According to Hymerskvida it is in Egil's house, according to Gylfaginning
in the house in which Thjalfe is fostered, where the accident to one
of Thor's goats happens. In one of the sources the youth whom Thor
takes as a ransom is called simply Egil's child; in the other he is
called Thjalfe. Two different mythic sources show that Thjalfe was a
waif, adopted in Egil's house, and consequently not a real brother but
a foster-brother of Svipdag and Ull. One source is Fornaldersaga (iii.
241), where it is stated that Groa in a _flædarmál_ found a little boy
and reared him together with her own son. _Flædarmál_ is a place which a
part of the time is flooded with water and a part of the time lies dry.
The other source is the Longobard saga, in which the mythological Egil
reappears as Agelmund, the first king of the Longobardians who emigrated
from Scandinavia (_Origo Longob._, Paulus Diac., 14, 15; cp. No. 112).
Agelmund, it is said, had a foster-son, Lamicho (_Origo Longob._), or
Lamissio (Paulus Diac.), whom he found in a dam and took home out of
pity. Thus in the one place it is a woman who bears the name of the
archer Orvandel's wife, in the other it is the archer Egil himself, who
adopts as foster-son a child found in a dam or in a place filled with
water. Paulus Diaconus says that the lad received the name Lamissio to
commemorate this circumstance, "since he was fished up out of a dam or
dyke," which in their (the Longobardian) language is called _lama_ (cp.
_lehm_, mud.) The name Thjalfe (_thjálfi_) thus suggests a similar idea.
As Vigfusson has already pointed out, it is connected with the English
delve, a dyke; with the Anglo-Saxon _delfan_; the Dutch _delven_, to work
the ground with a spade, to dig. The circumstances under which the lad
was found presaged his future. In the mythology he fells the clay-giant,
_Mökkr-kalfi_ (Younger Edda, i. 272-274). In the migration saga he is the
discoverer of land and circumnavigates islands (Korm., 19, 3; Younger
Edda, i. 496), and there he conquers giants (Harbards-ljod, 39) in order
to make the lands inhabitable for immigrants. In the appendix to the
Gotland law he appears as Thjelvar, who lands in Gotland, liberates
the island from trolls by carrying fire, colonises it and becomes the
progenitor of a host of emigrants, who settle in southern countries.
In Paulus Diaconus he grows up to be a powerful hero; in the mythology
he develops into the Asa-god Thor's brave helper, who participates in
his and the great archer's adventures on the Elivagar and in Jotunheim.
Paulus (ch. 15) says that when Agelmund once came with his Longobardians
to a river, "amazons" wanted to hinder him from crossing it. Then
Lamissio fought, swimming in the river, with the bravest one of the
amazons, and killed her. In the mythology Egil himself fights with the
giantess Sela, mentioned in Saxo as an amazon; _piraticis exercita rebus
ac bellici perita muneris_ (_Hist._, 138), while Thjalfe combats with
giantesses on Hlessey (Harbardslj., 39), and at the side of Thor and the
archer he fights his way through the river waves, in which giantesses try
to drown him (Thorsdrapa). It is evident that Paulus Diaconus' accounts
of Agelmund and Lamissio are nothing but echoes related as history of the
myths concerning Egil and Thjalfe, of which the Norse records fortunately
have preserved valuable fragments.
Thus Thjalfe is the archer Egil's and Groa's foster-son, as is apparent
from a bringing together of the sources cited. From other sources we have
found that Groa is the archer Orvandel's wife. Orvandel dwells near the
Elivagar and Thor is his friend, and visits him on his way to and from
Jotunheim. These are the evidences of Orvandel's and Egil's identity
which lie nearest at hand.
It has already been pointed out that Svipdag's father Orvandel appears in
Saxo by the name Ebbo (see Nos. 23, 100). It is Otharus-Svipdag's father
whom he calls Ebbo (_Hist._, 329-333). Halfdan slays Orvandel-Ebbo, while
the latter celebrates his wedding with a princess Sygrutha (see No.
23). In the mythology Egil had the same fate: an enemy and rival kills
him for the sake of a woman. "Franks Casket," an old work of sculpture
now preserved in England, and reproduced in George Stephens' great work
on the runes,[9] represents Egil defending his house against a host of
assailants who storm it. Within the house a woman is seen, and she is the
cause of the conflict. Like Saxo's Halfdan, one of the assailants carries
a tree or a branched club as his weapon. Egil has already hastened out,
bow in hand, and his three famous arrows have been shot. Above him
is written in runes his name, wherefore there can be no doubt about
his identity. The attack, according to Saxo, took place, in the night
(_noctuque nuptiis superveniens_--_Hist._, p. 330).
In a similar manner Paulus Diaconus relates the story concerning Egil
Agelmund's death (ch. 16). He is attacked, so it is stated, in the night
time by Bulgarians, who slew him and carried away his only daughter.
During a part of their history the Longobardians had the Bulgarians as
neighbors, with whom they were on a war-footing. In the mythology it was
"Borgarians," that is to say, Borgar's son Halfdan and his men, who slew
Orvandel. In history the "Borgarians" have been changed into Bulgarians
for the natural reason that accounts of wars fought with Bulgarians were
preserved in the traditions of the Longobardians.
The very name Ebbo reappears also in the saga of the Longobardians. The
brothers, under whose leadership the Longobardians are said to have
emigrated from Scandinavia, are in Saxo (_Hist._, 418) called Aggo and
Ebbo; in _Origo Longobardorum_, Ajo and Ybor; in Paulus (ch. 7), Ajo
and Ibor. Thus the name Ebbo is another form for Ibor, the German Ebur,
the Norse _Jöfurr_, "a wild boar." The Ibor of the Longobard saga, the
emigration leader, and Agelmund, the first king of the emigrants, in the
mythology, and also in Saxo's authorities, are one and the same person.
The Longobardian emigration story, narrated in the form of history,
thus has its root in the universal Teutonic emigration myth, which
was connected with the enmity caused by Loke between the gods and the
primeval artists--an enmity in which the latter allied themselves with
the powers of frost, and, at the head of the Skilfing-Yngling tribes,
gave the impetus to that migration southward which resulted in the
populating of the Teutonic continent with tribes from South Scandia and
Denmark (see Nos. 28, 32).
Nor is the mythic hero Ibor forgotten in the German sagas. He is
mentioned in Notker (about the year 1000) and in the Vilkinasaga. Notker
simply mentions him in passing as a saga-hero well known at that time.
He distinguishes between the real wild boar (Eber) roaming in the woods,
and the Eber (Ebur) who "wears the swan-ring." This is all he has to say
of him. But, according to Volundarkvida, the mythological Ebur-Egil is
married to a swan-maid, and, like his brother Volund, he wore a ring.
The signification of the swan-rings was originally the same as that of
Draupner: they were symbols of fertility, and were made and owned for
this reason by the primeval artists of mythology, who, as we have seen,
were the personified forces of growth in nature, and by their beloved
or wives, the swan-maids, who represented the saps of vegetation, the
bestowers of the mythic "mead" or "ale." The swan-maid who loves Egil is,
therefore, in Volundarvida called Olrun, a parallel to the name Olgefion,
as Groa, Orvandel's wife, is called in Haustlaung (Younger Edda, i. 282).
Saxo, too, has heard of the swan-rings, and says that from three swans
singing in the air fell a _cingulum_ inscribed with names down to King
Fridlevus (Njord), which informed him where he was to find a youth who
had been robbed by a giant, and whose liberation was a matter of great
importance to Fridlevus. The context shows that the unnamed youth was
in the mythology Fridlevus-Njord's own son Frey, the lord of harvests,
who had been robbed by the powers of frost. Accordingly, a swan-ring has
co-operated in the mythology in restoring the fertility of the earth.
In Vilkinasaga appears Villifer. The author of the saga says himself
that this name is identical with Wild-Ebur, wild boar. Villifer, a
splendid and noble-minded youth, wears on his arm a gold ring, and is the
elder friend, protector, and saviour of Vidga Volundson. Of his family
relations Vilkinasaga gives us no information, but the part it gives him
to play finds its explanation in the myth, where Ebur is Volund's brother
Egil, and hence the uncle of his favourite Vidga.
If we now take into consideration that in the German Orentel saga, which
is based on the Svipdag-myth, the father of the hero is called Eigel
(Egil), and his patron saint Wieland (Volund), and that in the archer,
who in Saxo fights by the side of Anund-Volund against Halfdan, we
have re-discovered Egil where we expected Orvandel; then we here find
a whole chain of evidence that Ebur, Egil, and Orvandel are identical,
and at the same time the links in this chain of evidence, taken as they
are from the Icelandic poetry, and from Saxo, from England, Germany, and
Italy, have demonstrated how widely spread among the Teutonic peoples
was the myth about Orvandel-Egil, his famous brother Volund, and his no
less celebrated son Svipdag. The result gained by the investigation is
of the greatest importance for the restoration of the epic connection of
the mythology. Hitherto the Volundarkvida with its hero has stood in the
gallery of myths as an isolated torso with no trace of connection with
the other myths and mythic sagas. Now, on the other hand, it appears, and
as the investigation progresses it shall become more and more evident,
that the Volund-myth belongs to the central timbers of the great epic of
Teutonic mythology, and extends branches through it in all directions.
In regard to Svipdag's saga, the first result gained is that the
mythology was not inclined to allow Volund's sword, concealed in the
lower world, to fall into the hands of a hero who was a stranger to the
great artist and his plans. If Volund forged the sword for a purpose
hostile to the gods, in order to avenge a wrong done him, or to elevate
himself and his circle of kinsmen among the elves at the expense of
the ruling gods, then his work was not done in vain. If Volund and
his brothers are those Ivalde sons who, after having given the gods
beautiful treasures, became offended on account of the decision which
placed Sindre's work, particularly Mjolner, higher than their own, then
the mythology has also completely indemnified them in regard to this
insult. Mjolner is broken by the sword of victory wielded by Volund's
nephew; Asgard trembles before the young elf after he had received the
incomparable weapon of his uncle; its gate is opened for him and other
kinsmen of Volund, and the most beautiful woman of the world of gods
becomes his wife.
[9] _Runic Monuments_, by George Stephens.
109.
FREY FOSTERED IN THE HOME OF ORVANDEL-EGIL AND VOLUND.
ORVANDEL'S EPITHET ISOLFR. VOLUND'S EPITHET AGGO.
The mythology has handed down several names of the coast region near the
Elivagar, where Orvandel-Egil and his kinsmen dwelt, while they still
were the friends of the gods, and were an outpost active in the service
against the frost-powers. That this coast region was a part of Alfheim,
and the most northern part of this mythic land, appears already from
the fact that Volund and his brothers are in Volundarkvida elf-princes,
sons of a mythic "king." The rule of the elf-princes must be referred to
Alfheim for the same reason as we refer that of the Vans to Vanheim, and
that of the Asa-gods to Asgard. The part of Alfheim here in question,
where Orvandel-Egil's citadel was situated, was in the mythology called
_Ýdalir_, _Ýsetr_ (Grimnersmal, 5; Olaf Trygveson's saga, ch. 21). This
is also suggested by the fact that _Ullr_, elevated to the dignity of
an Asa-god, he who is the son of Orvandel-Egil, and Svipdag's brother
(see No. 102), according to Grimnersmal, has his halls built in _Ýdalir_.
Divine beings who did not originally belong to Asgard, but were adopted
in Odin's clan, and thus became full citizens within the bulwarks of
the Asa-citadel, still retain possession of the land, realm, and halls,
which is their udal and where they were reared. After he became a denizen
in Asgard, Njord continued to own and to reside occasionally in the
Vana-citadel Noatun beyond the western ocean (see Nos. 20, 93). Skade, as
an asynje, continues to inhabit her father Thjasse's halls in Thrymheim
(Grimnersmal, 11). Vidar's grass and brush-grown realm is not a part of
Asgard, but is the large plain on which, in Ragnarok, Odin is to fall in
combat with Fenrer (Grimnersmal, 17; see No. 39). When Ull is said to
have his halls in Ydaler, this must be based on a similar reason, and
Ydaler must be the land where he was reared and which he inherited after
his father, the great archer. When Grimnersmal enumerates the homes of
the gods, the series of them begins with Thrudheim, Thor's realm, and
next thereafter, and in connection with Alfheim, is mentioned Ydaler,
presumably for the reason that Thor's land and Orvandel-Egil's were, as
we have seen, most intimately connected in mythology.
Land er heilact,
er ec liggia se
asom oc olfom nær;
en i thrudheimi
scal thórr vera,
unz um rivfaz regin.
Ydalir heita.
thar er Ullr hefir
ser úm gorva sali;
Alfheim Frey
gáfo i árdaga
tivar at tannfæ.
_Ýdalir_ means the "dales of the bow" or "of the bows." _Ýsetr_ is
"the chalet of the bow" or "of the bows." That the first part of these
compound words is _ýr_, "a bow," is proved by the way in which the
local name _Ýsetr_ can be applied in poetical paraphrases, where the
bow-holding hand is called Ysetr. The names refer to the mythical
rulers of the region, namely, the archer Ull and his father the archer
Orvandel-Egil. The place has also been called _Geirvadills setr_,
_Geirvandills setr_, which is explained by the fact that Orvandel's
father bore the epithet Geirvandel (Saxo, _Hist._, 135). Hakon Jarl,
the ruler of northern Norway, is called (Fagrsk., 37, 4) _Geirvadills
setrs Ullr_, "the Ull of Geirvandel's chalet," a paraphrase in which we
find the mythological association of Ull with the chalet which was owned
by his father Orvandel and his grandfather Geirvandel. The Ydales were
described as rich in gold. _Ysetrs eldr_ is a paraphrase for gold. With
this we must compare what Volund says (Volundarkvida, 14) of the wealth
of gold in his and his kinsmen's home. (See further, in regard to the
same passage, Nos. 114 and 115.)
In connection with its mention of the Ydales, Grimnersmal states that
the gods gave Frey Alfheim as a tooth-gift. _Tannfé_ (tooth-gift) was
the name of a gift which was given (and in Iceland is still given) to a
child when it gets its first tooth. The tender Frey is thus appointed by
the gods as king over Alfheim, and chief of the elf-princes there, among
whom Volund and Orvandel-Egil, judging from the mythic events themselves,
must have been the foremost and most celebrated. It is also logically
correct, from the standpoint of nature symbolism, that the god of growth
and harvests receives the government of elves and primeval artists, the
personified powers of culture. Through this arrangement of the gods,
Volund and Orvandel become vassals under Njord and his son.
In two passages in Saxo we read mythic accounts told as history, from
which it appears that Njord selected a foster-father for his son, or
let him be reared in a home under the care of two fosterers. In the
one passage (_Hist._, 272) it is Fridlevus-Njord who selects Avo the
archer as his son's foster-father; in the other passage (_Hist._, 181)
it is the tender Frotho, son of Fridlevus and future brother-in-law of
Ericus-Svipdag, who receives Isulfus and Aggo as guardians.
So far as the archer Avo is concerned, we have already met him above (see
No. 108) in combat by the side of Anundus-Volund against one Halfdan. He
is a parallel figure to the archer Toko, who likewise fights by the side
of Anundus-Volund against Halfdan, and, as has already been shown, he is
identical with the archer Orvandel-Egil.
The name Aggo is borne by one of the leaders of the emigration of the
Longobardians, brother of Ebbo-Ibor, in whom we have already discovered
Orvandel-Egil.
The name Isolfr, in the Old Norse poetic language, designates the bear
(Younger Edda, i. 589; ii. 484). Vilkinasaga makes Ebbo (Wild-Ebur)
appear in the guise of a bear when he is about to rescue Volund's son
Vidga from the captivity into which he had fallen. In his shield Ebbo has
images of a wild boar and of a bear. As the wild boar refers to one of
his names (Ebur), the image of the bear should refer to another (Isolfr).
Under such circumstances there can be no doubt that Orvandel-Egil and
one of his brothers, the one designated by the name Aggo (Ajo), be this
Volund or Slagfin, were entrusted in the mythology with the duty of
fostering the young Frey. Orvandel also assumes, as vassal under Njord,
the place which foster-fathers held in relation to the natural fathers of
their protégés.
Frey, accordingly, is reared in Alfheim, and in the Ydales he is fostered
by elf-princes belonging to a circle of brothers, among whom one,
namely, Volund, is the most famous artist of mythology. His masterpiece,
the sword of victory, in time proves to be superior to Sindre's chief
work, the hammer Mjolner. And as it is always Volund whom Saxo mentions
by Orvandel-Egil's side among his brothers (see No. 108), it is most
reasonable to suppose that it is Volund, not Slagfin, who appears here
under the name Aggo along with the great archer, and, like the latter,
is entrusted with the fostering of Frey. It follows that Svipdag and Ull
were Frey's foster-brothers. Thus it is the duty of a foster-brother they
perform when they go to rescue Frey from the power of giants, and when
they, later, in the war between the Asas and Vans, take Frey's side.
This also throws additional light on Svipdag-Skirner's words to Frey in
Skirnersmal, 5:
ungir saman
varom i árdaga,
vel mættim tvæir truasc.
110.
SVIPDAG'S GRANDFATHER IS IVALDE. ORVANDEL, VOLUND, AND SLAGFIN
THEREFORE IDENTICAL WITH IVALDE'S SONS.
In the mythology we read that elves smithied splendid treasures for Frey
(Grimnersmal, 42; Younger Edda, i. 140, 340). Among these treasures
were the remarkable ship _Skidbladnir_ and the gold-glittering boar
_Slidrugtanni_, also called Gullinbursti (Younger Edda, i. 176, 264,
340-344), both clearly symbols of vegetation. The elves that smithied
these treasures are called Ivalde's sons, and constitute the same group
of brothers whose gifts to the gods, at the instigation of Loke, are
subjected to a public examination by the Asas and by them found wanting
as compared with Sindre's products. It would be most surprising, nay,
quite incredible, if, when other artists made useful presents to Frey,
the elf-prince Volund and his brothers did not do likewise, inasmuch as
he is the chief smith of them all, and inasmuch as he, with his brother
Orvandel-Egil, has taken upon himself the duties of a foster-father
toward the young harvest-god, among which duties one was certainly to
care for his good and enable him to perform the important task devolving
on him in the administration of the world.
From this standpoint already it is more than probable that the same
artist who in the heroic saga of the Teutonic tribes, under the name
Volund, Wieland, Weland, by the side of Mimer, plays the part of the
foremost smith that antiquity knew is the same one as in the mythology
was the most excellent smith; that is, the most skilful one among
Ivalde's sons. This view is perfectly confirmed as to its correctness by
the proofs which I shall now present.
Of Ivalde, Fornspjallsljod says that he had two groups of children, and
that Idun, the goddess of vegetation, belonged to one of these groups:
Álfa ættar
Ithunni heto
Ivallds ellri
ýngsta barna.
Idun is, therefore, a sister of the celebrated artists, the sons
of Ivalde. In Volundarkvida, Volund and Slagfin are brothers or
half-brothers of the dises of vegetation, who are together with them
in the Wolfdales (see str. 2). According to Fornspjallsljod, Idun was
for a time absent from Asgard, and stayed in a winter-cold land near
Narfe-Mimer's daughter Nat, and in company with persons whose names and
epithets indicate that they were smiths, primeval artists (_Rögnir_
and _Regin_; see Nos. 113, 115, and the epithet _viggiar_, a synonym
of _smidar_--Younger Edda, i. 587). Thus we read precisely the same of
Idun as of the swan-maids and vegetation-dises who dwelt for a time in
the Wolfdales with Volund and his brothers. Further on it shall be
demonstrated that the name of Volund's father in the introduction of
Volundarkvida and the name given to the father of Volund's and Slagfin's
swan-maids are synonyms, and refer to one and the same person. But if
we for the present leave this proof out, and confine ourselves to the
evidences already presented, then the question concerning the identity
of the Ivalde sons with the group of brothers Volund, Egil, and Slagfin
assumes the following form:
1. (_a_) There is in the mythology a group of brothers, the Ivalde sons,
from whose hands the most wonderful works proceeded, works which were
presented to the gods, and by the latter were compared with those of the
primeval artist Sindre.
(_b_) In the heroic saga there is a group of brothers, to whom Volund
belongs, the most celebrated of the smiths handed down from the mythology.
2. (_a_) Ivalde is an elf and his sons elves.
(_b_) Volund, Egil, and Slagfin are elves (Volundarkvida, 32).
3. (_a_) Ivalde's sons are brothers or half-brothers of the goddess of
vegetation, Idun.
(_b_) Volund, Egil, and Slagfin are brothers or half-brothers of
swan-maids and dises of vegetation.
4. (_a_) Of Idun, the sister of Ivalde's sons, it is stated that she was
for a time absent from the gods, and dwelt with the primeval artists in a
winter-cold land, near Nat, the daughter of _Narfi_-Mimer.
(_b_) Volund and his brothers' swan-maids dwell for a time in a
winter-cold land, which, as my researches have already shown, is
situated _fyr nágrindr nedan_, consequently in the lower world, near the
realm of Nat.
5. (_a_) Ivalde's sons were intimately associated with Frey and gave him
precious treasures.
(_b_) Volund and Egil were intimately associated with Frey, and were his
fosterers and wards.
6. (_a_) Ivalde's sons were most deeply insulted by the gods.
(_b_) Volund has been most deeply insulted by the Asas. He and Egil
become their foes, and ally themselves with the powers of frost.
7. (_a_) The insult given to Ivalde's sons consisted in the fact that
their works were judged inferior as compared with the hammer Mjolner made
by Sindre.
(_b_) The best smith-work produced by Volund is a sword of such a quality
that it is to prove itself superior to Mjolner in battle.
These circumstances alone force us to assume the identity of Ivalde's
sons with Volund and his brothers. We must either admit the identity, or
we are obliged to assume that the epic of the mythology contained two
such groups of brothers, and made them identical in descent, functions,
and fortunes. Besides, it must then have made the one group avenge not an
insult offered to itself, but an insult to the other. I have abstained
from the latter assumption, because it is in conflict with the best
rules for a logical investigation--_causæ non sunt præter necessitatem
multiplicandæ_. And the identity gains confirmation from all sides as the
investigation progresses.
111.
THE RESULTS OF THE JUDGMENT PASSED ON THE WORKS OF ART PRODUCED
BY THE IVALDE SONS. PARALLEL MYTHS IN RIGVEDA.