Völundarkviða (
Völundr's poem, the name can be
anglicizedThe orthography of the Old Norse language since the introduction of the Latin alphabet in Iceland was varied historically. In modern times, scholars established a standardized spelling for the language. When Old Norse names are used in texts in other languages, modifications to this spelling are...
as
Völundarkvitha,
Völundarkvidha,
Völundarkvida,
Volundarkvitha,
Volundarkvidha or
Volundarkvida) is one of the mythological poems of the
Poetic EddaThe Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.Codex Regius was written in the...
. The term
kviða derives from the verb
kveða (or
kvœtha in old Swedish) which carried the sense of "to say, to tell" and "to sing" at the same time.
The poem relates the story of the artisan
VölundrIn Germanic mythology, Wayland the Smith is a legendary smith. In Old Norse sources, Völundr appears in Völundarkviða, a poem in the Poetic Edda, and in Þiðrekssaga, and his legend is also depicted on the Ardre image stone VIII...
the Smith.
Völundarkviða (
Völundr's poem, the name can be
anglicizedThe orthography of the Old Norse language since the introduction of the Latin alphabet in Iceland was varied historically. In modern times, scholars established a standardized spelling for the language. When Old Norse names are used in texts in other languages, modifications to this spelling are...
as
Völundarkvitha,
Völundarkvidha,
Völundarkvida,
Volundarkvitha,
Volundarkvidha or
Volundarkvida) is one of the mythological poems of the
Poetic EddaThe Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.Codex Regius was written in the...
. The term
kviða derives from the verb
kveða (or
kvœtha in old Swedish) which carried the sense of "to say, to tell" and "to sing" at the same time.
Synopsis
The poem relates the story of the artisan
VölundrIn Germanic mythology, Wayland the Smith is a legendary smith. In Old Norse sources, Völundr appears in Völundarkviða, a poem in the Poetic Edda, and in Þiðrekssaga, and his legend is also depicted on the Ardre image stone VIII...
the Smith. In the poem, he is called "prince of the elves" (
vísi álfa) and "one of the
álfar" or "leader of
álfar" (
álfa ljóði). He is also mentioned as one of the three sons of the king of the Finns in the poem. His wife
Hervör-Alvitr, a
valkyrieIn Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decide who will die in battle. The valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin, where the deceased warriors become einherjar...
, abandons him after nine years, and he is later captured by Níðuðr, a petty-king of
Närke' is a traditional Swedish province or landskap in middle Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Värmland, Västmanland, Södermanland and Östergötland...
(Sweden) greedy for his gold. Völundr is
hamstrungHamstringing is a method of crippling a person so he or she cannot walk properly, by cutting the two large tendons at the back of the knees. A victim of this cannot stand properly, walk or run once the hamstring tendons have been cut...
and put to work on an island making artifacts for the king. Eventually he finds means of revenge and escape. He kills Niðuðr's sons, impregnates his daughter and then flies away laughing.
The poem is appreciated for its evocative images.
- In the night went men,
- in studded corslets,
- their shields glistened
- in the waning moon.
Völundarkviða 6, Thorpe's translation
The Völundr myth appears to have been widespread among the Germanic peoples. It is also related in the
Þiðrekssaga af Bern (
Velents þáttr smiðsVelents þáttr smiðs is the name given to the part of the Þiðrekssaga af Bern that deals with Wayland Smith ....
) and it is alluded to in the
Old EnglishOld English , also called Anglo-Saxon, is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary...
poem
The Lament of Deor"Deor" is an Old English poem, from the 10th century AD, preserved in the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title. Modern scholars do not actually believe Deor to be the author of this poem.In the poem, Deor's...
. It is moreover depicted on a panel of the 7th century Anglo-Saxon
Franks CasketThe Franks Casket is a small whalebone chest, carved with narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with Anglo-Saxon runes. The casket is dateable from the language of its inscriptions and other features to the mid-seventh century CE. The casket is densely decorated with images and...
and on the 8th century
Gotland' is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The region also includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny...
ic
Ardre image stoneThe Ardre image stones are a collection of ten rune and image stones, dated to the 8th to 11th centuries. They were used as paving under the wooden floors of the local church in the Ardre parish of Gotland, and were re-discovered when the church was restored around 1900...
VIII.
The poem is preserved in its entirety among the mythological poems of the
Codex RegiusCodex Regius is an Icelandic manuscript in which the Poetic Edda is preserved. It is made up of 45 vellum leaves, thought to have been written in the 1270s. It originally contained a further 8 leaves, which are now missing...
and the beginning of the prose prologue is also found in the
AM 748 I 4toAM 748 I 4to is an Icelandic vellum manuscript fragment containing several Eddaic poems. It dates to the beginning of the 14th century. The six sheets which have been preserved contain the following poems, all mythological.*Grímnismál...
fragment.
English translations
- Völundarkvitha Translation and commentary by Henry A. Bellows
- Völundarkviða Translation by Benjamin Thorpe
Benjamin Thorpe was an English Anglo-Saxon scholar.After studying for four years at Copenhagen University, under the Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask, he returned to England in 1830, and in 1832 published an English version of Caedmon's metrical paraphrase of portions of the Holy...
- Völundarkviða Translation by W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or...
and P. B. Taylor
Old Norse editions
- Völundarkviða Sophus Bugge
Sophus Bugge was a Norwegian philologist, known for his theories, and work on the runic alphabet, and the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda. In his 1880 work Studies about the origin of Nordic mythological and heroic tales, Bugge theorized that nearly all myths in Old Norse literature derive from...
's edition of the manuscript text
- Völundarkviða Guðni Jónsson's edition with normalized spelling