Völundarkviða, a reading
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
3
sentences flagged
Toxicity
2
sentences flagged
Hate speech
30
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Summary
The legend of the smith is familiar to all readers of Walter or Scots, and even the religious keeplings of tales of England. In one form or another it persists for centuries throughout all the Teutonic lands, and the name of the hero, Wayland Smith, is familiar throughout the oral tradition.
Transcript
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Wollandar Gwether, the Lay of Wolland, between the Thrymsk Gwether and the Alves Mall and the
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Codex Regis than the Bolendorf Vita. It is also included in the Ramanian Codex, but
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unluckily it begins at the end of the fragment that has been reserved, and thus only a few
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lines of the opening prose remain. This is doubly regrettable, because the text in the
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Regis is unquestionably in very bad shape, and the other manuscript would doubtless have
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been of great assistance in the reconstruction of the poem.
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There has been a vast amount written regarding the Weyland tradition as a whole, discussing
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particularly the relations between the Voluntark Vita and the Weyland passage in Deoders and
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There can be little question that the story came to the north from the Saxon regions,
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In stanza 16, the line is specifically mentioned as the home of treasure, and the presence
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of the story in Anglo-Saxon poetry, probably as early as the first part of the 8th century,
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proves beyond a doubt that the legend cannot have been a native product of Scandinavia.
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In one form or another, however, the legend of the smith persists for centuries throughout
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all the Teutonic lands, and the name Wayland Smith is familiar to all readers of Walter
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or Scots, and even the religious keeplings of tales of England.
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In what form the story reached the North is uncertain.
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Sundry striking parallels between the diction of the Volundärkvitha and that of the wedding
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passage of Dörr's Lament make distinctly probable that a Saxon song on this subject
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has been found its way into Scandinavia or Iceland.
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But the prose introduction to the poem mentions the old sagas in which Volund was celebrated,
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and in the Tithric saga we have definite evidence of the existence of such prose narrative in
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the form of Veiland's saga , which gives a long story
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for which the Volenskiffa can have been supplied relatively little, if any, of the material.
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It is probable, then, that the Wellen stories were current in both prose and perverse in
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Scandinavia as early as the later part of the 9th century.
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Once let a figure become popular in the oral tradition, the number and variety of the incidents
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connected with his name will increase very rapidly.
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Doubtless, there were scores of Woland stories currently in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries,
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many of them with very little of any traditional authority.
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The main one, however, is the story of the laming of the smith by King Nethuth, or by
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some other enemy, and of Woland's terrible revenge, forms the basis of the Wolandark
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To this, by way of introduction, has been added the story of Wolland and the Wayne Maiden,
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who, to make things even more complex, is likewise a to-be-of-Valkyrie.
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Some critics maintain that the two sections were originally two distinct poems, merely
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strung together by the compiler with the help of narrative prose links, but the poem as
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as a whole has a kind of dramatic unity which suggests rather that an early poet, for linguistically
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the poem belongs among the oldest of the Edda Collectia, used two distinct legends, whether
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in prose or verse, as the basis of the composition of a new and homogeneous poem.
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The swan maiden story appears, of course, in many places, quite distinct from the Weyland
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tradition, and in another form became one of the most popular German folk tales. Like
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Like the story of Weyland, however, it is a German rather than Scandinavian origin,
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and the identification of the swan maidens as Valkyries which may have taken place before
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the legend reached the North may, on the other hand, have been simply an attempt to connect
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Southern tradition with figures well known in Northern mythology.
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The Weyland-Arcsvitha is full of prose narrative links, including an introduction.
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The nature of such prose links has already been discussed in an introductory note to
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of the Grimnesmorg, and the Wollendarkswethe is a striking illustration of the way in
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which the function of the earlier etic verse was limited chiefly to dialogue or description,
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the narrative outline being provided, if at all, in prose. This prose was put in by each
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reciter according to his fancy and knowledge, and his estimate of his hearer's need for such
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explanations. Some of it, as in this instance, eventually found its way into a written record.
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The manuscript of the Volendarksvita is in such bad shape, and the conjunctual intimations have
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been so numerous that in the notes I have attempted to record only the most important of them.
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There were three brothers, sons of a king of the Fens.
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One was called Slagvith, another Egil, and a third Volund.
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They came into Uftalivir, and there they built themselves a house.
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There was a lake there, which is called Ufsjahr.
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Early one morning they found on the shore of the lake three women, who were spitting
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Near them were their swan garments, for they were Valkyries.
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Two of them were daughters of King Lothver, Hlauguth, the swan wight, and Herver the All-Wise,
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and the third was Orm, daughter of Kiar from Valand.
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Egil took Orym, Slagfith, Swannwight, and Volund, Alwais.
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There they dwelt seven winters, but then they flew away to find battles and came back no
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Then Egil set forth on his snowshoes to follow Orym, and Slagfith followed Swannwight.
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He was a most skillful man, as men know from old tales.
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King Nithuth had been taken by force, as the poem here tells.
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Maids from the south through mirkwood flew, Fair and young were hveit to follow.
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On the shore of the sea to the rest them they sat,
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Hraguth and Helver, her authors of children, and Orun the wise, Kjar's daughter was.
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One in her arms took Egil then, to her bosom white, the woman fair.
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Swan white second, swan feathers she wore, and her arms the third of the sisters through,
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Where did they sit for seven winters, And the eighth at last came their longing again,
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The maiden jurned from the murky wood, The fair young maids their fate to follow.
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Wurland home from his haunting came, From a weary way the weather was bombing,
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Schlagfeith and Egil the howl found empty. Out and in went they everywhere seeking.
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East fared Egil after Olun, and Schlagfeith south to seek their swan white.
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Wolund along in Ulftalir lay. Red gold he fashioned with fairest gems,
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and rings he strung on ropes of bast. So for his wife he waited long.
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This Nehuth learned the lord of the Nyarls, that Wurund alone in Uftalir lay.
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By night with his men their mail-coats were studded, their shields in the waning moonlight
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From their saddles the gable wall they sought, and in they went at the end of the hall.
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Things they saw there on ropes of bast, Seven hundred the hero had.
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Off they took them, but all they left, Save one alone, which they bore away.
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Vorland home from his hunting came, From a wary way the weather-wise bowman,
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A brown bear's flesh would he roast with fire, Soon the wood so dry was burning well,
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On the bear-skin he rested, and counted the rings,
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That Hrothver's daughter had it, he thought,
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So long he sat that he fell asleep, His waking empty of gladness was.
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Heavy chains he saw in his hands, And fetters bound, his feet together.
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Voron spake, What mere are they, who thus have laid, ropes of Baas, to bind me now?
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Then Nithoth called the lord of Nyarls, How gotest thou Voron, greatest of Elbs, these
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Far in me thinks is our realm from the hills of Zorain.
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I mind me that treasures, more we had, when happy together at home we were.
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With out stood the wife of Nithuthwise, and in she came from the end of the hall.
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King Nithuthus gave to his daughter, Bothville,
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the gold ring that he had taken from the bachelor up in Volunt's house,
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and he himself wore the sword that Volunt had had.
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Let them straightway cut his sinews of strength,
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So was it done. The sinews in his knee joints were cut, and he was set in an island, which was near the mainland, and was called Severstadt.
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There he smithied for the king all kinds of precious things.
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No man dared to go to him, save only the king himself.
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He sat nor slept, and smote with his hammer, Fast for Nithu's wonders he fashioned.
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Two boys did go, and his door to gaze Nithu's sons into Severstadt.
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They came to the chest, and they craved the keys.
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The evil was opened, when in they looked, To the boys it seemed that gleams and gems
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they saw gold and plenty and precious stones volun spake come ye alone the night day come
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gold to you both shall then be given tell not the maids or the men of the hall
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Early, did brother to brother call, Swift let us go, the rings to see.
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They came to the chest and they craved the keys, the evil was open when in they looked.
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He smote off their heads, and their feet he hid under the sooty straps of the bellows,
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their skulls once hid by the hair he took.
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them in silver, and sent them to Nithu's gems full fair, that their eyes he fashioned,
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And from the teeth of the twain he wrought, a brooch for the breast to Botfield he sent.
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Botfield then of a ring did boast, The ring I have broken, I dare not say it, save to
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Volin spake, I shall weld the break, in the gold so well, the fairer than ever, that thy
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thy father shall find it, and better much thy mother shall think it, and thou know worse
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Beer he brought, he was better and cunning, until in her seat, full soon she slept.
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Volund spake, Now vengeance I have for all my hurts, save one alone on the evil woman.
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Volund, would that dwell where the sinews maimed in my feet by Nithust's men.
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Laughing Volund rose aloft, weeping Boltfeld went from the isle, from her lover's flight
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With out stood the wife of Nithust wise, and in she came from the end of the hall.
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And he by the wall, and where he is sat, Wakest thou, Nithith, lord of the n'yars?
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Nithith spake, Always I wake, and ever joyless,
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What happened with my boys that hail once were?
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Volunt spake, First shalt thou all the oaths now swear,
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By the rail of the ship and the rim of the shield,
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By the shoulder of the steed and the edge of the sword,
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That to Volunt's wife thou wilt work no ill,
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For yet my bride to her death wilt bring, Though a wife I should have that well thou
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knowest, And a child I should have within thy hall.
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Seek the smithy that thou didst set, Thou shalt find the bellows sprinkled with blood.
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I smote off their heads of both thy sons, And their feet neath the sooty straps I hid.
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Their skulls, once hid by their hair, I took.
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Set them in silver and sent them to Nythus.
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Gems full fair, from their eyes I fashioned, to Nythus' wife so wise I gave them.
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From the teeth of the twain I wrought a brooch for the breast, to Bothfield I gave it.
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Now being with child does Bothfield go, the only daughter you two have ever had.
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If it spake, never spakest thou word, the worst could hurt me,
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nor that made me voland, more bitter for vengeance.
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There is no man so high from thy horse to take thee,
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while high in the clouds thy course thou takest.
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Laughing, Volan rose aloft, but left in sadness Nithithith that, then spake Nithithith, Lord
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of the Niarth, Rise up, Thrakroth, best of my thralls, bid Bothfield come, the brightest
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brow made, but deck so fair with her father to speak.
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Is it true, Bothfield, that which was told me, Once in the isle with Volun wert thou?
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Bothfield spake, True it is, Nithus, that which was told thee,
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An hour of lust a lastest should be, Nought was my might with such a man,
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