take it in her hand.” “I fear not your fire,” said Hervor. At length Tyrfing flew hurtling into her hand, and she gave many thanks for the gift. “I had rather possess Tyrfing,” she continued, “than hold sway over all of Norway.” Angantyr notwithstanding reiterated his foreboding prophecy; to which she answered that she cared not what fate might befall her sons. Then he spoke these words: |
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Now she took her departure; but the Vikings had already fled in fear from that haunted place. She was therefore compelled to find other shipping to carry her thence; later she visited king Gudmund of Glæsisvoll, with whom she remained throughout the winter, still in the garb of a man. Gudmund being stricken in years, his son Hofund virtually governed the realm. Once while she was playing chess with Gudmund, and had laid Tyrfing aside, one of the men of the retinue drew it from its scabbard to admire its burnished edge; Hervor at once sprang up and drove the sword through his body, inasmuch as the blade demanded the blood of man once it was unsheathed. Despite this deed Hervor was permitted to depart unmolested; soon falling in with other Vikings, she made common cause with them for a time; when she had tired of their forays, she returned home to her mother’s father, where she practised needlework and tapestry like other maidens. The fame of her beauty meanwhile spread far and wide. Hofund paid court to her and won her for his wife. They had two sons, Angantyr and Heidrek. Angantyr was gentle and winsome, and his father loved him most; Heidrek, who was the foster son of the wise champion Gissur, was malicious |
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of spirit and yet his mother loved him the most; both were tall, strong, and handsome men. Once upon a time Hofund gave a great banquet, at which Heidrek and Gissur were not asked to be guests. Heidrek was offended; he nevertheless presented himself at the banquet, where he made such bad blood between two of the guests that one of them killed the other. Hofund, a most upright man, laid the ban of outlawry on Heidrek; whereupon Heidrek, with a mind to causing his father the utmost grief, drew Tyrfing, given him by his mother as a gift, and killed Angantyr. This was the first of the dastard’s deeds destined to be done with Tyrfing. As Heidrek was taking his leave, Hofund sped his parting with certain wise counsels, which were to bring him good fortune if he would only follow them. They were as follows: 1) He was never to give aid to any man who had played false to his rightful overlord; 2) he was to leave no moment’s peace to any man who had murdered his own sworn brother; 3) he was not to permit his wife to visit her own kin too often, no matter how much she begged for leave; 4) he was not to stay late with his mistress;1 5) he was not to ride his best horse if he was in a hurry; 6) he was never to act as foster father for the children of men holding higher rank than himself; 7) he was never to greet a guest with a joke; 8) he was never to lay Tyrfing down at his feet. Heidrek, however, thinking Hofund’s counsel to be devised with evil intent, averred that he would give no heed to it. He 1 Or to tell her weighty secrets, it might be added on the witness of the following events in the saga. |
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soon allied himself with a band of Vikings, but not before he had taken occasion to redeem from death two miscreants, one of whom had played false to his overlord and the other of whom had brought about the death of his own sworn brother. Heidrek before long became a captain of Vikings. Having offered his services to Harold, king of Reidgotaland, he promptly brought defeat upon two earls who had been harrying the land. By way of reward he won Harold’s fair daughter Helga and one half of the kingdom. Heidrek and Helga had a son, whom they named Angantyr; of equal years with him was a son whom Harold had begotten in old age, and whose name was Halfdan. In course of time a severe famine visited the realm; and when wise men invoked the decree of the gods, they received the answer that they were to offer the most highborn youth of the land in sacrificial atonement. Now each man sought to spare his own son. Harold declared that Angantyr was the nobler of birth, and Heidrek imputed the honor to Halfdan; finally they agreed to leave the decision to the upright Hofund. Heidrek visited his father in person, and Hofund told him that Angantyr held the higher rank, but at the same time taught him an artifice by which the execution of the judgment might be evaded. When Heidrek returned to Reidgotaland he signified his willingness to offer up his son as a sacrifice provided only that every second one of Harold’s men would first swear absolute obedience and fealty to himself. They did according to his will, but Heidrek made use of the occasion to create dissension between |
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Harold and Halfdan, further contending that Odin would receive his due if the king, the king’s son, and a number of his men were offered up as a sacrifice. No sooner said than done; the battle at once began, and Heidrek slew his own kinsman Halfdan with Tyrfing. That was the second of the dastard’s deeds. The blood of Harold and Halfdan was sprinkled on the altar of the gods, and Heidrek dedicated to Odin all who had fallen on the battlefield. But queen Helga, no longer wishing to live, hanged herself in the vale of Disardal. Heidrek now subjected the whole realm to his own rule and also harried many foreign countries. After gaining a victory over king Humli of the land of the Huns, Heidrek took the king’s daughter Sifka captive, kept her by him for a time, and then sent her home to her father’s house, where she gave birth to a son, who was called Lod. Not long afterward he took to wife the daughter of the king of Saxland, but soon drove her away because on one of her many visits to her father’s court she had played him false. He continued to ponder on ways and means of acting contrary to his father’s counsels; accordingly he paid a visit to the mighty king Rollaug of Holmgard in Russia and offered to take the king’s son Herlaug under his charge. On Rollaug’s giving his consent, Herlaug left the kingdom in Heidrek’s company. Some time later, Heidrek paid a visit to Russia and brought with him his mistress Sifka and Herlaug. One day Heidrek went out hunting with Herlaug but returned home alone; under the pledge of secrecy he told Sifka that |
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he had by chance drawn Tyrfing from the scabbard and therefore had come under the necessity of piercing Herlaug’s body with the sword. Sifka, unable to keep the secret, revealed it to Herlaug’s mother. A great commotion ensued. Heidrek and his men were surprised, he himself was bound with chains, and in this action no one showed more zeal than the two miscreants he had once ransomed. Heidrek was about to be carried out into the forest and hanged, but he was saved by a band of his own men, whom he had had the foresight to place in ambush there. He returned to Reidgotaland, mustered a huge army, and swept with fire and sword through Rollaug’s domains; meanwhile the news had come out that Herlaug had not been killed but was safe and sound at Heidrek’s court. Rollaug made proffers of peace; Heidrek accepted the terms and later wedded Rollaug’s daughter Hergerd, receiving by way of dowry a region called Vindland, contiguous to Reidgotaland. One evening as Heidrek, mounted on his best horse, was bringing Sifka home, who sat with him in the saddle, the horse stumbled just as they reached the banks of a river, and Sifka suffered a broken leg. Heidrek and Hergerd got a daughter, who was given the name of her father’s mother Hervor; the child was put under the care of Earl Ormar. Heidrek now forsook his warlike enterprises and devoted himself to establishing law and justice in the land. He forbade all civil conflicts and chose twelve wise men to be judges in all matters of dispute. He offered sacrifice by preference to Frey, in whose honor he reared a boar that grew well-nigh |
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to the size of an ox, and so fair that each hair seemed as if made of gold. Every Yuletide Eve the king and his men swore oaths by the boar, laying one hand on his head and the other on the bristles of his neck. On one occasion the king made the vow that whatsoever a man might do amiss, he should still have the right to lay his cause before the twelve sages for equitable judgment, and he should be privileged to escape his due punishment if he could put riddles that the king would be unable to read. In Reidgotaland there lived a mighty man named Gestumblindi. He had the misfortune to incur the displeasure of the king and was therefore summoned before the tribunal of the twelve sages. Fearing the worst of evils, he offered sacrifice to Odin for aid. One evening Odin actually appeared before him and promised to help him by going before Heidrek in his stead. Gestumblindi accordingly hid himself, while Odin assumed his likeness and presented himself before the king. Here he was asked if he would like to try his luck at riddling with the king, but Gestumblindi (Odin) showed no eagerness to make the venture. At length he made up his mind to the attempt, and essayed a multitude of riddles, the greater number having to do with nature and some few with divinity; but Heidrek read them all. The following are examples of his riddles:
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1 The white king and the black king. |
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Finally Gestumblindi — Odin — put the same question with which he once stopped the mouth of Vafthrudnir:
Then Heidrek spoke in anger:
With these words he drew Tyrfing and was about to cut Odin down; but Odin took the shape of a falcon, and the sword struck only his tail, from which it shore off a part; this is the reason why the falcon has a stubbed tail. Odin said: “Because you broke your promise and drew your sword against me, the most miserable of your thralls shall be your death.” And having spoken, he flew away. |
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A short time afterward the king was murdered by nine thralls who had been freemen in their own land but had been taken prisoners of war by Heidrek. These thralls during the night broke into the king’s bedchamber and slew him with Tyrfing. Thus the sword performed the third dastard’s deed, and the curse was lifted from it. Angantyr, son of Heidrek, now became king. He set out at once in pursuit of the thralls and came upon them as they sat fishing from a boat in the river Graf. As one of them was cutting off the head of a fish with Tyrfing, Angantyr heard him say jocosely: “The pike in the river of Graf must pay the penalty for the killing of Heidrek at the foot of the mountains of Harfada.” That very night Angantyr put them to death and carried away Tyrfing. Having thus avenged the slaying of his father, he gave in honor of his own succession a great banquet in his palace of Danparstad in Arheim. When his half brother Lod got wind of his father’s death, he journeyed to Arheim, where Angantyr still was holding his festival, and sat down among the men who were drinking at the table. Angantyr invited him to a seat with himself, but Lod answered: “We have not come to fill our bellies but to demand our rightful inheritance; I lay claim to one half of all the possessions of Heidrek, one half of all that has a point and all that has an edge, of treasures, of cows and calves, of mills, of serving men, of thralls and their children, of the boundary forest Dark Wood, of the sacred grove in the land of the Goths, of the precious stone in Danparstad, one half of fortresses of |
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war, of lands and people, of gleaming gold rings.” Angantyr replied: “Shields shall clash and spears cross each other in flight and many a man shall bite the grass before I divide Tyrfing with you, Humlung,1 or give you a half of my inheritance; I will give you gold and fee, twelve hundred men, twelve hundred horses, twelve hundred armor-bearers; each man shall receive rich gifts; to each man will I give a maiden, to each maiden a necklace; I will surround you with silver when you sit down and heap gold about you when you arise, so that rings overflow on all sides; you shall hold sway over one third of the lands of the Goths.” Heidrek’s old foster father, Gissur Grytingalidi, who was still among the living, heard these words, and said: “The serving man’s son might well be content with such gifts as these!” When this taunt fell on the ears of Lod, he was enraged and hastened home to his mother’s father Humli; the two together mustered a mighty army against Angantyr. When their forces were ready they marched through the boundary forest Dark Wood to the uttermost plains of Gotaland, where Angantyr’s sister and her foster father Ormar were stationed in defence of a frontier stronghold against the Huns. Early one morning Hervor became aware of a great cloud of dust; soon after, she saw the glittering of helmets and knew that it marked the army of the Huns. She chose to fight rather than to flee; defending herself bravely she fell in the ensuing battle, and many men with her. Ormar fled the field and rode day and night until he came to Arheim, 1 Daughter’s son of Humli. |
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where he told Angantyr of the battle with the Huns and of Hervor’s death. Angantyr’s lips twitched with grief as he spoke the words: “In most unbrotherly wise were you betrayed, glorious sister.” Then, looking about among his retainers, he spoke again: “We were once many as we sat about our flowing bowls; now that we should be many we are few; I see no man in my retinue who has the strength of will to ride forth against the Huns to offer them battle, even though I promise him a guerdon of rings.” Then old Gissur lifted up his voice and said, “I will ride, nor ask for gold or fee.” Donning his weeds of war he leaped into the saddle, brisk as any youth, pausing only to ask:
Gissur did according to Angantyr’s command, and summoned the Huns to battle on the Heaths of Dun. “Marked for death is your war lord,” he said; “may Odin turn the flight of the spear after the bent of my words.” Lod wished to take him captive; but Humli opposed such a course, and Gissur said, “We do not fear, Huns, your horn bows.” Angantyr with his |
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army came to meet the Huns, who were twice the number of the Goths. Yet by day and by night warriors streamed to Angantyr’s banner from all parts of his kingdom, and after a day’s battle the Goths had the upper hand. Angantyr strode out from beneath the shelter of the stronghold of shields and with Tyrfing hewed down both men and horses. He exchanged buffets with his brother, and both Lod and Humli fell; so many of the Huns were stricken to earth that rivers were dammed in their course and whole valleys were filled with bodies of the slain. Angantyr came across his own brother lying dead. “I offered you chattels and riches,” he said; “now you have nought, neither land nor gleaming rings. A curse rests on our kin; I have brought you down to death. Evil is the doom of the Norns.” THE LEGENDS OF THE VOLSUNGS — HELGI HJORVARDSSONLike the legends centering about Tyrfing, the legendary cycle of the Volsungs is made up of a number of separate legends. The action lies in both northern and central Europe, and the legends themselves are found among all the races belonging to the great Germanic family. The Eddic poems begin the cycle with the story of Helgi Hjorvardsson. In Norway there was a king named Hjorvard who had made the vow that he would possess the most beautiful woman in the world. He already had three wives, each of whom had borne him a son; he and his |
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retinue all held these boys to be the handsomest in all the world. Once upon a time, however, Atli, a son of one of Hjorvard’s earls named Idmund, happened to be walking abroad in a grove. A bird sitting in a tree heard Atli’s men say that no women on earth were fairer than Hjorvard’s wives. The bird began to twitter and asked Atli if he had ever laid eyes on Sigrlin, daughter of king Svafnir, who was the fairest of all maidens. Atli asked the bird to reveal to him what it knew about her; it promised that the king should win Sigrlin if he would build for it a temple and many altars and there offer in sacrifice many gold-horned cattle. On Atli’s telling all these things to Hjorvard, the king sent him off to ask Svafnir for the hand of Sigrlin. But her foster father, Earl Franmar, persuaded Svafnir to deny the king’s suit, and Atli had to return home with his errand unfulfilled. Hjorvard now determined to go in person, and Atli went with him. In the meantime another powerful king, by name Rodmar, had paid court to Sigrlin; he also had met with a refusal and in his wrath had killed Svafnir and harried his realms. Franmar concealed Sigrlin with his own daughter Alof in a lonely house, transformed himself into an eagle, and so kept watch over the maidens by means of magic arts. When Hjorvard and Atli reached the top of the mountains and caught sight of the reaches of Svavaland, they saw nothing but fire and desolation on all sides; nevertheless they descended and lay down to rest for the night beside a river not far from the house where the maidens were hidden. The eagle perched on the |
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roof had fallen asleep; Atli killed it with his spear, entered the house, found the young women, and led them before Hjorvard. The king took Sigrlin to wife, and Atli took Alof. Hjorvard and Sigrlin got a son, who grew to be tall and handsome; but he was dumb, and no name was given to him. One day, as the king’s son was sitting on a mound, he saw nine Valkyries riding toward him, one of whom far surpassed the others in beauty. She said to him: “Helgi, if you persist in your silence, it will be long before you have gold rings to give and before you win renown.” Then Helgi found the power of utterance and said: “What will you give me as a gift, fair maiden, now that you dower me with a name of my own? I will not accept the name unless you give me yourself with it.” She answered: “In Sigarsholm lie six and forty swords, one of which is better than the others; it is adorned with gold, a ring is fixed in its hilt, courage is in its middle and terror in its point, and along the edge lies a serpent flecked with blood, winding his tail about the handle.” The Valkyrie’s name was Svava, daughter of king Eylimi; from that day on, she gave great aid to Helgi in the fighting of his battles. Helgi now went before his father and asked for armed men in order to march against Rodmar to avenge the death of his mother’s father, Svafnir. Hjorvard having put the men under his command, Helgi sought out the sword designated by Svava; then he sallied forth together with Atli and took the life of Rodmar. As time passed they performed many a |
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deed of prowess. Helgi killed the mighty Giant Hati, whom he found sitting on a mountain side. Afterward he and Atli sailed into Hatifjord, where Rimgerd, Hati’s daughter, sought to harm them by sorcery; but Atli, who was keeping watch during the night, artfully contrived to keep her listening to his speech ‘ so that she forgot to hide from the rising sun, and so was turned into stone. Thereupon Helgi paid a visit to king Eylimi, where he took Svava to wife; they loved each other beyond measure, but she remained a Valkyrie as before. Meanwhile Helgi’s elder half brother Hedin had remained at home with his father in Norway. One evening at the Yuletide, while he was out in the forest alone, he came upon a Troll woman mounted on the back of a wolf which she was guiding by means of serpents instead of reins; she offered to go with him, but he would not consent. Then she said, “You shall pay for that at your drinking.” At evening, as the wassail bowl went round and vows were being made by the great boar, Hedin swore that he would possess Svava, his brother Helgi’s wife. No sooner had he spoken the oath than he was smitten with remorse and set off on unbeaten paths toward the south to meet his brother Helgi. Helgi received him gladly, asked for tidings from Norway, and wanted to know whether he had been banished, since he was making such a journey alone. Hedin made a clean breast of his trouble, telling how the Troll woman had bewitched him into making the vow concerning Svava. Helgi comforted him and said that the vow might after all |
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be fulfilled. “Rodmar’s son Alf,” he declared, “has challenged me to meet him in combat when three days have passed, and no one knows whether I shall leave the field alive.” Helgi had a premonition that he was marked for death, the Troll woman being none other than his own attendant spirit. Alf and Helgi fought at Sigarsvoll near Frekastein (the Wolf Stone); there was a great battle, in the course of which Helgi received a mortal wound. He dispatched Sigar to summon Svava to hasten to his side before he died. When she came Helgi begged that she would, after his own death, wed Hedin and give him her love; but she answered that when she gave her troth to Helgi she had vowed never to wed another in his stead. Both Helgi and Svava were born anew, as Helgi Hundingsbane and Sigrun.1 VOLSUNG — SIGGEIR — SIGMUND — SINFJOTLIThe legends dealing definitely with the Volsungs begin with the story of Odin’s son Sigi, who was driven into exile because he had killed the thrall of another man of high degree, and who later won for himself a kingdom in Hunaland. In the end he was betrayed and put to death by his own brothers-in-law. His son Rerir became king in his stead, avenged the murder of his father, and won great renown for his own prowess in war. Rerir and his wife, deeply grieved, at their childless state, prayed devoutly to the gods to grant children to them. Frigg and Odin heard their prayers, 1 See pp. 164-65. |
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and Odin sent his Valkyrie Ljod, daughter of the Giant Rimnir, to carry an apple as a gift to the king. The queen ate of it, and their wishes were fulfilled. But for the space of six years she remained unable to give birth to the child; the king meanwhile died and the queen at length, weary of days, caused the child to be cut from her side in order to save its life. It was a large and well-shaped boy. He gave his mother a kiss before she died. He got the name Volsung and became king of Hunaland after his father. With his wife Ljod, who had brought the apple to Rerir, he had a daughter named Signy and ten sons; the eldest and bravest of them all was Sigmund, twin brother to Signy. The Volsungs, as they came to be called, excelled all other men in all manner of prowess and manly sports. King Volsung caused a great and splendid hall to be built, in the midst of which stood a tall tree, stretching its fruitful boughs out over the roof; this tree they called the Stem of the Children. A mighty king, Siggeir of Gautland, paid court to Signy and secured the promise of her hand from Volsung and his sons, against her own will. The marriage was celebrated with great pomp in king Volsung’s hall. While the festival was in progress an old, one-eyed man with a broad hat on his head came into the hall and thrust a sword into the Stem of the Children up to the hilt, with the words that he who proved able to draw it out again should have it as a gift and would find f or a certainty that he had never laid eyes on a better sword. Thereupon he went out of the door; it was Odin in disguise, and no one knew whence he |
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came or whither he went away. The guests all tried to draw the sword but to no avail; at last Sigmund came forward and pulled it out at the first trial. Every man praised the sword, all avowing that they had never seen one so good. Siggeir offered Sigmund for it three times its weight in gold, but Sigmund said: “You might have drawn it forth as well as I; I will not sell it for all the gold in the world.” At these words Siggeir became incensed and at once began to meditate revenge. The next day Siggeir made it known that he intended to take his departure while the weather was still fair, at the same time inviting king Volsung and his sons to pay him a visit after an interval of three months, on which occasion, he added, they might make up for what they were now losing of the marriage feast by reason of his early leave-taking. Signy said to her father that she was reluctant to go away with Siggeir and that she could foresee great misfortunes as the aftermath of the wedding; but Volsung brushed aside her misgivings with fair words, consoling her as best he could. Siggeir took his departure, and three months later Volsung and his sons set out on their voyage with three well-manned ships. On their arrival in Gautland late one evening, Signy hastened to meet them with the tidings that Siggeir had mustered against them a great army, meaning to play them false. Volsung nevertheless would entertain no thought of flight but marched up into the land to face Siggeir’s hosts, who at once attacked him. Volsung and his sons fought with great courage; eight |
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times they broke Siggeir’s lines, but the ninth time they were worsted, Volsung himself was slain, and his ten sons were taken prisoner. Siggeir meant to put them to death, but Signy persuaded him to expose them out in the forest with their feet bound to a stake, so that she might have, at least for a time, the pleasure of beholding their features. Siggeir did as she wished. But during the night Siggeir’s old mother, who was skilled in sorcery, transformed herself into a she-wolf, bit one of the brothers to death, and ate his body; she did likewise during each of the following nights until Sigmund alone remained alive. Signy, who had appointed watchmen to bring her news of all that happened, now caused Sigmund’s face to be smeared with honey. When the she-wolf came again and smelled the honey, she began to lap it up; when she reached Sigmund’s mouth, he seized her tongue in his teeth and thus held her fast. The wolf in attempting to escape thrust her feet against the stake; but the stake sprang asunder, the wolf’s tongue was torn from her jaws so that she died forthwith, and Sigmund regained his freedom. Signy, learning what had befallen, herself went out to see him, and conspired with him that he was to build himself an earth house in the forest and that Signy was to carry to him anything that he might need. Siggeir now believed that all of the Volsungs were dead. Signy and Sigmund kept pondering upon some suitable form of revenge. Signy had borne two sons to Siggeir. When the eldest of these was ten years of age, she sent him out to the forest to give Sigmund any |
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assistance that he might require. One day Sigmund asked the boy to knead dough for bread and for this purpose gave him a sack of meal. On returning Sigmund found that the boy had done nothing; he had been afraid to touch the sack because some living thing stirred within it. Now Sigmund knew that the boy lacked the required courage, and he said as much to his sister. “Kill him then,” answered Signy; “he does not deserve to live.” Sigmund did so. The next year Signy sent her second son, and he fared likewise. She then got a witch to exchange shapes with her and in this guise she herself went out to her brother, who failed to recognize her. After remaining with him three nights she returned home and assumed her former likeness once more. Some time later she gave birth to a large, strong, and handsome son, who was given the name of Sinfjotli and who in all respects resembled the Volsungs. When he reached the age of ten, she sent him out to Sigmund. Meanwhile she had put him to the same tests she had used in the case of the other sons: she had sewed their kirtles fast to their arms through skin and flesh; the two elder sons had complained, but Sinfjotli when his turn came gave no sign. She tore his kirtle off so that his skin came away with the sleeves, but he paid no heed. “That is a small matter to one of the Volsungs,” were his only words. When he arrived at Sigmund’s house he was set to kneading the dough, the same task that had been given to his older brothers. When Sigmund returned home, Sinfjotli had already baked the bread. Sigmund asked if he had not found something |
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in the meal. “Yes, it seemed to me at first that there was some living thing in it, but I kneaded the whole into one mass,” answered Sinfjotli. “You have kneaded into the meal a most venomous serpent,” said Sigmund; “and you will have to eat that very bread this evening.” As it happened, there was this difference between father and son, that while Sigmund was able to swallow poison without suffering the least harm, Sinfjotli on the other hand was able to endure poison only on the surface of his body but could not eat or drink it unhurt. Sigmund deeming Sinfjotli still too young to assist in carrying out his revenge, determined first to accustom him to dangers and difficulties, and to this end took the boy with him on robber forays during several summers. Still having no inkling that the boy was not the son of Siggeir, he was amazed at Sinfjotli’s often putting him in mind of his purposed vengeance on Siggeir. On one occasion they came across a house in the forest where two men lay sleeping with great gold rings on their fingers, two princes who had been turned into wolves and who were able to cast off their wolfish likeness once in ten days, and no oftener. This happened to be one of the days, and their wolf pelts hung above them as they slept. Sigmund and Sinfjotli sprang into the pelts and thereafter roved about a long time in the guise of wolves, doing what harm they could do throughout Siggeir’s domains. Each tenth day they became men again. Once Sigmund chanced to bite Sinfjotli’s throat so hard that he lay a long while seemingly dead; Sigmund fell to |
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cursing the wolf’s clothing, but as he did so he caught sight of an ermine biting another to death and waking the dead to life again by means of a leaf. Sigmund did likewise to Sinfjotli, who immediately came to life; they went up to the earth house, waited till the time once more came for the shifting of shapes, and then burned the wolf’s pelts, for which they had no further use. When Sinfjotli had no more than reached man’s estate, Sigmund led him to Siggeir’s house for the purpose of carrying out his revenge. Having agreed with Signy that the hour of vengeance was to strike during the night, they hid themselves in the anteroom. Meanwhile the two small children of Signy and Siggeir were running about the floor of the hall, playing with gold rings. One of the golden bands rolled out into the anteroom where Sigmund and Sinfjotli were sitting, and the boy who ran to pick up the ring caught sight of two tall, hard-favored men in broad helmets and gleaming byrnies. The boy hurried away to tell his father what he had seen. Siggeir at once had his misgivings; but Signy led the two little children out into the anteroom and asked Sigmund to kill them so that they should tell no more tales. Sigmund would not do her bidding, but Sinfjotli killed them both and threw their bodies out into the hall. The king started up and gave commands to seize the men sitting in the anteroom; after a long and brave struggle, Sigmund and Sinfjotli were taken captive, bound fast, and placed in the midst of a huge pile of stones and turf in such a manner that a large stone slab set on end in |
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the middle of the heap separated them. Just as the last pieces of turf were being laid over the mound, Signy came forward and tossed an armful of straw down to Sinfjotli. In the bundle of straw was hidden a piece of meat, within which lay Sinfjotli’s sword, a blade capable of cutting stone as easily as wood. Sinfjotli told Sigmund what had happened, and Sigmund was very glad. Sinfjotli now thrust the point of the sword over the upper edge of the slab so that Sigmund could seize hold of it; in this manner they were able to shear the slab in two from top to bottom, and so they found themselves side by side in the mound. Then they severed their own fetters and cut their way out of the mound itself. They now went straight to the king’s hall, heaped up wood round about it, and set it on fire; the hall immediately burst into flames, before any who were within knew what was going on. At length Siggeir woke out of sleep and at once understood it all. Sigmund bade Signy make her escape from the hall, but she answered: “Now I have taken full vengeance against Siggeir for the death of my father Volsung; I caused our children to lose their lives, I went to Sigmund in the shape of a witch, and Sinfjotli is his son and mine. I have done all in my power to end the days of Siggeir; now I will die with him as gladly as I once lived with him unwillingly.” She kissed Sigmund and Sinfjotli, and then entered the hall and allowed herself to perish in the flames together with Siggeir and his whole retinue. Sigmund and Sinfjotli mustered a band of men, took ship and set sail to the kingdom which Volsung once |
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ruled over. There Sigmund took the government into his own hands and came to be a mighty and a famous king. HELGI HUNDINGSBANESigmund took to wife Borghild of Bralund and with her had two sons, Helgi and Hamund. Of Helgi we read in the Eddic poem:
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The ravens perched in the trees were already yearning for the time when Helgi should become a man and give them their fill of carrion corpses. Once Sigmund had been away from home fighting the battles of the realm; on his return he went in to his son, gave him a leek, and dubbed him Helgi, at the same time giving him as naming gifts Ringstad, Solfjall, Snjofjall, Sigarsvoll, Ringstead, Hatun, and Himinvang, and a goodly sword besides. Helgi was then given over as a foster child to a man named Hagal. Sigmund presently became involved in warfare with king Hunding. When Helgi reached the age of fifteen, Sigmund sent him out in disguise to spy upon Hunding’s retinue. At first all went well with Helgi, but as he was about to leave Hunding’s court he could not refrain from revealing his true name. He asked a certain goatherd to say to Heming, Hunding’s son, that he whom they had treated as a guest and whom they supposed to be Hamal, Hagal’s son, was none other than Helgi himself. Hunding sent men to Hagal’s estate to search for Helgi, and he had no other recourse than to don the garb of a bondwoman and to busy himself in turning the mill. One of Hunding’s men, to be sure, found that the bondwoman had rather sharp eyes and that she put a good deal of force into her grinding; but Hagal said that this was no wonder, since she was a shield-maiden before Helgi made her a captive. Some |
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time later Helgi set sail in his ships of war; engaging in battle with Hunding, Helgi laid his enemy low, and thereby gained the surname of Hundingsbane. After the victory he lay with his fleet in the bay of Brunavag. Presently the Valkyrie Sigrun, daughter to king Hogni, came riding through the air to his ship and entered into speech with him. She asked him his name, and then told him that she already knew of the mighty deeds he had done. “I saw you beforetime,” she said, “on the long ships, as you stood in the blood-red prow and the cold waves played about you.” Sigrun then left him; but the four sons of Hunding challenged Helgi to battle in order to avenge the death of their father, and Helgi slew them all at the mountains of Loga. Wearied from the struggle, he sat down to rest at the foot of Arastein (Eagle Rock). There Sigrun came riding toward him a second time, threw her arms about his neck, kissed him, and told him that she was hard bestead. Her father Hogni had promised her in marriage to the hateful Hodbrod, king Granmar’s son, of Svarinshaug. Helgi undertook to free her from the compact and for that purpose gathered a great force of ships against Hodbrod; Sinfjotli was one of the company. At sea they encountered a perilous storm. Lightning played about them and shafts of fire shot down on the ships. Then they saw Sigrun come riding through the air with eight other Valkyries, and she stilled the tempest so that they made land in safety. The sons of king Granmar were sitting on a mountain side near Svarinshaug as the ships sailed in toward the shore. One of them, named |
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Gudmund, leaped on a horse and rode to spy on the strangers from a hill overlooking the haven; he arrived just as the Volsungs were furling their sails. Gudmund asked who they might be, and for answer Sinfjotli raised a red shield aloft at the yardarm. They berated each other until at length Helgi came forward and said that battle would be more becoming to them than bandying words. Gudmund thereupon rode home with a summons to war, and the sons of Granmar mustered a large army. Many kings made common cause with the brothers, among them Hogni, Sigrun’s father, with his sons Bragi and Dag; and Alf the Elder besides. The battle was joined at Frekastein (Wolf Stone). All of the sons of Granmar fell and all of their captains but Dag, who made his peace by swearing fealty to the Volsungs. After the battle Sigrun went out among the slain and there found Hodbrod at the point of death. She gave thanks to Helgi for the deed he had done. Helgi was grieved to think that he had caused the death of her father and her brother, and she herself wept; but he consoled her with the assurance that no man could escape his destiny. Helgi took Sigrun to wife and made Granmar’s kingdom subject to his own rule. But he did not reach old age. Dag, the brother of Sigrun, offered sacrifice to Odin to obtain vengeance for his father’s death, and Odin lent his own spear to him. With it he thrust Helgi through the body at Fjoturlund and then rode home to tell Sigrun what he had done. Sigrun put him in mind of the sacred vows he had |
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sworn to Helgi and which he had now broken; then she spoke these words:
Dag declared that his sister was mad thus to curse her own brother. He laid the blame for all that had passed upon Odin and offered to give her red gold rings and one half of his kingdom; but she answered that nothing could atone for Helgi’s death. A cairn was thrown over the body of Helgi, and when he entered into Valhalla Odin invited him to sit in counsel with himself; but on Hunding, Helgi laid commands to carry out the meanest tasks. One evening Sigrun’s handmaiden, chancing to pass Helgi’s mound, saw him riding toward the cairn followed by many men; she asked whether she was only seeing visions, whether the Twilight of the Gods had come inasmuch as the |
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dead were riding, or whether the Heroes had got leave to revisit the earth. Helgi answered that the Heroes had been granted leave for their homecoming, and these tidings the handmaiden brought back to Sigrun. Sigrun went out to the cairn, glad of heart to see Helgi once more. “Yet,” she asked him, “why is your hair covered with rime, why are you flecked with blood, and why are your hands cold as ice?” “You alone are the cause,” he replied, “since you weep such bitter tears each night before you go to rest; each tear falls on my breast, icy cold, burning, freighted with woe. But though we lack lands and joys, we shall yet drink with one another costly drinks, and no man shall sing dirges for the wounds he sees in my breast.” Sigrun now prepared a couch in the mound so that she might lie down to rest in his arms. Then Helgi said: “Now nothing is beyond the bounds of belief since you, fair, living daughter of a king, rest in my arms, the arms of one who lives no more; but the time has come for me to ride forth on the reddening roadway; westward I must journey across the bridge of Heaven before Salgofnir (the cock of Valhalla) wakens the victorious men (the Heroes).” Helgi then rode away, but the next evening Sigrun awaited his return in vain. Sigrun lived no long time thereafter, so great was her sorrow and affliction. Helgi Hundingsbane and Sigrun were none other than Helgi Hjorvardsson and Svava, Eylimi’s daughter, born again in other bodies. It is said that Helgi Hundingsbane and Sigrun were likewise born anew. In this reincarnation he bore the name of Helgi Haddingjaskati, |
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and she bore the name of Kara, daughter of Halfdan. SINFJOTLISinfjotli, son of Sigmund, passed his time in continual warfare. Once upon a time, happening to see a woman of uncommon beauty, he paid court to her; but his stepmother Borghild’s brother had the same design; enmity sprang up between the two, the end of which was that Sinfjotli killed his rival. When he returned home, Borghild wanted to drive him away; but Sigmund offered her wergild for her brother, and so she could do naught else than come to terms. She then made a great banquet for her brother, to which she invited many mighty men as guests. In the course of the banquet she brought to Sinfjotli a large drinking horn, in which she had mingled poison with the intent to take his life. On looking into the horn he said to Sigmund, “The drink is muddied.” Sigmund, being immune to all poisons, took up the horn and drained it. Borghild brought Sinfjotli a second horn; once more he suspected evil, and Sigmund again drank in his stead. A third time she brought a horn to him and bade him drink if he had the courage of a Volsung. Sigmund, being by this time well drunken, said, “Drain the drink through your beard.” Sinfjotli drank, and at once fell down dead. Sigmund, lifting up his son’s body, bore it away with him; when he had carried his burden a long distance he came at length to a narrow fjord, where he found a boat and a |
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man sitting in it. The man offered to ferry Sigmund across the water; but when the body had been taken on board, the boat was incapable of supporting an added weight, and so Sigmund was compelled to walk on foot around to the other side. But no sooner had the man launched his boat out from the shore than he was lost to sight, and the boat with him. Sigmund on returning home drove Borghild away. Hitherto, during the whole time he was wedded to her, he had lived in her own kingdom of Denmark; now he took his departure, directed his course southward to a kingdom of his own in the land of the Franks, and made his home there. THE DEATH OF SIGMUNDThere was a great and powerful king named Eylimi; to his fair daughter Hjordis Sigmund paid court after he had put Borghild away. King Lyngvi, son of Hunding, who had escaped from the field at Frekastein, also sought her hand. King Eylimi permitted his daughter to make her own choice, and she chose Sigmund for his fame, in spite of his years. He wedded Hjordis and took her home with him, king Eylimi bearing them company. King Lyngvi and his brothers marshaled their forces and marched against Sigmund to summon him to battle. Sigmund at once accepted the challenge; but before taking the field he transported Hjordis with her serving maid and a great store of goods into a forest to keep her safe from the enemy. Sigmund bore himself bravely in the battle, |
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and no one was able to stand against him until an old one-eyed man, dressed in a broad-brimmed hat and a blue cloak, and carrying a spear in his hand, entered Lyngvi’s ranks. He advanced upon Sigmund, whose strokes he warded off with his spear, and Sigmund’s splendid sword shortly broke asunder. From that moment the fortunes of war took a turn, the outcome of which was that Sigmund and Eylimi fell, and with them the greater part of their men. Lyngvi hastened to the king’s palace, meaning to take Hjordis captive, but found neither her nor any of the goods; so, contenting himself perforce with laying the kingdom under his own sway, he returned home. The night after the battle Hjordis went out onto the field and found Sigmund still among the living. She asked him if he had any hope of being healed of his wounds. But he would not so much as try, since luck had forsaken him. “Yet you shall give birth to a son,” he said, “who shall become the greatest of our race. Keep for him the two pieces of my sword; from them a goodly sword can be forged, which shall be called Gram. That sword he shall bear at his side and with it do many a deed of passing prowess.” Hjordis remained sitting by Sigmund until he died; then she took up the fragments of the sword, changed her own clothing for that of her handmaiden, and made her way to the seashore. There certain Viking ships were lying, under the command of Alf, the son of king Hjalprek of Denmark. He received them well. The hand maiden told the story of Sigmund’s death and showed Alf where the treasure lay hidden; accordingly he |
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sailed with them to Denmark, believing all the while that Hjordis was the handmaiden and that the handmaiden was a princess. But his mother noticed that Hjordis was the more beautiful and had more courtly manners than the other, and so Alf determined to put them to the test. When the occasion came he asked them a question: “By what token can you mark the coming of morning when neither moon nor stars are visible?” The handmaiden answered: “As a child I was accustomed to drinking a great deal toward dawn and therefore I have formed the habit of waking at that time; this is the sign I am governed by.” The king laughed and said, “The king’s daughter was not brought up as well as might be.” Hjordis said: “My father gave me a gold ring that had the property of turning cold on my finger as dawn drew near; that is a sure sign to me.” The king replied: “Gold there must have been in plenty since bondwomen were in the habit of wearing it; now I know that you have deceived me, and of that you had no need; nevertheless you shall become my wife as soon as your child is born.” She then confessed all that she had done and gladly entered into accord with him. SIGURD FAFNIRSBANEHjordis bore a son who got the name Sigurd. He proved to have inherited the sharp eyes of his father; and as he grew to manhood it soon appeared that he excelled all others in height and in bodily prowess. He received his early nurture in the court of king |
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Hjalprek, his foster father being a cunning smith named Regin, who was skilled in all manner of manly exercises, in magic runes, and in speaking with tongues, in all of which arts Sigurd came under his tutelage. Regin, the son of a wealthy man named Reidmar, had two brothers, Oter and Fafnir.1 Oter often took the shape of an otter and passed his time in catching salmon in a waterfall not far from Reidmar’s house. The waterfall bore the name of the Cascade of Andvari, because the Dwarf Andvari frequented the waters in the guise of a pike. Once upon a time Odin, Loki, and Hœnir, being on a journey, came to the waterfall and there saw an otter feeding on a salmon; in eating, it closed its eyes, not being able to endure seeing the fish grow smaller and smaller. Loki picked up a stone, threw it at the otter, and killed it. Then he boasted of having bagged an otter and a salmon with one stone. Taking their catch with them they went on to Reidmar’s house, where they asked for a night’s lodging, at the same time showing him their booty. Reidmar at once recognized the otter’s pelt, which they had flayed off; and with the aid of Regin and Fafnir he took the Æsir captive and put them in bonds. The Æsir offered in ransom for their lives anything that he might choose to demand, whereupon he decreed that they were to fill the otter’s skin with gold and to cover its surface with gold besides. Having sealed their promise with an oath, they were released from their bondage. Loki hastened to Ran and borrowed her net, with which he then returned to the waterfall 1 Or Faðmir, that is, “the embracing one.” |
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and caught the Dwarf Andvari. Loki threatened to put Andvari to death if he did not at once surrender all the gold in his possession. The Dwarf yielded up his hoard under compulsion; but Loki, noticing that he kept back a small gold ring, forced him to give that as well. All of the Dwarf’s entreaties availed him not a whit; Loki took the ring. But as the Dwarf darted back into his rock, he stood at the opening long enough to say these words: “The Dwarf’s gold shall be the death of two brothers and a sign of division to eight athelings; no one shall find joy in the holding of my hoard.” Thus was a curse fastened upon the gold, above all upon the ring — just as on the sword Tyrfing1 — and Loki rejoiced that the treasure would bring no good to Reidmar. When Loki returned with the hoard, Reidmar first filled the skin and raised it on end, and then covered it over on the outside; in this way all of the gold was spent with the exception of the ring, which Odin kept for himself. Reidmar, however, discovered that a single hair near the mouth had not been covered up. Odin was compelled to surrender the ring of Andvari; Loki, for his part, reiterated the curse spoken over the Dwarf’s hoard. Regin and Fafnir now asked their father for a share of the gold in wergild for their brother; on his denying their request, Fafnir killed him as he lay asleep. Fafnir then took all of the gold as his own patrimony. Regin, bereft of his inheritance, removed to the court of king Hjalprek and there took service as the king’s smith. Fafnir had in his possession also a forbidding 1 p. 130 ff. |
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helmet1 and a costly sword named Rotti. Transforming himself into a venomous serpent, he made a lair for himself on Gnita Heath, and there remained brooding over his hoard. Regin egged Sigurd on to kill Fafnir and seize the treasure, by which means he would be able to win great renown for himself. From Hjalprek Sigurd got the excellent horse Grani, of the race of Sleipnir, on whose back no man before himself had ever ridden; and Regin wrought a sword for him. But when Sigurd came to try the sword and brought it down on Regin’s anvil, it broke in two; the same thing happened with a second sword forged for him by Regin. Then Sigurd’s mother gave him the pieces of Sigmund’s sword, from which, at his command, Regin forged a marvelous blade to which was given the name Gram. Gram stood the test of the anvil; Sigurd cleft it from top to bottom without so much as turning the edge of the sword. Then, carrying the weapon down to the river Rhine, he let a ball of wool float with the stream against the edge of the sword, and Gram cut it in two. Regin now bade him set forth without delay against Fafnir; but Sigurd declared his determination of first avenging his father’s death. On seeking counsel from a wise man named Gripir, brother of queen Hjordis, he learned the whole course of his destiny. He now besought Hjalprek for men and ships with which to make head against the sons of Hunding. His every wish was fulfilled. It was a gallant sight to see his 1 Literally, “terror-helmet.” —Translator’s note. |
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ship as he set sail. Presently a severe storm came upon them, which compelled them to lay by in the shelter of a headland. At the edge of the cliff stood a man who hailed the ships to ask who the voyagers might be. Regin answered that the fleet was under the command of Sigurd and then in turn asked the man to tell his own name. His name was Nikar, came the reply, but they might call him Old Man of the Mountain, or Feng, or Fjolnir, whatsoever they pleased. They took him aboard, and at once the winds began to blow from the right quarter. On Sigurd’s asking him what were the most favorable auguries for one who was going forth to battle, he answered: “It is a good sign to be followed by a black raven. It is a good thing to meet, as you set out on your journey, two heroes whose thoughts are fixed on fame. It is good to hear the wolf howling beneath the ash tree. Luck will attend you against your enemies if you see them before they catch sight of you. No man should fight with the setting sun in his eyes, for they who can see to carry on the battle shall enjoy the victory. It is a great mischance if a man stumbles on his way to the field. Every man should take care that he is combed and washed and filled with food in the morning, for no one knows what the evening may bring in its train.” They now continued on their course, and before long a battle to the death was fought between Sigurd and the sons of Hunding. Lyngvi was taken captive, and his brothers were killed. As for Lyngvi himself, a blood eagle was carved on his back, which is as much as to say that his ribs were shorn from |
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his back and his lungs were pulled out through the aperture. When all these things were done, Sigurd and Regin made their way to Gnita Heath bent on the killing of Fafnir. Regin gave the counsel that a trench should be dug straight across the path along which Fafnir was in the habit of creeping in quest of water; Sigurd did so, Regin meanwhile hiding himself away in terror. Just then an old man, with a long beard came to Sigurd and persuaded him to dig a number of trenches. In one of these he was to lie in wait himself, while the others were to provide an outlet for the overflow of venom spewed out by the serpent; if he failed to take such a precaution, he might come to grief. Herewith Sigurd got his first inkling that Regin meant to play him false. After digging a number of trenches, Sigurd hid himself in one of them. When Fafnir came, spitting venom and rolling so violently that the earth shook, Sigurd lost no time in thrusting his sword into the serpent’s left side up to the very hilt. Sigurd then sprang to his feet, and the serpent, feeling that the wound was mortal, asked him to reveal his name; for if Fafnir could succeed in learning that secret and in cursing the slayer by name, he would have his revenge. Sigurd at first thought to conceal his true name, but on the serpent’s taunting him, he told the truth. Fafnir reiterated the curses once fastened upon the gold, which was now to pass into Sigurd’s keeping. Sigurd put a number of questions to Fafnir on divers matters pertaining to the gods; after giving answers to these questions, Fafnir died. While |
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Sigurd stood wiping the blood from the sword, Regin came to him and prayed good fortune to attend the mighty deed he had done, but added the hint that since Fafnir was his own, brother, Sigurd owed Regin something by way of wergild for the life he had taken; he would ask no more than the heart of Fafnir, which Sigurd was to roast for him. Regin now cut the serpent’s heart out with his sword Ridil, drank of Fafnir’s blood, and lay down to sleep. Sigurd kindled a fire and set about roasting the heart on a spit; but as he touched it with his finger to see if it was done, he burned himself. He therefore put the finger in his mouth; when Fafnir’s heart’s blood touched his tongue, he became aware that to had learned to understand the song of birds. He heard the tomtits twittering in the bushes: “Sigurd would do more wisely in eating the heart himself; he would do well to kill Regin, who is plotting to betray him, and to seize Fafnir’s hoard and ride away with it.” Sigurd accordingly cut off Regin’s head, ate Fafnir’s heart, and drank his blood. Then he heard the birds singing once again: “It behooves him to ride to the top of Mount Hindarfjall, to a hall standing swathed in flames, there to force an entrance and to awaken a shield-maiden who lies entranced by magic arts.” Sigurd now made his way to Fafnir’s lair, which he found to be a house of beams and doors, all wrought out of iron. The gold lay buried in the earth; he took the whole hoard and also Fafnir’s other treasures, the forbidding helmet, a gold byrnie, and the sword Rotti. Filling two huge chests he bound them to a packsaddle urn Grani’s back, one on each |
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side; he meant to drive the horse before him, but Grani would not move a foot before Sigurd himself mounted. From this time forth Sigurd bore the name Fafnirsbane. THE NIFLUNGS — THE SLAYING OF SIGURDSigurd now rode south toward Frankland and up to the top of Mount Hindarfjall. On the mountain he saw a great light, as if a fire were burning there; when he drew nearer he caught sight of a stronghold of shields, above which was reared a standard. On going within the stronghold he found a woman fully panoplied lying asleep. He attempted to remove the armor; but the byrnie clung tight as if it had grown fast to the flesh itself, and so he had to cut it loose with Gram. Sitting up, the woman asked who it was that had roused her from so profound a sleep. Sigurd told his own name and asked what her name might be. She was called Sigrdrifa and was a Valkyrie; on a certain occasion she had laid low a king to whom Odin had given a pledge of victory, and in punishment Odin had stung her with sleep-thorns, had declared that she should never more win victory in battle, and had foretold that in due time she should wed. She had vowed, for her part, that she would never wed a man capable of feeling fear. Thereupon she had sunk into her deep magic trance, from which Sigurd was the first to waken her. Sigurd now asked her to teach him wisdom, what lore she might have learned from all the worlds that be. Taking a horn filled with mead and turning her face toward the song of Day and the daughters of |
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Night, toward the Æsir and the goddesses, she besought their favor; then she gave the horn into his hand, and said: “I bring you a drink, warrior champion, in which are blended power and glory; it is filled with songs and with tokens of strength, with goodly incantations and with gladdening runes. “Runes of victory you must carve if you desire to be victorious, some on the blade and some on the haft; and twice you must speak the name of Tyr” (that is, the name of the rune for the letter T). “Ale-runes you must know if you would not have the wife of another betray your trust; carve them on the horn and on the back of your hand, and mark on your finger nail the word ‘need’” (that is, the rune for the letter N). “Bless the beaker, stand on guard against deceit, lay a leek in the liquor; then can mischance never be mingled with your mead. “Birth-runes you must know if you would lend aid to a woman bearing a child; carve them on the palms of your hands, clasp the woman about her waist, then pray to the Disir to help her. “Wave-runes you must know if you would save ships at sea; carve them on the prow and rudder and burn them into the oars; then will the waves never be so steep or the seas so black but that you shall safely reach the shore. “Branch-runes you must know if you would learn healing and the treating of wounds; carve them on the bark and on the trunk of a tree whose branches lean to the east. “Speech-runes you must know if you would take |
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vengeance for your harms; twist them, twine them, wind them all together, at the judgment seats where all the counselors are assembled in judgment. “Thought-runes you must know if you would be wiser than all other men; them Odin devised from the sap that ran from Heiddraupnir’s head and Hoddrofnir’s horn. On the mountain he stood with Brimir’s sword and with a helmet on his head. Then spoke the head of Mimir for the first time and gave utterance of trusty tokens: these were carved on the shield that stands before the shining god, on Arvak’s ear, and on Alsvin’s hoof, on the wheel under Rognir’s (Odin’s) wagon, on Sleipnir’s teeth, on the runners of the sledge, on the paw of the bear and on Bragi’s tongue, on the claws of the wolf and the beak of the eagle, on bloody wings and on the bridge’s head, on freeing hand and on healing footprints, on glass, on gold, and on amulets, in wine, in simples, and on seats of joy, on Gungnir’s point and on Grani’s breast, on the Norn’s nail and on the owl’s beak. All those that were carved were shaven off again, mingled with holy mead, and sent forth on far ways; some are with the Elves, some with the Æsir, some with the wise Vanir, and some with the race of men. There are book-runes, birth-runes, ale-runes, and excellent magic-runes for every one who is able to use them without mischance, without misadventure. Turn them to your happiness if you have understood them, time without end. Now make your choice further, between speech and silence; for all harms have their destined bounds.” “I should not flee even if you knew me to be fated to die,” said |
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Sigurd, “for I was born without fear.” Then she continued her discourse: “Be free from fault in your dealings with kinsmen, and seek not revenge if they wrong you. Swear no false oaths. At the assembly dispute not with fools, for the unwise man often speaks words of worse meaning than he is aware; yet there is danger in all things if you keep silence, for so you will appear to be afraid, or what is said will have the color of truth: rather kill him the next day, and thus reward men for their lies. Never take lodging with a witch, even if night has come upon you unawares. Let not fair women deceive you. Contend not with drunken men. Yet with brave men you must fight, rather than let them burn the roof over your head. Entice no maiden and no man’s wife. Give seemly burial to the dead. Put no faith in him who has lost a kinsman at your hand: a wolf lurks in a young son, even though he have accepted gold for wergild. Beware of guile in your friends.” From Hindarfjall Sigurd journeyed to the home of Heimir in the Dales of Lym and abode there for a time. Here he chanced to see Brynhild, daughter of king Budli and foster daughter of Heimir, and was taken with an overpowering love for her. She was a shield-maiden, and when Sigurd paid court to her she answered that the fates would not permit them to live together; yet at length she gave her consent, and he placed the ring of Andvari on her finger. Afterward she bore him — according to a late legend1 — a daughter, who was named Aslaug. 1 p. 246. |
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Thereafter Sigurd rode farther on his way until he came to the court of king Gjuki, whose kingdom lay south of the Rhine. The children of Gjuki, the Gjukungs, were fairer and stronger than all others; the sons were named Gunnar, Hogni, and Guttorm, and the daughter’s name was Gudrun. Gjuki’s wife, a woman skilled in magic, was called Grimhild. Here Sigurd was received as a welcome guest; it was Grimhild’s greatest wish that he should become her son-in-law, but he loved Brynhild too dearly and all his thoughts were bent upon her. Grimhild accordingly had recourse to magic; she made a drink capable of stealing memory away, and this he gave to Sigurd. No sooner had he drunk of it than he remembered Brynhild no more; soon he came to love Gudrun instead, wedded her, and entered into a compact of sworn brotherhood with her brothers. Sigurd gave Gudrun to eat from Fafnir’s heart, which he had carried with him, whereupon she grew even more grim of mood than before. Grimhild now counseled her son Gunnar to pay court to Brynhild, daughter of Budli. King Budli making no objection, the Gjukungs1 journeyed together with Sigurd to the Dales of Lym, where Brynhild still had her abode. Heimir, who received them kindly, declared that Brynhild should choose according to her own desire. Round about her hall there burned a ring of fire, and she had made known her intention to marry none but that man who could ride through the flames. When Gunnar rode his horse Goti toward the fire, the 1 Also called Niflungs. |
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horse recoiled. Sigurd made him a loan of Grani, but Grani would not stir a pace. Sigurd and Gunnar now each took upon him the likeness of the other, whereupon Sigurd in the guise of Gunnar mounted Grani, with Gram in his hands and golden spurs on his feet. Grani at once ran forward, while the fire crackled, the earth shook, and flames darted up to the very heavens. Sigurd thus made his way into Brynhild’s hall and there wedded her, but during the night he laid the sword Gram between her and himself. They exchanged rings, so that Sigurd once more got possession of the ring of Andvari and gave her another ring in its stead. When three nights had passed, he rode out again and restored Gunnar’s likeness in return for his own. Brynhild gave into the charge of Heimir her own and Sigurd’s daughter as a foster child; later she went with them to the realm of Gjuki, where her wedding with Gunnar took place. Yet Sigurd’s deception brought its revenge; he now remembered the oaths he had sworn to Brynhild, but in no wise betrayed his true feelings. Once upon a time Brynhild and Gudrun went out into the river Rhine to wash their hair. Brynhild waded out the farther of the two, saying that since she had the braver husband she would not wash herself in the rinsings of Gudrun’s hair. Gudrun followed her, maintaining that it was her right to stand the farther up stream, inasmuch as no man could compare with Sigurd Fafnirsbane. “A braver deed it was,” said Brynhild, “of Gunnar to ride through the fire, a thing which Sigurd dared not do.” Gudrun laughed and |
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answered, “Do you think it was Gunnar who rode through the fire? No, it was Sigurd; he slept with you and took the ring of Andvari from your hand — here it is.” Brynhild recognized the ring aid how understood all that had happened; she grew pale but spoke no word. During that evening and throughout the following day Brynhild was silent and downcast. Gudrun bade her be of good cheer, but Brynhild replied, “You are passing cruel toward me.” “What is it that troubles you?” Gudrun asked. “You shall pay dearly for the winning of Sigurd in my stead, for I do not yield him to you with good grace.” Gudrun answered, “You have made a better marriage than you deserve.” “I might have rested content,” said Brynhild, “if your husband had not surpassed my own; Sigurd has no peer, he won the victory over Fafnir, and that deed is worth more than the whole of Gunnar’s realm. Sigurd killed the serpent, and that stroke will be known as long as the world shall stand; but Gunnar dared not ride through the flames.” “It was Grani who would not stir with Gunnar on his back,” answered Gudrun; “Gunnar himself had courage enough.” Brynhild said: “Grimhild alone is to blame; may you find joy in Sigurd just so much as I shall find joy in a life marred by treachery.” Brynhild took to her bed sick at heart; Gunnar went to her side to comfort her and prayed her to confide in him, but she would not. He then asked Sigurd to try what he might do. Sigurd spoke with her, confessed his love for her, and even promised to put Gudrun away and marry her instead. But she |
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was too proud to listen to his entreaties, whereat Sigurd was so stricken with grief that the rings of his byrnie burst at both sides. Rather than wed with him on such terms she would prefer to see him lying dead, so that neither she nor Gudrun should rejoice in him again. She egged Gunnar on to kill Sigurd; he had, as she said, betrayed them both. Gunnar, being readily swayed to her purpose, sought counsel with his brother Hogni, but Hogni was unwilling that they should lay violent hands themselves upon Sigurd, since they were bound to him by oaths of brotherhood. He proposed instead that they should persuade the thoughtless Guttorm to undertake the deed, a youth who had no part in their oaths. To heighten his courage, they gave him to eat the flesh of serpents and wolves. Having eaten, he became so fell of mood that he was at once ready to do his dastard’s work. Coming upon Sigurd asleep at Gudrun’s side, he pierced his body with a sword. Sigurd always kept his own sword Gram by his side; when he felt the wound, he threw the sword after Guttorm with such force that it cleft him through the middle. The young son of Sigurd and Gudrun lost his life at the same time. Gudrun sat by the body of Sigurd, unable to weep, though her heart was ready to burst. Men and women coming to comfort her could do nothing. Not until Gullrond, daughter of Gjuki, drew aside the cloth that had been spread over Sigurd, so that Gudrun once more beheld his glazed eyes and his bloody head, did she sink back weeping; as the tears ran down her cheeks, she found words to utter her grief. Brynhild |
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on her part laughed when men told her of Sigurd’s death, till the whole house rang with her mirth:
Then she said furthermore: “Once I lived honored and glad with Atli, my brother. No man did I desire until the Gjukungs rode into the courtyard. Then gave I my troth to the hero who sat on the back of Grani; he was a man, Gunnar, unlike you. This you shall know, that Sigurd was never false to you; the sword Gram, its edge tempered in venom, he laid down between me and himself; but you have broken your oath. Now I will live no longer, for Sigurd alone did I love, and desperation drove me on all my ways. My brother Atli will know what vengeance to take for me and my sorrows; and he shall remain a mightier man than you.” Gunnar earnestly prayed her not to seek death; but Hogni said that nothing could hold back one born, like her, to misfortune. Brynhild then took a sword, turned the point against her side, and sank down among the pillows. Before she died she be sought Gunnar to lay her and Sigurd on one and the same funeral pyre, and to deck it with draperies and shields, to cover it over with splendid garments and with thralls. “Burn,” she said, “at Sigurd’s other side my retainers, adorned with amulets, two at the head and two at the feet, and my two falcons with them; once more lay Gram between us, even as on the wedding night. In such wise shall Sigurd go forth |
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proudly; since there follow him so many, five bondwomen and eight henchmen, the portals of the hall shall never clang shut at his heels.” The pyre was made ready as she had given command, and on it she and Sigurd were burned. As Brynhild passed along the Hell-Ways in a magnificent chariot, a certain Giantess meeting her on the road made as if to deny her passage, and derided her for the life she had lived. But Brynhild charged Gudrun with all the blame; Gudrun had egged her to evil, speaking falsehoods of her and of Sigurd.
ATLIGunnar and Hogni fell heir to all Sigurd’s treasures after his death. Atli, Brynhild’s brother, maintaining that the two men had caused the death of Brynhild, threatened them with war. Peace was nevertheless established between them on such terms that Atli was to have Gudrun as his wife. Shortly after the death of Sigurd, Gudrun had given birth to a daughter, whom she had named Svanhild and with whom she had fled to Denmark, where for seven half years she took refuge with Thora, daughter of Hakon. Gudrun’s mother Grimhild and her brothers now journeyed to Denmark for the purpose of persuading her to marry Atli, but she curtly refused; Grimhild then gave her a drink of forgetfulness and so gained her consent. |
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With Atli, Gudrun had two sons, named Erp and Eitil. Atli, moved by a desire to secure the rich possessions of his brothers-in-law, sent his crafty servant Vingi, also called Knefrœd, to invite them to a festival. Gudrun, however, knowing that some treachery lay at the bottom, charged the messenger to carry with him warning runes which she had cut for her brothers and at the same time to deliver to them a ring to which she had bound a wolf’s hair. On the way Vingi read the runes and altered them so that they bore a contrary message and gave them over thus changed to Gunnar and Hogni. The two brothers made a great banquet and promised to proceed without delay to take part in Atli’s festival. But during the night, when all men had gone to bed, Kostbera, the cunning wife of Hogni, looked at the runes and saw that at first something else had been written there than was now to be read. She told Hogni what she had found, but he put no faith in her words. Glaumvor, Gunnar’s wife, the same night, dreamed foreboding dreams, and she likewise warned her husband against undertaking the journey; notwithstanding he held to his purpose as stoutly as his brother, and so they set forth on their visit to Atli’s court. Yet before leaving home they hid Fafnir’s gold in the river Rhine. As they neared Atli’s court, he came out to meet them in hostile array; a stubborn battle took place, in which the Niflungs defended themselves bravely, but at last they were overpowered and both brothers were taken prisoner. Atli came to Gunnar, who was sitting apart from his brother, and tried to get him to say where the hoard |
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was hidden. Gunnar answered: “Not until Hogni’s heart shall lie in my hand, bleeding, cut from the hero’s breast.” Atli went away and caused a thrall’s heart to be cut from his body; but when Gunnar saw it he said: “This is the heart of Hjalli, the weakling, quite unlike the heart of the hero Hogni; as much as it trembles lying there on the platter, it trembled twice as much in the breast of the thrall.” Atli now caused Hogni’s heart to be cut out in earnest, but he only laughed as the knife drew near his heart. When they brought this heart to Gunnar, he knew it to be his brother’s; “but,” he said, “I alone now know where the gold lies hidden, and the river Rhine shall rule over the hoard.” No one ever afterward uncovered Fafnir’s gold, and so Atli’s treachery was bootless. In his wrath he threw Gunnar, whose hands were bound, into a den of serpents. Gudrun sent her brother a harp, on which he played so wondrous well with his toes that no man had ever before heard the like. All of the serpents fell into a doze but one; this one gnawed its way into his breast and struck its fangs into his heart. When Gudrun heard of the death of her brothers, she gave no sign; she let it appear as if she accepted Atli’s offer of renewed amity and the wergild he paid for the lives of the slain. She held a funeral feast for her brothers, but in her heart she meditated grim revenge. First of all she killed the two small sons she had by Atli, made drinking vessels from their skulls, and gave the king wine to drink from them, in which was blended the blood of the children; she gave him |
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also their hearts to eat. Afterward she told him all that she had done, and he was filled with sorrow for the death of his sons and with fear for her surpassing cruelty. But she went still farther in exacting vengeance. Together with a young son and heir of Hogni she went by night to Atli’s bedside and thrust a sword into the king’s breast, her brother’s son helping her. Atli waked from his sleep at the stroke; and before he died, man and wife held discourse together. Gudrun declared that she had never been able to love him, that she had lived happier days with Sigurd, the greater hero, and yet that she would give him befitting funeral obsequies. And she kept her promise. But she set fire to Atli’s hall; and so his men too went to their death. JORMUNREKWhen Gudrun had thus compassed her revenge, she had no desire to live longer and so threw herself into the sea. Yet she was not drowned; the waves bore her across the water to the land of king Jonaker, where she became the wife of the king. They had three sons, Sorli, Hamdir, and Erp. Jonaker also caused Svanhild, Gudrun’s daughter, to be brought before him, and her he adopted as his foster daughter. She was like her father in beauty and had the same sharp eyes, the gaze of which no man could meet. The fame of her loveliness, spreading abroad, reached the ears of a mighty king named Jormunrek. He accordingly sent his son Randver and his counselor Bikki |
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to pay court to her on his behalf. Gudrun, to be sure, gave utterance to the fear that the marriage would not prove happy; but Jonaker held that a man like Jormunrek was not to be lightly dismissed, and so Svanhild was sent away in the care of Randver. In the course of the journey the malicious Bikki broached the suggestion that a man so old as Jormunrek was no fitting match for a woman so young and fair as Svanhild, that in short it was more meet that Randver, being young like herself, should have her to wife. Randver found some reason in Bikki’s words. But as soon as they arrived at home, Bikki told all that had happened to Jormunrek, who became so wroth that he bade Bikki cause Randver to be hanged. As Randver was being led away to the gallows, he plucked the feathers from his falcon and sent them to his father. Jormunrek understood the token: old as he was, and soon to be without an heir, he would be like a plucked bird, lacking in all that might aid and sustain him. He at once commanded that Randver’s life should be spared, but it was too late: Bikki had made all possible haste in carrying out the king’s behest. Jormunrek’s wrath now turned in full measure against Svanhild, whom he held to be the cause of his misfortunes. As he came riding home from the hunt and found Svanhild sitting at the gate drying her hair in the sun, he trampled her to death under the hoofs of his horses. At first they dared not move upon her, but started back before her piercing glances; then Bikki caused a sack to be drawn down over her eyes, and so she lost her life. When Gudrun learned of all these things, she egged |
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her sons into wreaking vengeance on Jormunrek for his cruelty. They made ready for the journey, and she gave them byrnies and helmets that no iron could pierce. Then she gave them this counsel, that when they came into the presence of Jormunrek, Sorli and Hamdir were to sever his hands and feet and Erp was to cut off his head. As they rode on their way, the two brothers asked Erp what aid he meant to give them. “Such help,” he replied, “as the hand may give to the hand or the foot to the foot.” Thinking such a promise a thing of naught, they put him to death. A moment later, Hamdir stumbled and thrust out his hand to support himself; the like happened to Sorli, who succeeded in checking his fall with his foot; in this manner they learned that one hand may well help another, and the one foot the other, and that therefore they had done evil toward Erp. Coming to the hall of Jormunrek by night as he lay asleep, they cut off both his hands and both his feet. Jormunrek started out of sleep and called to his men; then Hamdir said: “His head would now have fallen had Erp been here.” The men of the king’s bodyguard sprang up and rushed upon the intruders, but found their weapons useless in their hands; an old one-eyed man now came and told them to stone the brothers to death, and they did as he bade them. The two brothers lost their lives, and with them the whole race of the Gjukungs came to an end. |
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With the death of Jonaker and Jormunrek this legendary cycle in the Poetic Edda comes to an end. The Prose Edda makes a brief reference to Sigurd’s and Brynhild’s daughter Aslaug; in the Volsunga Saga and in the related saga of Ragnar Lodbrok there is a circumstantial account of her fate.1 After the death of Sigurd and Brynhild, Heimir suspected that men would be sent out to search for Aslaug for the purpose of putting her to death. He therefore caused a harp to be made, large enough to hide both the little girl and her treasures; carrying the harp and Aslaug within it, he then traveled about in the guise of a poor minstrel. When he came to the banks of lonely streams, he took her from her hiding place and bathed her, but he kept her concealed while he passed through populated places. For food he gave her a kind of leek, so nourishing that she required nothing else to eat; and when she wept, he played for her on the harp. At length he arrived at Spangereid in Norway, where he halted from his journey at a little farm kept by two old people named Aki and Grima. The man happened just at the time to be out in the forest, but Grima was at home. Heimir prayed her for a night’s lodging. She did not deny his request but kindled a fire so that he might warm himself; as she did so, she caught sight of some bits of fine raiment protruding from a crack in the harp and also discovered a costly gold ring beneath the tatters that swathed his arm. She now 1 Cf. p. 245 ff. and p. 178. |
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understood that he was not what he seemed to be, and so she determined to kill him and rob him of his treasures. She gave him lodging in a rye granary outside the house; for, as she said, she and her husband were accustomed to talk together late into the night after he came home. There Heimir lay down to sleep, keeping his harp by his side. When Aki returned, his wife had not nearly done her work, and he upbraided her for her sloth. She answered: “Do not be angry; at one stroke we can secure more than is needed to keep us the rest of our lives.” Then she told him of Heimir and of the plans she had hatched. Aki was unwilling to betray his guest; but since it was the woman who ruled in that house, he was compelled to yield, and so it fell to him to give Heimir the killing blow as he slept. Heimir was so big and strong that the whole house clattered down and the earth shook at his death struggle. The woman now tried to pick up the harp; but she could not lift it, and so they had to break it to pieces. When their eyes fell on Aslaug, they were rather abashed; but they found riches enough besides. Aslaug would not tell her name or even speak a word; for a long time therefore they thought that she lacked the power of speech. They determined to pretend that she was their own daughter, and they laid all the hard work on her. Being loth to have any one see how beautiful she was and thus suspect that the kinship was not all that they pretended it to be, they cut off her hair, smeared her head with tar, and gave her a broad hat and wretched garments to wear. They named her Kraka, after the mother of Grima. The story of |
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her marriage with Ragnar Lodbrok will be told below.1 GERMAN LEGENDS DEALING WITH SIEGFRIED AND THE NIBELUNGSThe Germans also knew the legends of the Volsungs and recorded them in various forms. The chief source is the well-known heroic poem, the Nibelungenlied. This poem is built upon earlier popular ballads, no longer extant. It dates from about the year 1200, and the presentation has lost much of its antique character for the reason that the legends have been adapted to the requirements of medieval chivalry. Thus mention is made of feudal castles and of tournaments; the heroes have become Christian knights and are no longer pagan champions. Many of the individual events are likewise presented ill a form totally different from the form that is characteristic of Northern poesy. Several legends only lightly touched in the Northern sources are fully detailed in the German; such, for example, are the legends of king Thjodrek, the celebrated Theodoric of Verona, who in German legend bears the name Dietrich of Bern. The names have other forms and are in some cases wholly different. The following are the contents of the Nibelungenlied in brief Siegfried was the son of Sigmund, king of Xanten in the Netherlands, and of his. queen Sigelind. From his earliest youth he distinguished himself in many a 1 See p. 245 ff. |
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dangerous enterprise. On one such occasion he killed a dragon and, having bathed himself in its blood, was by this means made immune to wounds, except in one spot where the leaf of a linden had clung to his body. He conquered king Nibelung and thus won for himself the immense treasure of the Nibelungs and the sword Balmung, and he took from the Dwarf Alberich his cap of invisibility (“Tarnkappe”). In the city of Worms, Gunther, king of the Burgundians, at that time held his court; his mother was Uote, and he had two brothers, Gernot and Giselher. The king’s sister, |