{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13008/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13008","id":"gutenberg_13008","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13008","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Mythology","Mythology, Norse","Paganism"],"text":"Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13\n\n\nThe Edda\n\nII\n\nThe Heroic Mythology of the North\n\n\n\nBy\n\nWinifred Faraday, M.A.\n\n\n\nPublished by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London\n1902\n\n\n\n\nAuthor's Note\n\n\nThe present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (_The Edda: Divine Mythology\nof the North_), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter\nand for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references\nare given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.\n\nManchester,\nJuly 1902.\n\n\n\n\nThe Edda: II. The Heroic Mythology of the North\n\n\nSigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica\nof Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and the Heodenings,\nand Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known\nto the writers of our earliest English literature. But in most cases\nthe only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there,\nwith no hint of the story attached. For circumstances directed the\npoetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints\nand Biblical paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race;\nwhile later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our\nliterature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless,\nthese few brief references in _Beowulf_ and in the small group of\nheathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the\nhero-poems of the Edda. In studying these heroic poems, therefore,\nwe are confronted by problems entirely different in character from\nthose which have to be considered in connexion with the mythical\ntexts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern,\nbranch of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series),\nand the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,\nhowever altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and\nas such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance, as well\nas in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore\nlate and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda, on the contrary,\nwith the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in\nthe literatures of the other great branches of the Germanic race,\nand these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.\n\nThe Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:\n\n(_a_) _Weland the Smith_.--Anglo-Saxon literature has several\nreferences to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one;\nand there is also a late Continental German version preserved in\nan Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest\nconnected form of the story.\n\n(_b_) _Sigurd and the Nibelungs_.--Again the oldest reference is in\nAnglo-Saxon.  There are two well-known Continental German versions\nin the _Nibelungen Lied_ and the late Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_,\nbut the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the\nlegend. With it is loosely connected\n\n(_c_) _The Ermanric Cycle_.--The oldest references to this are in Latin\nand Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the _Thidreks Saga_\nis late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd\nstory, with which it had originally nothing to do.\n\n(_d_) _Helgi_.--This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar\nto the Scandinavian North.\n\nAll the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder\nEdda. From other sources we may add other poems which are Eddic, not\nSkaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The\ngreat majority of the poems deal with the favourite story of the\nVolsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after\nanother, Burgundian, Hun, Goth, was absorbed into it. The poems in this\npart of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the\nmythological ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and\nlack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular poetry.\n\n_V\u00f6lund_.--The lay of V\u00f6lund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of\nthe Old English poems and the only Germanic hero who survived for\nany considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in\nits cycle, and is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very\nfragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short\npieces of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids,\nand the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,\nEgil and V\u00f6lund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built\nthemselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early one\nmorning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying\nbeside them. The brothers took them home; but after seven years the\nswan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did\nnot return.\n\n\"Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized\nthem, and in the ninth need parted them.\" Egil and Slagfinn went to\nseek their wives, but V\u00f6lund stayed where he was and worked at his\nforge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:\n\n\"Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by\nthe waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,\nand went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the\nhero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and put, them on\nagain, all but one. The keen-eyed archer V\u00f6lund came in from hunting,\nfrom a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin and counted his rings, and\nthe prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's daughter,\nthe fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep,\nand awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his hands, and fetters\nclasped on his feet.\"\n\nThey took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to\nforge treasures for his captors. Then V\u00f6lund planned vengeance:\n\n\"'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best,\nand which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade is taken\nfrom me for ever; I shall not see it borne to V\u00f6lund's smithy. Now\nB\u00f6dvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no atonement.' He sat\nand slept not, but struck with his hammer.\"\n\nNithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew,\nand made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls; and the daughter\nB\u00f6dvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the\nair and left her weeping for her lover and Nithud mourning his sons.\n\nIn the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part\nof the story; there is no reference to the legend of the enchanted\nbrides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with\nthe common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged to return to animal\nshape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This\nincident of the compact (_i.e._, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain\nfrom asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been\nlost in the V\u00f6lund tale. The Continental version is told in the late\nIcelandic _Thidreks Saga_, where it is brought into connexion with\nthe Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the\narcher, is also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures\non the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,\ndated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the\nthird brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon gives\nV\u00f6lund and B\u00f6dvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as\na follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German sources.\n\n_The Volsungs_.--No story better illustrates the growth of heroic\nlegend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical\nmotives combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession\nmore and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and\nstill more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought\ninto dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject are\nquite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary,\nseveral late, and only one attempts a review of the whole story. The\noutline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother\nof Sinfj\u00f6tli, slays the dragon who guards the Nibelungs' hoard on\nthe Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which accompanies\nthe treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in\nan enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire, loves her and plights\ntroth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment\ncauses him to forget the Valkyrie, to love her own daughter Gudrun,\nand, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son\nGunnar. After the marriage, Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites\nher husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.\n\nThe series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfj\u00f6tli,\nwhich says that after Sinfj\u00f6tli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's son (which\nshould be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name),\nhad been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild, Sigmund married Hj\u00f6rdis,\nEylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the\nrace of Hunding. Sigmund, as in all other Norse sources, is said to be\nking in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the _Nibelungen Lied_,\nmeans the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always\nnear that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the treasure of\nthe Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the V\u00f6lund lay.\n\n_Gripisspa_ (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately\nplaced first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the\nwhole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the\nwisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer prophesies\nhis adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original\nfeatures of the legend which are obscured elsewhere, especially in the\nGudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach\nof faith to Brynhild. In the speeches of both Gripi and Sigurd, the\npoet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith,\nwhile the seer repeatedly protests his innocence in breaking it: \"Thou\nshalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No\nbetter man shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd.\" On\nthe other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and the\nsleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like\nall poems in this form, _Gripisspa_ is a late composition embodying\nearlier tradition.\n\nThe other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form\na continued narrative. _Gripisspa_ is followed by a compilation from\ntwo or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three\nparts in the editions: _Reginsmal_ gives the early history of the\ntreasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons;\n_Fafnismal_, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking\nbirds; _Sigrdrifumal_, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows\na fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem\ngenerally called the _Third_, or _Short, Sigurd Lay_ (which tells of\nthe marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing of Brynhild for Gunnar)\ncontinue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of\nBrynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the fates of the other heroes who\nbecame connected with the legend of the treasure.\n\nIn addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story\nis given by Snorri in _Skaldskaparmal_, but it is founded almost\nentirely on the surviving lays. _V\u00f6lsunga Saga_ is also a paraphrase,\nbut more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and\nit therefore, to some extent, represents independent tradition. It\nwas, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the\ngreat saga-time was over, in the decadent fourteenth century, when\nmaterial of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological,\nwas hastily cast into saga-form. It is not, like the _Nibelungen\nLied_, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of\ngreater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler\ndid not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast\nhis material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely to his\noriginals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite\nliterary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore, _V\u00f6lsunga_\nis far behind not only such great works as _Njala_, but also many of\nthe smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies;\nit is often careless in grammar and diction; it is full of traces\nof the decadent romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance,\nis endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no\nimprovement on the heroic tradition, \"Courage is better than a good\nsword.\" At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to\nefface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates\nagainst him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic\nsagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief\nin the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the whole idea\nof sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the\ncharacter of Brynhild, without the compensating elevation in that of\nher rival by which the _Nibelungen Lied_ places Chriemhild on a height\nas lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie;\nthe Brynhild of _V\u00f6lsunga Saga_ is something of a virago, the Gudrun\nis jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is\nabsolutely to be trusted; and _V\u00f6lsunga Saga_ is therefore, in spite\nof artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features\nof the legend.\n\nThere are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the\ndragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild. The latter is\nbrought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real\ncentre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon reference, the fragment in\n_Beowulf_, the second episode does not appear.\n\nIn this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague\nreference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli, consists solely\nof the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the\nWaelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela (Sinfj\u00f6tli)\nnot being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and\nloaded a ship with the treasure. The few preceding lines only mention\nthe war which Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli waged on their foes. They are there\nuncle and nephew, and there is no suggestion of the closer relationship\nassigned to them by _V\u00f6lsunga Saga_, which tells their story in full.\n\nSigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of\nmiraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen\nheroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to\nSiggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast Odin enters\nand thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the\nmiddle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only the chosen Sigmund\nsucceeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling\nbride, invites her father and brothers to a feast. Though suspecting\ntreachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund\nwho is secretly saved by his sister and hidden in the wood. She\nmeditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten,\nshe tests their courage, and finding it wanting makes Sigmund kill\nboth: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She\ntherefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and her third son, Sinfj\u00f6tli,\nis the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to\nlive in the wood with Sigmund, who only knows him as Signy's son. For\nyears they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for\nvengeance. They set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing\nSinfj\u00f6tli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,\nher vengeance achieved:\n\n\"I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our\nfather; Sinfj\u00f6tli has a warrior's might because he is both son's son\nand daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end,\nthat King Siggeir should meet his death; I have so toiled for the\nachieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As\nI lived by force with King Siggeir, of free will shall I die with him.\"\n\nThough no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly\nprimitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity. _V\u00f6lsunga_\nthen reproduces the substance of the prose _Death of Sinfj\u00f6tli_\nmentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems\nto be to remove Sinfj\u00f6tli and leave the field clear for Sigurd. It\npreserves a touch which may be original in Sinfj\u00f6tli's burial, which\nresembles that of Scyld in _Beowulf_: his father lays him in a boat\nsteered by an old man, which immediately disappears.\n\nSigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli are always close comrades, \"need-companions\"\nas the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and form one\nstory. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father\nSigmund's death. _V\u00f6lsunga_ says that Sigmund fell in battle against\nHunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt\nthat he \"knew not how to give the victory fairly,\" shattered with his\nspear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again we have\nto depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in _Hyndluljod_:\n\"The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund\na sword.\" And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless childhood is\nonly to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself\na false name he says to Fafni: \"I came a motherless child; I have no\nfather like the sons of men.\" Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of\nthe sword to be given to his unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather\nRegin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's\nfirst deed was to avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father\nand his mother's father. _V\u00f6lsunga_ tells this story first of Helgi\nand Sinfj\u00f6tli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the\ndeed. It is followed by the dragon-slaying.\n\nUp to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same\nfeatures which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli. Both are probably,\nlike Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is\nthe usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a\nthird type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by\n_V\u00f6lsunga_ to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes\na deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the\nhero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund\nand Sinfj\u00f6tli version. Among those Germanic races which brought the\nlegend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one,\nand Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli practically drop out.\n\nThe Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than\nthat of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied with\nthe existence of the monster \"old and proud of his treasure,\" but\nhere we are told its full previous history, certain features of which\n(such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was\noriginally connected with the Volsungs or not.\n\nAs usual, _V\u00f6lsunga_ gives the fullest account, in the form of a\nstory told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay\nthe dragon. Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar;\none of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen by\nthree of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar\ndemanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's skin, and Loki\nobtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall\nin the form of a fish, and allowing him to ransom his head by giving\nup his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain;\nand thereupon he laid a curse upon it: that the ring with the rest\nof the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of\nit. In giving the gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the\nring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of\nthe two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse,\nfor the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay guarding it in\nthe shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of\npossessing the hoard: he adopted as his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung,\nthus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.\n\nThe curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between\nthe two parts of the story, since it directly accounts for Sigurd's\nunconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves\nthe hero from blame by making him a victim of fate. It destroys in turn\nHreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself,\nBrynhild (to whom he gave the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed\ninheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects\nstill further.\n\nThis narrative is also told in the pieces of prose interspersed through\n_Reginsmal_. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first\nof these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf\nAndvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result\nfrom the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer wager, and\nthe captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less\ngeneral terms than in the prose: \"My gold shall be the death of two\nbrothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in\nthe possession of my treasure.\" Next comes a short dialogue between\nLoki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he\nruns in taking the hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his\ndaughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on\ntheir own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son\nmay avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hj\u00f6rdis,\nSigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended,\nit may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy. The next\nfragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the\nyoung Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of Sigurd's follows, in\nwhich he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father\non Hunding's sons. The rest of the poem is concerned with the battle\nwith Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.\n\nThe fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this\npoetry being in narrative form; but _Fafnismal_ gives a dialogue\nbetween the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung\nagainst the hoard: \"The ringing gold and the glowing treasure, the\nrings shall be thy death.\" Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim\n\"Every man must die some time,\" and asks questions of the dragon in the\nmanner of _Vafthrudnismal_. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks\nof his brother's intended treachery: \"Regin betrayed me, he will betray\nthee; he will be the death of both of us,\" and dies. Regin returning\nbids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece tells\nthat Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in\nhis mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The advice given him\nby the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats\nitself; the substance is a warning to Sigurd against the treachery\nplotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so\nbecome sole owner of the hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning:\n\"Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence:\nboth brothers shall go quickly hence to Hel.\" Regin's enjoyment of\nthe hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins\nwhen one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to\nthe sleeping Valkyrie:\n\n\"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a\nmaid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green\nroads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a\nmighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There\nis a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I\nknow a battle-maid who sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over\nher; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others\nthan those he wished to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who\nrode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken,\nson of heroes, by the Norns' decrees.\"\n\nSigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may\nhave been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and it was probably\nsuch passages as this that misled the author of _Gripisspa_  into\ndifferentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been\ndifferently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd not to seek Brynhild and\nan attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the\ndeed; they may merely mean that her sleep cannot be broken except by\none, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin\nis clearly shown here, and also in the prose in _Sigrdrifumal. V\u00f6lsunga\nSaga_, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic\nsleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing her\nwith a genealogy and family connections; while the _Nibelungen Lied_\ngoes further still in the same direction by leaving out the magic\nsleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which\nOdin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.\n\nThus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess,\npopularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping\nBeauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, \"What cut my\nmail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me the dark\nspells?\" and his answer, \"Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword,\" she\nbursts into the famous \"Greeting to the World\":\n\n\"Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's\nmisfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes of\nsleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with\ngracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here. Hail, Aesir! hail,\nAsynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us\nthe wonderful pair, and hands of healing while we live.\"\n\nShe then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of\nhis wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which are to help him\nin all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who\nis the hero's benefactress, but whom he deserts through sorcery: the\n\"Mastermaid\" of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is\nalways an innocent instrument in drawing Sigurd away from his real\nbride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part\nof the story is summarised in _Gripisspa_, except that the writer\nseems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd \"every mystery\nthat men would know\" and the princess he betrays are the same:\n\n\"A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew\nwith thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer.... She\nwill teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in\nevery man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling and be the\ngreat king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's;\nmen call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter, but the great king Heimi\nfosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob\nthee of all joy; thou shalt sleep no sleep, and judge no cause,\nand care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear\nall binding oaths but keep few when thou hast been one night Giuki's\nguest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou\nshalt suffer treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's\nplots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter.\"\n\n_V\u00f6lsunga_ gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer\nto be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear\noaths to each other. The description of their second meeting, when\nhe finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will marry\nGiuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before\nthe latter's marriage, represent a later development of the story,\ninconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd\ngives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which belonged to the hoard,\nas a pledge, and takes it from her again later when he woos her in\nGunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's\nhand which reveals to her the deception; but the episode has also\na deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the\ncentral action by passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's\nparaphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in\nGunnar's form.\n\nFor the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on _Gripisspa_ and\n_V\u00f6lsunga_. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings,\ngave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell in love\nwith Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship\nwith him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe, or ring of\nfire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After\nthe two bridals, he remembered his first passing through the flame,\nand his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered,\nbut thinking that Gunnar had fairly won her, accepted her fate until\nGudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played\non her. Of the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed;\nbut death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells\nGunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with\nsome reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild springs on to\nthe funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  _V\u00f6lsunga_ makes the murder\ntake place in Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the _Short Sigurd Lay_,\nagrees. The fragment which follows _Sigrdrifumal_, on the other hand,\nplaces the scene in the open air:\n\n\"Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud:\n'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths shall destroy\nyou.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first\nwords she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd, the lord of men, that my kinsmen\nride first?' H\u00f6gni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder\nwith the sword; the grey horse still stoops over his dead lord.'\"\n\nThis agrees with the _Old Gudrun Lay_ and with the Continental German\nversion, as a prose epilogue points out.\n\nOf the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light:\nhe gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath to Sigurd by a\nquibble. H\u00f6gni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von\nTronje of the _Nibelungen Lied_, advises Gunnar against breaking his\noath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of\nthe cycle try to make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists\nbetween the first and second halves of the _Nibelungen Lied_. Their\nhalf-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the\nactual murderer of Sigurd.\n\nThe chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on\nthe legend is a loss of sympathy with the heroic type of Brynhild,\nand an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The\nShield-maiden of divine origin and unearthly wisdom, with her\nunrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her\nslighter rival (\"Fitter would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd,\nif she had a soul like mine\"), is a figure out of harmony with the new\nreligion, and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance;\nwhile both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be on the\nside of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the\n_Short Sigurd Lay_, which has many marks of lateness, such as the\nelaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of\nthe signs of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild,\nnor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The _Nibelungen\nLied_ suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and\naltogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her mother's\nname); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness\nof the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal to anything in the\noriginal version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less\nsuccessful attempt to create sympathy for Gudrun; some, such as the\nso-called _First Gudrun Lay_, which is entirely romantic in character,\ntry to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others,\nto make her heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.\n\nThe remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal\nwith the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their existence\nto a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The\ncurse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings inherit it with the\nhoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun,\nsaid to be Brynhild's brother. He invited Gunnar and H\u00f6gni to his\ncourt and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for\nwhich Gudrun killed her own two sons and Atli; this latter incident\nbeing possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun,\nlike Chriemhild in the _Nibelungen Lied_, married Atli in order to\ngain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion\nhere: that she herself incited the murder of her brothers, and killed\nAtli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part\nof Gudrun, who as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But\nin all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story\nwith that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.\n\nOne point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the\nstory. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings, Gunnar and\nH\u00f6gni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title\nof the first _aventiure_ of the _Nibelungen Lied_ also apparently uses\nthe word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the Nibelungs'\nhoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when\nHagen von Tronje tells the story later in the poem, he speaks of the\nNibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this\npoint, therefore, the German preserves the older tradition: the Norse\nAndvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In\nthe _Nibelungen Lied_ the winning of the treasure forms no part of\nthe action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the\nshortening of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps:\nthe robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Ermanric.--_The two poems of _Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_,\nin the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to\nthat of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems, Gudrun,\nGiuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, S\u00f6rli,\nHamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and Sigurd's daughter,\nto J\u00f6rmunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her\nhusband had her trodden to death by horses' hoofs. The description\nof Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:\n\n\"The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild\nwas like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her with gold\nand goodly fabrics when I married her into Gothland. That was the\nhardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the\ndust beneath the horses' hoofs.\"\n\nGudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them\nslew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack on\nJ\u00f6rmunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were\nof Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild,\nsurvived. _Heimskringla_, a thirteenth century history of the royal\nraces of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.\n\nThis Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than\nmyth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or Nibelung\ncycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being\nprobably linked to Gudrun's name because she had become a favourite\ncharacter and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The\nhistoric Ermanric was conquered by the Huns in 374; the sixth century\nhistorian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he\nwas murdered by Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death\nby wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity\nof names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars,\nthe existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic and\na mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story\nbecame connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of\nErp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in stories like\nthe _Golden Bird_, told by both Asbj\u00f6rnsen and Grimm.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Helgi._--The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the\nheroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hj\u00f6rvardsson\nbeing sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but\nessentially the stories are the same.\n\nIn _Helyi Hj\u00f6rvardsson_, Helgi, son of Hj\u00f6rvard and Sigrlinn, was dumb\nand nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he\nsaw a troop of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter,\nnamed him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a former\nwooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a\nmagic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava, having escaped\nfrom the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie\nbride and the wit of a faithful servant. His brother Hedin, through\nthe spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he\ntold his brother, who, dying in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged\nSvava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds \"Helgi and Svava\nare said to have been born again.\"\n\nIn _Helgi Hundingsbane I_., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and\nBorghild. He fought and slew Hunding, and afterwards met in battle\nHunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, H\u00f6gni's\ndaughter, protected him, and challenged him to fight H\u00f6dbrodd to whom\nher father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which\novertook them as they sailed to meet H\u00f6dbrodd, and watched over him in\nthe battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor by\nSigrun: \"Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red\nrings and the mighty maid: thine are H\u00f6gni's daughter and Hringstad,\nthe victory and the land.\"\n\n_Helgi Hundingsbane II_., besides giving additional details of the\nhero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with H\u00f6dbrodd,\nHelgi killed all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew\nhim later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened by\nSigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector\nagain adds a note: \"Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been born again:\nhe was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's\ndaughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod, and she was a Valkyrie.\"\n\nThis third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the _Kara-ljod_\nhaving perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund\nGripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid: while\nshe was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging\nhis sword.\n\nThere can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the\nsame story; the foundation is the same, though incidents and names\ndiffer. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his\nlegend probably come from different localities. The collector could\nnot but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental\nto be overlooked; he therefore accounted for it by the old idea of\nre-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an\nhereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a\nValkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,\nthough differently.\n\nThe two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks\nof contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of\nsuperficial resemblance. Helgi Hj\u00f6rvardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,\nHelgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_\nSiegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is\na Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfj\u00f6tli; his first\nfight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,\nH\u00f6dbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell\n(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn\nfriendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the\nVolsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not\naccidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this\nis especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfj\u00f6tli's Death_\nalso makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfj\u00f6tli; it is followed in this\nby _V\u00f6lsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing\n_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. There is, of course, confusion over the\nHunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting\nauthorities by making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and\nSigurd kill the rest.\n\nIf the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct,\nthe feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems, must be\nextraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung\ncycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfj\u00f6tli. It must not be forgotten that,\nthough he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later\nversions, both Scandinavian and German, he is in the main action\nin the earliest one (that in _Beowulf_), where even Sigurd does not\nappear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi\nas well as to Sigurd, for invention is limited as regards episodes,\nand a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero\nis often forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's\nblood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.\n\nThe origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung\ncycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should be Holgi,\nand there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. With\nthe legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it\nwith that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in common; and the\nconnection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is\nequally difficult to establish. The essence of this latter story is\nthe hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his\nreturn sometime in the future: a motive which has been very fruitful\nin Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and\nBarbarossa, among countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi\npoems; and the \"old wives' tales\" of Helgi's re-birth have nothing\nto do with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect\nstories which he felt to be the same though different.\n\nThe essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive\nfamiliar in that class of ballads of which the _Douglas Tragedy_ is a\ntype: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen\nkill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story told in both the\nlays of _Helgi Hundingsbane_, complete in one, unfinished in the\nother. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some\nsurvive in one version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.\n\nLike Sinfj\u00f6tli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends\nhis childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and on leaving it,\nsends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. They pursue\nhim, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad,\nto disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:\n\n\"Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who\nstands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs in two. It\nis a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is\nbetter fitted for those hands than the mill-handle.\"\n\nSigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and\nScottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one brother. He\ntells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover\nand kinsmen:\n\n_Helgi_. \"Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things,\nthough the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and H\u00f6gni fell to-day\nat Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie\nlow. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to be a cause\nof strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us;\nheroes must meet their fate.\"\n\n_Sigrun_. \"I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in\nthy arms.\"\n\nThe surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi,\nbut remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse Sigmund tale,\nthrough Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi\nin a grove, and rides home to tell his sister. Sigrun is inconsolable,\nand curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:\n\n\"May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the\nship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind lie behind. May\nthe horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from\nthy foes. May the sword bite not that thou drawest, unless it sing\nround thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's\ndeath were avenged.... Never again while I live, by night or day,\nshall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's\ncompany, nor the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior.\"\n\nBut Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's\nweeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:\n\n_Sigrun_. \"Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched\nwith deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee help,\nmy hero?\"\n\n_Helgi_. \"Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi\nis drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before thou\ngoest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls\non my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy with grief....\"\n\n_Sigrun_. \"I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the\nWolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert alive.\"\n\n_Helgi_. \"There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late,\nthan that thou, king-born, H\u00f6gni's fair daughter, shouldst be alive\nin the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms.\"\n\nThe lay of Helgi Hj\u00f6rvardsson is furthest from the original, for there\nis no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die at their hands;\nbut it preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride\nto his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English ballad of\n_Earl Brand_, and the heroine of the Danish _Ribold and Guldborg_,\nSvava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to\nreturn and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would be contrary to\nall parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.\n\nThe alternative ending of the _Helgi and Kara_\tversion is interesting\nas providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing\nwith the same type of story. In _The Cruel Knight_, as here, the\nhero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One\npassage of _Helgi Hundingsbane II._  describes Helgi's entrance into\nValhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him\nin the howe, supplies an instance of the survival side by side of\ninconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return\nfrom the grave is the subject of _Clerk Saunders_ (the second part)\nand several other Scottish ballads.\n\n_The Song of the Mill_.--The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale,\n\"Why the sea is salt\"; but this is not the oldest part of the story,\nthough it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves\nlegendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a\nmythical Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked\nby a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of Frodi\nbecame proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that\nfollows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work _Grottas\u00f6ngr_\nis embodied.\n\nFrodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could\ngrind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong enough to turn\nthem until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and\nFenja. He set them to grind at the quern by day, and by night when\nall slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity,\nthey sang:\n\n\"We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of\nriches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he sleep on\ndown, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall\nno man hurt another, prepare evil nor work death, nor hew with the\nkeen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound.\"\n\nBut when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest,\nFrodi answered: \"Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo is silent,\nor while I speak one stave.\" Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:\n\n\"Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst\nchoose us for our strength and size but asked not our race. Bold\nwere Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were\nour ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants\nsprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains\nfrom their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants,\nso that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's house,\nmeeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold\nover our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is dreary at Frodi's.\"\n\nAs they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead\nof grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire and sword:\n\n\"Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see\nfire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war awakes, the\nsignal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall\nover the king.\"\n\nSo the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing\nsailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split; and then\nthe daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: \"We have ground\nto our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood long at the mill.\"\n\nA Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any\nhero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the mill bring\ndisaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall,\nhe took the stones and the bondmaids on board his ship, and bade them\ngrind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom\nof the sea, where the mill is grinding still. This is not in the song,\nthough it has lived longer popularly than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg\nidentities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.\n\n_The Everlasting Battle_.--No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the\nHjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must,\nhowever, be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of\nthe old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent of\nthe Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made\nlater. The legend is that Hild, daughter of H\u00f6gni, was carried away by\nHedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. H\u00f6gni pursued, and overtook them\nnear the Orkneys. Then Hild went to her father and offered atonement\nfrom Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and H\u00f6gni\nneed expect no mercy. H\u00f6gni answered shortly, and Hild returning told\nHedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare\nto fight. Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin\ncalled to H\u00f6gni and offered atonement and much gold, but H\u00f6gni said it\nwas too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening,\nand then returned to their ships; but Hild went on shore and woke up\nall the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day\njust as before. Every day they fight, and every night the dead are\nrecalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnar\u00f6k.\n\nIn the German poem, _Gudrun_, the Continental version of this legend\noccurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the\nminstrel Horant (who thus plays a more active part than the Norse\nHjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her\nfather Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a\nreconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's\ndaughter Gudrun, and the battle on the W\u00fclpensand.\n\nAnother reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines\n14-16 from the Anglo-Saxon _Deor_, of which the most satisfactory\ntranslation seems to be: \"Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild;\nthe Jute's loves were unbounded, so that the care of love took\nfrom him sleep altogether.\" Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father\na Jute, instead of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him\nin making Hedin Norwegian; but in the _Gudrun_\tHettel is Frisian or\nJutish. The Anglo-Saxon _Widsith_ mentions in one line Hagena, king of\nthe Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas\n(not identified), who may be the H\u00f6gni and Hedin of this tale.\n\nThe Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ\nfrom the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem _Deor_ is supposed to be spoken\nby a _scop_ or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of\nhis lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, another singer: \"Once I was the\nHeodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had\na good service and a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda\nreceived the rights which the protector of men once granted me.\" Like\nHeorrenda, Horant in the _Gudrun_ is a singer in the service of the\nHeathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with\nthe Heathnings, but gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active\npart to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin\nof the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the\ncorrect form.\n\nThe legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun,\nfounded on the primary instincts of love and war. In the Norse\nstory of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost\neliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild accompanies him,\nthough Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is\nher only object. It is her mediation which brings about the battle,\nwhen apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and\nher arts which cause the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle\namong dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured\nby, if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: H\u00f6gni and Hedin and\ntheir men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and feast\nat night, Hild is a war-goddess. The conception of her character,\ncontrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German\nheroines (who are rather the causes than the inciters of strife),\ncan be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.\n\nH\u00f6gni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic\nweapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims a victim\nwhenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have\narisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.\n\n_The Sword of Angantyr_.--Like the two last legends, Angantyr's\nstory is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by\nSnorri. Yet poems belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good\nfortune in the late mythical _Hervarar Saga_)  which among the heroic\npoems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story\npossesses besides a striking originality, and is connected with the\nname of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry,\nI cannot follow the example of most editors and omit it from the\nheroic poems.\n\nLike the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a\ngeneral similarity of outline, with the exception that the hero is in\nthis case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing,\nwhich Svafrlami got by force from the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it:\nthat it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be\nhealed, and it should claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In\nthe saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no\ndoubt, in order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation\nof the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,\nbeside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Herv\u00f6r.\n\nThe earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is\nkilled, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim, who thus\ngains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to\nAngantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons. For a while no one\ncan withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle\nof Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage,\nthe twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man\nexcept the two leaders who have landed on the island. The battle\nover, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they\nare attacked by the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the\nbrothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his\nsword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally\nwounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen where they\nfell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem\ngives the challenge of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.\n\nHerv\u00f6r, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female\ncounterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's death,\nand brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she\ngoes forth without delay to claim her inheritance from the dead, even\nwith the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On\nreaching the island where her father fell, she asks a shepherd to\nguide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:\n\n\"I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me\nquickly, where are the graves called Hj\u00f6rvard's howes?\"\n\nHe is unwilling: \"The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark\nshade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening, field and fen\nare aflame,\" and flees into the woods, but Herv\u00f6r is dauntless and\ngoes on alone. She reaches the howes, and calls on the sons of Arngrim:\n\n\"Awake, Angantyr! Herv\u00f6r calls thee, only daughter to thee and\nTofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs forged\nfor Svafrlami, Hervard, Hj\u00f6rvard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all\nfrom below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet, with sharp sword,\nshield and harness, and reddened spear.\"\n\nAngantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: \"Neither father, son,\nnor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;\" but Herv\u00f6r does\nnot believe him. \"Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine\nonly child her heritage.\" He tries to frighten her back to the ships\nby describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again,\n\"Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!\"\n\nA. \"Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in\nfire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword in her hands.\"\n\nH. \"I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear\nno burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it.\"\n\nA. \"Foolish art thou, Herv\u00f6r the fearless, to rush into the fire\nopen-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe, young maid;\nI cannot refuse thee.\"\n\nH. \"Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the\nhowe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway.\"\n\nHer father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword\nwill bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:\n\"Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength\nand energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!\"\n\nIt is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working\nout the doom over later generations; over Herv\u00f6r's son Heidrek, who\nforfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children,\nanother Angantyr, Hlod, and a second Herv\u00f6r. The verse sources for\nthis latter part are very corrupt.\n\nA full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental\nversions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing pages would,\nof course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that\ncan be done in that direction is to suggest a few points. Three of\nthe stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are\npurely Scandinavian cycles; while though Angantyr is a well-known\nheroic name (in _Widsith_ Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the\nlegend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive\nelsewhere. The Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the\nversions localise it, for the names in _V\u00f6lundarkvida_, Wolfdale,\nMyrkwood, &c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a\nvery early date in England, and is probably a Pan-Germanic legend. The\nSigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions,\nlocalised on the Continent, the former by the Rhine, the latter in\nFriesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence\nthey must have spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were\ndoubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century. On\nthe question of their passage to the North there are wide differences\nof opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an earlier and a later\npassage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the\nsecond, about the twelfth or thirteenth century, the Volsungs again,\nwith perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to\nthe date of the first transmission. M\u00fcllenhoff put it as early as 600;\nKonrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther\nis of opinion that the Volsung story passed first to the vikings in\nFrance, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not\nbefore the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very\nslight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians\nhad the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more\nhighly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the case of the\nVolsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The\nearliest Norse references which can be approximately dated are in the\nSkald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three\nstories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he gives in outline; his only\nreference to the Volsungs is a kenning, \"the Volsungs' drink,\" for\nserpent. With the possible exception of the Anglo-Saxon fragments,\nthe Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories\nwhich are common to all, though, as might be expected, the Continental\nsources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These\nGerman sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved\nmass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.\n\nThe motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less\ncommon to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule merely in\ntheir choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their\nmaterial. The origin of these heroic motives may generally be found in\nprimitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people\nand woven into legend; sometimes linked to the name of some dead tribal\nhero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions\nin still-varying combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson\nand Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the\nmyth. In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it\nis legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric\nand Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.\n\nThe curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic\nmotives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a dead man's\npossessions with him. In the _Waterdale Saga_, Ketil Raum, a viking\nof the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein\nas a degenerate, in that he expects to inherit his father's wealth,\ninstead of winning fortune for himself: \"It used to be the custom\nwith kings and earls, men of our kind, that they won for themselves\nfortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons\ninherit from their fathers, but rather lay their possessions in the\nhowe with them.\" It is easy to see that when this custom came into\nconflict with the son's natural desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity\nof the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only\nprotection against violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking\nthe custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of\nAngantyr and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the\nviolation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In\n_Gold-Thori's Saga_, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are\nfound guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori\nhimself is said to have turned into a dragon after death.\n\nMarriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story\nhas been postulated as means of transmission and as the one possible\nexplanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more\nsimplicity be assumed as the common basis in custom for independently\narising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to\nprevent the marriage, and of the bridegroom's to undo it, would be\nnatural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by\nand against the bride would be the mythical representatives of the\nmutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least\noffers a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of\nor unfaithfulness to his protectress, after their successful escape\ntogether.\n\nIn the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double\nattributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion\nwith the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of C\u00e6sar\nand Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in the heroines\nof the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines\nthe two primitive instincts, love and fighting, even though the woman\nmay be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The\npeculiarity of the Germanic representation is that the woman is never\npassive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even\nif she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking part herself in the fight,\nshe is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back\nto the battle from which they have escaped. Hild and Herv\u00f6r are at\none extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing\nmore than instinct; in Herv\u00f6r it is not even that: she would desire\nnothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other\nextreme is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a\nlover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The interest\nin Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually\nconsidered the strongest feminine instincts, without, however, by\nany means abandoning them, to her uncompromising revenge and pride\nof race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both\ntrains of feeling; and she dies with the husband she detests, simply\nbecause he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type,\nas independent in love as in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun,\nor Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover;\nfrom no lack of spirit, but simply because revenge would have given\nno comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief,\nbut the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.\n\nThe other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The\nburning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into the howe,\nare mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The \"sister's son\" is\npreserved in the Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli tale, which also has a trace\nof animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs\nin two, the V\u00f6lund story and the legend of Helgi and Kara; while the\nfirst Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of\nSvava to her husband's brother. The waverlowe of the Volsung myth\nmay be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild\nby Sigurd's crossing the fire would thus, like the similar bridal\nof Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on\nthe marriages which formed a part of agricultural rites.\n\n\n\n\n\nBibliographical Notes\n\n\nTo avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the\nword \"saga,\" it may be as well to state that it is here used only in\nits technical sense of a prose history.\n\n_V\u00f6lund_. (Pages 5 to 8.)\n\nDr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying V\u00f6lund with Thiazi,\nthe giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments\nfrom names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps\nundue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult to see any\nfundamental likenesses in the stories.\n\nThe Old English references to Weland are in the _Waldere_ fragment\nand the _Lament of Deor_. For the Franks Casket, see Professor\nNapier's discussion, with photographs, in the _English Miscellany_\n(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The _Thidreks Saga_ (sometimes\ncalled _Vilkina Saga_), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853),\nand by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations:\nby Rassmann (_Heldensage,_ (1863), and by Von der Hagen (_Nordische\nHeldenromane_, 1873).\n\n_The Volsungs_. (Pages 8 to 27.)\n\nAs divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle,\nincluding the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:\n\n_Gripisspa_.\n\n_Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal_, a continued narrative compiled\nfrom different sources.\n\n_Sigurd Fragment_, on the death of Sigurd.\n\n_First Gudrun Lay_, on Gudrun's mourning, late.\n\n_Short Sigurd Lay_ (called _Long Brynhild Lay_ in the _Corpus\nPoeticum_; sometimes called _Third Sigurd Lay_). style late.\n\n_Brynhild's Hellride_, a continuation of the preceding.\n\n_Second_, or _Old, Gudrun Lay_, is also late. It contains more kennings\nthan are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in\nDenmark and the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter,\ntogether with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period\nwhich had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.\n\n_Third Gudrun Lay_, or the _Ordeal of Gudrun_ (after her marriage to\nAtli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich)\nis introduced.\n\n_Oddrun's Lament_, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue\nwith Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung\nlegend.\n\nThe two Atli Lays _(Atlakvida_ and _Atlamal_, the latter of Greenland\norigin), deal with the death of Gunnar and H\u00f6gni, and Gudrun's\nvengeance on Atli.\n\n_Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_ belong to the Ermanric cycle.\n\n_Volsung Paraphrases_. (Page 11.)\n\n_Skaldskaparmal, V\u00f6lsunga Saga_ and _Norna-Gests Thattr_  (containing\nanother short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's _Die\nProsaische Edda_ (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of\n_V\u00f6lsunga_ by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version\nof _V\u00f6lsunga_  and _Norna-Gest_ by Edzardi.\n\n_Nibelungenlied_.  (Page 11.)\n\nEditions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899);\ntranslation into modern German by Simrock.\n\n_Signy and Siggeir_.  (Page 13.)\n\nSaxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter\nof Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers, wins her\nfavour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of\nSigny's windows, and she set fire to her house that she might die\nsimultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this\nstory is proved by the kenning \"Hagbard's collar\" for halter, in a\npoem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference\nin _V\u00f6lsunga Saga_, that \"Haki and Hagbard were great and famous\nmen, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to\nvengeance,\" shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible\nthat Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account\nof the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of\nvulgarity absent from the primitive story.\n\nIn a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and\nDr. W.H. Schofield (_The First Riddle of Cynewulf_ and _Signy's\nLament_. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902)\nit is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter Book\nis in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse \"Complaint\"\nspoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and form is all in\nfavour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any\nstraining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's second contention, that the\npoem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin\nfor the Eddie poems, is not equally convincing. The existence in\nAnglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any\nof the Eddie poems, or even the original Norse \"Signy's Lament\"\npostulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.\n\nIt seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of\nBritish legend on the Volsung story. The points in which the story\nof Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus\nprove nothing in the face of equally strong points of correspondence\nbetween Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.\n\n_Sinfj\u00f6tli's Death_. (Page 14.)\n\nMunch (_Nordm\u00e6ndenes Gudel\u00e6re_, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously\nidentified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfj\u00f6tli\nto Valhalla, since he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having\nfallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional\ncharacter.\n\n_Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli_. (Page 15.)\n\nIt seems probable, on the evidence of _Beowulf_, that Sigmund and\nSinfj\u00f6tli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and\nSigurd or Siegfried the Continental stage. Possibly Helgi may then be\nthe Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence\nthe epithet Hunnish, constantly applied to him, and the localising\nof the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the\nBrynhild part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian\norigin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that\nthe _Nibelungen Lied_  places Prunhilt in Iceland.\n\n_Wagner and the Volsung Cycle_. (Page 26.)\n\nWagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ is remarkable not only for the way\nin which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfj\u00f6tli and the\nSigurd traditions, but also for the wonderful instinct which chooses\nthe best and most primitive features of both Norse and Continental\nversions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of\nthe German; preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and\nsubstitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores\nthe original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives\nthe latter character, and an active instead of a passive function\nin the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action;\nand by substituting for the slaying of the otter the bargain with\nthe Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of\nthe catastrophe.\n\n_Ermanric_. (Page 27.)\n\nFor examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see\nTylor's _Primitive Culture_.\n\n_The Helgi Lays_. (Page 29.)\n\nThe Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them\nlater for the sake of greater clearness.\n\n_Helgi and Kara_. (Page 30.)\n\n_Hromundar Saga Gripssonar_, in which this story is given, is worthless\nas literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. M\u00fcller's\n_Sagabibliothek_, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and\nSwedish translations may be found in Bj\u00f6rner's _Nordiske K\u00e5mpa Dater_\n(Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.\n\n_Rebirth_. (Page 31.)\n\nDr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in\nthe _Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi_, ix. He collects instances, and among\nother arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous\nchild after its dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The\ninheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable instance\noccurs in _Viga-Glums Saga_, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his\nluck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the _Waterdale Saga_ there\nare two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead\ngrandfather will pass to the grandson who receives his name. Scholars\ndo not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi\npoems, some holding the view that it is an essential part of the story.\n\n_Hunding_. (Page 32.)\n\nIt is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so,\nthe Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the natural\nenemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has\na feud with MacCon (_i.e._, Son of a Dog), which means the same as\nHunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in\nthe Bodleian MS. Laud, 610.\n\n_Thorgerd Holgabrud_.  (Page 33.)\n\nTold in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.\n\n_Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois_. (Page 33.)\n\nSee _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this\nseries. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in\nthe Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the\n_Teutonic Mythology_, and by Mr. Nutt in the _Voyage of Bran_.\n\n_Ballads_. (Page 36.)\n\nProfessor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of _Clerk\nSaunders_ as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi\nstory in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's\nhostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.\n\nThe Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in Danish as in\nBorder ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark,\nEngland and Scotland is strongly in favour of the presumption that\nScandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the\npresumption that the poems in question passed from the British Isles\nto Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive\non this point. There is an English translation of the latter by\nR.C.A. Prior (_Ancient Danish Ballads_, London, 1860).\n\n_The Everlasting Battle_. (Page 39.)\n\nThe Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject,\ngiven with a translation in the _Corpus_, vol. ii. Saxo's version\nis in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a\nnecklace, which has caused comparison of this story with that of the\nGreek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle\nin which the slain revive each night and renew the fight daily, as\noccurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached\nIreland. According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in\nthe East, and taught it to the Danes.\n\nThe latest edition of the _Gudrun_ is by Ernst Martin (second edition,\nHalle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.\n\n_Angantyr_. (Page 42.)\n\nThe poems of this cycle are four in number--(1) _Hjalmar's\nDeath-song_: (2) _Angantyr and Herv\u00f6r_; (3) _Heidrek's Riddle-Poem_:\n(4) _Angantyr the Younger and Hlod_. All are given in the first volume\nof the _Corpus_, with translations.\n\n_Herrarar Saga_ was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829-30) in\n_Fornaldar S\u00f6gur_, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently\nedited by Dr. Bugge, together with _V\u00f6lsunga_ and others. Petersen\n(Copenhagen, 1847) edited it with a Danish translation. Munch's\n_Nordmuendenes Gudel\u00e6re_ (out of print) contains a short abstract.\n\n_Death of Angantyr_. (Page 43.)\n\nAngantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion\nof all mythical interest.\n\n_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)\n\nM\u00fcllenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift f\u00fcr deutsches\nAltertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift f\u00fcr deutsche\nPhilologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see\n_Germania_, 33.\n\n_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)\n\nSee also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.\n\nThe eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival\nof the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage,\nof which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.\n\n_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)\n\nFor the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang,\n_Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).\n\n_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)\n\nSee Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor\nRhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the\nBritish Association, 1900. The double relationship between Sigmund\nand Sinfj\u00f6tli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and\nCuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same\ncause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies,\nwhere the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of\nthe pure royal blood.\n\n_Swanmaids_.  (Page 51.)\n\nSee Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._\n\n_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)\n\nDr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages\nconnected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see\nStudy No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is\nright in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal\nlover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would\nbe a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c.,\nwhich Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to\nthe Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's\nsleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the\nValhalla myth.\n\n\n\n\nPrinted by _Ballantyne, Hanson & Co_\nLondon & Edinburgh","title":"The Edda, Volume 2: The Heroic Mythology of the North; Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":13977}