Home of the Eddic Lays
Chapter 20
HJÖRVARTH AND SIGRLINN
Page 1
Certain other West-Frankish, particularly Merovingian, stories of Chlodovech and his immediate successors have, in my opinion, left traces on the story of Hjörvarth and his son Helgi.
The Lay of Helgi Hjör. in the Edda, has a prose introduction concerning Helgi's father, in which we read: 'King Hjörvarth had four wives. The first was called Álfhild; their son was called Hethin. The second was called Særeith; their son was called Humlung. The third was called Sinrjóth; their son was called Hymling.' With reference to this passage, Finnur Jónsson writes (1): 'Here [in two cases] we have one and the same person made into two (Særeiðr = Sinrjóð, Humlungr = Hymlingr).' I have long been of the same opinion; but this view seems to me tenable only on the assumption that the names were not originally Norse. I would suggest that they are based on AS forms, which in their turn may come from Frankish names. Hymlingr corresponds, doubtless, to an AS form in
-ling, while Humlungr is probably a Norse reconstruction. The relation between the two names is the same as that between AS cyning and ON konungr, AS Scylding (Scyldung) and ON Skjöldungr, etc.
The wife was probably called in AS *Sinred, which may have been the AS reproduction of the Frankish Sendrada, *Sindrada, though by rule the corresponding AS form of this name should be *Siðred. AS e in *Sinred, which was perhaps half long in pronunciation, was reproduced in Særeiðr by ON ei; cf. ON Heiðrekr strjóna in Knytlingasaga from AS Éadrîc (Êdrîc) stréon. By another Norseman the e in *Sinred was reproduced by jó in Sinrjóð; cf. ON Langaspjót from Longospeda, ON fljóð from AS –fled in names of women. In the ON reconstruction there was also a change of meaning. Sinrjóð betrays the influence of rjóðr, 'ruddy-cheeked'; Særeiðr that of names of women in –eiðr, e.g. Jóreiðr. Jóreiðr may also have influenced the first part of Særeiðr. It may have been mistaken for a compound of which the nominative jór, 'horse,' was one part; and similarly Særeiðr may have been thought to contain the nominative sær. (2) Possibly, therefore, Særeiðr (AS. *Sinred, Frankish *Sindrada) has some connection with Sîdrât, the name in Wfd. D of Ortnit's widow, who marries Wolfdietrich. (3)
Here in the Hjörvarth lay, as in the case elsewhere, the prose passage contain saga material not preserved in verse.
The polygamy of Hjörvarth recalls the customs of the Merovingian kings. Helgi Hjörvarthsson's mother is called Sigrlinn. This is identical with Sigelint, the name of Sigemunt's mother in several MHG. poems. In the ON lay, on the other hand, the wife of Sigmund, and mother of Sigurth Fáfnisbani, is called Hjördís Eylima dóttir (Hjördís, the daughter of Eylimi).
Several German scholars (4) have observed that Sigrlinn was not from the outset the name of the wife of the ON saga king Hjörvarth. In stories current among the Franks, and not originally Norse, Sigrlinn (Sigelint) was, on the contrary, the name of Sigmund's wife. Vice versa, Hjördís seems at the outset to have been an ON., and not a German, saga figure. Some shift is thought to have taken place. The names
Hjörvarðr: Sigrlinn,
Sigmundr: Hjördís,
are supposed to have been originally grouped as follows:---
Hjörvarðr and Hjördis,
Sigmundr and Sigrlinn.
The first couple belonged to Scandinavian saga; the second to West Germanic (Frankish).
In the Edda we read how Sigrlinn became Hjörvarth's wife. Since, as we have seen, in the original story about Sigrlinn she was not married to the Scandinavian king Hjörvarth, but to the West-Germanic Sigmund, with whom the Scandinavians became familiar from an English story, the question arises: How much of the story of how Sigrlinn became Hjörvarth's wife is drawn from a Scandinavian, how much from a West-Germanic, story? To what extent it is based on a story of Hjörvarth, on one of Sigmund, or on one which told of some other saga king?
In my opinion, the story of how Hjörvarth got Sigrlinn to wife is a Norse redaction and fusion of several West-Germanic tales of how various saga kings obtained their wives, one of which told of the winning of Sigelint (Sigrlinn) by Sigmund.
The account in the Edda is as follows:---King Hjörvarth, although he has already three wives, vows to marry the most beautiful woman in the world. One day Atli, son of the king's earl Ithmund, hears the voice of a bird from a tree above his head. The bird reveals to him that Sigrlinn, daughter of Sváfnir, is the fairest of maidens; and offers to bring it about that Sigrlinn of her own will shall become Hjörvarth's wife, demanding, however, in return for its services, temples, altars, and sacrifices of gold-horned kine. When Hjörvarth hears of this, he despatches Atli to woo Sigrlinn for him. Atli comes to King Sváfnir and stays with him a whole winter. But, following the advice of his earl Fránmar, Sváfnir rejects the offer of marriage, and Atli at once returns home. King Hjörvarth then sets out himself for Sváfnir's land (Sváfaland), bidding Atli accompany him. When they reach the mountains on the border, they see fires in Sváfaland, and clouds of dust in the air caused by many riders. They continue their journey down the mountain, and finally halt for the night by a river. During the night, Atli, who has been keeping watch, discovers on the opposite side of the river a house, on the roof of which a large bird is sitting, as if to guard the place. The bird, however, is asleep, and Atli kills it with his spear. He finds in the house the king's daughter Sigrlinn, and Fránmar's daughter Álof, and hastens away with them. It appears that a certain King Hróthmar, a rejected suitor of Sigrlinn, has slain King Sváfnir, and burned and plundered the land. The bird, which Atli has killed, is Fránmar, who had put on the form of an eagle, hoping to protect the women by magic. King Hjörvarth marries Sigrlinn, and gives Álof to Atli. (5)
This story of the wooing of Sigrlinn belongs to a group of tales which has many representatives in Germanic saga: a king hears of the beautiful daughter of a foreign prince, sends men out to woo her, and, despite all hindrances, succeeds in securing her as his bride. (6) One subdivision of this group embraces the stories in which the king's messenger brings home at the same time, as his own wife, a woman nearly related to the bride of his master.
I shall now mention a few of these parallel stories, which seem to throw light on the origin of the episode in the Eddic lay.
In the þiðrekssaga (chaps. 152-154) we read that King Sigmund of Karlungaland (7) (i.e. the land of the Carolingians, France), sends men to King Nithung and his son Ortvangis in Spain (8) to woo for him Nithung's daughter Sisibe, who is reputed to be the fairest and most courteous of women. Nithung receives the messengers well, but answers that he will not send his messengers well, but answers that he will not send his daughter to an unknown land. Being assured, however, that King Sigmund is a distinguished man, he promises not to refuse him his daughter if the king comes in person. When Sigmund gets this message, he sets out with a magnificent suite. He is received with great honour by Nithung, weds Sisibe, and returns home with her. (9)
This story, as preserved in the þiðrekssaga, cannot be the basis of the Eddic account of Hjörvarth and Sigrlinn, nor can it have influenced this account in any considerable degree. Still, it looks as if the author of the Eddic lay heard some version of the Sigmund story different from that in the þiðrekssaga, and from it got Sigrlinn as the name of Hjörvarth's bride. Sisibe, which appears in the þiðrekssaga, is less original as the name of Sigmund's queen and Sigfrid's mother than Sigelint.
I believe, therefore, that the ON story of Hjörvarth and Sigrlinn was influenced partly (if not to any great extent) by a foreign, West-Germanic tale which told how Sigemund despatched messengers to woo for him the king's daughter Sigelint, of whose beauty he had heard, and how he failed to win her until he undertook the suit in person. Yet, with respect to many details, it cannot be decided how much resemblance there was between that lost West-Germanic tale of Sigmund, which I suppose the ON poet to have heard, and the story as we have it in the þiðrekssaga.
In the story of Hjörvarth and Sigrlinn there are many poetic features which have no parallels in the story of Sigmund in the þiðrekssaga. Several of these are connected with a story, preserved in the same saga (chaps. 42-56), of Attila's wooing. (10) This is found in two different redactions in the Norwegian parchment MS. of the saga, and also in both Icelandic paper MSS. The forms of several names seem to show that the stories of Sigmund and Attila both came into the þiðrekssaga through a Latin intermediary.
Attila sends his kinsman Ósith and Duke Rótholf (one redaction names Ósith only) with many men to Vilcinaland to woo for him Erka, the daughter of King Ósangtrix. The king receives the messengers well, but replies angrily to the request for his daughter's hand; for Atilla, he says, has shown himself to be his enemy. Then the messengers ride home. On the way, in conversation with one another, they express the opinion that never before have they seen such beautiful women as Erka and her sister Berta (in the Icelandic redaction, Herat). When they reach home, they tell Atli of the ill success of their journey. The redaction which does not name Rótholf, states that Ósith on his return declares that there is no hope of Attila's getting the daughter of King Ósangtrix, but that he (Ósith) has never before seen so beautiful a maiden as Erka; and that next in beauty to her was her sister Berta.
Attila now sends the Margrave Róthingeir of Bakalar on the same errand; but he also is refused. The redaction which in the preceding part does not mention Rótholf, has at this point Rótholf, not Róthingeir of Bakalar.
Finally, Attila himself sets out with an army. He burns and harries in Vilcinaland, but retreats when Ósangtrix has assembled a great army against him. Attila halts for the night in a forest. The good knight Rótholf (or, as the redaction which does not name Róthingeir calls him, Margrave Rótholf) keeps watch. He rides with armed men through the forest to Ósangtrix's camp, and there slays many men. Rótholf comes back safely with his warriors to Attila, who then returns home.
When Attila has been at home a while, Rótholf comes to him and begs him for the men and equipment necessary for an expedition. The king's nephew Ósith will follow him. He is to be away three years, but does not say where he intends going. When he gets what he wishes, he sets out for Vilcinaland, and again makes good provision for his men in a large forest. He himself comes in disguise to Ósangtrix. He calls himself Sigifred (which name in Norwegian, as the saga writer notes, is called Sigurth), and says that he has travelled thither because of King Attila, who is his enemy. He wins Ósangtrix's confidence, and remains with him a year, but without speaking with the king's daughter Erka.
1.
Litt. Hist., I, 244. Back
2. The placename Sæheimr has in Northern Norwegian the form Síeimr.
Did Særeiðr replace *Síreiðr? Back
3. Wolfdietrich had with Sîdrât the son Hugdietrich, i.e.
Hugo Theodoricus, the Frankish Theodoric. In Parise la duchesse, Huguez
(i.e. Hugo, with diminutive suffix -et) corresponds to Wolfdietrich. May
we therefore believe that Humlungr and Hymlingr are Norse reconstructions
of a Frankish name Hugiling or Huginling, i.e. the little Frank? Back
4. Uhland, Schriften, VIII, 130 f; Sijmons in Paul-Braune, Beit., IV,
197 f; Müllenhoff, Ztsch. f. d. Alt., N.F., XI, 139 f, 170 ff. Back
5. Edzardi and F. Jónsson have expressed the opinion that the conversation
between Atli and the bird takes place after Atli's first visit to King
Sváfnir's land. This view, however, is open to objection. Hjörvarth
must have heard that Sigrlinn was the fairest of all women before he despatched
Atli to woo her. Now in St. I the bird says expressly that Sigrlinn is
the fairest of women, 'though the wives of Hjörvarth seem fair to
men.' These words of the bird seem, therefore, to have been the cause
of Hjörvarth's sending Atli to woo on his behalf. Back
6. Many such tales are cited by P. Rajna, Le Origini
dell epopea francese, pp. 80 ff, where, however, the story in the Edda
is not mentioned. Back
7. The MSS. have tarlungaland (B, iarlunga-), which is a mistake for carlungaland.
Back
8. Hispana, Membr.; Spania, A; Hispaniam, B. Back
9. This story of Sigmund may be compared with an historical event: the
Frankish king Sigebert actually despatched a messenger to the Spanish
king to woo his daughter Brunihild, who thereupon was sent to France.
Back
10. Müllenhoff has already remarked (Ztsch. f. d. Alt., N. F., XI,
142), that the story of Attila in the þiðrekssaga belongs to
the same type as that of Hjörvarth. Back
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