1. Glasir’s wood: Snorri in the Skaldskaparmal quotes a half stanza to the effect that “Glasir stands with golden leaves before Othin’s hall,” and calls it “the fairest wood among gods and men.” The phrase as used here seems to mean little.
4. The bird’s demands would indicate that it is in reality one of the gods. Gold-horned cattle: cf. Thrymskvitha, 23. There are other references to gilding the horns of cattle, particularly for sacrificial purposes.
Prose. The annotator contradicts himself here, as he had already stated that Atli was on his way home.
5. Possibly the remains of two stanzas, or perhaps a line has been added. Sæmorn: this river is nowhere else mentioned.
Prose. Sigrlin and Alof, protected by the latter’s father, Franmar, have fled before the ravaging army of Sigrlin’s rejected suitor, Hrothmar. The beginning of a new section (II) is indicated in the manuscript only by the unusually large capital letter with which “Hjorvarth” begins. No name, etc.: this probably means that Helgi had always been so silent that he would answer to no name, with the result that he had none. Valkyries: cf. Voluspo, 31 and note. The annotator insists here and in the prose after stanza 9 that Svava was a Valkyrie, but there is nothing in the verse to prove it, or, indeed, to identify the Svava of the last section of the poem with the person who gave Helgi his name. In the Volsungasaga Sigmund himself names his son Helgi, and gives him a sword, following Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I.
6. Battle-tree: poetic phrase for “warrior.” Shining fields: the words in the manuscript may form a proper name, Rothulsvoll, having this meaning.
7. Gift: not only was it customary to give gifts with the naming of a child, but the practice frequently obtained when a permanent epithet was added to the name of an adult.
8. Sigarsholm (“Isle of Sigar”): a place not identified, but probably related to the Sigarsvoll where Helgi was slain (stanza 35).
9. The sword is carved with magic runes and with snakes. Fame: the original word is uncertain.
Prose. Eylimi: this name is another link with the Sigurth story, as it is likewise the name of the father of Sigurth’s mother, Hjordis.
10. With this stanza begins a new episode, that of Helgi’s victory over King Hrothmar, who had killed his mother’s father (cf. prose after stanza 5). It has been suggested, in consequence, that stanzas 10–11 may be a separate fragment. The verse tells nothing of the battle, merely giving Helgi’s reproaches to his father for having left Svafnir’s death and the burning of Svavaland unavenged.
Prose. The manuscript does not indicate any break, but the episode which forms the basis of the Hrimgertharmol (stanzas 12–30) clearly begins with the slaying of the giant Hati (“The Hateful”). Hatafjord: “Hati’s Fjord.” Hrimgerth: “Frost-Shrouded” (?).
13. Iron: the keels of Norse ships were sometimes fitted with iron “shoes” at bow and stern, but it is not certain that this practice much antedated the year 1000, and thus this line has raised some question as to the antiquity of this stanza, if not of the entire Hrimgertharmol, which may have been composed as late as the eleventh century.
15. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker. The pun on “Atli” and “atall” (meaning “ill”) is untranslatable.
17. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker.
18. From this point to the end the manuscript does not indicate the speakers. Ron: wife of the sea-god Ægir, who draws drowning men into the sea with her net. There is no other reference to the wounding of Hrimgerth.
19. Apparently both Hrimgerth and her mother, Hati’s wife, had sought to destroy Helgi’s ships, and had actually killed some of his companions, the sons of Hlothvarth, concerning whom nothing more is known. Many editors assume that a stanza containing a speech by Atli has been lost after stanza 19.
20. Apparently Hrimgerth has assumed the form of a mare.
22. Varin’s cove: the name of Varin appears twice in place names in Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I (stanzas 27 and 39). The sagas mention a mythical King Varin who lived at Skorustrond in Rogaland (Norway).
25. Of the giant Lothin (“The Shaggy”) and his home in Tholley (“Pine Island”) nothing is known. Cf. Skirnismol, 35.
26. Something is clearly wrong with this stanza, and the manuscript indicates line 6 as the beginning of a new one. Perhaps a line (between lines 4 and 5) has been lost, or perhaps the lines in parenthesis are interpolations. Hrimgerth here refers to Svava, or to the protectress with whom the annotator has identified her, as having saved Helgi and his ships from the vengeance of the giantesses. In the original line 1 includes Helgi’s name, which makes it metrically incorrect.
28. Again something is clearly wrong, and the last three lines look like interpolations, though some editors have tried to reconstruct two full stanzas. The passage suggests the identification of the Valkyries with the clouds.
29. Some editions give this speech to Helgi. Eastward: Atli and Helgi have held Hrimgerth in talk till sunrise, and the sun’s rays turn her into stone. But dwarfs rather than giants were the victims of sunlight; cf. Alvissmol, stanzas 16 and 35.
30. Most editions give this stanza to Atli. With this the Hrimgertharmol ends, and after the next prose passage the meter reverts to that of the earlier sections.
Prose. The manuscript does not indicate a new section of the poem. Eylimi: cf. note on prose after stanza 9. Valkyrie: here, as before, the annotator has apparently nothing but his own imagination on which to base his statement. Svava in the ensuing stanzas certainly does not behave like a Valkyrie. Norway: the annotator doubtless based this statement on the reference to Norway in line 2 of stanza 31. Yule-eve: the Yule feast, marking the new year, was a great event in the heathen North. It was a time of feasting and merrymaking, vows (“New Year’s resolutions”), ghosts and witches; the spirits had their greatest power on Yule-eve. The king’s toast: vows made at the passing of the king’s cup at the Yule feast were particularly sacred. Sacred boar: a boar consecrated to Freyr, an integral part of the Yule rites. Hethin’s vow, which is, of course, the vengeance of the troll-woman, is too sacred to be broken, but he immediately realizes the horror of his oath.
31. From Norway: Bugge uses this phrase as evidence that the poem was composed in one of the Icelandic settlements of the western islands, but as the annotator himself seems to have thought that Hethin came to Helgi by land (“on wild paths southward”), this argument does not appear to have much weight.
32. The second line is conjectural; a line has clearly been lost from this stanza, and various emendations have been suggested.
33. Perhaps this is the remnant of two stanzas, or perhaps two lines (probably the ones in parenthesis) have been interpolated. The isle: duels were commonly fought on islands, probably to guard against treacherous interference, whence the usual name for a duel was “isle-going.” A duel was generally fought three days after the challenge. Reckoning the lapse of time by nights instead of days was a common practice throughout the German and Scandinavian peoples.
Prose. Some editors place all or part of this prose passage after stanza 35. Following-spirits: the “fylgja” was a female guardian spirit whose appearance generally betokened death. The belief was common throughout the North, and has come down to recent times in Scottish and Irish folk-lore. Individuals and sometimes whole families had these following-spirits, but it was most unusual for a person to have more than one of them. Alf: son of the Hrothmar who killed Helgi’s grandfather, and who was in turn later killed by Helgi. Sigarsvoll (“Sigar’s Field”): cf. stanza 8 and note; the Sigar in question may be the man who appears as Helgi’s messenger in stanzas 36–39.
36. Sigar (“The Victorious”): cf. the foregoing note.
39. Frekastein (“Wolf-Crag”): the name appears several times in the Helgi lays applied to battlefields; cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 46 and 55, and II, 18 and 24. Need: i.e., Alf deserves no credit for the victory, which was due to the troll-woman’s magic.
41. One or two editors ascribe this stanza to Hethin.
43. A few editions make the extraordinary blunder of ascribing this speech to the dying Helgi. The point, of course, is that Hethin will satisfy Svava’s vow by becoming famous as the slayer of Alf. Rogheim (“Home of Battle”) and Rothulsfjoll (“Sun-Mountain”): nowhere else mentioned; Hethin means simply that he will not come back to Svava till he has won fame.
Prose. Regarding this extraordinary bit see the prose note at the end of Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II. Gering thinks the reborn Helgi Hjorvarthsson was Helgi Hundingsbane, while Svava, according to the annotator himself, became Sigrun. The point seems to be simply that there were so many Helgi stories current, and the hero died in so many irreconcilable ways, that tradition had to have him born over again, not once only but several times, to accommodate his many deaths, and to avoid splitting him up into several Helgis. Needless to say, the poems themselves know nothing of this rebirth, and we owe the suggestion entirely to the annotator, who probably got it from current tradition.
HELGAKVITHA HUNDINGSBANA I THE FIRST LAY OF HELGI HUNDINGSBANE INTRODUCTORY NOTE The general subject of the Helgi lays is considered in the introduction to Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, and it is needless here to repeat the statements there made. The first lay of Helgi Hundingsbane is unquestionably one of the latest of the Eddic poems, and was composed probably not earlier than the second quarter of the eleventh century. It presents several unusual characteristics. For one thing, it is among the few essentially narrative poems in the whole collection, telling a consecutive story in verse, and, except for the abusive dialogue between Sinfjotli and Gothmund, which clearly was based on another and older poem, it does so with relatively little use of dialogue. It is, in fact, a ballad, and in the main an exceedingly vigorous one. The annotator, who added his prose narrative notes so freely in the other Helgi poems, here found nothing to do. The available evidence indicates that narrative verse was a relatively late development in Old Norse poetry, and it is significant that most of the poems which consist chiefly, not of dialogue, but of narrative stanzas, such as the first Helgi Hundingsbane lay and the two Atli lays, can safely be dated, on the basis of other evidence, after the year 1000.
The first Helgi Hundingsbane lay is again differentiated from most of the Eddic poems by the character of its language. It is full of those verbal intricacies which were the delight of the Norse skalds, and which made Snorri’s dictionary of poetic phrases an absolute necessity. Many of these I have paraphrased in the translation; some I have simplified or wholly avoided. A single line will serve to indicate the character of this form of complex diction (stanza 56, line 4): “And the horse of the giantess | raven’s-food had.” This means simply that wolves (giantesses habitually rode on wolves) ate the bodies of the dead.
Except for its intricacies of diction, and the possible loss of a stanza here and there, the poem is comparatively simple. The story belongs in all its essentials to the Helgi tradition, with the Volsung cycle brought in only to the extent of making Helgi the son of Sigmund, and in the introduction of Sinfjotli, son of Sigmund and his sister Signy, in a passage which has little or nothing to do with the course of the narrative, and which looks like an expansion of a passage from some older poem, perhaps from the “old Volsung lay” to which the annotator of the second Helgi Hundingsbane lay refers (prose after stanza 12). There are many proper names, some of which betray the confusion caused by the blending of the two sets of traditions; for example, Helgi appears indiscriminately as an Ylfing (which presumably he was before the Volsung story became involved) and as a Volsung. Granmar and his sons are called Hniflungs (Nibelungen) in stanza 50, though they seem to have had no connection with this race. The place names have aroused much debate as to the localization of the action, but while some of them probably reflect actual places, there is so much geographical confusion, and such a profusion of names which are almost certainly mythical, that it is hard to believe that the poet had any definite locations in mind.
1. In olden days, | when eagles screamed, And holy streams | from heaven’s crags fell, Was Helgi then, | the hero-hearted, Borghild’s son, | in Bralund born.
2. ’Twas night in the dwelling, | and Norns there came, Who shaped the life | of the lofty one; They bade him most famed | of fighters all And best of princes | ever to be.
3. Mightily wove they | the web of fate, While Bralund’s towns | were trembling all; And there the golden | threads they wove, And in the moon’s hall | fast they made them.
4. East and west | the ends they hid, In the middle the hero | should have his land; And Neri’s kinswoman | northward cast A chain, and bade it | firm ever to be.
5. Once sorrow had | the Ylfings’ son, And grief the bride | who the loved one had borne. * * * * * * Quoth raven to raven, | on treetop resting, Seeking for food, | “There is something I know.
6. “In mail-coat stands | the son of Sigmund, A half-day old; | now day is here; His eyes flash sharp | as the heroes’ are, He is friend of the wolves; | full glad are we.”
7. The warrior throng | a ruler thought him, Good times, they said, | mankind should see; The king himself | from battle-press came, To give the prince | a leek full proud.
8. Helgi he named him, | and Hringstathir gave him, Solfjoll, Snæfjoll, | and Sigarsvoll, Hringstoth, Hotun, | and Himinvangar, And a blood-snake bedecked | to Sinfjotli’s brother.
9. Mighty he grew | in the midst of his friends, The fair-born elm, | in fortune’s glow; To his comrades gold | he gladly gave, The hero spared not | the blood-flecked hoard.
10. Short time for war | the chieftain waited, When fifteen winters | old he was; Hunding he slew, | the hardy wight Who long had ruled | o’er lands and men.
11. Of Sigmund’s son | then next they sought Hoard and rings, | the sons of Hunding; They bade the prince | requital pay For booty stolen | and father slain.
12. The prince let not | their prayers avail, Nor gold for their dead | did the kinsmen get; Waiting, he said, | was a mighty storm Of lances gray | and Othin’s grimness.
13. The warriors forth | to the battle went, The field they chose | at Logafjoll; Frothi’s peace | midst foes they broke, Through the isle went hungrily | Vithrir’s hounds.
14. The king then sat, | when he had slain Eyjolf and Alf, | ’neath the eagle-stone; Hjorvarth and Hovarth, | Hunding’s sons, The kin of the spear-wielder, | all had he killed.
15. Then glittered light | from Logafjoll, And from the light | the flashes leaped;...|...16...|...High under helms | on heaven’s field; Their byrnies all | with blood were red, And from their spears | the sparks flew forth.
17. Early then | in wolf-wood asked The mighty king | of the southern maid, If with the hero | home would she Come that night; | the weapons clashed.
18. Down from her horse | sprang Hogni’s daughter,— The shields were still,— | and spake to the hero: “Other tasks | are ours, methinks, Than drinking beer | with the breaker of rings.
19. “My father has pledged | his daughter fair As bride to Granmar’s | son so grim; But, Helgi, I | once Hothbrodd called As fine a king | as the son of a cat.
20. “Yet the hero will come | a few nights hence,...|...Unless thou dost bid him | the battle-ground seek, Or takest the maid | from the warrior mighty.”
Helgi spake: 21. “Fear him not, | though Isung he felled, First must our courage | keen be tried, Before unwilling | thou fare with the knave; Weapons will clash, | if to death I come not.”
22. Messengers sent | the mighty one then, By land and by sea, | a host to seek, Store of wealth | of the water’s gleam, And men to summon, | and sons of men.
23. “Bid them straightway | seek the ships, And off Brandey | ready to be!” There the chief waited | till thither were come Men by hundreds | from Hethinsey.
24. Soon off Stafnsnes | stood the ships, Fair they glided | and gay with gold; Then Helgi spake | to Hjorleif asking: “Hast thou counted | the gallant host?”
25. The young king answered | the other then: “Long were it to tell | from Tronueyr The long-stemmed ships | with warriors laden That come from without | into Orvasund.
26...|...“There are hundreds twelve | of trusty men, But in Hotun lies | the host of the king, Greater by half; | I have hope of battle.”
27. The ship’s-tents soon | the chieftain struck, And waked the throng | of warriors all; (The heroes the red | of dawn beheld;) And on the masts | the gallant men Made fast the sails | in Varinsfjord.
28. There was beat of oars | and clash of iron, Shield smote shield | as the ships’-folk rowed; Swiftly went | the warrior-laden Fleet of the ruler | forth from the land.
29. So did it sound, | when together the sisters Of Kolga struck | with the keels full long, As if cliffs were broken | with beating surf,...|...30. Helgi bade higher | hoist the sails, Nor did the ships’-folk | shun the waves, Though dreadfully | did Ægir’s daughters Seek the steeds | of the sea to sink.
31. But from above | did Sigrun brave Aid the men | and all their faring; Mightily came | from the claws of Ron The leader’s sea-beast | off Gnipalund.
32. At evening there | in Unavagar Floated the fleet | bedecked full fair; But they who saw | from Svarin’s hill, Bitter at heart | the host beheld.
33. Then Gothmund asked, | goodly of birth,...|...“Who is the monarch | who guides the host, And to the land | the warriors leads?”
34. Sinfjotli answered, | and up on an oar Raised a shield all red | with golden rim; A sea-sentry was he, | skilled to speak, And in words with princes | well to strive.
35. “Say tonight | when you feed the swine, And send your bitches | to seek their swill, That out of the East | have the Ylfings come, Greedy for battle, | to Gnipalund.
36. “There will Hothbrodd | Helgi find, In the midst of the fleet, | and flight he scorns; Often has he | the eagles gorged, Whilst thou at the quern | wert slave-girls kissing.”
Gothmund spake: 37. “Hero, the ancient | sayings heed, And bring not lies | to the nobly born...|...|...
38. “Thou hast eaten | the entrails of wolves, And of thy brothers | the slayer been; Oft wounds to suck | thy cold mouth sought, And loathed in rocky | dens didst lurk.”
Sinfjotli spake: 39. “A witch in Varin’s | isle thou wast, A woman false, | and lies didst fashion; Of the mail-clad heroes | thou wouldst have No other, thou saidst, | save Sinfjotli only.
40. “A Valkyrie wast thou, | loathly witch, Evil and base, | in Allfather’s home; The warriors all | must ever fight, Woman subtle, | for sake of thee.
41. “...|...|...Nine did we | in Sogunes Of wolf-cubs have; | I their father was.”
Gothmund spake: 42. “Thou didst not father | Fenrir’s-wolves, Though older thou art | than all I know; For they gelded thee | in Gnipalund, The giant-women | at Thorsnes once.
43. “Under houses the stepson | of Siggeir lay, Fain of the wolf’s cry | out in the woods; Evil came then | all to thy hands, When thy brothers’ | breasts thou didst redden, Fame didst thou win | for foulest deeds.
44. “In Bravoll wast thou | Grani’s bride, Golden-bitted | and ready to gallop; I rode thee many | a mile, and down Didst sink, thou giantess, | under the saddle.”
Sinfjotli spake: 45. “A brainless fellow | didst seem to be, When once for Gollnir | goats didst milk, And another time | when as Imth’s daughter In rags thou wentest; | wilt longer wrangle?”
Gothmund spake: 46. “Sooner would I | at Frekastein Feed the ravens | with flesh of thine Than send your bitches | to seek their swill, Or feed the swine; | may the fiends take you!”
Helgi spake: 47. “Better, Sinfjotli, | thee ’twould beseem Battle to give | and eagles to gladden, Than vain and empty | words to utter, Though ring-breakers oft | in speech do wrangle.
48. “Good I find not | the sons of Granmar, But for heroes ’tis seemly | the truth to speak; At Moinsheimar | proved the men That hearts for the wielding | of swords they had.”
49. Mightily then | they made to run Sviputh and Sveggjuth | to Solheimar; (By dewy dales | and chasms dark, Mist’s horse shook | where the men went by;) The king they found | at his courtyard gate, And told him the foeman | fierce was come.
50. Forth stood Hothbrodd, | helmed for battle, Watched the riding | of his warriors;...|...“Why are the Hniflungs | white with fear?”
Gothmund spake: 51. “Swift keels lie | hard by the land, (Mast-ring harts | and mighty yards, Wealth of shields | and well-planed oars;) The king’s fair host, | the Ylfings haughty; Fifteen bands | to land have fared, But out in Sogn | are seven thousand.
52. “At anchor lying | off Gnipalund Are fire-beasts black, | all fitted with gold; There wait most | of the foeman’s men, Nor will Helgi long | the battle delay.”
Hothbrodd spake: 53. “Bid the horses run | to the Reginthing, Melnir and Mylnir | to Myrkwood now, (And Sporvitnir | to Sparinsheith;) Let no man seek | henceforth to sit Who the flame of wounds | knows well to wield.
54. “Summon Hogni, | the sons of Hring, Atli and Yngvi | and Alf the Old; Glad they are | of battle ever; Against the Volsungs | let us go.”
55. Swift as a storm | there smote together The flashing blades | at Frekastein; Ever was Helgi, | Hunding’s slayer, First in the throng | where warriors fought; (Fierce in battle, | slow to fly, Hard the heart | of the hero was.)
56. From heaven there came | the maidens helmed,— The weapon-clang grew,— | who watched o’er the king; Spake Sigrun fair,— | the wound-givers flew, And the horse of the giantess | raven’s-food had:— 57. “Hail to thee, hero! | full happy with men, Offspring of Yngvi, | shalt ever live, For thou the fearless | foe hast slain Who to many the dread | of death had brought.
58. “Warrior, well | for thyself hast won Red rings bright | and the noble bride; Both now, warrior, | thine shall be, Hogni’s daughter | and Hringstathir, Wealth and triumph; | the battle wanes.”
NOTES 1. The manuscript contains the superscription: “Here begins the lay of Helgi Hundingsbane and h. (Hothbrodd?) The lay of the Volsungs.” Eagles, etc.: the screaming of eagles and water pouring from heaven were portents of the birth of a hero. Borghild: Sigmund’s first wife; Bralund was her home, not Sigmund’s.
2. Norns: cf. Voluspo, 20 and note. Here it is the Norns who preside over Helgi’s early destiny, and not a Valkyrie, as in Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar.
3. Line 2 is largely guesswork, the manuscript being obscure. Moon’s hall: the sky.
4. East, etc.: the Norns give Helgi fame in the East, West, and North; in the North his renown is particularly to endure. This suggests that the poet was aware of the spread of the Helgi story over many lands. Neri’s kinswoman: evidently one of the Norns, but nothing further is known of Neri, and the word may not be a proper name at all.
5. The manuscript indicates no gap, but it looks as though something had been lost after line 2. Ylfings’ son: Sigmund is evidently meant, though calling him an Ylfing (cf. Hyndluljoth, 11 and note) is a manifest error. Helgi, in the tradition as it came from Denmark, was undoubtedly an Ylfing, and the poet, in order to combine the two legends, has to treat the Ylfings and Volsungs as if they were the same family.
6. Sigmund: the chief link between the Helgi and Sigurth stories. He was the son of Volsung, great-grandson of Othin. His children by his first wife, Borghild, were Helgi and Hamund (belonging to the Helgi cycle); his son by his second wife, Hjordis, was Sigurth. An incestuous connection with his sister, Signy (cf. Wagner’s Siegmund and Sieglinde) resulted in the birth of Sinfjotli (cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla and note).
7. The king: Sigmund, who gives his son a symbol of the lands which he bestows on him. Regarding the leek, cf. Voluspo, 4; Guthrunarkvitha I, 17, and Sigrdrifumol, 7.
8. Hringstathir (“Ring-Stead”): quite possibly the historical Ringsted, long a possession of the Danish kings, and thus a relic of the old Helgi tradition. Hringstoth may be another form of the same name. Solfjoll (“Sun-Mountain”) and Snæfjoll (“Snow-Mountain”) are fictitious names. Regarding Sigarsvoll cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, stanzas 8 and 35. Saxo mentions a Danish king named Sigar, and the frequency with which the name appears in the Helgi poems may be taken as a reminiscence of Denmark. Hotun (“High Place”): possibly the village of Tune in Seeland. Himinvangar (“Heaven’s Field”): an imaginary place. Blood-snake: a sword. Sinfjotli: cf. note on stanza 6.
9. Elm: a not uncommon word for “man.” Blood-flecked: i.e., won in battle.
10. Fifteen: until early in the eleventh century a Norwegian or Icelandic boy became “of age” at twelve, and Maurer cites this passage as added proof of the poem’s lateness. Hunding: the annotator (introductory prose to Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II) calls him king of Hundland, which shows no great originality. Saxo mentions a Hunding who was a Saxon king ruling in Jutland, probably the origin of Helgi’s traditional foe.
12. Storm, etc.: war.
13. Logafjoll (“Flame-Mountain”): a mythical name. Frothi: a: traditional king of Denmark, whose peaceful reign was so famous that “Frothi’s peace” became a by-word for peace of any kind. Vithrir’s hounds: wolves; Vithrir is Othin, and his hounds are the wolves Freki and Geri.
14. In this poem Helgi kills all the sons of Hunding, but in the poems of the Sigurth cycle, and the prose notes attached thereto, Sigmund and his father-in-law, Eylimi, are killed by Hunding’s sons, on whom Sigurth subsequently takes vengeance (cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla and Regïnsmol).
15. No gap indicated in the manuscript, but almost certainly something has been lost mentioning more specifically the coming of the Valkyries. The lightning which accompanies them suggests again their identification with the clouds (cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 28).
16. Some editions fill out the first line: “He saw there mighty maidens riding.” The manuscript indicates line 4 as the beginning of a new stanza.
17. Wolf-wood: dark forest; the original word is not altogether clear. Southern: this variety of Valkyrie, like the swan-maidens of the Völundarkvitha, was clearly regarded as of southern (i.e., German) origin. Here again there is a confusion of traditions; the Valkyries of the Voluspo were as essentially Norse as any part of the older mythology. I doubt if a poet much earlier than the author of the first Helgi Hundingsbane lay would have made his Sigrun, daughter of Hogni, a Valkyrie. It is to be noted that the same complication appears in the Sigurth story, where the undoubted Valkyrie, Brynhild-Sigrdrifa (the latter name is really only an epithet) is hopelessly mixed up with the quite human Brynhild, daughter of Buthli.
18. Breaker of rings: generous prince, because the breaking of rings was the customary form of distributing gold.
19. Granmar: the annotator gives an account of him and his family in the prose following stanza 12 of Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II.
20. No gap indicated in the manuscript; some editors combine the stanza with the fragmentary stanza 21, and others fill in with “And home will carry | Hogni’s daughter.”
21. The manuscript has only lines 1 and 4 with the word “first” of line 2, and does not indicate Helgi as the speaker. The Volsungasaga, which follows this poem pretty closely, expands Helgi’s speech, and lines 2–3 are conjectural versifications of the saga’s prose. Isung: nothing is known of him beyond the fact, here indicated, that Hothbrodd killed him.
22. Water’s gleam: gold.
23. Brandey (“Brand-Isle”): not mentioned elsewhere. Hethinsey (“Hethin’s Isle”): possibly the island of Hiddensee, east of Rügen.
24. Stafnsnes (“Steersman’s Cape”): an unidentifiable promontory. Fair: a guess, as the adjective in the manuscript is obscure. Hjorleif does not appear elsewhere, and seems to be simply one of Helgi’s lieutenants.
25. Tronueyr: “Crane-Strand.” Long-stemmed: literally “long-headed,” as the high, curving stem of a Norse ship was often carved to represent a head and neck. Orvasund: almost certainly the Danish Öresund, off Seeland. Such bits of geography as this followed Helgi persistently.
26. No gap indicated in the manuscript. Hotun: cf. stanza 8 and note.
27. Line 3 seems to have been interpolated from line 4 of Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II, 42. Ship’s-tents: the awnings spread over the deck to shelter the crews from sun and rain when the ships were at anchor. Varinsfjord: cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 22 and note.
28. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza, and some editions follow this arrangement, making lines 1–2 a separate stanza.
29. The manuscript indicates no gap, and some editions combine the stanza with lines 3–4 of stanza 28. Sisters of Kolga: the waves, Kolga (“The Gold”) being one of the daughters of the sea-god, Ægir. As the Volsungasaga says, “Now there was a great storm.”
30. Helgi demonstrates his courage, whatever one may think of his seamanship. Ægir’s daughters: the waves; cf. stanza 29 and note.
31. Sigrun here appears again as a Valkyrie. Ron: Ægir’s wife; cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 18 and note. Sea-beast: ship. Gnipalund: “Crag-Wood.”
32. Unavagar: “Friendly Waves.” Svarin’s hill: the hill where Granmar had his dwelling.
33. Here begins the long dialogue between Gothmund, one of Granmar’s sons, and Sinfjotli, Helgi’s half-brother. Two lines (stanza 33, lines 3–4) are quoted by the annotator in the prose note following stanza 16 of the second Helgi Hundingsbane lay, and the dialogue, in much abbreviated form, together with Helgi’s admonition to Sinfjotli to cease talking, is closely paralleled in stanzas 22–27 of that poem. It has been suggested that this whole passage (stanzas 33–48) is an interpolation, perhaps from “the Old Volsung lay.” This may be, but it seems more probable that the poet used an older poem simply as the basis for this passage, borrowing a little but making up a great deal more. The manuscript indicates no gap in stanza 33.
34. Sinfjotli: cf. note on stanza 6. Red: raising a red shield was the signal for war.
35. Ylfings: cf. stanza 5 and note.
36. Quern: turning the hand mill was, throughout antiquity, the task of slaves.
37. The manuscript does not name the speakers in this dialogue. No gap indicated in the manuscript, and editors have attempted various combinations of stanzas 37 and 38.
38. Wolves: the Volsungasaga tells that Sigmund and Sinfjotli lived in the woods for a time as werewolves. Brothers: Sinfjotli killed the two sons of his mother, Signy, and her husband, Siggeir, as part of the vengeance wreaked on Siggeir for the treacherous murder of Sigmund’s father, Volsung, and nine of his brothers (cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla and note). The manuscript marks line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza.
39. Varin’s isle: cf. stanza 27 and note, and Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 22. Reproaching a man with having been a woman and borne children was not uncommon.
40. This stanza may be an interpolation in the dialogue passage. Allfather: Othin. We have no information regarding Gothmund’s career, but it looks as though Sinfjotli were drawing solely on his imagination for his taunts, whereas Gothmund’s insults have a basis in Sinfjotli’s previous life.
41. No gap indicated in the manuscript; some editors combine the two lines with stanza 40, some regard them as the first instead of the last lines of a separate stanza, and some assume the lacuna here indicated. Sogunes (“Saga’s Cape”): of the goddess Saga little is known; cf. Grimnismol, 7.