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''Vǫlundarkviða'' (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

: 'The lay of Völund'; modern Icelandic spelling: ''Völundarkviða'') is one of the mythological poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. The title is anglicized in various ways, including ''Völundarkvitha'', ''Völundarkvidha'', ''Völundarkvida'', ''Volundarkvitha'', ''Volundarkvidha'' and ''Volundarkvida''.

Manuscripts, origins, and analogues

The poem is preserved in its entirety among the mythological poems of the thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius, and the beginning of the prose prologue is also found in the AM 748 I 4to fragment. The vocabulary and some of the formulaic phrasing of the poem is clearly influenced by West Germanic, with the strongest case being for influence specifically from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

(a West Germanic dialect). It is thought likely, therefore, that ''Vǫlundarkviða'' was composed in, or otherwise influenced by traditions from, the Norse diaspora in England. This would suggest origins around the tenth or eleventh century. This fits in turn with the fact that most of the analogues to ''Vǫlundarkviða'' are West-Germanic in origin. In visual sources, the story told in ''Vǫlundarkviða'' seems also to be portrayed on the front panel of the eighth-century Northumbrian

Franks Casket The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not "whalebone" in the sense of baleen) chest from the early 8th century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes ...

and on the eighth-century Gotlandic Ardre image stone VIII, along with a number of tenth-to-eleventh-century carvings from Northern England, including the Leeds Cross, a fragment in Leeds City Museum, and Sherburn in Elmet fragment
2
an
3
In written sources, a largely similar story ('' Velents þáttr smiðs'') is related in the Old Norse '' Þiðrekssaga af Bern'' (translated from lost Low German sources), and an evidently similar story is alluded to in the first two verse-paragraphs of

poem '' Deor''.

Synopsis

The poem relates the story of the artisan Völundr, his capture by Níðuðr, implicitly a petty-king of Närke (currently in Sweden), and Vǫlundr's brutal revenge and escape.

Prose introduction

''Vǫlundarkviða'' begins with a prose introduction, setting the scene, giving background about the characters, and partly summarising the poem. It is possible that this passage is much younger than the verse.

Stanzas 1–6

The poem opens by describing the flight of three swan-maidens identified in stanza 1 as ''meyjar'', ''drósir'', ''alvitr'' and ''suðrœnar'' ('young women, stately women, foreign beings, southerners') to a 'sævar strǫnd' ('lake/sea-shore') where they meet the three brothers Egill,

Slagfiðr In Norse mythology, Slagfiðr ( Old Norse "beating- Finn")Orchard (1997:151). is one of a trio of brothers along with Völundr and Egil. In the '' Poetic Edda'' poem ''Völundarkviða ''Vǫlundarkviða'' (Old Norse: 'The lay of Völund'; mo ...

and Vǫlundr. Each maid takes one of the brothers as her own. However, nine winters later, the women leave the brothers. The poem does not explain this, simply saying that the women depart 'ørlǫg drýgja' ('to fulfil their fate'). Slagfiðr and Egill go in search of their women, but Vǫlundr remains at home instead, forging ''baugar'' (‘(arm-)rings’) for his woman.

Stanzas 7–19

Discovering that Vǫlundr is living alone, a local king, Níðuðr, ‘lord of the Njárar’, has him captured in his sleep (stanzas 7–12). Níðuðr takes Vǫlundr's sword and gives one of the rings which Vǫlundr made for his missing bride to his daughter Bǫðvildr, and, at his wife's instigation, he has Vǫlundr's hamstrings cut, imprisoning him on an island called Sævarstaðr, where Vǫlundr makes objects for Níðuðr (stanzas 13–19).

Stanzas 20–41

Vǫlundr takes his revenge on Níðuðr first by enticing Níðuðr's two sons to visit with promises of treasure, killing them, and making jewels of their eyes and teeth (stanzas 20–26). He then entices Bǫðvildr by promising to mend the ring which she was given, getting her drunk, and implicitly having sex with her (stanzas 27–29). The poem culminates in Vǫlundr taking to the air by some means which is not clearly described and telling Níðuðr what he has done, laughing (stanzas 30–39). It focuses finally on the plight of Bǫðvildr, whose lament closes the poem (stanzas 40–41): It relates to type 313 and 313C in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index. Similar tales have types 400 and 465.

Literary criticism

The poem is appreciated for its evocative images. :In the night went men, :in studded corslets, :their shields glistened :in the waning moon. ''Völundarkviða'' 6, Thorpe's translation

Editions and translations

English translations

* Henry Adams Bellows (trans.), ''The Poetic Edda'', Scandinavian Classics, 21-22 (Princeton .J. Princeton University Press, 1936)
translation only
* Benjamin Thorpe (trans.), ''Edda Sæmundar Hinns Froða: The Edda Of Sæmund The Learned'', 2 vols (London: Trübner & Co. 1866). Reprinted 1906 as Rasmus B. Anderson & J. W. Buel (Eds.) ''The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson''. London, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, New York:

Norrœna Society The Norrœna Society was an organization dedicated to Northern European culture, that published sets of reprints of classic 19th-century editions, mostly translations, of Old Norse literary and historical works, Northern European folklore, and medi ...

. Available online a
Google Books
Searchable graphic image version requiring DjVu plugin available a
University of Georgia Libraries: Facsimile Books and Periodicals: The Elder Eddas and the Younger Eddas
* W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor (trans.), ''The Elder Edda: A Selection'' (London: Faber, 1969)
here
* Dronke, Ursula (ed. & trans.) (1997). ''The Poetic Edda'', vol. II, ''Mythological Poems''. Oxford: Clarendon. .

Old Norse editions

Sophus Bugge Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runi ...

(ed.), ''Norrœn fornkvæði: Islandsk Samling af Oldtidsdigte om Nordens Guder og Heroer almndelig kaldet Sæmundar Edda hins fróða'' (Oslo: Aschehough, 1926)
Völundarkviða, manuscript spelling
* Guðni Jónsson (ed.), ''Eddukvæði (Sæmundar-Edda)'', 2 vols (Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1949)
Völundarkviða, normalised spelling
* Jón Helgason (ed.), ''Tvær kviður fornar: Vọlundarkviða og Atlakviða'' (Reykjavík: Heimskringla, 1966). * Ursula Dronke (ed. & trans.), ''The Poetic Edda, Volume II:'' ''Mythological Poems'' (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997). .