Volund

“ Volund is a foe of the gods, an elf-prince who was deeply insulted by beings more powerful than himself (No. 87) . "The airy one" must likewise be a foe of the gods, since the weapon he has made is dangerous to the golden cock of the world-tree, and is bought by "the eleven wards" with the opening of Asgard's gate and the giving of Menglad as wife to Svipdag. ”

“ He flew to the palace, and, perched there out of reach, he confessed all his crimes to Nidud. The king, beside himself with rage, summoned Egil, Völund’s brother, who had also fallen into his power, and bade him use his marvelous skill as an archer to bring down the impudent bird. Obeying a signal from Völund, Egil aimed for a protuberance under his wing where a bladder full of the young princes’ blood was concealed, and Völund flew triumphantly away, declaring that Odin would give his sword to Sigmund—a prediction which was duly fulfilled. ”

“ Volund, the eagle guise which he, like Volund, wears. The son of Ivalde, Volund, made the most precious treasures for the gods while he still was their friend, and the Olvalde son Thjasse is called hapta snytrir, "the decorator of the gods," doubtless for the reason that he had smithied treasures for the gods during a time when he was their friend and Thor's ofrúni (Thor's confidential friend) . ”

“ If Volund forged the sword for a purpose hostile to the gods, in order to avenge a wrong done him, or to elevate himself and his circle of kinsmen among the elves at the expense of the ruling gods, then his work was not done in vain. If Volund and his brothers are those Ivalde sons who, after having given the gods beautiful treasures, became offended on account of the decision [Pg 865] which placed Sindre's work, particularly Mjolner, higher than their own, then the mythology has also completely indemnified them in regard to this insult. ”

“ But gambanteinn is, at the same time, a synonym of mistelteinn, hence, in an Icelandic saga from the Christian time, Volund's sword of victory also reappears by the name mistelteinn (see No. 60) . Thus the giant Hlebard gave Loke a weapon, which, according to its designation, is either Volund's sword of victory or the mistletoe. It cannot be the sword of victory. We know the hands to which this sword has gone and is to go: Volund's, Mimer-Nidhad's, the night-dis Sinmara's, Svipdag's, Frey's, Aurboda's and Eggther's, and finally Fjalar's and Surt's. ”

“ From the chase came the ardent hunters, Slagfid and Egil, found their house deserted, went out and in, and looked around. Egil went east after Olrun, and Slagfid west after Svanhvit;
5. But Volund alone remained in Ulfdal. He the red gold set with the hard gem, well fastened all the rings on linden bast, and so awaited his bright consort, if to him she would return.
6. It was told to Nidud, the Niarars' lord, that Volund alone remained in Ulfdal. In the night went men, in studded corslets, their shields glistened in the waning moon. ”

“ The tender Frey is thus appointed by the gods as king over Alfheim, and chief of the elf-princes there, among whom Volund and Orvandel-Egil, judging from the mythic events themselves, must have been the foremost and most celebrated. It is also logically correct, from the standpoint of nature symbolism, that the god of growth and harvests receives the government of elves and primeval artists, the personified powers of culture. Through this arrangement of the gods, Volund and Orvandel become vassals under Njord and his son. ”

“ THE LAY OF VOLUND. There was a king in Sweden named Nidud: he had two sons and a daughter, whose name was Bodvild. There were three brothers, sons of a king of the Finns, one was called Slagfid, the second Egil, the third Volund. They went on snow-shoes and hunted wild-beasts. They came to Ulfdal, and there made themselves a house, where there is a water called Ulfsiar. ”

“ To make war on the gods with the aid of the giants, when the sword of victory had fallen into the hands of the latter, could not give him the least hope of success. After the mythology has given Volund satisfaction for the despicable judgment passed on the products of his skill, it unites the chain of events in such a manner that the same weapon which refuted the judgment and was to cause the ruin of the gods became their palladium against its own maker. ”

“ Brothers and near kinsmen slay each other. The sacred bonds of morality are broken. It is the storm-age and the wolf-age. Men no longer spare or pity one another. Knives and axes rage. Volund's world-destroying sword of revenge has already been fetched by Fjalar in the guise of the red cock (str. 41) , and from the Ironwood, where it hitherto had been concealed by Angerboda and guarded by Egther; the wolf-giant Hate with his companions have invaded the world, which it was the duty of the gods [Pg 708] to protect. ”

“ The nature of the mythic traditions and songs is not at once obliterated in the time of transition; there remain marks of their original nature in some or other of the details as proof of what they have been. Thus that fragment of a Volund saga, turned into an epic, which the Old Norse literature has preserved for us in Volundarkvida, shows us that the artist who is the hero of the song was originally conceived not as a son of man, but as a member of the mythic race of elves which in Völuspa is mentioned in connection with the Asas (hvat er med asom, hvat er med alfom?—str. 49) . ”

“ The fathers of the swan-maids who love Volund and his brothers reappear in the Sigurd songs as heroes who had already left the scene of action, and who had owned immense treasures, which after their death have passed by inheritance into the possession of the Gjukungs. This also follows from the fact that the Gjukungs are descendants of Gjuke-Slagfin, and that Slagfin and his brothers are Niflungs, heirs of Hlaudver-Ivalde, who was gullaudigr mjök (Younger Edda) . ”

“ Vilkinasaga makes Ebbo (Wild-Ebur) appear in the guise of a bear when he is about to rescue Volund's son Vidga from the captivity into which he had fallen. In his shield Ebbo has images of a wild boar and of a bear. As the wild boar refers to one of his names (Ebur) , the image of the bear should refer to another (Isolfr) .
Under such circumstances there can be no doubt that Orvandel-Egil and one of his brothers, the one designated by the name Aggo (Ajo) , be this Volund or Slagfin, were entrusted in the mythology with the duty of fostering the young Frey. ”

“ Völund resembles Vulcan, also, in that he is a clever smith and makes use of his talents to work out his revenge. Vulcan, lamed by a fall from Olympus, and neglected by Juno, whom he had tried to befriend, sends her a golden throne, which is provided with cunning springs to seize and hold her fast. Völund, hamstrung by the suggestion of Nidud’s queen, secretly murders her sons, and out of their eyes fashions marvelous jewels, which she unsuspectingly wears upon her breast until he reveals their origin. ”

“ To the heroic group belongs the beautiful poem on the skilful Smith, Volund (Völundarkviða) , the Dædalos of the North; the Grottasöngr found in Snorre's Edda, telling of the giant women Fenja and Menja, who ground gold for King Frode; and a series of poems for which the material has been taken from the traditions about the Volsungs. Here we find a number of characters described with remarkable vigor; men like Helge, the slayer of Hunding, and Sigurd, the slayer of Fafner; women like Sigrun, Brynhild and Gudrun ”

“ The same Volund, who in Saxo under the name Anund has Toko (the name of an archer) or the archer Avo by his side in the conflict with Halfdan, also has the archer Egil as a brother in other sources.
Of an archer Toko, who is mentioned in Hist., 487-490, Saxo tells the same exploit as Vilkinasaga attributes to Volund's brother Egil. In Saxo it is Toko who performs the celebrated masterpiece which was afterwards attributed to William Tell. In Vilkinasaga it is Egil. The one like the other, amid similar secondary circumstances, shoots an apple from his son's head. ”

“ Slagfin is symbolised as a horse in Hengest, and also in the paraphrase öndr-Jálkr, "the gelding of the skees." Like his brothers, he is a runner on skees. The Volund epithet, Brunni, also alludes to skee-running. Rögnir and Regin are names of Volund and his brothers in their capacity of artists. The names Ajo, Anund, and Thjasse (the sparkling) may have their origin in ancient Aryan times.
The names of the third brother, Egil, are Gangr, Örvandill, Egill, Agelmund, Eigel, Euglin, Hödbroddr, Toko, and Avo, the archer; Ebur (Ibor, Wild-Ebur, Villefer, Ebbo) , Aurnir Isólfr. ”

“ All that we learn of him is that, like Egil, he accompanied his brother Volund to the Wolfdales; that, like them, he runs on skees and is a hunter; and that, when the swan-maids, in the ninth year of their abode in the Wolfdales, are overcome by longing and return to the south, he goes away to find his beloved, just as Egil goes to find his. We learn, furthermore, that Slagfin's swan-maid is a sister of Volund's and a kinswoman of Egil's, and that she, accordingly, is Slagfin's sister (half-sister) . ”

“ Most clever and enterprising in successful artistic efforts is the youngest of the three (Rigv., iv. 34) . They are also soma-brewers, skalds, and heroes (Rigv., iv. 36, 5, 7) , and one of them, like Volund's brother Orvandel-Egil, is an unsurpassed archer (Rigv., iv. 36, 6) . ”

“ The epithet Thor's ofrunni, "he who made Thor run," must accordingly be explained by some mythic event, which shows that Thor at one time had to take flight on account of Thjasse. A single circumstance has come to our knowledge, where Thor retreats before an opponent, and it is hardly credible that the mythology should allow its favourite to retreat conquered more than once. On that occasion it is Volund's sword, wielded by Svipdag, which cleaves Thor's hammer and compels him to retire. Thus Volund was at one time Thor's ofrunni. In Haustlaung it is Thjasse. ”

“ The most important Slagfin epithets, from a mythological standpoint, are Ide, Gjuke, Hjuke, and Irung.
The names of Volund (Wieland, Veland) in the various records are, as we have seen, thjazi, Ajo (Aggo) , Anund (Önundr) , Rögnir, Brunni, Ásólfr, Vargr, Fjallgyldir, Hlébardr, Byrr, Gustr, Loptr, Haquinus (Aki, Ecke) . Of these names and epithets Ásólfr, Vargr, Fjallgyldir, and Hlébardr form a group by themselves, and refer to his animal-symbol, the wolf. The other brothers also have animal-symbols. Egil is symbolised [Pg 992] as a wild boar and a bear by the names Aurnir, Ebur, Isólfr. ”

“ Of the teeth of the two, breast-ornaments I made, and to Bodvild sent. Now Bodvild goes big with child, the only daughter of you both."
35. "Word didst thou never speak that more afflicted me, or for which I would more severely punish thee. There is no man so tall that he from thy horse can take thee, or so skilful that he can shoot thee down, thence where thou floatest up in the sky."
36. Laughing Volund rose in air, but Nidud sad remained sitting.
37. "Rise up Thakrad, my best of thralls! bid Bodvild, my fair-browed daughter, in bright attire come, with her sire to speak. ”

“ Völund then went to Alf-heim, where, if the legend is to be believed, he found his beloved wife, and lived happily again with her until the twilight of the gods.
But, even in Alf-heim, this clever smith continued to ply his craft, and various suits of impenetrable armour, [179] which he is said to have fashioned, are described in later heroic poems. Besides Balmung and Joyeuse, Sigmund’s and Charlemagne’s celebrated swords, he is reported to have fashioned Miming for his son Heime, and many other remarkable blades. ”

“ It is Mimis holt, Hoddmimis holt, the subterranean grove, where the children who are to be the parents of the future race of man have their secure abode until the regeneration of the world (see Nos. 52, 53) , living on the morning-dew which falls from the world-tree, hrár vidr, "the tree rich in sap" (see No. 89) . Mimer-Nidhad also comes from Holt when he imprisons Volund (Volund., 14) . It has already been proved above that, on his journey in the lower world, Svipdag also came to Mimis holt, and saw the citadel within which the ásmegir have their asylum. ”

“ The destruction of the world—the approach of which Volund wished to precipitate with his sword of revenge—must come slowly, but surely, if Idun remains away from Asgard. This plan is frustrated by the gods through Loke, as an instrument compelled by necessity—compelled by necessity (Haustlaung, str. 11) , although he delighted in the mischief of deceiving even his allies. Near Thjasse's mountain-halls is a body of water, on which he occasionally rows out to fish (Bragarædur.) Once, when he rows out for this purpose, perhaps accompanied by Skade, Idun is at home alone. ”

“ This group consists of the brothers Volund, Egil, Slagfin, Egil's son Ull, and Thjasse's daughter Skade. In the introduction to Volundarkvida it is said of the three brothers that they ran on skees in the Wolfdales and hunted. We have already referred to Egil's wonderful skees, that could be used on the water as well as on the snow. Of Ull we read in Gylfaginning (Younger Edda, i. 102) : "He is so excellent an archer and skee-runner that no one is his equal;" ”

“ No other weapon can here be meant than one which was fraught with the greatest danger to the safety of the gods, and which filled them with anxiety; and unless we wish to deny that there is sense and connection in the poem, this sword can be no other than that which Svipdag now has with him, and which, having been brought to Asgard, relieves the gods of their anxiety. And to repeat the points of similarity, Volund, like "Loptr," makes his weapon in the northern border-land of Mimer's domain; and when the sword is finished he is surprised by subterranean powers. ”