Vǫlundarkviða (Old Norse: 'The lay of Völund'; modern Icelandic spelling: Völundarkviða) is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda. The title is anglicized in various ways, including Völundarkvitha, Völundarkvidha, Völundarkvida, Volundarkvitha, Volundarkvidha and Volundarkvida.
The poem is preserved in its entirety among the mythological poems of the thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius, and the beginning of the prose prologue is also found in the AM 748 I 4to fragment.
The vocabulary and some of the formulaic phrasing of the poem is clearly influenced by West Germanic, with the strongest case being for influence specifically from Old English (a West Germanic dialect). It is thought likely, therefore, that Vǫlundarkviða was composed in, or otherwise influenced by traditions from, the Norse diaspora in England. This would suggest origins around the tenth or eleventh century.[1] [2] This fits in turn with the fact that most of the analogues to Vǫlundarkviða are West-Germanic in origin.
In visual sources, the story told in Vǫlundarkviða seems also to be portrayed on the front panel of the eighth-century Northumbrian Franks Casket and on the eighth-century Gotlandic Ardre image stone VIII, along with a number of tenth-to-eleventh-century carvings from Northern England, including the Leeds Cross, a fragment in Leeds City Museum, and Sherburn in Elmet fragments 2 and 3.[3]
In written sources, a largely similar story (Velents þáttr smiðs) is related in the Old Norse Þiðrekssaga af Bern (translated from lost Low German sources), and an evidently similar story is alluded to in the first two verse-paragraphs of Old English poem Deor.[4]
| Vǫlundarkviða | Dēor | Þiðreks saga | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vǫlundr | Wēlund | Velent | |
| Níðuðr | Nīðhād | Níðungr | |
| Bǫðvildr | Beaduhild | Heren |
The poem relates the story of the artisan Völundr, his capture by Níðuðr, implicitly a petty-king of Närke (currently in Sweden), and Vǫlundr's brutal revenge and escape.[5]
Vǫlundarkviða begins with a prose introduction, setting the scene, giving background about the characters, and partly summarising the poem. It is possible that this passage is much younger than the verse.
The poem opens by describing the flight of three swan-maidens identified in stanza 1 as meyjar, drósir, alvitr and suðrœnar ('young women, stately women, foreign beings, southerners') to a 'sævar strǫnd' ('lake/sea-shore') where they meet the three brothers Egill, Slagfiðr and Vǫlundr. Each maid takes one of the brothers as her own.
However, nine winters later, the women leave the brothers. The poem does not explain this, simply saying that the women depart 'ørlǫg drýgja' ('to fulfil their fate'). Slagfiðr and Egill go in search of their women, but Vǫlundr remains at home instead, forging baugar (‘(arm-)rings’) for his woman.
Discovering that Vǫlundr is living alone, a local king, Níðuðr, ‘lord of the Njárar’, has him captured in his sleep(stanzas 7–12).
Níðuðr takes Vǫlundr's sword and gives one of the rings which Vǫlundr made for his missing bride to his daughter Bǫðvildr, and, at his wife's instigation, he has Vǫlundr's hamstrings cut, imprisoning him on an island called Sævarstaðr, where Vǫlundr makes objects for Níðuðr (stanzas 13–19).
Vǫlundr takes his revenge on Níðuðr first by enticing Níðuðr's two sons to visit with promises of treasure, killing them, and making jewels of their eyes and teeth (stanzas 20–26). He then entices Bǫðvildr by promising to mend the ring which she was given, getting her drunk, and implicitly having sex with her (stanzas 27–29).
The poem culminates in Vǫlundr taking to the air by some means which is not clearly described and telling Níðuðr what he has done, laughing (stanzas 30–39). It focuses finally on the plight of Bǫðvildr, whose lament closes the poem (stanzas 40–41):
It relates to type 313 and 313C in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index. Similar tales have types 400 and 465.[6]
The poem is appreciated for its evocative images.
In the night went men,
in studded corslets,
their shields glistened
in the waning moon.
Völundarkviða 6, Thorpe's translation
The last verse, wherein Bǫðvildr laments, has been called ‘unsurpassable as a conclusion’ by Icelandic philologist Finnur Jónsson:
It is true, Nithad, as he said to thee:
I and Wayland stayed together on the islet
for a single heavy moment
—it should never have been!
I knew in no way fight against him,
I could in no way fight against him.
Translated by Wikipedia editors