of the giants and set out for the Wolfdales, they were unable to take
with them their immense treasures inherited from their father and
augmented by themselves. Nor did they need them for their purposes.
Volund carried with him a golden fountain in his wealth-bringing arm-ring
(see Nos. 87, 98, 101) from which the seven hundred rings, that Nidhad
to his astonishment discovered in his smithy, must have come. But the
riches left by these brothers ought not to fall into the hands of the
gods, who were their enemies. Consequently they were concealed. Saxo
(_Hist._, 193) says of the father of Svipdag-Ericus, that is to say, of
Orvandel-Egil, that he long had had great treasures concealed in earth
caves (_gazæ, quas diu clausæ telluris antra condiderant_). The same
is true of Gjuke-Slagfin, who went with his brothers to the Wolfdales.
Vilkinasaga (see below) has rescued an account of a treasure which was
preserved in the interior of a mountain, and which he owned. The same
is still more and particularly applicable to Volund, as he was the most
famous smith of the mythology and of the heroic saga. The popular fancy
conceived these treasures left and concealed by Volund as being kept in
earth caves, or in mountain halls, guarded and brooded over by dragons.
Or it conceived them as lying on the bottom of the sea, or in the bottom
of deep rivers, guarded by some dwarf inhabiting a rocky island near
by. Many of the songs and sagas of heathendom and of the older days of
Christianity were connected with the refinding and acquisition of the
Niblung hoard by some hero or other as the Volsung Sigmund, the Borgar
descendant Hadding-Dieterich, and Siegfried-Sigurd-Fafnersbane. The
Niflung treasure, _hodd Niflunga_ (Atlakvida, 26), _Nibelunge Hort_,
is in its more limited sense these Volund treasures, and in its most
general signification the golden wealth left by the three brothers. This
wealth the saga represents as gathered again largely in the hands of
the Gjukungs, after Sigurd, upon the victory over Fafner, has reunited
the most important one of Volund's concealed treasures with that of
the Gjukung's, and has married the Gjukung sister Gudrun. The German
tradition, preserved in middle-age poems, shows that the continental
Teutons long remembered that the _Nibelunge Hort_ originally was owned by
Volund, Egil, and Slagfin-Gjuke. In _Lied von Siegfried_ the treasure is
owned by three brothers who are "Niblungs." Only one of them is named,
and he is called King Euglin, a name which, with its variation Eugel,
manifestly is a variation of Eigel, as he is called in the Orentel saga
and in Vilkinasaga, and of Egil as he is called in the Norse records.
King Euglin is, according to _Lied von Siegfried_, an interpreter of
stars. Siegfried bids him _Lasz mich deyner kunst geniessen, Astronomey
genannt_. This peculiar statement is explained by the myth according
to which Orvandel-Egil is a star-hero. Egil becomes, like Atlas of
the antique mythology, a king versed in astronomy in the historical
interpretation of mythology. In _Nibelunge Noth_ the treasure is owned
by "the valiant" Niblungs, Schilbunc and Niblunc. Schilbunc is the Norse
_Skilfingr_, and I have already shown above that Ivalde-Svigder is the
progenitor of the Skilfings. The poem Biterolf knows that the treasure
originally belonged to _Nibelót, der machet himele guldîn; selber wolt
er got sîn_. These remarkable words have their only explanation in the
myths concerning the Niflung Volund, who first ornamented Asgard with
golden works of art, and subsequently wished to destroy the inhabitants
of Asgard in order to be god himself. The Norse heroic saga makes the
treasures brooded over by Fafner to have been previously guarded by
the dwarf Andvare, and makes the latter (Sigurdarkvida Fafn., ii. 3)
refer to the first owner. The saga characterises the treasure guarded
by him as _that gull, er Gustr átti_. In the very nature of the case
the first maker and possessor of these works must have been one of the
most celebrated artists of the mythology; and as _Gustr_ means "wind,"
"breath of wind;" as, again, Volund in the mythology is the only artist
who is designated by a synonym of _Gustr_, that is, by _Byrr_, "wind"
(Volundarkvda, 12), and by _Loptr_, "the airy one" (Fjölsvinnsmal,
26); as, furthermore, the song cycle concerning Sigurd Fafnersbane is
connected with the children of Gjuke Volund's brother, and in several
other respects strikes roots down into the myth concerning Ivalde's
sons; and as, finally, the German tradition shows an original connection
between _Nibelunge Hort_ and the treasures of the Ivalde sons, then every
fact goes to show that in _Gustr_ we have an epithet of Volund, and that
the Niflung hoard, both in the Norse and in the German Sigurd-Siegfried
saga was the inheritance and the works of Volund and his brothers.
Vigfusson assumes that the first part of the compound Slagfin is _slagr_,
"a tone," "a melody," played on a stringed instrument. The correctness
of this opinion is corroborated by the fact that Slagfin-Gjuke's son,
Gunnar, is the greatest player on stringed instruments in the heroic
literature. In the den of serpents he still plays his harp, so that the
crawling venomous creatures are enchanted by the tones. This wonderful
art of his is explained by the fact that his father is "the stringed
instrument's" Finn, that is, Slagfin. The horse Grane, who carries
Sigurd and the hoard taken from Fafner, probably at one time bore Volund
himself, when he proceeded to the Wolfdales. Grane at all events had
a place in the Volund-myth. The way traversed by Volund from his own
golden realm to the Wolfdales, and which in part was through the northern
regions of the lower world (_fyr mágrindr nedan_--Fjölsvinnsmal, 26)
is in Volundarkvida (14) called Grane's way. Finally, it must here be
stated that Sigurdrifva, to whom Sigurd proceeds after he has gotten
possession of Fafner's treasure, (Griperssaga, 13-15), is a mythic
character transferred to the heroic saga, who, as shall be shown in
the second part of this work, held a conspicuous position in the myths
concerning the Ivalde sons and their swan-maids. She is, in fact, the
heroic copy of Idun, and originally she had nothing to do with Budle's
daughter Brynhild. The cycle of the Sigurd songs thus attaches itself
as the last ring or circle in the powerful epic to the myth concerning
the Ivalde sons. The Sigurd songs arch themselves over the fateful
treasures which were smithied and left by the fallen Lucifer of the
Teutonic mythology, and which, like his sword of revenge and his arrow
of revenge, are filled with curses and coming woe. In the heroic poems
the Ivalde sons are their owners. The son's son Svipdag wields the sword
of revenge. The son's sons Gunnar and Hogne go as the possessors of the
Niblung treasure to meet their ruin. The myth concerning their fathers,
the Ivalde sons, arches itself over the enmity caused by Loke between
the gods on the one hand, and the great artists, the elf-princes, the
protectors of growth, the personified forces of the life of nature, on
the other hand. In connection herewith the myth about Ivalde himself
revolves mainly around "the mead," the _soma_, the strength-giving saps
in nature. He too, like his sons afterwards, gets into conflict with the
gods and rebels against them, seeks to deprive them of the _soma_ sap
which he had discovered, allies himself with Suttung's sons, in whose
keeping the precious liquid is rediscovered, and is slain outside of
their door, while Odin is within and carries out the plan by which the
mead becomes accessible to gods and to men (see No. 89). This chain of
events thus continues through three generations. And interwoven with
it is the chain of events opposed to it, which develops through the
generations of the other great mythic race of heroes: that of the Heimdal
son Borgar, of the Borgar son Halfdan, and of the Halfdan sons Hadding
and Guthorm (Dieterich and Ermenrich). Borgar fights and must yield to
the assault of Ivalde, and subsequently of his sons from the North in
alliance with the powers of frost (see Nos. 22, 28). Halfdan contends
with Ivalde's sons, recaptures for vegetation the Teutonic country as
far as to "Svarin's mound," but is slain by Ivalde's grandson Svipdag,
armed with the Volund sword (see Nos. 32, 33, 102, 103). In the conflict
between Svipdag and Guthorm-Ermenrich on the one side, and Hadding on
the other, we see the champions divided into two camps according to the
mythological antecedents of their families: Amalians and Hildings on
Hadding's side, the descendants of Ivalde on the other (see Nos. 42,
43). Accordingly, the Gjukungs, "the kings on the Rhine," are in the
German tradition on Ermenrich's side. Accordingly, Vidga Volundson, in
spite of his bond of friendship with Hadding-Dieterich, also fights under
Ermenrich's banner. Accordingly, Vildebur-Egil is again called to life
in the heroic saga, and there appears as the protector and helper of
the Volund son, his own nephew. And accordingly, Vate-Walther, too (see
No. 123), identical with Ivalde, Volund's father, is reproduced in the
heroic saga to bear the banner of Ermenrich in the battles (cp. No. 43).
120.
SLAGFIN-GJUKE'S SYNONYMS DANKRAT (THAKKRÁDR), IRUNG, ALDRIAN.
SLAGFIN A STAR-HERO LIKE HIS BROTHERS. ALDRIAN'S IDENTITY WITH
CHELDRICUS-GELDERUS.
Slagfin-Gjuke has many names in the German traditions, as in the Norse.
Along with the name Gibich, Gibche (Gjuke), occur the synonyms Dankrat,
Irung, and Aldrian. In the latter part of Nibelunge Noth Gibich is called
Dankrat (cp. "Klage;" Biterolf also has the name Dankrat, and speaks
of it in a manner which shows that in some of the sources used by the
author Dankrat was a synonym of Gibich). In Vilkinasaga Gjuke appears
now as Irung, now as Aldrian. Aldrian is (Vilkinasaga, 150) king of
Niflungaland, and has the sons Hogne, Gunnar, Gernoz, and Gilzer. Irung
(Vilkin., 15) is also king of Niflungaland, and has the sons Hogne,
Gunnar, Gudzorm, Gernoz, and Gisler. As Gjuke also is a Niflung, and has
the sons Hogne, Gunnar, and Guthorm, there can be no doubt that Gjuke,
Gibche, Dankrat, Irung, and Aldrian are synonyms, designating one and the
same person, namely, Volundarkvida's Slagfin, the Ide of the mythology.
Nibelunge Noth, too, speaks of Aldrian as the father of Hagen (Hogne).
Aldrian's wife is called Oda, Gibich's "Frau Uote," Dankrat's "Frau Ute."
The Norse form for Dankrat (Tancred) is _thakkrádr_, Thakkrad. This
name appears a single time in the Norse records, and then in connection
with Volund and Nidhad. In Volundarkvida (39) Thakkrad is mentioned as
Nidhad's chief servant, who still remains in his service when Volund,
his revenge accomplished, flies in an eagle's guise away from his
prison. That this servant bears a name that belongs to Slagfin-Gjuke,
Volund's brother, cannot be an accident. We must compare an account
in Vilkinasaga, according to which Volund's other brother Egil was in
Nidhad's service when Volund flew away. It follows that the heroic saga
made not only Volund, but also Slagfin and Egil, fall into Nidhad's
hands. Both in Volundarkvida itself and in its prose introduction we
read that when the home-sick swan-maids had left the Wolfdales, Egil and
Slagfin betook themselves thence, Egil going to the east to look for his
swan-maid Olrun, Slagfin going south to find his Svanhvit (Volundarkvida,
4), and that Nidhad thereupon learned--the song does not say how--that
Volund was alone in the Wolfdales (Volundarkvida, 6). The assumption
here lies near at hand, that Nidhad found it out from the fact that
Slagfin and Egil, though going away in different directions, fell into
his power while they were looking for their beloved. Whether this feature
belonged to the myth or not cannot be determined. At all events it is
remarkable that we refind in Volundarkvida the Gjuke name Thakkrad, as in
Vilkinasaga we find Volund's brother Egil in Nidhad's environment.
The name Irung, Iring, as a synonym of Gjuke, is of more importance
from a mythological point of view. Widukind of Corvei (about the year
950) tells us in ch. 13 of his Saxon Chronicle that "the Milky Way is
designated by Iring's name even to this day." Just previously he has
mentioned a Saxon warrior by this name, whom he believes to have been
the cause of this appellation (_ ... Iringi nomine, quem ita vocitant,
lacteus cœli circulus sit vocatus_; and in the Aursberg Chronicle,
according to J. Grimm, _... lacteus cæli circulus Iringis, nomine
Iringesstraza sit vocatus_). According to Anglo-Saxon glossaries, the
Milky Way is called _Iringes uueg_. With this we should compare the
statements made above, that the Milky Way among the Teutonic population
of England was called the way of the Watlings (that is, the descendants
of Vate, _i.e._, Ivalde). Both the statements harmonize. In the one it is
the descendants of Ivalde in general, in the other it is Slagfin-Iring
whose name is connected with the Milky Way. Thus Slagfin, like Volund
and Orvandel-Egil, was a star-hero. In "Klage" it is said of Iring and
two other heroes, in whose company he appears in two other poems, that
they committed grave mistakes and were declared banished, and that they,
in spite of efforts at reconciliation, remained under the penalty to the
end of their lives. Biterolf says that they were exiles and threatened
by their foes. Here we have a reverberation of the myth concerning the
conflict between the gods and the Ivalde sons, of Frey's unsuccessful
effort to reconcile the enemies, and of their flight to the extreme north
of the earth. In the German poems they take flight to Attila.
The Gjuke synonym Aldrian is a name formed in analogy with Albrian,
which is a variation of Elberich. In analogy herewith Aldrian should be
a variation of Elderich, Helderich. In Galfrid of Monmouth's British
History there is a Saxon saga-hero Cheldricus, who, in alliance with a
Saxon chief Baldulf, fights with King Artus' general Cador, and is slain
by him. How far the name-forms Aldrian-Elderich have any connection
with the Latinised Cheldricus I think best to leave undetermined; but
there are other reasons which, independently of a real or apparent
name-identity, indicate that this Cheldricus is the same person as
Aldrian-Gjuke. Bugge has already pointed out that Baldrian corresponds
to Balder, Cador to _Hödr_; that Galfrid's account has points of contact
with Saxo's about the war between Balder and Hoder, and that Galfrid's
Cheldricus corresponds to Saxo's King Gelderus, _Geldr_, who fights with
Hoder and falls in conflict with him.
That which at once strikes us in Saxo's account of Gelderus (see No. 101)
is that he takes arms against Hotherus, when he learns that the latter
has got possession of the sword of victory and the wealth-producing
ring--treasures that were smithied by Volund, and in that sense belonged
to the Niblung hoard. That Saxo in this manner gave a reason for the
appearance of Gelderus can only be explained by the fact that Gelderus
had been in some way connected with the Niblung hoard, and looked upon
himself as more entitled to it than Hotherus. This right could hardly be
based on any other reason than the fact that Gelderus was a Niflung, a
kinsman of the maker and owner of the treasures. In the Vilkinasaga the
keeper and protector of the Niblung hoard, the one who has the key to
the rocky chambers where the hoard is kept bears the very name Aldrian,
consequently the very surname of Slagfin-Gjuke, Volund's and Egil's
brother. This of itself indicates that Gelderus is Slagfin-Aldrian.
121.
SLAGFIN'S IDENTITY WITH HJUKE. HIS APPEARANCE IN THE MOON-MYTH
AND IN THE BALDER-MYTH. BIL'S IDENTITY WITH IDUN.
From Slagfin-Gelderus' part in the war between the two divine brothers
Balder and Hoder, as described both by Saxo and by Galfrid, we must draw
the conclusion that he is a mythic person historified, and one who had
taken an important part in the Balder-myth as Balder's friend, and also
as Hoder's though he bore weapons against the latter. According to Saxo,
Hoder honours the dust of his slain opponent Gelderus in a manner which
indicates a previous friendly relation between them. He first gives
Gelderus a most splendid funeral (_pulcherrimum funeris obsequium_), then
he builds a magnificent grave-mound for him, and decorates it with tokens
of his respect (_veneratio_) for the dead one.
The position of Slagfin-Gelderus to the two contending divine brothers,
his brothership-in-arms with Balder, the respect and devotion he receives
from his opponent Hoder, can only be explained by the fact that he had
very intimate relations with the two brothers and with the mythical
persons who play a part in the Balder-myth. According to Saxo, Hoder
was fostered by _Gevarr_, the moon-god, Nanna's father. As Nanna's
foster-brother, he falls in love with her who becomes the wife of his
brother, Balder. Now the mythology actually mentions an individual who
was adopted by the moon-god, and accordingly was Hoder's foster-brother,
but does not in fact belong to the number of the real gods. This
foster-son inherits in the old Norse records one of the names with which
the moon-god is designated in the Anglo-Saxon poems--that is, _Hoce_, a
name identical with the Norse _Hjúke_. Hnaf (_Hnæfr_, _Næfr_, Nanna's
father) is also, as already shown, called Hoce in the Beowulf poem (see
Nos. 90, 91). From the story about Bil and Hjuke, belonging to the myth
about the mead and preserved in the Younger Edda, we know that the
moon-god took these children to himself, when they were to carry to their
father _Vidfinnr_, the precious burden which they had dipped out of the
mead-fountain, Byrger (see Nos. 90, 91).
That this taking up was equivalent to an adoption of these children by
the moon-god is manifest from the position Bil afterwards got in the
circle of gods. She becomes an asynje (Younger Edda, i. 118, 556) and
distributes the Teutonic mythological _soma_, the creative sap of nature
and inspiration, the same liquid as she carried when she was taken up
by the moon-god. The skalds of earth pray to her (_ef unna itr vildi
Bil skáldi!_) and Asgard's skald-god, Brage, refreshes himself with her
in Gevarr-Nokver's silver-ship (see Sonatorrek; cp. Nos. 90, 91). Odin
came to her every day and got a drink from the mead of the moon-ship,
when the latter was sinking toward the horizon in the west. The ship
is in Grimnersmal called _Sökkvabekkr_, "the setting or sinking ship,"
in which Odin and Saga "daily drink from golden goblets," while "cool
billows in soughing sound flow over" the place where they sit. The cool
billows that roar over Sokvabek are the waves of the atmospheric sea,
in which Nokver's ship sails, and they are the waves of the ocean when
the silver-ship sinks into the sea. The epithet _Saga_ is used in the
same manner as _Bil_, and it probably has the same reason for its origin
as that which led the skalds to call the bucket which Bil and Hjuke
carried _Sægr_. Bil, again, is merely a synonym of Idun. In Haustlaung,
Idun is called _Byrgis ár-Gefn_, "Byrger's harvest-giving dis;" Thjasse
is called _Byrgis ár-Gefnar bjarga-Tyr_, "Byrger's harvest-giving dis,
mountain-Tyr." Idun is thus named partly after the fountain from which
Bil and Hjuke fetched the mead, partly after the bucket in which it was
carried.
That Hjuke, like Bil-Idun, was regarded by the moon-god as a
foster-child, should not be doubted, the less so as we have already
seen that he, in the Norse sources, bears his foster-father's name. As
an adopted son of the moon-god, he is a foster-brother of Hoder and
Nanna. Hjuke must therefore have occupied a position in the mythology
similar to that in which we find Gelderus as a brother-in-arms of Nanna's
husband, and as one who was held in friendship even by his opponent,
Hoder. As a brother of the Ivalde daughter, Bil-Idun, he too must be an
Ivalde son, and consequently one of the three brothers, either Slagfin,
or Orvandel-Egil, or Volund. The mythic context does not permit his
identification with Volund or Egil. Consequently he must be Slagfin. That
Gelderus is Slagfin has already been shown.
This also explains how, in Christian times, when the myths were told as
history, the Niflungs-Gjukungs were said to be descended from _Næfr_,
_Nefir_, (_Nefir er Niflunger eru frá komnir_--Younger Edda, i. 520.) It
is connected with the fact that Slagfin, like his brothers, is a Niflung
(see No. 118) and an adopted son of the moon-god, whose name he bore.
Bil's and Hjuke's father is called _Vidfinnr_. We have already seen
that Slagfin's and his brothers' father, Ivalde, is called _Finnr_,
_Finnakonungr_ (Introduction to Volundarkvida), and that he is identical
with _Sumbl Finnakonungr, and Finnálfr_. In fact the name _Finnr_
never occurs in the mythic records, either alone or in compounds or in
paraphrases, except where it alludes to Ivalde or his son, Slagfin. Thus,
for instance, the byrnie, _Finnzleif_, in Ynglingasaga, is borne by a
historified mythic person, by whose name Saxo called a foster-son of
Gevarr, the moon-god. The reason why Ivalde got the name _Finnr_ shall be
given below (see No. 123). And as Ivalde (_Sumbl Finnakonungr_--Olvalde)
plays an important part in the mead-myth, and as the same is true of
Vidfin, who is robbed of Byrger's liquid, then there is every reason for
the conclusion that Vidfin's, Hjuke's, and Bil-Idun's father is identical
with _Finnakonungr_, the father of Slagfin and of his sister.
Gjuke and Hjuke are therefore names borne by one and the same person--by
Slagfin, the Niflung, who is the progenitor of the Gjukungs. They also
look like analogous formations from different roots.
This also gives us the explanation of the name of the Asgard bridge,
_Bilröst_, "Bil's way." The Milky Way is Bil-Idun's way, just as it is
her brother Hjuke's; for we have already seen that the Milky Way is
called Irung's way, and that Irung is a synonym of Slagfin-Gjuke. Bil
travelled the shining way when she was taken up to Asgard as an asynje.
Slagfin travelled it as Balder's and Hoder's foster-brother. If we now
add that the same way was travelled by Svipdag when he sought and found
Freyja in Asgard, and by Thjasse-Volund's daughter, Skade, when she
demanded from the gods a ransom for the slaying of her father, then we
find here no less than four descendants of Ivalde who have travelled
over the Milky Way to Asgard; and as Volund's father among his numerous
names also bore that of Vate, Vade (see Vilkinasaga), then this explains
how the Milky Way came to be called Watling Street in the Old English
literature.[15]
In the mythology there was a circle of a few individuals who were
celebrated players on stringed instruments. They are Balder, Hoder,
Slagfin, and Brage. In the heroic poems the group is increased with
Slagfin-Gjuke's son, Gunnar, and with Hjarrandi, the Horund of the
German poem "Gudrun," to whom I shall recur in my treatise on the
heroic sagas. Balder's playing is remembered by Galfrid of Monmouth.
Hoder's is mentioned in Saxo, and perhaps also in the Edda's _Hadarlag_,
a special kind of metre or manner of singing. Slagfin's quality as a
musician is apparent from his name, and is inherited by his son, Gunnar.
Hjarrandi-Horund appears in the Gudrun epic by the side of Vate (Ivalde),
and there is reason for identifying him with Gevarr himself. All these
names and persons are connected with the myth concerning the _soma_
preserved in the moon. While the first drink of the liquid of inspiration
and of creative force is handed to Odin by Mimer, we afterwards find
a supply of the liquid preserved by the moon-god; and those mythic
persons who are connected with him are the very ones who appear as the
great harp-players. Balder is the son-in-law of the moon-god, Hoder and
Slagfin are his foster-sons, Gunnar is Slagfin's son, Brage becomes the
husband of Bil-Idun, and Hjarrandi is no doubt the moon-god himself, who
sings so that the birds in the woods, the beasts on the ground, and the
fishes in the sea listen and are charmed ("Gudrun," 1415-1418, 1523-1525,
1555-1558).
Both in Saxo and in Galfrid Hoder meets Slagfin with the bow in his
conflict with him (Cheldricus in Galfrid; Gelderus in Saxo). The bow
plays a chief part in the relation between the gods and the sons of
Ivalde. Hoder also met Egil in conflict with the bow (see No. 112),
and was then defeated, but Egil's noble-mindedness forbade his harming
Slagfin's foster-brother. Hoder, as an archer, gets satisfaction for
the defeat in Saxo, when with his favourite weapon he conquers Egil's
brother, Slagfin (Gelderus), who also is an archer. And finally, with
an arrow treacherously laid on Hoder's bow, Volund, in demoniac thirst
for revenge and at Loke's instigation, takes the life of Balder, Hoder's
brother.
[15] Thus Vigfusson's opinion that the Asgard bridge is identical
with the Milky Way is correct. That the rainbow should be regarded as
the Bilrost with its bridge-heads is an invention by the author of
Gylfaginning.
122.
REVIEW OF THE SYNONYMS OF THE SONS OF IVALDE.
The names by which Slagfin is found in our records are accordingly
_Idi_, _Gjúki_, Dankrat (_thakkrádr_), Irung, Aldrian, Cheldricus,
Gelderus, _Hjúki_. We have yet to mention one more, Hengest (_Hengist_),
to which I shall return below. Of these names, Gelderus (_Geldr_),
Cheldricus, and Aldrian form a group by themselves, and they are possibly
simply variations of the same word. The meaning of the name Hengest,
"a gelding," is connected with the same group, and particularly to
the variation _Geldr_. The most important Slagfin epithets, from a
mythological standpoint, are Ide, Gjuke, Hjuke, and Irung.
The names of Volund (Wieland, Veland) in the various records are, as we
have seen, _thjazi_, Ajo (Aggo), Anund (_Önundr_), _Rögnir_, _Brunni_,
_Ásólfr_, _Vargr_, _Fjallgyldir_, _Hlébardr_, _Byrr_, _Gustr_, _Loptr_,
Haquinus (Aki, Ecke). Of these names and epithets _Ásólfr_, _Vargr_,
_Fjallgyldir_, and _Hlébardr_ form a group by themselves, and refer to
his animal-symbol, the wolf. The other brothers also have animal-symbols.
Egil is symbolised as a wild boar and a bear by the names _Aurnir_,
_Ebur_, _Isólfr_. Slagfin is symbolised as a horse in Hengest, and also
in the paraphrase _öndr-Jálkr_, "the gelding of the skees." Like his
brothers, he is a runner on skees. The Volund epithet, _Brunni_, also
alludes to skee-running. _Rögnir_ and _Regin_ are names of Volund and his
brothers in their capacity of artists. The names Ajo, Anund, and Thjasse
(the sparkling) may have their origin in ancient Aryan times.
The names of the third brother, Egil, are _Gangr_, _Örvandill_, _Egill_,
Agelmund, Eigel, Euglin, _Hödbroddr_, Toko, and Avo, the archer; Ebur
(Ibor, Wild-Ebur, Villefer, Ebbo), _Aurnir Isólfr_. Of these names
_Egill_, Agelmund, Egil, and Euglin form a separate group; _Örvandill_,
_Hödbroddr_, Toko, and Avo sagittarius form another group, referring to
his fame as an archer; Ebur, Aurnir, and Isolfr a third, referring to his
animal-symbols.
123.
IVALDE.
In the course taken by our investigation we have already met with and
pointed out several names and epithets by which Ivalde occurs in the
mythology and in the heroic poems. Such are _Geirvandill_, with the
variation _Geirvadill_; _Vadi_ (Vate), _Allvaldi_, _Audvaldi_, _Olvaldi_,
_Svigdir_ (_Svegdir_), _Ölmódr_, _Sumbl Finnakonungr_ (Sumblus Phinnorum
rex), _Finnakonungr_, _Vidfinnr_, _Finnálfr_, _Fin Folcvalding_,
_Hlaudverr_.
Of these names _Ívaldi_, _Allvaldi_, _Audvaldi_, and _Ölvaldi_ form
a group by themselves, inasmuch as they all have the part, _valdi_,
_valdr_, "mighty," an epithet preserved from the mythology in those
heroic sagas which have treated distinct portions of the Ivalde-myth,
where the hero reappears as Walther, Valthari, Valdere, Valtarius
Manufortis.
Another group is formed by _Ölvaldi_, _Ölmodr_, _Svidir_, _Sumbl
Finnakonungr_. _Svigdir_ means, as already shown, "the great drinker,"
and _Sumbl_ is a synonym of "ale," "mead." All the names in this group
refer to the quality of their bearer as a person belonging to the myth
about the mead.
The name _Sumbl Finnakonungr_ is at the same time connected with a
third group of names--_Finnakonungr_, _Finnr_, _Vidfinnr_, _Finnálfr_,
_Fin Folcvalding_. With this group the epithets _Vadi_ and _Vadill_ (in
_Geirvadill_) have a real mythological connection, which shall be pointed
out below.
Finally, _Geirvadill_ is connected with the epithet _Geirvandill_ from
the fact that both belong to Ivalde on account of his place in the
weapon-myth.