ABSTRACT
Vǫlundarkviða is the only surviving poetic Norse record of a story that was known in Germany and England in the early medieval period: the story of Weland (Vǫlundr) the smith. The prose introduction and the first section of the poem, stanzas 1–6, tell of Vǫlundr, his brothers and the swan maidens they win for a brief time. The swan-maiden motif in Vǫlundarkviða differs from other European versions (see Hatto and Motz) in that the brothers do not constrain or coerce their brides, nor do they lose them through any transgression on their part but rather because of the bird-women’s instinctively migratory nature. The two brothers depart to seek the swan-maidens, leaving Vǫlundr alone when the greedy king Níðuðr attacks him, seizing his gold, hamstringing him and forcing him to work as a palace craftsman. The second part of the poem tells of Vǫlundr’s incarceration and subsequent revenge upon Níðuðr and his family. When Níðuðr’s sons come to view the precious rings Vǫlundr has made, he kills them, makes goblets of their skulls and sends these to their mother Bǫðvildr. When she in turn visits to have a ring repaired, he intoxicates her and impregnates her when she is asleep. Vǫlundr reveals all to Níðuðr, after which he flies away. Although the text offers few lexical difficulties, problems of interpretation remain: is Vǫlundr a human being (the son of a Lappish king) or an elf? (Dronke concludes he is a ‘mixed being’.) How does he fly away from his island prison? Some readers have assumed that the ring he regains enables him to change into a bird, perhaps a swan; others surmise that he fashions a coat of feathers (as described in Velents páttr and perhaps depicted on the Franks casket); Dronke (265–7) suggests the spirit flight of a shaman.
