Submitted by: Luca Panaro
Description:
Völundarkviða ("The Lay of Völundr") is a poem in the Poetic Edda. It is an account of the mythic Germanic blacksmith, Völundr (also called Velent; Weland in Old English, Wieland in German, and Wayland in modern English). Another version of the story in Old Norse exists in Þiðreks saga af Bern (LINK), a Norse compilation of all the Germanic legendary stories related to Dietrich von Bern, the heroic literary counterpart of the historical Theodoric the Great. Völundr is considered a part of Germanic heroic legendary tradition, but he straddles myth and legend and is neither clearly human nor divine in nature. See his dedicated entry for a fuller discussion of the character's nature and origins.
Völundr or Wayland is mentioned in a wide variety of sources from different northern cultures, both visual and textual. In England, he is mentioned in the poems Deor, Waldere, and Beowulf, and swords made by him appear in Arthurian romances. He is depicted at his forge on a carved whalebone box called the Franks Casket, and he appears on several carved crosses in northern England (i.e. the area settled by the Norse). There is a possible mention of his name written in runes on a gold coin, called a solidus, found in Frisia, Germany, dated to around the third quarter of the 6th century CE. The Latin poem based on German heroic legend, Waltharius, claims that the eponymous hero's armor was made by Wieland. There are also other scattered references to Völundr in Scandinavian literary sources.
The poem has a prose prologue which introduces the main characters, beginning with Níðuðr, a Swedish king, and his children, two sons and a daughter named Böðvildr. Then it tells of three brothers, sons of a nameless king of the Finns (Finns or Lapps in Old Norse literature are pejorative terms for Sámi people, who live in northern Fennoscandia up to the present day); Slagfiðr, Egill, and Völundr. The brothers made their living by hunting animals and traveling on skis, and they built a house near a lake. One day, they find three women on the shore of the lake spinning linen, and next to them are their álptarhamir ("swan-shapes," "swan-garments," the hide and feathers of a swan), and the text explains that they were valkyries (LINK). They brothers take the swan maidens home with them and live together for seven winters, but after this time the valkyries fly off to battle and do not return, as is their nature. Egill and Slagfiðr ski off to search for their wives, while Völundr remains at home, content to wait for his own valkyrie to return. King Níðuðr has him seized, and the prose ends with the lead in, "as is told here."
The poem begins with six stanzas that describe the same events of the prose prologue, although they emphasize the non-human nature of the women more. While his brothers are off searching, Völundr sits at home smithing, making fine rings set with gems. Níðuðr hears that Völundr is alone in the hall and goes with men to capture him. They find the hall empty while Völundr is out hunting, lie in wait for him, and catch him after he falls asleep. They take a certain ring which Völundr meant to give to Hervör (the valkyrie he loved), and Níðuðr gives it to his daughter Böðvildr, and keeps Völundr's sword for himself. Níðuðr's wife notices how angry seeing Böðvildr wear the ring makes Völundr, and tells the king to hamstring him and put him on an island. This is done, and Völundr is unable to escape and forced to smith precious objects for Níðuðr and his family.
After some time of this, the king's two nameless sons come to the island he is trapped on and ask for the key to the chest full of treasures he has made. Völundr tells them to come back in secret and alone another day, promising to give them fine gifts. When they return, Völundr cuts off their heads as they look inside the chest, hiding their bodies under his forge and fashioning treasures from their heads. He coats the skulls in silver and gives them to the king (as drinking vessels or some kind of boxes? The poem is not clear on what they were meant to be), he turns their eyes into jewels for Níðuðr's wife, and from their teeth he fashions brooches for Böðvildr.
Böðvildr somehow breaks the gold ring and brings it in secret to Völundr to repair. While on his island, he gets her drunk and rapes her, and proclaims that his injuries have been avenged. He then escapes by rising into the air by unknown means, mentioning his "webbed feet," which Carolyne Larrington hypothesizes may refer to the ring of Hervör which he has reclaimed from Böðvildr having some transformative powers like the swan-maiden who wore it. In the version of the story from Þiðreks saga af Bern, Völundr's brother Egill brings him geese feathers that Völundr turns into wings to fly away on. Völundr flies to Níðuðr's palace and lands to talk to the king, asking him for oaths not to harm his bride in exchange for telling the king what happened to his sons. He then reveals all of the cruel things he did to the sons and to Böðvildr, and that Böðvildr is pregnant with his child, and then he flies away. Níðuðr laments and calls Böðvildr to speak to her, confirming that she is pregnant, and she describes how she did not have the knowledge or power to resist him. The poem ends here.
No linked citations yet.