The Poetic Edda: Of Hjorvarth and Sigrlin III

Henry Adams Bellows's notes to his translation (1923; Project Gutenberg #73533).

1. Stanza 1 Maids from the south | through Myrkwood flew, Fair and young, | their fate to follow; On the shore of the sea | to rest them they sat, The maids of the south, | and flax they spun.
2. Stanza 1 The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza; two lines may have been lost before or after lines 1–2, and two more, or even six, with the additional stanza describing the theft of the swan-garments, after line 4. Myrkwood: a stock name for a magic, dark forest; cf. Lokasenna, 42.
3. Stanza 1 “Sawest thou Sigrlin, | Svafnir’s daughter, The fairest maid | in her home-land found? Though Hjorvarth’s wives | by men are held Goodly to see | in Glasir’s wood.” Atli spake:
4. Stanza 1 Glasir’s wood: Snorri in the Skaldskaparmal quotes a half stanza to the effect that “Glasir stands with golden leaves before Othin’s hall,” and calls it “the fairest wood among gods and men.” The phrase as used here seems to mean little.
5. Stanza 2 . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . Hlathguth and Hervor, | Hlothver’s children, And Olrun the Wise | Kjar’s daughter was.
6. Stanza 2 In the manuscript these two lines stand after stanza 16; editors have tried to fit them into various places, but the prose indicates that they belong here, with a gap assumed.
7. Stanza 2 “Now with Atli, | Ithmund’s son, Wilt thou say more, | thou bird so wise?” The bird spake: “I may if the prince | an offering makes, And I have what I will | from the house of the king.” Atli spake:
8. Stanza 3 . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . One in her arms | took Egil then To her bosom white, | the woman fair.
9. Stanza 3 In the manuscript these two lines follow stanza 1, with no gap indicated, and the first line marked as the beginning of a stanza. Many editors have combined them with stanza 4.
10. Stanza 3 “Choose not Hjorvarth, | nor sons of his, Nor the wives so fair | of the famous chief; Ask not the brides | that the prince’s are; Fair let us deal | in friendly wise.” The bird spake:
11. Stanza 4 Swan-White second,— | swan-feathers she wore, . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . And her arms the third | of the sisters threw Next round Völund’s | neck so white.
12. Stanza 4 No lacuna indicated in the manuscript; one editor fills the stanza out with a second line running: “Then to her breast Slagfith embraced.”
13. Stanza 4 “A fane will I ask, | and altars many, Gold-horned cattle | the prince shall give me, If Sigrlin yet | shall sleep in his arms, Or free of will | the hero shall follow.” This was before Atli went on his journey; but when he came home, and the king asked his tidings, he said:
14. Stanza 4 The bird’s demands would indicate that it is in reality one of the gods. Gold-horned cattle: cf. Thrymskvitha, 23. There are other references to gilding the horns of cattle, particularly for sacrificial purposes. Prose. The annotator contradicts himself here, as he had already stated that Atli was on his way home.
15. Stanza 5 There did they sit | for seven winters, In the eighth at last | came their longing again, (And in the ninth | did need divide them). The maidens yearned | for the murky wood, The fair young maids, | their fate to follow.
16. Stanza 5 Line 3 looks like an interpolation, but line 5, identical with line 2 of stanza 1, may be the superfluous one.
17. Stanza 5 “Trouble we had, | but tidings none, Our horses failed | in the mountains high, The waters of Sæmorn | we needs must wade; Svafnir’s daughter, | with rings bedecked, She whom we sought, | was still denied us.” The king bade that they should go another time, and he went with them himself. But when they came up on the mountain, they saw Svavaland burning and mighty dust-clouds from many steeds. The king rode from the mountain forward into the land, and made a night’s stay hard by a stream. Atli kept watch and went over the stream; he found there a house. A great bird sat on the housetop to guard it, but he was asleep. Atli hurled his spear at the bird and slew it, and in the house he found Sigrlin the king’s daughter and Alof the jarl’s daughter, and he brought them both thence with him. Jarl Franmar had changed himself into the likeness of an eagle, and guarded them from the enemy host by magic. Hrothmar was the name of a king, a wooer of Sigrlin; he slew the king of Svavaland and had plundered and burned his land. King Hjorvarth took Sigrlin, and Atli took Alof. (II) Hjorvarth and Sigrlin had a son, mighty and of noble stature; he was a silent man, and no name stuck fast to him. He sat on a hill, and saw nine Valkyries riding; one of them was the fairest of all. She spake:
18. Stanza 5 Possibly the remains of two stanzas, or perhaps a line has been added. Sæmorn: this river is nowhere else mentioned. Prose. Sigrlin and Alof, protected by the latter’s father, Franmar, have fled before the ravaging army of Sigrlin’s rejected suitor, Hrothmar. The beginning of a new section (II) is indicated in the manuscript only by the unusually large capital letter with which “Hjorvarth” begins. No name, etc.: this probably means that Helgi had always been so silent that he would answer to no name, with the result that he had none. Valkyries: cf. Voluspo, 31 and note. The annotator insists here and in the prose after stanza 9 that Svava was a Valkyrie, but there is nothing in the verse to prove it, or, indeed, to identify the Svava of the last section of the poem with the person who gave Helgi his name. In the Volsungasaga Sigmund himself names his son Helgi, and gives him a sword, following Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I.
19. Stanza 6 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.
20. Stanza 6 The phrase “Völund home from a weary way” is an emendation of Bugge’s, accepted by many editors. Some of those who do not include it reject line 4, and combine the remainder of the stanza with all or part of stanza 7.
21. Stanza 6 “Late wilt thou, Helgi, | have hoard of rings, Thou battle-tree fierce, | or of shining fields,— The eagle screams soon,— | if never thou speakest, Though, hero, hard | thy heart may cry.” Helgi spake:
22. Stanza 6 Battle-tree: poetic phrase for “warrior.” Shining fields: the words in the manuscript may form a proper name, Rothulsvoll, having this meaning.
23. Stanza 7 East fared Egil | after Olrun, And Slagfith south | to seek for Swan-White; Völund alone | in Ulfdalir lay, . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
24. Stanza 7 The manuscript marks the second, and not the first, line as the beginning of a stanza. Some editors combine lines 2–3 with all or part of stanza 8. No gap is indicated in the manuscript, but many editors have assumed one, some of them accepting Bugge’s suggested “Till back the maiden | bright should come.”
25. Stanza 7 “What gift shall I have | with Helgi’s name, Glorious maid, | for the giving is thine? All thy words | shall I think on well, But I want them not | if I win not thee.” The Valkyrie spake:
26. Stanza 7 Gift: not only was it customary to give gifts with the naming of a child, but the practice frequently obtained when a permanent epithet was added to the name of an adult.
27. Stanza 8 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.
28. Stanza 8 No line in this stanza is indicated in the manuscript as beginning a new stanza; editors have tried all sorts of experiments in regrouping the lines into stanzas with those of stanzas 7 and 9. In line 3 the word long is sheer guesswork, as the line in the manuscript contains a metrical error.
29. Stanza 8 “Swords I know lying | in Sigarsholm, Fifty there are | save only four; One there is | that is best of all, The shield-destroyer, | with gold it shines.
30. Stanza 8 Sigarsholm (“Isle of Sigar”): a place not identified, but probably related to the Sigarsvoll where Helgi was slain (stanza 35).
31. Stanza 9 This Nithuth learned, | the lord of the Njars, That Völund alone | in Ulfdalir lay; By night went his men, | their mail-coats were studded, Their shields in the waning | moonlight shone.
32. Stanza 9 Some editors combine the first two lines with parts of stanza 8, and the last two with the first half of stanza 10. Njars: there has been much, and inconclusive, discussion as to what this name means; probably it applies to a semi-mythical people somewhere vaguely in “the East.”
33. Stanza 9 “In the hilt is fame, | in the haft is courage, In the point is fear, | for its owner’s foes; On the blade there lies | a blood-flecked snake, And a serpent’s tail | round the flat is twisted.” Eylimi was the name of a king, whose daughter was Svava; she was a Valkyrie, and rode air and sea. She gave Helgi this name, and shielded him oft thereafter in battle. Helgi spake:
34. Stanza 9 The sword is carved with magic runes and with snakes. Fame: the original word is uncertain. Prose. Eylimi: this name is another link with the Sigurth story, as it is likewise the name of the father of Sigurth’s mother, Hjordis.
35. Stanza 10 From their saddles the gable | wall they sought, And in they went | at the end of the hall; Rings they saw there | on ropes of bast, Seven hundred | the hero had.
36. Stanza 10 Some editors combine lines 3–4 with the fragmentary stanza 11.
37. Stanza 10 “Hjorvarth, king, | unwholesome thy counsels, Though famed thou art | in leading the folk, Letting fire the homes | of heroes eat, Who evil deed | had never done thee.
38. Stanza 10 With this stanza begins a new episode, that of Helgi’s victory over King Hrothmar, who had killed his mother’s father (cf. prose after stanza 5). It has been suggested, in consequence, that stanzas 10–11 may be a separate fragment. The verse tells nothing of the battle, merely giving Helgi’s reproaches to his father for having left Svafnir’s death and the burning of Svavaland unavenged. Prose. The manuscript does not indicate any break, but the episode which forms the basis of the Hrimgertharmol (stanzas 12–30) clearly begins with the slaying of the giant Hati (“The Hateful”). Hatafjord: “Hati’s Fjord.” Hrimgerth: “Frost-Shrouded” (?).
39. Stanza 11 Off they took them, | but all they left Save one alone | which they bore away. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
40. Stanza 11 No gap indicated in the manuscript; some editors combine these lines with lines 3–4 of stanza 10, while others combine them with the first two lines of stanza 12. The one ring which Nithuth’s men steal is given to Bothvild, and proves the cause of her undoing.
41. Stanza 11 “Yet Hrothmar still | the hoard doth hold, The wealth that once | our kinsmen wielded; Full seldom care | the king disturbs, Heir to dead men | he deems himself.” Hjorvarth answered that he would give Helgi a following if he fain would avenge his mother’s father. Then Helgi got the sword that Svava had told him of. So he went, and Atli with him, and they slew Hrothmar, and they did many great deeds. (III) He slew the giant Hati, whom he found sitting on a certain mountain. Helgi and Atli lay with their ships in Hatafjord. Atli kept watch during the first part of the night. Hrimgerth, Hati’s daughter, spake:
42. Stanza 12 Völund home | from his hunting came, From a weary way, | the weather-wise bowman; A brown bear’s flesh | would he roast with fire; Soon the wood so dry | was burning well, (The wind-dried wood | that Völund’s was).
43. Stanza 12 The manuscript indicates line 3, and not line 1, as the beginning of a stanza, which has given rise to a large amount of conjectural rearrangement. Line 2 of the original is identical with the phrase added by Bugge in stanza 6. Line 5 may be spurious, or lines 4–5 may have been expanded out of a single line running “The wind-dried wood | for Völund burned well.”
44. Stanza 12 “Who are the heroes | in Hatafjord? The ships are covered with shields; Bravely ye look, | and little ye fear, The name of the king would I know.” Atli spake:
45. Stanza 13 On the bearskin he rested, | and counted the rings, The master of elves, | but one he missed; That Hlothver’s daughter | had it he thought, And the all-wise maid | had come once more.
46. Stanza 13 Elves: the poem here identifies Völund as belonging to the race of the elves. Hlothver’s daughter: Hervor; many editors treat the adjective “all-wise” here as a proper name.
47. Stanza 13 “Helgi his name, | and never thou mayst Harm to the hero bring; With iron is fitted | the prince’s fleet, Nor can witches work us ill.” Hrimgerth spake:
48. Stanza 13 Iron: the keels of Norse ships were sometimes fitted with iron “shoes” at bow and stern, but it is not certain that this practice much antedated the year 1000, and thus this line has raised some question as to the antiquity of this stanza, if not of the entire Hrimgertharmol, which may have been composed as late as the eleventh century.
49. Stanza 14 So long he sat | that he fell asleep, His waking empty | of gladness was; Heavy chains | he saw on his hands, And fetters bound | his feet together. Völund spake:
50. Stanza 14 “Who now, thou mighty | man, art thou? By what name art thou known to men? He trusts thee well, | the prince who wills That thou stand at the stem of his ship.” Atli spake:
51. Stanza 15 “What men are they | who thus have laid Ropes of bast | to bind me now?” Then Nithuth called, | the lord of the Njars: “How gottest thou, Völund, | greatest of elves, These treasures of ours | in Ulfdalir?” Völund spake:
52. Stanza 15 In this poem the manuscript indicates the speakers. Some editors make lines 1–2 into a separate stanza, linking lines 3–5 (or 4–5) with stanza 16. Line 3 is very possibly spurious, a mere expansion of “Nithuth spake.” Nithuth, of course, has come with his men to capture Völund, and now charges him with having stolen his treasure.
53. Stanza 15 “Atli am I, | and ill shalt thou find me, Great hate for witches I have; Oft have I been | in the dripping bows, And to dusk-riders death have brought.
54. Stanza 15 The manuscript does not indicate the speaker. The pun on “Atli” and “atall” (meaning “ill”) is untranslatable.
55. Stanza 16 “The gold was not | on Grani’s way, Far, methinks, is our realm | from the hills of the Rhine; I mind me that treasures | more we had When happy together | at home we were.”
56. Stanza 16 The manuscript definitely assigns this stanza to Völund, but many editors give the first two lines to Nithuth. In the manuscript stanza 16 is followed by the two lines of stanza 2, and many editions make of lines 3–4 of stanza 16 and stanza 2 a single speech by Völund. Grani’s way: Grani was Sigurth’s horse, on which he rode to slay Fafnir and win Andvari’s hoard; this and the reference to the Rhine as the home of wealth betray the southern source of the story. If lines 1–2 belong to Völund, they mean that Nithuth got his wealth in the Rhine country, and that Völund’s hoard has nothing to do with it; if the speaker is Nithuth, they mean that Völund presumably has not killed a dragon, and that he is far from the wealth of the Rhine, so that he must have stolen his treasure from Nithuth himself.
57. Stanza 16 “Corpse-hungry giantess, | how art thou called? Say, witch, who thy father was! Nine miles deeper | down mayst thou sink, And a tree grow tall on thy bosom.” Hrimgerth spake:
58. Stanza 17 Without stood the wife | of Nithuth wise, And in she came | from the end of the hall; On the floor she stood, | and softly spoke: “Not kind does he look | who comes from the wood.” King Nithuth gave to his daughter Bothvild the gold ring that he had taken from the bast rope in Völund’s house, and he himself wore the sword that Völund had had. The queen spake:
59. Stanza 17 Line 1 is lacking in the manuscript, lines 2–4 following immediately after the two lines here given as stanza 2. Line 1, borrowed from line 1 of stanza 32, is placed here by many editors, following Bugge’s suggestion. Certainly it is Nithuth’s wife who utters line 4. Who comes from the wood: Völund, noted as a hunter. Gering assumes that with the entrance of Nithuth’s wife the scene has changed from Völund’s house to Nithuth’s, but I cannot see that this is necessary. Prose. The annotator inserted this note rather clumsily in the midst of the speech of Nithuth’s wife.
60. Stanza 17 “Hrimgerth am I, | my father was Hati, Of giants the most in might; Many a woman | he won from her home, Ere Helgi hewed him down.” Atli spake:
61. Stanza 17 The manuscript does not indicate the speaker.
62. Stanza 18 “The glow of his eyes | is like gleaming snakes, His teeth he gnashes | if now is shown The sword, or Bothvild’s | ring he sees; Let them straightway cut | his sinews of strength, And set him then | in Sævarstath.” So was it done: the sinews in his knee-joints were cut, and he was set in an island which was near the mainland, and was called Sævarstath. There he smithied for the king all kinds of precious things. No man dared to go to him, save only the king himself. Völund spake:
63. Stanza 18 In the manuscript lines 2–3 stand before line 1; many editors have made the transposition here indicated. Some editors reject line 3 as spurious. Sævarstath: “Sea-Stead.”
64. Stanza 18 “Witch, in front | of the ship thou wast, And lay before the fjord; To Ron wouldst have given | the ruler’s men, If a spear had not stuck in thy flesh.” Hrimgerth spake:
65. Stanza 18 From this point to the end the manuscript does not indicate the speakers. Ron: wife of the sea-god Ægir, who draws drowning men into the sea with her net. There is no other reference to the wounding of Hrimgerth.
66. Stanza 19 “At Nithuth’s girdle | gleams the sword That I sharpened keen | with cunningest craft, (And hardened the steel | with highest skill;) The bright blade far | forever is borne, (Nor back shall I see it | borne to my smithy;) Now Bothvild gets | the golden ring (That was once my bride’s,— | ne’er well shall it be.)”
67. Stanza 19 This stanza is obviously in bad shape. Vigfusson makes two stanzas of it by adding a first line: “Then did Völund speak, | sagest of elves.” Editors have rejected various lines, and some have regrouped the last lines with the first two of stanza 20. The elimination of the passages in parenthesis produces a four-line stanza which is metrically correct, but it has little more than guesswork to support it.
68. Stanza 19 “Dull art thou, Atli, | thou dreamest, methinks, The lids lie over thine eyes; By the leader’s ships | my mother lay, Hlothvarth’s sons on the sea I slew.
69. Stanza 19 Apparently both Hrimgerth and her mother, Hati’s wife, had sought to destroy Helgi’s ships, and had actually killed some of his companions, the sons of Hlothvarth, concerning whom nothing more is known. Many editors assume that a stanza containing a speech by Atli has been lost after stanza 19.
70. Stanza 20 He sat, nor slept, | and smote with his hammer, Fast for Nithuth | wonders he fashioned; Two boys did go | in his door to gaze, Nithuth’s sons, | into Sævarstath.
71. Stanza 20 The editions vary radically in combining the lines of this stanza with those of stanzas 19 and 21, particularly as the manuscript indicates the third line as the beginning of a stanza. The meaning, however, remains unchanged.
72. Stanza 20 “Thou wouldst neigh, Atli, | but gelded thou art, See, Hrimgerth hoists her tail; In thy hinder end | is thy heart, methinks, Though thy speech is a stallion’s cry.” Atli spake:
73. Stanza 20 Apparently Hrimgerth has assumed the form of a mare.