Difference between revisions of "Volund" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
Line 12: Line 12:
  
 
==Mythic Accounts==
 
==Mythic Accounts==
−
Weyland had two brothers, [[Agilaz|Egil]] and Slagfiðr (Slagfid/Slagfinn). In one version of the myth, the three brothers lived with three [[Valkyrie]]s: [[Alruna|Ölrún]], Alvitr and Svanhvít. After nine years, the Valkyries left their lovers. Egil and Slagfiðr followed, never to return. In another version, Weyland married the [[swan maiden]] Hervör, and they had a son, Heime; Hervör later left him. In both versions, his love left him with a [[finger ring|ring]]; in the former myth, he forged seven hundred duplicates of this ring.
+
Völund's story, which is related in the ''Völundarkvitha'' section of the ''Poetic Edda'',<ref>While there are other sources, this is certainly the most normative. See Orchard, 390.</ref> is a chilling tale of abduction, betrayal, rape, murder, and revenge. It begins in the home of three bachelor brothers, Völund, Egil and Slagfiðr (Slagfid/Slagfinn), who venture out one night, only to come across three [[valkyries]] spinning flax by the river. As the young maidens had removed their swan cloaks (and were thus unable to fly away),<ref>This account makes an assumption (shared in many of the later mythic texts that swan-maidens ''were'' valkyries (and vice versa): "The conception of the supernatural warrior-maiden was presumably brought to Scandinavia in very early times from the South-Germanic races, and later it was interwoven with the likewise South-Germanic tradition of the swan-maiden ... [A] complication developed when the originally quite human women of the hero-legends were endowed with the qualities of both Valkyries and swan-maidens." Footnote to "Voluspa," in the ''Poetic Edda'', accessed online at [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm sacred-texts.com]. 14 ff 31.</ref> the brothers crept up to them, seized them, and brought them back to their home, where they were took them as their wives. After nine years, "a longing for battle came over the Valkyries, and ... they flew away."<ref>Munch, 126.</ref> When the brothers returned home from the hunt that day, they found themselves deserted:
−
 
+
:Völund home | from his hunting came,
 +
:From a weary way, | the weather-wise bowman,
 +
:Slagfith and Egil | the hall found empty,
 +
:Out and in went they, | everywhere seeking.
 +
<br>
 +
:East fared Egil | after Olrun,
 +
:And Slagfith south | to seek for Swan-White;
 +
:Völund alone | in Ulfdalir lay.<ref>Völundarkvitha (6-7), ''Poetic Edda'', 256-257.</ref>
 +
As the only memento that the heartbroken Völund had of his beloved was her gold ring, he stayed at home and constructed replica after replica of it, gradually developing masterful metalworking and smithing skills.
 +
:Red gold he fashioned | with fairest gems,
 +
:And rings he strung | on ropes of bast;
 +
:So for his wife | he waited long,
 +
:If the fair one home | might come to him.<ref>Völundarkvitha (8), ''Poetic Edda'', 257.</ref>
 
[[Image:Völund on ardre.png|thumb|right|180px|Völund's smithy in the centre, Nidud's daughter to the left, and Nidud's dead sons hidden to the right of the smithy. Between the girl and the smithy, Völund can be seen in an eagle fetch flying away. From the [[Ardre image stone]].]]
 
[[Image:Völund on ardre.png|thumb|right|180px|Völund's smithy in the centre, Nidud's daughter to the left, and Nidud's dead sons hidden to the right of the smithy. Between the girl and the smithy, Völund can be seen in an eagle fetch flying away. From the [[Ardre image stone]].]]
  
−
At a later point in time, he was captured in his sleep by King [[Nidud]] in [[Nerike]] who ordered him [[Hamstring|hamstrung]] and imprisoned on the island of Sævarstöð. There he was forced to forge items for the king. Weyland's wife's ring was given to the king's daughter, [[Bodvild]].  Nidud wore Weyland's [[sword]].
+
Soon after, tales of Völund's proficiency in metal-work reached the ear of King Nidud, the local sovereign. The king, desiring to use these skills for his own aggrandizement, kidnapped the smith, stole his sword and rings, and imprisoned him on an island. To make sure that his new charge could not escape, Nidud had Völund hamstrung (rendering him crippled and unable to walk). There he was forced to forge items for the king. Adding insult to injury, Weyland's wife's ring was given to the king's daughter, [[Bodvild]], and the ungracious monarch kept and wore Weyland's [[sword]].
 
[[Image:Franks_Casket_vorne_links.jpg|thumb|right|300pix|Depiction of the hamstrung smith Weyland from the front of the [[Franks Casket]].]]
 
[[Image:Franks_Casket_vorne_links.jpg|thumb|right|300pix|Depiction of the hamstrung smith Weyland from the front of the [[Franks Casket]].]]
−
For revenge, Weyland killed the king's sons when they visited him in secret, fashioned [[goblet]]s from their skulls, jewels from their eyes, and a brooch from their teeth.  He sent the goblets to the king, the jewels to the queen and the brooch to the king's daughter.  When Bodvild took her ring to him to be mended, he took the ring and seduced her, fathering a son and escaping on wings he made.
 
  
−
He is particularly associated with [[Wayland's Smithy]], a [[burial mound]] in [[Oxfordshire]]. This was named by the Saxons, but the [[megalithic]] mound significantly predates them. It is from this association that the superstition came about that a [[horse]] left there overnight with a small silver coin (a [[groat]]) would be shod by morning.
+
Trapped in his island prison, Völund had little else to do but plot revenge. First, he lured King Nidud's two young sons to his island:
 +
:Völund spake:
 +
:"Come ye alone, | the next day come,
 +
:Gold to you both | shall then be given;
 +
:Tell not the maids | or the men of the hall,
 +
:To no one say | that me you have sought."
 +
<br>
 +
:. .    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .
 +
:Early did brother | to brother call:
 +
:"Swift let us go | the rings to see."
 +
<br>
 +
:They came to the chest, | and they craved the keys,
 +
:The evil was open | when in they looked;
 +
:He smote off their heads, | and their feet he hid
 +
:Under the sooty | straps of the bellows.<ref>Völundarkvitha (22-24), ''Poetic Edda'', 262-263.</ref>
 +
After decapitating the youths and hiding their bodies, Völund was able to proceed with his plan. In the next stage, like a gender-inverted version of the tale of Procnê and Tereus,<ref>Procnê dismembers her infant son and feeds him to her unknowing husband. Ovid, ''Metamorphoses (6.424-676).</ref> he constructs jewelry from their eyes (which he presents to the queen), chalices from their skulls (which he gives to the king), and brooches from their teeth (which he delivers to the princess). Furthering his evil aims, he later convinces the young princess to visit him on his island, where he bedevils her senses with poisoned beer and rapes her. His vengeance complete, Völund dons a swan cloak and flies to the king's bedchamber to gloat:
 +
 
 +
:"Seek the smithy | that thou didst set,
 +
:Thou shalt find the bellows | sprinkled with blood;
 +
:I smote off the heads | of both thy sons,
 +
:And their feet 'neath the sooty | straps I hid.
 +
<br>
 +
:"Their skulls, once hid | by their hair, I took,
 +
:Set them in silver | and sent them to Nithuth;
 +
:Gems full fair | from their eyes I fashioned,
 +
:To Nithuth's ([Nidud's]) wife | so wise I gave them.
 +
<br>
 +
:"And from the teeth | of the twain I wrought
 +
:A brooch for the breast, | to Bothvild I gave it;
 +
:Now big with child | does Bothvild go,
 +
:The only daughter | ye two had ever."
 +
<br>
 +
:Nithuth spake:
 +
:"Never spakest thou word | that worse could hurt me,
 +
:Nor that made me, Völund, | more bitter for vengeance;
 +
:There is no man so high | from thy horse to take thee,
 +
:Or so doughty an archer | as down to shoot thee,
 +
:While high in the clouds | thy course thou takest."<ref>Völundarkvitha (36-39), ''Poetic Edda'', 266-267.</ref>
 +
 
 +
With that, the dark antihero took flight, leaving the stunned royals to their grief and loss.
 +
:Laughing Völund | rose aloft,
 +
:But left in sadness | Nithuth sat.<ref>Völundarkvitha (40), ''Poetic Edda'', 267.</ref>
  
 
==Religious Themes==
 
==Religious Themes==

Revision as of 01:43, 25 April 2007

File:Völund.jpg
Völundr, Weyland's Scandinavian manifestation

<rephrase around Volund> Weyland (also spelled Wayland, Weland and Watlende) is a mythical smith-god of the Anglo-Saxon religion brought with the Saxon settlers of Britain. He is synonymous with the Norse/Germanic Völundr of the Völundarkviða, a poem in the Poetic Edda.

Völund in a Norse Context

As a figure in the Norse mythic corpus, Völund belonged to a complex religious, mythological and cosmological belief system shared by the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples. This mythological tradition, of which the Scandinavian (and particularly Icelandic) sub-groups are best preserved, developed in the period from the first manifestations of religious and material culture in approximately 1000 B.C.E. until the Christianization of the area, a process that occurred primarily from 900-1200 C.E..[1] The tales recorded within this mythological corpus tend to exemplify a unified cultural focus on physical prowess and military might.

Within this framework, Norse cosmology postulates three separate "clans" of deities: the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun. The distinction between Aesir and Vanir is relative, for the two are said to have made peace, exchanged hostages, intermarried and reigned together after a prolonged war. In fact, the most major divergence between the two groups is in their respective areas of influence, with the Aesir representing war and conquest, and the Vanir representing exploration, fertility and wealth.[2] The Jotun, on the other hand, are seen as a generally malefic (though wise) race of giants who represented the primary adversaries of the Aesir and Vanir.

Völund, in the semi-eponymous tale from the Poetic Edda, is an intriguing character. On one hand, he seems to be a (fairly immoral) human who exacts bloody revenge upon a tormentor. On the other, the mythical and archaeological record contains some elements (discussed below) that imply a divine provenance. In any case, he is one of the more ambigious (and thus intriguing)) characters in Nordic myth.

Mythic Accounts

Völund's story, which is related in the Völundarkvitha section of the Poetic Edda,[3] is a chilling tale of abduction, betrayal, rape, murder, and revenge. It begins in the home of three bachelor brothers, Völund, Egil and Slagfiðr (Slagfid/Slagfinn), who venture out one night, only to come across three valkyries spinning flax by the river. As the young maidens had removed their swan cloaks (and were thus unable to fly away),[4] the brothers crept up to them, seized them, and brought them back to their home, where they were took them as their wives. After nine years, "a longing for battle came over the Valkyries, and ... they flew away."[5] When the brothers returned home from the hunt that day, they found themselves deserted:

Völund home | from his hunting came,
From a weary way, | the weather-wise bowman,
Slagfith and Egil | the hall found empty,
Out and in went they, | everywhere seeking.


East fared Egil | after Olrun,
And Slagfith south | to seek for Swan-White;
Völund alone | in Ulfdalir lay.[6]

As the only memento that the heartbroken Völund had of his beloved was her gold ring, he stayed at home and constructed replica after replica of it, gradually developing masterful metalworking and smithing skills.

Red gold he fashioned | with fairest gems,
And rings he strung | on ropes of bast;
So for his wife | he waited long,
If the fair one home | might come to him.[7]
File:Völund on ardre.png
Völund's smithy in the centre, Nidud's daughter to the left, and Nidud's dead sons hidden to the right of the smithy. Between the girl and the smithy, Völund can be seen in an eagle fetch flying away. From the Ardre image stone.

Soon after, tales of Völund's proficiency in metal-work reached the ear of King Nidud, the local sovereign. The king, desiring to use these skills for his own aggrandizement, kidnapped the smith, stole his sword and rings, and imprisoned him on an island. To make sure that his new charge could not escape, Nidud had Völund hamstrung (rendering him crippled and unable to walk). There he was forced to forge items for the king. Adding insult to injury, Weyland's wife's ring was given to the king's daughter, Bodvild, and the ungracious monarch kept and wore Weyland's sword.

Depiction of the hamstrung smith Weyland from the front of the Franks Casket.

Trapped in his island prison, Völund had little else to do but plot revenge. First, he lured King Nidud's two young sons to his island:

Völund spake:
"Come ye alone, | the next day come,
Gold to you both | shall then be given;
Tell not the maids | or the men of the hall,
To no one say | that me you have sought."


. . . . . . . . . . .
Early did brother | to brother call:
"Swift let us go | the rings to see."


They came to the chest, | and they craved the keys,
The evil was open | when in they looked;
He smote off their heads, | and their feet he hid
Under the sooty | straps of the bellows.[8]

After decapitating the youths and hiding their bodies, Völund was able to proceed with his plan. In the next stage, like a gender-inverted version of the tale of Procnê and Tereus,[9] he constructs jewelry from their eyes (which he presents to the queen), chalices from their skulls (which he gives to the king), and brooches from their teeth (which he delivers to the princess). Furthering his evil aims, he later convinces the young princess to visit him on his island, where he bedevils her senses with poisoned beer and rapes her. His vengeance complete, Völund dons a swan cloak and flies to the king's bedchamber to gloat:

"Seek the smithy | that thou didst set,
Thou shalt find the bellows | sprinkled with blood;
I smote off the heads | of both thy sons,
And their feet 'neath the sooty | straps I hid.


"Their skulls, once hid | by their hair, I took,
Set them in silver | and sent them to Nithuth;
Gems full fair | from their eyes I fashioned,
To Nithuth's ([Nidud's]) wife | so wise I gave them.


"And from the teeth | of the twain I wrought
A brooch for the breast, | to Bothvild I gave it;
Now big with child | does Bothvild go,
The only daughter | ye two had ever."


Nithuth spake:
"Never spakest thou word | that worse could hurt me,
Nor that made me, Völund, | more bitter for vengeance;
There is no man so high | from thy horse to take thee,
Or so doughty an archer | as down to shoot thee,
While high in the clouds | thy course thou takest."[10]

With that, the dark antihero took flight, leaving the stunned royals to their grief and loss.

Laughing Völund | rose aloft,
But left in sadness | Nithuth sat.[11]

Religious Themes

Notes

  1. ↑ Lindow, 6-8. Though some scholars have argued against the homogenizing effect of grouping these various traditions together under the rubric of “Norse Mythology,” the profoundly exploratory/nomadic nature of Viking society tends to overrule such objections. As Thomas DuBois cogently argues, “[w]hatever else we may say about the various peoples of the North during the Viking Age, then, we cannot claim that they were isolated from or ignorant of their neighbors…. As religion expresses the concerns and experiences of its human adherents, so it changes continually in response to cultural, economic, and environmental factors. Ideas and ideals passed between communities with frequency and regularity, leading to and interdependent and inter-cultural region with broad commonalities of religion and worldview.” (27-28).
  2. ↑ More specifically, Georges Dumézil, one of the foremost authorities on the Norse tradition and a noted comparitivist, argues quite persuasively that the Aesir / Vanir distinction is a component of a larger triadic division (between ruler gods, warrior gods, and gods of agriculture and commerce) that is echoed among the Indo-European cosmologies (from Vedic India, through Rome and into the Germanic North). Further, he notes that this distinction conforms to patterns of social organization found in all of these societies. See Georges Dumézil's Gods of the Ancient Northmen (especially pgs. xi-xiii, 3-25) for more details.
  3. ↑ While there are other sources, this is certainly the most normative. See Orchard, 390.
  4. ↑ This account makes an assumption (shared in many of the later mythic texts that swan-maidens were valkyries (and vice versa): "The conception of the supernatural warrior-maiden was presumably brought to Scandinavia in very early times from the South-Germanic races, and later it was interwoven with the likewise South-Germanic tradition of the swan-maiden ... [A] complication developed when the originally quite human women of the hero-legends were endowed with the qualities of both Valkyries and swan-maidens." Footnote to "Voluspa," in the Poetic Edda, accessed online at sacred-texts.com. 14 ff 31.
  5. ↑ Munch, 126.
  6. ↑ Völundarkvitha (6-7), Poetic Edda, 256-257.
  7. ↑ Völundarkvitha (8), Poetic Edda, 257.
  8. ↑ Völundarkvitha (22-24), Poetic Edda, 262-263.
  9. ↑ Procnê dismembers her infant son and feeds him to her unknowing husband. Ovid, Metamorphoses (6.424-676).
  10. ↑ Völundarkvitha (36-39), Poetic Edda, 266-267.
  11. ↑ Völundarkvitha (40), Poetic Edda, 267.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • DuBois, Thomas A. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8122-1714-4.
  • Dumézil, Georges. Gods of the Ancient Northmen. Edited by Einar Haugen; Introduction by C. Scott Littleton and Udo Strutynski. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. ISBN 0-520-02044-8.
  • Lindow, John. Handbook of Norse mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001. ISBN 1-57607-217-7.
  • Munch, P. A. Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes. In the revision of Magnus Olsen; translated from the Norwegian by Sigurd Bernhard Hustvedt. New York: The American-Scandinavian foundation; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1926.
  • Orchard, Andy. Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. London: Cassell; New York: Distributed in the United States by Sterling Pub. Co., 2002. ISBN 0-304-36385-5.
  • The Poetic Edda. Translated and with notes by Henry Adams Bellows. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936. Accessed online at sacred-texts.com.
  • Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. Translated from the Icelandic and with an introduction by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: American-Scandinavian foundation, 1916. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/prose/index.php.
  • Turville-Petre, Gabriel. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964. ISBN 0837174201.

External links

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Volund&oldid=273407

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki