Introduction
The dramatic Old Norse narrative poem Vǫlundarkviða (“Lay of Wayland”) is only found in the 13th century Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, but may by its language and style be dated to the 10th century. The basic story it contains is even older, and is found across the Germanic world.
The shared narrative is as follows: the masterful smith Wayland (ON Vǫlundr, OE Welund) is hamstrung and imprisoned without cause by the tyrannical petty king Nithad (ON Níðuðr, OE Níþhad), where he is forced to make beautiful jewels and weapons. He gets his revenge by murdering the king’s two sons and raping his daughter, Beadhild (ON Bǫðvildr, OE Beaduhild). Finally he flies away in a self-made flight suit, sometimes with the help of his brother Eyel (ON Ęgill, OE Ægili).
Parts of this legend seem very old. The story clearly resembles that of the legendary Greek craftsman Daidalos, who was imprisoned in the labyrinth at Crete which he himself had made, but made his escape through an ingenious flight suit.
Wayland’s name is found in older Germanic epic poetry where it is associated with ancient hierlooms of excellent craftmanship. So Beowulf 455, where the chestplate of the eponymous hero is said to be “the work of Wayland” (OE Wélandes ge·weorc).
The earliest secure depiction of the Wayland-story is found on the Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket from the early 8th century, which contains numerous illustrations of various myths and legends, both Germanic and Classical. On the front panel we see Wayland standing over a decapitated child’s corpse, while handing a cup to a female figure, probably Beadhild. To his right a male figure strangles birds, presumably for the flight-suit. It is very notable that the Wayland-story takes up the same size as the other legend on the front panel—the Adoration of the Magi.
Apart from the Vǫlundarkviða we have two written versions of the story.
The first is found in the lament Deor from the 10th century Exeter Book, which I have recently translated. There the trials of Wayland and Beadhild are compared with the poet’s own. “That passed over, so may this.”
The second is found in the 14th century Norse Þiðreks saga, which instead of relying on native tradition is an unmistakable translation based on Low German romances.
The core elements (Wayland being hamstrung and imprisoned by Nithad; his revenge in slaying the king’s sons and sleeping with his daughter) are present in both versions, but the Þiðreks saga tastelessly bowdlerizes it. The most notable omission is the person of Beadhild. In both Deor and the Vǫlundarkviða she fills an important role, standing as the innocent victim of her father’s cruelty and the immovable half-daemonic force that is Wayland. This psychological complexity is entirely absent from the Low German version; Wayland instead makes an on-the-nose sex joke1 and peacefully seduces the unnamed “king’s daughter”. Nor is king Nithad deprived of sons; he now has a third.
But in the more archaic Vǫlundarkviða we are not dealing with tasteless mediæval chivalric romance, nor with a crude narrative of violent revenge. The poet emphasizes the figure of Beadhild, with whom the audience is clearly meant to sympathize. We know from the other versions that her grief passed over, that she eventually gave birth to a famous hero—but that is not within the scope of our poet’s vision. Instead he gives her the final say, and lets her words hang in the air.
Apart from the inherited themes, the poet takes some liberties of his own. Most notably he weaves together the story of Wayland with the swan maiden motif which is not found in our other sources. He also sets the place of the events in Sweden, which for reasons of history is unlikely to have been their original place, but has a function since the Swedes were seen as a barbaric and superstitious people by their Norse cousins. One may note that the Þiðreks saga instead has it take place on Jutland.
I hope that the reader will excuse the flaws in the diction or flow of the English. I have tried to translate as literally as possible, keeping the style of the original even in such things as word order, but it must be admitted that this approach sometimes yields a shaky English.
The poem is at present somewhat difficult to follow. It transitions between scenes without indications, and one rather suspects that it was originally acted out in some way. To aid the reader I have therefore at certain points supplied short “stage directions”. These are italicized and placed within parentheses.
From Wayland
P1 Nithad was the name of a king in Sweden. He had two sons and one daughter; she was called Beadhild. There were three brothers; the sons of a king of the Finns2. One was called Slayfinn, the other Eyel, the third Wayland. They travelled on skis and hunted wild beasts. They came into the Wolfdales3 and made themselves houses there. There is a water there, called Wolfsea. Early in the morning they found on its shore three women who span linen. By them were their swan-skins4; those were Walkirries. Two of them were the daughters of king Ladwigh: Ladguth Swanwhite and Harware Elwight; the third was Alerune, daughter of Caser of Walland5. The brothers took the women to their halls with them. Eyel got Alerune, and Slayfinn Swanwhite, and Wayland Elwight. The couples stayed for seven winters; then the women left to attend battles, and did not return. Then Eyel left on skis to look for Alerune and Slayfinn looked for Swanwhite—but Wayland stayed in the Wolfdales. He was the most skilled craftsman as men know of in the ancient saws. King Nithad had him captured, as it is sung about here:
The Lay of Wayland
1 Maidens flew from the south through Mirkwood
—young elwights6—to fulfill orlay7.
They on the lake-shore set down to rest;
the southern ladies span costly linen.
2 One of them began—the fair maiden of men8—
to hold Eyel in her bright bosom.
Second was Swanwhite; her swan-feathers rustled,
[…]
But the third of those sisters
warded the white throat of Wayland.
3 They stayed then for seven winters after that,
and all the eighth they yearned,
and the ninth did need divorce them.
The maidens longed for the Mirky Wood9:
the young elwights, to fulfill orlay.
4 Came there from the hunt the stormy-eyed shooter:
Wayland passing over a long way.
Slayfinn and Eyel found the halls deserted;
they walked in and out and looked around.
5 East skied Eyel for Alerune,
and south Slayfinn for Swanwhite—
and alone Wayland stayed in the Wolfdales.
6 He struck red gold by fastened gem,
he enclosed all the serpent-torcs10 well;
so he awaited his bright wife,
if to him she might come.
7 It learns Nithad, Lord of the Nears11,
that alone Wayland stayed in the Wolfdales.
At night journeyed warriors, nailed were their byrnies;
their shields gleamed by the waning moon.
8 They stepped off the saddles by the hall’s gables;
went thence inside the endlong hall;
saw they on a bast-rope torcs drawn up:
seven hundred in all, which that man owned.
9 And they took them off, and they slid them (back) on;
save for one which off they slid.—
Came there from the hunt the stormy-eyed shooter:
Wayland passing over a long way.
10 Went he the brown she-bear’s flesh to roast;
at dawn burned the twigs of all-dry pine—
the wind-dry wood—before Wayland.
11 Sat he on the bear-pelt, torcs he counted—
the prince of elves12 was missing one!
Thought he that Ladwigh’s daughter might have it,
that the young ellwight might be come back.
12 Sat he so long that asleep he fell,
and he awoke, powerless!—
He knew on his hands heavy restraints,
and on his feet were fetters tightened.
(Wayland spoke:)
13 “Who are the princes that have laid on
the bast-cordage, and bound me?”
14 Now called Nithad, Lord of the Nears:
“Where didst thou get, O Wayland, overseer of elves,
our silver in the Wolfdales?
No gold was there on Grane’s path;
far I’ve thought our land from the fells of the Rhine.”
(Wayland answered:)
15 “I recall, that we owned greater wealth,
when we a whole household were at home:
Ladguth and Harware were born to Ladwye;
known was Alerune, Caser’s daughter.”
16 Outside stood the cunning wife of Nithad,
she went inside the endlong hall,
stood on the floor, steered her voice:
“He is not gentle now, who comes from the wood.”
P2 King Nithad gave his daughter Beadhild the ring which he took from the bast-rope in Wayland’s hall, but he himself carried the sword which Wayland had owned. And the queen quoth:
17 He bares his teeth when he is shown the sword,
and he recognises Beadhild’s torc;
alike are his eyes to the gleaming snake’s!—
Slice ye from him the might of his sinews,
and set him thenceforth on Seastead!”
P3 So was done, that the sinews in his houghs were cut, and he was placed on a lonely islet lying there by the shore, which was called Seastead. There he smithed for the king every kind of jewel. No man dared journey to him save the king alone. Wayland quoth:
18 “I see the sword on Nithad’s belt,
which I sharpened as most handily I could,
and I hardened as most pleasingly seemed.—
That gleaming blade is ever further from me carried;
I see it not for Wayland to the smithy carried!
19 Now does Beadhild bear my bride’s
—I await no recompense for that—red torcs.”
20 He sat—he never slept—and struck the hammer;
he very boldly planned wiles for Nithad.—
Two young ones drifted to see costly things:
Nithad’s sons, to Seastead.
21 Came they to the chest, demanded the keys;
open was the evil when inside they looked.
A multitude was there of harms, which to the lads seemed
like were it red gold and jewels.
(Wayland quoth:)
22 “Come alone ye two, come another day;
to you I declare this gold to be given.
Tell no maidens, nor the people of the hall
—no man!—that ye met me.”
23 Early called one youth to another,
brother to brother: “Let us go see the torcs!”
Came they to the chest, demanded the keys;
open was the evil when inside they looked.
24 He sliced off the heads of those bear-cubs13,
and under the fetter’s fen14 their feet he laid;
but the bowls under their curly locks
he coated with silver and gave to Nithad.
25 But from the eyes, earkenstones15
he sent to the cunning wife of Nithad;
but from the teeth of the two lads
he struck breast-brooches, sent to Beadhild.
(Beadhild has broken her ring (see P2, 17 above) and fearing her father’s anger comes to Wayland in secret.)
26 Then Beadhild began to praise the ring,
[…] which she had broken,
“I dare not tell, save to thee alone!”
(Wayland quoth:)
27 “I will so mend the breach in the gold,
that to thy father it fairer seems,
and to thy mother much better,
and to thyself of the very same rank.”
28 He overcame her with beer—for he knew better—
so that she in the seat asleep did fall.
“Now have I avenged my injuries—
all but one16—on the insidious ones.”
(Wayland takes to flight using his flight-suit.)
29 “Well I”, quoth Wayland, “fall on my paddles;
those which Nithad’s men bereaved me of!”
Laughing Wayland threw himself in the air;
weeping Beadhild went from the island,
grieved the lover’s flight, and the father’s fury.
30 Outside stands the cunning wife of Nithad,
and she went inside the endlong hall—
but he in the courtyard set down to rest.
“Art thou awake, O Nithad, Lord of the Nears?”
(Nithad quoth:)
31 “I am always awake, powerless17;
I sleep least of all since the death of my sons.
My head turns cold—cold are thy counsels!18—
I wish now but this: to speak with Wayland!”
(The king sees Wayland aloft, and shouts to him.)
32 “Tell me this, O Wayland, overseer of elves:
what became of my healthy bear-cubs?”
(Wayland answers:)
33 “All oaths shalt thou first swear to me:
by the deck of the ship and the rim of the shield,
by the bough of the steed and the edge of the sword,19
that thou wilt not torment the wife of Wayland,
nor of my bride become the bane,
though a wife we might own whom ye might know;
or a babe might own within the hall.”
(Nithad swears. Wayland goes on:)
34 Go to the smithy, which thou didst make;
there wilt thou find bellows stained with blood.
I sliced off the heads of thy bear-cubs,
and under the fetter’s fen their feet I laid.
35 But the bowls under their curly locks
I coated with silver and gave to Nithad.
But from the eyes, earkenstones
I sent to the cunning wife of Nithad.
36 But from the teeth of those two,
I struck breast-brooches, sent to Beadhild.—
Now walks Beadhild swollen with child;
the only daughter of you both.”
37 “Thou couldst not have spoken a speech which might grieve me more;
nor could I worse have wished, O Wayland, to deny thee.—
There is no man so high that he from horse might take thee,
nor so strong that he might shoot thee from below,
there as thou jeerest against the clouds above!”
38 Laughing Wayland threw himself in the air;
and gloomy Nithad stayed behind.
(Nithad speaks:)
39 “Rise up, Thankred, my very best thrall;
bid Beadhild, the brow-white maiden,
to go, fair-clothed20, with her father to counsel.”
(Beadhild comes. Nithad speaks:)
40 “Is it true, Beadhild, as they told me:
stayed thou and Wayland together on the islet?”
(Beadhild answers:)
41 “’Tis true, Nithad, as he21 told thee:
I and Wayland stayed together on the islet,
for one heavy hour—it should never [have been]!
I by naught knew struggle against him;
I by naught could struggle against him.22”
Nú kemr konungsdóttir í smiðjuna ok biðr Velent bǿta hringinn, en hann segir, at fyrr vill hann annat smíða. Lę́tr Velent aptr hurðina sem fastast ok leggst hjá konungsdóttur. ‘Now the king’s daughter comes to the smithy and asks Wayland to mend the ring, but he says that he wants to “forge something else first”. He locks the door as tight he can and lies with the king’s daughter.’
i.e. the Saami, who were traditionally associated with dark magic and sorcery by the Norse. Compare how Wayland is associated with elves in sts. 11, 14, 32.
Attempts to locate these are certainly fruitless.
Or swan-suits; by wearing them they would turn into swans. The myth of the swan maiden is common in later European folklore and this may be one of the earliest instances.
ON Kjárr af Vallandi, i.e. ‘Caesar of Walland,’ who by this time had become a legendary figure. Val-land is the “land of the Wales”, which word originally refers to southern Christians of the Roman Empire, and was only later applied to the Celtic Britons. Cf. Widsith 76b–78: mid Creacum ic wæs ond mid Finnum · ond mid Câsere, / se þe wín-burga · ge·weald áhte, / wiolena ond wilna, · ond Wala ríces. ‘With Greeks I was and with Finns, and with Caser, / who over wine-towns held dominion, / over riches and handmaids and the realm of the Wales.’ — For this passage cf. Neidorf’s 2019 article Caesar’s wine and the Dating of Widsith (https://www.jstor.org/stable/26889860).
ON al-vitr, continuing *alja-wihtiz ‘strange creature, foreign wight’.
Their preordained destinies, viz. to preside over battles.
Presumably ‘the fair human maiden’; she was in human shape.
The border-forest between the Gots and the Huns, whose battles were long famous in Germanic legend.
Arm or neck-rings shaped like serpents.
ON njárar, probably the inhabitants of Nerke, a traditional province of Sweden. Cf. the Old Swedish adjective næriskr ‘Nerke-ish, of Nerke’. The name Nerke derives from nær-ríke, i.e. ‘the realm of the Nears’, which shows that this small province was once its own kingdom.
Elves were sometimes seen as nature spirits, so this is probably referring to Wayland’s half-daemonic or supernatural character.
Endearing term for a young boy.
ON fęn fjǫturs. Unclear what this is referring to.
Probably crystals.
The injuries are probably: (1) the theft of his sword, avenged by killing Nithad’s sons; (2) the theft of his rings, avenged by raping Beadhild; (3) the hamstringing, which Wayland now restores by his flight-suit.
ON vilja-lauss, maybe more literally ‘willpowerless’. This is the same word used of Wayland in st. 12.
A severe insult, for such counsels to their husbands were how women would influence worldly affairs.
The oaths are to be sworn on the arms of war, that is, on his honour as a warrior.
By referring to her as a white maiden and having her dress in white, Nithad wishes to convince himself of Beadhild’s purity, convince himself that Wayland lied to him.
Nithad uses the third person plural, sǫgðu ‘they said’, but Beadhild in her answer changes it to the singular sagði ‘he said’. She knows that there were no witnesses to the rape, and thus Wayland must have told her father.
ON ek vę́tr hǫ́num · vinna kunna’k
ek vę́tr hǫ́num · vinna mátta’k. — kunna refers moreso to mental ability, mega to physical. Together they form a picture of total helplessness.
Þidreks saga also has Wayland as Witige's father (that's why it's even in Þidreks saga) which is a very odd choice, 'though it somehow became canonical in later stories. IIRC Wayland and Beadhild are even married in that one. I read Þidreks saga hoping to find something interesting in it (considering the original characters were Goths) but it's very medieval, both fantastic and strangly sanitized of its more tragic elements. Hildebrand doesn't even kill his son!