Part 5

Slagfinn-Gjuki has many names in the German traditions, as in the Norse. Along with the name Gibich, Gibche (Gjuki), occur the synonyms Dankrat, Irung, and Aldrian. In the latter part of Nibelunge Noth Gibich is called Dankrat (cp. "Klage"; Biterolf also has the name Dankrat, and speaks of it in a manner which shows that in some of the sources used by the author Dankrat was a synonym of Gibich). In Vilkinasaga Gjuki appears now as Irung, now as Aldrian. Aldrian is (Vilkinasaga, 150) king of Niflungaland, and has the sons Högni, Gunnar, Gernoz, and Gilzer. Irung (Vilkin., 15) is also king of Niflungaland, and has the sons Hogni, Gunnar, Guthorm, Gernoz, and Gisler. As Gjuki also is a Niflung, and has the sons Hogni, Gunnar, and Guthorm, there can be no doubt that Gjuki, Gibche, Dankrat, Irung, and Aldrian are synonyms, designating one and the same person, namely, Völundarkviða's Slagfinn, the Idi of the mythology. Nibelunge Noth, too, speaks of Aldrian as the father of Hagen (Hogni). Aldrian's wife is called Oda, Gibich's "Frau Uote," Dankrat's "Frau Ute".

The Norse form for Dankrat (Tancred) is Þakkráður, Thakkrad. This name appears a single time in the Norse records, and then in connection with Völund and Nidad. In Völundarkvida 39 Thakkrad is mentioned as Nidhad's chief servant, who still remains in his service when Völund, his revenge accomplished, flies in an eagle's guise away from his prison. That this servant bears a name that belongs to Slagfinn-Gjuki, Völund's brother, cannot be an accident. We must compare an account in Vilkinasaga, according to which Völund's other brother Egil was in Nidad's service when Völund flew away. It follows that the heroic saga made not only Völund, but also Slagfinn and Egil, fall into Nidad's hands. Both in Völundarkviða itself and in its prose introduction we read that when the home-sick swan-maids had left the Wolfdales, Egil and Slagfinn betook themselves thence, Egil going to the east to look for his swan-maid Ölrun, Slagfinn going south to find his Svanhvit (Völundarkvida 5), and that Nidad thereupon learned - the song does not say how - that Völund was alone in the Wolfdales (Völundarkvida 7). The assumption here lies near at hand, that Nidhad found it out from the fact that Slagfinn and Egil, though going away in different directions, fell into his power while they were looking for their beloved. Whether this feature belonged to the myth or not cannot be determined. At all events it is remarkable that we refind in Völundarkviða the Gjuki name Thakkrad, as in Vilkinasaga we find Völund's brother Egil in Nidad's environment.

The name Irung, Iring, as a synonym of Gjuki, is of more importance from a mythological point of view. Widukind of Corvei (about the year 950) tells us in ch. 13 of his Saxon Chronicle that "the Milky Way is designated by Iring's name even to this day". Just previously he has mentioned a Saxon warrior by this name, whom he believes to have been the cause of this appellation (... Iringi nomine, quem ita vocitant, lacteus coeli circulus sit vocatus; and in the Aursberg Chronicle, according to J. Grimm, ... lacteus coeli circulus Iringis, nomine Iringesstraza sit vocatus). According to Anglo-Saxon glossaries, the Milky Way is called Iringes uueg. With this we should compare the statements made above, that the Milky Way among the Teutonic population of England was called the way of the Watlings (that is, the descendants of Vati, i.e., Ivaldi). Both the statements harmonise. In the one it is the descendants of Ivaldi in general, in the other it is Slagfinn-Iring whose name is connected with the Milky Way. Thus Slagfinn, like Völund and Örvandil-Egil, was a star-hero. In "Klage" it is said of Iring and two other heroes, in whose company he appears in two other poems, that they committed grave mnistakes and were declared banished, and that they, in spite of efforts at reconciliation, remained under the penalty to the end of their lives. Biterolf says that they were exiles and threatened by their foes. Here we have a reverberation of the myth concerning the conflict between the gods and the Ivaldi sons, of Frey's unsuccessful effort to reconcile the enemies, and of their flight to the extreme north of the earth. In the German poems they take flight to Attila.

The Gjuki synonym Aldrian is a name formed in analogy with Albrian, which is a variation of Elberich. In analogy herewith Aldrian should be a variation of Elderich, Helderich. In Galfrid of Monmouth's British History there is a Saxon saga-hero Cheldricus, who, in alliance with a Saxon chief Baldulf, fights with King Artus' general Cador, and is slain by him. How far the name-forms Aldrian-Elderich have any connection with the Latinised Cheldricus I think best to leave undetermined; but there are other reasons which, independently of a real or apparent name-identity, indicate that this Cheldricus is the same person as Aldrian-Gjuki. Bugge has already pointed out that Baldrian corresponds to Baldur, Cador to Höður; that Galfrid's account has points of contact with Saxo's about the war between Baldur and Hödur, and that Galfrid's Cheldricus corresponds to Saxo's King Gelderus, Geldr, who fights with Hodur and falls in conflict with him.

That which at once strikes us in Saxo's account of Gelderus (see No. 101) is that he takes arms against Hotherus, when he learns that the latter has got possession of the sword of victory and the wealth-producing ring-treasures that were smithied by Völund, and in that sense belonged to the Niblung hoard. That Saxo in this manner gave a reason for the appearance of Gelderus can only be explained by the fact that Gelderus had been in some way connected with the Niblung hoard, and looked upon himself as more entitled to it than Hotherus. This right could hardly be based on any other reason than the fact that Gelderus was a Niflung, a kinsman of the maker and owner of the treasures. In the Vilkinasaga the keeper and protector of the Niblung hoard, the one who has the key to the rocky chambers where the hoard is kept bears the very name Aldrian, consequently the very surname of Slagfin-Gjuki, Völund's and Egil's brother. This of itself indicates that Gelderus is Slagfinn-Aldrian.