The Ancient Lay of the Walsings
Excerpt from the Old Norse Poetic Edda
The exact title and division of this text, found in the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, is somewhat unclear. Generally all text, prose and poetry, from the chapter Frá Vǫlsungum ‘From the Walsings’ is edited as a single poem with the modern title Helgakviða Hundingsbana II ‘the Second Lay of Hallow Hundingsbane’. However stanza 14 is introduced by the text: svá sem segir í Vǫlsunga kviðu inni fornu ‘as it says in the Ancient Lay of the Walsings’, and that is the name I’m using for this post.
What is found below is roughly the second half of the chapter in my own literal translation. It is hard to translate the original word by word while still adhering to a semblance of modern English style. When faced with a choice between awkwardness and changing the wording of the original, I have generally chosen the former.
I have Anglicised the names. Hallow is ON Hęlgi, Syerun is Sigrún.
English translation
Hallow got Syerun and they had sons; Hallow was not old. Day, son of Hain, made a bloot to Weden for the sake of avenging his father. Weden lent Day his spear. Day found Hallow, his brother-in-law, at a place called Fetterlund; he ran Hallow through with the spear. There Hallow fell, but Day rode to the fells and told Syerun the news:
“Regretful am I, O sister, to grieve thee by saying— for, forced, must I make my kinswoman weep: this morning fell in Fetterlund that prince who was the best in the world, and on the throats of the hildings stood.”
[Syerun answered:]
“Thee should all oaths bite, which thou to Hallow hast sworn by the light water of Lafter, and by the drizzle-cold stone of Ithe.
May the ship not glide, which glides beneath thee, though it has a wished-for gust behind it! May the sea not run, which runs beneath thee, though from thy enemies thou must escape! May the sword not bite for thee, which thou brandishest, unless it sing over thy very head!
Then were on thee Hallow’s death avenged,
if thou wert a wolf in the woods outside,
deprived of wealth and all pleasure;
hadst no food, save thou plundered carrion!“Day quoth:
“Mad art thou, sister, and out of wits, when onto thy brother thou bidst a cruel fate. Alone does Weden cause all the evil, for he bore strife-runes among kin!
For thee thy brother offers red bighs, all Wendelswigh and the Wighdales. Have half the realm as recompense for thy injury, O bigh-adorned bride—and thy sons also!
[Syerun answered:]
“I will not sit so happy in the Sevefells, not in morn nor night, that I should be content with life, unless the retinue of the man of praise were adorned with light; [and] beneath the ruler ran Wighblaw hither, wont to the golden bit—[and] I welcomed the prince!
So would Hallow have terrified his enemies all, and their kinsmen, like from a wolf were madly running goats down a fell, full of fright.
So did Hallow surpass the princes like a nobly shaped ash the thorn, or the deer-calf, dew-besprinkled, who fares higher than all beasts, and its horns gleam against heaven itself.”
A barrow was made for Hallow. And when he came to Walhall, then Weden asked him to rule everything together with himself. Hallow quoth:
“Thou shalt, O Hunding, for every man make a foot-bath and kindle the fire, bind the hounds, feed the horses, give broth to the swine—before thou mightst go to sleep!”
Syerun’s maid-servant walked by Hallow’s barrow by eventide, and saw that Hallow rode to the barrow with many men. The maid-servant quoth:
“Either these are only tricks, as I seem to see— or the Rakes of the Reins?—dead men riding, as ye drive on your steeds by spear-points— or are the princes granted leave to go home?”
[One of them spoke:]
“It’s not only tricks, as thou seemest to see— nor the Ripping of the Age, although thou behold us; although we drive on our steeds by spear-points the princes are not granted leave to go home!”
The maid-servant walked home and said to Syerun:
“Go outside, O Syerun from the Sevefells, if thou longest to meet the leader of the troop; the barrow is unlocked; Hallow is come! The ruler of bloody deep wounds hast bidden thee that thou the sore drops shouldst soothe.”
Syerun walked toward the barrow to Hallow, and quoth:
“Now do I so rejoice at our meeting, like the ravenous hawks of Weden [RAVENS] when corpses they know, warm venison, or, gleaming with dew, the day’s brow [DAWN] they see.
Sooner will I kiss the unliving king, than thou the bloody byrnie mightst cast away! Thy hair is, O Hallow, with hoarfrost swollen; the prince is all with corpse-dew [BLOOD] whipped; the hands drizzle-cold on Hain’s in-law. How shall I for thee, O noble, remedy that?”
“Thou alone causest, Syerun from the Sevefells, that Hallow be by harm-dew whipped: thou weepest—O gold-covered—bitter tears— O sun-bright southern girl—before thou go to sleep. Each one falls bloody on the prince’s chest, drizzle-cold, stifled, pressed forth by grief.
Well shall we drink expensive draughts, although we’ve lost both love and land; no one shall sing songs of regret, although he behold the wounds on my chest. Now are the brides shut in the barrow, the praised one’s dises, next to us [me], passed-on.”
Syerun made a bed in the barrow:
“Here have made I for thee, Hallow, a place of rest, all regretless, kinsman of the Wolvings! I will in thy arms, O marshal, fall asleep, like I would with the living man of praise.”
[Hallow spoke:]
“Now, I say, there is naught more missing neither late nor soon from the Sevefells, when thou dost sleep on the unliving arm, O white daughter of Hain—in the barrow, and thou art alive!—born of the king.”
[The night passes. Dawn breaks, and Hallow speaks.]
“It’s time for me to ride the reddening roads, to let my pale steed tread the flight-path [SKY/HEAVEN]. I shall go west of the wind-helm’s bridges [SKY/HEAVEN > CLOUDS?] before Salgovner awakens the victorious people.”
Hallow and his men rode on their way, and the women journeyed home to the farm. The next evening Syerun let her maid-servant keep watch on the barrow. And at sunset, when Syerun came to the barrow, she quoth:
“Come had he now, if he to come he had thought, Syemund’s son, from Weden’s halls; the hopes, I say, of the prince’s coming fade, when on ashen branches the eagles sit, and all mankind drifts off to the courts of dreams.
Be not so mad that thou journey alone, O lady of the Shieldings, to the ghost-houses! Mightier at night do all become dead fiends, O maiden, than during days bright!”
Syerun became short-lived for pain and grief. It was a belief in ancient times that men were reborn, but that is now called an old wives’ tale. Of Hallow and Syerun it is said that they were reborn. He was then called Hallow Hardingskate and she Cheer Halfdanesdaughter, as is told in the Leeds of Cheer, and she was a walkirrie.