Vëlundarkviða (Old Norse: 'The lay of Völund'; <small>modern Icelandic spelling:</small> Völundarkviða) is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda. The title is anglicized in various ways, including Völundarkvitha, Völundarkvidha, Völundarkvida, Volundarkvitha, Volundarkvidha and Volundarkvida.
The poem is preserved in its entirety among the mythological poems of the thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius, and the beginning of the prose prologue is also found in the AM 748 I 4to fragment.
The vocabulary and some of the formulaic phrasing of the poem is clearly influenced by West Germanic, with the strongest case being for influence specifically from Old English (a West Germanic dialect). It is thought likely, therefore, that Vëlundarkviða was composed in, or otherwise influenced by traditions from, the Norse diaspora in England. This would suggest origins around the tenth or eleventh century. This fits in turn with the fact that most of the analogues to Vëlundarkviða are West-Germanic in origin.
In visual sources, the story told in Vëlundarkviða seems also to be portrayed on the front panel of the eighth-century Northumbrian Franks Casket and on the eighth-century Gotlandic Ardre image stone VIII, along with a number of tenth-to-eleventh-century carvings from Northern England, including the Leeds Cross, a fragment in Leeds City Museum, and Sherburn in Elmet fragments 2 and 3.
In written sources, a largely similar story (Velents þáttr smiðs) is related in the Old Norse ÃÂiðrekssaga af Bern (translated from lost Low German sources), and an evidently similar story is alluded to in the first two verse-paragraphs of Old English poem Deor.
The poem relates the story of the artisan Völundr, his capture by NÃÂðuðr, implicitly a petty-king of Närke (currently in Sweden), and Vëlundr's brutal revenge and escape.
Vëlundarkviða begins with a prose introduction, setting the scene, giving background about the characters, and partly summarising the poem. It is possible that this passage is much younger than the verse.
The poem opens by describing the flight of three swan-maidens identified in stanza 1 as meyjar, drósir, alvitr and suðrà Ânar ('young women, stately women, foreign beings, southerners') to a 'sævar strënd' ('lake/sea-shore') where they meet the three brothers Egill, Slagfiðr and Vëlundr. Each maid takes one of the brothers as her own.
However, nine winters later, the women leave the brothers. The poem does not explain this, simply saying that the women depart 'ørlëg drýgja' ('to fulfil their fate'). Slagfiðr and Egill go in search of their women, but Vëlundr remains at home instead, forging baugar (âÂÂ(arm-)ringsâÂÂ) for his woman.
Discovering that Vëlundr is living alone, a local king, NÃÂðuðr, âÂÂlord of the NjárarâÂÂ, has him captured in his sleep (stanzas 7âÂÂ12).
NÃÂðuðr takes Vëlundr's sword and gives one of the rings which Vëlundr made for his missing bride to his daughter Bëðvildr, and, at his wife's instigation, he has Vëlundr's hamstrings cut, imprisoning him on an island called Sævarstaðr, where Vëlundr makes objects for NÃÂðuðr (stanzas 13âÂÂ19).
Vëlundr takes his revenge on NÃÂðuðr first by enticing NÃÂðuðr's two sons to visit with promises of treasure, killing them, and making jewels of their eyes and teeth (stanzas 20âÂÂ26). He then entices Bëðvildr by promising to mend the ring which she was given, getting her drunk, and implicitly having sex with her (stanzas 27âÂÂ29).
The poem culminates in Vëlundr taking to the air by some means which is not clearly described and telling NÃÂðuðr what he has done, laughing (stanzas 30âÂÂ39). It focuses finally on the plight of Bëðvildr, whose lament closes the poem (stanzas 40âÂÂ41):
It relates to type 313 and 313C in the AarneâÂÂThompsonâÂÂUther Index. Similar tales have types 400 and 465.
The poem is appreciated for its evocative images.
Völundarkviða 6, Thorpe's translation
The last verse, wherein Bëðvildr laments, has been called âÂÂunsurpassable as a conclusionâ by Icelandic philologist Finnur Jónsson:
Translated by Wikipedia editors