Part 5

I now come to the third Ivaldi son, Slagfinn. The name Slagfinn (Slagfiður, Slagfinnur) occurs nowhere else than in Völundarkviða, and in the prose introduction to the same. All that we learn of him is that, like Egil, he accompanied his brother Völund to the Wolf-dales; that, like them, he runs on skis and is a hunter; and that, when the swan-maids, in the ninth year of their abode in the Wolf-dales, are overcome by longing and return to the south, he goes away to find his beloved, just as Egil goes to find his. We learn, furthermore, that Slagfinn's swan-maid is a sister of Völund's and a kinswoman of Egil's, and that she, accordingly, is Slagfinn's sister (half-sister). She is called Hlaðguður Svanhvít, likewise a name which occurs nowhere else. Her (and accordingly also that of Völund's swan-maid) mother is called Swan-feather, Svanfjöður (Slagfinn's beloved is Svanfjaðrar drós - strophe 2). The name Swan-feather reminds us of the Svanhild Gold-feather mentioned in Fornaldarsögur (Hversu Noregur byggðist), wife of one Finnalf. If Svanfeather is identical with Svanhild Gold-feather, then Finnalf must originally be identical with Ivaldi, who also is an elf and bears the name Finnakonungur, Sumblus Phinnorum rex. But this then simply confirms what we already know, namely, that the Ivaldi sons and two of the swan-maids are brothers and sisters. It, however, gives us no clue by which we can trace Slagfinn in other sources, and rediscover him bearing other names, and restore the myth concerning him which seems to be lost. That he, however, played an important part in the mythology may be assumed already from the fact that his brothers hold places so central in the great epic of the mythology. It is, therefore, highly probable that he is mentioned in our mythic fragments, though concealed under some other name. One of these names, viz., Idi, we have already found (see No. 114); and thereby we have learned that he, with his brother Egil, had a citadel near the Elivagar, and guarded their coasts against the powers of frost. But of his fate in general we are ignorant. No extensive researches are required, however, before we find circumstances which, compared with each other, give us the result that Slagfinn is Gjuki, and therewith the way is open for a nearer acquaintance with his position in the heroic saga, and before that in the mythology. His identity with Gjuki is manifest from the following circumstances:

The Gjukungs, famous in the heroic saga, are, according to the saga itself, the first ones who bear this name. Their father is Gjuki, from whom this patronymic is derived. Through their father they belong to a race that is called Hniflungs, Niflungs, Nebelungs. The Gjukungs form a branch of the Niflung race, hence all Gjukungs are Niflungs, but not all Niflungs Gjukungs. The Younger Edda says correctly, Af Niflunga ætt var Gjúki (Skáldskaparmál 80), and Atlakviða 17 shows that the Gjukungs constitute only a part of the Niflungs. The identity of the Gjukungs in this relative sense with the Niflungs is known and pointed out in Atlamál (47, 52, 88), in Brot af Sigurðarkviðu 16, in Atlakviða (11, 17, 27), and in "Dráp Niflunga".

Who the Niflung race are in the widest sense of the word, or what known heroes the race embraced besides Gjuki and his sons - to this question the saga of Helgi Hundingsbani (I. 48) gives important information, inasmuch as the passage informs us that the hostile race which Helgi Hundingsbani - that is to say, Halfdan Borgarson (see No. 29) - combats are the Niflungs. Foremost among the Niflungs Hödbrodd is mentioned in this poem, whose betrothed Helgi (Halfdan Borgarson) gets into his power. It has already been shown that, in this heroic poem, Hödbrodd is the copy of the mythological Örvandil-Egil (see Nos. 29, 32, 101). It follows that Völund, Örvandil-Egil, and Slagfinn are Niflungs, and that Gjuki either is identical with one of them or that he at all events is descended from the same progenitor as they.

The great treasure of works smithied from gold and other precious things which the Gjukungs owned, according to the heroic traditions, are designated in the different sources in the same manner as inherited. In Atlakvida 11 the Gjukung treasure is called arf Niflunga; so also in Atlakviða 27. In Guðrúnarkviða (II. 25) the queen of the deceased Gjuki promises her and Gjuki's daughter, Gudrun, that she is to have the control of all the treasures "after (að) her dead father (fjöld alls fjár að þinn föður dauðan), and we are told that those treasures, together with the halls in which they were kept and the precious carpets, are an inheritance after (að) Hlödver, "the fallen prince" (hringa rauða Hlöðvés sali, ársal allan að jöfur fallinn). From Völundarkviða we gather that Völund's and Slagfinn's swan-maids are daughters of Hlödver and sisters of their lovers. Thus Hlödver is identical with Ivaldi, Völund's, Egil's, and Slagfinn's father (see No. 123). Ivaldi's splendidly decorated halls, together with at least one son's share of his golden treasures, have thus passed as an inheritance to Gjuki, and from Gjuki to his sons, the Gjukungs. While the first song about Helgi Hundingsbani tells us that Völund, Egil, and Slagfinn were, like Gjuki, Niflungs, we here learn that Gjuki was the heir of Völund's, Egil's, and Slagfinn's father. And while Þórsdrápa, compared with other sources, has already informed us that Idi-Slagfinn and Gang-Egil inhabited that citadel near the Elivagar which is called "Idi's chalet" and Geirvadil's (Geirvandil's) chalet, and while Geirvandil is demonstrably an epithet of Ivaldi [*], and as Ivaldi's citadel accordingly passed into the possession of Slagfinn and Egil, we here find that Ivaldi's citadel was inherited by Gjuki. Finally, we must compare herewith Skáldskaparmál 4, where it is said that Ivaldi (there called Ölvaldi) was survived by his sons, who harmoniously divided his great treasures. Thus Gjuki is one of the sons of Ivaldi, and inherited halls and treasures after Ivaldi; and as he can be neither Völund nor Egil, whose fates we already know, he must be Slagfinn - a result confirmed by the evidence which we shall gradually present below.

[* In Saxo Gervandillus (Geirvandill) is the father of Horvandillus (Örvandill). Örvandil has been proved to be identical with Egil. And as Egil is the son of Ivaldi, Geirvandil is identical with Ivaldi. ]