Part 5

(21) We now come to a mythic record in which Thjazi's brothers Iði and Gangur, and he too, in a paraphrase, are mentioned under circumstances well suited to throw light on the subject before us, which is very important in regard to the epic connection of the mythology.

Of Thor's expedition to Geirröd, we have two very different accounts. One is recorded by the author of Skáldskaparmál; the other is found in Eilif Gudrunarson's Þórsdrápa.

In Skáldskaparmál 26 we read:

Only for pleasure Loki made an expedition in Freyja's feather guise, and was led by his curiosity to seat himself in an opening in the wall of Geirröd's house and peep in. There he was captured by one of Geirröd's servants, and the giant, who noticed from his eyes that it was not a real falcon, did not release him before he had agreed so to arrange matters that Thor should come to Geirröd's hall without bringing with him his hammer and belt of strength. This Loki was able to bring about. Thor went to Geirröd without taking any of these implements - not even his steel gloves - with him. Loki accompanied him. On the way thither Loki visited the giantess whose name was Gríður, and who was Vidar the Silent's mother. From her Thor learned the facts about Geirröd - namely, that the latter was a cunning giant and difficult to get on with. She lent Thor her own belt of strength, her own iron gloves, and her staff, Gríðarvölur. Then Thor proceeded to the river which is called Vimur, and which is the greatest of all rivers. There he buckled on his belt of strength, and supported himself in the stream on the Gríðarvölur. Loki held himself fast to the belt of strength. When Thor reached the middle of the stream, the water rose to his shoulders. Thor then perceived that up in a mountain chasm below which the river flowed stood Gjalp, Geirröd's daughter, with one foot on each side of the river, and it was she who caused the rising of the tide. Then Thor picked up a stone and threw it at the giantess, saying: "At its mouth the river is to be stopped". He did not miss his mark. Having reached the other bank of the river, he took hold of a rowan, and thus gained the land. Hence the proverb: "Thor's salvation, the rowan". And when Thor came to Geirröd a goat-house was first given to him and Loki (according to Codex Regius; according to the Uppsala Codex a guest-house) as their lodgings. Then are related the adventures Thor had with Geirröd's daughters Gjalp and Greip, and how he, invited to perform games in Geirröd's hall, was met by a glowing iron which Geirröd threw against him with a pair of tongs, but which he caught with the iron gloves and threw back with so great force that the iron passed through a post, behind which Geirröd had concealed himself, and through Geirröd himself and his house wall, and then penetrated into the earth.

This narrative, composed freely from mythical and pseudo-mythical elements, is related to Þórsdrápa, composed in heathen times, about in the same manner as Skáldskaparmál's account of Odin and Suttung is related to that of Hávamál. Just as in Skáldskaparmál punctum saliens lies in the coarse jest about how poor poetry originated, so here a crude anecdote built on the proverb, "A stream is to be stemmed at its mouth," seems to be the basis of the story. In Christian times the mythology had to furnish the theme not only for ancient history, heroic poems, and popular traditions, but also for comic songs.

Now, a few words in regard to Þórsdrápa. This song, excellent from the standpoint of poetry and important from a mythological point of view, has, in my opinion, hitherto been entirely misunderstood, not so much on account of the difficulties found in the text - for these disappear, when they are considered without any preconceived opinion in regard to the contents - as on account of the undeserved faith in Skáldskaparmál's account of Thor's visit to Geirröd, and on account of the efforts made under the influence of this misleading authority to rediscover the statements of the latter in the heathen poem. In these efforts the poetics of the Christian period in Iceland have been applied to the poem, and in this way all mythological names, whose real meaning was forgotten in later times, have received a general faded signification, which on a more careful examination is proved to be incorrect. With a collection of names as an armoury, in which the names of real or supposed "dwarfs," "giants," "sea-kings," &c., are brought together and arranged as synonyms, this system of poetics teaches that from such lists we may take whatever dwarf name, giant name, &c., we please to designate which ever "dwarf," "giant," &c., we please. If, therefore, Þórsdrápa mentions "Iði's chalet" and "Gangur's war-vans," then, according to this system of poetics, Iði and Gangur - though they in heathen times designated particular mythic persons who had their own history, their own personal careers - have no other meaning than the general one of "a giant," for the reason that Iði and Gangur are incorporated in the above-named lists of giant names. Such a system of poetics could not arise before the most of the mythological names had become mere empty sounds, the personalities to whom they belonged being forgotten. The fact that they have been adapted, and still continue to be adapted, to the poems of the heathen skalds, is one of the reasons why the important contributions which names and paraphrases in the heathen poetry are able to furnish in mythological investigations have remained an unused treasure.

While Skáldskaparmál makes Loki and no one else accompany Thor to Geirröd, and represents the whole matter as a visit to the giant by Thor, we learn from Þórsdrápa that this journey to Jötunheim is an expedition of war, which Thor makes at the head of his warriors against the much-dreaded chief of giants, and that on the way thither he had to fight a real battle with Geirröd's giants before he is able to penetrate to the destination of his expedition, Geirröd's hall, where the giants put to flight in the battle just mentioned gather, and where another battle is fought. Þórsdrápa does not mention with a single word that Loki accompanied Thor on this warlike expedition. Instead of this, we learn that he had a secret understanding with one of Geirröd's daughters, that he encouraged Thor to go, and gave him untruthful accounts of the character of the road, so that, if not Thor himself, then at least the allies who went with him, might perish by the ambush laid in wait for them. That Loki, under such circumstances, should accompany Thor is highly incredible, since his misrepresentations in regard to the character of the way would be discovered on the journey, and reveal him as a traitor. But since Skáldskaparmál states that Loki was Thor's companion, the interpreters of Þórsdrápa have allowed him so to remain, and have attributed to him - the traitor and secret ally of the giants - and to Thjalfi (who is not mentioned in the Skáldskaparmál account) the exploits which Thor's companions perform against the giants. That the poem, for instance, in the expression Þjálfi með ýta sinni, "Thjalfi with his companions," in the most distinct manner emphasises the fact that a whole host of warriors had Thor as their leader on this expedition, was passed over as one of the obscure passages in which the poem was supposed to abound, and the obscurity of which simply consists in their contradicting the story in Skáldskaparmál. Þórsdrápa does not mention with a single word that Thor, on his journey to Geirröd, stopped at the home of a giantess Gríður, and borrowed from her a staff, a belt of strength, and iron gloves; and I regard it as probable that this whole episode in Skáldskaparmál has no other foundation than that the staff which Thor uses as his support on wading across the rapid stream is in Þórsdrápa now called griðarvölur, "the safety staff," and again, brautar liðs tollur, "the way-helping tree". The name griðarvölur, and such proverbs as að ósi skal á stemma and reynir er björg Þórs, appear to be the staple wares by the aid of which the story in Skáldskaparmál was framed. The explanation given in Skáldskaparmál of the proverb reynir er björg Þórs, that, by seizing hold of a rowan growing on the river bank, Thor succeeded in getting out of the river, is, no doubt, an invention by the author of the story. The statement cannot possibly have had any support in the mythology. In it Thor is endowed with ability to grow equal to any stream he may have to cross. The rowan mentioned in the proverb is probably none other than the "way-helping tree," the "safety staff," on which he supports himself while wading, and which, according to Þórsdrápa (19), is a brotningur skógar, a tree broken or pulled up in the woods.

I now pass to the consideration of the contents of Þórsdrápa:

Strophe 1. The deceitful Loki encourages Thor to go from home and visit Geirröd, "the master of the temple of the steep altars". The great liar assures him that green paths would take him to Geirröd's halls, that is to say, they were accessible to travellers on foot, and not obstructed by rivers.

NOTE. - For Thor himself the condition of the roads might be of less importance. He who wades across the Elivagar rivers and subterranean streams did not need to be very anxious about finding water-courses crossing his paths. But from the continuation of the poem we learn that this expedition to Jötunheim was not a visit as a guest, or a meeting to fight a duel, as when Thor went to find Hrungnir, but this time he is to press into Jötunheim with a whole army, and thus the character of the road he was to travel was of some importance. The ambush laid in his way does not concern Thor himself, but the giant-foes who constitute his army. If the latter perish in the ambush, then Geirröd and his giants will have Thor alone to fight against, and may then have some hope of victory.

Strophe 2. Thor did not require much urging to undertake the expedition. He leaves Asgard to visit Jötunheim. Of what happened on the way between Asgard and the Elivagar rivers, before Thor penetrated into Jötunheim, the strophe says:

NOTE. - The common understanding of this passage is (1) that endur has nothing to do with the contents, but is a complementary word which may be translated with "once upon a time," a part which endur has to play only too often in the interpretation of the old poems; (2) that Idi is merely a general giant name, applicable, like every other giant name, in a paraphrase Iðja setur, which is supposed to mean Jötunheim; (3) that ríkri Iðja seturs skotum or ríkri Gandvíkur skotum was to give the hearers or readers of Þórsdrápa the (utterly unnecessary) information that Thor was stronger than the giants; and (4) that they who longed to subdue Ymir's kinsmen were Thor and Loki - the same Loki who, in secret understanding with the giant-chief and with one of his daughters (see below), has the purpose of enticing Thor and his companions in arms into a trap!

Ríkri ... skotum is to be regarded as an elliptical sentence in which the instrumental preposition, as is often the case, is to be understood. When Thor came from Asgard to the chalet of Idi, situated near Gandvik, he there gets companions in arms, and through them he becomes ríkri, through them he gets an addition to his own powers in the impending conflicts. The fact that when Thor invades Jötunheim he is at the head of an army is perfectly evident from certain expressions in the poem, and from the poem as a whole. Whence could all these warriors come all of a sudden? They are not dwellers in Asgard, and he has not brought them with him in his lightning chariot. They live near Gandvik, which means "the magic bay," the Elivagar. Gandvik was a purely mythological-geographical name before it became the name of the White Sea in a late Christian time, when the sea between Greenland and America got the mythic name Ginnungagap. Their being the inhabitants on the coast of a bay gives the author of Þórsdrápa an occasion further on to designate them as vikings, bayings. We have already seen that it is a day's journey between Asgard and the Elivagar (see No. 108), and that on the southern coast Thor has an inn, where he stops, and where his precious team and chariot are taken care of while he makes expeditions into Jötunheim. The continuation of the poem shows that this time, too, he stopped at this inn, and that he got his warriors there. Now, as always before, he proceeds on foot, after having reached Jötunheim.

Strophe 3 first makes a mythic chronological statement, namely, that the daughter of Geirröd, "skilled in magic," had come to an understanding with Loki, before Rögnir became the ally of the latter. This mythic chronological statement shows (1) that there was a time when Rögnir did not share Loki's plans, which were inimical to the gods; (2) that the events recounted in Þórsdrápa took place before Rögnir became a foe of the gods. Why Þórsdrápa thinks it necessary to give this information becomes apparent already in the fourth strophe.

Then the departure from Idi's chalet is mentioned. The host hostile to the giants proceeds to Jötunheim, but before it gets thither it must traverse an intermediate region which is called Endil's meadow.

We might expect that instead of speaking of a meadow as the boundary territory which had to be traversed before getting into Jötunheim, the poem would have spoken of the body of water behind which Jötunheim lies, and mentioned it by one of its names - Elivagar, Gandvik, or Hrönn. But on a more careful examination it appears that Endil's meadow is only a paraphrase for a body of water. The proof of this is found in the fact that "Endil's skis," Endils andrar, Endils íturskíð, is a common paraphrase for ship. So is Endils eykur, "Endil's horse". The meadow which Endil crosses on such skis and on such a horse must therefore be a body of water. And no other water can be meant than that which lies between Endil's chalet and Jötunheim, that is, Elivagar, Gandvik.

The name Endill may be the same as Vendill, Vandill (Nafnaþulur), and abbreviation of Örvandill. The initial V was originally a semi-vowel, and as such it alliterated with other semi-vowels and with vowels (compare the rhymes on an Oland runic stone, Vandils jörmungrundar úrgrandari). This easily disappearing semi-vowel may have been thrown out in later times where it seemed to obscure the alliteration, and thus the form Endill may have arisen from Vendill, Vandill. "Örvandil's meadow" is accordingly in poetic language synonymous with Elivagar, and the paraphrase is a fitting one, since Orvandil-Egil had skis which bore him over land and sea, and since Elivagar was the scene of his adventures.

Strophe 4 tells that after crossing "Endil's meadow" the host of warriors invaded Jötunheim on foot, and that information about their invasion into the land of the giants came to the witches there.

Two important facts are here given in regard to these warriors: they are called Gangs gunn-vanir and Vargs friðar, "Gang's warrior-vans," and "Varg's defenders of the land". Thus, in the first strophes of Þórsdrápa, we meet with the names of Ölvaldi's three sons: Rögnir (Thjazi), Iði, and Gangur. The poem mentions Rögnir's name in stating that the expedition occurred before Rögnir became the foe of the gods; it names Idi's name when it tells that it was at his (Idi's) chalet near Gandvik that Thor gathered these warriors around him; and it names Gangur's name, and in connection therewith Vargur's name, when it is to state who the leaders were of those champions who accompanied Thor against Geirröd. Under such circumstances it is manifest that Þórsdrápa relates an episode in which Idi, Gang, and Thjazi appear as friends of Thor and foes of the giants, and that the poem locates their original country in the regions on the south coast of Elivagar, and makes Iðja setur to be situated near the same strand, and play in Thor's expeditions the same part as Örvandil-Egil's abode near the Elivagar, which is also called chalet, Geirvandils setur, and Ýsetur. The Vargur who is mentioned is, therefore, so far as can be seen, Rögnir-Thjazi himself, who in Haustlaung, as we know, is called fjallgyldir, that is to say, wolf.

All the warriors accompanying Thor were eager to fight Ymir's descendants, as we have seen in the second strophe. But the last lines of strophe 4 represent one in particular as longing to contend with one of the warlike and terrible giantesses of giant-land. This champion is not mentioned by name, but he is characterised as bragðmildur, "quick to conceive and quick to move"; as bræðivændur, "he who is wont to offer food to eat"; and as bölkveitir or bölkvetir Loka, "he who compensated Loki's evil deed". The characterisations fit Örvandil-Egil, the nimble archer and ski-runner, who, at his chalet, receives Thor as his guest, when the latter is on his way to Jötunheim, and who gave Thor Thjalfi and Röskva as a compensation, when Loki had deceitfully induced Thjalfi to break a bone belonging to one of Thor's slaughtered goats for the purpose of getting at the marrow. If Þórsdrápa had added that the champion thus designated also was the best archer of mythology, there could be no doubt that Egil was meant. This addition is made further on in the poem, and of itself confirms the fact that Egil took part in the expedition.

Strophe 5, compared with strophes 6 and 7, informs us that Thor, with his troop of champions, in the course of his march came into one of the wild mountain-regions of Jötunheim. The weather is bad and hail-showers fall. And here Thor finds out that Loki has deceived him in the most insolent manner. By his directions Thor has led his forces to the place where they now are, and here rushes forth from between the mountains a river into which great streams, swelling with hail-showers, roll down from the mountains with seething ice-water. To find in such a river a ford by which his companions can cross was for Thor a difficult matter.

Strophe 6. Meanwhile the men from Idi's chalet had confidently descended into the river. A comparison with strophes 7 and 8 shows that they cautiously kept near Thor, and waded a little farther up the river than he. They used their spears as staffs, which they put down into the stony bottom of the river. The din of the spears, when their metallic points came in contact with the stones of the bottom, blended with the noise of the eddies roaring around the rocks of the river (Knátti hreggi höggvin hlymþél við möl glymja, en fjalla fellihryn þaut með Feðju steðja).

Strophe 7. In the meantime the river constantly rises and increases in violence, and its ocean-like billows are already breaking against Thor's powerful shoulders. If this is to continue, Thor will have to resort to the power inherent in him of rising equally with the increase of the waves.

NOTE. - But the warriors from Idi's setur, who do not possess this power, what are they to do? The plan laid between Loki and the witches of Jötunheim is manifestly to drown them. And the succeeding strophes show that they are in the most imminent danger.

Strophes 8 and 9. These bold warriors waded with firm steps; but the billowing masses of water increased in swiftness every moment. While Thor's powerful hands hold fast to the staff of safety, the current is altogether too strong for the spears, which the Gandvik champions have to support themselves on. On the mountains stood giantesses increasing the strength of the current. Then it happened that "the god of the bow, driven by the violence of the billows, rushed upon Thor's shoulder (kykva nauðar áss, blásinn hraunjardar skafls hretviðri, þurði hauðurs runn of herði), while Thjalfi with his comrades came, as if they had been automatically lifted up, and seized hold of the belt of the celestial prince" (Thor) (unz Þjálfi með ýta sinni kom sjálflopta á himinsjóla skaunar-seil).

NOTE. - Thus the plan laid by Loki and the giantesses to drown the men hostile to the giants, the men dwelling on the south coast of the Elivagar, came near succeeding. They were saved by their prudence in wading higher up the stream than Thor, so that, if they lost their foothold, they could be hurled by the eddies against him. One of the Gandvik champions, and, as the continuation of the poems shows, the foremost one among them, here characterised as "the god of the bow," is tossed by a storm-billow against Thor's shoulders, and there saves himself. Thjalfi and the whole remaining host of the warriors of Idi's setur have at the same time been carried by the waves down against Hlödyn's powerful son, and save themselves by seizing hold of his belt of strength. With "the god of the bow" on his shoulders, and with a whole host of warriors clinging to his waist, Thor continues his wading across the stream.

In strophe 8, the Gandvik champions are designated by two paraphrases. We have already seen them described as "Gang's warrior-vans" and as "Varg's land-defenders". Here they are called "the clever warriors of the viking-setur" (víkinga seturs snotrir gunnar runnar) and "Odin's land-defenders, bound by oaths" (Gauta eiðsvara friðar). That Idi's setur is called "the vikings' setur" is explained by the fact that it is situated near Gandvik, and that these bayings had the Elivagar as the scene of their conflicts with the powers of frost. That they are Odin's land-defenders, bound by oaths, means that they are mythical beings, who in rank are lower than the Asas, and are pledged by oaths to serve Odin and defend his territory against the giants. Their setur (chalet) near Gandvik is therefore an outpost against the powers of frost. It follows that Idi, Gang, and Thjazi originally are numina, though of a lower, serving rank; that their relation to the higher world of gods was of such a character that they could not by their very nature be regarded as foes of the giants, but are bound to the cause of the gods by oaths; but on the other hand they could not be full-blooded giants of the race produced from Ymir's feet (see No. 86). Their original home is not Jötunheim itself, but a land bordering on the home of the giants, and this mytho-geographical locality must correspond with their mytho-genealogical position. The last strophe in Þórsdrápa calls the giants slain by the Gandvik champions "Alfheim's calves," Alfheim's cattle to be slaughtered, and this seems to indicate that these champions belong to the third and lowest of those clans into which the divinities of the Teutonic mythology are divided, that is, the elves.

The Gandvik champion who rescues himself on Thor's shoulders, while the rest of them hold fast to his girdle, is a celebrated archer, and so well known to the hearers of Þórsdrápa, that it was not necessary to mention him by name in order to make it clear who he was. In fact, the epithet applied to him, "the god of the bow" (áss kykva nauðar, and in strophe 18, tvíviðar Týr), is quite sufficient to designate him as the foremost archer of mythology, that is, Örvandil-Egil, who is here carried on Thor's shoulders through the raging waves, just as on another occasion he was carried by Thor in his basket across the Elivagar. Already in strophe 4 he is referred to as the hero nimble in thought and body, who is known for his hospitality, and who made compensation for Loki's evil deed. The foremost one next after him among the Gandvik champions is Thjalfi, Egil's foster-son. The others are designated as Thjalfi's ýta sinni, his body of men.

Thus we find that the two foremost among "Gang's warrior-vans," who with Thor marched forth from "Idi's setur," before Rögnir (Thjazi) became Loki's ally, are Völund's and Slagfinn's brother Egil and Egil's foster-son Thjalfi. We find that Egil and Thjalfi belong to the inhabitants of Idi's setur, where Thor on this occasion had stopped, and where he had left his chariot and goats, for now, as on other occasions, he goes on foot to Jötunheim. And as in other sources Egil is mentioned as the one who on such occasions gives lodgings to Thor and his goats, and as Þórsdrápa also indicates that he is the hospitable host who had received Thor in his house, and had paid him a ransom for the damage caused by Loki to one of his goats, then this must be a most satisfactory proof that Idi's setur is the same place as the Geirvaðils setur inhabited by Egil and his brothers, and that Örvandil-Egil is identical either with Idi or with Gang, from which it follows, again, that Alvaldi's (Ölvaldi's) sons, Idi, Gang, and Thjazi, are identical with Ivaldi's sons, Slagfinn, Egil, and Völund.

That Egil is identical with Gang and not with Idi is apparent from a comparison with the Grotti-song. There Ölvaldi's sons are called Iði, Aurnir, and Þjazi, while in the Younger Edda they are called Iði, Gangur, and Þjazi. Thus Aurnir is identical with Gangur, and as Aurnir means "wild boar," and as "wild boar" (Ebur, Ibor, Ebbo) is an epithet of Egil, Örvandil-Egil must be identical with Gang.

In regard to the rest of Þórsdrápa I may be brief, since it is of less interest to the subject under discussion.

Strophe 10. In spite of the perilous adventure described above, the hearts of Thjalfi and the Gandvik champions were no more terrified than Thor's. Here they are designated as eiðs fjarðar, "the men pledged by oath," with which is to be compared eiðsvara friðar in strophe 8.

Strophes 11, 12, show that Thor landed safely with his burden. Scarcely had he and his companions got a firm foothold on the other strand before Geirröd's giant-clan, "the world-tree-destroying folk of the sea-belt," came to the spot, and a conflict arose, in which the attacks of the giants were firmly repulsed, and the latter were finally forced to retreat.

Strophe 13. After the victory Thor's terrible hosts pressed farther into Jötunheim to open Geirröd's hall, and they arrived there amid the din and noise of cave-dwellers.

The following strophes mention that Thor broke the backs of Geirröd's daughters, and pressed with his warriors into Geirröd's hall, where he was received with a piece of red-hot iron hurled by the latter, which, hurled back by Thor, caused the death of the giant-chief. Thor had given the glowing javelin such a force that some one who stood near him, probably Egil, "drank so that he reeled in the air-current of the piece of iron the air-drink of Hrimnir's daughter" (svalg hrapmunnum á síu lopti Hrímnis drósar lyptisylg). Hrimnir's daughter is Gullveig-Heid (Hyndluljóð 32 = Völuspá in skamma 4), and her "air-drink" is the fire, over which the gods held her lifted on their spears (Völuspá 21).

As we see from the context, Geirröd's halls were filled with the men who had fled from the battle near the river, and within the mountain there arose another conflict, which is described in the last three strophes of the poem. Geirröd's hall shook with the din of battle. Thor swung his bloody hammer. "The staff of safety," "the help-tree of the way," the staff on which Thor supported himself in crossing the river, fell into Egil's hands (kom að tvíviðar Tývi brautar liðs tollur), who did not here have room to use his bow, but who, with this "convenient tree jerked (or broken) from the forest," gave death-blows to "the calves of Alfheim". The arrows from his quiver could not be used in this crowded place against the men of the mountain-chief.

The fact that the giants in Þórsdrápa use the sling is of interest to the question concerning the position of the various weapons of mythology. Geirröd is called vegtaugar þrjótur, "the industrious applier of the sling" (str. 17), and álmtaugar Ægir, "the Ægir of the sling made of elm-bast".

In the last strophe Egil is said to be helblótinn and hneitir undirfjálfs bliku, expressions to which I shall recur further on.

Like the relation between Völund and his swan-maids in Völundarkviða, the relation between Rögnir-Thjazi and Idunn in Forspjallsljóð is not that of the robber to his unwilling victim, but one of mutual harmony. This is confirmed by a poem which I shall analyse when the investigation reaches a point that demands it, and according to which Idunn was from her childhood tied by bonds of love and by oath to the highly-gifted but unhappy son of Ivaldi, to the great artist who, by his irreconcilable thirst for revenge, became the Lucifer of Teutonic mythology, while Loki is its Mefisto. I presume that the means of rejuvenation, the divine remedy against age (ellilyf ása - Haustlaung), which Idunn alone in Asgard knows and possesses, was a product of Thjazi-Völund's art. The middle age also remembered Völund (Wieland) as a physician, and this trait seems to be from the oldest time, for in Rigveda, too, the counterparts of the Ivaldi sons, that is, the Ribhus, at the request of the gods, invent means of rejuvenation. It may be presumed that the mythology described his exterior personality in a clear manner. From his mother he must have inherited his giant strength, which, according to the Grotti-song, surpassed Hrungnir's and that of the father of the latter (harður var Hrungnir og hans faðir, þó var Þjazi þeim öflgari - Gróttasöngur 9). With his strength beauty was doubtless united. Otherwise, Völundarkviða's author would scarcely have said that his swan-maid laid her arms around Önund's (Völund's) "white" neck. That his eyes were conceived as glittering may be concluded from the fact that they distinguish him on the starry canopy as a star-hero, and that in Völundarkviða Nidad's queen speaks of the threatening glow in the gaze of the fettered artist (ámun eru augu ormi þeim inum frána - Völundarkviða 17).

Ivaldi's sons - Thjazi-Völund, Aurnir-Egil, and Idi-Slagfinn - are, as we have seen, bastards of an elf and a giantess (Greip, Gambara). Ivaldi's daughters, on the other hand (see No. 113), have as mother a sun-dis, daughter of the ruler of the atmosphere, Nokkvir. In other sources the statement in Forspjallsljóð (6) is confirmed, that Ivaldi had two groups of children, and that she who "among the races of elves was called Idunn" belonged to one of them. Thus, while Idunn and her sisters are half-sisters to Ivaldi's sons, these are in turn half-brothers to pure giants, sons of Greip, and these giants are, according to the Grotti-song (9), the fathers of Fenja and Menja. The relationship of the Ivaldi sons to the gods on the one hand and to the giants on the other may be illustrated by the following scheme: