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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13008 ***
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+
+
+The Edda
+
+II
+
+The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+
+The present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (_The Edda: Divine Mythology
+of the North_), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter
+and for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references
+are given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.
+
+Manchester,
+July 1902.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: II. The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+Sigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica
+of Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and the Heodenings,
+and Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known
+to the writers of our earliest English literature. But in most cases
+the only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there,
+with no hint of the story attached. For circumstances directed the
+poetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints
+and Biblical paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race;
+while later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our
+literature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless,
+these few brief references in _Beowulf_ and in the small group of
+heathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the
+hero-poems of the Edda. In studying these heroic poems, therefore,
+we are confronted by problems entirely different in character from
+those which have to be considered in connexion with the mythical
+texts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern,
+branch of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series),
+and the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,
+however altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and
+as such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance, as well
+as in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore
+late and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda, on the contrary,
+with the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in
+the literatures of the other great branches of the Germanic race,
+and these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.
+
+The Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:
+
+(_a_) _Weland the Smith_.--Anglo-Saxon literature has several
+references to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one;
+and there is also a late Continental German version preserved in
+an Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest
+connected form of the story.
+
+(_b_) _Sigurd and the Nibelungs_.--Again the oldest reference is in
+Anglo-Saxon.  There are two well-known Continental German versions
+in the _Nibelungen Lied_ and the late Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_,
+but the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the
+legend. With it is loosely connected
+
+(_c_) _The Ermanric Cycle_.--The oldest references to this are in Latin
+and Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the _Thidreks Saga_
+is late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd
+story, with which it had originally nothing to do.
+
+(_d_) _Helgi_.--This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar
+to the Scandinavian North.
+
+All the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder
+Edda. From other sources we may add other poems which are Eddic, not
+Skaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The
+great majority of the poems deal with the favourite story of the
+Volsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after
+another, Burgundian, Hun, Goth, was absorbed into it. The poems in this
+part of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the
+mythological ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and
+lack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular poetry.
+
+_Völund_.--The lay of Völund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of
+the Old English poems and the only Germanic hero who survived for
+any considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in
+its cycle, and is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very
+fragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short
+pieces of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids,
+and the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,
+Egil and Völund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built
+themselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early one
+morning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying
+beside them. The brothers took them home; but after seven years the
+swan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did
+not return.
+
+"Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized
+them, and in the ninth need parted them." Egil and Slagfinn went to
+seek their wives, but Völund stayed where he was and worked at his
+forge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:
+
+"Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by
+the waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,
+and went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the
+hero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and put, them on
+again, all but one. The keen-eyed archer Völund came in from hunting,
+from a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin and counted his rings, and
+the prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's daughter,
+the fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep,
+and awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his hands, and fetters
+clasped on his feet."
+
+They took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to
+forge treasures for his captors. Then Völund planned vengeance:
+
+"'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best,
+and which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade is taken
+from me for ever; I shall not see it borne to Völund's smithy. Now
+Bödvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no atonement.' He sat
+and slept not, but struck with his hammer."
+
+Nithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew,
+and made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls; and the daughter
+Bödvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the
+air and left her weeping for her lover and Nithud mourning his sons.
+
+In the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part
+of the story; there is no reference to the legend of the enchanted
+brides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with
+the common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged to return to animal
+shape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This
+incident of the compact (_i.e._, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain
+from asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been
+lost in the Völund tale. The Continental version is told in the late
+Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_, where it is brought into connexion with
+the Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the
+archer, is also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures
+on the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,
+dated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the
+third brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon gives
+Völund and Bödvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as
+a follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German sources.
+
+_The Volsungs_.--No story better illustrates the growth of heroic
+legend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical
+motives combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession
+more and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and
+still more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought
+into dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject are
+quite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary,
+several late, and only one attempts a review of the whole story. The
+outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother
+of Sinfjötli, slays the dragon who guards the Nibelungs' hoard on
+the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which accompanies
+the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in
+an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire, loves her and plights
+troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment
+causes him to forget the Valkyrie, to love her own daughter Gudrun,
+and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son
+Gunnar. After the marriage, Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites
+her husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.
+
+The series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfjötli,
+which says that after Sinfjötli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's son (which
+should be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name),
+had been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild, Sigmund married Hjördis,
+Eylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the
+race of Hunding. Sigmund, as in all other Norse sources, is said to be
+king in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the _Nibelungen Lied_,
+means the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always
+near that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the treasure of
+the Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the Völund lay.
+
+_Gripisspa_ (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately
+placed first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the
+whole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the
+wisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer prophesies
+his adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original
+features of the legend which are obscured elsewhere, especially in the
+Gudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach
+of faith to Brynhild. In the speeches of both Gripi and Sigurd, the
+poet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith,
+while the seer repeatedly protests his innocence in breaking it: "Thou
+shalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No
+better man shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd." On
+the other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and the
+sleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like
+all poems in this form, _Gripisspa_ is a late composition embodying
+earlier tradition.
+
+The other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form
+a continued narrative. _Gripisspa_ is followed by a compilation from
+two or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three
+parts in the editions: _Reginsmal_ gives the early history of the
+treasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons;
+_Fafnismal_, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking
+birds; _Sigrdrifumal_, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows
+a fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem
+generally called the _Third_, or _Short, Sigurd Lay_ (which tells of
+the marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing of Brynhild for Gunnar)
+continue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of
+Brynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the fates of the other heroes who
+became connected with the legend of the treasure.
+
+In addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story
+is given by Snorri in _Skaldskaparmal_, but it is founded almost
+entirely on the surviving lays. _Völsunga Saga_ is also a paraphrase,
+but more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and
+it therefore, to some extent, represents independent tradition. It
+was, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the
+great saga-time was over, in the decadent fourteenth century, when
+material of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological,
+was hastily cast into saga-form. It is not, like the _Nibelungen
+Lied_, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of
+greater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler
+did not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast
+his material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely to his
+originals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite
+literary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore, _Völsunga_
+is far behind not only such great works as _Njala_, but also many of
+the smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies;
+it is often careless in grammar and diction; it is full of traces
+of the decadent romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance,
+is endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no
+improvement on the heroic tradition, "Courage is better than a good
+sword." At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to
+efface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates
+against him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic
+sagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief
+in the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the whole idea
+of sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the
+character of Brynhild, without the compensating elevation in that of
+her rival by which the _Nibelungen Lied_ places Chriemhild on a height
+as lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie;
+the Brynhild of _Völsunga Saga_ is something of a virago, the Gudrun
+is jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is
+absolutely to be trusted; and _Völsunga Saga_ is therefore, in spite
+of artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features
+of the legend.
+
+There are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the
+dragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild. The latter is
+brought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real
+centre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon reference, the fragment in
+_Beowulf_, the second episode does not appear.
+
+In this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague
+reference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfjötli, consists solely
+of the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the
+Waelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela (Sinfjötli)
+not being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and
+loaded a ship with the treasure. The few preceding lines only mention
+the war which Sigmund and Sinfjötli waged on their foes. They are there
+uncle and nephew, and there is no suggestion of the closer relationship
+assigned to them by _Völsunga Saga_, which tells their story in full.
+
+Sigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of
+miraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen
+heroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to
+Siggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast Odin enters
+and thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the
+middle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only the chosen Sigmund
+succeeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling
+bride, invites her father and brothers to a feast. Though suspecting
+treachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund
+who is secretly saved by his sister and hidden in the wood. She
+meditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten,
+she tests their courage, and finding it wanting makes Sigmund kill
+both: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She
+therefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and her third son, Sinfjötli,
+is the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to
+live in the wood with Sigmund, who only knows him as Signy's son. For
+years they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for
+vengeance. They set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing
+Sinfjötli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,
+her vengeance achieved:
+
+"I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our
+father; Sinfjötli has a warrior's might because he is both son's son
+and daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end,
+that King Siggeir should meet his death; I have so toiled for the
+achieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As
+I lived by force with King Siggeir, of free will shall I die with him."
+
+Though no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly
+primitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity. _Völsunga_
+then reproduces the substance of the prose _Death of Sinfjötli_
+mentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems
+to be to remove Sinfjötli and leave the field clear for Sigurd. It
+preserves a touch which may be original in Sinfjötli's burial, which
+resembles that of Scyld in _Beowulf_: his father lays him in a boat
+steered by an old man, which immediately disappears.
+
+Sigmund and Sinfjötli are always close comrades, "need-companions"
+as the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and form one
+story. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father
+Sigmund's death. _Völsunga_ says that Sigmund fell in battle against
+Hunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt
+that he "knew not how to give the victory fairly," shattered with his
+spear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again we have
+to depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in _Hyndluljod_:
+"The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund
+a sword." And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless childhood is
+only to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself
+a false name he says to Fafni: "I came a motherless child; I have no
+father like the sons of men." Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of
+the sword to be given to his unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather
+Regin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's
+first deed was to avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father
+and his mother's father. _Völsunga_ tells this story first of Helgi
+and Sinfjötli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the
+deed. It is followed by the dragon-slaying.
+
+Up to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same
+features which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfjötli. Both are probably,
+like Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is
+the usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a
+third type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by
+_Völsunga_ to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes
+a deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the
+hero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund
+and Sinfjötli version. Among those Germanic races which brought the
+legend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one,
+and Sigmund and Sinfjötli practically drop out.
+
+The Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than
+that of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied with
+the existence of the monster "old and proud of his treasure," but
+here we are told its full previous history, certain features of which
+(such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was
+originally connected with the Volsungs or not.
+
+As usual, _Völsunga_ gives the fullest account, in the form of a
+story told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay
+the dragon. Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar;
+one of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen by
+three of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar
+demanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's skin, and Loki
+obtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall
+in the form of a fish, and allowing him to ransom his head by giving
+up his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain;
+and thereupon he laid a curse upon it: that the ring with the rest
+of the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of
+it. In giving the gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the
+ring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of
+the two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse,
+for the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay guarding it in
+the shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of
+possessing the hoard: he adopted as his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung,
+thus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.
+
+The curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between
+the two parts of the story, since it directly accounts for Sigurd's
+unconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves
+the hero from blame by making him a victim of fate. It destroys in turn
+Hreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself,
+Brynhild (to whom he gave the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed
+inheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects
+still further.
+
+This narrative is also told in the pieces of prose interspersed through
+_Reginsmal_. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first
+of these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf
+Andvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result
+from the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer wager, and
+the captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less
+general terms than in the prose: "My gold shall be the death of two
+brothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in
+the possession of my treasure." Next comes a short dialogue between
+Loki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he
+runs in taking the hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his
+daughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on
+their own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son
+may avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hjördis,
+Sigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended,
+it may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy. The next
+fragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the
+young Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of Sigurd's follows, in
+which he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father
+on Hunding's sons. The rest of the poem is concerned with the battle
+with Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.
+
+The fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this
+poetry being in narrative form; but _Fafnismal_ gives a dialogue
+between the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung
+against the hoard: "The ringing gold and the glowing treasure, the
+rings shall be thy death." Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim
+"Every man must die some time," and asks questions of the dragon in the
+manner of _Vafthrudnismal_. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks
+of his brother's intended treachery: "Regin betrayed me, he will betray
+thee; he will be the death of both of us," and dies. Regin returning
+bids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece tells
+that Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in
+his mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The advice given him
+by the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats
+itself; the substance is a warning to Sigurd against the treachery
+plotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so
+become sole owner of the hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning:
+"Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence:
+both brothers shall go quickly hence to Hel." Regin's enjoyment of
+the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins
+when one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to
+the sleeping Valkyrie:
+
+"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a
+maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green
+roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a
+mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There
+is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I
+know a battle-maid who sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over
+her; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others
+than those he wished to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who
+rode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken,
+son of heroes, by the Norns' decrees."
+
+Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may
+have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and it was probably
+such passages as this that misled the author of _Gripisspa_  into
+differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been
+differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd not to seek Brynhild and
+an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the
+deed; they may merely mean that her sleep cannot be broken except by
+one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin
+is clearly shown here, and also in the prose in _Sigrdrifumal. Völsunga
+Saga_, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic
+sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing her
+with a genealogy and family connections; while the _Nibelungen Lied_
+goes further still in the same direction by leaving out the magic
+sleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which
+Odin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
+
+Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess,
+popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping
+Beauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, "What cut my
+mail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me the dark
+spells?" and his answer, "Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword," she
+bursts into the famous "Greeting to the World":
+
+"Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's
+misfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes of
+sleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with
+gracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here. Hail, Aesir! hail,
+Asynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us
+the wonderful pair, and hands of healing while we live."
+
+She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of
+his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which are to help him
+in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who
+is the hero's benefactress, but whom he deserts through sorcery: the
+"Mastermaid" of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is
+always an innocent instrument in drawing Sigurd away from his real
+bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part
+of the story is summarised in _Gripisspa_, except that the writer
+seems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd "every mystery
+that men would know" and the princess he betrays are the same:
+
+"A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew
+with thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer.... She
+will teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in
+every man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling and be the
+great king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's;
+men call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter, but the great king Heimi
+fosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob
+thee of all joy; thou shalt sleep no sleep, and judge no cause,
+and care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear
+all binding oaths but keep few when thou hast been one night Giuki's
+guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou
+shalt suffer treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's
+plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter."
+
+_Völsunga_ gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer
+to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear
+oaths to each other. The description of their second meeting, when
+he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will marry
+Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before
+the latter's marriage, represent a later development of the story,
+inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd
+gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which belonged to the hoard,
+as a pledge, and takes it from her again later when he woos her in
+Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's
+hand which reveals to her the deception; but the episode has also
+a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the
+central action by passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's
+paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in
+Gunnar's form.
+
+For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on _Gripisspa_ and
+_Völsunga_. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings,
+gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell in love
+with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship
+with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After
+the two bridals, he remembered his first passing through the flame,
+and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered,
+but thinking that Gunnar had fairly won her, accepted her fate until
+Gudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played
+on her. Of the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed;
+but death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells
+Gunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with
+some reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild springs on to
+the funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  _Völsunga_ makes the murder
+take place in Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the _Short Sigurd Lay_,
+agrees. The fragment which follows _Sigrdrifumal_, on the other hand,
+places the scene in the open air:
+
+"Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud:
+'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths shall destroy
+you.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first
+words she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd, the lord of men, that my kinsmen
+ride first?' Högni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder
+with the sword; the grey horse still stoops over his dead lord.'"
+
+This agrees with the _Old Gudrun Lay_ and with the Continental German
+version, as a prose epilogue points out.
+
+Of the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light:
+he gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath to Sigurd by a
+quibble. Högni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von
+Tronje of the _Nibelungen Lied_, advises Gunnar against breaking his
+oath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of
+the cycle try to make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists
+between the first and second halves of the _Nibelungen Lied_. Their
+half-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the
+actual murderer of Sigurd.
+
+The chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on
+the legend is a loss of sympathy with the heroic type of Brynhild,
+and an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The
+Shield-maiden of divine origin and unearthly wisdom, with her
+unrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her
+slighter rival ("Fitter would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd,
+if she had a soul like mine"), is a figure out of harmony with the new
+religion, and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance;
+while both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be on the
+side of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the
+_Short Sigurd Lay_, which has many marks of lateness, such as the
+elaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of
+the signs of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild,
+nor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The _Nibelungen
+Lied_ suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and
+altogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her mother's
+name); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness
+of the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal to anything in the
+original version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less
+successful attempt to create sympathy for Gudrun; some, such as the
+so-called _First Gudrun Lay_, which is entirely romantic in character,
+try to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others,
+to make her heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.
+
+The remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal
+with the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their existence
+to a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The
+curse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings inherit it with the
+hoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun,
+said to be Brynhild's brother. He invited Gunnar and Högni to his
+court and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for
+which Gudrun killed her own two sons and Atli; this latter incident
+being possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun,
+like Chriemhild in the _Nibelungen Lied_, married Atli in order to
+gain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion
+here: that she herself incited the murder of her brothers, and killed
+Atli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part
+of Gudrun, who as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But
+in all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story
+with that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.
+
+One point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the
+story. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings, Gunnar and
+Högni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title
+of the first _aventiure_ of the _Nibelungen Lied_ also apparently uses
+the word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the Nibelungs'
+hoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when
+Hagen von Tronje tells the story later in the poem, he speaks of the
+Nibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this
+point, therefore, the German preserves the older tradition: the Norse
+Andvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In
+the _Nibelungen Lied_ the winning of the treasure forms no part of
+the action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the
+shortening of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps:
+the robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ermanric.--_The two poems of _Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_,
+in the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to
+that of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems, Gudrun,
+Giuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, Sörli,
+Hamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and Sigurd's daughter,
+to Jörmunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her
+husband had her trodden to death by horses' hoofs. The description
+of Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:
+
+"The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild
+was like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her with gold
+and goodly fabrics when I married her into Gothland. That was the
+hardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the
+dust beneath the horses' hoofs."
+
+Gudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them
+slew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack on
+Jörmunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were
+of Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild,
+survived. _Heimskringla_, a thirteenth century history of the royal
+races of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.
+
+This Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than
+myth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or Nibelung
+cycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being
+probably linked to Gudrun's name because she had become a favourite
+character and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The
+historic Ermanric was conquered by the Huns in 374; the sixth century
+historian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he
+was murdered by Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death
+by wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity
+of names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars,
+the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic and
+a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story
+became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of
+Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in stories like
+the _Golden Bird_, told by both Asbjörnsen and Grimm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Helgi._--The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the
+heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hjörvardsson
+being sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but
+essentially the stories are the same.
+
+In _Helyi Hjörvardsson_, Helgi, son of Hjörvard and Sigrlinn, was dumb
+and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he
+saw a troop of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter,
+named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a former
+wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a
+magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava, having escaped
+from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie
+bride and the wit of a faithful servant. His brother Hedin, through
+the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he
+told his brother, who, dying in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged
+Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds "Helgi and Svava
+are said to have been born again."
+
+In _Helgi Hundingsbane I_., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and
+Borghild. He fought and slew Hunding, and afterwards met in battle
+Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, Högni's
+daughter, protected him, and challenged him to fight Hödbrodd to whom
+her father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which
+overtook them as they sailed to meet Hödbrodd, and watched over him in
+the battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor by
+Sigrun: "Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red
+rings and the mighty maid: thine are Högni's daughter and Hringstad,
+the victory and the land."
+
+_Helgi Hundingsbane II_., besides giving additional details of the
+hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with Hödbrodd,
+Helgi killed all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew
+him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened by
+Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector
+again adds a note: "Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been born again:
+he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's
+daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod, and she was a Valkyrie."
+
+This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the _Kara-ljod_
+having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund
+Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid: while
+she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging
+his sword.
+
+There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the
+same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents and names
+differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his
+legend probably come from different localities. The collector could
+not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental
+to be overlooked; he therefore accounted for it by the old idea of
+re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an
+hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a
+Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,
+though differently.
+
+The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks
+of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of
+superficial resemblance. Helgi Hjörvardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,
+Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_
+Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is
+a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfjötli; his first
+fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,
+Hödbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell
+(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn
+friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the
+Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not
+accidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this
+is especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfjötli's Death_
+also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfjötli; it is followed in this
+by _Völsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing
+_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. There is, of course, confusion over the
+Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting
+authorities by making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and
+Sigurd kill the rest.
+
+If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct,
+the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems, must be
+extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung
+cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfjötli. It must not be forgotten that,
+though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later
+versions, both Scandinavian and German, he is in the main action
+in the earliest one (that in _Beowulf_), where even Sigurd does not
+appear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi
+as well as to Sigurd, for invention is limited as regards episodes,
+and a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero
+is often forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's
+blood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.
+
+The origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung
+cycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should be Holgi,
+and there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. With
+the legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it
+with that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in common; and the
+connection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is
+equally difficult to establish. The essence of this latter story is
+the hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his
+return sometime in the future: a motive which has been very fruitful
+in Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and
+Barbarossa, among countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi
+poems; and the "old wives' tales" of Helgi's re-birth have nothing
+to do with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect
+stories which he felt to be the same though different.
+
+The essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive
+familiar in that class of ballads of which the _Douglas Tragedy_ is a
+type: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen
+kill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story told in both the
+lays of _Helgi Hundingsbane_, complete in one, unfinished in the
+other. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some
+survive in one version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.
+
+Like Sinfjötli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends
+his childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and on leaving it,
+sends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. They pursue
+him, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad,
+to disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:
+
+"Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who
+stands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs in two. It
+is a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is
+better fitted for those hands than the mill-handle."
+
+Sigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and
+Scottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one brother. He
+tells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover
+and kinsmen:
+
+_Helgi_. "Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things,
+though the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and Högni fell to-day
+at Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie
+low. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to be a cause
+of strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us;
+heroes must meet their fate."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in
+thy arms."
+
+The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi,
+but remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse Sigmund tale,
+through Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi
+in a grove, and rides home to tell his sister. Sigrun is inconsolable,
+and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:
+
+"May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the
+ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind lie behind. May
+the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from
+thy foes. May the sword bite not that thou drawest, unless it sing
+round thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's
+death were avenged.... Never again while I live, by night or day,
+shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's
+company, nor the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior."
+
+But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's
+weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:
+
+_Sigrun_. "Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched
+with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee help,
+my hero?"
+
+_Helgi_. "Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi
+is drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before thou
+goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls
+on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy with grief...."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the
+Wolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert alive."
+
+_Helgi_. "There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late,
+than that thou, king-born, Högni's fair daughter, shouldst be alive
+in the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms."
+
+The lay of Helgi Hjörvardsson is furthest from the original, for there
+is no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die at their hands;
+but it preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride
+to his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English ballad of
+_Earl Brand_, and the heroine of the Danish _Ribold and Guldborg_,
+Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to
+return and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would be contrary to
+all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.
+
+The alternative ending of the _Helgi and Kara_	version is interesting
+as providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing
+with the same type of story. In _The Cruel Knight_, as here, the
+hero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One
+passage of _Helgi Hundingsbane II._  describes Helgi's entrance into
+Valhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him
+in the howe, supplies an instance of the survival side by side of
+inconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return
+from the grave is the subject of _Clerk Saunders_ (the second part)
+and several other Scottish ballads.
+
+_The Song of the Mill_.--The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale,
+"Why the sea is salt"; but this is not the oldest part of the story,
+though it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves
+legendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a
+mythical Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked
+by a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of Frodi
+became proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that
+follows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work _Grottasöngr_
+is embodied.
+
+Frodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could
+grind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong enough to turn
+them until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and
+Fenja. He set them to grind at the quern by day, and by night when
+all slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity,
+they sang:
+
+"We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of
+riches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he sleep on
+down, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall
+no man hurt another, prepare evil nor work death, nor hew with the
+keen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound."
+
+But when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest,
+Frodi answered: "Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo is silent,
+or while I speak one stave." Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:
+
+"Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst
+choose us for our strength and size but asked not our race. Bold
+were Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were
+our ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants
+sprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains
+from their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants,
+so that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's house,
+meeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold
+over our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is dreary at Frodi's."
+
+As they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead
+of grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire and sword:
+
+"Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see
+fire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war awakes, the
+signal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall
+over the king."
+
+So the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing
+sailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split; and then
+the daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: "We have ground
+to our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood long at the mill."
+
+A Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any
+hero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the mill bring
+disaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall,
+he took the stones and the bondmaids on board his ship, and bade them
+grind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom
+of the sea, where the mill is grinding still. This is not in the song,
+though it has lived longer popularly than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg
+identities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_.--No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the
+Hjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must,
+however, be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of
+the old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent of
+the Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made
+later. The legend is that Hild, daughter of Högni, was carried away by
+Hedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. Högni pursued, and overtook them
+near the Orkneys. Then Hild went to her father and offered atonement
+from Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and Högni
+need expect no mercy. Högni answered shortly, and Hild returning told
+Hedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare
+to fight. Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin
+called to Högni and offered atonement and much gold, but Högni said it
+was too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening,
+and then returned to their ships; but Hild went on shore and woke up
+all the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day
+just as before. Every day they fight, and every night the dead are
+recalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnarök.
+
+In the German poem, _Gudrun_, the Continental version of this legend
+occurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the
+minstrel Horant (who thus plays a more active part than the Norse
+Hjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her
+father Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a
+reconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's
+daughter Gudrun, and the battle on the Wülpensand.
+
+Another reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines
+14-16 from the Anglo-Saxon _Deor_, of which the most satisfactory
+translation seems to be: "Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild;
+the Jute's loves were unbounded, so that the care of love took
+from him sleep altogether." Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father
+a Jute, instead of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him
+in making Hedin Norwegian; but in the _Gudrun_	Hettel is Frisian or
+Jutish. The Anglo-Saxon _Widsith_ mentions in one line Hagena, king of
+the Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas
+(not identified), who may be the Högni and Hedin of this tale.
+
+The Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ
+from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem _Deor_ is supposed to be spoken
+by a _scop_ or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of
+his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, another singer: "Once I was the
+Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had
+a good service and a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda
+received the rights which the protector of men once granted me." Like
+Heorrenda, Horant in the _Gudrun_ is a singer in the service of the
+Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with
+the Heathnings, but gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active
+part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin
+of the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the
+correct form.
+
+The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun,
+founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In the Norse
+story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost
+eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild accompanies him,
+though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is
+her only object. It is her mediation which brings about the battle,
+when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and
+her arts which cause the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle
+among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured
+by, if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: Högni and Hedin and
+their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and feast
+at night, Hild is a war-goddess. The conception of her character,
+contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German
+heroines (who are rather the causes than the inciters of strife),
+can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.
+
+Högni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic
+weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims a victim
+whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have
+arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.
+
+_The Sword of Angantyr_.--Like the two last legends, Angantyr's
+story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by
+Snorri. Yet poems belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good
+fortune in the late mythical _Hervarar Saga_)  which among the heroic
+poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story
+possesses besides a striking originality, and is connected with the
+name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry,
+I cannot follow the example of most editors and omit it from the
+heroic poems.
+
+Like the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a
+general similarity of outline, with the exception that the hero is in
+this case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing,
+which Svafrlami got by force from the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it:
+that it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be
+healed, and it should claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In
+the saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no
+doubt, in order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation
+of the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,
+beside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Hervör.
+
+The earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is
+killed, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim, who thus
+gains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to
+Angantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons. For a while no one
+can withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle
+of Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage,
+the twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man
+except the two leaders who have landed on the island. The battle
+over, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they
+are attacked by the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the
+brothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his
+sword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally
+wounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen where they
+fell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem
+gives the challenge of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.
+
+Hervör, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female
+counterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's death,
+and brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she
+goes forth without delay to claim her inheritance from the dead, even
+with the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On
+reaching the island where her father fell, she asks a shepherd to
+guide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:
+
+"I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me
+quickly, where are the graves called Hjörvard's howes?"
+
+He is unwilling: "The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark
+shade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening, field and fen
+are aflame," and flees into the woods, but Hervör is dauntless and
+goes on alone. She reaches the howes, and calls on the sons of Arngrim:
+
+"Awake, Angantyr! Hervör calls thee, only daughter to thee and
+Tofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs forged
+for Svafrlami, Hervard, Hjörvard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all
+from below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet, with sharp sword,
+shield and harness, and reddened spear."
+
+Angantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: "Neither father, son,
+nor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;" but Hervör does
+not believe him. "Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine
+only child her heritage." He tries to frighten her back to the ships
+by describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again,
+"Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!"
+
+A. "Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in
+fire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword in her hands."
+
+H. "I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear
+no burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it."
+
+A. "Foolish art thou, Hervör the fearless, to rush into the fire
+open-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe, young maid;
+I cannot refuse thee."
+
+H. "Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the
+howe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway."
+
+Her father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword
+will bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:
+"Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength
+and energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!"
+
+It is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working
+out the doom over later generations; over Hervör's son Heidrek, who
+forfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children,
+another Angantyr, Hlod, and a second Hervör. The verse sources for
+this latter part are very corrupt.
+
+A full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental
+versions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing pages would,
+of course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that
+can be done in that direction is to suggest a few points. Three of
+the stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are
+purely Scandinavian cycles; while though Angantyr is a well-known
+heroic name (in _Widsith_ Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the
+legend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive
+elsewhere. The Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the
+versions localise it, for the names in _Völundarkvida_, Wolfdale,
+Myrkwood, &c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a
+very early date in England, and is probably a Pan-Germanic legend. The
+Sigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions,
+localised on the Continent, the former by the Rhine, the latter in
+Friesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence
+they must have spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were
+doubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century. On
+the question of their passage to the North there are wide differences
+of opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an earlier and a later
+passage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the
+second, about the twelfth or thirteenth century, the Volsungs again,
+with perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to
+the date of the first transmission. Müllenhoff put it as early as 600;
+Konrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther
+is of opinion that the Volsung story passed first to the vikings in
+France, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not
+before the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very
+slight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians
+had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more
+highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the case of the
+Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The
+earliest Norse references which can be approximately dated are in the
+Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three
+stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he gives in outline; his only
+reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, "the Volsungs' drink," for
+serpent. With the possible exception of the Anglo-Saxon fragments,
+the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories
+which are common to all, though, as might be expected, the Continental
+sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These
+German sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved
+mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.
+
+The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less
+common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule merely in
+their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their
+material. The origin of these heroic motives may generally be found in
+primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people
+and woven into legend; sometimes linked to the name of some dead tribal
+hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions
+in still-varying combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson
+and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the
+myth. In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it
+is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
+and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.
+
+The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic
+motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a dead man's
+possessions with him. In the _Waterdale Saga_, Ketil Raum, a viking
+of the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein
+as a degenerate, in that he expects to inherit his father's wealth,
+instead of winning fortune for himself: "It used to be the custom
+with kings and earls, men of our kind, that they won for themselves
+fortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons
+inherit from their fathers, but rather lay their possessions in the
+howe with them." It is easy to see that when this custom came into
+conflict with the son's natural desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity
+of the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only
+protection against violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking
+the custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of
+Angantyr and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the
+violation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In
+_Gold-Thori's Saga_, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are
+found guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori
+himself is said to have turned into a dragon after death.
+
+Marriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story
+has been postulated as means of transmission and as the one possible
+explanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more
+simplicity be assumed as the common basis in custom for independently
+arising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to
+prevent the marriage, and of the bridegroom's to undo it, would be
+natural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by
+and against the bride would be the mythical representatives of the
+mutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least
+offers a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of
+or unfaithfulness to his protectress, after their successful escape
+together.
+
+In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double
+attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
+with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of Cæsar
+and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in the heroines
+of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines
+the two primitive instincts, love and fighting, even though the woman
+may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The
+peculiarity of the Germanic representation is that the woman is never
+passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even
+if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking part herself in the fight,
+she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back
+to the battle from which they have escaped. Hild and Hervör are at
+one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing
+more than instinct; in Hervör it is not even that: she would desire
+nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other
+extreme is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a
+lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The interest
+in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually
+considered the strongest feminine instincts, without, however, by
+any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising revenge and pride
+of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both
+trains of feeling; and she dies with the husband she detests, simply
+because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type,
+as independent in love as in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun,
+or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover;
+from no lack of spirit, but simply because revenge would have given
+no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief,
+but the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.
+
+The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The
+burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into the howe,
+are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The "sister's son" is
+preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfjötli tale, which also has a trace
+of animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs
+in two, the Völund story and the legend of Helgi and Kara; while the
+first Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of
+Svava to her husband's brother. The waverlowe of the Volsung myth
+may be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild
+by Sigurd's crossing the fire would thus, like the similar bridal
+of Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on
+the marriages which formed a part of agricultural rites.
+
+
+
+
+
+Bibliographical Notes
+
+
+To avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the
+word "saga," it may be as well to state that it is here used only in
+its technical sense of a prose history.
+
+_Völund_. (Pages 5 to 8.)
+
+Dr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying Völund with Thiazi,
+the giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments
+from names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps
+undue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult to see any
+fundamental likenesses in the stories.
+
+The Old English references to Weland are in the _Waldere_ fragment
+and the _Lament of Deor_. For the Franks Casket, see Professor
+Napier's discussion, with photographs, in the _English Miscellany_
+(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The _Thidreks Saga_ (sometimes
+called _Vilkina Saga_), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853),
+and by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations:
+by Rassmann (_Heldensage,_ (1863), and by Von der Hagen (_Nordische
+Heldenromane_, 1873).
+
+_The Volsungs_. (Pages 8 to 27.)
+
+As divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle,
+including the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:
+
+_Gripisspa_.
+
+_Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal_, a continued narrative compiled
+from different sources.
+
+_Sigurd Fragment_, on the death of Sigurd.
+
+_First Gudrun Lay_, on Gudrun's mourning, late.
+
+_Short Sigurd Lay_ (called _Long Brynhild Lay_ in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_; sometimes called _Third Sigurd Lay_). style late.
+
+_Brynhild's Hellride_, a continuation of the preceding.
+
+_Second_, or _Old, Gudrun Lay_, is also late. It contains more kennings
+than are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in
+Denmark and the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter,
+together with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period
+which had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.
+
+_Third Gudrun Lay_, or the _Ordeal of Gudrun_ (after her marriage to
+Atli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich)
+is introduced.
+
+_Oddrun's Lament_, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue
+with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung
+legend.
+
+The two Atli Lays _(Atlakvida_ and _Atlamal_, the latter of Greenland
+origin), deal with the death of Gunnar and Högni, and Gudrun's
+vengeance on Atli.
+
+_Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_ belong to the Ermanric cycle.
+
+_Volsung Paraphrases_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Skaldskaparmal, Völsunga Saga_ and _Norna-Gests Thattr_  (containing
+another short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's _Die
+Prosaische Edda_ (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of
+_Völsunga_ by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version
+of _Völsunga_  and _Norna-Gest_ by Edzardi.
+
+_Nibelungenlied_.  (Page 11.)
+
+Editions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899);
+translation into modern German by Simrock.
+
+_Signy and Siggeir_.  (Page 13.)
+
+Saxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter
+of Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers, wins her
+favour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of
+Signy's windows, and she set fire to her house that she might die
+simultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this
+story is proved by the kenning "Hagbard's collar" for halter, in a
+poem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference
+in _Völsunga Saga_, that "Haki and Hagbard were great and famous
+men, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to
+vengeance," shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible
+that Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account
+of the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of
+vulgarity absent from the primitive story.
+
+In a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and
+Dr. W.H. Schofield (_The First Riddle of Cynewulf_ and _Signy's
+Lament_. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902)
+it is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter Book
+is in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse "Complaint"
+spoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and form is all in
+favour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any
+straining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's second contention, that the
+poem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin
+for the Eddie poems, is not equally convincing. The existence in
+Anglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any
+of the Eddie poems, or even the original Norse "Signy's Lament"
+postulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.
+
+It seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of
+British legend on the Volsung story. The points in which the story
+of Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus
+prove nothing in the face of equally strong points of correspondence
+between Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.
+
+_Sinfjötli's Death_. (Page 14.)
+
+Munch (_Nordmændenes Gudelære_, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously
+identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfjötli
+to Valhalla, since he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having
+fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional
+character.
+
+_Sigmund and Sinfjötli_. (Page 15.)
+
+It seems probable, on the evidence of _Beowulf_, that Sigmund and
+Sinfjötli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and
+Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental stage. Possibly Helgi may then be
+the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence
+the epithet Hunnish, constantly applied to him, and the localising
+of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the
+Brynhild part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian
+origin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that
+the _Nibelungen Lied_  places Prunhilt in Iceland.
+
+_Wagner and the Volsung Cycle_. (Page 26.)
+
+Wagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ is remarkable not only for the way
+in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfjötli and the
+Sigurd traditions, but also for the wonderful instinct which chooses
+the best and most primitive features of both Norse and Continental
+versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of
+the German; preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and
+substitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores
+the original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives
+the latter character, and an active instead of a passive function
+in the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action;
+and by substituting for the slaying of the otter the bargain with
+the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of
+the catastrophe.
+
+_Ermanric_. (Page 27.)
+
+For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see
+Tylor's _Primitive Culture_.
+
+_The Helgi Lays_. (Page 29.)
+
+The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them
+later for the sake of greater clearness.
+
+_Helgi and Kara_. (Page 30.)
+
+_Hromundar Saga Gripssonar_, in which this story is given, is worthless
+as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. Müller's
+_Sagabibliothek_, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and
+Swedish translations may be found in Björner's _Nordiske Kåmpa Dater_
+(Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.
+
+_Rebirth_. (Page 31.)
+
+Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in
+the _Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi_, ix. He collects instances, and among
+other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous
+child after its dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The
+inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable instance
+occurs in _Viga-Glums Saga_, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his
+luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the _Waterdale Saga_ there
+are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead
+grandfather will pass to the grandson who receives his name. Scholars
+do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi
+poems, some holding the view that it is an essential part of the story.
+
+_Hunding_. (Page 32.)
+
+It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so,
+the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the natural
+enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has
+a feud with MacCon (_i.e._, Son of a Dog), which means the same as
+Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in
+the Bodleian MS. Laud, 610.
+
+_Thorgerd Holgabrud_.  (Page 33.)
+
+Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.
+
+_Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois_. (Page 33.)
+
+See _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this
+series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in
+the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the
+_Teutonic Mythology_, and by Mr. Nutt in the _Voyage of Bran_.
+
+_Ballads_. (Page 36.)
+
+Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of _Clerk
+Saunders_ as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi
+story in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's
+hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.
+
+The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in Danish as in
+Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark,
+England and Scotland is strongly in favour of the presumption that
+Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the
+presumption that the poems in question passed from the British Isles
+to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive
+on this point. There is an English translation of the latter by
+R.C.A. Prior (_Ancient Danish Ballads_, London, 1860).
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_. (Page 39.)
+
+The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject,
+given with a translation in the _Corpus_, vol. ii. Saxo's version
+is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a
+necklace, which has caused comparison of this story with that of the
+Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle
+in which the slain revive each night and renew the fight daily, as
+occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached
+Ireland. According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in
+the East, and taught it to the Danes.
+
+The latest edition of the _Gudrun_ is by Ernst Martin (second edition,
+Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.
+
+_Angantyr_. (Page 42.)
+
+The poems of this cycle are four in number--(1) _Hjalmar's
+Death-song_: (2) _Angantyr and Hervör_; (3) _Heidrek's Riddle-Poem_:
+(4) _Angantyr the Younger and Hlod_. All are given in the first volume
+of the _Corpus_, with translations.
+
+_Herrarar Saga_ was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829-30) in
+_Fornaldar Sögur_, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently
+edited by Dr. Bugge, together with _Völsunga_ and others. Petersen
+(Copenhagen, 1847) edited it with a Danish translation. Munch's
+_Nordmuendenes Gudelære_ (out of print) contains a short abstract.
+
+_Death of Angantyr_. (Page 43.)
+
+Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion
+of all mythical interest.
+
+_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)
+
+Müllenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift für deutsches
+Altertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Philologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see
+_Germania_, 33.
+
+_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)
+
+See also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.
+
+The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival
+of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage,
+of which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.
+
+_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)
+
+For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang,
+_Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).
+
+_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)
+
+See Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor
+Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the
+British Association, 1900. The double relationship between Sigmund
+and Sinfjötli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and
+Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same
+cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies,
+where the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of
+the pure royal blood.
+
+_Swanmaids_.  (Page 51.)
+
+See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._
+
+_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)
+
+Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages
+connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see
+Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is
+right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal
+lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would
+be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c.,
+which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to
+the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's
+sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the
+Valhalla myth.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by _Ballantyne, Hanson & Co_
+London & Edinburgh
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13008 ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 2
+       The Heroic Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+       
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+
+
+The Edda
+
+II
+
+The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+
+The present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (_The Edda: Divine Mythology
+of the North_), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter
+and for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references
+are given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.
+
+Manchester,
+July 1902.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: II. The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+Sigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica
+of Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and the Heodenings,
+and Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known
+to the writers of our earliest English literature. But in most cases
+the only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there,
+with no hint of the story attached. For circumstances directed the
+poetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints
+and Biblical paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race;
+while later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our
+literature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless,
+these few brief references in _Beowulf_ and in the small group of
+heathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the
+hero-poems of the Edda. In studying these heroic poems, therefore,
+we are confronted by problems entirely different in character from
+those which have to be considered in connexion with the mythical
+texts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern,
+branch of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series),
+and the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,
+however altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and
+as such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance, as well
+as in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore
+late and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda, on the contrary,
+with the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in
+the literatures of the other great branches of the Germanic race,
+and these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.
+
+The Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:
+
+(_a_) _Weland the Smith_.--Anglo-Saxon literature has several
+references to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one;
+and there is also a late Continental German version preserved in
+an Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest
+connected form of the story.
+
+(_b_) _Sigurd and the Nibelungs_.--Again the oldest reference is in
+Anglo-Saxon.  There are two well-known Continental German versions
+in the _Nibelungen Lied_ and the late Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_,
+but the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the
+legend. With it is loosely connected
+
+(_c_) _The Ermanric Cycle_.--The oldest references to this are in Latin
+and Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the _Thidreks Saga_
+is late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd
+story, with which it had originally nothing to do.
+
+(_d_) _Helgi_.--This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar
+to the Scandinavian North.
+
+All the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder
+Edda. From other sources we may add other poems which are Eddic, not
+Skaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The
+great majority of the poems deal with the favourite story of the
+Volsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after
+another, Burgundian, Hun, Goth, was absorbed into it. The poems in this
+part of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the
+mythological ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and
+lack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular poetry.
+
+_Völund_.--The lay of Völund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of
+the Old English poems and the only Germanic hero who survived for
+any considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in
+its cycle, and is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very
+fragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short
+pieces of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids,
+and the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,
+Egil and Völund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built
+themselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early one
+morning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying
+beside them. The brothers took them home; but after seven years the
+swan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did
+not return.
+
+"Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized
+them, and in the ninth need parted them." Egil and Slagfinn went to
+seek their wives, but Völund stayed where he was and worked at his
+forge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:
+
+"Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by
+the waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,
+and went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the
+hero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and put, them on
+again, all but one. The keen-eyed archer Völund came in from hunting,
+from a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin and counted his rings, and
+the prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's daughter,
+the fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep,
+and awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his hands, and fetters
+clasped on his feet."
+
+They took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to
+forge treasures for his captors. Then Völund planned vengeance:
+
+"'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best,
+and which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade is taken
+from me for ever; I shall not see it borne to Völund's smithy. Now
+Bödvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no atonement.' He sat
+and slept not, but struck with his hammer."
+
+Nithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew,
+and made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls; and the daughter
+Bödvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the
+air and left her weeping for her lover and Nithud mourning his sons.
+
+In the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part
+of the story; there is no reference to the legend of the enchanted
+brides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with
+the common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged to return to animal
+shape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This
+incident of the compact (_i.e._, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain
+from asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been
+lost in the Völund tale. The Continental version is told in the late
+Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_, where it is brought into connexion with
+the Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the
+archer, is also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures
+on the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,
+dated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the
+third brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon gives
+Völund and Bödvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as
+a follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German sources.
+
+_The Volsungs_.--No story better illustrates the growth of heroic
+legend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical
+motives combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession
+more and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and
+still more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought
+into dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject are
+quite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary,
+several late, and only one attempts a review of the whole story. The
+outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother
+of Sinfjötli, slays the dragon who guards the Nibelungs' hoard on
+the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which accompanies
+the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in
+an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire, loves her and plights
+troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment
+causes him to forget the Valkyrie, to love her own daughter Gudrun,
+and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son
+Gunnar. After the marriage, Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites
+her husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.
+
+The series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfjötli,
+which says that after Sinfjötli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's son (which
+should be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name),
+had been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild, Sigmund married Hjördis,
+Eylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the
+race of Hunding. Sigmund, as in all other Norse sources, is said to be
+king in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the _Nibelungen Lied_,
+means the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always
+near that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the treasure of
+the Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the Völund lay.
+
+_Gripisspa_ (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately
+placed first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the
+whole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the
+wisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer prophesies
+his adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original
+features of the legend which are obscured elsewhere, especially in the
+Gudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach
+of faith to Brynhild. In the speeches of both Gripi and Sigurd, the
+poet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith,
+while the seer repeatedly protests his innocence in breaking it: "Thou
+shalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No
+better man shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd." On
+the other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and the
+sleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like
+all poems in this form, _Gripisspa_ is a late composition embodying
+earlier tradition.
+
+The other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form
+a continued narrative. _Gripisspa_ is followed by a compilation from
+two or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three
+parts in the editions: _Reginsmal_ gives the early history of the
+treasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons;
+_Fafnismal_, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking
+birds; _Sigrdrifumal_, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows
+a fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem
+generally called the _Third_, or _Short, Sigurd Lay_ (which tells of
+the marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing of Brynhild for Gunnar)
+continue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of
+Brynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the fates of the other heroes who
+became connected with the legend of the treasure.
+
+In addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story
+is given by Snorri in _Skaldskaparmal_, but it is founded almost
+entirely on the surviving lays. _Völsunga Saga_ is also a paraphrase,
+but more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and
+it therefore, to some extent, represents independent tradition. It
+was, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the
+great saga-time was over, in the decadent fourteenth century, when
+material of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological,
+was hastily cast into saga-form. It is not, like the _Nibelungen
+Lied_, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of
+greater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler
+did not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast
+his material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely to his
+originals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite
+literary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore, _Völsunga_
+is far behind not only such great works as _Njala_, but also many of
+the smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies;
+it is often careless in grammar and diction; it is full of traces
+of the decadent romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance,
+is endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no
+improvement on the heroic tradition, "Courage is better than a good
+sword." At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to
+efface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates
+against him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic
+sagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief
+in the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the whole idea
+of sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the
+character of Brynhild, without the compensating elevation in that of
+her rival by which the _Nibelungen Lied_ places Chriemhild on a height
+as lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie;
+the Brynhild of _Völsunga Saga_ is something of a virago, the Gudrun
+is jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is
+absolutely to be trusted; and _Völsunga Saga_ is therefore, in spite
+of artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features
+of the legend.
+
+There are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the
+dragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild. The latter is
+brought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real
+centre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon reference, the fragment in
+_Beowulf_, the second episode does not appear.
+
+In this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague
+reference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfjötli, consists solely
+of the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the
+Waelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela (Sinfjötli)
+not being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and
+loaded a ship with the treasure. The few preceding lines only mention
+the war which Sigmund and Sinfjötli waged on their foes. They are there
+uncle and nephew, and there is no suggestion of the closer relationship
+assigned to them by _Völsunga Saga_, which tells their story in full.
+
+Sigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of
+miraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen
+heroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to
+Siggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast Odin enters
+and thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the
+middle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only the chosen Sigmund
+succeeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling
+bride, invites her father and brothers to a feast. Though suspecting
+treachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund
+who is secretly saved by his sister and hidden in the wood. She
+meditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten,
+she tests their courage, and finding it wanting makes Sigmund kill
+both: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She
+therefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and her third son, Sinfjötli,
+is the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to
+live in the wood with Sigmund, who only knows him as Signy's son. For
+years they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for
+vengeance. They set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing
+Sinfjötli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,
+her vengeance achieved:
+
+"I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our
+father; Sinfjötli has a warrior's might because he is both son's son
+and daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end,
+that King Siggeir should meet his death; I have so toiled for the
+achieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As
+I lived by force with King Siggeir, of free will shall I die with him."
+
+Though no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly
+primitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity. _Völsunga_
+then reproduces the substance of the prose _Death of Sinfjötli_
+mentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems
+to be to remove Sinfjötli and leave the field clear for Sigurd. It
+preserves a touch which may be original in Sinfjötli's burial, which
+resembles that of Scyld in _Beowulf_: his father lays him in a boat
+steered by an old man, which immediately disappears.
+
+Sigmund and Sinfjötli are always close comrades, "need-companions"
+as the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and form one
+story. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father
+Sigmund's death. _Völsunga_ says that Sigmund fell in battle against
+Hunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt
+that he "knew not how to give the victory fairly," shattered with his
+spear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again we have
+to depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in _Hyndluljod_:
+"The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund
+a sword." And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless childhood is
+only to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself
+a false name he says to Fafni: "I came a motherless child; I have no
+father like the sons of men." Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of
+the sword to be given to his unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather
+Regin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's
+first deed was to avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father
+and his mother's father. _Völsunga_ tells this story first of Helgi
+and Sinfjötli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the
+deed. It is followed by the dragon-slaying.
+
+Up to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same
+features which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfjötli. Both are probably,
+like Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is
+the usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a
+third type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by
+_Völsunga_ to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes
+a deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the
+hero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund
+and Sinfjötli version. Among those Germanic races which brought the
+legend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one,
+and Sigmund and Sinfjötli practically drop out.
+
+The Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than
+that of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied with
+the existence of the monster "old and proud of his treasure," but
+here we are told its full previous history, certain features of which
+(such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was
+originally connected with the Volsungs or not.
+
+As usual, _Völsunga_ gives the fullest account, in the form of a
+story told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay
+the dragon. Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar;
+one of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen by
+three of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar
+demanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's skin, and Loki
+obtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall
+in the form of a fish, and allowing him to ransom his head by giving
+up his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain;
+and thereupon he laid a curse upon it: that the ring with the rest
+of the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of
+it. In giving the gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the
+ring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of
+the two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse,
+for the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay guarding it in
+the shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of
+possessing the hoard: he adopted as his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung,
+thus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.
+
+The curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between
+the two parts of the story, since it directly accounts for Sigurd's
+unconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves
+the hero from blame by making him a victim of fate. It destroys in turn
+Hreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself,
+Brynhild (to whom he gave the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed
+inheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects
+still further.
+
+This narrative is also told in the pieces of prose interspersed through
+_Reginsmal_. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first
+of these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf
+Andvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result
+from the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer wager, and
+the captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less
+general terms than in the prose: "My gold shall be the death of two
+brothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in
+the possession of my treasure." Next comes a short dialogue between
+Loki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he
+runs in taking the hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his
+daughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on
+their own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son
+may avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hjördis,
+Sigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended,
+it may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy. The next
+fragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the
+young Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of Sigurd's follows, in
+which he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father
+on Hunding's sons. The rest of the poem is concerned with the battle
+with Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.
+
+The fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this
+poetry being in narrative form; but _Fafnismal_ gives a dialogue
+between the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung
+against the hoard: "The ringing gold and the glowing treasure, the
+rings shall be thy death." Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim
+"Every man must die some time," and asks questions of the dragon in the
+manner of _Vafthrudnismal_. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks
+of his brother's intended treachery: "Regin betrayed me, he will betray
+thee; he will be the death of both of us," and dies. Regin returning
+bids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece tells
+that Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in
+his mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The advice given him
+by the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats
+itself; the substance is a warning to Sigurd against the treachery
+plotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so
+become sole owner of the hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning:
+"Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence:
+both brothers shall go quickly hence to Hel." Regin's enjoyment of
+the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins
+when one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to
+the sleeping Valkyrie:
+
+"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a
+maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green
+roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a
+mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There
+is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I
+know a battle-maid who sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over
+her; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others
+than those he wished to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who
+rode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken,
+son of heroes, by the Norns' decrees."
+
+Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may
+have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and it was probably
+such passages as this that misled the author of _Gripisspa_  into
+differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been
+differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd not to seek Brynhild and
+an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the
+deed; they may merely mean that her sleep cannot be broken except by
+one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin
+is clearly shown here, and also in the prose in _Sigrdrifumal. Völsunga
+Saga_, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic
+sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing her
+with a genealogy and family connections; while the _Nibelungen Lied_
+goes further still in the same direction by leaving out the magic
+sleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which
+Odin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
+
+Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess,
+popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping
+Beauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, "What cut my
+mail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me the dark
+spells?" and his answer, "Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword," she
+bursts into the famous "Greeting to the World":
+
+"Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's
+misfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes of
+sleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with
+gracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here. Hail, Aesir! hail,
+Asynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us
+the wonderful pair, and hands of healing while we live."
+
+She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of
+his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which are to help him
+in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who
+is the hero's benefactress, but whom he deserts through sorcery: the
+"Mastermaid" of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is
+always an innocent instrument in drawing Sigurd away from his real
+bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part
+of the story is summarised in _Gripisspa_, except that the writer
+seems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd "every mystery
+that men would know" and the princess he betrays are the same:
+
+"A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew
+with thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer.... She
+will teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in
+every man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling and be the
+great king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's;
+men call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter, but the great king Heimi
+fosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob
+thee of all joy; thou shalt sleep no sleep, and judge no cause,
+and care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear
+all binding oaths but keep few when thou hast been one night Giuki's
+guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou
+shalt suffer treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's
+plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter."
+
+_Völsunga_ gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer
+to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear
+oaths to each other. The description of their second meeting, when
+he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will marry
+Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before
+the latter's marriage, represent a later development of the story,
+inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd
+gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which belonged to the hoard,
+as a pledge, and takes it from her again later when he woos her in
+Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's
+hand which reveals to her the deception; but the episode has also
+a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the
+central action by passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's
+paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in
+Gunnar's form.
+
+For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on _Gripisspa_ and
+_Völsunga_. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings,
+gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell in love
+with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship
+with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After
+the two bridals, he remembered his first passing through the flame,
+and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered,
+but thinking that Gunnar had fairly won her, accepted her fate until
+Gudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played
+on her. Of the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed;
+but death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells
+Gunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with
+some reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild springs on to
+the funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  _Völsunga_ makes the murder
+take place in Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the _Short Sigurd Lay_,
+agrees. The fragment which follows _Sigrdrifumal_, on the other hand,
+places the scene in the open air:
+
+"Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud:
+'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths shall destroy
+you.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first
+words she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd, the lord of men, that my kinsmen
+ride first?' Högni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder
+with the sword; the grey horse still stoops over his dead lord.'"
+
+This agrees with the _Old Gudrun Lay_ and with the Continental German
+version, as a prose epilogue points out.
+
+Of the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light:
+he gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath to Sigurd by a
+quibble. Högni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von
+Tronje of the _Nibelungen Lied_, advises Gunnar against breaking his
+oath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of
+the cycle try to make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists
+between the first and second halves of the _Nibelungen Lied_. Their
+half-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the
+actual murderer of Sigurd.
+
+The chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on
+the legend is a loss of sympathy with the heroic type of Brynhild,
+and an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The
+Shield-maiden of divine origin and unearthly wisdom, with her
+unrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her
+slighter rival ("Fitter would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd,
+if she had a soul like mine"), is a figure out of harmony with the new
+religion, and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance;
+while both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be on the
+side of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the
+_Short Sigurd Lay_, which has many marks of lateness, such as the
+elaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of
+the signs of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild,
+nor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The _Nibelungen
+Lied_ suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and
+altogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her mother's
+name); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness
+of the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal to anything in the
+original version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less
+successful attempt to create sympathy for Gudrun; some, such as the
+so-called _First Gudrun Lay_, which is entirely romantic in character,
+try to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others,
+to make her heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.
+
+The remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal
+with the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their existence
+to a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The
+curse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings inherit it with the
+hoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun,
+said to be Brynhild's brother. He invited Gunnar and Högni to his
+court and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for
+which Gudrun killed her own two sons and Atli; this latter incident
+being possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun,
+like Chriemhild in the _Nibelungen Lied_, married Atli in order to
+gain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion
+here: that she herself incited the murder of her brothers, and killed
+Atli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part
+of Gudrun, who as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But
+in all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story
+with that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.
+
+One point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the
+story. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings, Gunnar and
+Högni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title
+of the first _aventiure_ of the _Nibelungen Lied_ also apparently uses
+the word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the Nibelungs'
+hoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when
+Hagen von Tronje tells the story later in the poem, he speaks of the
+Nibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this
+point, therefore, the German preserves the older tradition: the Norse
+Andvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In
+the _Nibelungen Lied_ the winning of the treasure forms no part of
+the action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the
+shortening of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps:
+the robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ermanric.--_The two poems of _Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_,
+in the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to
+that of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems, Gudrun,
+Giuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, Sörli,
+Hamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and Sigurd's daughter,
+to Jörmunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her
+husband had her trodden to death by horses' hoofs. The description
+of Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:
+
+"The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild
+was like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her with gold
+and goodly fabrics when I married her into Gothland. That was the
+hardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the
+dust beneath the horses' hoofs."
+
+Gudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them
+slew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack on
+Jörmunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were
+of Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild,
+survived. _Heimskringla_, a thirteenth century history of the royal
+races of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.
+
+This Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than
+myth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or Nibelung
+cycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being
+probably linked to Gudrun's name because she had become a favourite
+character and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The
+historic Ermanric was conquered by the Huns in 374; the sixth century
+historian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he
+was murdered by Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death
+by wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity
+of names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars,
+the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic and
+a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story
+became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of
+Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in stories like
+the _Golden Bird_, told by both Asbjörnsen and Grimm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Helgi._--The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the
+heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hjörvardsson
+being sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but
+essentially the stories are the same.
+
+In _Helyi Hjörvardsson_, Helgi, son of Hjörvard and Sigrlinn, was dumb
+and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he
+saw a troop of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter,
+named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a former
+wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a
+magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava, having escaped
+from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie
+bride and the wit of a faithful servant. His brother Hedin, through
+the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he
+told his brother, who, dying in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged
+Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds "Helgi and Svava
+are said to have been born again."
+
+In _Helgi Hundingsbane I_., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and
+Borghild. He fought and slew Hunding, and afterwards met in battle
+Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, Högni's
+daughter, protected him, and challenged him to fight Hödbrodd to whom
+her father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which
+overtook them as they sailed to meet Hödbrodd, and watched over him in
+the battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor by
+Sigrun: "Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red
+rings and the mighty maid: thine are Högni's daughter and Hringstad,
+the victory and the land."
+
+_Helgi Hundingsbane II_., besides giving additional details of the
+hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with Hödbrodd,
+Helgi killed all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew
+him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened by
+Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector
+again adds a note: "Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been born again:
+he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's
+daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod, and she was a Valkyrie."
+
+This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the _Kara-ljod_
+having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund
+Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid: while
+she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging
+his sword.
+
+There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the
+same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents and names
+differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his
+legend probably come from different localities. The collector could
+not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental
+to be overlooked; he therefore accounted for it by the old idea of
+re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an
+hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a
+Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,
+though differently.
+
+The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks
+of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of
+superficial resemblance. Helgi Hjörvardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,
+Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_
+Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is
+a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfjötli; his first
+fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,
+Hödbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell
+(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn
+friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the
+Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not
+accidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this
+is especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfjötli's Death_
+also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfjötli; it is followed in this
+by _Völsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing
+_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. There is, of course, confusion over the
+Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting
+authorities by making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and
+Sigurd kill the rest.
+
+If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct,
+the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems, must be
+extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung
+cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfjötli. It must not be forgotten that,
+though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later
+versions, both Scandinavian and German, he is in the main action
+in the earliest one (that in _Beowulf_), where even Sigurd does not
+appear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi
+as well as to Sigurd, for invention is limited as regards episodes,
+and a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero
+is often forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's
+blood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.
+
+The origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung
+cycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should be Holgi,
+and there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. With
+the legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it
+with that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in common; and the
+connection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is
+equally difficult to establish. The essence of this latter story is
+the hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his
+return sometime in the future: a motive which has been very fruitful
+in Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and
+Barbarossa, among countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi
+poems; and the "old wives' tales" of Helgi's re-birth have nothing
+to do with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect
+stories which he felt to be the same though different.
+
+The essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive
+familiar in that class of ballads of which the _Douglas Tragedy_ is a
+type: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen
+kill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story told in both the
+lays of _Helgi Hundingsbane_, complete in one, unfinished in the
+other. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some
+survive in one version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.
+
+Like Sinfjötli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends
+his childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and on leaving it,
+sends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. They pursue
+him, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad,
+to disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:
+
+"Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who
+stands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs in two. It
+is a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is
+better fitted for those hands than the mill-handle."
+
+Sigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and
+Scottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one brother. He
+tells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover
+and kinsmen:
+
+_Helgi_. "Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things,
+though the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and Högni fell to-day
+at Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie
+low. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to be a cause
+of strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us;
+heroes must meet their fate."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in
+thy arms."
+
+The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi,
+but remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse Sigmund tale,
+through Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi
+in a grove, and rides home to tell his sister. Sigrun is inconsolable,
+and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:
+
+"May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the
+ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind lie behind. May
+the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from
+thy foes. May the sword bite not that thou drawest, unless it sing
+round thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's
+death were avenged.... Never again while I live, by night or day,
+shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's
+company, nor the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior."
+
+But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's
+weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:
+
+_Sigrun_. "Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched
+with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee help,
+my hero?"
+
+_Helgi_. "Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi
+is drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before thou
+goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls
+on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy with grief...."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the
+Wolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert alive."
+
+_Helgi_. "There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late,
+than that thou, king-born, Högni's fair daughter, shouldst be alive
+in the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms."
+
+The lay of Helgi Hjörvardsson is furthest from the original, for there
+is no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die at their hands;
+but it preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride
+to his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English ballad of
+_Earl Brand_, and the heroine of the Danish _Ribold and Guldborg_,
+Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to
+return and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would be contrary to
+all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.
+
+The alternative ending of the _Helgi and Kara_	version is interesting
+as providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing
+with the same type of story. In _The Cruel Knight_, as here, the
+hero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One
+passage of _Helgi Hundingsbane II._  describes Helgi's entrance into
+Valhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him
+in the howe, supplies an instance of the survival side by side of
+inconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return
+from the grave is the subject of _Clerk Saunders_ (the second part)
+and several other Scottish ballads.
+
+_The Song of the Mill_.--The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale,
+"Why the sea is salt"; but this is not the oldest part of the story,
+though it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves
+legendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a
+mythical Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked
+by a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of Frodi
+became proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that
+follows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work _Grottasöngr_
+is embodied.
+
+Frodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could
+grind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong enough to turn
+them until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and
+Fenja. He set them to grind at the quern by day, and by night when
+all slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity,
+they sang:
+
+"We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of
+riches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he sleep on
+down, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall
+no man hurt another, prepare evil nor work death, nor hew with the
+keen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound."
+
+But when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest,
+Frodi answered: "Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo is silent,
+or while I speak one stave." Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:
+
+"Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst
+choose us for our strength and size but asked not our race. Bold
+were Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were
+our ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants
+sprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains
+from their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants,
+so that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's house,
+meeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold
+over our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is dreary at Frodi's."
+
+As they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead
+of grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire and sword:
+
+"Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see
+fire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war awakes, the
+signal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall
+over the king."
+
+So the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing
+sailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split; and then
+the daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: "We have ground
+to our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood long at the mill."
+
+A Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any
+hero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the mill bring
+disaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall,
+he took the stones and the bondmaids on board his ship, and bade them
+grind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom
+of the sea, where the mill is grinding still. This is not in the song,
+though it has lived longer popularly than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg
+identities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_.--No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the
+Hjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must,
+however, be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of
+the old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent of
+the Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made
+later. The legend is that Hild, daughter of Högni, was carried away by
+Hedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. Högni pursued, and overtook them
+near the Orkneys. Then Hild went to her father and offered atonement
+from Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and Högni
+need expect no mercy. Högni answered shortly, and Hild returning told
+Hedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare
+to fight. Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin
+called to Högni and offered atonement and much gold, but Högni said it
+was too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening,
+and then returned to their ships; but Hild went on shore and woke up
+all the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day
+just as before. Every day they fight, and every night the dead are
+recalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnarök.
+
+In the German poem, _Gudrun_, the Continental version of this legend
+occurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the
+minstrel Horant (who thus plays a more active part than the Norse
+Hjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her
+father Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a
+reconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's
+daughter Gudrun, and the battle on the Wülpensand.
+
+Another reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines
+14-16 from the Anglo-Saxon _Deor_, of which the most satisfactory
+translation seems to be: "Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild;
+the Jute's loves were unbounded, so that the care of love took
+from him sleep altogether." Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father
+a Jute, instead of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him
+in making Hedin Norwegian; but in the _Gudrun_	Hettel is Frisian or
+Jutish. The Anglo-Saxon _Widsith_ mentions in one line Hagena, king of
+the Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas
+(not identified), who may be the Högni and Hedin of this tale.
+
+The Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ
+from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem _Deor_ is supposed to be spoken
+by a _scop_ or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of
+his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, another singer: "Once I was the
+Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had
+a good service and a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda
+received the rights which the protector of men once granted me." Like
+Heorrenda, Horant in the _Gudrun_ is a singer in the service of the
+Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with
+the Heathnings, but gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active
+part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin
+of the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the
+correct form.
+
+The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun,
+founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In the Norse
+story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost
+eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild accompanies him,
+though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is
+her only object. It is her mediation which brings about the battle,
+when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and
+her arts which cause the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle
+among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured
+by, if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: Högni and Hedin and
+their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and feast
+at night, Hild is a war-goddess. The conception of her character,
+contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German
+heroines (who are rather the causes than the inciters of strife),
+can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.
+
+Högni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic
+weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims a victim
+whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have
+arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.
+
+_The Sword of Angantyr_.--Like the two last legends, Angantyr's
+story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by
+Snorri. Yet poems belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good
+fortune in the late mythical _Hervarar Saga_)  which among the heroic
+poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story
+possesses besides a striking originality, and is connected with the
+name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry,
+I cannot follow the example of most editors and omit it from the
+heroic poems.
+
+Like the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a
+general similarity of outline, with the exception that the hero is in
+this case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing,
+which Svafrlami got by force from the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it:
+that it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be
+healed, and it should claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In
+the saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no
+doubt, in order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation
+of the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,
+beside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Hervör.
+
+The earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is
+killed, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim, who thus
+gains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to
+Angantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons. For a while no one
+can withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle
+of Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage,
+the twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man
+except the two leaders who have landed on the island. The battle
+over, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they
+are attacked by the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the
+brothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his
+sword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally
+wounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen where they
+fell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem
+gives the challenge of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.
+
+Hervör, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female
+counterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's death,
+and brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she
+goes forth without delay to claim her inheritance from the dead, even
+with the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On
+reaching the island where her father fell, she asks a shepherd to
+guide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:
+
+"I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me
+quickly, where are the graves called Hjörvard's howes?"
+
+He is unwilling: "The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark
+shade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening, field and fen
+are aflame," and flees into the woods, but Hervör is dauntless and
+goes on alone. She reaches the howes, and calls on the sons of Arngrim:
+
+"Awake, Angantyr! Hervör calls thee, only daughter to thee and
+Tofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs forged
+for Svafrlami, Hervard, Hjörvard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all
+from below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet, with sharp sword,
+shield and harness, and reddened spear."
+
+Angantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: "Neither father, son,
+nor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;" but Hervör does
+not believe him. "Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine
+only child her heritage." He tries to frighten her back to the ships
+by describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again,
+"Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!"
+
+A. "Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in
+fire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword in her hands."
+
+H. "I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear
+no burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it."
+
+A. "Foolish art thou, Hervör the fearless, to rush into the fire
+open-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe, young maid;
+I cannot refuse thee."
+
+H. "Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the
+howe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway."
+
+Her father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword
+will bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:
+"Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength
+and energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!"
+
+It is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working
+out the doom over later generations; over Hervör's son Heidrek, who
+forfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children,
+another Angantyr, Hlod, and a second Hervör. The verse sources for
+this latter part are very corrupt.
+
+A full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental
+versions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing pages would,
+of course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that
+can be done in that direction is to suggest a few points. Three of
+the stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are
+purely Scandinavian cycles; while though Angantyr is a well-known
+heroic name (in _Widsith_ Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the
+legend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive
+elsewhere. The Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the
+versions localise it, for the names in _Völundarkvida_, Wolfdale,
+Myrkwood, &c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a
+very early date in England, and is probably a Pan-Germanic legend. The
+Sigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions,
+localised on the Continent, the former by the Rhine, the latter in
+Friesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence
+they must have spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were
+doubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century. On
+the question of their passage to the North there are wide differences
+of opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an earlier and a later
+passage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the
+second, about the twelfth or thirteenth century, the Volsungs again,
+with perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to
+the date of the first transmission. Müllenhoff put it as early as 600;
+Konrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther
+is of opinion that the Volsung story passed first to the vikings in
+France, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not
+before the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very
+slight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians
+had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more
+highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the case of the
+Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The
+earliest Norse references which can be approximately dated are in the
+Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three
+stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he gives in outline; his only
+reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, "the Volsungs' drink," for
+serpent. With the possible exception of the Anglo-Saxon fragments,
+the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories
+which are common to all, though, as might be expected, the Continental
+sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These
+German sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved
+mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.
+
+The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less
+common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule merely in
+their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their
+material. The origin of these heroic motives may generally be found in
+primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people
+and woven into legend; sometimes linked to the name of some dead tribal
+hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions
+in still-varying combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson
+and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the
+myth. In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it
+is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
+and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.
+
+The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic
+motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a dead man's
+possessions with him. In the _Waterdale Saga_, Ketil Raum, a viking
+of the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein
+as a degenerate, in that he expects to inherit his father's wealth,
+instead of winning fortune for himself: "It used to be the custom
+with kings and earls, men of our kind, that they won for themselves
+fortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons
+inherit from their fathers, but rather lay their possessions in the
+howe with them." It is easy to see that when this custom came into
+conflict with the son's natural desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity
+of the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only
+protection against violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking
+the custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of
+Angantyr and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the
+violation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In
+_Gold-Thori's Saga_, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are
+found guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori
+himself is said to have turned into a dragon after death.
+
+Marriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story
+has been postulated as means of transmission and as the one possible
+explanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more
+simplicity be assumed as the common basis in custom for independently
+arising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to
+prevent the marriage, and of the bridegroom's to undo it, would be
+natural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by
+and against the bride would be the mythical representatives of the
+mutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least
+offers a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of
+or unfaithfulness to his protectress, after their successful escape
+together.
+
+In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double
+attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
+with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of Cæsar
+and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in the heroines
+of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines
+the two primitive instincts, love and fighting, even though the woman
+may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The
+peculiarity of the Germanic representation is that the woman is never
+passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even
+if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking part herself in the fight,
+she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back
+to the battle from which they have escaped. Hild and Hervör are at
+one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing
+more than instinct; in Hervör it is not even that: she would desire
+nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other
+extreme is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a
+lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The interest
+in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually
+considered the strongest feminine instincts, without, however, by
+any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising revenge and pride
+of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both
+trains of feeling; and she dies with the husband she detests, simply
+because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type,
+as independent in love as in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun,
+or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover;
+from no lack of spirit, but simply because revenge would have given
+no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief,
+but the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.
+
+The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The
+burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into the howe,
+are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The "sister's son" is
+preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfjötli tale, which also has a trace
+of animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs
+in two, the Völund story and the legend of Helgi and Kara; while the
+first Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of
+Svava to her husband's brother. The waverlowe of the Volsung myth
+may be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild
+by Sigurd's crossing the fire would thus, like the similar bridal
+of Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on
+the marriages which formed a part of agricultural rites.
+
+
+
+
+
+Bibliographical Notes
+
+
+To avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the
+word "saga," it may be as well to state that it is here used only in
+its technical sense of a prose history.
+
+_Völund_. (Pages 5 to 8.)
+
+Dr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying Völund with Thiazi,
+the giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments
+from names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps
+undue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult to see any
+fundamental likenesses in the stories.
+
+The Old English references to Weland are in the _Waldere_ fragment
+and the _Lament of Deor_. For the Franks Casket, see Professor
+Napier's discussion, with photographs, in the _English Miscellany_
+(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The _Thidreks Saga_ (sometimes
+called _Vilkina Saga_), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853),
+and by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations:
+by Rassmann (_Heldensage,_ (1863), and by Von der Hagen (_Nordische
+Heldenromane_, 1873).
+
+_The Volsungs_. (Pages 8 to 27.)
+
+As divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle,
+including the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:
+
+_Gripisspa_.
+
+_Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal_, a continued narrative compiled
+from different sources.
+
+_Sigurd Fragment_, on the death of Sigurd.
+
+_First Gudrun Lay_, on Gudrun's mourning, late.
+
+_Short Sigurd Lay_ (called _Long Brynhild Lay_ in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_; sometimes called _Third Sigurd Lay_). style late.
+
+_Brynhild's Hellride_, a continuation of the preceding.
+
+_Second_, or _Old, Gudrun Lay_, is also late. It contains more kennings
+than are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in
+Denmark and the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter,
+together with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period
+which had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.
+
+_Third Gudrun Lay_, or the _Ordeal of Gudrun_ (after her marriage to
+Atli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich)
+is introduced.
+
+_Oddrun's Lament_, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue
+with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung
+legend.
+
+The two Atli Lays _(Atlakvida_ and _Atlamal_, the latter of Greenland
+origin), deal with the death of Gunnar and Högni, and Gudrun's
+vengeance on Atli.
+
+_Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_ belong to the Ermanric cycle.
+
+_Volsung Paraphrases_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Skaldskaparmal, Völsunga Saga_ and _Norna-Gests Thattr_  (containing
+another short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's _Die
+Prosaische Edda_ (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of
+_Völsunga_ by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version
+of _Völsunga_  and _Norna-Gest_ by Edzardi.
+
+_Nibelungenlied_.  (Page 11.)
+
+Editions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899);
+translation into modern German by Simrock.
+
+_Signy and Siggeir_.  (Page 13.)
+
+Saxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter
+of Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers, wins her
+favour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of
+Signy's windows, and she set fire to her house that she might die
+simultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this
+story is proved by the kenning "Hagbard's collar" for halter, in a
+poem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference
+in _Völsunga Saga_, that "Haki and Hagbard were great and famous
+men, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to
+vengeance," shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible
+that Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account
+of the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of
+vulgarity absent from the primitive story.
+
+In a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and
+Dr. W.H. Schofield (_The First Riddle of Cynewulf_ and _Signy's
+Lament_. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902)
+it is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter Book
+is in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse "Complaint"
+spoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and form is all in
+favour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any
+straining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's second contention, that the
+poem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin
+for the Eddie poems, is not equally convincing. The existence in
+Anglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any
+of the Eddie poems, or even the original Norse "Signy's Lament"
+postulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.
+
+It seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of
+British legend on the Volsung story. The points in which the story
+of Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus
+prove nothing in the face of equally strong points of correspondence
+between Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.
+
+_Sinfjötli's Death_. (Page 14.)
+
+Munch (_Nordmændenes Gudelære_, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously
+identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfjötli
+to Valhalla, since he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having
+fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional
+character.
+
+_Sigmund and Sinfjötli_. (Page 15.)
+
+It seems probable, on the evidence of _Beowulf_, that Sigmund and
+Sinfjötli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and
+Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental stage. Possibly Helgi may then be
+the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence
+the epithet Hunnish, constantly applied to him, and the localising
+of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the
+Brynhild part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian
+origin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that
+the _Nibelungen Lied_  places Prunhilt in Iceland.
+
+_Wagner and the Volsung Cycle_. (Page 26.)
+
+Wagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ is remarkable not only for the way
+in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfjötli and the
+Sigurd traditions, but also for the wonderful instinct which chooses
+the best and most primitive features of both Norse and Continental
+versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of
+the German; preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and
+substitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores
+the original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives
+the latter character, and an active instead of a passive function
+in the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action;
+and by substituting for the slaying of the otter the bargain with
+the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of
+the catastrophe.
+
+_Ermanric_. (Page 27.)
+
+For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see
+Tylor's _Primitive Culture_.
+
+_The Helgi Lays_. (Page 29.)
+
+The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them
+later for the sake of greater clearness.
+
+_Helgi and Kara_. (Page 30.)
+
+_Hromundar Saga Gripssonar_, in which this story is given, is worthless
+as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. Müller's
+_Sagabibliothek_, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and
+Swedish translations may be found in Björner's _Nordiske Kåmpa Dater_
+(Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.
+
+_Rebirth_. (Page 31.)
+
+Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in
+the _Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi_, ix. He collects instances, and among
+other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous
+child after its dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The
+inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable instance
+occurs in _Viga-Glums Saga_, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his
+luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the _Waterdale Saga_ there
+are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead
+grandfather will pass to the grandson who receives his name. Scholars
+do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi
+poems, some holding the view that it is an essential part of the story.
+
+_Hunding_. (Page 32.)
+
+It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so,
+the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the natural
+enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has
+a feud with MacCon (_i.e._, Son of a Dog), which means the same as
+Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in
+the Bodleian MS. Laud, 610.
+
+_Thorgerd Holgabrud_.  (Page 33.)
+
+Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.
+
+_Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois_. (Page 33.)
+
+See _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this
+series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in
+the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the
+_Teutonic Mythology_, and by Mr. Nutt in the _Voyage of Bran_.
+
+_Ballads_. (Page 36.)
+
+Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of _Clerk
+Saunders_ as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi
+story in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's
+hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.
+
+The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in Danish as in
+Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark,
+England and Scotland is strongly in favour of the presumption that
+Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the
+presumption that the poems in question passed from the British Isles
+to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive
+on this point. There is an English translation of the latter by
+R.C.A. Prior (_Ancient Danish Ballads_, London, 1860).
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_. (Page 39.)
+
+The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject,
+given with a translation in the _Corpus_, vol. ii. Saxo's version
+is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a
+necklace, which has caused comparison of this story with that of the
+Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle
+in which the slain revive each night and renew the fight daily, as
+occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached
+Ireland. According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in
+the East, and taught it to the Danes.
+
+The latest edition of the _Gudrun_ is by Ernst Martin (second edition,
+Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.
+
+_Angantyr_. (Page 42.)
+
+The poems of this cycle are four in number--(1) _Hjalmar's
+Death-song_: (2) _Angantyr and Hervör_; (3) _Heidrek's Riddle-Poem_:
+(4) _Angantyr the Younger and Hlod_. All are given in the first volume
+of the _Corpus_, with translations.
+
+_Herrarar Saga_ was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829-30) in
+_Fornaldar Sögur_, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently
+edited by Dr. Bugge, together with _Völsunga_ and others. Petersen
+(Copenhagen, 1847) edited it with a Danish translation. Munch's
+_Nordmuendenes Gudelære_ (out of print) contains a short abstract.
+
+_Death of Angantyr_. (Page 43.)
+
+Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion
+of all mythical interest.
+
+_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)
+
+Müllenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift für deutsches
+Altertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Philologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see
+_Germania_, 33.
+
+_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)
+
+See also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.
+
+The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival
+of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage,
+of which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.
+
+_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)
+
+For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang,
+_Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).
+
+_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)
+
+See Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor
+Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the
+British Association, 1900. The double relationship between Sigmund
+and Sinfjötli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and
+Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same
+cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies,
+where the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of
+the pure royal blood.
+
+_Swanmaids_.  (Page 51.)
+
+See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._
+
+_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)
+
+Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages
+connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see
+Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is
+right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal
+lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would
+be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c.,
+which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to
+the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's
+sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the
+Valhalla myth.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by _Ballantyne, Hanson & Co_
+London & Edinburgh
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 2
+       The Heroic Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+              Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+              
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e62"></a>Page 1</span><h1 class="docTitle">The Edda</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">II</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">The Heroic Mythology of the North</h1>
+<h2 class="byline">By
+<br>
+<span class="docAuthor">Winifred Faraday, M.A.</span></h2>
+<h2 class="docImprint">Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Ph&#339;nix, Long Acre, London<br id="d0e82">
+1902
+</h2><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e84"></a>Page 2</span><a id="d0e85"></a><h1>Author's Note</h1>
+<p id="d0e88">The present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (<i>The Edda: Divine Mythology of the North</i>), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter and for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references
+are given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e93"><span class="smallcaps">Manchester</span>, <br id="d0e97">
+<i>July</i> 1902.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e102"></a>Page 3</span><a id="d0e105"></a><h1>The Heroic Mythology of the North</h1>
+<p id="d0e108">Sigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica of Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and
+the Heodenings, and Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known to the writers of our earliest English
+literature. But in most cases the only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there, with no hint of the story
+attached. For circumstances directed the poetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints and Biblical
+paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race; while later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our
+literature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless, these few brief references in <i>Beowulf</i> and in the small group of heathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the hero-poems of the Edda.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e113"></a>Page 4</span>In studying these heroic poems, therefore, we are confronted by problems entirely different in character from those which
+have to be considered in connexion with the mythical texts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern, branch
+of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series), and the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,
+however altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and as such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance,
+as well as in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore late and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda,
+on the contrary, with the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in the literatures of the other great branches
+of the Germanic race, and these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e115">The Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e117">(<i>a</i>) <b>Weland the Smith</b>.&#8212;Anglo-Saxon literature has several references to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one; and there is also
+a late Continental German version preserved in an Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest connected
+form of the story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e125">(<i>b</i>) <b>Sigurd and the Nibelungs</b>.&#8212;Again the oldest reference is in Anglo-Saxon.  There <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e133"></a>Page 5</span>are two well-known Continental German versions in the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> and the late Icelandic <i>Thidreks Saga</i>, but the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the legend. With it is loosely connected
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e141">(<i>c</i>) <b>The Ermanric Cycle</b>.&#8212;The oldest references to this are in Latin and Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the <i>Thidreks Saga</i> is late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd story, with which it had originally nothing to do.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e152">(<i>d</i>) <b>Helgi</b>.&#8212;This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar to the Scandinavian North.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e160">All the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder Edda. From other sources we may add other poems which
+are Eddic, not Skaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The great majority of the poems deal with
+the favourite story of the Volsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after another, Burgundian, Hun, Goth,
+was absorbed into it. The poems in this part of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the mythological
+ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and lack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular
+poetry.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e162"><b>V&ouml;lund</b>.&#8212;The lay of V&ouml;lund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of the Old English poems and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e166"></a>Page 6</span>the only Germanic hero who survived for any considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in its cycle, and
+is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very fragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short pieces
+of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids, and the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,
+Egil and V&ouml;lund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built themselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early
+one morning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying beside them. The brothers took them home; but after
+seven years the swan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did not return.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e168">&#8220;Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized them, and in the ninth need parted them.&#8221; Egil and Slagfinn
+went to seek their wives, but V&ouml;lund stayed where he was and worked at his forge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e171">&#8220;Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by the waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,
+and went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the hero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and
+put, them on again, all but one. The keen-eyed archer V&ouml;lund came in from hunting, from a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin
+and counted his rings, and the prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e173"></a>Page 7</span>daughter, the fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep, and awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his
+hands, and fetters clasped on his feet.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e176">They took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to forge treasures for his captors. Then V&ouml;lund planned vengeance:
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e179">&#8221;'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best, and which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade
+is taken from me for ever; I shall not see it borne to V&ouml;lund's smithy. Now B&ouml;dvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no
+atonement.' He sat and slept not, but struck with his hammer.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e182">Nithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew, and made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls;
+and the daughter B&ouml;dvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the air and left her weeping for her lover
+and Nithud mourning his sons.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e184">In the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part of the story; there is no reference to the legend of the
+enchanted brides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with the common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged
+to return to animal shape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This incident of the compact (<i>i.e.</i>, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain from asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been lost in the V&ouml;lund
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e189"></a>Page 8</span>tale. The Continental version is told in the late Icelandic <i>Thidreks Saga</i>, where it is brought into connexion with the Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the archer, is
+also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures on the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,
+dated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the third brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon
+gives V&ouml;lund and B&ouml;dvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as a follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German
+sources.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e194"><b>The Volsungs</b>.&#8212;No story better illustrates the growth of heroic legend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical motives
+combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession more and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and
+still more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought into dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject
+are quite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary, several late, and only one attempts a review of the
+whole story. The outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother of Sinfj&ouml;tli, slays the dragon who
+guards the Nibelungs' hoard on the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e198"></a>Page 9</span>accompanies the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire,
+loves her and plights troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment causes him to forget the Valkyrie,
+to love her own daughter Gudrun, and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son Gunnar. After the marriage,
+Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites her husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e200">The series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfj&ouml;tli, which says that after Sinfj&ouml;tli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's
+son (which should be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name), had been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild,
+Sigmund married Hj&ouml;rdis, Eylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the race of Hunding. Sigmund, as
+in all other Norse sources, is said to be king in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, means the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always near that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the
+treasure of the Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the V&ouml;lund lay.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e205"><i>Gripisspa</i> (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately placed first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the
+whole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the wisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e209"></a>Page 10</span>prophesies his adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original features of the legend which are obscured elsewhere,
+especially in the Gudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach of faith to Brynhild. In the speeches
+of both Gripi and Sigurd, the poet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith, while the seer repeatedly
+protests his innocence in breaking it: &#8220;Thou shalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No better man
+shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd.&#8221; On the other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and
+the sleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like all poems in this form, <i>Gripisspa</i> is a late composition embodying earlier tradition.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e214">The other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form a continued narrative. <i>Gripisspa</i> is followed by a compilation from two or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three parts in the editions:
+<i>Reginsmal</i> gives the early history of the treasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons; <i>Fafnismal</i>, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking birds; <i>Sigrdrifumal</i>, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows a fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem generally called
+the <i>Third</i>, or <i>Short, Sigurd Lay</i> (which tells of the marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e234"></a>Page 11</span>of Brynhild for Gunnar) continue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of Brynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the
+fates of the other heroes who became connected with the legend of the treasure.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e236">In addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story is given by Snorri in <i>Skaldskaparmal</i>, but it is founded almost entirely on the surviving lays. <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> is also a paraphrase, but more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and it therefore, to some extent, represents
+independent tradition. It was, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the great saga-time was over, in
+the decadent fourteenth century, when material of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological, was hastily cast
+into saga-form. It is not, like the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of greater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler
+did not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast his material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely
+to his originals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite literary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore,
+<i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> is far behind not only such great works as <i>Njala</i>, but also many of the smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies; it is often careless in grammar and
+diction; it is full of traces of the decadent <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e253"></a>Page 12</span>romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance, is endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no improvement
+on the heroic tradition, &#8220;Courage is better than a good sword.&#8221; At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to
+efface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates against him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic
+sagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief in the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the
+whole idea of sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the character of Brynhild, without the compensating
+elevation in that of her rival by which the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> places Chriemhild on a height as lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie; the Brynhild of <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> is something of a virago, the Gudrun is jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is absolutely to be trusted;
+and <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> is therefore, in spite of artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features of the legend.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e264">There are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the dragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild.
+The latter is brought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real centre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon
+reference, the fragment in <i>Beowulf</i>, the second episode does not appear.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e269"></a>Page 13</span></p>
+<p id="d0e270">In this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague reference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli, consists
+solely of the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the Waelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela
+(Sinfj&ouml;tli) not being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and loaded a ship with the treasure. The few
+preceding lines only mention the war which Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli waged on their foes. They are there uncle and nephew, and
+there is no suggestion of the closer relationship assigned to them by <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, which tells their story in full.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e275">Sigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of miraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen
+heroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to Siggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast
+Odin enters and thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the middle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only
+the chosen Sigmund succeeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling bride, invites her father and brothers
+to a feast. Though suspecting treachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund who is secretly saved
+by his sister and hidden in the wood. She meditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten, she tests their
+courage, and finding it wanting makes <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e277"></a>Page 14</span>Sigmund kill both: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She therefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and
+her third son, Sinfj&ouml;tli, is the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to live in the wood with Sigmund,
+who only knows him as Signy's son. For years they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for vengeance. They
+set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing Sinfj&ouml;tli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,
+her vengeance achieved:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e280">&#8220;I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our father; Sinfj&ouml;tli has a warrior's might because he is
+both son's son and daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end, that King Siggeir should meet his death; I
+have so toiled for the achieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As I lived by force with King Siggeir,
+of free will shall I die with him.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e283">Though no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly primitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity.
+<i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> then reproduces the substance of the prose <i>Death of Sinfj&ouml;tli</i> mentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems to be to remove Sinfj&ouml;tli and leave the field clear for
+Sigurd. It preserves a touch which may be original in Sinfj&ouml;tli's burial, which resembles that of Scyld in <i>Beowulf</i>: his father lays him in a boat steered by an old man, which immediately disappears.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e294"></a>Page 15</span></p>
+<p id="d0e295">Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli are always close comrades, &#8220;need-companions&#8221; as the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and
+form one story. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father Sigmund's death. <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> says that Sigmund fell in battle against Hunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt that he
+&#8220;knew not how to give the victory fairly,&#8221; shattered with his spear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again
+we have to depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in <i>Hyndluljod</i>: &#8220;The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund a sword.&#8221; And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless
+childhood is only to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself a false name he says to Fafni: &#8220;I came a
+motherless child; I have no father like the sons of men.&#8221; Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of the sword to be given to his
+unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather Regin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's first deed was to
+avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father and his mother's father. <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> tells this story first of Helgi and Sinfj&ouml;tli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the deed. It is followed
+by the dragon-slaying.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e306">Up to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same features which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli. Both
+are probably, like <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e308"></a>Page 16</span>Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is the usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a
+third type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes a deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the
+hero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli version. Among those Germanic races which
+brought the legend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one, and Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli practically drop
+out.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e313">The Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than that of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied
+with the existence of the monster &#8220;old and proud of his treasure,&#8221; but here we are told its full previous history, certain
+features of which (such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was originally connected with the Volsungs
+or not.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e315">As usual, <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> gives the fullest account, in the form of a story told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay the dragon.
+Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar; one of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen
+by three of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar demanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e320"></a>Page 17</span>skin, and Loki obtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall in the form of a fish, and allowing him
+to ransom his head by giving up his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain; and thereupon he laid a curse
+upon it: that the ring with the rest of the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of it. In giving the
+gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the ring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of
+the two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse, for the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay
+guarding it in the shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of possessing the hoard: he adopted as
+his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung, thus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e322">The curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between the two parts of the story, since it directly accounts
+for Sigurd's unconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves the hero from blame by making him a victim
+of fate. It destroys in turn Hreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself, Brynhild (to whom he gave
+the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed inheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects still further.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e324">This narrative is also told in the pieces of prose <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e326"></a>Page 18</span>interspersed through <i>Reginsmal</i>. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first of these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf
+Andvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result from the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer
+wager, and the captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less general terms than in the prose: &#8220;My gold shall
+be the death of two brothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in the possession of my treasure.&#8221;
+Next comes a short dialogue between Loki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he runs in taking the
+hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his daughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on their
+own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son may avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hj&ouml;rdis,
+Sigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended, it may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy.
+The next fragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the young Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of
+Sigurd's follows, in which he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father on Hunding's sons. The rest of the
+poem is concerned with the battle with Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e331"></a>Page 19</span></p>
+<p id="d0e332">The fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this poetry being in narrative form; but <i>Fafnismal</i> gives a dialogue between the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung against the hoard: &#8220;The ringing gold
+and the glowing treasure, the rings shall be thy death.&#8221; Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim &#8220;Every man must die
+some time,&#8221; and asks questions of the dragon in the manner of <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks of his brother's intended treachery: &#8220;Regin betrayed me, he will betray thee;
+he will be the death of both of us,&#8221; and dies. Regin returning bids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece
+tells that Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in his mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The
+advice given him by the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats itself; the substance is a warning to
+Sigurd against the treachery plotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so become sole owner of the
+hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning: &#8220;Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence: both brothers
+shall go quickly hence to Hel.&#8221; Regin's enjoyment of the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins when
+one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to the sleeping Valkyrie:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e340"></a>Page 20</span>
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e343">&#8220;Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst
+get her. Green roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy
+her with a dowry. There is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I know a battle-maid who sleeps
+on the fell, and the flame plays over her; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others than those he wished
+to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who rode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken, son
+of heroes, by the Norns' decrees.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e346">Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and
+it was probably such passages as this that misled the author of <i>Gripisspa</i>  into differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd
+not to seek Brynhild and an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the deed; they may merely mean
+that her sleep cannot be broken except by one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin is clearly
+shown here, and also in the prose in <i>Sigrdrifumal. V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing
+her with a genealogy and family connections; while the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> goes further still in the same direction by leaving out <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e357"></a>Page 21</span>the magic sleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which Odin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e359">Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess, popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping
+Beauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, &#8220;What cut my mail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me
+the dark spells?&#8221; and his answer, &#8220;Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword,&#8221; she bursts into the famous &#8220;Greeting to the World&#8221;:
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e362">&#8220;Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's misfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes
+of sleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with gracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here.
+Hail, Aesir! hail, Asynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us the wonderful pair, and hands of healing
+while we live.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e365">She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which
+are to help him in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who is the hero's benefactress, but whom
+he deserts through sorcery: the &#8220;Mastermaid&#8221; of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is always an innocent instrument
+in drawing Sigurd away from his real bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part of the story is summarised
+in <i>Gripisspa</i>, except that the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e370"></a>Page 22</span>writer seems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd &#8220;every mystery that men would know&#8221; and the princess he betrays
+are the same:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e373">&#8220;A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew with thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer....
+She will teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in every man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling
+and be the great king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's; men call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter,
+but the great king Heimi fosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob thee of all joy; thou shalt sleep
+no sleep, and judge no cause, and care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear all binding oaths but keep
+few when thou hast been one night Giuki's guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou shalt suffer
+treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e376"><i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear oaths
+to each other. The description of their second meeting, when he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will
+marry Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before the latter's marriage, represent a later development
+of the story, inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which
+belonged to the hoard, as a pledge, and takes it from her again <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e380"></a>Page 23</span>later when he woos her in Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's hand which reveals to her the
+deception; but the episode has also a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the central action by
+passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in Gunnar's
+form.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e382">For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on <i>Gripisspa</i> and <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i>. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings, gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell
+in love with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe,
+or ring of fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After the two bridals, he remembered his first
+passing through the flame, and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered, but thinking that Gunnar
+had fairly won her, accepted her fate until Gudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played on her. Of
+the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed; but death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells
+Gunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with some reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild
+springs on to the funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> makes the murder take place in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e393"></a>Page 24</span>Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the <i>Short Sigurd Lay</i>, agrees. The fragment which follows <i>Sigrdrifumal</i>, on the other hand, places the scene in the open air:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e402">&#8220;Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud: 'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths
+shall destroy you.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first words she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd,
+the lord of men, that my kinsmen ride first?' H&ouml;gni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder with the sword; the grey
+horse still stoops over his dead lord.'&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e405">This agrees with the <i>Old Gudrun Lay</i> and with the Continental German version, as a prose epilogue points out.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e410">Of the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light: he gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath
+to Sigurd by a quibble. H&ouml;gni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von Tronje of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, advises Gunnar against breaking his oath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of the cycle try to
+make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists between the first and second halves of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>. Their half-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the actual murderer of Sigurd.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e418">The chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on the legend is a loss of sympathy <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e420"></a>Page 25</span>with the heroic type of Brynhild, and an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The Shield-maiden of divine
+origin and unearthly wisdom, with her unrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her slighter rival (&#8220;Fitter
+would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd, if she had a soul like mine&#8221;), is a figure out of harmony with the new religion,
+and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance; while both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be
+on the side of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the <i>Short Sigurd Lay</i>, which has many marks of lateness, such as the elaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of the signs
+of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild, nor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and altogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her
+mother's name); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness of the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal
+to anything in the original version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less successful attempt to create sympathy
+for Gudrun; some, such as the so-called <i>First Gudrun Lay</i>, which is entirely romantic in character, try to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others, to make her
+heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e431"></a>Page 26</span></p>
+<p id="d0e432">The remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal with the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their
+existence to a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The curse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings
+inherit it with the hoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun, said to be Brynhild's brother. He
+invited Gunnar and H&ouml;gni to his court and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for which Gudrun killed her
+own two sons and Atli; this latter incident being possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun, like Chriemhild
+in the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, married Atli in order to gain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion here: that she herself incited
+the murder of her brothers, and killed Atli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part of Gudrun, who
+as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But in all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story
+with that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e437">One point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the story. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings,
+Gunnar and H&ouml;gni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title of the first <i>aventiure</i> of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> also apparently uses the word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e445"></a>Page 27</span>Nibelungs' hoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when Hagen von Tronje tells the story later
+in the poem, he speaks of the Nibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this point, therefore, the
+German preserves the older tradition: the Norse Andvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> the winning of the treasure forms no part of the action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the shortening
+of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps: the robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e450"><b>Ermanric.&#8212;</b>The two poems of <i>Gudrun's Lament</i> and <i>Hamthismal</i>, in the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to that of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems,
+Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, S&ouml;rli, Hamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and
+Sigurd's daughter, to J&ouml;rmunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her husband had her trodden to death by
+horses' hoofs. The description of Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e461">&#8220;The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild was like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her
+with gold and goodly fabrics <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e463"></a>Page 28</span>when I married her into Gothland. That was the hardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the dust beneath
+the horses' hoofs.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e466">Gudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them slew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack
+on J&ouml;rmunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were of Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of
+Sigurd and Brynhild, survived. <i>Heimskringla</i>, a thirteenth century history of the royal races of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e471">This Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than myth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or
+Nibelung cycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being probably linked to Gudrun's name because she had
+become a favourite character and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The historic Ermanric was conquered by
+the Huns in 374; the sixth century historian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he was murdered by
+Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death by wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity of
+names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars, the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic
+and a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e473"></a>Page 29</span>became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in
+stories like the <i>Golden Bird</i>, told by both Asbj&ouml;rnsen and Grimm.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e478"><b>Helgi.</b>&#8212;The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hj&ouml;rvardsson being
+sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but essentially the stories are the same.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e482">In <i>Helyi Hj&ouml;rvardsson</i>, Helgi, son of Hj&ouml;rvard and Sigrlinn, was dumb and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he saw a troop
+of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter, named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a
+former wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava,
+having escaped from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie bride and the wit of a faithful servant.
+His brother Hedin, through the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he told his brother, who, dying
+in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds &#8220;Helgi and Svava are said to have
+been born again.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e487">In <i>Helgi Hundingsbane I</i>., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and Borghild. He fought and slew <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e492"></a>Page 30</span>Hunding, and afterwards met in battle Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, H&ouml;gni's daughter, protected him,
+and challenged him to fight H&ouml;dbrodd to whom her father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which overtook
+them as they sailed to meet H&ouml;dbrodd, and watched over him in the battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor
+by Sigrun: &#8220;Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red rings and the mighty maid: thine are H&ouml;gni's daughter
+and Hringstad, the victory and the land.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e494"><i>Helgi Hundingsbane II</i>., besides giving additional details of the hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with H&ouml;dbrodd, Helgi killed
+all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened
+by Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector again adds a note: &#8220;Helgi and Sigrun are said to have
+been born again: he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod,
+and she was a Valkyrie.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e498">This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the <i>Kara-ljod</i> having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid:
+while she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging his sword.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e503"></a>Page 31</span></p>
+<p id="d0e504">There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents
+and names differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his legend probably come from different localities.
+The collector could not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental to be overlooked; he therefore accounted
+for it by the old idea of re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding,
+or Hadding); in each his bride is a Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy, though differently.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e506">The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of superficial
+resemblance. Helgi Hj&ouml;rvardsson's mother is Sigrlinn, Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>  Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfj&ouml;tli;
+his first fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival, H&ouml;dbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie
+on Loga-fell (Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential
+features of the Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not accidental are due to the influence
+of the more favoured legend; this is especially true <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e511"></a>Page 32</span>of the names. The prose-piece <i>Sinfj&ouml;tli's Death</i> also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfj&ouml;tli; it is followed in this by <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing <i>Helyi Hundingsbane I</i>. There is, of course, confusion over the Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting authorities by
+making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and Sigurd kill the rest.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e522">If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct, the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems,
+must be extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfj&ouml;tli. It must
+not be forgotten that, though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later versions, both Scandinavian and German,
+he is in the main action in the earliest one (that in <i>Beowulf</i>), where even Sigurd does not appear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi as well as to Sigurd,
+for invention is limited as regards episodes, and a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero is often
+forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's blood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e527">The origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung cycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should
+be Holgi, and there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e529"></a>Page 33</span>With the legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it with that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in
+common; and the connection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is equally difficult to establish. The essence
+of this latter story is the hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his return sometime in the future:
+a motive which has been very fruitful in Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and Barbarossa, among
+countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi poems; and the &#8220;old wives' tales&#8221; of Helgi's re-birth have nothing to do
+with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect stories which he felt to be the same though different.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e531">The essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive familiar in that class of ballads of which the <i>Douglas Tragedy</i> is a type: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen kill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story
+told in both the lays of <i>Helgi Hundingsbane</i>, complete in one, unfinished in the other. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some survive in one
+version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e539">Like Sinfj&ouml;tli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends his childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and
+on leaving it, sends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e541"></a>Page 34</span>They pursue him, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad, to disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e544">&#8220;Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who stands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs
+in two. It is a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is better fitted for those hands than the mill-handle.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e547">Sigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and Scottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one
+brother. He tells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover and kinsmen:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e550"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi</span>. &#8220;Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things, though the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and H&ouml;gni fell to-day at
+Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie low. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to
+be a cause of strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us; heroes must meet their fate.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e554"><span class="smallcaps">Sigrun</span>. &#8220;I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in thy arms.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e559">The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi, but remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse
+Sigmund tale, through Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi in a grove, and rides home to tell his
+sister. Sigrun is inconsolable, and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e561"></a>Page 35</span>
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e564">&#8220;May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind
+lie behind. May the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from thy foes. May the sword bite not that
+thou drawest, unless it sing round thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's death were avenged.... Never
+again while I live, by night or day, shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's company, nor
+the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e567">But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e570"><span class="smallcaps">Sigrun</span>. &#8220;Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee
+help, my hero?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e574"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi</span>. &#8220;Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi is drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before
+thou goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy
+with grief....&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e578"><span class="smallcaps">Sigrun</span>. &#8220;I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the Wolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert
+alive.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e582"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi</span>. &#8220;There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late, than that thou, king-born, H&ouml;gni's fair daughter, shouldst
+be alive in the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e587">The lay of Helgi Hj&ouml;rvardsson is furthest from the original, for there is no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die
+at their hands; but it <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e589"></a>Page 36</span>preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride to his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English
+ballad of <i>Earl Brand</i>, and the heroine of the Danish <i>Ribold and Guldborg</i>, Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to return and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would
+be contrary to all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e597">The alternative ending of the <i>Helgi and Kara</i>  version is interesting as providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing with the same type of story.
+In <i>The Cruel Knight</i>, as here, the hero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One passage of <i>Helgi Hundingsbane II.</i>  describes Helgi's entrance into Valhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him in the howe, supplies an
+instance of the survival side by side of inconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return from the grave
+is the subject of <i>Clerk Saunders</i> (the second part) and several other Scottish ballads.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e611"><b>The Song of the Mill</b>.&#8212;The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale, &#8220;Why the sea is salt&#8221;; but this is not the oldest part of the story, though
+it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves legendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a mythical
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e615"></a>Page 37</span>Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked by a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of
+Frodi became proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that follows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work
+<i>Grottas&ouml;ngr</i> is embodied.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e620">Frodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could grind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong
+enough to turn them until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and Fenja. He set them to grind at the quern
+by day, and by night when all slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity, they sang:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e623">&#8220;We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of riches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he
+sleep on down, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall no man hurt another, prepare evil nor work
+death, nor hew with the keen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e626">But when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest, Frodi answered: &#8220;Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo
+is silent, or while I speak one stave.&#8221; Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e629">&#8220;Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst choose us for our strength and size but asked not our race.
+Bold were Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were our <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e631"></a>Page 38</span>ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants sprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains
+from their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants, so that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's
+house, meeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold over our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is
+dreary at Frodi's.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e634">As they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead of grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire
+and sword:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e637">&#8220;Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see fire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war
+awakes, the signal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall over the king.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e640">So the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing sailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split;
+and then the daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: &#8220;We have ground to our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood
+long at the mill.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e642">A Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any hero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the
+mill bring disaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall, he took the stones and the bondmaids on board
+his ship, and bade them grind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom of the sea, where the mill is
+grinding still. This is not in the song, though it has lived longer popularly <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e644"></a>Page 39</span>than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg identities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e646"><b>The Everlasting Battle</b>.&#8212;No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the Hjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must, however,
+be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of the old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent
+of the Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made later. The legend is that Hild, daughter of H&ouml;gni,
+was carried away by Hedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. H&ouml;gni pursued, and overtook them near the Orkneys. Then Hild went
+to her father and offered atonement from Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and H&ouml;gni need expect no mercy.
+H&ouml;gni answered shortly, and Hild returning told Hedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare to fight.
+Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin called to H&ouml;gni and offered atonement and much gold, but H&ouml;gni
+said it was too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening, and then returned to their ships; but Hild went
+on shore and woke up all the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day just as before. Every day they fight,
+and every night the dead are recalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnar&ouml;k.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e650"></a>Page 40</span></p>
+<p id="d0e651">In the German poem, <i>Gudrun</i>, the Continental version of this legend occurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the minstrel Horant
+(who thus plays a more active part than the Norse Hjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her father
+Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a reconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's
+daughter Gudrun, and the battle on the W&uuml;lpensand.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e656">Another reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines 14&#8211;16 from the Anglo-Saxon <i>Deor</i>, of which the most satisfactory translation seems to be: &#8220;Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild; the Jute's loves were
+unbounded, so that the care of love took from him sleep altogether.&#8221; Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father a Jute, instead
+of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him in making Hedin Norwegian; but in the <i>Gudrun</i>  Hettel is Frisian or Jutish. The Anglo-Saxon <i>Widsith</i> mentions in one line Hagena, king of the Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas (not identified),
+who may be the H&ouml;gni and Hedin of this tale.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e667">The Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem <i>Deor</i> is supposed to be spoken by a <i>scop</i> or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e675"></a>Page 41</span>another singer: &#8220;Once I was the Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had a good service and
+a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda received the rights which the protector of men once granted me.&#8221; Like Heorrenda,
+Horant in the <i>Gudrun</i> is a singer in the service of the Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with the Heathnings, but
+gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin of
+the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the correct form.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e680">The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun, founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In
+the Norse story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild
+accompanies him, though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is her only object. It is her mediation
+which brings about the battle, when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and her arts which cause
+the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured by,
+if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: H&ouml;gni and Hedin and their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and
+feast at night, Hild is a war-goddess. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e682"></a>Page 42</span>The conception of her character, contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German heroines (who are rather
+the causes than the inciters of strife), can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e684">H&ouml;gni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims
+a victim whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e686"><b>The Sword of Angantyr</b>.&#8212;Like the two last legends, Angantyr's story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by Snorri. Yet poems
+belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good fortune in the late mythical <i>Hervarar Saga</i>)  which among the heroic poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story possesses besides a striking
+originality, and is connected with the name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry, I cannot follow
+the example of most editors and omit it from the heroic poems.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e693">Like the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a general similarity of outline, with the exception that
+the hero is in this case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing, which Svafrlami got by force from <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e695"></a>Page 43</span>the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it: that it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be healed, and it should
+claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In the saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no doubt, in
+order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation of the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,
+beside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Herv&ouml;r.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e697">The earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is killed, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim,
+who thus gains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to Angantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons.
+For a while no one can withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle of Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd
+and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage, the twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man except the two leaders who
+have landed on the island. The battle over, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they are attacked by
+the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the brothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his
+sword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally wounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen
+where they fell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem gives the challenge <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e699"></a>Page 44</span>of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e701">Herv&ouml;r, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female counterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's
+death, and brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she goes forth without delay to claim her inheritance
+from the dead, even with the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On reaching the island where her father
+fell, she asks a shepherd to guide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e704">&#8220;I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me quickly, where are the graves called Hj&ouml;rvard's howes?&#8221;</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e707">He is unwilling: &#8220;The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark shade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening,
+field and fen are aflame,&#8221; and flees into the woods, but Herv&ouml;r is dauntless and goes on alone. She reaches the howes, and
+calls on the sons of Arngrim:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e710">&#8220;Awake, Angantyr! Herv&ouml;r calls thee, only daughter to thee and Tofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs
+forged for Svafrlami, Hervard, Hj&ouml;rvard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all from below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet,
+with sharp sword, shield and harness, and reddened spear.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e713">Angantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: &#8220;Neither father, son, nor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;&#8221;
+but Herv&ouml;r does <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e715"></a>Page 45</span>not believe him. &#8220;Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine only child her heritage.&#8221; He tries to frighten her back
+to the ships by describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again, &#8220;Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e718">A. &#8220;Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in fire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword
+in her hands.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e720">H. &#8220;I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear no burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e722">A. &#8220;Foolish art thou, Herv&ouml;r the fearless, to rush into the fire open-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe,
+young maid; I cannot refuse thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e724">H. &#8220;Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the howe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway.&#8221;</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e727">Her father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword will bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:
+&#8220;Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength and energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e729">It is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working out the doom over later generations; over Herv&ouml;r's
+son Heidrek, who forfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children, another Angantyr, Hlod, and a second
+Herv&ouml;r. The verse sources for this latter part are very corrupt.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e731"></a>Page 46</span></p>
+<p id="d0e732">A full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental versions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing
+pages would, of course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that can be done in that direction is to suggest
+a few points. Three of the stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are purely Scandinavian cycles; while
+though Angantyr is a well-known heroic name (in <i>Widsith</i> Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the legend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive elsewhere. The
+Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the versions localise it, for the names in <i>V&ouml;lundarkvida</i>, Wolfdale, Myrkwood, &amp;c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a very early date in England, and is probably
+a Pan-Germanic legend. The Sigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions, localised on the Continent,
+the former by the Rhine, the latter in Friesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence they must have
+spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were doubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century.
+On the question of their passage to the North there are wide differences of opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an
+earlier and a later passage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the second, about the twelfth or thirteenth
+century, the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e740"></a>Page 47</span>Volsungs again, with perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to the date of the first transmission.
+M&uuml;llenhoff put it as early as 600; Konrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther is of opinion that the
+Volsung story passed first to the vikings in France, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not before
+the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very slight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians
+had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the
+case of the Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The earliest Norse references which can be approximately
+dated are in the Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he
+gives in outline; his only reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, &#8220;the Volsungs' drink,&#8221; for serpent. With the possible exception
+of the Anglo-Saxon fragments, the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories which are common to all,
+though, as might be expected, the Continental sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These German
+sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e742"></a>Page 48</span></p>
+<p id="d0e743">The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule
+merely in their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their material. The origin of these heroic motives
+may generally be found in primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people and woven into legend; sometimes
+linked to the name of some dead tribal hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions in still-varying
+combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the myth.
+In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
+and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e745">The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a
+dead man's possessions with him. In the <i>Waterdale Saga</i>, Ketil Raum, a viking of the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein as a degenerate, in that he expects
+to inherit his father's wealth, instead of winning fortune for himself: &#8220;It used to be the custom with kings and earls, men
+of our kind, that they won for themselves fortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons inherit from
+their fathers, but rather <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e750"></a>Page 49</span>lay their possessions in the howe with them.&#8221; It is easy to see that when this custom came into conflict with the son's natural
+desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity of the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only protection against
+violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking the custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of Angantyr
+and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the violation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In
+<i>Gold-Thori's Saga</i>, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are found guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori himself
+is said to have turned into a dragon after death.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e755">Marriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story has been postulated as means of transmission and as the
+one possible explanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more simplicity be assumed as the common basis
+in custom for independently arising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to prevent the marriage, and of
+the bridegroom's to undo it, would be natural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by and against the
+bride would be the mythical representatives of the mutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least offers
+a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of or unfaithfulness <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e757"></a>Page 50</span>to his protectress, after their successful escape together.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e759">In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
+with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of C&aelig;sar and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in
+the heroines of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines the two primitive instincts, love and fighting,
+even though the woman may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The peculiarity of the Germanic representation
+is that the woman is never passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking
+part herself in the fight, she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back to the battle from which they
+have escaped. Hild and Herv&ouml;r are at one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing more than instinct;
+in Herv&ouml;r it is not even that: she would desire nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other extreme
+is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The
+interest in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually considered the strongest feminine instincts, without,
+however, by any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e761"></a>Page 51</span>revenge and pride of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both trains of feeling; and she dies with the
+husband she detests, simply because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type, as independent in love as
+in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun, or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover; from no lack of
+spirit, but simply because revenge would have given no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief, but
+the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e763">The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into
+the howe, are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The &#8220;sister's son&#8221; is preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli tale, which
+also has a trace of animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs in two, the V&ouml;lund story and the legend
+of Helgi and Kara; while the first Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of Svava to her husband's brother.
+The waverlowe of the Volsung myth may be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild by Sigurd's crossing the
+fire would thus, like the similar bridal of Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on the marriages
+which formed a part of agricultural rites.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e765"></a>Page 52</span><a id="d0e767"></a><h1>Bibliographical Notes</h1>
+<p id="d0e770">To avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the word &#8220;saga,&#8221; it may be as well to state that it is here
+used only in its technical sense of a prose history.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e772"><span class="smallcaps">V&ouml;lund</span>. (Pages <a id="d0e776" href="#d0e133">5</a> to <a id="d0e779" href="#d0e189">8</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e782">Dr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying V&ouml;lund with Thiazi, the giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments
+from names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps undue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult
+to see any fundamental likenesses in the stories.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e784">The Old English references to Weland are in the <i>Waldere</i> fragment and the <i>Lament of Deor</i>. For the Franks Casket, see Professor Napier's discussion, with photographs, in the <i>English Miscellany</i> (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The <i>Thidreks Saga</i> (sometimes called <i>Vilkina Saga</i>), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853), and by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations: by Rassmann
+(<i>Heldensage,</i> (1863), and by Von der Hagen (<i>Nordische Heldenromane</i>, 1873).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e807"><span class="smallcaps">The Volsungs</span>. (Pages <a id="d0e811" href="#d0e189">8</a> to <a id="d0e814" href="#d0e445">27</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e817">As divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle, including the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:
+
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e819"></a>Page 53</span></p>
+<p id="d0e820"><i>Gripisspa</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e824"><i>Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal</i>, a continued narrative compiled from different sources.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e828"><i>Sigurd Fragment</i>, on the death of Sigurd.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e832"><i>First Gudrun Lay</i>, on Gudrun's mourning, late.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e836"><i>Short Sigurd Lay</i> (called <i>Long Brynhild Lay</i> in the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i>; sometimes called <i>Third Sigurd Lay</i>). style late.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e849"><i>Brynhild's Hellride</i>, a continuation of the preceding.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e853"><i>Second</i>, or <i>Old, Gudrun Lay</i>, is also late. It contains more kennings than are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in Denmark and
+the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter, together with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period
+which had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e860"><i>Third Gudrun Lay</i>, or the <i>Ordeal of Gudrun</i> (after her marriage to Atli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich) is introduced.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e867"><i>Oddrun's Lament</i>, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung legend.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e871">The two Atli Lays <i>(Atlakvida</i> and <i>Atlamal</i>, the latter of Greenland origin), deal with the death of Gunnar and H&ouml;gni, and Gudrun's vengeance on Atli.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e879"><i>Gudrun's Lament</i> and <i>Hamthismal</i> belong to the Ermanric cycle.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e886"><span class="smallcaps">Volsung Paraphrases</span>. (Page <a id="d0e890" href="#d0e234">11</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e893"><i>Skaldskaparmal, V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> and <i>Norna-Gests Thattr</i>  (containing another short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's <i>Die Prosaische Edda</i> (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version of <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i>  and <i>Norna-Gest</i> by Edzardi.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e912"></a>Page 54</span></p>
+<p id="d0e913"><span class="smallcaps">Nibelungenlied</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e917" href="#d0e234">11</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e920">Editions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899); translation into modern German by Simrock.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e922"><span class="smallcaps">Signy and Siggeir</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e926" href="#d0e269">13</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e929">Saxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter of Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers,
+wins her favour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of Signy's windows, and she set fire to her house
+that she might die simultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this story is proved by the kenning &#8220;Hagbard's
+collar&#8221; for halter, in a poem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference in <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, that &#8220;Haki and Hagbard were great and famous men, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to vengeance,&#8221;
+shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible that Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account
+of the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of vulgarity absent from the primitive story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e934">In a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and Dr. W.H. Schofield (<i>The First Riddle of Cynewulf</i> and <i>Signy's Lament</i>. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902) it is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter
+Book is in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse &#8220;Complaint&#8221; spoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and
+form is all in favour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any straining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's
+second contention, that the poem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin for the Eddie poems, is not
+equally convincing. The existence in Anglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any of the Eddie poems,
+or even the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e942"></a>Page 55</span>original Norse &#8220;Signy's Lament&#8221; postulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e944">It seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of British legend on the Volsung story. The points in which
+the story of Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus prove nothing in the face of equally strong
+points of correspondence between Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e946"><span class="smallcaps">Sinfj&ouml;tli's Death</span>. (Page <a id="d0e950" href="#d0e277">14</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e953">Munch (<i>Nordm&aelig;ndenes Gudel&aelig;re</i>, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfj&ouml;tli to Valhalla, since
+he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional character.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e958"><span class="smallcaps">Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli</span>. (Page <a id="d0e962" href="#d0e294">15</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e965">It seems probable, on the evidence of <i>Beowulf</i>, that Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental
+stage. Possibly Helgi may then be the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence the epithet Hunnish,
+constantly applied to him, and the localising of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the Brynhild
+part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian origin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that
+the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>  places Prunhilt in Iceland.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e973"><span class="smallcaps">Wagner and the Volsung Cycle</span>. (Page <a id="d0e977" href="#d0e431">26</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e980">Wagner's <i>Ring des Nibelungen</i> is remarkable not only for the way in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfj&ouml;tli and the Sigurd traditions, but
+also for the wonderful instinct which chooses the best and most <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e985"></a>Page 56</span>primitive features of both Norse and Continental versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of the German;
+preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and substitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores the
+original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives the latter character, and an active instead of a passive
+function in the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action; and by substituting for the slaying of the otter
+the bargain with the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of the catastrophe.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e987"><span class="smallcaps">Ermanric</span>. (Page <a id="d0e991" href="#d0e445">27</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e994">For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see Tylor's <i>Primitive Culture</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e999"><span class="smallcaps">The Helgi Lays</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1003" href="#d0e473">29</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1006">The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them later for the sake of greater clearness.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1008"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi and Kara</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1012" href="#d0e492">30</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1015"><i>Hromundar Saga Gripssonar</i>, in which this story is given, is worthless as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. M&uuml;ller's <i>Sagabibliothek</i>, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and Swedish translations may be found in Bj&ouml;rner's <i>Nordiske K&aring;mpa Dater</i> (Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1025"><span class="smallcaps">Rebirth</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1029" href="#d0e503">31</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1032">Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in the <i>Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi</i>, ix. He collects instances, and among other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous child after its
+dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1037"></a>Page 57</span>instance occurs in <i>Viga-Glums Saga</i>, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the <i>Waterdale Saga</i> there are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead grandfather will pass to the grandson who receives
+his name. Scholars do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi poems, some holding the view that
+it is an essential part of the story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1045"><span class="smallcaps">Hunding</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1049" href="#d0e511">32</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1052">It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so, the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the
+natural enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has a feud with MacCon (<i>i.e.</i>, Son of a Dog), which means the same as Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in the Bodleian MS.
+Laud, 610.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1057"><span class="smallcaps">Thorgerd Holgabrud</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e1061" href="#d0e529">33</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1064">Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1066"><span class="smallcaps">Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1070" href="#d0e529">33</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1073">See <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i>, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in the Saga of Olaf
+Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, and by Mr. Nutt in the <i>Voyage of Bran</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1084"><span class="smallcaps">Ballads</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1088" href="#d0e589">36</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1091">Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of <i>Clerk Saunders</i> as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi story in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's
+hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1096">The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1098"></a>Page 58</span>Danish as in Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark, England and Scotland is strongly in favour
+of the presumption that Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the presumption that the poems in
+question passed from the British Isles to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive on this point.
+There is an English translation of the latter by R.C.A. Prior (<i>Ancient Danish Ballads</i>, London, 1860).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1103"><span class="smallcaps">The Everlasting Battle</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1107" href="#d0e644">39</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1110">The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject, given with a translation in the <i>Corpus</i>, vol. ii. Saxo's version is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a necklace, which has caused comparison
+of this story with that of the Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle in which the slain revive
+each night and renew the fight daily, as occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached Ireland.
+According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in the East, and taught it to the Danes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1115">The latest edition of the <i>Gudrun</i> is by Ernst Martin (second edition, Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1120"><span class="smallcaps">Angantyr</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1124" href="#d0e682">42</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1127">The poems of this cycle are four in number&#8212;(1) <i>Hjalmar's  Death-song</i>: (2) <i>Angantyr and Herv&ouml;r</i>; (3) <i>Heidrek's Riddle-Poem</i>: (4) <i>Angantyr the Younger and Hlod</i>. All are given in the first volume of the <i>Corpus</i>, with translations.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1144"><i>Herrarar Saga</i> was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829&#8211;30) in <i>Fornaldar S&ouml;gur</i>, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently edited by Dr. Bugge, together with <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> and others. Petersen (Copenhagen, 1847) edited <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1154"></a>Page 59</span>it with a Danish translation. Munch's <i>Nordmuendenes Gudel&aelig;re</i> (out of print) contains a short abstract.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1159"><span class="smallcaps">Death of Angantyr</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1163" href="#d0e695">43</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1166">Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion of all mythical interest.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1168"><span class="smallcaps">Transmission of Legends</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1172" href="#d0e740">47</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1175">M&uuml;llenhoff's views are given in the <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsches Altertum</i>, vol. x.; Maurer's in the <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsche Philologie</i>, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see <i>Germania</i>, 33.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1186"><span class="smallcaps">The Dragon Myth</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1190" href="#d0e750">49</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1193">See also Hartland, <i>Science of Fairy-Tales</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1198">The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. <a id="d0e1200" href="#d0e331">19</a>) may possibly be a survival of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage, of which Dr. Frazer gives examples
+in the <i>Golden Bough</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1206"><span class="smallcaps">Alien Wives</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1210" href="#d0e750">49</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1213">For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang, <i>Custom and Myth</i> (London, 1893).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1218"><span class="smallcaps">The Sister's Son</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1222" href="#d0e761">51</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1225">See Mr. Gummere's article in the <i>English Miscellany</i>; and Professor Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the British Association, 1900. The double relationship
+between Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems
+in this case due to the same cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies, where the king often married
+his sister, that his heir might be of the pure royal blood.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1230"></a>Page 60</span></p>
+<p id="d0e1231"><span class="smallcaps">Swanmaids</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e1235" href="#d0e761">51</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1238">See Hartland, <i>Science of Fairy-Tales.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1243"><span class="smallcaps">The Waverlowe</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1247" href="#d0e761">51</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1250">Dr. Frazer (<i>Golden Bough</i>) gives instances of ritual marriages connected with the midsummer fires. For <i>Svipdag and Menglad</i>, see Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja
+and the mortal lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis,
+Ishtar and Tammuz, &amp;c., which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to the Goddess of fertility. The
+reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the Valhalla myth.
+
+
+
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1258">Printed by <span class="smallcaps">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co</span><br id="d0e1262">
+London &amp; Edinburgh
+
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
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diff --git a/13008.txt b/13008.txt
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/13008.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 2
+       The Heroic Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+
+
+The Edda
+
+II
+
+The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+
+The present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (_The Edda: Divine Mythology
+of the North_), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter
+and for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references
+are given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.
+
+Manchester,
+July 1902.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: II. The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+Sigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica
+of Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and the Heodenings,
+and Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known
+to the writers of our earliest English literature. But in most cases
+the only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there,
+with no hint of the story attached. For circumstances directed the
+poetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints
+and Biblical paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race;
+while later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our
+literature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless,
+these few brief references in _Beowulf_ and in the small group of
+heathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the
+hero-poems of the Edda. In studying these heroic poems, therefore,
+we are confronted by problems entirely different in character from
+those which have to be considered in connexion with the mythical
+texts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern,
+branch of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series),
+and the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,
+however altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and
+as such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance, as well
+as in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore
+late and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda, on the contrary,
+with the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in
+the literatures of the other great branches of the Germanic race,
+and these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.
+
+The Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:
+
+(_a_) _Weland the Smith_.--Anglo-Saxon literature has several
+references to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one;
+and there is also a late Continental German version preserved in
+an Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest
+connected form of the story.
+
+(_b_) _Sigurd and the Nibelungs_.--Again the oldest reference is in
+Anglo-Saxon.  There are two well-known Continental German versions
+in the _Nibelungen Lied_ and the late Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_,
+but the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the
+legend. With it is loosely connected
+
+(_c_) _The Ermanric Cycle_.--The oldest references to this are in Latin
+and Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the _Thidreks Saga_
+is late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd
+story, with which it had originally nothing to do.
+
+(_d_) _Helgi_.--This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar
+to the Scandinavian North.
+
+All the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder
+Edda. From other sources we may add other poems which are Eddic, not
+Skaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The
+great majority of the poems deal with the favourite story of the
+Volsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after
+another, Burgundian, Hun, Goth, was absorbed into it. The poems in this
+part of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the
+mythological ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and
+lack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular poetry.
+
+_Voelund_.--The lay of Voelund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of
+the Old English poems and the only Germanic hero who survived for
+any considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in
+its cycle, and is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very
+fragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short
+pieces of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids,
+and the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,
+Egil and Voelund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built
+themselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early one
+morning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying
+beside them. The brothers took them home; but after seven years the
+swan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did
+not return.
+
+"Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized
+them, and in the ninth need parted them." Egil and Slagfinn went to
+seek their wives, but Voelund stayed where he was and worked at his
+forge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:
+
+"Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by
+the waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,
+and went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the
+hero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and put, them on
+again, all but one. The keen-eyed archer Voelund came in from hunting,
+from a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin and counted his rings, and
+the prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's daughter,
+the fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep,
+and awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his hands, and fetters
+clasped on his feet."
+
+They took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to
+forge treasures for his captors. Then Voelund planned vengeance:
+
+"'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best,
+and which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade is taken
+from me for ever; I shall not see it borne to Voelund's smithy. Now
+Boedvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no atonement.' He sat
+and slept not, but struck with his hammer."
+
+Nithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew,
+and made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls; and the daughter
+Boedvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the
+air and left her weeping for her lover and Nithud mourning his sons.
+
+In the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part
+of the story; there is no reference to the legend of the enchanted
+brides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with
+the common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged to return to animal
+shape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This
+incident of the compact (_i.e._, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain
+from asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been
+lost in the Voelund tale. The Continental version is told in the late
+Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_, where it is brought into connexion with
+the Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the
+archer, is also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures
+on the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,
+dated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the
+third brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon gives
+Voelund and Boedvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as
+a follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German sources.
+
+_The Volsungs_.--No story better illustrates the growth of heroic
+legend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical
+motives combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession
+more and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and
+still more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought
+into dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject are
+quite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary,
+several late, and only one attempts a review of the whole story. The
+outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother
+of Sinfjoetli, slays the dragon who guards the Nibelungs' hoard on
+the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which accompanies
+the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in
+an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire, loves her and plights
+troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment
+causes him to forget the Valkyrie, to love her own daughter Gudrun,
+and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son
+Gunnar. After the marriage, Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites
+her husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.
+
+The series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfjoetli,
+which says that after Sinfjoetli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's son (which
+should be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name),
+had been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild, Sigmund married Hjoerdis,
+Eylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the
+race of Hunding. Sigmund, as in all other Norse sources, is said to be
+king in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the _Nibelungen Lied_,
+means the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always
+near that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the treasure of
+the Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the Voelund lay.
+
+_Gripisspa_ (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately
+placed first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the
+whole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the
+wisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer prophesies
+his adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original
+features of the legend which are obscured elsewhere, especially in the
+Gudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach
+of faith to Brynhild. In the speeches of both Gripi and Sigurd, the
+poet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith,
+while the seer repeatedly protests his innocence in breaking it: "Thou
+shalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No
+better man shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd." On
+the other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and the
+sleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like
+all poems in this form, _Gripisspa_ is a late composition embodying
+earlier tradition.
+
+The other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form
+a continued narrative. _Gripisspa_ is followed by a compilation from
+two or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three
+parts in the editions: _Reginsmal_ gives the early history of the
+treasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons;
+_Fafnismal_, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking
+birds; _Sigrdrifumal_, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows
+a fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem
+generally called the _Third_, or _Short, Sigurd Lay_ (which tells of
+the marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing of Brynhild for Gunnar)
+continue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of
+Brynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the fates of the other heroes who
+became connected with the legend of the treasure.
+
+In addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story
+is given by Snorri in _Skaldskaparmal_, but it is founded almost
+entirely on the surviving lays. _Voelsunga Saga_ is also a paraphrase,
+but more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and
+it therefore, to some extent, represents independent tradition. It
+was, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the
+great saga-time was over, in the decadent fourteenth century, when
+material of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological,
+was hastily cast into saga-form. It is not, like the _Nibelungen
+Lied_, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of
+greater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler
+did not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast
+his material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely to his
+originals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite
+literary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore, _Voelsunga_
+is far behind not only such great works as _Njala_, but also many of
+the smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies;
+it is often careless in grammar and diction; it is full of traces
+of the decadent romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance,
+is endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no
+improvement on the heroic tradition, "Courage is better than a good
+sword." At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to
+efface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates
+against him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic
+sagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief
+in the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the whole idea
+of sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the
+character of Brynhild, without the compensating elevation in that of
+her rival by which the _Nibelungen Lied_ places Chriemhild on a height
+as lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie;
+the Brynhild of _Voelsunga Saga_ is something of a virago, the Gudrun
+is jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is
+absolutely to be trusted; and _Voelsunga Saga_ is therefore, in spite
+of artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features
+of the legend.
+
+There are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the
+dragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild. The latter is
+brought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real
+centre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon reference, the fragment in
+_Beowulf_, the second episode does not appear.
+
+In this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague
+reference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfjoetli, consists solely
+of the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the
+Waelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela (Sinfjoetli)
+not being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and
+loaded a ship with the treasure. The few preceding lines only mention
+the war which Sigmund and Sinfjoetli waged on their foes. They are there
+uncle and nephew, and there is no suggestion of the closer relationship
+assigned to them by _Voelsunga Saga_, which tells their story in full.
+
+Sigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of
+miraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen
+heroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to
+Siggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast Odin enters
+and thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the
+middle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only the chosen Sigmund
+succeeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling
+bride, invites her father and brothers to a feast. Though suspecting
+treachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund
+who is secretly saved by his sister and hidden in the wood. She
+meditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten,
+she tests their courage, and finding it wanting makes Sigmund kill
+both: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She
+therefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and her third son, Sinfjoetli,
+is the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to
+live in the wood with Sigmund, who only knows him as Signy's son. For
+years they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for
+vengeance. They set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing
+Sinfjoetli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,
+her vengeance achieved:
+
+"I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our
+father; Sinfjoetli has a warrior's might because he is both son's son
+and daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end,
+that King Siggeir should meet his death; I have so toiled for the
+achieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As
+I lived by force with King Siggeir, of free will shall I die with him."
+
+Though no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly
+primitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity. _Voelsunga_
+then reproduces the substance of the prose _Death of Sinfjoetli_
+mentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems
+to be to remove Sinfjoetli and leave the field clear for Sigurd. It
+preserves a touch which may be original in Sinfjoetli's burial, which
+resembles that of Scyld in _Beowulf_: his father lays him in a boat
+steered by an old man, which immediately disappears.
+
+Sigmund and Sinfjoetli are always close comrades, "need-companions"
+as the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and form one
+story. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father
+Sigmund's death. _Voelsunga_ says that Sigmund fell in battle against
+Hunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt
+that he "knew not how to give the victory fairly," shattered with his
+spear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again we have
+to depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in _Hyndluljod_:
+"The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund
+a sword." And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless childhood is
+only to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself
+a false name he says to Fafni: "I came a motherless child; I have no
+father like the sons of men." Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of
+the sword to be given to his unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather
+Regin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's
+first deed was to avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father
+and his mother's father. _Voelsunga_ tells this story first of Helgi
+and Sinfjoetli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the
+deed. It is followed by the dragon-slaying.
+
+Up to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same
+features which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfjoetli. Both are probably,
+like Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is
+the usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a
+third type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by
+_Voelsunga_ to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes
+a deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the
+hero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund
+and Sinfjoetli version. Among those Germanic races which brought the
+legend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one,
+and Sigmund and Sinfjoetli practically drop out.
+
+The Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than
+that of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied with
+the existence of the monster "old and proud of his treasure," but
+here we are told its full previous history, certain features of which
+(such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was
+originally connected with the Volsungs or not.
+
+As usual, _Voelsunga_ gives the fullest account, in the form of a
+story told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay
+the dragon. Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar;
+one of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen by
+three of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar
+demanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's skin, and Loki
+obtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall
+in the form of a fish, and allowing him to ransom his head by giving
+up his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain;
+and thereupon he laid a curse upon it: that the ring with the rest
+of the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of
+it. In giving the gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the
+ring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of
+the two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse,
+for the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay guarding it in
+the shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of
+possessing the hoard: he adopted as his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung,
+thus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.
+
+The curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between
+the two parts of the story, since it directly accounts for Sigurd's
+unconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves
+the hero from blame by making him a victim of fate. It destroys in turn
+Hreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself,
+Brynhild (to whom he gave the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed
+inheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects
+still further.
+
+This narrative is also told in the pieces of prose interspersed through
+_Reginsmal_. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first
+of these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf
+Andvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result
+from the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer wager, and
+the captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less
+general terms than in the prose: "My gold shall be the death of two
+brothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in
+the possession of my treasure." Next comes a short dialogue between
+Loki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he
+runs in taking the hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his
+daughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on
+their own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son
+may avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hjoerdis,
+Sigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended,
+it may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy. The next
+fragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the
+young Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of Sigurd's follows, in
+which he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father
+on Hunding's sons. The rest of the poem is concerned with the battle
+with Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.
+
+The fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this
+poetry being in narrative form; but _Fafnismal_ gives a dialogue
+between the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung
+against the hoard: "The ringing gold and the glowing treasure, the
+rings shall be thy death." Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim
+"Every man must die some time," and asks questions of the dragon in the
+manner of _Vafthrudnismal_. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks
+of his brother's intended treachery: "Regin betrayed me, he will betray
+thee; he will be the death of both of us," and dies. Regin returning
+bids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece tells
+that Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in
+his mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The advice given him
+by the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats
+itself; the substance is a warning to Sigurd against the treachery
+plotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so
+become sole owner of the hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning:
+"Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence:
+both brothers shall go quickly hence to Hel." Regin's enjoyment of
+the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins
+when one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to
+the sleeping Valkyrie:
+
+"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a
+maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green
+roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a
+mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There
+is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I
+know a battle-maid who sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over
+her; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others
+than those he wished to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who
+rode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken,
+son of heroes, by the Norns' decrees."
+
+Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may
+have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and it was probably
+such passages as this that misled the author of _Gripisspa_  into
+differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been
+differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd not to seek Brynhild and
+an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the
+deed; they may merely mean that her sleep cannot be broken except by
+one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin
+is clearly shown here, and also in the prose in _Sigrdrifumal. Voelsunga
+Saga_, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic
+sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing her
+with a genealogy and family connections; while the _Nibelungen Lied_
+goes further still in the same direction by leaving out the magic
+sleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which
+Odin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
+
+Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess,
+popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping
+Beauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, "What cut my
+mail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me the dark
+spells?" and his answer, "Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword," she
+bursts into the famous "Greeting to the World":
+
+"Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's
+misfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes of
+sleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with
+gracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here. Hail, Aesir! hail,
+Asynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us
+the wonderful pair, and hands of healing while we live."
+
+She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of
+his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which are to help him
+in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who
+is the hero's benefactress, but whom he deserts through sorcery: the
+"Mastermaid" of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is
+always an innocent instrument in drawing Sigurd away from his real
+bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part
+of the story is summarised in _Gripisspa_, except that the writer
+seems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd "every mystery
+that men would know" and the princess he betrays are the same:
+
+"A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew
+with thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer.... She
+will teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in
+every man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling and be the
+great king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's;
+men call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter, but the great king Heimi
+fosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob
+thee of all joy; thou shalt sleep no sleep, and judge no cause,
+and care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear
+all binding oaths but keep few when thou hast been one night Giuki's
+guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou
+shalt suffer treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's
+plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter."
+
+_Voelsunga_ gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer
+to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear
+oaths to each other. The description of their second meeting, when
+he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will marry
+Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before
+the latter's marriage, represent a later development of the story,
+inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd
+gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which belonged to the hoard,
+as a pledge, and takes it from her again later when he woos her in
+Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's
+hand which reveals to her the deception; but the episode has also
+a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the
+central action by passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's
+paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in
+Gunnar's form.
+
+For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on _Gripisspa_ and
+_Voelsunga_. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings,
+gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell in love
+with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship
+with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After
+the two bridals, he remembered his first passing through the flame,
+and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered,
+but thinking that Gunnar had fairly won her, accepted her fate until
+Gudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played
+on her. Of the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed;
+but death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells
+Gunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with
+some reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild springs on to
+the funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  _Voelsunga_ makes the murder
+take place in Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the _Short Sigurd Lay_,
+agrees. The fragment which follows _Sigrdrifumal_, on the other hand,
+places the scene in the open air:
+
+"Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud:
+'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths shall destroy
+you.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first
+words she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd, the lord of men, that my kinsmen
+ride first?' Hoegni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder
+with the sword; the grey horse still stoops over his dead lord.'"
+
+This agrees with the _Old Gudrun Lay_ and with the Continental German
+version, as a prose epilogue points out.
+
+Of the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light:
+he gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath to Sigurd by a
+quibble. Hoegni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von
+Tronje of the _Nibelungen Lied_, advises Gunnar against breaking his
+oath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of
+the cycle try to make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists
+between the first and second halves of the _Nibelungen Lied_. Their
+half-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the
+actual murderer of Sigurd.
+
+The chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on
+the legend is a loss of sympathy with the heroic type of Brynhild,
+and an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The
+Shield-maiden of divine origin and unearthly wisdom, with her
+unrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her
+slighter rival ("Fitter would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd,
+if she had a soul like mine"), is a figure out of harmony with the new
+religion, and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance;
+while both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be on the
+side of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the
+_Short Sigurd Lay_, which has many marks of lateness, such as the
+elaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of
+the signs of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild,
+nor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The _Nibelungen
+Lied_ suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and
+altogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her mother's
+name); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness
+of the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal to anything in the
+original version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less
+successful attempt to create sympathy for Gudrun; some, such as the
+so-called _First Gudrun Lay_, which is entirely romantic in character,
+try to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others,
+to make her heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.
+
+The remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal
+with the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their existence
+to a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The
+curse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings inherit it with the
+hoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun,
+said to be Brynhild's brother. He invited Gunnar and Hoegni to his
+court and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for
+which Gudrun killed her own two sons and Atli; this latter incident
+being possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun,
+like Chriemhild in the _Nibelungen Lied_, married Atli in order to
+gain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion
+here: that she herself incited the murder of her brothers, and killed
+Atli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part
+of Gudrun, who as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But
+in all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story
+with that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.
+
+One point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the
+story. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings, Gunnar and
+Hoegni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title
+of the first _aventiure_ of the _Nibelungen Lied_ also apparently uses
+the word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the Nibelungs'
+hoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when
+Hagen von Tronje tells the story later in the poem, he speaks of the
+Nibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this
+point, therefore, the German preserves the older tradition: the Norse
+Andvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In
+the _Nibelungen Lied_ the winning of the treasure forms no part of
+the action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the
+shortening of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps:
+the robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ermanric.--_The two poems of _Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_,
+in the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to
+that of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems, Gudrun,
+Giuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, Soerli,
+Hamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and Sigurd's daughter,
+to Joermunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her
+husband had her trodden to death by horses' hoofs. The description
+of Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:
+
+"The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild
+was like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her with gold
+and goodly fabrics when I married her into Gothland. That was the
+hardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the
+dust beneath the horses' hoofs."
+
+Gudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them
+slew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack on
+Joermunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were
+of Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild,
+survived. _Heimskringla_, a thirteenth century history of the royal
+races of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.
+
+This Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than
+myth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or Nibelung
+cycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being
+probably linked to Gudrun's name because she had become a favourite
+character and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The
+historic Ermanric was conquered by the Huns in 374; the sixth century
+historian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he
+was murdered by Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death
+by wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity
+of names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars,
+the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic and
+a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story
+became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of
+Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in stories like
+the _Golden Bird_, told by both Asbjoernsen and Grimm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Helgi._--The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the
+heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hjoervardsson
+being sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but
+essentially the stories are the same.
+
+In _Helyi Hjoervardsson_, Helgi, son of Hjoervard and Sigrlinn, was dumb
+and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he
+saw a troop of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter,
+named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a former
+wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a
+magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava, having escaped
+from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie
+bride and the wit of a faithful servant. His brother Hedin, through
+the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he
+told his brother, who, dying in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged
+Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds "Helgi and Svava
+are said to have been born again."
+
+In _Helgi Hundingsbane I_., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and
+Borghild. He fought and slew Hunding, and afterwards met in battle
+Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, Hoegni's
+daughter, protected him, and challenged him to fight Hoedbrodd to whom
+her father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which
+overtook them as they sailed to meet Hoedbrodd, and watched over him in
+the battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor by
+Sigrun: "Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red
+rings and the mighty maid: thine are Hoegni's daughter and Hringstad,
+the victory and the land."
+
+_Helgi Hundingsbane II_., besides giving additional details of the
+hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with Hoedbrodd,
+Helgi killed all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew
+him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened by
+Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector
+again adds a note: "Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been born again:
+he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's
+daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod, and she was a Valkyrie."
+
+This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the _Kara-ljod_
+having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund
+Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid: while
+she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging
+his sword.
+
+There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the
+same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents and names
+differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his
+legend probably come from different localities. The collector could
+not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental
+to be overlooked; he therefore accounted for it by the old idea of
+re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an
+hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a
+Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,
+though differently.
+
+The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks
+of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of
+superficial resemblance. Helgi Hjoervardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,
+Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_
+Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is
+a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfjoetli; his first
+fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,
+Hoedbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell
+(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn
+friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the
+Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not
+accidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this
+is especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfjoetli's Death_
+also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfjoetli; it is followed in this
+by _Voelsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing
+_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. There is, of course, confusion over the
+Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting
+authorities by making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and
+Sigurd kill the rest.
+
+If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct,
+the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems, must be
+extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung
+cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfjoetli. It must not be forgotten that,
+though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later
+versions, both Scandinavian and German, he is in the main action
+in the earliest one (that in _Beowulf_), where even Sigurd does not
+appear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi
+as well as to Sigurd, for invention is limited as regards episodes,
+and a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero
+is often forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's
+blood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.
+
+The origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung
+cycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should be Holgi,
+and there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. With
+the legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it
+with that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in common; and the
+connection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is
+equally difficult to establish. The essence of this latter story is
+the hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his
+return sometime in the future: a motive which has been very fruitful
+in Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and
+Barbarossa, among countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi
+poems; and the "old wives' tales" of Helgi's re-birth have nothing
+to do with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect
+stories which he felt to be the same though different.
+
+The essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive
+familiar in that class of ballads of which the _Douglas Tragedy_ is a
+type: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen
+kill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story told in both the
+lays of _Helgi Hundingsbane_, complete in one, unfinished in the
+other. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some
+survive in one version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.
+
+Like Sinfjoetli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends
+his childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and on leaving it,
+sends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. They pursue
+him, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad,
+to disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:
+
+"Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who
+stands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs in two. It
+is a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is
+better fitted for those hands than the mill-handle."
+
+Sigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and
+Scottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one brother. He
+tells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover
+and kinsmen:
+
+_Helgi_. "Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things,
+though the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and Hoegni fell to-day
+at Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie
+low. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to be a cause
+of strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us;
+heroes must meet their fate."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in
+thy arms."
+
+The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi,
+but remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse Sigmund tale,
+through Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi
+in a grove, and rides home to tell his sister. Sigrun is inconsolable,
+and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:
+
+"May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the
+ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind lie behind. May
+the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from
+thy foes. May the sword bite not that thou drawest, unless it sing
+round thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's
+death were avenged.... Never again while I live, by night or day,
+shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's
+company, nor the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior."
+
+But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's
+weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:
+
+_Sigrun_. "Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched
+with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee help,
+my hero?"
+
+_Helgi_. "Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi
+is drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before thou
+goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls
+on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy with grief...."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the
+Wolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert alive."
+
+_Helgi_. "There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late,
+than that thou, king-born, Hoegni's fair daughter, shouldst be alive
+in the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms."
+
+The lay of Helgi Hjoervardsson is furthest from the original, for there
+is no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die at their hands;
+but it preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride
+to his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English ballad of
+_Earl Brand_, and the heroine of the Danish _Ribold and Guldborg_,
+Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to
+return and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would be contrary to
+all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.
+
+The alternative ending of the _Helgi and Kara_	version is interesting
+as providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing
+with the same type of story. In _The Cruel Knight_, as here, the
+hero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One
+passage of _Helgi Hundingsbane II._  describes Helgi's entrance into
+Valhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him
+in the howe, supplies an instance of the survival side by side of
+inconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return
+from the grave is the subject of _Clerk Saunders_ (the second part)
+and several other Scottish ballads.
+
+_The Song of the Mill_.--The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale,
+"Why the sea is salt"; but this is not the oldest part of the story,
+though it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves
+legendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a
+mythical Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked
+by a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of Frodi
+became proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that
+follows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work _Grottasoengr_
+is embodied.
+
+Frodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could
+grind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong enough to turn
+them until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and
+Fenja. He set them to grind at the quern by day, and by night when
+all slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity,
+they sang:
+
+"We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of
+riches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he sleep on
+down, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall
+no man hurt another, prepare evil nor work death, nor hew with the
+keen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound."
+
+But when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest,
+Frodi answered: "Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo is silent,
+or while I speak one stave." Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:
+
+"Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst
+choose us for our strength and size but asked not our race. Bold
+were Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were
+our ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants
+sprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains
+from their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants,
+so that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's house,
+meeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold
+over our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is dreary at Frodi's."
+
+As they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead
+of grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire and sword:
+
+"Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see
+fire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war awakes, the
+signal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall
+over the king."
+
+So the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing
+sailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split; and then
+the daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: "We have ground
+to our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood long at the mill."
+
+A Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any
+hero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the mill bring
+disaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall,
+he took the stones and the bondmaids on board his ship, and bade them
+grind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom
+of the sea, where the mill is grinding still. This is not in the song,
+though it has lived longer popularly than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg
+identities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_.--No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the
+Hjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must,
+however, be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of
+the old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent of
+the Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made
+later. The legend is that Hild, daughter of Hoegni, was carried away by
+Hedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. Hoegni pursued, and overtook them
+near the Orkneys. Then Hild went to her father and offered atonement
+from Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and Hoegni
+need expect no mercy. Hoegni answered shortly, and Hild returning told
+Hedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare
+to fight. Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin
+called to Hoegni and offered atonement and much gold, but Hoegni said it
+was too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening,
+and then returned to their ships; but Hild went on shore and woke up
+all the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day
+just as before. Every day they fight, and every night the dead are
+recalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnaroek.
+
+In the German poem, _Gudrun_, the Continental version of this legend
+occurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the
+minstrel Horant (who thus plays a more active part than the Norse
+Hjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her
+father Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a
+reconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's
+daughter Gudrun, and the battle on the Wuelpensand.
+
+Another reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines
+14-16 from the Anglo-Saxon _Deor_, of which the most satisfactory
+translation seems to be: "Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild;
+the Jute's loves were unbounded, so that the care of love took
+from him sleep altogether." Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father
+a Jute, instead of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him
+in making Hedin Norwegian; but in the _Gudrun_	Hettel is Frisian or
+Jutish. The Anglo-Saxon _Widsith_ mentions in one line Hagena, king of
+the Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas
+(not identified), who may be the Hoegni and Hedin of this tale.
+
+The Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ
+from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem _Deor_ is supposed to be spoken
+by a _scop_ or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of
+his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, another singer: "Once I was the
+Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had
+a good service and a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda
+received the rights which the protector of men once granted me." Like
+Heorrenda, Horant in the _Gudrun_ is a singer in the service of the
+Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with
+the Heathnings, but gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active
+part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin
+of the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the
+correct form.
+
+The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun,
+founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In the Norse
+story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost
+eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild accompanies him,
+though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is
+her only object. It is her mediation which brings about the battle,
+when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and
+her arts which cause the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle
+among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured
+by, if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: Hoegni and Hedin and
+their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and feast
+at night, Hild is a war-goddess. The conception of her character,
+contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German
+heroines (who are rather the causes than the inciters of strife),
+can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.
+
+Hoegni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic
+weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims a victim
+whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have
+arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.
+
+_The Sword of Angantyr_.--Like the two last legends, Angantyr's
+story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by
+Snorri. Yet poems belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good
+fortune in the late mythical _Hervarar Saga_)  which among the heroic
+poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story
+possesses besides a striking originality, and is connected with the
+name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry,
+I cannot follow the example of most editors and omit it from the
+heroic poems.
+
+Like the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a
+general similarity of outline, with the exception that the hero is in
+this case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing,
+which Svafrlami got by force from the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it:
+that it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be
+healed, and it should claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In
+the saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no
+doubt, in order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation
+of the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,
+beside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Hervoer.
+
+The earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is
+killed, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim, who thus
+gains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to
+Angantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons. For a while no one
+can withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle
+of Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage,
+the twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man
+except the two leaders who have landed on the island. The battle
+over, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they
+are attacked by the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the
+brothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his
+sword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally
+wounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen where they
+fell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem
+gives the challenge of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.
+
+Hervoer, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female
+counterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's death,
+and brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she
+goes forth without delay to claim her inheritance from the dead, even
+with the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On
+reaching the island where her father fell, she asks a shepherd to
+guide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:
+
+"I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me
+quickly, where are the graves called Hjoervard's howes?"
+
+He is unwilling: "The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark
+shade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening, field and fen
+are aflame," and flees into the woods, but Hervoer is dauntless and
+goes on alone. She reaches the howes, and calls on the sons of Arngrim:
+
+"Awake, Angantyr! Hervoer calls thee, only daughter to thee and
+Tofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs forged
+for Svafrlami, Hervard, Hjoervard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all
+from below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet, with sharp sword,
+shield and harness, and reddened spear."
+
+Angantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: "Neither father, son,
+nor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;" but Hervoer does
+not believe him. "Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine
+only child her heritage." He tries to frighten her back to the ships
+by describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again,
+"Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!"
+
+A. "Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in
+fire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword in her hands."
+
+H. "I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear
+no burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it."
+
+A. "Foolish art thou, Hervoer the fearless, to rush into the fire
+open-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe, young maid;
+I cannot refuse thee."
+
+H. "Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the
+howe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway."
+
+Her father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword
+will bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:
+"Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength
+and energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!"
+
+It is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working
+out the doom over later generations; over Hervoer's son Heidrek, who
+forfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children,
+another Angantyr, Hlod, and a second Hervoer. The verse sources for
+this latter part are very corrupt.
+
+A full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental
+versions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing pages would,
+of course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that
+can be done in that direction is to suggest a few points. Three of
+the stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are
+purely Scandinavian cycles; while though Angantyr is a well-known
+heroic name (in _Widsith_ Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the
+legend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive
+elsewhere. The Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the
+versions localise it, for the names in _Voelundarkvida_, Wolfdale,
+Myrkwood, &c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a
+very early date in England, and is probably a Pan-Germanic legend. The
+Sigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions,
+localised on the Continent, the former by the Rhine, the latter in
+Friesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence
+they must have spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were
+doubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century. On
+the question of their passage to the North there are wide differences
+of opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an earlier and a later
+passage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the
+second, about the twelfth or thirteenth century, the Volsungs again,
+with perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to
+the date of the first transmission. Muellenhoff put it as early as 600;
+Konrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther
+is of opinion that the Volsung story passed first to the vikings in
+France, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not
+before the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very
+slight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians
+had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more
+highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the case of the
+Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The
+earliest Norse references which can be approximately dated are in the
+Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three
+stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he gives in outline; his only
+reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, "the Volsungs' drink," for
+serpent. With the possible exception of the Anglo-Saxon fragments,
+the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories
+which are common to all, though, as might be expected, the Continental
+sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These
+German sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved
+mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.
+
+The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less
+common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule merely in
+their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their
+material. The origin of these heroic motives may generally be found in
+primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people
+and woven into legend; sometimes linked to the name of some dead tribal
+hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions
+in still-varying combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson
+and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the
+myth. In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it
+is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
+and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.
+
+The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic
+motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a dead man's
+possessions with him. In the _Waterdale Saga_, Ketil Raum, a viking
+of the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein
+as a degenerate, in that he expects to inherit his father's wealth,
+instead of winning fortune for himself: "It used to be the custom
+with kings and earls, men of our kind, that they won for themselves
+fortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons
+inherit from their fathers, but rather lay their possessions in the
+howe with them." It is easy to see that when this custom came into
+conflict with the son's natural desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity
+of the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only
+protection against violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking
+the custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of
+Angantyr and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the
+violation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In
+_Gold-Thori's Saga_, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are
+found guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori
+himself is said to have turned into a dragon after death.
+
+Marriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story
+has been postulated as means of transmission and as the one possible
+explanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more
+simplicity be assumed as the common basis in custom for independently
+arising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to
+prevent the marriage, and of the bridegroom's to undo it, would be
+natural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by
+and against the bride would be the mythical representatives of the
+mutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least
+offers a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of
+or unfaithfulness to his protectress, after their successful escape
+together.
+
+In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double
+attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
+with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of Caesar
+and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in the heroines
+of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines
+the two primitive instincts, love and fighting, even though the woman
+may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The
+peculiarity of the Germanic representation is that the woman is never
+passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even
+if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking part herself in the fight,
+she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back
+to the battle from which they have escaped. Hild and Hervoer are at
+one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing
+more than instinct; in Hervoer it is not even that: she would desire
+nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other
+extreme is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a
+lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The interest
+in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually
+considered the strongest feminine instincts, without, however, by
+any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising revenge and pride
+of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both
+trains of feeling; and she dies with the husband she detests, simply
+because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type,
+as independent in love as in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun,
+or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover;
+from no lack of spirit, but simply because revenge would have given
+no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief,
+but the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.
+
+The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The
+burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into the howe,
+are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The "sister's son" is
+preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfjoetli tale, which also has a trace
+of animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs
+in two, the Voelund story and the legend of Helgi and Kara; while the
+first Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of
+Svava to her husband's brother. The waverlowe of the Volsung myth
+may be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild
+by Sigurd's crossing the fire would thus, like the similar bridal
+of Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on
+the marriages which formed a part of agricultural rites.
+
+
+
+
+
+Bibliographical Notes
+
+
+To avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the
+word "saga," it may be as well to state that it is here used only in
+its technical sense of a prose history.
+
+_Voelund_. (Pages 5 to 8.)
+
+Dr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying Voelund with Thiazi,
+the giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments
+from names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps
+undue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult to see any
+fundamental likenesses in the stories.
+
+The Old English references to Weland are in the _Waldere_ fragment
+and the _Lament of Deor_. For the Franks Casket, see Professor
+Napier's discussion, with photographs, in the _English Miscellany_
+(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The _Thidreks Saga_ (sometimes
+called _Vilkina Saga_), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853),
+and by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations:
+by Rassmann (_Heldensage,_ (1863), and by Von der Hagen (_Nordische
+Heldenromane_, 1873).
+
+_The Volsungs_. (Pages 8 to 27.)
+
+As divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle,
+including the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:
+
+_Gripisspa_.
+
+_Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal_, a continued narrative compiled
+from different sources.
+
+_Sigurd Fragment_, on the death of Sigurd.
+
+_First Gudrun Lay_, on Gudrun's mourning, late.
+
+_Short Sigurd Lay_ (called _Long Brynhild Lay_ in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_; sometimes called _Third Sigurd Lay_). style late.
+
+_Brynhild's Hellride_, a continuation of the preceding.
+
+_Second_, or _Old, Gudrun Lay_, is also late. It contains more kennings
+than are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in
+Denmark and the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter,
+together with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period
+which had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.
+
+_Third Gudrun Lay_, or the _Ordeal of Gudrun_ (after her marriage to
+Atli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich)
+is introduced.
+
+_Oddrun's Lament_, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue
+with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung
+legend.
+
+The two Atli Lays _(Atlakvida_ and _Atlamal_, the latter of Greenland
+origin), deal with the death of Gunnar and Hoegni, and Gudrun's
+vengeance on Atli.
+
+_Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_ belong to the Ermanric cycle.
+
+_Volsung Paraphrases_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Skaldskaparmal, Voelsunga Saga_ and _Norna-Gests Thattr_  (containing
+another short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's _Die
+Prosaische Edda_ (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of
+_Voelsunga_ by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version
+of _Voelsunga_  and _Norna-Gest_ by Edzardi.
+
+_Nibelungenlied_.  (Page 11.)
+
+Editions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899);
+translation into modern German by Simrock.
+
+_Signy and Siggeir_.  (Page 13.)
+
+Saxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter
+of Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers, wins her
+favour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of
+Signy's windows, and she set fire to her house that she might die
+simultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this
+story is proved by the kenning "Hagbard's collar" for halter, in a
+poem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference
+in _Voelsunga Saga_, that "Haki and Hagbard were great and famous
+men, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to
+vengeance," shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible
+that Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account
+of the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of
+vulgarity absent from the primitive story.
+
+In a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and
+Dr. W.H. Schofield (_The First Riddle of Cynewulf_ and _Signy's
+Lament_. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902)
+it is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter Book
+is in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse "Complaint"
+spoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and form is all in
+favour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any
+straining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's second contention, that the
+poem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin
+for the Eddie poems, is not equally convincing. The existence in
+Anglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any
+of the Eddie poems, or even the original Norse "Signy's Lament"
+postulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.
+
+It seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of
+British legend on the Volsung story. The points in which the story
+of Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus
+prove nothing in the face of equally strong points of correspondence
+between Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.
+
+_Sinfjoetli's Death_. (Page 14.)
+
+Munch (_Nordmaendenes Gudelaere_, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously
+identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfjoetli
+to Valhalla, since he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having
+fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional
+character.
+
+_Sigmund and Sinfjoetli_. (Page 15.)
+
+It seems probable, on the evidence of _Beowulf_, that Sigmund and
+Sinfjoetli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and
+Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental stage. Possibly Helgi may then be
+the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence
+the epithet Hunnish, constantly applied to him, and the localising
+of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the
+Brynhild part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian
+origin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that
+the _Nibelungen Lied_  places Prunhilt in Iceland.
+
+_Wagner and the Volsung Cycle_. (Page 26.)
+
+Wagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ is remarkable not only for the way
+in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfjoetli and the
+Sigurd traditions, but also for the wonderful instinct which chooses
+the best and most primitive features of both Norse and Continental
+versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of
+the German; preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and
+substitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores
+the original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives
+the latter character, and an active instead of a passive function
+in the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action;
+and by substituting for the slaying of the otter the bargain with
+the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of
+the catastrophe.
+
+_Ermanric_. (Page 27.)
+
+For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see
+Tylor's _Primitive Culture_.
+
+_The Helgi Lays_. (Page 29.)
+
+The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them
+later for the sake of greater clearness.
+
+_Helgi and Kara_. (Page 30.)
+
+_Hromundar Saga Gripssonar_, in which this story is given, is worthless
+as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. Mueller's
+_Sagabibliothek_, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and
+Swedish translations may be found in Bjoerner's _Nordiske Kampa Dater_
+(Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.
+
+_Rebirth_. (Page 31.)
+
+Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in
+the _Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi_, ix. He collects instances, and among
+other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous
+child after its dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The
+inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable instance
+occurs in _Viga-Glums Saga_, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his
+luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the _Waterdale Saga_ there
+are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead
+grandfather will pass to the grandson who receives his name. Scholars
+do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi
+poems, some holding the view that it is an essential part of the story.
+
+_Hunding_. (Page 32.)
+
+It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so,
+the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the natural
+enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has
+a feud with MacCon (_i.e._, Son of a Dog), which means the same as
+Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in
+the Bodleian MS. Laud, 610.
+
+_Thorgerd Holgabrud_.  (Page 33.)
+
+Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.
+
+_Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois_. (Page 33.)
+
+See _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this
+series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in
+the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the
+_Teutonic Mythology_, and by Mr. Nutt in the _Voyage of Bran_.
+
+_Ballads_. (Page 36.)
+
+Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of _Clerk
+Saunders_ as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi
+story in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's
+hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.
+
+The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in Danish as in
+Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark,
+England and Scotland is strongly in favour of the presumption that
+Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the
+presumption that the poems in question passed from the British Isles
+to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive
+on this point. There is an English translation of the latter by
+R.C.A. Prior (_Ancient Danish Ballads_, London, 1860).
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_. (Page 39.)
+
+The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject,
+given with a translation in the _Corpus_, vol. ii. Saxo's version
+is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a
+necklace, which has caused comparison of this story with that of the
+Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle
+in which the slain revive each night and renew the fight daily, as
+occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached
+Ireland. According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in
+the East, and taught it to the Danes.
+
+The latest edition of the _Gudrun_ is by Ernst Martin (second edition,
+Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.
+
+_Angantyr_. (Page 42.)
+
+The poems of this cycle are four in number--(1) _Hjalmar's
+Death-song_: (2) _Angantyr and Hervoer_; (3) _Heidrek's Riddle-Poem_:
+(4) _Angantyr the Younger and Hlod_. All are given in the first volume
+of the _Corpus_, with translations.
+
+_Herrarar Saga_ was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829-30) in
+_Fornaldar Soegur_, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently
+edited by Dr. Bugge, together with _Voelsunga_ and others. Petersen
+(Copenhagen, 1847) edited it with a Danish translation. Munch's
+_Nordmuendenes Gudelaere_ (out of print) contains a short abstract.
+
+_Death of Angantyr_. (Page 43.)
+
+Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion
+of all mythical interest.
+
+_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)
+
+Muellenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift fuer deutsches
+Altertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift fuer deutsche
+Philologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see
+_Germania_, 33.
+
+_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)
+
+See also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.
+
+The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival
+of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage,
+of which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.
+
+_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)
+
+For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang,
+_Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).
+
+_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)
+
+See Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor
+Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the
+British Association, 1900. The double relationship between Sigmund
+and Sinfjoetli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and
+Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same
+cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies,
+where the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of
+the pure royal blood.
+
+_Swanmaids_.  (Page 51.)
+
+See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._
+
+_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)
+
+Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages
+connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see
+Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is
+right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal
+lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would
+be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c.,
+which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to
+the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's
+sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the
+Valhalla myth.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by _Ballantyne, Hanson & Co_
+London & Edinburgh
+
+
+
+
+
+
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diff --git a/13008.zip b/13008.zip
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+eBook #13008 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13008)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 2
+       The Heroic Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+       
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+
+
+The Edda
+
+II
+
+The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+
+The present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (_The Edda: Divine Mythology
+of the North_), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter
+and for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references
+are given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.
+
+Manchester,
+July 1902.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: II. The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+Sigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica
+of Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and the Heodenings,
+and Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known
+to the writers of our earliest English literature. But in most cases
+the only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there,
+with no hint of the story attached. For circumstances directed the
+poetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints
+and Biblical paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race;
+while later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our
+literature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless,
+these few brief references in _Beowulf_ and in the small group of
+heathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the
+hero-poems of the Edda. In studying these heroic poems, therefore,
+we are confronted by problems entirely different in character from
+those which have to be considered in connexion with the mythical
+texts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern,
+branch of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series),
+and the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,
+however altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and
+as such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance, as well
+as in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore
+late and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda, on the contrary,
+with the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in
+the literatures of the other great branches of the Germanic race,
+and these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.
+
+The Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:
+
+(_a_) _Weland the Smith_.--Anglo-Saxon literature has several
+references to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one;
+and there is also a late Continental German version preserved in
+an Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest
+connected form of the story.
+
+(_b_) _Sigurd and the Nibelungs_.--Again the oldest reference is in
+Anglo-Saxon.  There are two well-known Continental German versions
+in the _Nibelungen Lied_ and the late Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_,
+but the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the
+legend. With it is loosely connected
+
+(_c_) _The Ermanric Cycle_.--The oldest references to this are in Latin
+and Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the _Thidreks Saga_
+is late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd
+story, with which it had originally nothing to do.
+
+(_d_) _Helgi_.--This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar
+to the Scandinavian North.
+
+All the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder
+Edda. From other sources we may add other poems which are Eddic, not
+Skaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The
+great majority of the poems deal with the favourite story of the
+Volsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after
+another, Burgundian, Hun, Goth, was absorbed into it. The poems in this
+part of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the
+mythological ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and
+lack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular poetry.
+
+_Völund_.--The lay of Völund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of
+the Old English poems and the only Germanic hero who survived for
+any considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in
+its cycle, and is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very
+fragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short
+pieces of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids,
+and the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,
+Egil and Völund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built
+themselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early one
+morning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying
+beside them. The brothers took them home; but after seven years the
+swan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did
+not return.
+
+"Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized
+them, and in the ninth need parted them." Egil and Slagfinn went to
+seek their wives, but Völund stayed where he was and worked at his
+forge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:
+
+"Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by
+the waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,
+and went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the
+hero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and put, them on
+again, all but one. The keen-eyed archer Völund came in from hunting,
+from a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin and counted his rings, and
+the prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's daughter,
+the fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep,
+and awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his hands, and fetters
+clasped on his feet."
+
+They took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to
+forge treasures for his captors. Then Völund planned vengeance:
+
+"'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best,
+and which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade is taken
+from me for ever; I shall not see it borne to Völund's smithy. Now
+Bödvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no atonement.' He sat
+and slept not, but struck with his hammer."
+
+Nithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew,
+and made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls; and the daughter
+Bödvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the
+air and left her weeping for her lover and Nithud mourning his sons.
+
+In the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part
+of the story; there is no reference to the legend of the enchanted
+brides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with
+the common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged to return to animal
+shape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This
+incident of the compact (_i.e._, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain
+from asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been
+lost in the Völund tale. The Continental version is told in the late
+Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_, where it is brought into connexion with
+the Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the
+archer, is also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures
+on the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,
+dated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the
+third brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon gives
+Völund and Bödvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as
+a follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German sources.
+
+_The Volsungs_.--No story better illustrates the growth of heroic
+legend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical
+motives combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession
+more and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and
+still more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought
+into dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject are
+quite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary,
+several late, and only one attempts a review of the whole story. The
+outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother
+of Sinfjötli, slays the dragon who guards the Nibelungs' hoard on
+the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which accompanies
+the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in
+an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire, loves her and plights
+troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment
+causes him to forget the Valkyrie, to love her own daughter Gudrun,
+and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son
+Gunnar. After the marriage, Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites
+her husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.
+
+The series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfjötli,
+which says that after Sinfjötli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's son (which
+should be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name),
+had been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild, Sigmund married Hjördis,
+Eylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the
+race of Hunding. Sigmund, as in all other Norse sources, is said to be
+king in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the _Nibelungen Lied_,
+means the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always
+near that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the treasure of
+the Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the Völund lay.
+
+_Gripisspa_ (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately
+placed first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the
+whole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the
+wisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer prophesies
+his adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original
+features of the legend which are obscured elsewhere, especially in the
+Gudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach
+of faith to Brynhild. In the speeches of both Gripi and Sigurd, the
+poet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith,
+while the seer repeatedly protests his innocence in breaking it: "Thou
+shalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No
+better man shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd." On
+the other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and the
+sleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like
+all poems in this form, _Gripisspa_ is a late composition embodying
+earlier tradition.
+
+The other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form
+a continued narrative. _Gripisspa_ is followed by a compilation from
+two or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three
+parts in the editions: _Reginsmal_ gives the early history of the
+treasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons;
+_Fafnismal_, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking
+birds; _Sigrdrifumal_, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows
+a fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem
+generally called the _Third_, or _Short, Sigurd Lay_ (which tells of
+the marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing of Brynhild for Gunnar)
+continue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of
+Brynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the fates of the other heroes who
+became connected with the legend of the treasure.
+
+In addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story
+is given by Snorri in _Skaldskaparmal_, but it is founded almost
+entirely on the surviving lays. _Völsunga Saga_ is also a paraphrase,
+but more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and
+it therefore, to some extent, represents independent tradition. It
+was, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the
+great saga-time was over, in the decadent fourteenth century, when
+material of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological,
+was hastily cast into saga-form. It is not, like the _Nibelungen
+Lied_, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of
+greater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler
+did not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast
+his material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely to his
+originals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite
+literary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore, _Völsunga_
+is far behind not only such great works as _Njala_, but also many of
+the smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies;
+it is often careless in grammar and diction; it is full of traces
+of the decadent romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance,
+is endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no
+improvement on the heroic tradition, "Courage is better than a good
+sword." At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to
+efface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates
+against him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic
+sagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief
+in the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the whole idea
+of sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the
+character of Brynhild, without the compensating elevation in that of
+her rival by which the _Nibelungen Lied_ places Chriemhild on a height
+as lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie;
+the Brynhild of _Völsunga Saga_ is something of a virago, the Gudrun
+is jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is
+absolutely to be trusted; and _Völsunga Saga_ is therefore, in spite
+of artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features
+of the legend.
+
+There are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the
+dragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild. The latter is
+brought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real
+centre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon reference, the fragment in
+_Beowulf_, the second episode does not appear.
+
+In this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague
+reference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfjötli, consists solely
+of the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the
+Waelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela (Sinfjötli)
+not being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and
+loaded a ship with the treasure. The few preceding lines only mention
+the war which Sigmund and Sinfjötli waged on their foes. They are there
+uncle and nephew, and there is no suggestion of the closer relationship
+assigned to them by _Völsunga Saga_, which tells their story in full.
+
+Sigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of
+miraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen
+heroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to
+Siggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast Odin enters
+and thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the
+middle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only the chosen Sigmund
+succeeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling
+bride, invites her father and brothers to a feast. Though suspecting
+treachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund
+who is secretly saved by his sister and hidden in the wood. She
+meditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten,
+she tests their courage, and finding it wanting makes Sigmund kill
+both: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She
+therefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and her third son, Sinfjötli,
+is the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to
+live in the wood with Sigmund, who only knows him as Signy's son. For
+years they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for
+vengeance. They set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing
+Sinfjötli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,
+her vengeance achieved:
+
+"I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our
+father; Sinfjötli has a warrior's might because he is both son's son
+and daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end,
+that King Siggeir should meet his death; I have so toiled for the
+achieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As
+I lived by force with King Siggeir, of free will shall I die with him."
+
+Though no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly
+primitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity. _Völsunga_
+then reproduces the substance of the prose _Death of Sinfjötli_
+mentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems
+to be to remove Sinfjötli and leave the field clear for Sigurd. It
+preserves a touch which may be original in Sinfjötli's burial, which
+resembles that of Scyld in _Beowulf_: his father lays him in a boat
+steered by an old man, which immediately disappears.
+
+Sigmund and Sinfjötli are always close comrades, "need-companions"
+as the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and form one
+story. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father
+Sigmund's death. _Völsunga_ says that Sigmund fell in battle against
+Hunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt
+that he "knew not how to give the victory fairly," shattered with his
+spear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again we have
+to depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in _Hyndluljod_:
+"The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund
+a sword." And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless childhood is
+only to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself
+a false name he says to Fafni: "I came a motherless child; I have no
+father like the sons of men." Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of
+the sword to be given to his unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather
+Regin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's
+first deed was to avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father
+and his mother's father. _Völsunga_ tells this story first of Helgi
+and Sinfjötli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the
+deed. It is followed by the dragon-slaying.
+
+Up to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same
+features which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfjötli. Both are probably,
+like Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is
+the usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a
+third type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by
+_Völsunga_ to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes
+a deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the
+hero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund
+and Sinfjötli version. Among those Germanic races which brought the
+legend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one,
+and Sigmund and Sinfjötli practically drop out.
+
+The Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than
+that of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied with
+the existence of the monster "old and proud of his treasure," but
+here we are told its full previous history, certain features of which
+(such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was
+originally connected with the Volsungs or not.
+
+As usual, _Völsunga_ gives the fullest account, in the form of a
+story told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay
+the dragon. Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar;
+one of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen by
+three of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar
+demanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's skin, and Loki
+obtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall
+in the form of a fish, and allowing him to ransom his head by giving
+up his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain;
+and thereupon he laid a curse upon it: that the ring with the rest
+of the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of
+it. In giving the gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the
+ring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of
+the two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse,
+for the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay guarding it in
+the shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of
+possessing the hoard: he adopted as his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung,
+thus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.
+
+The curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between
+the two parts of the story, since it directly accounts for Sigurd's
+unconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves
+the hero from blame by making him a victim of fate. It destroys in turn
+Hreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself,
+Brynhild (to whom he gave the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed
+inheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects
+still further.
+
+This narrative is also told in the pieces of prose interspersed through
+_Reginsmal_. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first
+of these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf
+Andvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result
+from the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer wager, and
+the captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less
+general terms than in the prose: "My gold shall be the death of two
+brothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in
+the possession of my treasure." Next comes a short dialogue between
+Loki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he
+runs in taking the hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his
+daughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on
+their own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son
+may avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hjördis,
+Sigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended,
+it may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy. The next
+fragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the
+young Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of Sigurd's follows, in
+which he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father
+on Hunding's sons. The rest of the poem is concerned with the battle
+with Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.
+
+The fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this
+poetry being in narrative form; but _Fafnismal_ gives a dialogue
+between the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung
+against the hoard: "The ringing gold and the glowing treasure, the
+rings shall be thy death." Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim
+"Every man must die some time," and asks questions of the dragon in the
+manner of _Vafthrudnismal_. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks
+of his brother's intended treachery: "Regin betrayed me, he will betray
+thee; he will be the death of both of us," and dies. Regin returning
+bids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece tells
+that Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in
+his mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The advice given him
+by the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats
+itself; the substance is a warning to Sigurd against the treachery
+plotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so
+become sole owner of the hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning:
+"Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence:
+both brothers shall go quickly hence to Hel." Regin's enjoyment of
+the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins
+when one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to
+the sleeping Valkyrie:
+
+"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a
+maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green
+roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a
+mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There
+is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I
+know a battle-maid who sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over
+her; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others
+than those he wished to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who
+rode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken,
+son of heroes, by the Norns' decrees."
+
+Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may
+have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and it was probably
+such passages as this that misled the author of _Gripisspa_  into
+differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been
+differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd not to seek Brynhild and
+an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the
+deed; they may merely mean that her sleep cannot be broken except by
+one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin
+is clearly shown here, and also in the prose in _Sigrdrifumal. Völsunga
+Saga_, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic
+sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing her
+with a genealogy and family connections; while the _Nibelungen Lied_
+goes further still in the same direction by leaving out the magic
+sleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which
+Odin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
+
+Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess,
+popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping
+Beauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, "What cut my
+mail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me the dark
+spells?" and his answer, "Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword," she
+bursts into the famous "Greeting to the World":
+
+"Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's
+misfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes of
+sleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with
+gracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here. Hail, Aesir! hail,
+Asynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us
+the wonderful pair, and hands of healing while we live."
+
+She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of
+his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which are to help him
+in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who
+is the hero's benefactress, but whom he deserts through sorcery: the
+"Mastermaid" of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is
+always an innocent instrument in drawing Sigurd away from his real
+bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part
+of the story is summarised in _Gripisspa_, except that the writer
+seems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd "every mystery
+that men would know" and the princess he betrays are the same:
+
+"A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew
+with thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer.... She
+will teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in
+every man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling and be the
+great king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's;
+men call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter, but the great king Heimi
+fosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob
+thee of all joy; thou shalt sleep no sleep, and judge no cause,
+and care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear
+all binding oaths but keep few when thou hast been one night Giuki's
+guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou
+shalt suffer treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's
+plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter."
+
+_Völsunga_ gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer
+to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear
+oaths to each other. The description of their second meeting, when
+he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will marry
+Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before
+the latter's marriage, represent a later development of the story,
+inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd
+gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which belonged to the hoard,
+as a pledge, and takes it from her again later when he woos her in
+Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's
+hand which reveals to her the deception; but the episode has also
+a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the
+central action by passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's
+paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in
+Gunnar's form.
+
+For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on _Gripisspa_ and
+_Völsunga_. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings,
+gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell in love
+with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship
+with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After
+the two bridals, he remembered his first passing through the flame,
+and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered,
+but thinking that Gunnar had fairly won her, accepted her fate until
+Gudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played
+on her. Of the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed;
+but death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells
+Gunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with
+some reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild springs on to
+the funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  _Völsunga_ makes the murder
+take place in Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the _Short Sigurd Lay_,
+agrees. The fragment which follows _Sigrdrifumal_, on the other hand,
+places the scene in the open air:
+
+"Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud:
+'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths shall destroy
+you.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first
+words she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd, the lord of men, that my kinsmen
+ride first?' Högni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder
+with the sword; the grey horse still stoops over his dead lord.'"
+
+This agrees with the _Old Gudrun Lay_ and with the Continental German
+version, as a prose epilogue points out.
+
+Of the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light:
+he gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath to Sigurd by a
+quibble. Högni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von
+Tronje of the _Nibelungen Lied_, advises Gunnar against breaking his
+oath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of
+the cycle try to make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists
+between the first and second halves of the _Nibelungen Lied_. Their
+half-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the
+actual murderer of Sigurd.
+
+The chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on
+the legend is a loss of sympathy with the heroic type of Brynhild,
+and an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The
+Shield-maiden of divine origin and unearthly wisdom, with her
+unrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her
+slighter rival ("Fitter would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd,
+if she had a soul like mine"), is a figure out of harmony with the new
+religion, and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance;
+while both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be on the
+side of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the
+_Short Sigurd Lay_, which has many marks of lateness, such as the
+elaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of
+the signs of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild,
+nor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The _Nibelungen
+Lied_ suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and
+altogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her mother's
+name); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness
+of the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal to anything in the
+original version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less
+successful attempt to create sympathy for Gudrun; some, such as the
+so-called _First Gudrun Lay_, which is entirely romantic in character,
+try to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others,
+to make her heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.
+
+The remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal
+with the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their existence
+to a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The
+curse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings inherit it with the
+hoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun,
+said to be Brynhild's brother. He invited Gunnar and Högni to his
+court and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for
+which Gudrun killed her own two sons and Atli; this latter incident
+being possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun,
+like Chriemhild in the _Nibelungen Lied_, married Atli in order to
+gain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion
+here: that she herself incited the murder of her brothers, and killed
+Atli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part
+of Gudrun, who as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But
+in all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story
+with that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.
+
+One point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the
+story. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings, Gunnar and
+Högni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title
+of the first _aventiure_ of the _Nibelungen Lied_ also apparently uses
+the word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the Nibelungs'
+hoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when
+Hagen von Tronje tells the story later in the poem, he speaks of the
+Nibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this
+point, therefore, the German preserves the older tradition: the Norse
+Andvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In
+the _Nibelungen Lied_ the winning of the treasure forms no part of
+the action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the
+shortening of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps:
+the robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ermanric.--_The two poems of _Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_,
+in the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to
+that of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems, Gudrun,
+Giuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, Sörli,
+Hamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and Sigurd's daughter,
+to Jörmunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her
+husband had her trodden to death by horses' hoofs. The description
+of Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:
+
+"The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild
+was like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her with gold
+and goodly fabrics when I married her into Gothland. That was the
+hardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the
+dust beneath the horses' hoofs."
+
+Gudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them
+slew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack on
+Jörmunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were
+of Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild,
+survived. _Heimskringla_, a thirteenth century history of the royal
+races of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.
+
+This Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than
+myth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or Nibelung
+cycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being
+probably linked to Gudrun's name because she had become a favourite
+character and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The
+historic Ermanric was conquered by the Huns in 374; the sixth century
+historian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he
+was murdered by Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death
+by wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity
+of names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars,
+the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic and
+a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story
+became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of
+Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in stories like
+the _Golden Bird_, told by both Asbjörnsen and Grimm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Helgi._--The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the
+heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hjörvardsson
+being sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but
+essentially the stories are the same.
+
+In _Helyi Hjörvardsson_, Helgi, son of Hjörvard and Sigrlinn, was dumb
+and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he
+saw a troop of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter,
+named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a former
+wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a
+magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava, having escaped
+from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie
+bride and the wit of a faithful servant. His brother Hedin, through
+the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he
+told his brother, who, dying in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged
+Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds "Helgi and Svava
+are said to have been born again."
+
+In _Helgi Hundingsbane I_., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and
+Borghild. He fought and slew Hunding, and afterwards met in battle
+Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, Högni's
+daughter, protected him, and challenged him to fight Hödbrodd to whom
+her father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which
+overtook them as they sailed to meet Hödbrodd, and watched over him in
+the battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor by
+Sigrun: "Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red
+rings and the mighty maid: thine are Högni's daughter and Hringstad,
+the victory and the land."
+
+_Helgi Hundingsbane II_., besides giving additional details of the
+hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with Hödbrodd,
+Helgi killed all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew
+him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened by
+Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector
+again adds a note: "Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been born again:
+he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's
+daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod, and she was a Valkyrie."
+
+This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the _Kara-ljod_
+having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund
+Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid: while
+she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging
+his sword.
+
+There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the
+same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents and names
+differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his
+legend probably come from different localities. The collector could
+not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental
+to be overlooked; he therefore accounted for it by the old idea of
+re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an
+hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a
+Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,
+though differently.
+
+The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks
+of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of
+superficial resemblance. Helgi Hjörvardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,
+Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_
+Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is
+a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfjötli; his first
+fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,
+Hödbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell
+(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn
+friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the
+Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not
+accidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this
+is especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfjötli's Death_
+also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfjötli; it is followed in this
+by _Völsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing
+_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. There is, of course, confusion over the
+Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting
+authorities by making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and
+Sigurd kill the rest.
+
+If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct,
+the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems, must be
+extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung
+cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfjötli. It must not be forgotten that,
+though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later
+versions, both Scandinavian and German, he is in the main action
+in the earliest one (that in _Beowulf_), where even Sigurd does not
+appear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi
+as well as to Sigurd, for invention is limited as regards episodes,
+and a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero
+is often forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's
+blood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.
+
+The origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung
+cycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should be Holgi,
+and there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. With
+the legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it
+with that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in common; and the
+connection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is
+equally difficult to establish. The essence of this latter story is
+the hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his
+return sometime in the future: a motive which has been very fruitful
+in Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and
+Barbarossa, among countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi
+poems; and the "old wives' tales" of Helgi's re-birth have nothing
+to do with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect
+stories which he felt to be the same though different.
+
+The essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive
+familiar in that class of ballads of which the _Douglas Tragedy_ is a
+type: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen
+kill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story told in both the
+lays of _Helgi Hundingsbane_, complete in one, unfinished in the
+other. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some
+survive in one version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.
+
+Like Sinfjötli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends
+his childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and on leaving it,
+sends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. They pursue
+him, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad,
+to disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:
+
+"Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who
+stands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs in two. It
+is a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is
+better fitted for those hands than the mill-handle."
+
+Sigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and
+Scottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one brother. He
+tells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover
+and kinsmen:
+
+_Helgi_. "Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things,
+though the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and Högni fell to-day
+at Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie
+low. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to be a cause
+of strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us;
+heroes must meet their fate."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in
+thy arms."
+
+The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi,
+but remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse Sigmund tale,
+through Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi
+in a grove, and rides home to tell his sister. Sigrun is inconsolable,
+and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:
+
+"May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the
+ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind lie behind. May
+the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from
+thy foes. May the sword bite not that thou drawest, unless it sing
+round thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's
+death were avenged.... Never again while I live, by night or day,
+shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's
+company, nor the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior."
+
+But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's
+weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:
+
+_Sigrun_. "Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched
+with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee help,
+my hero?"
+
+_Helgi_. "Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi
+is drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before thou
+goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls
+on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy with grief...."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the
+Wolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert alive."
+
+_Helgi_. "There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late,
+than that thou, king-born, Högni's fair daughter, shouldst be alive
+in the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms."
+
+The lay of Helgi Hjörvardsson is furthest from the original, for there
+is no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die at their hands;
+but it preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride
+to his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English ballad of
+_Earl Brand_, and the heroine of the Danish _Ribold and Guldborg_,
+Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to
+return and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would be contrary to
+all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.
+
+The alternative ending of the _Helgi and Kara_	version is interesting
+as providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing
+with the same type of story. In _The Cruel Knight_, as here, the
+hero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One
+passage of _Helgi Hundingsbane II._  describes Helgi's entrance into
+Valhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him
+in the howe, supplies an instance of the survival side by side of
+inconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return
+from the grave is the subject of _Clerk Saunders_ (the second part)
+and several other Scottish ballads.
+
+_The Song of the Mill_.--The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale,
+"Why the sea is salt"; but this is not the oldest part of the story,
+though it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves
+legendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a
+mythical Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked
+by a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of Frodi
+became proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that
+follows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work _Grottasöngr_
+is embodied.
+
+Frodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could
+grind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong enough to turn
+them until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and
+Fenja. He set them to grind at the quern by day, and by night when
+all slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity,
+they sang:
+
+"We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of
+riches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he sleep on
+down, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall
+no man hurt another, prepare evil nor work death, nor hew with the
+keen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound."
+
+But when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest,
+Frodi answered: "Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo is silent,
+or while I speak one stave." Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:
+
+"Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst
+choose us for our strength and size but asked not our race. Bold
+were Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were
+our ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants
+sprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains
+from their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants,
+so that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's house,
+meeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold
+over our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is dreary at Frodi's."
+
+As they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead
+of grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire and sword:
+
+"Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see
+fire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war awakes, the
+signal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall
+over the king."
+
+So the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing
+sailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split; and then
+the daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: "We have ground
+to our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood long at the mill."
+
+A Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any
+hero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the mill bring
+disaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall,
+he took the stones and the bondmaids on board his ship, and bade them
+grind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom
+of the sea, where the mill is grinding still. This is not in the song,
+though it has lived longer popularly than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg
+identities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_.--No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the
+Hjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must,
+however, be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of
+the old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent of
+the Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made
+later. The legend is that Hild, daughter of Högni, was carried away by
+Hedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. Högni pursued, and overtook them
+near the Orkneys. Then Hild went to her father and offered atonement
+from Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and Högni
+need expect no mercy. Högni answered shortly, and Hild returning told
+Hedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare
+to fight. Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin
+called to Högni and offered atonement and much gold, but Högni said it
+was too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening,
+and then returned to their ships; but Hild went on shore and woke up
+all the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day
+just as before. Every day they fight, and every night the dead are
+recalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnarök.
+
+In the German poem, _Gudrun_, the Continental version of this legend
+occurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the
+minstrel Horant (who thus plays a more active part than the Norse
+Hjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her
+father Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a
+reconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's
+daughter Gudrun, and the battle on the Wülpensand.
+
+Another reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines
+14-16 from the Anglo-Saxon _Deor_, of which the most satisfactory
+translation seems to be: "Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild;
+the Jute's loves were unbounded, so that the care of love took
+from him sleep altogether." Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father
+a Jute, instead of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him
+in making Hedin Norwegian; but in the _Gudrun_	Hettel is Frisian or
+Jutish. The Anglo-Saxon _Widsith_ mentions in one line Hagena, king of
+the Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas
+(not identified), who may be the Högni and Hedin of this tale.
+
+The Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ
+from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem _Deor_ is supposed to be spoken
+by a _scop_ or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of
+his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, another singer: "Once I was the
+Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had
+a good service and a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda
+received the rights which the protector of men once granted me." Like
+Heorrenda, Horant in the _Gudrun_ is a singer in the service of the
+Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with
+the Heathnings, but gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active
+part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin
+of the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the
+correct form.
+
+The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun,
+founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In the Norse
+story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost
+eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild accompanies him,
+though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is
+her only object. It is her mediation which brings about the battle,
+when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and
+her arts which cause the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle
+among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured
+by, if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: Högni and Hedin and
+their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and feast
+at night, Hild is a war-goddess. The conception of her character,
+contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German
+heroines (who are rather the causes than the inciters of strife),
+can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.
+
+Högni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic
+weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims a victim
+whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have
+arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.
+
+_The Sword of Angantyr_.--Like the two last legends, Angantyr's
+story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by
+Snorri. Yet poems belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good
+fortune in the late mythical _Hervarar Saga_)  which among the heroic
+poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story
+possesses besides a striking originality, and is connected with the
+name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry,
+I cannot follow the example of most editors and omit it from the
+heroic poems.
+
+Like the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a
+general similarity of outline, with the exception that the hero is in
+this case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing,
+which Svafrlami got by force from the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it:
+that it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be
+healed, and it should claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In
+the saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no
+doubt, in order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation
+of the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,
+beside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Hervör.
+
+The earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is
+killed, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim, who thus
+gains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to
+Angantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons. For a while no one
+can withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle
+of Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage,
+the twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man
+except the two leaders who have landed on the island. The battle
+over, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they
+are attacked by the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the
+brothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his
+sword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally
+wounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen where they
+fell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem
+gives the challenge of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.
+
+Hervör, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female
+counterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's death,
+and brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she
+goes forth without delay to claim her inheritance from the dead, even
+with the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On
+reaching the island where her father fell, she asks a shepherd to
+guide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:
+
+"I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me
+quickly, where are the graves called Hjörvard's howes?"
+
+He is unwilling: "The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark
+shade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening, field and fen
+are aflame," and flees into the woods, but Hervör is dauntless and
+goes on alone. She reaches the howes, and calls on the sons of Arngrim:
+
+"Awake, Angantyr! Hervör calls thee, only daughter to thee and
+Tofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs forged
+for Svafrlami, Hervard, Hjörvard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all
+from below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet, with sharp sword,
+shield and harness, and reddened spear."
+
+Angantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: "Neither father, son,
+nor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;" but Hervör does
+not believe him. "Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine
+only child her heritage." He tries to frighten her back to the ships
+by describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again,
+"Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!"
+
+A. "Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in
+fire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword in her hands."
+
+H. "I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear
+no burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it."
+
+A. "Foolish art thou, Hervör the fearless, to rush into the fire
+open-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe, young maid;
+I cannot refuse thee."
+
+H. "Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the
+howe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway."
+
+Her father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword
+will bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:
+"Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength
+and energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!"
+
+It is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working
+out the doom over later generations; over Hervör's son Heidrek, who
+forfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children,
+another Angantyr, Hlod, and a second Hervör. The verse sources for
+this latter part are very corrupt.
+
+A full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental
+versions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing pages would,
+of course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that
+can be done in that direction is to suggest a few points. Three of
+the stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are
+purely Scandinavian cycles; while though Angantyr is a well-known
+heroic name (in _Widsith_ Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the
+legend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive
+elsewhere. The Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the
+versions localise it, for the names in _Völundarkvida_, Wolfdale,
+Myrkwood, &c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a
+very early date in England, and is probably a Pan-Germanic legend. The
+Sigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions,
+localised on the Continent, the former by the Rhine, the latter in
+Friesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence
+they must have spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were
+doubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century. On
+the question of their passage to the North there are wide differences
+of opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an earlier and a later
+passage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the
+second, about the twelfth or thirteenth century, the Volsungs again,
+with perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to
+the date of the first transmission. Müllenhoff put it as early as 600;
+Konrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther
+is of opinion that the Volsung story passed first to the vikings in
+France, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not
+before the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very
+slight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians
+had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more
+highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the case of the
+Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The
+earliest Norse references which can be approximately dated are in the
+Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three
+stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he gives in outline; his only
+reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, "the Volsungs' drink," for
+serpent. With the possible exception of the Anglo-Saxon fragments,
+the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories
+which are common to all, though, as might be expected, the Continental
+sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These
+German sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved
+mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.
+
+The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less
+common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule merely in
+their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their
+material. The origin of these heroic motives may generally be found in
+primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people
+and woven into legend; sometimes linked to the name of some dead tribal
+hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions
+in still-varying combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson
+and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the
+myth. In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it
+is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
+and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.
+
+The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic
+motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a dead man's
+possessions with him. In the _Waterdale Saga_, Ketil Raum, a viking
+of the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein
+as a degenerate, in that he expects to inherit his father's wealth,
+instead of winning fortune for himself: "It used to be the custom
+with kings and earls, men of our kind, that they won for themselves
+fortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons
+inherit from their fathers, but rather lay their possessions in the
+howe with them." It is easy to see that when this custom came into
+conflict with the son's natural desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity
+of the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only
+protection against violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking
+the custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of
+Angantyr and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the
+violation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In
+_Gold-Thori's Saga_, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are
+found guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori
+himself is said to have turned into a dragon after death.
+
+Marriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story
+has been postulated as means of transmission and as the one possible
+explanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more
+simplicity be assumed as the common basis in custom for independently
+arising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to
+prevent the marriage, and of the bridegroom's to undo it, would be
+natural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by
+and against the bride would be the mythical representatives of the
+mutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least
+offers a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of
+or unfaithfulness to his protectress, after their successful escape
+together.
+
+In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double
+attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
+with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of Cæsar
+and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in the heroines
+of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines
+the two primitive instincts, love and fighting, even though the woman
+may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The
+peculiarity of the Germanic representation is that the woman is never
+passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even
+if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking part herself in the fight,
+she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back
+to the battle from which they have escaped. Hild and Hervör are at
+one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing
+more than instinct; in Hervör it is not even that: she would desire
+nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other
+extreme is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a
+lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The interest
+in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually
+considered the strongest feminine instincts, without, however, by
+any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising revenge and pride
+of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both
+trains of feeling; and she dies with the husband she detests, simply
+because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type,
+as independent in love as in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun,
+or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover;
+from no lack of spirit, but simply because revenge would have given
+no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief,
+but the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.
+
+The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The
+burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into the howe,
+are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The "sister's son" is
+preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfjötli tale, which also has a trace
+of animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs
+in two, the Völund story and the legend of Helgi and Kara; while the
+first Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of
+Svava to her husband's brother. The waverlowe of the Volsung myth
+may be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild
+by Sigurd's crossing the fire would thus, like the similar bridal
+of Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on
+the marriages which formed a part of agricultural rites.
+
+
+
+
+
+Bibliographical Notes
+
+
+To avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the
+word "saga," it may be as well to state that it is here used only in
+its technical sense of a prose history.
+
+_Völund_. (Pages 5 to 8.)
+
+Dr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying Völund with Thiazi,
+the giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments
+from names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps
+undue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult to see any
+fundamental likenesses in the stories.
+
+The Old English references to Weland are in the _Waldere_ fragment
+and the _Lament of Deor_. For the Franks Casket, see Professor
+Napier's discussion, with photographs, in the _English Miscellany_
+(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The _Thidreks Saga_ (sometimes
+called _Vilkina Saga_), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853),
+and by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations:
+by Rassmann (_Heldensage,_ (1863), and by Von der Hagen (_Nordische
+Heldenromane_, 1873).
+
+_The Volsungs_. (Pages 8 to 27.)
+
+As divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle,
+including the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:
+
+_Gripisspa_.
+
+_Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal_, a continued narrative compiled
+from different sources.
+
+_Sigurd Fragment_, on the death of Sigurd.
+
+_First Gudrun Lay_, on Gudrun's mourning, late.
+
+_Short Sigurd Lay_ (called _Long Brynhild Lay_ in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_; sometimes called _Third Sigurd Lay_). style late.
+
+_Brynhild's Hellride_, a continuation of the preceding.
+
+_Second_, or _Old, Gudrun Lay_, is also late. It contains more kennings
+than are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in
+Denmark and the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter,
+together with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period
+which had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.
+
+_Third Gudrun Lay_, or the _Ordeal of Gudrun_ (after her marriage to
+Atli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich)
+is introduced.
+
+_Oddrun's Lament_, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue
+with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung
+legend.
+
+The two Atli Lays _(Atlakvida_ and _Atlamal_, the latter of Greenland
+origin), deal with the death of Gunnar and Högni, and Gudrun's
+vengeance on Atli.
+
+_Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_ belong to the Ermanric cycle.
+
+_Volsung Paraphrases_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Skaldskaparmal, Völsunga Saga_ and _Norna-Gests Thattr_  (containing
+another short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's _Die
+Prosaische Edda_ (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of
+_Völsunga_ by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version
+of _Völsunga_  and _Norna-Gest_ by Edzardi.
+
+_Nibelungenlied_.  (Page 11.)
+
+Editions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899);
+translation into modern German by Simrock.
+
+_Signy and Siggeir_.  (Page 13.)
+
+Saxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter
+of Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers, wins her
+favour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of
+Signy's windows, and she set fire to her house that she might die
+simultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this
+story is proved by the kenning "Hagbard's collar" for halter, in a
+poem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference
+in _Völsunga Saga_, that "Haki and Hagbard were great and famous
+men, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to
+vengeance," shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible
+that Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account
+of the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of
+vulgarity absent from the primitive story.
+
+In a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and
+Dr. W.H. Schofield (_The First Riddle of Cynewulf_ and _Signy's
+Lament_. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902)
+it is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter Book
+is in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse "Complaint"
+spoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and form is all in
+favour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any
+straining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's second contention, that the
+poem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin
+for the Eddie poems, is not equally convincing. The existence in
+Anglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any
+of the Eddie poems, or even the original Norse "Signy's Lament"
+postulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.
+
+It seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of
+British legend on the Volsung story. The points in which the story
+of Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus
+prove nothing in the face of equally strong points of correspondence
+between Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.
+
+_Sinfjötli's Death_. (Page 14.)
+
+Munch (_Nordmændenes Gudelære_, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously
+identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfjötli
+to Valhalla, since he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having
+fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional
+character.
+
+_Sigmund and Sinfjötli_. (Page 15.)
+
+It seems probable, on the evidence of _Beowulf_, that Sigmund and
+Sinfjötli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and
+Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental stage. Possibly Helgi may then be
+the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence
+the epithet Hunnish, constantly applied to him, and the localising
+of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the
+Brynhild part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian
+origin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that
+the _Nibelungen Lied_  places Prunhilt in Iceland.
+
+_Wagner and the Volsung Cycle_. (Page 26.)
+
+Wagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ is remarkable not only for the way
+in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfjötli and the
+Sigurd traditions, but also for the wonderful instinct which chooses
+the best and most primitive features of both Norse and Continental
+versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of
+the German; preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and
+substitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores
+the original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives
+the latter character, and an active instead of a passive function
+in the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action;
+and by substituting for the slaying of the otter the bargain with
+the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of
+the catastrophe.
+
+_Ermanric_. (Page 27.)
+
+For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see
+Tylor's _Primitive Culture_.
+
+_The Helgi Lays_. (Page 29.)
+
+The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them
+later for the sake of greater clearness.
+
+_Helgi and Kara_. (Page 30.)
+
+_Hromundar Saga Gripssonar_, in which this story is given, is worthless
+as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. Müller's
+_Sagabibliothek_, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and
+Swedish translations may be found in Björner's _Nordiske Kåmpa Dater_
+(Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.
+
+_Rebirth_. (Page 31.)
+
+Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in
+the _Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi_, ix. He collects instances, and among
+other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous
+child after its dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The
+inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable instance
+occurs in _Viga-Glums Saga_, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his
+luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the _Waterdale Saga_ there
+are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead
+grandfather will pass to the grandson who receives his name. Scholars
+do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi
+poems, some holding the view that it is an essential part of the story.
+
+_Hunding_. (Page 32.)
+
+It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so,
+the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the natural
+enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has
+a feud with MacCon (_i.e._, Son of a Dog), which means the same as
+Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in
+the Bodleian MS. Laud, 610.
+
+_Thorgerd Holgabrud_.  (Page 33.)
+
+Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.
+
+_Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois_. (Page 33.)
+
+See _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this
+series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in
+the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the
+_Teutonic Mythology_, and by Mr. Nutt in the _Voyage of Bran_.
+
+_Ballads_. (Page 36.)
+
+Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of _Clerk
+Saunders_ as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi
+story in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's
+hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.
+
+The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in Danish as in
+Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark,
+England and Scotland is strongly in favour of the presumption that
+Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the
+presumption that the poems in question passed from the British Isles
+to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive
+on this point. There is an English translation of the latter by
+R.C.A. Prior (_Ancient Danish Ballads_, London, 1860).
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_. (Page 39.)
+
+The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject,
+given with a translation in the _Corpus_, vol. ii. Saxo's version
+is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a
+necklace, which has caused comparison of this story with that of the
+Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle
+in which the slain revive each night and renew the fight daily, as
+occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached
+Ireland. According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in
+the East, and taught it to the Danes.
+
+The latest edition of the _Gudrun_ is by Ernst Martin (second edition,
+Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.
+
+_Angantyr_. (Page 42.)
+
+The poems of this cycle are four in number--(1) _Hjalmar's
+Death-song_: (2) _Angantyr and Hervör_; (3) _Heidrek's Riddle-Poem_:
+(4) _Angantyr the Younger and Hlod_. All are given in the first volume
+of the _Corpus_, with translations.
+
+_Herrarar Saga_ was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829-30) in
+_Fornaldar Sögur_, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently
+edited by Dr. Bugge, together with _Völsunga_ and others. Petersen
+(Copenhagen, 1847) edited it with a Danish translation. Munch's
+_Nordmuendenes Gudelære_ (out of print) contains a short abstract.
+
+_Death of Angantyr_. (Page 43.)
+
+Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion
+of all mythical interest.
+
+_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)
+
+Müllenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift für deutsches
+Altertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Philologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see
+_Germania_, 33.
+
+_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)
+
+See also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.
+
+The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival
+of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage,
+of which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.
+
+_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)
+
+For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang,
+_Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).
+
+_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)
+
+See Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor
+Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the
+British Association, 1900. The double relationship between Sigmund
+and Sinfjötli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and
+Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same
+cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies,
+where the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of
+the pure royal blood.
+
+_Swanmaids_.  (Page 51.)
+
+See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._
+
+_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)
+
+Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages
+connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see
+Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is
+right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal
+lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would
+be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c.,
+which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to
+the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's
+sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the
+Valhalla myth.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by _Ballantyne, Hanson & Co_
+London & Edinburgh
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 2
+       The Heroic Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+              Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+              
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 2 ***
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+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
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+</pre>
+
+
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e62"></a>Page 1</span><h1 class="docTitle">The Edda</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">II</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">The Heroic Mythology of the North</h1>
+<h2 class="byline">By
+<br>
+<span class="docAuthor">Winifred Faraday, M.A.</span></h2>
+<h2 class="docImprint">Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Ph&#339;nix, Long Acre, London<br id="d0e82">
+1902
+</h2><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e84"></a>Page 2</span><a id="d0e85"></a><h1>Author's Note</h1>
+<p id="d0e88">The present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (<i>The Edda: Divine Mythology of the North</i>), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter and for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references
+are given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e93"><span class="smallcaps">Manchester</span>, <br id="d0e97">
+<i>July</i> 1902.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e102"></a>Page 3</span><a id="d0e105"></a><h1>The Heroic Mythology of the North</h1>
+<p id="d0e108">Sigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica of Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and
+the Heodenings, and Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known to the writers of our earliest English
+literature. But in most cases the only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there, with no hint of the story
+attached. For circumstances directed the poetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints and Biblical
+paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race; while later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our
+literature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless, these few brief references in <i>Beowulf</i> and in the small group of heathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the hero-poems of the Edda.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e113"></a>Page 4</span>In studying these heroic poems, therefore, we are confronted by problems entirely different in character from those which
+have to be considered in connexion with the mythical texts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern, branch
+of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series), and the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,
+however altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and as such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance,
+as well as in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore late and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda,
+on the contrary, with the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in the literatures of the other great branches
+of the Germanic race, and these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e115">The Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e117">(<i>a</i>) <b>Weland the Smith</b>.&#8212;Anglo-Saxon literature has several references to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one; and there is also
+a late Continental German version preserved in an Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest connected
+form of the story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e125">(<i>b</i>) <b>Sigurd and the Nibelungs</b>.&#8212;Again the oldest reference is in Anglo-Saxon.  There <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e133"></a>Page 5</span>are two well-known Continental German versions in the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> and the late Icelandic <i>Thidreks Saga</i>, but the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the legend. With it is loosely connected
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e141">(<i>c</i>) <b>The Ermanric Cycle</b>.&#8212;The oldest references to this are in Latin and Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the <i>Thidreks Saga</i> is late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd story, with which it had originally nothing to do.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e152">(<i>d</i>) <b>Helgi</b>.&#8212;This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar to the Scandinavian North.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e160">All the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder Edda. From other sources we may add other poems which
+are Eddic, not Skaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The great majority of the poems deal with
+the favourite story of the Volsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after another, Burgundian, Hun, Goth,
+was absorbed into it. The poems in this part of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the mythological
+ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and lack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular
+poetry.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e162"><b>V&ouml;lund</b>.&#8212;The lay of V&ouml;lund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of the Old English poems and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e166"></a>Page 6</span>the only Germanic hero who survived for any considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in its cycle, and
+is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very fragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short pieces
+of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids, and the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,
+Egil and V&ouml;lund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built themselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early
+one morning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying beside them. The brothers took them home; but after
+seven years the swan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did not return.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e168">&#8220;Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized them, and in the ninth need parted them.&#8221; Egil and Slagfinn
+went to seek their wives, but V&ouml;lund stayed where he was and worked at his forge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e171">&#8220;Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by the waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,
+and went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the hero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and
+put, them on again, all but one. The keen-eyed archer V&ouml;lund came in from hunting, from a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin
+and counted his rings, and the prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e173"></a>Page 7</span>daughter, the fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep, and awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his
+hands, and fetters clasped on his feet.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e176">They took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to forge treasures for his captors. Then V&ouml;lund planned vengeance:
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e179">&#8221;'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best, and which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade
+is taken from me for ever; I shall not see it borne to V&ouml;lund's smithy. Now B&ouml;dvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no
+atonement.' He sat and slept not, but struck with his hammer.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e182">Nithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew, and made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls;
+and the daughter B&ouml;dvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the air and left her weeping for her lover
+and Nithud mourning his sons.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e184">In the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part of the story; there is no reference to the legend of the
+enchanted brides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with the common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged
+to return to animal shape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This incident of the compact (<i>i.e.</i>, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain from asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been lost in the V&ouml;lund
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e189"></a>Page 8</span>tale. The Continental version is told in the late Icelandic <i>Thidreks Saga</i>, where it is brought into connexion with the Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the archer, is
+also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures on the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,
+dated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the third brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon
+gives V&ouml;lund and B&ouml;dvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as a follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German
+sources.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e194"><b>The Volsungs</b>.&#8212;No story better illustrates the growth of heroic legend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical motives
+combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession more and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and
+still more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought into dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject
+are quite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary, several late, and only one attempts a review of the
+whole story. The outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother of Sinfj&ouml;tli, slays the dragon who
+guards the Nibelungs' hoard on the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e198"></a>Page 9</span>accompanies the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire,
+loves her and plights troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment causes him to forget the Valkyrie,
+to love her own daughter Gudrun, and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son Gunnar. After the marriage,
+Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites her husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e200">The series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfj&ouml;tli, which says that after Sinfj&ouml;tli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's
+son (which should be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name), had been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild,
+Sigmund married Hj&ouml;rdis, Eylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the race of Hunding. Sigmund, as
+in all other Norse sources, is said to be king in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, means the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always near that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the
+treasure of the Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the V&ouml;lund lay.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e205"><i>Gripisspa</i> (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately placed first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the
+whole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the wisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e209"></a>Page 10</span>prophesies his adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original features of the legend which are obscured elsewhere,
+especially in the Gudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach of faith to Brynhild. In the speeches
+of both Gripi and Sigurd, the poet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith, while the seer repeatedly
+protests his innocence in breaking it: &#8220;Thou shalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No better man
+shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd.&#8221; On the other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and
+the sleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like all poems in this form, <i>Gripisspa</i> is a late composition embodying earlier tradition.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e214">The other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form a continued narrative. <i>Gripisspa</i> is followed by a compilation from two or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three parts in the editions:
+<i>Reginsmal</i> gives the early history of the treasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons; <i>Fafnismal</i>, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking birds; <i>Sigrdrifumal</i>, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows a fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem generally called
+the <i>Third</i>, or <i>Short, Sigurd Lay</i> (which tells of the marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e234"></a>Page 11</span>of Brynhild for Gunnar) continue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of Brynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the
+fates of the other heroes who became connected with the legend of the treasure.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e236">In addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story is given by Snorri in <i>Skaldskaparmal</i>, but it is founded almost entirely on the surviving lays. <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> is also a paraphrase, but more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and it therefore, to some extent, represents
+independent tradition. It was, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the great saga-time was over, in
+the decadent fourteenth century, when material of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological, was hastily cast
+into saga-form. It is not, like the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of greater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler
+did not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast his material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely
+to his originals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite literary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore,
+<i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> is far behind not only such great works as <i>Njala</i>, but also many of the smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies; it is often careless in grammar and
+diction; it is full of traces of the decadent <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e253"></a>Page 12</span>romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance, is endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no improvement
+on the heroic tradition, &#8220;Courage is better than a good sword.&#8221; At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to
+efface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates against him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic
+sagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief in the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the
+whole idea of sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the character of Brynhild, without the compensating
+elevation in that of her rival by which the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> places Chriemhild on a height as lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie; the Brynhild of <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> is something of a virago, the Gudrun is jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is absolutely to be trusted;
+and <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> is therefore, in spite of artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features of the legend.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e264">There are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the dragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild.
+The latter is brought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real centre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon
+reference, the fragment in <i>Beowulf</i>, the second episode does not appear.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e269"></a>Page 13</span></p>
+<p id="d0e270">In this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague reference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli, consists
+solely of the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the Waelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela
+(Sinfj&ouml;tli) not being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and loaded a ship with the treasure. The few
+preceding lines only mention the war which Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli waged on their foes. They are there uncle and nephew, and
+there is no suggestion of the closer relationship assigned to them by <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, which tells their story in full.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e275">Sigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of miraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen
+heroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to Siggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast
+Odin enters and thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the middle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only
+the chosen Sigmund succeeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling bride, invites her father and brothers
+to a feast. Though suspecting treachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund who is secretly saved
+by his sister and hidden in the wood. She meditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten, she tests their
+courage, and finding it wanting makes <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e277"></a>Page 14</span>Sigmund kill both: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She therefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and
+her third son, Sinfj&ouml;tli, is the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to live in the wood with Sigmund,
+who only knows him as Signy's son. For years they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for vengeance. They
+set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing Sinfj&ouml;tli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,
+her vengeance achieved:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e280">&#8220;I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our father; Sinfj&ouml;tli has a warrior's might because he is
+both son's son and daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end, that King Siggeir should meet his death; I
+have so toiled for the achieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As I lived by force with King Siggeir,
+of free will shall I die with him.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e283">Though no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly primitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity.
+<i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> then reproduces the substance of the prose <i>Death of Sinfj&ouml;tli</i> mentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems to be to remove Sinfj&ouml;tli and leave the field clear for
+Sigurd. It preserves a touch which may be original in Sinfj&ouml;tli's burial, which resembles that of Scyld in <i>Beowulf</i>: his father lays him in a boat steered by an old man, which immediately disappears.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e294"></a>Page 15</span></p>
+<p id="d0e295">Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli are always close comrades, &#8220;need-companions&#8221; as the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and
+form one story. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father Sigmund's death. <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> says that Sigmund fell in battle against Hunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt that he
+&#8220;knew not how to give the victory fairly,&#8221; shattered with his spear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again
+we have to depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in <i>Hyndluljod</i>: &#8220;The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund a sword.&#8221; And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless
+childhood is only to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself a false name he says to Fafni: &#8220;I came a
+motherless child; I have no father like the sons of men.&#8221; Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of the sword to be given to his
+unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather Regin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's first deed was to
+avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father and his mother's father. <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> tells this story first of Helgi and Sinfj&ouml;tli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the deed. It is followed
+by the dragon-slaying.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e306">Up to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same features which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli. Both
+are probably, like <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e308"></a>Page 16</span>Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is the usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a
+third type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes a deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the
+hero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli version. Among those Germanic races which
+brought the legend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one, and Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli practically drop
+out.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e313">The Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than that of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied
+with the existence of the monster &#8220;old and proud of his treasure,&#8221; but here we are told its full previous history, certain
+features of which (such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was originally connected with the Volsungs
+or not.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e315">As usual, <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> gives the fullest account, in the form of a story told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay the dragon.
+Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar; one of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen
+by three of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar demanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e320"></a>Page 17</span>skin, and Loki obtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall in the form of a fish, and allowing him
+to ransom his head by giving up his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain; and thereupon he laid a curse
+upon it: that the ring with the rest of the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of it. In giving the
+gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the ring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of
+the two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse, for the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay
+guarding it in the shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of possessing the hoard: he adopted as
+his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung, thus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e322">The curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between the two parts of the story, since it directly accounts
+for Sigurd's unconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves the hero from blame by making him a victim
+of fate. It destroys in turn Hreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself, Brynhild (to whom he gave
+the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed inheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects still further.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e324">This narrative is also told in the pieces of prose <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e326"></a>Page 18</span>interspersed through <i>Reginsmal</i>. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first of these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf
+Andvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result from the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer
+wager, and the captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less general terms than in the prose: &#8220;My gold shall
+be the death of two brothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in the possession of my treasure.&#8221;
+Next comes a short dialogue between Loki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he runs in taking the
+hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his daughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on their
+own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son may avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hj&ouml;rdis,
+Sigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended, it may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy.
+The next fragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the young Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of
+Sigurd's follows, in which he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father on Hunding's sons. The rest of the
+poem is concerned with the battle with Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e331"></a>Page 19</span></p>
+<p id="d0e332">The fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this poetry being in narrative form; but <i>Fafnismal</i> gives a dialogue between the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung against the hoard: &#8220;The ringing gold
+and the glowing treasure, the rings shall be thy death.&#8221; Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim &#8220;Every man must die
+some time,&#8221; and asks questions of the dragon in the manner of <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks of his brother's intended treachery: &#8220;Regin betrayed me, he will betray thee;
+he will be the death of both of us,&#8221; and dies. Regin returning bids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece
+tells that Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in his mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The
+advice given him by the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats itself; the substance is a warning to
+Sigurd against the treachery plotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so become sole owner of the
+hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning: &#8220;Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence: both brothers
+shall go quickly hence to Hel.&#8221; Regin's enjoyment of the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins when
+one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to the sleeping Valkyrie:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e340"></a>Page 20</span>
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e343">&#8220;Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst
+get her. Green roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy
+her with a dowry. There is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I know a battle-maid who sleeps
+on the fell, and the flame plays over her; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others than those he wished
+to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who rode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken, son
+of heroes, by the Norns' decrees.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e346">Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and
+it was probably such passages as this that misled the author of <i>Gripisspa</i>  into differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd
+not to seek Brynhild and an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the deed; they may merely mean
+that her sleep cannot be broken except by one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin is clearly
+shown here, and also in the prose in <i>Sigrdrifumal. V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing
+her with a genealogy and family connections; while the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> goes further still in the same direction by leaving out <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e357"></a>Page 21</span>the magic sleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which Odin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e359">Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess, popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping
+Beauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, &#8220;What cut my mail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me
+the dark spells?&#8221; and his answer, &#8220;Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword,&#8221; she bursts into the famous &#8220;Greeting to the World&#8221;:
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e362">&#8220;Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's misfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes
+of sleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with gracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here.
+Hail, Aesir! hail, Asynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us the wonderful pair, and hands of healing
+while we live.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e365">She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which
+are to help him in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who is the hero's benefactress, but whom
+he deserts through sorcery: the &#8220;Mastermaid&#8221; of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is always an innocent instrument
+in drawing Sigurd away from his real bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part of the story is summarised
+in <i>Gripisspa</i>, except that the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e370"></a>Page 22</span>writer seems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd &#8220;every mystery that men would know&#8221; and the princess he betrays
+are the same:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e373">&#8220;A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew with thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer....
+She will teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in every man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling
+and be the great king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's; men call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter,
+but the great king Heimi fosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob thee of all joy; thou shalt sleep
+no sleep, and judge no cause, and care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear all binding oaths but keep
+few when thou hast been one night Giuki's guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou shalt suffer
+treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e376"><i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear oaths
+to each other. The description of their second meeting, when he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will
+marry Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before the latter's marriage, represent a later development
+of the story, inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which
+belonged to the hoard, as a pledge, and takes it from her again <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e380"></a>Page 23</span>later when he woos her in Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's hand which reveals to her the
+deception; but the episode has also a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the central action by
+passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in Gunnar's
+form.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e382">For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on <i>Gripisspa</i> and <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i>. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings, gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell
+in love with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe,
+or ring of fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After the two bridals, he remembered his first
+passing through the flame, and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered, but thinking that Gunnar
+had fairly won her, accepted her fate until Gudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played on her. Of
+the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed; but death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells
+Gunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with some reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild
+springs on to the funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> makes the murder take place in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e393"></a>Page 24</span>Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the <i>Short Sigurd Lay</i>, agrees. The fragment which follows <i>Sigrdrifumal</i>, on the other hand, places the scene in the open air:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e402">&#8220;Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud: 'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths
+shall destroy you.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first words she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd,
+the lord of men, that my kinsmen ride first?' H&ouml;gni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder with the sword; the grey
+horse still stoops over his dead lord.'&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e405">This agrees with the <i>Old Gudrun Lay</i> and with the Continental German version, as a prose epilogue points out.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e410">Of the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light: he gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath
+to Sigurd by a quibble. H&ouml;gni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von Tronje of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, advises Gunnar against breaking his oath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of the cycle try to
+make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists between the first and second halves of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>. Their half-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the actual murderer of Sigurd.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e418">The chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on the legend is a loss of sympathy <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e420"></a>Page 25</span>with the heroic type of Brynhild, and an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The Shield-maiden of divine
+origin and unearthly wisdom, with her unrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her slighter rival (&#8220;Fitter
+would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd, if she had a soul like mine&#8221;), is a figure out of harmony with the new religion,
+and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance; while both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be
+on the side of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the <i>Short Sigurd Lay</i>, which has many marks of lateness, such as the elaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of the signs
+of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild, nor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and altogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her
+mother's name); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness of the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal
+to anything in the original version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less successful attempt to create sympathy
+for Gudrun; some, such as the so-called <i>First Gudrun Lay</i>, which is entirely romantic in character, try to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others, to make her
+heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e431"></a>Page 26</span></p>
+<p id="d0e432">The remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal with the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their
+existence to a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The curse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings
+inherit it with the hoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun, said to be Brynhild's brother. He
+invited Gunnar and H&ouml;gni to his court and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for which Gudrun killed her
+own two sons and Atli; this latter incident being possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun, like Chriemhild
+in the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>, married Atli in order to gain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion here: that she herself incited
+the murder of her brothers, and killed Atli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part of Gudrun, who
+as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But in all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story
+with that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e437">One point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the story. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings,
+Gunnar and H&ouml;gni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title of the first <i>aventiure</i> of the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> also apparently uses the word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e445"></a>Page 27</span>Nibelungs' hoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when Hagen von Tronje tells the story later
+in the poem, he speaks of the Nibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this point, therefore, the
+German preserves the older tradition: the Norse Andvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i> the winning of the treasure forms no part of the action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the shortening
+of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps: the robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e450"><b>Ermanric.&#8212;</b>The two poems of <i>Gudrun's Lament</i> and <i>Hamthismal</i>, in the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to that of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems,
+Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, S&ouml;rli, Hamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and
+Sigurd's daughter, to J&ouml;rmunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her husband had her trodden to death by
+horses' hoofs. The description of Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e461">&#8220;The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild was like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her
+with gold and goodly fabrics <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e463"></a>Page 28</span>when I married her into Gothland. That was the hardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the dust beneath
+the horses' hoofs.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e466">Gudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them slew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack
+on J&ouml;rmunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were of Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of
+Sigurd and Brynhild, survived. <i>Heimskringla</i>, a thirteenth century history of the royal races of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e471">This Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than myth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or
+Nibelung cycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being probably linked to Gudrun's name because she had
+become a favourite character and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The historic Ermanric was conquered by
+the Huns in 374; the sixth century historian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he was murdered by
+Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death by wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity of
+names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars, the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic
+and a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e473"></a>Page 29</span>became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in
+stories like the <i>Golden Bird</i>, told by both Asbj&ouml;rnsen and Grimm.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e478"><b>Helgi.</b>&#8212;The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hj&ouml;rvardsson being
+sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but essentially the stories are the same.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e482">In <i>Helyi Hj&ouml;rvardsson</i>, Helgi, son of Hj&ouml;rvard and Sigrlinn, was dumb and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he saw a troop
+of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter, named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a
+former wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava,
+having escaped from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie bride and the wit of a faithful servant.
+His brother Hedin, through the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he told his brother, who, dying
+in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds &#8220;Helgi and Svava are said to have
+been born again.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e487">In <i>Helgi Hundingsbane I</i>., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and Borghild. He fought and slew <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e492"></a>Page 30</span>Hunding, and afterwards met in battle Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, H&ouml;gni's daughter, protected him,
+and challenged him to fight H&ouml;dbrodd to whom her father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which overtook
+them as they sailed to meet H&ouml;dbrodd, and watched over him in the battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor
+by Sigrun: &#8220;Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red rings and the mighty maid: thine are H&ouml;gni's daughter
+and Hringstad, the victory and the land.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e494"><i>Helgi Hundingsbane II</i>., besides giving additional details of the hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with H&ouml;dbrodd, Helgi killed
+all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened
+by Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector again adds a note: &#8220;Helgi and Sigrun are said to have
+been born again: he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod,
+and she was a Valkyrie.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e498">This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the <i>Kara-ljod</i> having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid:
+while she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging his sword.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e503"></a>Page 31</span></p>
+<p id="d0e504">There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents
+and names differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his legend probably come from different localities.
+The collector could not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental to be overlooked; he therefore accounted
+for it by the old idea of re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding,
+or Hadding); in each his bride is a Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy, though differently.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e506">The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of superficial
+resemblance. Helgi Hj&ouml;rvardsson's mother is Sigrlinn, Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>  Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfj&ouml;tli;
+his first fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival, H&ouml;dbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie
+on Loga-fell (Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential
+features of the Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not accidental are due to the influence
+of the more favoured legend; this is especially true <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e511"></a>Page 32</span>of the names. The prose-piece <i>Sinfj&ouml;tli's Death</i> also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfj&ouml;tli; it is followed in this by <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing <i>Helyi Hundingsbane I</i>. There is, of course, confusion over the Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting authorities by
+making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and Sigurd kill the rest.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e522">If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct, the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems,
+must be extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfj&ouml;tli. It must
+not be forgotten that, though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later versions, both Scandinavian and German,
+he is in the main action in the earliest one (that in <i>Beowulf</i>), where even Sigurd does not appear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi as well as to Sigurd,
+for invention is limited as regards episodes, and a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero is often
+forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's blood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e527">The origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung cycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should
+be Holgi, and there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e529"></a>Page 33</span>With the legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it with that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in
+common; and the connection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is equally difficult to establish. The essence
+of this latter story is the hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his return sometime in the future:
+a motive which has been very fruitful in Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and Barbarossa, among
+countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi poems; and the &#8220;old wives' tales&#8221; of Helgi's re-birth have nothing to do
+with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect stories which he felt to be the same though different.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e531">The essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive familiar in that class of ballads of which the <i>Douglas Tragedy</i> is a type: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen kill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story
+told in both the lays of <i>Helgi Hundingsbane</i>, complete in one, unfinished in the other. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some survive in one
+version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e539">Like Sinfj&ouml;tli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends his childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and
+on leaving it, sends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e541"></a>Page 34</span>They pursue him, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad, to disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e544">&#8220;Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who stands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs
+in two. It is a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is better fitted for those hands than the mill-handle.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e547">Sigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and Scottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one
+brother. He tells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover and kinsmen:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e550"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi</span>. &#8220;Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things, though the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and H&ouml;gni fell to-day at
+Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie low. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to
+be a cause of strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us; heroes must meet their fate.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e554"><span class="smallcaps">Sigrun</span>. &#8220;I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in thy arms.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e559">The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi, but remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse
+Sigmund tale, through Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi in a grove, and rides home to tell his
+sister. Sigrun is inconsolable, and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e561"></a>Page 35</span>
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e564">&#8220;May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind
+lie behind. May the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from thy foes. May the sword bite not that
+thou drawest, unless it sing round thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's death were avenged.... Never
+again while I live, by night or day, shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's company, nor
+the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e567">But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e570"><span class="smallcaps">Sigrun</span>. &#8220;Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee
+help, my hero?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e574"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi</span>. &#8220;Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi is drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before
+thou goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy
+with grief....&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e578"><span class="smallcaps">Sigrun</span>. &#8220;I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the Wolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert
+alive.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e582"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi</span>. &#8220;There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late, than that thou, king-born, H&ouml;gni's fair daughter, shouldst
+be alive in the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e587">The lay of Helgi Hj&ouml;rvardsson is furthest from the original, for there is no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die
+at their hands; but it <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e589"></a>Page 36</span>preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride to his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English
+ballad of <i>Earl Brand</i>, and the heroine of the Danish <i>Ribold and Guldborg</i>, Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to return and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would
+be contrary to all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e597">The alternative ending of the <i>Helgi and Kara</i>  version is interesting as providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing with the same type of story.
+In <i>The Cruel Knight</i>, as here, the hero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One passage of <i>Helgi Hundingsbane II.</i>  describes Helgi's entrance into Valhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him in the howe, supplies an
+instance of the survival side by side of inconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return from the grave
+is the subject of <i>Clerk Saunders</i> (the second part) and several other Scottish ballads.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e611"><b>The Song of the Mill</b>.&#8212;The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale, &#8220;Why the sea is salt&#8221;; but this is not the oldest part of the story, though
+it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves legendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a mythical
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e615"></a>Page 37</span>Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked by a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of
+Frodi became proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that follows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work
+<i>Grottas&ouml;ngr</i> is embodied.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e620">Frodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could grind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong
+enough to turn them until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and Fenja. He set them to grind at the quern
+by day, and by night when all slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity, they sang:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e623">&#8220;We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of riches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he
+sleep on down, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall no man hurt another, prepare evil nor work
+death, nor hew with the keen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e626">But when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest, Frodi answered: &#8220;Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo
+is silent, or while I speak one stave.&#8221; Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e629">&#8220;Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst choose us for our strength and size but asked not our race.
+Bold were Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were our <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e631"></a>Page 38</span>ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants sprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains
+from their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants, so that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's
+house, meeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold over our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is
+dreary at Frodi's.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e634">As they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead of grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire
+and sword:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e637">&#8220;Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see fire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war
+awakes, the signal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall over the king.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e640">So the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing sailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split;
+and then the daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: &#8220;We have ground to our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood
+long at the mill.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e642">A Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any hero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the
+mill bring disaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall, he took the stones and the bondmaids on board
+his ship, and bade them grind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom of the sea, where the mill is
+grinding still. This is not in the song, though it has lived longer popularly <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e644"></a>Page 39</span>than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg identities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e646"><b>The Everlasting Battle</b>.&#8212;No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the Hjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must, however,
+be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of the old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent
+of the Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made later. The legend is that Hild, daughter of H&ouml;gni,
+was carried away by Hedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. H&ouml;gni pursued, and overtook them near the Orkneys. Then Hild went
+to her father and offered atonement from Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and H&ouml;gni need expect no mercy.
+H&ouml;gni answered shortly, and Hild returning told Hedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare to fight.
+Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin called to H&ouml;gni and offered atonement and much gold, but H&ouml;gni
+said it was too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening, and then returned to their ships; but Hild went
+on shore and woke up all the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day just as before. Every day they fight,
+and every night the dead are recalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnar&ouml;k.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e650"></a>Page 40</span></p>
+<p id="d0e651">In the German poem, <i>Gudrun</i>, the Continental version of this legend occurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the minstrel Horant
+(who thus plays a more active part than the Norse Hjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her father
+Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a reconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's
+daughter Gudrun, and the battle on the W&uuml;lpensand.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e656">Another reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines 14&#8211;16 from the Anglo-Saxon <i>Deor</i>, of which the most satisfactory translation seems to be: &#8220;Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild; the Jute's loves were
+unbounded, so that the care of love took from him sleep altogether.&#8221; Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father a Jute, instead
+of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him in making Hedin Norwegian; but in the <i>Gudrun</i>  Hettel is Frisian or Jutish. The Anglo-Saxon <i>Widsith</i> mentions in one line Hagena, king of the Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas (not identified),
+who may be the H&ouml;gni and Hedin of this tale.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e667">The Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem <i>Deor</i> is supposed to be spoken by a <i>scop</i> or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e675"></a>Page 41</span>another singer: &#8220;Once I was the Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had a good service and
+a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda received the rights which the protector of men once granted me.&#8221; Like Heorrenda,
+Horant in the <i>Gudrun</i> is a singer in the service of the Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with the Heathnings, but
+gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin of
+the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the correct form.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e680">The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun, founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In
+the Norse story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild
+accompanies him, though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is her only object. It is her mediation
+which brings about the battle, when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and her arts which cause
+the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured by,
+if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: H&ouml;gni and Hedin and their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and
+feast at night, Hild is a war-goddess. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e682"></a>Page 42</span>The conception of her character, contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German heroines (who are rather
+the causes than the inciters of strife), can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e684">H&ouml;gni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims
+a victim whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e686"><b>The Sword of Angantyr</b>.&#8212;Like the two last legends, Angantyr's story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by Snorri. Yet poems
+belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good fortune in the late mythical <i>Hervarar Saga</i>)  which among the heroic poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story possesses besides a striking
+originality, and is connected with the name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry, I cannot follow
+the example of most editors and omit it from the heroic poems.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e693">Like the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a general similarity of outline, with the exception that
+the hero is in this case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing, which Svafrlami got by force from <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e695"></a>Page 43</span>the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it: that it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be healed, and it should
+claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In the saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no doubt, in
+order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation of the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,
+beside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Herv&ouml;r.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e697">The earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is killed, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim,
+who thus gains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to Angantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons.
+For a while no one can withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle of Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd
+and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage, the twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man except the two leaders who
+have landed on the island. The battle over, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they are attacked by
+the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the brothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his
+sword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally wounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen
+where they fell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem gives the challenge <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e699"></a>Page 44</span>of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e701">Herv&ouml;r, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female counterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's
+death, and brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she goes forth without delay to claim her inheritance
+from the dead, even with the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On reaching the island where her father
+fell, she asks a shepherd to guide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e704">&#8220;I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me quickly, where are the graves called Hj&ouml;rvard's howes?&#8221;</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e707">He is unwilling: &#8220;The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark shade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening,
+field and fen are aflame,&#8221; and flees into the woods, but Herv&ouml;r is dauntless and goes on alone. She reaches the howes, and
+calls on the sons of Arngrim:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e710">&#8220;Awake, Angantyr! Herv&ouml;r calls thee, only daughter to thee and Tofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs
+forged for Svafrlami, Hervard, Hj&ouml;rvard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all from below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet,
+with sharp sword, shield and harness, and reddened spear.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e713">Angantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: &#8220;Neither father, son, nor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;&#8221;
+but Herv&ouml;r does <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e715"></a>Page 45</span>not believe him. &#8220;Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine only child her heritage.&#8221; He tries to frighten her back
+to the ships by describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again, &#8220;Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e718">A. &#8220;Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in fire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword
+in her hands.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e720">H. &#8220;I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear no burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e722">A. &#8220;Foolish art thou, Herv&ouml;r the fearless, to rush into the fire open-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe,
+young maid; I cannot refuse thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e724">H. &#8220;Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the howe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway.&#8221;</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e727">Her father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword will bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:
+&#8220;Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength and energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e729">It is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working out the doom over later generations; over Herv&ouml;r's
+son Heidrek, who forfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children, another Angantyr, Hlod, and a second
+Herv&ouml;r. The verse sources for this latter part are very corrupt.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e731"></a>Page 46</span></p>
+<p id="d0e732">A full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental versions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing
+pages would, of course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that can be done in that direction is to suggest
+a few points. Three of the stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are purely Scandinavian cycles; while
+though Angantyr is a well-known heroic name (in <i>Widsith</i> Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the legend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive elsewhere. The
+Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the versions localise it, for the names in <i>V&ouml;lundarkvida</i>, Wolfdale, Myrkwood, &amp;c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a very early date in England, and is probably
+a Pan-Germanic legend. The Sigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions, localised on the Continent,
+the former by the Rhine, the latter in Friesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence they must have
+spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were doubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century.
+On the question of their passage to the North there are wide differences of opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an
+earlier and a later passage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the second, about the twelfth or thirteenth
+century, the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e740"></a>Page 47</span>Volsungs again, with perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to the date of the first transmission.
+M&uuml;llenhoff put it as early as 600; Konrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther is of opinion that the
+Volsung story passed first to the vikings in France, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not before
+the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very slight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians
+had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the
+case of the Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The earliest Norse references which can be approximately
+dated are in the Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he
+gives in outline; his only reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, &#8220;the Volsungs' drink,&#8221; for serpent. With the possible exception
+of the Anglo-Saxon fragments, the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories which are common to all,
+though, as might be expected, the Continental sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These German
+sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e742"></a>Page 48</span></p>
+<p id="d0e743">The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule
+merely in their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their material. The origin of these heroic motives
+may generally be found in primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people and woven into legend; sometimes
+linked to the name of some dead tribal hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions in still-varying
+combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the myth.
+In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
+and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e745">The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a
+dead man's possessions with him. In the <i>Waterdale Saga</i>, Ketil Raum, a viking of the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein as a degenerate, in that he expects
+to inherit his father's wealth, instead of winning fortune for himself: &#8220;It used to be the custom with kings and earls, men
+of our kind, that they won for themselves fortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons inherit from
+their fathers, but rather <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e750"></a>Page 49</span>lay their possessions in the howe with them.&#8221; It is easy to see that when this custom came into conflict with the son's natural
+desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity of the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only protection against
+violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking the custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of Angantyr
+and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the violation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In
+<i>Gold-Thori's Saga</i>, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are found guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori himself
+is said to have turned into a dragon after death.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e755">Marriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story has been postulated as means of transmission and as the
+one possible explanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more simplicity be assumed as the common basis
+in custom for independently arising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to prevent the marriage, and of
+the bridegroom's to undo it, would be natural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by and against the
+bride would be the mythical representatives of the mutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least offers
+a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of or unfaithfulness <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e757"></a>Page 50</span>to his protectress, after their successful escape together.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e759">In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
+with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of C&aelig;sar and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in
+the heroines of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines the two primitive instincts, love and fighting,
+even though the woman may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The peculiarity of the Germanic representation
+is that the woman is never passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking
+part herself in the fight, she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back to the battle from which they
+have escaped. Hild and Herv&ouml;r are at one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing more than instinct;
+in Herv&ouml;r it is not even that: she would desire nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other extreme
+is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The
+interest in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually considered the strongest feminine instincts, without,
+however, by any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e761"></a>Page 51</span>revenge and pride of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both trains of feeling; and she dies with the
+husband she detests, simply because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type, as independent in love as
+in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun, or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover; from no lack of
+spirit, but simply because revenge would have given no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief, but
+the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e763">The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into
+the howe, are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The &#8220;sister's son&#8221; is preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli tale, which
+also has a trace of animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs in two, the V&ouml;lund story and the legend
+of Helgi and Kara; while the first Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of Svava to her husband's brother.
+The waverlowe of the Volsung myth may be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild by Sigurd's crossing the
+fire would thus, like the similar bridal of Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on the marriages
+which formed a part of agricultural rites.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e765"></a>Page 52</span><a id="d0e767"></a><h1>Bibliographical Notes</h1>
+<p id="d0e770">To avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the word &#8220;saga,&#8221; it may be as well to state that it is here
+used only in its technical sense of a prose history.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e772"><span class="smallcaps">V&ouml;lund</span>. (Pages <a id="d0e776" href="#d0e133">5</a> to <a id="d0e779" href="#d0e189">8</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e782">Dr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying V&ouml;lund with Thiazi, the giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments
+from names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps undue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult
+to see any fundamental likenesses in the stories.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e784">The Old English references to Weland are in the <i>Waldere</i> fragment and the <i>Lament of Deor</i>. For the Franks Casket, see Professor Napier's discussion, with photographs, in the <i>English Miscellany</i> (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The <i>Thidreks Saga</i> (sometimes called <i>Vilkina Saga</i>), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853), and by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations: by Rassmann
+(<i>Heldensage,</i> (1863), and by Von der Hagen (<i>Nordische Heldenromane</i>, 1873).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e807"><span class="smallcaps">The Volsungs</span>. (Pages <a id="d0e811" href="#d0e189">8</a> to <a id="d0e814" href="#d0e445">27</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e817">As divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle, including the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:
+
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e819"></a>Page 53</span></p>
+<p id="d0e820"><i>Gripisspa</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e824"><i>Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal</i>, a continued narrative compiled from different sources.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e828"><i>Sigurd Fragment</i>, on the death of Sigurd.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e832"><i>First Gudrun Lay</i>, on Gudrun's mourning, late.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e836"><i>Short Sigurd Lay</i> (called <i>Long Brynhild Lay</i> in the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i>; sometimes called <i>Third Sigurd Lay</i>). style late.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e849"><i>Brynhild's Hellride</i>, a continuation of the preceding.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e853"><i>Second</i>, or <i>Old, Gudrun Lay</i>, is also late. It contains more kennings than are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in Denmark and
+the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter, together with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period
+which had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e860"><i>Third Gudrun Lay</i>, or the <i>Ordeal of Gudrun</i> (after her marriage to Atli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich) is introduced.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e867"><i>Oddrun's Lament</i>, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung legend.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e871">The two Atli Lays <i>(Atlakvida</i> and <i>Atlamal</i>, the latter of Greenland origin), deal with the death of Gunnar and H&ouml;gni, and Gudrun's vengeance on Atli.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e879"><i>Gudrun's Lament</i> and <i>Hamthismal</i> belong to the Ermanric cycle.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e886"><span class="smallcaps">Volsung Paraphrases</span>. (Page <a id="d0e890" href="#d0e234">11</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e893"><i>Skaldskaparmal, V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i> and <i>Norna-Gests Thattr</i>  (containing another short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's <i>Die Prosaische Edda</i> (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version of <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i>  and <i>Norna-Gest</i> by Edzardi.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e912"></a>Page 54</span></p>
+<p id="d0e913"><span class="smallcaps">Nibelungenlied</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e917" href="#d0e234">11</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e920">Editions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899); translation into modern German by Simrock.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e922"><span class="smallcaps">Signy and Siggeir</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e926" href="#d0e269">13</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e929">Saxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter of Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers,
+wins her favour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of Signy's windows, and she set fire to her house
+that she might die simultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this story is proved by the kenning &#8220;Hagbard's
+collar&#8221; for halter, in a poem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference in <i>V&ouml;lsunga Saga</i>, that &#8220;Haki and Hagbard were great and famous men, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to vengeance,&#8221;
+shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible that Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account
+of the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of vulgarity absent from the primitive story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e934">In a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and Dr. W.H. Schofield (<i>The First Riddle of Cynewulf</i> and <i>Signy's Lament</i>. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902) it is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter
+Book is in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse &#8220;Complaint&#8221; spoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and
+form is all in favour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any straining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's
+second contention, that the poem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin for the Eddie poems, is not
+equally convincing. The existence in Anglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any of the Eddie poems,
+or even the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e942"></a>Page 55</span>original Norse &#8220;Signy's Lament&#8221; postulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e944">It seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of British legend on the Volsung story. The points in which
+the story of Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus prove nothing in the face of equally strong
+points of correspondence between Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e946"><span class="smallcaps">Sinfj&ouml;tli's Death</span>. (Page <a id="d0e950" href="#d0e277">14</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e953">Munch (<i>Nordm&aelig;ndenes Gudel&aelig;re</i>, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfj&ouml;tli to Valhalla, since
+he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional character.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e958"><span class="smallcaps">Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli</span>. (Page <a id="d0e962" href="#d0e294">15</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e965">It seems probable, on the evidence of <i>Beowulf</i>, that Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental
+stage. Possibly Helgi may then be the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence the epithet Hunnish,
+constantly applied to him, and the localising of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the Brynhild
+part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian origin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that
+the <i>Nibelungen Lied</i>  places Prunhilt in Iceland.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e973"><span class="smallcaps">Wagner and the Volsung Cycle</span>. (Page <a id="d0e977" href="#d0e431">26</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e980">Wagner's <i>Ring des Nibelungen</i> is remarkable not only for the way in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfj&ouml;tli and the Sigurd traditions, but
+also for the wonderful instinct which chooses the best and most <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e985"></a>Page 56</span>primitive features of both Norse and Continental versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of the German;
+preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and substitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores the
+original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives the latter character, and an active instead of a passive
+function in the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action; and by substituting for the slaying of the otter
+the bargain with the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of the catastrophe.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e987"><span class="smallcaps">Ermanric</span>. (Page <a id="d0e991" href="#d0e445">27</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e994">For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see Tylor's <i>Primitive Culture</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e999"><span class="smallcaps">The Helgi Lays</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1003" href="#d0e473">29</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1006">The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them later for the sake of greater clearness.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1008"><span class="smallcaps">Helgi and Kara</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1012" href="#d0e492">30</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1015"><i>Hromundar Saga Gripssonar</i>, in which this story is given, is worthless as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. M&uuml;ller's <i>Sagabibliothek</i>, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and Swedish translations may be found in Bj&ouml;rner's <i>Nordiske K&aring;mpa Dater</i> (Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1025"><span class="smallcaps">Rebirth</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1029" href="#d0e503">31</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1032">Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in the <i>Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi</i>, ix. He collects instances, and among other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous child after its
+dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1037"></a>Page 57</span>instance occurs in <i>Viga-Glums Saga</i>, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the <i>Waterdale Saga</i> there are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead grandfather will pass to the grandson who receives
+his name. Scholars do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi poems, some holding the view that
+it is an essential part of the story.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1045"><span class="smallcaps">Hunding</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1049" href="#d0e511">32</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1052">It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so, the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the
+natural enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has a feud with MacCon (<i>i.e.</i>, Son of a Dog), which means the same as Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in the Bodleian MS.
+Laud, 610.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1057"><span class="smallcaps">Thorgerd Holgabrud</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e1061" href="#d0e529">33</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1064">Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1066"><span class="smallcaps">Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1070" href="#d0e529">33</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1073">See <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i>, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in the Saga of Olaf
+Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, and by Mr. Nutt in the <i>Voyage of Bran</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1084"><span class="smallcaps">Ballads</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1088" href="#d0e589">36</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1091">Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of <i>Clerk Saunders</i> as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi story in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's
+hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1096">The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1098"></a>Page 58</span>Danish as in Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark, England and Scotland is strongly in favour
+of the presumption that Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the presumption that the poems in
+question passed from the British Isles to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive on this point.
+There is an English translation of the latter by R.C.A. Prior (<i>Ancient Danish Ballads</i>, London, 1860).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1103"><span class="smallcaps">The Everlasting Battle</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1107" href="#d0e644">39</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1110">The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject, given with a translation in the <i>Corpus</i>, vol. ii. Saxo's version is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a necklace, which has caused comparison
+of this story with that of the Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle in which the slain revive
+each night and renew the fight daily, as occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached Ireland.
+According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in the East, and taught it to the Danes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1115">The latest edition of the <i>Gudrun</i> is by Ernst Martin (second edition, Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1120"><span class="smallcaps">Angantyr</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1124" href="#d0e682">42</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1127">The poems of this cycle are four in number&#8212;(1) <i>Hjalmar's  Death-song</i>: (2) <i>Angantyr and Herv&ouml;r</i>; (3) <i>Heidrek's Riddle-Poem</i>: (4) <i>Angantyr the Younger and Hlod</i>. All are given in the first volume of the <i>Corpus</i>, with translations.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1144"><i>Herrarar Saga</i> was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829&#8211;30) in <i>Fornaldar S&ouml;gur</i>, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently edited by Dr. Bugge, together with <i>V&ouml;lsunga</i> and others. Petersen (Copenhagen, 1847) edited <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1154"></a>Page 59</span>it with a Danish translation. Munch's <i>Nordmuendenes Gudel&aelig;re</i> (out of print) contains a short abstract.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1159"><span class="smallcaps">Death of Angantyr</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1163" href="#d0e695">43</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1166">Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion of all mythical interest.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1168"><span class="smallcaps">Transmission of Legends</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1172" href="#d0e740">47</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1175">M&uuml;llenhoff's views are given in the <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsches Altertum</i>, vol. x.; Maurer's in the <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsche Philologie</i>, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see <i>Germania</i>, 33.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1186"><span class="smallcaps">The Dragon Myth</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1190" href="#d0e750">49</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1193">See also Hartland, <i>Science of Fairy-Tales</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1198">The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. <a id="d0e1200" href="#d0e331">19</a>) may possibly be a survival of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage, of which Dr. Frazer gives examples
+in the <i>Golden Bough</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1206"><span class="smallcaps">Alien Wives</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1210" href="#d0e750">49</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1213">For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang, <i>Custom and Myth</i> (London, 1893).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1218"><span class="smallcaps">The Sister's Son</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1222" href="#d0e761">51</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1225">See Mr. Gummere's article in the <i>English Miscellany</i>; and Professor Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the British Association, 1900. The double relationship
+between Sigmund and Sinfj&ouml;tli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems
+in this case due to the same cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies, where the king often married
+his sister, that his heir might be of the pure royal blood.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1230"></a>Page 60</span></p>
+<p id="d0e1231"><span class="smallcaps">Swanmaids</span>.  (Page <a id="d0e1235" href="#d0e761">51</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1238">See Hartland, <i>Science of Fairy-Tales.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1243"><span class="smallcaps">The Waverlowe</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1247" href="#d0e761">51</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1250">Dr. Frazer (<i>Golden Bough</i>) gives instances of ritual marriages connected with the midsummer fires. For <i>Svipdag and Menglad</i>, see Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja
+and the mortal lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis,
+Ishtar and Tammuz, &amp;c., which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to the Goddess of fertility. The
+reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the Valhalla myth.
+
+
+
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1258">Printed by <span class="smallcaps">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co</span><br id="d0e1262">
+London &amp; Edinburgh
+
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 2, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 2
+       The Heroic Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13
+
+
+The Edda
+
+II
+
+The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+
+The present study forms a sequel to No. 12 (_The Edda: Divine Mythology
+of the North_), to which the reader is referred for introductory matter
+and for the general Bibliography. Additional bibliographical references
+are given, as the need occurs, in the notes to the present number.
+
+Manchester,
+July 1902.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: II. The Heroic Mythology of the North
+
+
+Sigemund the Waelsing and Fitela, Aetla, Eormanric the Goth and Gifica
+of Burgundy, Ongendtheow and Theodric, Heorrenda and the Heodenings,
+and Weland the Smith: all these heroes of Germanic legend were known
+to the writers of our earliest English literature. But in most cases
+the only evidence of this knowledge is a word, a name, here and there,
+with no hint of the story attached. For circumstances directed the
+poetical gifts of the Saxons in England towards legends of the saints
+and Biblical paraphrase, away from the native heroes of the race;
+while later events completed the exclusion of Germanic legend from our
+literature, by substituting French and Celtic romance. Nevertheless,
+these few brief references in _Beowulf_ and in the small group of
+heathen English relics give us the right to a peculiar interest in the
+hero-poems of the Edda. In studying these heroic poems, therefore,
+we are confronted by problems entirely different in character from
+those which have to be considered in connexion with the mythical
+texts. Those are in the main the product of one, the Northern,
+branch of the Germanic race, as we have seen (No. 12 of this series),
+and the chief question to be determined is whether they represent,
+however altered in form, a mythology common to all the Germans, and
+as such necessarily early; or whether they are in substance, as well
+as in form, a specific creation of the Scandinavians, and therefore
+late and secondary. The heroic poems of the Edda, on the contrary,
+with the exception of the Helgi cycle, have very close analogues in
+the literatures of the other great branches of the Germanic race,
+and these we are able to compare with the Northern versions.
+
+The Edda contains poems belonging to the following heroic cycles:
+
+(_a_) _Weland the Smith_.--Anglo-Saxon literature has several
+references to this cycle, which must have been a very popular one;
+and there is also a late Continental German version preserved in
+an Icelandic translation. But the poem in the Edda is the oldest
+connected form of the story.
+
+(_b_) _Sigurd and the Nibelungs_.--Again the oldest reference is in
+Anglo-Saxon.  There are two well-known Continental German versions
+in the _Nibelungen Lied_ and the late Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_,
+but the Edda, on the whole, has preserved an earlier form of the
+legend. With it is loosely connected
+
+(_c_) _The Ermanric Cycle_.--The oldest references to this are in Latin
+and Anglo-Saxon. The Continental German version in the _Thidreks Saga_
+is late, and, like that in the Edda, contaminated with the Sigurd
+story, with which it had originally nothing to do.
+
+(_d_) _Helgi_.--This cycle, at least in its present form, is peculiar
+to the Scandinavian North.
+
+All the above-named poems are contained in Codex Regius of the Elder
+Edda. From other sources we may add other poems which are Eddic, not
+Skaldic, in style, in which other heroic cycles are represented. The
+great majority of the poems deal with the favourite story of the
+Volsungs, which threatens to swamp all the rest; for one hero after
+another, Burgundian, Hun, Goth, was absorbed into it. The poems in this
+part of the MS. differ far more widely in date and style than do the
+mythological ones; many of the Volsung-lays are comparatively late, and
+lack the fine simplicity which characterises the older popular poetry.
+
+_Voelund_.--The lay of Voelund, the wonderful smith, the Weland of
+the Old English poems and the only Germanic hero who survived for
+any considerable time in English popular tradition, stands alone in
+its cycle, and is the first heroic poem in the MS. It is in a very
+fragmentary state, some of the deficiencies being supplied by short
+pieces of prose. There are two motives in the story: the Swan-maids,
+and the Vengeance of the Captive Smith. Three brothers, Slagfinn,
+Egil and Voelund, sons of the Finnish King, while out hunting built
+themselves a house by the lake in Wolfsdale. There, early one
+morning, they saw three Valkyries spinning, their swancoats lying
+beside them. The brothers took them home; but after seven years the
+swan-maidens, wearied of their life, flew away to battle, and did
+not return.
+
+"Seven years they stayed there, but in the eighth longing seized
+them, and in the ninth need parted them." Egil and Slagfinn went to
+seek their wives, but Voelund stayed where he was and worked at his
+forge. There Nithud, King of Sweden, took him captive:
+
+"Men went by night in studded mailcoats; their shields shone by
+the waning moon. They dismounted from the saddle at the hall-gable,
+and went in along the hall. They saw rings strung on bast which the
+hero owned, seven hundred in all; they took them off and put, them on
+again, all but one. The keen-eyed archer Voelund came in from hunting,
+from a far road.... He sat on a bear-skin and counted his rings, and
+the prince of the elves missed one; he thought Hlodve's daughter,
+the fairy-maid, had come back. He sat so long that he fell asleep,
+and awoke powerless: heavy bonds were on his hands, and fetters
+clasped on his feet."
+
+They took him away and imprisoned him, ham-strung, on an island to
+forge treasures for his captors. Then Voelund planned vengeance:
+
+"'I see on Nithud's girdle the sword which I knew keenest and best,
+and which I forged with all my skill. The glittering blade is taken
+from me for ever; I shall not see it borne to Voelund's smithy. Now
+Boedvild wears my bride's red ring; I expect no atonement.' He sat
+and slept not, but struck with his hammer."
+
+Nithud's children came to see him in his smithy: the two boys he slew,
+and made drinking-cups for Nithud from their skulls; and the daughter
+Boedvild he beguiled, and having made himself wings he rose into the
+air and left her weeping for her lover and Nithud mourning his sons.
+
+In the Old English poems allusion is made only to the second part
+of the story; there is no reference to the legend of the enchanted
+brides, which is indeed distinct in origin, being identical with
+the common tale of the fairy wife who is obliged to return to animal
+shape through some breach of agreement by her mortal husband. This
+incident of the compact (_i.e._, to hide the swan-coat, to refrain
+from asking the wife's name, or whatever it may have been) has been
+lost in the Voelund tale. The Continental version is told in the late
+Icelandic _Thidreks Saga_, where it is brought into connexion with
+the Volsung story; in this the story of the second brother, Egil the
+archer, is also given, and its antiquity is supported by the pictures
+on the Anglo-Saxon carved whale-bone box known as the Franks Casket,
+dated by Professor Napier at about 700 A.D. The adventures of the
+third brother, Slagfinn, have not survived. The Anglo-Saxon gives
+Voelund and Boedvild a son, Widia or Wudga, the Wittich who appears as
+a follower of Dietrich's in the Continental German sources.
+
+_The Volsungs_.--No story better illustrates the growth of heroic
+legend than the Volsung cycle. It is composite, four or five mythical
+motives combining to form the nucleus; and as it took possession
+more and more strongly of the imagination of the early Germans, and
+still more of the Scandinavians, other heroic cycles were brought
+into dependence on it. None of the Eddic poems on the subject are
+quite equal in poetic value to the Helgi lays; many are fragmentary,
+several late, and only one attempts a review of the whole story. The
+outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother
+of Sinfjoetli, slays the dragon who guards the Nibelungs' hoard on
+the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which accompanies
+the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in
+an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire, loves her and plights
+troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment
+causes him to forget the Valkyrie, to love her own daughter Gudrun,
+and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son
+Gunnar. After the marriage, Brynhild discovers the trick, and incites
+her husband and his brothers to kill Sigurd.
+
+The series begins with a prose piece on the Death of Sinfjoetli,
+which says that after Sinfjoetli, son of Sigmund, Volsung's son (which
+should be Valsi's son, Volsung being a tribal, not a personal, name),
+had been poisoned by his stepmother Borghild, Sigmund married Hjoerdis,
+Eylimi's daughter, had a son Sigurd, and fell in battle against the
+race of Hunding. Sigmund, as in all other Norse sources, is said to be
+king in Frankland, which, like the Niderlant of the _Nibelungen Lied_,
+means the low lands on the Rhine. The scene of the story is always
+near that river: Sigurd was slain by the Rhine, and the treasure of
+the Rhine is quoted as proverbial in the Voelund lay.
+
+_Gripisspa_ (the Prophecy of Gripi), which follows, is appropriately
+placed first of the Volsung poems, since it gives a summary of the
+whole story. Sigurd rides to see his mother's brother, Gripi, the
+wisest of men, to ask about his destiny, and the soothsayer prophesies
+his adventures and early death. This poem makes clear some original
+features of the legend which are obscured elsewhere, especially in the
+Gudrun set; Grimhild's treachery, and Sigurd's unintentional breach
+of faith to Brynhild. In the speeches of both Gripi and Sigurd, the
+poet shows clearly that Brynhild had the first right to Sigurd's faith,
+while the seer repeatedly protests his innocence in breaking it: "Thou
+shalt never be blamed though thou didst betray the royal maid.... No
+better man shall come on earth beneath the sun than thou, Sigurd." On
+the other hand, the poet gives no indication that Brynhild and the
+sleeping Valkyrie are the same, which is a sign of confusion. Like
+all poems in this form, _Gripisspa_ is a late composition embodying
+earlier tradition.
+
+The other poems are mostly episodical, though arranged so as to form
+a continued narrative. _Gripisspa_ is followed by a compilation from
+two or more poems in different metres, generally divided into three
+parts in the editions: _Reginsmal_ gives the early history of the
+treasure and the dragon, and Sigurd's battle with Hunding's sons;
+_Fafnismal_, the slaying of the dragon and the advice of the talking
+birds; _Sigrdrifumal_, the awakening of the Valkyrie. Then follows
+a fragment on the death of Sigurd. All the rest, except the poem
+generally called the _Third_, or _Short, Sigurd Lay_ (which tells of
+the marriage with Gudrun and Sigurd's wooing of Brynhild for Gunnar)
+continue the story after Sigurd's death, taking up the death of
+Brynhild, Gudrun's mourning, and the fates of the other heroes who
+became connected with the legend of the treasure.
+
+In addition to the poems in the Elder Edda, an account of the story
+is given by Snorri in _Skaldskaparmal_, but it is founded almost
+entirely on the surviving lays. _Voelsunga Saga_ is also a paraphrase,
+but more valuable, since parts of it are founded on lost poems, and
+it therefore, to some extent, represents independent tradition. It
+was, unfortunately from a literary point of view, compiled after the
+great saga-time was over, in the decadent fourteenth century, when
+material of all kinds, classical, biblical, romantic, mythological,
+was hastily cast into saga-form. It is not, like the _Nibelungen
+Lied_, a work of art, but it has what in this case is perhaps of
+greater importance, the one great virtue of fidelity. The compiler
+did not, like the author of the German masterpiece, boldly recast
+his material in the spirit of his own time; he clung closely to his
+originals, only trying with hesitating hand to copy the favourite
+literary form of the Icelander. As a saga, therefore, _Voelsunga_
+is far behind not only such great works as _Njala_, but also many of
+the smaller sagas. It lacks form, and is marred by inconsistencies;
+it is often careless in grammar and diction; it is full of traces
+of the decadent romantic age. Sigurd, in the true spirit of romance,
+is endowed with magic weapons and supernatural powers, which are no
+improvement on the heroic tradition, "Courage is better than a good
+sword." At every turn, Odin is at hand to help him, which tends to
+efface the older and truer picture of the hero with all the fates
+against him; such heroes, found again and again in the historic
+sagas, more truly represent the heathen heroic age and that belief
+in the selfishness and caprice of the Gods on which the whole idea
+of sacrifice rests. There is also the inevitable deterioration in the
+character of Brynhild, without the compensating elevation in that of
+her rival by which the _Nibelungen Lied_ places Chriemhild on a height
+as lofty and unapproachable as that occupied by the Norse Valkyrie;
+the Brynhild of _Voelsunga Saga_ is something of a virago, the Gudrun
+is jealous and shrewish. But for actual material, the compiler is
+absolutely to be trusted; and _Voelsunga Saga_ is therefore, in spite
+of artistic faults, a priceless treasure-house for the real features
+of the legend.
+
+There are two main elements in the Volsung story: the slaying of the
+dragon, and the awakening and desertion of Brynhild. The latter is
+brought into close connexion with the former, which becomes the real
+centre of the action. In the Anglo-Saxon reference, the fragment in
+_Beowulf_, the second episode does not appear.
+
+In this, the oldest version of the story, which, except for a vague
+reference to early feats by Sigmund and Sinfjoetli, consists solely
+of the dragon adventure, the hero is not Sigurd, but Sigemund the
+Waelsing. All that it tells is that Sigemund, Fitela (Sinfjoetli)
+not being with him, killed the dragon, the guardian of the hoard, and
+loaded a ship with the treasure. The few preceding lines only mention
+the war which Sigmund and Sinfjoetli waged on their foes. They are there
+uncle and nephew, and there is no suggestion of the closer relationship
+assigned to them by _Voelsunga Saga_, which tells their story in full.
+
+Sigmund, one of the ten sons of Volsung (who is himself of
+miraculous birth) and the Wishmaiden Hlod, is one of the chosen
+heroes of Odin. His twin-sister Signy is married against her will to
+Siggeir, an hereditary enemy, and at the wedding-feast Odin enters
+and thrusts a sword up to the hilt into the tree growing in the
+middle of the hall. All try to draw it, but only the chosen Sigmund
+succeeds. Siggeir, on returning to his own home with his unwilling
+bride, invites her father and brothers to a feast. Though suspecting
+treachery, they come, and are killed one after another, except Sigmund
+who is secretly saved by his sister and hidden in the wood. She
+meditates revenge, and as her two sons grow up to the age of ten,
+she tests their courage, and finding it wanting makes Sigmund kill
+both: the expected hero must be a Volsung through both parents. She
+therefore visits Sigmund in disguise, and her third son, Sinfjoetli,
+is the child of the Volsung pair. At ten years old, she sends him to
+live in the wood with Sigmund, who only knows him as Signy's son. For
+years they live as wer-wolves in the wood, till the time comes for
+vengeance. They set fire to Siggeir's hall; and Signy, after revealing
+Sinfjoetli's real parentage, goes back into the fire and dies there,
+her vengeance achieved:
+
+"I killed my children, because I thought them too weak to avenge our
+father; Sinfjoetli has a warrior's might because he is both son's son
+and daughter's son to King Volsung. I have laboured to this end,
+that King Siggeir should meet his death; I have so toiled for the
+achieving of revenge that I am now on no condition fit for life. As
+I lived by force with King Siggeir, of free will shall I die with him."
+
+Though no poem survives on this subject, the story is certainly
+primitive; its savage character vouches for its antiquity. _Voelsunga_
+then reproduces the substance of the prose _Death of Sinfjoetli_
+mentioned above, the object of which, as a part of the cycle, seems
+to be to remove Sinfjoetli and leave the field clear for Sigurd. It
+preserves a touch which may be original in Sinfjoetli's burial, which
+resembles that of Scyld in _Beowulf_: his father lays him in a boat
+steered by an old man, which immediately disappears.
+
+Sigmund and Sinfjoetli are always close comrades, "need-companions"
+as the Anglo-Saxon calls them. They are indivisible and form one
+story. Sigurd, on the other hand, is only born after his father
+Sigmund's death. _Voelsunga_ says that Sigmund fell in battle against
+Hunding, through the interference of Odin, who, justifying Loki's taunt
+that he "knew not how to give the victory fairly," shattered with his
+spear the sword he had given to the Volsung. For this again we have
+to depend entirely on the prose, except for one line in _Hyndluljod_:
+"The Father of Hosts gives gold to his followers;... he gave Sigmund
+a sword." And from the poems too, Sigurd's fatherless childhood is
+only to be inferred from an isolated reference, where giving himself
+a false name he says to Fafni: "I came a motherless child; I have no
+father like the sons of men." Sigmund, dying, left the fragments of
+the sword to be given to his unborn son, and Sigurd's fosterfather
+Regin forged them anew for the future dragon-slayer. But Sigurd's
+first deed was to avenge on Hunding's race the death of his father
+and his mother's father. _Voelsunga_ tells this story first of Helgi
+and Sinfjoetli, then of Sigurd, to whom the poems also attribute the
+deed. It is followed by the dragon-slaying.
+
+Up to this point, the story of Sigurd consists roughly of the same
+features which mark that of Sigmund and Sinfjoetli. Both are probably,
+like Helgi, versions of a race-hero myth. In each case there is
+the usual irregular birth, in different forms, both familiar; a
+third type, the miraculous or supernatural birth, is attributed by
+_Voelsunga_ to Sigmund's father Volsung. Each story again includes
+a deed of vengeance, and a dragon and treasure. The sword which the
+hero alone could draw, and the wer-wolf, appear only in the Sigmund
+and Sinfjoetli version. Among those Germanic races which brought the
+legend to full perfection, Sigurd's version soon became the sole one,
+and Sigmund and Sinfjoetli practically drop out.
+
+The Dragon legend of the Edda is much fuller and more elaborate than
+that of any other mythology. As a rule tradition is satisfied with
+the existence of the monster "old and proud of his treasure," but
+here we are told its full previous history, certain features of which
+(such as the shape-shifting) are signs of antiquity, whether it was
+originally connected with the Volsungs or not.
+
+As usual, _Voelsunga_ gives the fullest account, in the form of a
+story told by Regin to his foster-son Sigurd, to incite him to slay
+the dragon. Regin was one of three brothers, the sons of Hreidmar;
+one of the three, Otr, while in the water in otter's shape, was seen by
+three of the Aesir, Odin, Loki and Hoeni, and killed by Loki. Hreidmar
+demanded as wergild enough gold to fill the otter's skin, and Loki
+obtained it by catching the dwarf Andvari, who lived in a waterfall
+in the form of a fish, and allowing him to ransom his head by giving
+up his wealth. One ring the dwarf tried to keep back, but in vain;
+and thereupon he laid a curse upon it: that the ring with the rest
+of the gold should be the death of whoever should get possession of
+it. In giving the gold to Hreidmar, Odin also tried to keep back the
+ring, but had to give it up to cover the last hair. Then Fafni, one of
+the two remaining sons, killed his father, first victim of the curse,
+for the sake of the gold. He carried it away and lay guarding it in
+the shape of a snake. But Regin the smith did not give up his hopes of
+possessing the hoard: he adopted as his foster-son Sigurd the Volsung,
+thus getting into his power the hero fated to slay the dragon.
+
+The curse thus becomes the centre of the action, and the link between
+the two parts of the story, since it directly accounts for Sigurd's
+unconscious treachery and his separation from Brynhild, and absolves
+the hero from blame by making him a victim of fate. It destroys in turn
+Hreidmar, the Dragon, his brother Regin, the dragon-slayer himself,
+Brynhild (to whom he gave the ring), and the Giukings, who claimed
+inheritance after Sigurd's death. Later writers carried its effects
+still further.
+
+This narrative is also told in the pieces of prose interspersed through
+_Reginsmal_. The verse consists only of scraps of dialogue. The first
+of these comprises question and answer between Loki and the dwarf
+Andvari in the form of the old riddle-poems, and seems to result
+from the confusion of two ideas: the question-and-answer wager, and
+the captive's ransom by treasure. Then follows the curse, in less
+general terms than in the prose: "My gold shall be the death of two
+brothers, and cause strife among eight kings; no one shall rejoice in
+the possession of my treasure." Next comes a short dialogue between
+Loki and Hreidmar, in which the former warns his host of the risk he
+runs in taking the hoard. In the next fragment Hreidmar calls on his
+daughters to avenge him; Lyngheid replies that they cannot do so on
+their own brother, and her father bids her bear a daughter whose son
+may avenge him. This has given rise to a suggestion that Hjoerdis,
+Sigurd's mother, was daughter to Lyngheid, but if that is intended,
+it may only be due to the Norse passion for genealogy. The next
+fragment brings Regin and Sigurd together, and the smith takes the
+young Volsung for his foster-son. A speech of Sigurd's follows, in
+which he refuses to seek the treasure till he has avenged his father
+on Hunding's sons. The rest of the poem is concerned with the battle
+with Hunding's race, and Sigurd's meeting with Odin by the way.
+
+The fight with Fafni is not described in verse, very little of this
+poetry being in narrative form; but _Fafnismal_ gives a dialogue
+between the wounded dragon and his slayer. Fafni warns the Volsung
+against the hoard: "The ringing gold and the glowing treasure, the
+rings shall be thy death." Sigurd disregards the warning with the maxim
+"Every man must die some time," and asks questions of the dragon in the
+manner of _Vafthrudnismal_. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks
+of his brother's intended treachery: "Regin betrayed me, he will betray
+thee; he will be the death of both of us," and dies. Regin returning
+bids Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece tells
+that Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in
+his mouth, and understood the speech of birds. The advice given him
+by the birds is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats
+itself; the substance is a warning to Sigurd against the treachery
+plotted by Regin, and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so
+become sole owner of the hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning:
+"Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence:
+both brothers shall go quickly hence to Hel." Regin's enjoyment of
+the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins
+when one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to
+the sleeping Valkyrie:
+
+"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a
+maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green
+roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a
+mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There
+is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I
+know a battle-maid who sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over
+her; Odin touched the maid with a thorn, because she laid low others
+than those he wished to fall. Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who
+rode Vingskorni from the fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken,
+son of heroes, by the Norns' decrees."
+
+Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may
+have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and it was probably
+such passages as this that misled the author of _Gripisspa_  into
+differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been
+differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd not to seek Brynhild and
+an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the
+deed; they may merely mean that her sleep cannot be broken except by
+one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin
+is clearly shown here, and also in the prose in _Sigrdrifumal. Voelsunga
+Saga_, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic
+sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing her
+with a genealogy and family connections; while the _Nibelungen Lied_
+goes further still in the same direction by leaving out the magic
+sleep. The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which
+Odin's Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
+
+Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess,
+popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping
+Beauty. After her broken questions to her deliverer, "What cut my
+mail? How have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me the dark
+spells?" and his answer, "Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword," she
+bursts into the famous "Greeting to the World":
+
+"Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's
+misfortunes. It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes of
+sleep. Hail, day! hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with
+gracious eyes, and give victory to us who sit here. Hail, Aesir! hail,
+Asynjor! hail, Earth, mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us
+the wonderful pair, and hands of healing while we live."
+
+She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of
+his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which are to help him
+in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who
+is the hero's benefactress, but whom he deserts through sorcery: the
+"Mastermaid" of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is
+always an innocent instrument in drawing Sigurd away from his real
+bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part
+of the story is summarised in _Gripisspa_, except that the writer
+seems unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd "every mystery
+that men would know" and the princess he betrays are the same:
+
+"A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew
+with thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer.... She
+will teach thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in
+every man's tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling and be the
+great king's joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's;
+men call her Brynhild, Budli's daughter, but the great king Heimi
+fosters the proud maid.... Heimi's fair foster-daughter will rob
+thee of all joy; thou shalt sleep no sleep, and judge no cause,
+and care for no man unless thou see the maiden.  ... Ye shall swear
+all binding oaths but keep few when thou hast been one night Giuki's
+guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou
+shalt suffer treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's
+plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter."
+
+_Voelsunga_ gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer
+to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear
+oaths to each other. The description of their second meeting, when
+he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will marry
+Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before
+the latter's marriage, represent a later development of the story,
+inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd
+gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which belonged to the hoard,
+as a pledge, and takes it from her again later when he woos her in
+Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's
+hand which reveals to her the deception; but the episode has also
+a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the
+central action by passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's
+paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in
+Gunnar's form.
+
+For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on _Gripisspa_ and
+_Voelsunga_. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings,
+gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell in love
+with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship
+with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After
+the two bridals, he remembered his first passing through the flame,
+and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered,
+but thinking that Gunnar had fairly won her, accepted her fate until
+Gudrun in spite and jealousy revealed the trick that had been played
+on her. Of the treachery of the Giukings Brynhild takes little heed;
+but death alone can pay for Sigurd's unconscious betrayal. She tells
+Gunnar that Sigurd has broken faith with him, and the Giukings with
+some reluctance murder their sister's husband. Brynhild springs on to
+the funeral pyre, and dies with Sigurd.  _Voelsunga_ makes the murder
+take place in Sigurd's chamber, and one poem, the _Short Sigurd Lay_,
+agrees. The fragment which follows _Sigrdrifumal_, on the other hand,
+places the scene in the open air:
+
+"Sigurd was slain south of the Rhine; a raven on a tree called aloud:
+'On you will Atli redden the sword; your broken oaths shall destroy
+you.' Gudrun Giuki's daughter stood without, and these were the first
+words she spoke: 'Where is now Sigurd, the lord of men, that my kinsmen
+ride first?' Hoegni alone made answer: 'We have hewn Sigurd asunder
+with the sword; the grey horse still stoops over his dead lord.'"
+
+This agrees with the _Old Gudrun Lay_ and with the Continental German
+version, as a prose epilogue points out.
+
+Of the Giuking brothers, Gunnar appears only in a contemptible light:
+he gains his bride by treachery, and keeps his oath to Sigurd by a
+quibble. Hoegni, who has little but his name in common with Hagen von
+Tronje of the _Nibelungen Lied_, advises Gunnar against breaking his
+oath, but it is he who taunts Gudrun afterwards. The later poems of
+the cycle try to make heroes out of both; the same discrepancy exists
+between the first and second halves of the _Nibelungen Lied_. Their
+half-brother, Gutthorm, plays no part in the story except as the
+actual murderer of Sigurd.
+
+The chief effect of the influences of Christianity and Romance on
+the legend is a loss of sympathy with the heroic type of Brynhild,
+and an attempt to give more dignity to the figure of Gudrun. The
+Shield-maiden of divine origin and unearthly wisdom, with her
+unrelenting vengeance on her beloved, and her contempt for her
+slighter rival ("Fitter would it be for Gudrun to die with Sigurd,
+if she had a soul like mine"), is a figure out of harmony with the new
+religion, and beyond the comprehension of a time coloured by romance;
+while both the sentiment and the morality of the age would be on the
+side of Gudrun as the formally wedded wife. So the poem known as the
+_Short Sigurd Lay_, which has many marks of lateness, such as the
+elaborate description of the funeral pyre and the exaggeration of
+the signs of mourning, says nothing of Sigurd's love for Brynhild,
+nor do his last words to Gudrun give any hint of it. The _Nibelungen
+Lied_ suppresses Sigurd's love to Brynhild, and the magic drink, and
+altogether lowers Brynhild, but elevates Gudrun (under her mother's
+name); her slow but terrible vengeance, and absolute forgetfulness
+of the ties of blood in pursuit of it, are equal to anything in the
+original version. The later heroic poems of the Edda make a less
+successful attempt to create sympathy for Gudrun; some, such as the
+so-called _First Gudrun Lay_, which is entirely romantic in character,
+try to make her pathetic by the abundance of tears she sheds; others,
+to make her heroic, though the result is only a spurious savagery.
+
+The remaining poems of the cycle, all late in style and tone, deal
+with the fates of Gudrun and her brothers, and owe their existence
+to a narrator's unwillingness to let a favourite story end. The
+curse makes continuation easy, since the Giukings inherit it with the
+hoard. Gudrun was married at the wish of her kinsmen to Atli the Hun,
+said to be Brynhild's brother. He invited Gunnar and Hoegni to his
+court and killed them for the sake of the treasure, in vengeance for
+which Gudrun killed her own two sons and Atli; this latter incident
+being possibly an imitation of Signy. If we may believe that Gudrun,
+like Chriemhild in the _Nibelungen Lied_, married Atli in order to
+gain vengeance for Sigurd, we might suppose that there was confusion
+here: that she herself incited the murder of her brothers, and killed
+Atli when he had served his purpose. This would strengthen the part
+of Gudrun, who as the tale stands is rather a futile character. But
+in all probability the episode is due to a confusion of Signy's story
+with that of the German Chriemhild and Etzel.
+
+One point has still to be considered: the place of the Nibelungs in the
+story. In the Edda, the Hniflungs are always the Giukings, Gunnar and
+Hoegni, and Snorri gives it as the name of an heroic family. The title
+of the first _aventiure_ of the _Nibelungen Lied_ also apparently uses
+the word of the Burgundians. Yet the treasure is always the Nibelungs'
+hoard, which clearly means that they were the original owners; and when
+Hagen von Tronje tells the story later in the poem, he speaks of the
+Nibelungs correctly as the dwarfs from whom Siegfried won it. On this
+point, therefore, the German preserves the older tradition: the Norse
+Andvari, the river-dwarf, is the German Alberich the Nibelung. In
+the _Nibelungen Lied_ the winning of the treasure forms no part of
+the action: it is merely narrated by Hagen. This accounts for the
+shortening of the episode and the omission of the intermediate steps:
+the robbing of the dwarf, the curse, and the dragon-slaying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ermanric.--_The two poems of _Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_,
+in the Edda attached to the Volsung cycle, belong correctly to
+that of the Gothic hero Ermanric. According to these poems, Gudrun,
+Giuki's daughter, married a third time, and had three sons, Soerli,
+Hamthi and Erp. She married Svanhild, her own and Sigurd's daughter,
+to Joermunrek, king of the Goths; but Svanhild was slandered, and her
+husband had her trodden to death by horses' hoofs. The description
+of Svanhild is a good example of the style of the romantic poems:
+
+"The bondmaids sat round Svanhild, dearest of my children; Svanhild
+was like a glorious sunbeam in my hall. I dowered her with gold
+and goodly fabrics when I married her into Gothland. That was the
+hardest of my griefs, when they trod Svanhild's fair hair into the
+dust beneath the horses' hoofs."
+
+Gudrun sent her three sons to avenge their sister; two of them
+slew Erp by the way, and were killed themselves in their attack on
+Joermunrek for want of his help. So died, as Snorri says, all who were
+of Giuking descent; and only Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild,
+survived. _Heimskringla_, a thirteenth century history of the royal
+races of Scandinavia, traces the descent of the Norse kings from her.
+
+This Ermanric story, which belongs to legendary history rather than
+myth, is in reality quite independent of the Volsung or Nibelung
+cycle. The connection is loose and inartistic, the legend being
+probably linked to Gudrun's name because she had become a favourite
+character and Icelandic narrators were unwilling to let her die. The
+historic Ermanric was conquered by the Huns in 374; the sixth century
+historian Jornandes is the earliest authority for the tradition that he
+was murdered by Sarus and Ammius in revenge for their sister's death
+by wild horses. Saxo also tells the story, with greater similarity
+of names. It seems hardly necessary to assume, with many scholars,
+the existence of two heroes of the name Ermanric, an historic and
+a mythical one. A simpler explanation is that a legendary story
+became connected with the name of a real personage. The slaying of
+Erp introduces a common folk-tale incident, familiar in stories like
+the _Golden Bird_, told by both Asbjoernsen and Grimm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Helgi._--The Helgi-lays, three in number, are the best of the
+heroic poems. Nominally they tell two stories, Helgi Hjoervardsson
+being sandwiched between the two poems of Helgi Hundingsbane; but
+essentially the stories are the same.
+
+In _Helyi Hjoervardsson_, Helgi, son of Hjoervard and Sigrlinn, was dumb
+and nameless until a certain day when, while sitting on a howe, he
+saw a troop of nine Valkyries. The fairest, Svava, Eylimi's daughter,
+named him, and bidding him avenge his grandfather on Hrodmar (a former
+wooer of Sigrlinn's, and her father's slayer), sent him to find a
+magic sword. Helgi slew Hrodmar and married Svava, having escaped
+from the sea-giantess Hrimgerd through the protection of his Valkyrie
+bride and the wit of a faithful servant. His brother Hedin, through
+the spells of a troll-wife, swore to wed Helgi's bride. Repenting, he
+told his brother, who, dying in a fight with Hrodmar's son, charged
+Svava to marry Hedin. A note by the collector adds "Helgi and Svava
+are said to have been born again."
+
+In _Helgi Hundingsbane I_., Helgi is the son of Sigmund and
+Borghild. He fought and slew Hunding, and afterwards met in battle
+Hunding's sons at Logafell, where the Valkyrie Sigrun, Hoegni's
+daughter, protected him, and challenged him to fight Hoedbrodd to whom
+her father had plighted her. She protected his ships in the storm which
+overtook them as they sailed to meet Hoedbrodd, and watched over him in
+the battle, in which he slew his rival and was greeted as victor by
+Sigrun: "Hail, hero of Yngvi's race ... thou shalt have both the red
+rings and the mighty maid: thine are Hoegni's daughter and Hringstad,
+the victory and the land."
+
+_Helgi Hundingsbane II_., besides giving additional details of the
+hero's early life, completes the story. In the battle with Hoedbrodd,
+Helgi killed all Sigrun's kinsmen except one brother, Dag, who slew
+him later in vengeance. But Helgi returned from the grave, awakened by
+Sigrun's weeping, and she went into the howe with him. The collector
+again adds a note: "Helgi and Sigrun are said to have been born again:
+he was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara Halfdan's
+daughter, as it is told in the Kara-ljod, and she was a Valkyrie."
+
+This third Helgi legend does not survive in verse, the _Kara-ljod_
+having perished. It is told in prose in the late saga of Hromund
+Gripsson, according to which Kara was a Valkyrie and swan-maid: while
+she was hovering over Helgi, he killed her accidentally in swinging
+his sword.
+
+There can be little doubt that these three are merely variants of the
+same story; the foundation is the same, though incidents and names
+differ. The three Helgis are one hero, and the three versions of his
+legend probably come from different localities. The collector could
+not but feel their identity, and the similarity was too fundamental
+to be overlooked; he therefore accounted for it by the old idea of
+re-birth, and thus linked the three together. In each Helgi has an
+hereditary foe (Hrodmar, Hunding, or Hadding); in each his bride is a
+Valkyrie, who protects him and gives him victory; each ends in tragedy,
+though differently.
+
+The two variants in the Poetic Edda have evident marks
+of contamination with the Volsung cycle, and some points of
+superficial resemblance. Helgi Hjoervardsson's mother is Sigrlinn,
+Helgi Hundings-bane's father is Sigmund, as in the _Nibelungen Lied_
+Siegfried is the son of Sigemunt and Sigelint. Helgi Hundingsbane is
+a Volsung and Wolfing (Ylfing), and brother to Sinfjoetli; his first
+fight, like Sigurd's, is against the race of Hunding; his rival,
+Hoedbrodd, is a Hniflung; he first meets the Valkyrie on Loga-fell
+(Flame-hill); he is killed by his brother-in-law, who has sworn
+friendship. But there is no parallel to the essential features of the
+Volsung cycle, and such likenesses between the two stories as are not
+accidental are due to the influence of the more favoured legend; this
+is especially true of the names. The prose-piece _Sinfjoetli's Death_
+also makes Helgi half-brother to Sinfjoetli; it is followed in this
+by _Voelsunga Saga_, which devotes a chapter to Helgi, paraphrasing
+_Helyi Hundingsbane I_. There is, of course, confusion over the
+Hunding episode; the saga is obliged to reconcile its conflicting
+authorities by making Helgi kill Hunding and some of his sons, and
+Sigurd kill the rest.
+
+If the theory stated below as to the original Helgi legend be correct,
+the feud with Hunding's race, as told in these poems, must be
+extraneous. I conjecture that it belonged originally to the Volsung
+cycle, and to the wer-wolf Sinfjoetli. It must not be forgotten that,
+though he passes out of the Volsung story altogether in the later
+versions, both Scandinavian and German, he is in the main action
+in the earliest one (that in _Beowulf_), where even Sigurd does not
+appear. The feud might easily have been transferred from him to Helgi
+as well as to Sigurd, for invention is limited as regards episodes,
+and a narrator who wishes to elaborate the story of a favourite hero
+is often forced to borrow adventures. In the original story, Helgi's
+blood-feud was probably with the kindred of Sigrun or Svava.
+
+The origin of the Helgi legend must be sought outside of the Volsung
+cycle. Some writers are of opinion that the name should be Holgi,
+and there are two stories in which a hero Holgi appears. With
+the legend of Thorgerd Holgabrud, told by Saxo, who identified it
+with that of Helgi Hundingsbane, it has nothing in common; and the
+connection which has been sought with the legend of Holger Danske is
+equally difficult to establish. The essence of this latter story is
+the hero's disappearance into fairyland, and the expectation of his
+return sometime in the future: a motive which has been very fruitful
+in Irish romance, and in the traditions of Arthur, Tryggvason, and
+Barbarossa, among countless others. But it is absent from the Helgi
+poems; and the "old wives' tales" of Helgi's re-birth have nothing
+to do with his legend, but are merely a bookman's attempt to connect
+stories which he felt to be the same though different.
+
+The essential feature of the story told in these poems is the motive
+familiar in that class of ballads of which the _Douglas Tragedy_ is a
+type: the hero loves the daughter of his enemy's house, her kinsmen
+kill him, and she dies of grief. This is the story told in both the
+lays of _Helgi Hundingsbane_, complete in one, unfinished in the
+other. No single poem preserves all the incidents of the legend; some
+survive in one version, some in another, as usual in ballad literature.
+
+Like Sinfjoetli and Sigurd, Helgi is brought up in obscurity. He spends
+his childhood disguised in his enemy's household, and on leaving it,
+sends a message to tell his foes whom they have fostered. They pursue
+him, and he is obliged, like Gude Wallace in the Scottish ballad,
+to disguise himself in a bondmaid's dress:
+
+"Piercing are the eyes of Hagal's bondmaid; it is no peasant's kin who
+stands at the mill: the stones are split, the bin springs in two. It
+is a hard fate for a warrior to grind the barley; the sword-hilt is
+better fitted for those hands than the mill-handle."
+
+Sigrun is present at the battle, in which, as in the English and
+Scottish ballads, Helgi slays all her kindred except one brother. He
+tells her the fortunes of the fight, and she chooses between lover
+and kinsmen:
+
+_Helgi_. "Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things,
+though the Norns are partly to blame. Bragi and Hoegni fell to-day
+at Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie
+low. Thou couldst not hinder the battle: it was thy fate to be a cause
+of strife to heroes. Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us;
+heroes must meet their fate."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in
+thy arms."
+
+The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi,
+but remembers the feud. The end comes, as in the Norse Sigmund tale,
+through Odin's interference: he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi
+in a grove, and rides home to tell his sister. Sigrun is inconsolable,
+and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness:
+
+"May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi.... May the
+ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind lie behind. May
+the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from
+thy foes. May the sword bite not that thou drawest, unless it sing
+round thine own head. If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi's
+death were avenged.... Never again while I live, by night or day,
+shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero's
+company, nor the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior."
+
+But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun's
+weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him:
+
+_Sigrun_. "Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched
+with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet. How shall I get thee help,
+my hero?"
+
+_Helgi_. "Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi
+is drenched with deadly dew. Thou weepest bitter tears before thou
+goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls
+on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy with grief...."
+
+_Sigrun_. "I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the
+Wolfings. I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert alive."
+
+_Helgi_. "There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late,
+than that thou, king-born, Hoegni's fair daughter, shouldst be alive
+in the grave and sleep in a dead man's arms."
+
+The lay of Helgi Hjoervardsson is furthest from the original, for there
+is no feud with Svava's kindred, nor does Helgi die at their hands;
+but it preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride
+to his brother's protection. Like the wife in the English ballad of
+_Earl Brand_, and the heroine of the Danish _Ribold and Guldborg_,
+Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to
+return and marry her after avenging Helgi. This would be contrary to
+all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.
+
+The alternative ending of the _Helgi and Kara_	version is interesting
+as providing the possible source of another Scottish ballad dealing
+with the same type of story. In _The Cruel Knight_, as here, the
+hero slays his bride, who is of a hostile family, by mistake. One
+passage of _Helgi Hundingsbane II._  describes Helgi's entrance into
+Valhalla, which, taken with the incident of Sigrun's joining him
+in the howe, supplies an instance of the survival side by side of
+inconsistent notions as to the state of the dead. The lover's return
+from the grave is the subject of _Clerk Saunders_ (the second part)
+and several other Scottish ballads.
+
+_The Song of the Mill_.--The magic mill is best known in the folk-tale,
+"Why the sea is salt"; but this is not the oldest part of the story,
+though it took most hold of the popular imagination which loves
+legendary explanations of natural phenomena. The hero, Frodi, a
+mythical Danish king, is the northern Croesus. His reign was marked
+by a world-peace, and the peace, the wealth, the liberality of Frodi
+became proverbial. The motive of his tale is again the curse that
+follows gold. It is told by Snorri, in whose work _Grottasoengr_
+is embodied.
+
+Frodi possessed two magic quern-stones, from which the grinder could
+grind out whatever he wished; but he had no one strong enough to turn
+them until he bought in Sweden two bondmaids of giant-race, Menja and
+Fenja. He set them to grind at the quern by day, and by night when
+all slept, and as they ground him gold, and peace, and prosperity,
+they sang:
+
+"We grind wealth for Frodi, all bliss we grind, and abundance of
+riches in the fortunate bin. May he sit on wealth, may he sleep on
+down, may he wake to delight; then the grinding were good. Here shall
+no man hurt another, prepare evil nor work death, nor hew with the
+keen sword though he find his brother's slayer bound."
+
+But when they wearied of their toil and asked for a little rest,
+Frodi answered: "Ye shall sleep no longer than the cuckoo is silent,
+or while I speak one stave." Then the giant-maids grew angry, and sang:
+
+"Thou wert not wise, Frodi, in buying thy bondmaids: thou didst
+choose us for our strength and size but asked not our race. Bold
+were Hrungni and his father, and mightier Thiazi; Idi and Orni were
+our ancestors, from them are we daughters of the mountain-giants
+sprung.... We maids wrought mighty deeds, we moved the mountains
+from their places, we rolled rocks over the court of the giants,
+so that the earth shook.... Now we are come to the king's house,
+meeting no mercy and held in bondage, mud beneath our feet and cold
+over our heads, we grind the Peace-maker. It is dreary at Frodi's."
+
+As they sang of their wrongs by night, their mood changed, and instead
+of grinding peace and wealth, they ground war, fire and sword:
+
+"Waken, Frodi! waken, Frodi! if thou wilt hear our songs.... I see
+fire burn at the east of the citadel, the voice of war awakes, the
+signal is given. A host will come hither in speed, and burn the hall
+over the king."
+
+So the bondmaids ground on in giant-wrath, while the sea-king Mysing
+sailed nearer with his host, until the quern-stones split; and then
+the daughters of the mountain-giants spoke once more: "We have ground
+to our pleasure, Frodi; we maids have stood long at the mill."
+
+A Norseman was rarely content to allow a fortunate ending to any
+hero, and a continuation of the story therefore makes the mill bring
+disaster on Mysing also. After slaying Frodi and burning his hall,
+he took the stones and the bondmaids on board his ship, and bade them
+grind salt. They ground till the weight sank the ship to the bottom
+of the sea, where the mill is grinding still. This is not in the song,
+though it has lived longer popularly than the earlier part. Dr. Rydberg
+identities Frodi with Frey, the God of fertility.
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_.--No Eddic poem survives on the battle of the
+Hjathnings, the story of which is told in prose by Snorri. It must,
+however, be an ancient legend; and the hero Hedin belongs to one of
+the old Germanic heroic races, for the minstrel Deor is a dependent of
+the Heodenings in the Old English poem to which reference will be made
+later. The legend is that Hild, daughter of Hoegni, was carried away by
+Hedin the Hjathning, Hjarrandi's son. Hoegni pursued, and overtook them
+near the Orkneys. Then Hild went to her father and offered atonement
+from Hedin, but said also that he was quite ready to fight, and Hoegni
+need expect no mercy. Hoegni answered shortly, and Hild returning told
+Hedin that her father would accept no atonement but bade him prepare
+to fight. Both kings landed on an island, followed by their men. Hedin
+called to Hoegni and offered atonement and much gold, but Hoegni said it
+was too late, his sword was already drawn. They fought till evening,
+and then returned to their ships; but Hild went on shore and woke up
+all the slain by sorcery, so that the battle began again next day
+just as before. Every day they fight, and every night the dead are
+recalled to life, and so it will go on till Ragnaroek.
+
+In the German poem, _Gudrun_, the Continental version of this legend
+occurs in the story of the second Hilde. She is carried away by the
+minstrel Horant (who thus plays a more active part than the Norse
+Hjarrandi), as envoy from King Hettel, Hedin's German counterpart. Her
+father Hagen pursues, and after a battle with Hettel agrees to a
+reconciliation. The story is duplicated in the abduction of Hilde's
+daughter Gudrun, and the battle on the Wuelpensand.
+
+Another reference may probably be supplied by the much debated lines
+14-16 from the Anglo-Saxon _Deor_, of which the most satisfactory
+translation seems to be: "Many of us have heard of the harm of Hild;
+the Jute's loves were unbounded, so that the care of love took
+from him sleep altogether." Saxo, it is true, makes Hild's father
+a Jute, instead of her lover, and Snorri apparently agrees with him
+in making Hedin Norwegian; but in the _Gudrun_	Hettel is Frisian or
+Jutish. The Anglo-Saxon _Widsith_ mentions in one line Hagena, king of
+the Holmrygas (a Norwegian province), and Heoden, king of the Glommas
+(not identified), who may be the Hoegni and Hedin of this tale.
+
+The Anglo-Saxon and German agree on another point where both differ
+from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxon poem _Deor_ is supposed to be spoken
+by a _scop_ or court poet who has been ousted from the favour of
+his lord, a Heodening, by Heorrenda, another singer: "Once I was the
+Heodenings' scop, dear to my lord: Deor was my name. Many a year I had
+a good service and a gracious lord, until the song-skilled Hoerrenda
+received the rights which the protector of men once granted me." Like
+Heorrenda, Horant in the _Gudrun_ is a singer in the service of the
+Heathnings. The Norse version keeps the name, and its connection with
+the Heathnings, but gives Hjarrandi, as the hero's father, no active
+part to play. In both points, arguing from the probable Frisian origin
+of the story, the Anglo-Saxon and German are more likely to have the
+correct form.
+
+The legend is, like those of Walter and Hildigund, Helgi and Sigrun,
+founded on the primary instincts of love and war. In the Norse
+story of the Heathnings, however, the former element is almost
+eliminated. It is from no love to Hedin that Hild accompanies him,
+though Saxo would have it so. Nothing is clearer than that strife is
+her only object. It is her mediation which brings about the battle,
+when apparently both heroes would be quite willing to make peace; and
+her arts which cause the daily renewal of fighting. This island battle
+among dead and living is peculiar to the Norse version, and coloured
+by, if not originating in, the Valhalla idea: Hoegni and Hedin and
+their men are the Einherjar who fight every day and rest and feast
+at night, Hild is a war-goddess. The conception of her character,
+contrasting with the gentler part played by the Continental German
+heroines (who are rather the causes than the inciters of strife),
+can be paralleled from many of the sagas proper.
+
+Hoegni's sword Dainsleif, forged by the dwarfs, as were all magic
+weapons, is like the sword of Angantyr, in that it claims a victim
+whenever it is drawn from the sheath: an idea which may easily have
+arisen from the prowess of any famous swordsman.
+
+_The Sword of Angantyr_.--Like the two last legends, Angantyr's
+story is not represented in the Elder Edda; it is not even told by
+Snorri. Yet poems belonging to the cycle survive (preserved by good
+fortune in the late mythical _Hervarar Saga_)  which among the heroic
+poems rank next in artistic beauty to the Helgi Lays. Since the story
+possesses besides a striking originality, and is connected with the
+name of a Pan-Germanic hero, the Ongendtheow of Old English poetry,
+I cannot follow the example of most editors and omit it from the
+heroic poems.
+
+Like the Volsung legend it is the story of a curse; and there is a
+general similarity of outline, with the exception that the hero is in
+this case a woman. The curse-laden treasure is here the sword Tyrfing,
+which Svafrlami got by force from the dwarfs. They laid a curse on it:
+that it should bring death to its bearer, no wound it made should be
+healed, and it should claim a victim whenever it was unsheathed. In
+the saga, the story is spread over several generations: partly, no
+doubt, in order to include varying versions; partly also in imitation
+of the true Icelandic family saga. The chief actors in the legend,
+beside the sword, are Angantyr and his daughter Hervoer.
+
+The earlier history of Tyrfing is told in the saga. Svafrlami is
+killed, with the magic weapon itself, by the viking Arngrim, who thus
+gains possession of it; when he is slain in his turn, it descends to
+Angantyr, the eldest of his twelve berserk sons. For a while no one
+can withstand them, but the doom overtakes them at last in the battle
+of Samsey against the Swedes Arrow-Odd and Hjalmar. In berserk-rage,
+the twelve brothers attack the Swedish ships, and slay every man
+except the two leaders who have landed on the island. The battle
+over, the berserks go ashore, and there when their fury is past, they
+are attacked by the two Swedish champions. Odd fights eleven of the
+brothers, but Hjalmar has the harder task in meeting Angantyr and his
+sword. All the twelve sons of Arngrim fall, and Hjalmar is mortally
+wounded by Tyrfing. The survivor buries his twelve foemen where they
+fell, and takes his comrade's body back to Sweden. The first poem
+gives the challenge of the Swedish champions, and Hjalmar's dying song.
+
+Hervoer, the daughter of Angantyr, is in some respects a female
+counterpart of Sigurd. Like him, she is born after her father's death,
+and brought up in obscurity. When she learns her father's name, she
+goes forth without delay to claim her inheritance from the dead, even
+with the curse that goes with it. Here the second poem begins. On
+reaching the island where her father fell, she asks a shepherd to
+guide her to the graves of Arngrim's sons:
+
+"I will ask no hospitality, for I know not the islanders; tell me
+quickly, where are the graves called Hjoervard's howes?"
+
+He is unwilling: "The man is foolish who comes here alone in the dark
+shade of night: fire is flickering, howes are opening, field and fen
+are aflame," and flees into the woods, but Hervoer is dauntless and
+goes on alone. She reaches the howes, and calls on the sons of Arngrim:
+
+"Awake, Angantyr! Hervoer calls thee, only daughter to thee and
+Tofa. Give me from the howe the keen sword which the dwarfs forged
+for Svafrlami, Hervard, Hjoervard, Hrani, Angantyr! I call you all
+from below the tree-roots, with helm and corselet, with sharp sword,
+shield and harness, and reddened spear."
+
+Angantyr denies that the sword is in his howe: "Neither father, son,
+nor other kinsmen buried me; my slayers had Tyrfing;" but Hervoer does
+not believe him. "Tell me but truth.... Thou art slow to give thine
+only child her heritage." He tries to frighten her back to the ships
+by describing the sights she will see, but she only cries again,
+"Give me Hjalmar's slayer from the howe, Angantyr!"
+
+A. "Hjalmar's slayer lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapped in
+fire; I know no maid on earth who dare take that sword in her hands."
+
+H. "I will take the sharp sword in my hands, if I can get it: I fear
+no burning fire, the flame sinks as I look on it."
+
+A. "Foolish art thou, Hervoer the fearless, to rush into the fire
+open-eyed. I will rather give thee the sword from the howe, young maid;
+I cannot refuse thee."
+
+H. "Thou dost well, son of vikings, to give me the sword from the
+howe. I think its possession better than to win all Norway."
+
+Her father warns her of the curse, and the doom that the sword
+will bring, and she leaves the howes followed by his vain wish:
+"Would that I could give thee the lives of us twelve, the strength
+and energy that we sons of Arngrim left behind us!"
+
+It is unnecessary here to continue the story as the saga does, working
+out the doom over later generations; over Hervoer's son Heidrek, who
+forfeited his head to Odin in a riddle-contest, and over his children,
+another Angantyr, Hlod, and a second Hervoer. The verse sources for
+this latter part are very corrupt.
+
+A full discussion of the relation between the Eddic and the Continental
+versions of the heroic tales summarised in the foregoing pages would,
+of course, be far beyond the scope of this study; the utmost that
+can be done in that direction is to suggest a few points. Three of
+the stories are not concerned in this section: Helgi and Frodi are
+purely Scandinavian cycles; while though Angantyr is a well-known
+heroic name (in _Widsith_ Ongendtheow is king of the Swedes), the
+legend attached to his name in the Norse sources does not survive
+elsewhere. The Weland cycle is perhaps common property. None of the
+versions localise it, for the names in _Voelundarkvida_, Wolfdale,
+Myrkwood, &c., are conventional heroic place-names. It was popular at a
+very early date in England, and is probably a Pan-Germanic legend. The
+Sigurd and Hild stories, on the contrary, are both, in all versions,
+localised on the Continent, the former by the Rhine, the latter in
+Friesland or Jutland; both, therefore, in Low German country, whence
+they must have spread to the other Germanic lands. To England they were
+doubtless carried by the Low German invaders of the sixth century. On
+the question of their passage to the North there are wide differences
+of opinion. Most scholars agree that there was an earlier and a later
+passage, the first taking Hild, Ermanric, and the Volsung story; the
+second, about the twelfth or thirteenth century, the Volsungs again,
+with perhaps Dietrich and Attila. But there is much disagreement as to
+the date of the first transmission. Muellenhoff put it as early as 600;
+Konrad Maurer, in the ninth and tenth centuries; while Dr. Golther
+is of opinion that the Volsung story passed first to the vikings in
+France, and then westward over Ireland to Iceland; therefore also not
+before the ninth century. Such evidence as is afforded by the very
+slight English references makes it probable that the Scandinavians
+had the tales later than the English, a view supported by the more
+highly developed form of the Norse version, and, in the case of the
+Volsung cycle, its greater likeness to the Continental German. The
+earliest Norse references which can be approximately dated are in the
+Skald Bragi (first half of the ninth century), who knew all three
+stories: the Hild and Ermanric tales he gives in outline; his only
+reference to the Volsungs is a kenning, "the Volsungs' drink," for
+serpent. With the possible exception of the Anglo-Saxon fragments,
+the Edda preserves on the whole the purest versions of those stories
+which are common to all, though, as might be expected, the Continental
+sources sometimes show greater originality in isolated details. These
+German sources have entangled the different cycles into one involved
+mass; but in the Norse the extraneous elements are easily detached.
+
+The motives of heroic tales are limited in number and more or less
+common to different races. Heroic cycles differ as a rule merely in
+their choice or combination of incidents, not in the nature of their
+material. The origin of these heroic motives may generally be found in
+primitive custom or conditions of life, seized by an imaginative people
+and woven into legend; sometimes linked to the name of some dead tribal
+hero, just as the poets of a later date wound the same traditions
+in still-varying combinations round the names of Gretti Asmundarson
+and Gold-Thori; though often the hero is, like the Gods, born of the
+myth. In the latter case, the story is pure myth; in the former it
+is legend, or a mixture of history and legend, as in the Ermanric
+and Dietrich tales, which have less interest for the mythologist.
+
+The curse-bringing treasure, one of the most fruitful Germanic
+motives, probably has its origin in the custom of burying a dead man's
+possessions with him. In the _Waterdale Saga_, Ketil Raum, a viking
+of the eighth and early ninth centuries, reproaches his son Thorstein
+as a degenerate, in that he expects to inherit his father's wealth,
+instead of winning fortune for himself: "It used to be the custom
+with kings and earls, men of our kind, that they won for themselves
+fortune and fame; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons
+inherit from their fathers, but rather lay their possessions in the
+howe with them." It is easy to see that when this custom came into
+conflict with the son's natural desire to inherit, the sacrosanctity
+of the dead man's treasure and of his burial-mound would be their only
+protection against violation. The fear of the consequences of breaking
+the custom took form in the myth of the curse, as in the sword of
+Angantyr and the Nibelungs' hoard; while the dangers attending the
+violation of the howe were personified in the dragon-guardian. In
+_Gold-Thori's Saga_, the dead berserks whose howe Thori enters, are
+found guarding their treasure in the shape of dragons; while Thori
+himself is said to have turned into a dragon after death.
+
+Marriage with alien wives, which in the case of the Mastermaid story
+has been postulated as means of transmission and as the one possible
+explanation of its nearly universal diffusion, may perhaps with more
+simplicity be assumed as the common basis in custom for independently
+arising myths of this type. The attempts of the bride's kindred to
+prevent the marriage, and of the bridegroom's to undo it, would be
+natural incidents in such a story, and the magic powers employed by
+and against the bride would be the mythical representatives of the
+mutually unfamiliar customs of alien tribes. This theory at least
+offers a credible explanation of the hero's temporary oblivion of
+or unfaithfulness to his protectress, after their successful escape
+together.
+
+In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double
+attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
+with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of Caesar
+and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in the heroines
+of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines
+the two primitive instincts, love and fighting, even though the woman
+may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The
+peculiarity of the Germanic representation is that the woman is never
+passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even
+if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking part herself in the fight,
+she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back
+to the battle from which they have escaped. Hild and Hervoer are at
+one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing
+more than instinct; in Hervoer it is not even that: she would desire
+nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other
+extreme is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a
+lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The interest
+in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually
+considered the strongest feminine instincts, without, however, by
+any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising revenge and pride
+of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both
+trains of feeling; and she dies with the husband she detests, simply
+because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type,
+as independent in love as in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun,
+or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover;
+from no lack of spirit, but simply because revenge would have given
+no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief,
+but the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.
+
+The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The
+burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into the howe,
+are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The "sister's son" is
+preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfjoetli tale, which also has a trace
+of animism in the werwolf episode. The common swanmaid motive occurs
+in two, the Voelund story and the legend of Helgi and Kara; while the
+first Helgi tale suggests the Levirate in the proposed marriage of
+Svava to her husband's brother. The waverlowe of the Volsung myth
+may be traced back to the midsummer fires; the wooing of Brynhild
+by Sigurd's crossing the fire would thus, like the similar bridal
+of Menglad and Svipdag and the winning of Gerd for Frey, be based on
+the marriages which formed a part of agricultural rites.
+
+
+
+
+
+Bibliographical Notes
+
+
+To avoid confusion, and in view of the customary loose usage of the
+word "saga," it may be as well to state that it is here used only in
+its technical sense of a prose history.
+
+_Voelund_. (Pages 5 to 8.)
+
+Dr. Rydberg formulates a theory identifying Voelund with Thiazi,
+the giant who carried off Idunn. It is based chiefly on arguments
+from names and other philological considerations, and gives perhaps
+undue weight to the authority of Saxo. It is difficult to see any
+fundamental likenesses in the stories.
+
+The Old English references to Weland are in the _Waldere_ fragment
+and the _Lament of Deor_. For the Franks Casket, see Professor
+Napier's discussion, with photographs, in the _English Miscellany_
+(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). The _Thidreks Saga_ (sometimes
+called _Vilkina Saga_), was edited by Unger (Christiania, 1853),
+and by Hylten-Cavallius (1880). There are two German translations:
+by Rassmann (_Heldensage,_ (1863), and by Von der Hagen (_Nordische
+Heldenromane_, 1873).
+
+_The Volsungs_. (Pages 8 to 27.)
+
+As divided in most editions the poems connected with the Volsung cycle,
+including the two on Ermanric, are fifteen in number:
+
+_Gripisspa_.
+
+_Reginsmal, Fafnismal, Sigrdrifumal_, a continued narrative compiled
+from different sources.
+
+_Sigurd Fragment_, on the death of Sigurd.
+
+_First Gudrun Lay_, on Gudrun's mourning, late.
+
+_Short Sigurd Lay_ (called _Long Brynhild Lay_ in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_; sometimes called _Third Sigurd Lay_). style late.
+
+_Brynhild's Hellride_, a continuation of the preceding.
+
+_Second_, or _Old, Gudrun Lay_, is also late. It contains more kennings
+than are usual in Eddic poetry, and the picture of Gudrun's sojourn in
+Denmark and the tapestry she wrought with Thora Halfdan's daughter,
+together with the descriptions of her suitors, belong to a period
+which had a taste for colour and elaboration of detail.
+
+_Third Gudrun Lay_, or the _Ordeal of Gudrun_ (after her marriage to
+Atli), is romantic in character. The Gothic hero Thjodrek (Dietrich)
+is introduced.
+
+_Oddrun's Lament_, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue
+with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung
+legend.
+
+The two Atli Lays _(Atlakvida_ and _Atlamal_, the latter of Greenland
+origin), deal with the death of Gunnar and Hoegni, and Gudrun's
+vengeance on Atli.
+
+_Gudrun's Lament_ and _Hamthismal_ belong to the Ermanric cycle.
+
+_Volsung Paraphrases_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Skaldskaparmal, Voelsunga Saga_ and _Norna-Gests Thattr_  (containing
+another short paraphrase) are all included in Dr. Wilken's _Die
+Prosaische Edda_ (Paderborn, 1878). There is an English version of
+_Voelsunga_ by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1870) and a German version
+of _Voelsunga_  and _Norna-Gest_ by Edzardi.
+
+_Nibelungenlied_.  (Page 11.)
+
+Editions by Bartsch (Leipzig, 1895) and Zarncke (Halle, 1899);
+translation into modern German by Simrock.
+
+_Signy and Siggeir_.  (Page 13.)
+
+Saxo Grammaticus (Book vii.) tells the story of a Signy, daughter
+of Sigar, whose lover Hagbard, after slaying her brothers, wins her
+favour. Sigar in vengeance had him strangled on a hill in view of
+Signy's windows, and she set fire to her house that she might die
+simultaneously with her lover. The antiquity of part at least of this
+story is proved by the kenning "Hagbard's collar" for halter, in a
+poem probably of the tenth century. On the other hand, a reference
+in _Voelsunga Saga_, that "Haki and Hagbard were great and famous
+men, yet Sigar carried off their sister, ... and they were slow to
+vengeance," shows that there is confusion somewhere. It seems possible
+that Hagbard's story has been contaminated with a distorted account
+of the Volsung Signy, civilised as usual by Saxo, with an effect of
+vulgarity absent from the primitive story.
+
+In a recently published pamphlet by Mr. W.W. Lawrence and
+Dr. W.H. Schofield (_The First Riddle of Cynewulf_ and _Signy's
+Lament_. Baltimore: The Modern Language Association of America. 1902)
+it is suggested that the so-called First Riddle in the Exeter Book
+is in reality an Anglo-Saxon translation of a Norse "Complaint"
+spoken by the Volsung Signy. Evidence from metre and form is all in
+favour of this view, and the poem bears the interpretation without any
+straining of the meaning. Dr. Schofield's second contention, that the
+poem thus interpreted is evidence for the theory of a British origin
+for the Eddie poems, is not equally convincing. The existence in
+Anglo-Saxon of a translation from the Norse is no proof that any
+of the Eddie poems, or even the original Norse "Signy's Lament"
+postulated by Dr. Schofield, were composed in the West.
+
+It seems unnecessary to suppose, with Dr. Schofield, an influence of
+British legend on the Volsung story. The points in which the story
+of Sigmund resembles that of Arthur and differs from that of Theseus
+prove nothing in the face of equally strong points of correspondence
+between Arthur and Theseus which are absent from the Volsung story.
+
+_Sinfjoetli's Death_. (Page 14.)
+
+Munch (_Nordmaendenes Gudelaere_, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously
+identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfjoetli
+to Valhalla, since he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having
+fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional
+character.
+
+_Sigmund and Sinfjoetli_. (Page 15.)
+
+It seems probable, on the evidence of _Beowulf_, that Sigmund and
+Sinfjoetli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and
+Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental stage. Possibly Helgi may then be
+the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence
+the epithet Hunnish, constantly applied to him, and the localising
+of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the
+Brynhild part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian
+origin, and thence passed to Germany. It is at least curious that
+the _Nibelungen Lied_  places Prunhilt in Iceland.
+
+_Wagner and the Volsung Cycle_. (Page 26.)
+
+Wagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ is remarkable not only for the way
+in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfjoetli and the
+Sigurd traditions, but also for the wonderful instinct which chooses
+the best and most primitive features of both Norse and Continental
+versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of
+the German; preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and
+substitutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores
+the original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives
+the latter character, and an active instead of a passive function
+in the story, by assigning to her her mother's share in the action;
+and by substituting for the slaying of the otter the bargain with
+the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of
+the catastrophe.
+
+_Ermanric_. (Page 27.)
+
+For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see
+Tylor's _Primitive Culture_.
+
+_The Helgi Lays_. (Page 29.)
+
+The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them
+later for the sake of greater clearness.
+
+_Helgi and Kara_. (Page 30.)
+
+_Hromundar Saga Gripssonar_, in which this story is given, is worthless
+as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. Mueller's
+_Sagabibliothek_, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and
+Swedish translations may be found in Bjoerner's _Nordiske Kampa Dater_
+(Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.
+
+_Rebirth_. (Page 31.)
+
+Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in
+the _Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi_, ix. He collects instances, and among
+other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous
+child after its dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The
+inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable instance
+occurs in _Viga-Glums Saga_, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his
+luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the _Waterdale Saga_ there
+are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead
+grandfather will pass to the grandson who receives his name. Scholars
+do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi
+poems, some holding the view that it is an essential part of the story.
+
+_Hunding_. (Page 32.)
+
+It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so,
+the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the natural
+enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has
+a feud with MacCon (_i.e._, Son of a Dog), which means the same as
+Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in
+the Bodleian MS. Laud, 610.
+
+_Thorgerd Holgabrud_.  (Page 33.)
+
+Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.
+
+_Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois_. (Page 33.)
+
+See _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i. p. cxxx., and No. 10 of this
+series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in
+the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the
+_Teutonic Mythology_, and by Mr. Nutt in the _Voyage of Bran_.
+
+_Ballads_. (Page 36.)
+
+Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of _Clerk
+Saunders_ as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi
+story in circumstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's
+hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.
+
+The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in Danish as in
+Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark,
+England and Scotland is strongly in favour of the presumption that
+Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the
+presumption that the poems in question passed from the British Isles
+to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive
+on this point. There is an English translation of the latter by
+R.C.A. Prior (_Ancient Danish Ballads_, London, 1860).
+
+_The Everlasting Battle_. (Page 39.)
+
+The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject,
+given with a translation in the _Corpus_, vol. ii. Saxo's version
+is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a
+necklace, which has caused comparison of this story with that of the
+Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle
+in which the slain revive each night and renew the fight daily, as
+occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached
+Ireland. According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in
+the East, and taught it to the Danes.
+
+The latest edition of the _Gudrun_ is by Ernst Martin (second edition,
+Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.
+
+_Angantyr_. (Page 42.)
+
+The poems of this cycle are four in number--(1) _Hjalmar's
+Death-song_: (2) _Angantyr and Hervoer_; (3) _Heidrek's Riddle-Poem_:
+(4) _Angantyr the Younger and Hlod_. All are given in the first volume
+of the _Corpus_, with translations.
+
+_Herrarar Saga_ was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829-30) in
+_Fornaldar Soegur_, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently
+edited by Dr. Bugge, together with _Voelsunga_ and others. Petersen
+(Copenhagen, 1847) edited it with a Danish translation. Munch's
+_Nordmuendenes Gudelaere_ (out of print) contains a short abstract.
+
+_Death of Angantyr_. (Page 43.)
+
+Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion
+of all mythical interest.
+
+_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)
+
+Muellenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift fuer deutsches
+Altertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift fuer deutsche
+Philologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see
+_Germania_, 33.
+
+_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)
+
+See also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.
+
+The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival
+of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage,
+of which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.
+
+_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)
+
+For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang,
+_Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).
+
+_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)
+
+See Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor
+Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the
+British Association, 1900. The double relationship between Sigmund
+and Sinfjoetli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and
+Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same
+cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies,
+where the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of
+the pure royal blood.
+
+_Swanmaids_.  (Page 51.)
+
+See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._
+
+_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)
+
+Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages
+connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see
+Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is
+right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal
+lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would
+be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c.,
+which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to
+the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's
+sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the
+Valhalla myth.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by _Ballantyne, Hanson & Co_
+London & Edinburgh
+
+
+
+
+
+
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