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In Germanic mythology, Wayland the Smith (Old English: Wēland; Old Norse: Völundr, Velentr; Old High German: Wiolant; Proto-Germanic: *Wēlandaz, from *Wēla-nandaz, lit. "battle-brave"[1]) is a legendary smith. In Old Norse sources, Völundr appears in Völundarkviða, a poem in the Poetic Edda, and in Þiðrekssaga, and his legend is also depicted on the Ardre image stone VIII. In Old English sources, he appears in Deor, Waldere and in Beowulf and the legend is depicted on the Franks Casket. The only German source that mentions him is Der grosse Rosengarten.
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Old Norse attestations
Weyland had two brothers, Egil and Slagfiðr. In one version of the myth, the three brothers lived with three Valkyries: Ölrún, Hervör alvitr and Hlaðguðr svanhvít. After nine years, the Valkyries left their lovers. Egil and Slagfiðr followed, never to return. In another version, Weyland married the swan maiden Hervör, and they had a son, Heime, but Hervör later left Weyland. In both versions, his love left him with a ring. In the former myth, he forged seven hundred duplicates of this ring.
At a later point in time, he was captured in his sleep by King Nidud in Nerike who ordered him hamstrung and imprisoned on the island of Sævarstöð. There he was forced to forge items for the king. Weyland's wife's ring was given to the king's daughter, Bodvild. Nidud wore Weyland's sword.
In revenge, Weyland killed the king's sons when they visited him in secret, fashioned goblets from their skulls, jewels from their eyes, and a brooch from their teeth. He sent the goblets to the king, the jewels to the queen and the brooch to the king's daughter. When Bodvild took her ring to him to be mended, he took the ring and raped her, fathering a son and escaping on wings he made. Völund made the magic sword Gram (also named Balmung and Nothung) and the magic ring that Thorsten retrieved.
Old English attestations
As Weland he also fashioned the mail shirt worn by Beowulf according to lines 450–455 of the epic poem of the same name:
Toponyms
Wayland is associated with Wayland's Smithy, a burial mound in Oxfordshire. This was named by the English, but the megalithic mound significantly predates them but some scholars have suggested that Waylands Smithy is Wayland the smiths Burial. It is bfrom this association that the superstition came about that a horse left there overnight with a small silver coin (groat) would be shod by morning. This superstition is mentioned in the first episode of Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling, "The Sword of Weland", which narrates the rise and fall of the god.
See also
References
- ^ see Hellmut Rosenfeld, Der Name Wieland, Beiträge zur Namenforschung (1969).
- Heaney, Seamus (2000). Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-32097-8.
- Larrington, Carolyne (transl.) (1996). The Poetic Edda. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 0-19-283946-2.
External links
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