Part 5

Observations made in the course of my investigations anent Ivaldi and his sons have time and again led me to the unexpected result that Ivaldi's sons, Slagfin, Egil, and Volund, are identical with Olvaldi-Alvaldi's sons, who, in Gróttasöngur are called Iði, Urnir or Aurnir (Örnir), and Þjazi, and in Skáldskaparmál 4, Þjazi, Iði, and Gangur. This result was unexpected and, as it seemed to me in the beginning, improbable, for the reason that where Thjazi is mentioned in the Elder Edda, he is usually styled a giant, while Volund is called a prince or chief of elves in Völundarkviða. In Grímnismál 11 Thjazi is designated as inn ámátki jötunn; in Hárbarðsljoð 19 as inn þrúðmóðgi jötunn; in Hyndluljóð 30 (Völuspá in skamma 2) as a kinsman of Gymir and Aurboda. The Grotti-song (9) says that Thjazi, Idi, and Aurnir were brothers of those mountain giants who were the fathers of Menja and Fenja. In the Younger Edda he is also called a jötunn. In the beginning of my researches, and before Volund's position in the mythology was clear to me, it appeared to me highly improbable that a prince among the elves and one of the chief artists in the mythology could be characterised as a giant. Indeed I was already then aware that the clan-names occurring in the mythology - áss, vanur, álfur, dvergur, and jötunn - did not exclusively designate the descent of the beings, but could also be applied to them on account of qualities developed or positions acquired, regardless of the clan to which they actually belonged by their birth. In Þrymskviða 15, so to speak in the same breath, Heimdall is called both áss and vanur - "þá kvað það Heimdallur, hvítastur ása, vissi hann vel fram sem vanir aðrir". And Loki is designated both as áss and jötunn, although the Asas and giants represent the two extremes. Neither Heimdall nor Loki are of the Asa-clan by birth; but they are adopted in Asgard, that is, they are adopted Asas, and this explains the appellation. Elves and dwarfs are doubtless by descent different classes of beings, but the word dwarf, which in the earliest Christian times became the synonym of a being of diminutive stature, also meant an artist, a smith, whence both Vans and elves, nay, even Fjalar, could be incorporated in the Völuspá dwarf-list. When, during the progress of my investigations, it appeared that Volund and his brothers in the epic of the mythology were the most dangerous foes of the gods and led the powers of frost in their efforts to destroy the world, it could no longer surprise me that Volund, though an elf prince, was characterised as inn ámátki jötunn, inn þrúðmóðgi jötunn. But there was another difficulty in the way: according to Hyndluljóð and the Grotti-song, Thjazi and his brothers were kinsmen of giants, and must therefore undoubtedly have had giant-blood in their veins. But there are kinsmen of the giants among the Asas too; and when in the progress of the investigation it appears that Thjazi's mother is a giantess, but his father a hapt, a god of lower rank, then his maternal descent, and his position as an ally and chief of the giants, and as the most powerful foe of Asgard and Midgard, are sufficient to explain the apparent contradiction that he is at the same time a giant and a kinsman of the giants, and still identical with the elf-prince, Volund. It should also be observed that, as shall be shown below, the tradition has preserved the memory of the fact that Volund too was called a giant and had kinsmen among the giants.

The reasons which, taken collectively, prove conclusively, at least to me, that Ivaldi's sons and Olvaldi's are identical are the following:

(1) In regard to the names themselves, we note in the first place that, as has already been pointed out, the name of the father of Idi, of Aurnir-Gang, and of Thjazi appears with the variations Alvaldi, Ölvaldi, and Auðvaldi. To persons speaking a language in which the prefixes Í-, Ið-, and Al- are equivalents and are substituted for one another, and accustomed to poetics, in which it was the most common thing to substitute equivalent nouns and names (for example, Grjótbjörn for Arinbjörn, Fjallgyldir for Ásólfur, &c.), it was impossible to see in Ívaldi and Alvaldi anything but names designating the same person.

(2) Anent the variation Ölvaldi we have already seen that its equivalents Ölmóður and Sumbl (Finnakonungur, phinnorum rex) allude to Slagfin's, Orvandil-Egil's, and Volund's father, while Olvaldi himself is said to be the father of Idi, Aurnir, and Thjazi.

(3) Ajo's and Ibor's mother is called Gambara in Origo Longobardorum and in Paulus Diaconus. Aggo's and Ebbo's mother is called Gambaruc in Saxo. In Ibor-Ebbo and Ajo-Aggo we have re-discovered Egil and Volund. The Teutonic stem of which the Latinised Gambara was formed is in all probability gambur, gammur, a synonym of grípur (Nafnaþulur), the German Greif. According to Haustlaung 13, Thjazi's mother is the giantess Greip, daughter of Geirröður. The forms grip, neuter, and greip, feminine, are synonyms in the Old Norse language, and they surely grew out of the same root. While Gambara thus is Volund's mother, Thjazi's mother bears a name to which Gambara alludes.

(4) The variation Auðvaldi means "the one presiding over riches," and the epithet finds its explanation in the Younger Edda's account of the gold treasure left by Thjazi's father, and of its division among his sons (Skáldskaparmál 4). It is there stated that Thjazi's father was mjög gullauðugur. Ivaldi's sons, who gave the gods golden treasures, were likewise rich in gold, and in Völundarkviða Volund speaks of his and his kinsmen's golden wealth in their common home.

(5) Of the manner in which Thjazi and his brothers divided the golden treasure the Younger Edda contains, in the above passage, the following statement: "When Olvaldi died and his sons were to divide the inheritance, they agreed in the division to measure the gold by taking their mouths full of gold an equal number of times. Hence gold is called in poetry the words or speech of these giants."

It is both possible and assumable that in the mythology the brothers divided the gold in silence and in harmony. But that it should have been done in the manner here related may be doubted. There is reason to suspect that the story of the division of the gold in the manner above described was invented in Christian times in order to furnish an explanation of the phrase þingskil Þjaza in Bjarkamál, of Iðja glysmál in the same source, and of Iðja orð, quoted in Málskrúðsfræði. More than one pseudo-mythic story, created in the same manner and stamped by the same taste, is to be found in the Younger Edda. It should not be forgotten that all these phrases have one thing in common, and that is, a public deliberation, a judicial act. Mál and orð do not necessary imply such an allusion, for in addition to the legal meaning, they have the more common one of speech and verbal statements in general; but to get at their actual significance in the paraphrases quoted we must compare them with þingskil, since in these paraphrases all the expressions, þingskil, glysmál, and orð, must be founded on one and the same mythic event. With þingskil is meant that which can be produced before a court by the defendant in a dispute to clear up his case; and as gold ornaments are called Thjazi's þingskil in Bjarkamál, it should follow that some judicial act was mentioned in the mythology, in which gold treasures made or possessed by Thjazi were produced to clear up a dispute which, in some way or other, touched him. From the same point of view Idi's glysmál and Idi's orð are to be interpreted. Idi's glysmál are Idi's "glittering pleadings"; his orð are the evidence or explanation presented in court by the ornaments made by or belonging to him. Now, we know from the mythology a court act in which precious works of the smiths, "glittering pleadings," were produced in reference to the decision of a case. The case or dispute was the one caused by Loki, and the question was whether he had forfeited his head to Sindri or not. As we know, the decision of the dispute depended on a comparison between Brokk's and Sindri's works on the one hand, and those of the Ivaldi sons on the other. Brokk had appeared before the high tribunal, and was able to plead his and his brother's cause. Ivaldi's sons, on the other hand, were not present, but the works done by them had to speak in their behalf, or rather for themselves. From this we have, as it seems to me, a simple and striking explanation of the paraphrases Þjaza þingskil, Iðja glysmál, Iðja orð. Their works of art were the glittering but mute pleadings which were presented, on their part, for the decision of the case. That gold carried in the mouth and never laid before the tribunal should be called þingskil I regard as highly improbable. From heathen poems we cannot produce a single positive proof that a paraphrase of so distorted and inadequate a character was ever used.

(6) Saxo relates that the same Fridlevus-Njord who fought with Anund-Volund and Avo-Egil wooed Anund's daughter and was refused, but was married to her after Anund's death. Thus it would seem that Njord married a daughter of Volund. In the mythology he marries Thjazi's daughter Skadi. Thus Volund and Thjazi act the same part as father-in-law of Njord.

(7) Saxo further relates that Freyja-Syritha's father was married to the soror of Svipdag-Otharus. Soror means sister, but also foster-sister and playmate. If the word is to be taken in its strictest sense, Njord marries a daughter of Volund's brother; if in its modified sense, Volund's daughter.

(8) In a third passage (Saxo, Book I, p. 30), Skadi's father appears under the name Haquinus. The same name belongs to a champion (Book VII, p. 203) who assists Svipdag-Ericus in his combat with the Asa-god Thor and his favourite Halfdan, and is the cause that Thor's and Halfdan's weapons prove themselves worthless against the Volund sword wielded by Svipdag-Ericus. There is, therefore, every reason for regarding Haquinus as one of Saxo's epithets for Volund. The name Hákon, of which Haquinus has been supposed to be the Latinised form, never occurs in the Norse mythic records, but Haquinus is in this case to be explained as a Latinisation with the aspirate usual in Saxo of the Old German Aki, the Middle German Ecke, which occurs in the compositions Eckenbrecht, Eckehard, and Eckesachs. In "Rosengarten," Eckenbrecht is a celebrated weapon-smith. In Vilkinasaga, Eckehard is, like Volund, a smith who works for Mimir; and Eckesacbs is a sword made by the three dwarfs, of which in part the same story is told as of Volund's sword of victory. Thus while Haquinus and what is narrated of Haquinus refers to the smith Volund, a person who in Saxo is called Haquinus assumes the place which belongs to Thjazi in his capacity of Skadi's father.

(9) In Lokasenna 17, Loki reproaches Idun that she has embraced the slayer of her own brother:

þig kveð eg allra kvenna
vergjarnasta vera,
sízt arma þína
lagðir íturþvegna
um þinn bróðurbana.

Idun is a daughter of Ivaldi (Forspjallsljóð), and hence a sister or half-sister of the famous smiths, Ivaldi's sons. From the passage it thus appears that one of Ivaldi's sons was slain, and Loki insists that Idun had given herself to the man who was the cause of his death.

There is not the slightest reason to doubt that in this instance, as in so many other cases, Loki boasts of the evil deeds he has committed, and of the successes he has had among the asynjes, according to his own assurances. With the reproches cast on Idun we should compare what he affirms in regard to Freyja, in regard to Tyr's wife, in regard to Skadi and Sif, in reference to all of whom he claims that they have secretly been his mistresses. Against Idun he could more easily and more truthfully bring this charge, for the reason that she was at one time wholly in his power, namely, when he stole into Thjazi's halls and carried her away thence to Asgard (Skáldskaparmál 3). Under such circumstances, that slayer of Idun's brother, whom she is charged with embracing, can be none other than Loki himself. As a further allusion to this, the author of the poem makes Loki speak of a circumstance connected with the adventure - namely, that Idun, to sweeten the pleasure of the critical hour, washed her arms shining white - a circumstance of which none other than herself and her secret lover could know. Thus Loki is the cause of the slaying of one of the famous artists, Ivaldi's sons. The murders of which Loki boasts in the poem are two only, that of Baldur and that of Thjazi. He says that he advised the killing of Baldur, and that he was the first and foremost in the killing of Thjazi (fyrstur og efstur). Baldur was not Idun's brother. So far as we can make out from the mythic records extant, the Ivaldi son slain must have been identical with Thjazi, the son of Alvaldi. There is no other choice.

(10) It has already been shown above that Volund and the swan-maid who came to him in the Wolfdales were either brother and sister or half-brother and half-sister. From what has been stated above, it follows that Thjazi and Idun were related to each other in the same manner.

(11) Thjazi's house is called Brunn-akr (Haustlaung 9). In Völundarkviða 10 Volund is called Brunni.

(12) Idun has the epithet Snót (Haustlaung 2), "the wise one," "the intlligent one ". Volund's swan-maid has the epithet Alvitur, "the much-knowing one," "the very intelligent one" (Völundarkviða 1). Volund has the epithet Ásólfur (Hyndluljóð; cp. No. 109). Thjazi has the epithet Fjallgyldir (Haustlaung 4), which is a paraphrase of Ásólfr (áss = fjall, úlfur = gyldir).

(13) One of Volund's brothers, namely Orvandil-Egil, had the epithet "Wild boar" (Ibor, Ebur). One of Thjazi's brothers is called Urnir, Aurnir. This name means "wild boar". Compare the Swedish and Norwegian peasant word orne, and the Icelandic word runi (a boar), in which the letters are transposed.

(14) At least one of Alvaldi's sons was a star-hero, viz., Thjazi, whose eyes Odin and Thor fastened on the heavens (Hárbarðsljóð 19; Skáldskaparmál 3). At least one of Ivaldi's sons was a star-hero, viz., Orvandil-Egil (Skáldskaparmál 25). No star-hero is mentioned who is not called a son of Alvaldi or is a son of Ivaldi, and not a single name of a star or of a group of stars can with certainty be pointed out which does not refer to Alvaldi's or Ivaldi's sons. From the Norse sources we have the names Örvandilstá, Þjaza augu, Lokabrenna, and reið Rögnis. Lokabrenna, the Icelandic name of Sirius, can only refer to the brenna (fire) caused by Loki when Thjazi fell into the vaferflames kindled around Asgard. In reið Rögnis, Rognir's car, Rognir is, as shall be shown below, the epithet of a mythic person, in whom we rediscover both Volund and Thjazi. In Old English writings the Milky Way is called Vætlingastræt, Watlingestræt. The Watlings or Vætlings can only be explained as a patronymic meaning Vati's sons. Vati (Vaði) is one of the names of the father of Volund and his brothers (see No. 110). Another old English name of a star-group is Eburthrung, Eburthring. Here Egil's surname Ebur, "wild boar," reappears. The name Idi, borne by a brother of Thjazi, also seems to have designated a star-hero in England.

At least two of these figures and names are very old and of ancient Aryan origin. I do not know the reasons why Vigfusson assumes that Orvandil is identical with Orion, but the assumption is corroborated by mythological facts. Orion is the most celebrated archer and hunter of Greek mythology, just as Orvandil is that of the Teutonic. Like Orvandil-Egil, he has two brothers of whom the one Lykos (wolf) has a Telchin name, and doubtless was originally identical with the Telchin Lykos, who, like Volund, is a great artist and is also endowed with powers to influence the weather. Orion could, so it is said, walk on the sea as well as on the land. Orvandil-Egil has skis, with which he travels on the sea as well as on the snow-fields, whence small ships are called Egil's andrar, Egil's skis (Kormak, 5). Orion woos a daughter of Oinopion. The first part of the word is oinos (wine); and as Oinopion is the son of Bacchus, there is no room for doubt that he originally had a place in the Aryan myth in regard to the mead. Orvandil-Egil woos a daughter of Sumbl (Olvaldi), the king of the Finns, who in the Teutonic mythology is Oinopion's counterpart. Orion is described as a giant, a tall and exceedingly handsome man, and is said to be a brother of the Titans. His first wife, the beautiful Sida, he soon lost by death; just as Orvandil lost Groa. Sida, with its Dorian variation Rhoa, means fruit. The name Groa refers, like Sida, Rhoa, to vegetation, growth. After Sida's decease, Orion woos Oinopion's daughter, just as Orvandil-Egil woos the daughter of the Finnish king Sumbl after Groa's death. He has a third erotic alliance with Eos. According to one record he is said to have been killed because, in his love of the chase, he had said that he would exterminate all game on earth. This statement may have its origin in the myth preserved by the Teutons about Volund's and Orvandil-Egil's effort to destroy all life on the earth by the aid of the powers of frost. Hesiod says that the Pleiades (which set when Orion rises above the horizon) save themselves from Orion in the stream of the ocean. The above-mentioned Old English name of a constellation Eburthrung may refer to the Pleiades, since the part þrung, drying, refers to a dense cluster of stars. The first part of the word, Ebur, as already stated, is a surname of Orvandil-Egil. It should be added that the points of similarity between the Orion and Orvandil myths are of such a nature that they exclude all idea of being borrowed one from the other. Like the most of the Greek myths in the form in which they have been handed down to us, the Orion myth is without any organic connection with any epic whole. The Orvandil myth, on the other hand, dovetails itself as a part into a mythological epic which, in grand and original outlines, represents the struggle between gods, patriarchs, ancient artists, and frost-giants for the control of the world.

The name Thjazi, Þjazi, in an older and uncorrupted form Þizi, I regard to be most ancient like the person that bears it. According to my opinion, Thjazi is identical with the star-hero mentioned in Rigveda, Tishya, the Tistrya of the Iranians, who in Rigveda (x. 64, 8) is worshipped together with an archer, who presumably was his brother. The German middle-age poetry has preserved the name Thjazi in the form Desen (which is related to Þjazi as Delven is to Þjálfi). In "Dieterichs Flucht" Desen is a king, whose daughter marries Dieterich-Hadding's father. In the Norse sources a sister of Thjazi (Alveig-Signy, daughter of Sumbl, the king of the Finns) marries Hadding's father, Halfdan. Comnion to the German and Norse traditions is, therefore, that Hadding's father marries a near kinswoman of Thjazi.

(15) In the poem Haustlaung Thjazi's adventure is mentioned, when he captured Loki with the magic rail. Here we get remarkable, hitherto misunderstood, facts in regard to Thjazi's personality.

That they have been misunderstood is not owing to lack of attention or acumen on the part of the interpreters. On the contrary, acumen has been lavished thereon. [*See for example Th. Wisen's investigations and Finnur Jonsson's Krit. Stud. (Copenhagen, 1884).] In some cases the scholars have resorted to text-changes in order to make the contents intelligible, and this was necessary on account of the form in which our mythology hitherto has been presented, and that for good reasons, since important studies of another kind, especially of accurate editions of the Teutonic mythological texts, have claimed the time of scholars and compelled them to neglect the study of the epic connection of the myths and of their exceedingly rich and abundant synonymics. As a matter of course, an examination of the synonymics and of the epic connection could not fail to shed another light than that which could be gained without this study upon a number of passages in the old mythological poems, and upon the paraphrases based on the myths and occurring in the historical songs.

In Haustlaung Thjazi is called faðir mörna, "the father of the swords". Without the least reason it has been doubted that a mythic person, that is so frequently called a giant, and whose connection with the giant world and whose giant nature are so distinctly held forth in our mythic sources, could be an artist and a maker of swords. Consequently the text has been changed to faðir mornar or faðir morna, the father of consumption or of the strength-consuming diseases, or of the feminine thurses representing these diseases. But so far as our mythic records give us any information, Thjazi had no other daughter than Skadi, described as a proud, bold, powerful maid, devoted to achievements, who was elevated to the rank of an asynje, became the wife of the god of wealth, the tender stepmother of the lord of harvests (Skírnismál), Frigg's elja, and in this capacity the progenitress of northern rulers, who boasted their descent from her. That Thjazi had more daughters is indeed possible, but they are not mentioned, and it must remain a conjecture on which nothing can be built; and even if such were the case, it must be admitted that as Skadi was the foremost and most celebrated among them, she is the first one to be thought of when there is mention of a daughter or of daughters of Thjazi. But that Skadi should be spoken of as a morn, a consumption-witch, and that Hakon Jarl should be regarded as descended from a demon of consumption, and be celebrated in song as the scion of such a person, I do not deem possible. The text, as we have it, tells us that Thjazi was the father of swords (mörnir = sword; see Younger Edda, Nafnaþulur). We must confine ourselves to this reading and remember that this is not the only passage which we have hitherto met with where his name is put in connection with works of a smith. Such a passage we have already met with in Þjaza þingskil.

(16) In the same poem, Haustlaung, Thjazi is called hapta snytrir, "the one who decorated the gods," furnished them with treasures. This epithet, too, appeared unintelligible, so long as none of the artists of antiquity was recognised in Thjazi; hence text-changes were also resorted to in this case in order to make sense out of the passage.

The situation described is as follows: Odin and Hænir, accompanied by Loki are out on a journey. They have traversed mountains and wildernesses (Skáldskaparmál 2), and are now in a region which, to judge from the context, is situated within Thjazi's domain, Thrymheim. The latter, who is margspakur and lómhugaður (Haustlaung 3, 12), has planned an ambush for Loki in the very place which they have now reached: a valley (Skáldskaparmál 2) overgrown with oak-trees (Haustlaung 6), and the more inviting as a place of refreshment and rest, inasmuch as the Asas are hungry after their long journey (Skáldskaparmál 2), and see a herd of "yoke-bears" pasturing in the grass near by. Thjazi has calculated on this and makes one of the bears act the part of a decoy (tálhreinn = a decoy reindeer - Haustlaung 3; see Vigfusson's Dict., 626), which permits itself to be caught by the travellers. That the animal belongs to Thjazi's herds follows from the fact that it (6) is said to belong to the "dis of the bow-string," Skadi, his daughter. The animal is slaughtered and a fire is kindled, over which it is to be roasted. Near the place selected for the eating of the meal there lies, as it were accidentally, a rail or stake. It resembles a common rail, but is in fact one of Thjazi's smith-works, having magic qualities. When the animal is to be carved, it appears that the "decoy reindeer was quite hard between the bones for the gods to cut" (tálhreinn var meðal beina tormiðlaður tívum - stanza 3). At the same time the Asas had seen a great eagle flying toward them (2), and alighting near the place where they prepared their feast (3). From the context it follows that they took it for granted that the eagle guise concealed Thjazi, the ruler of the region. The animal being found to be so hard to carve, the Asas at once guess that Thjazi, skilled in magic arts, is the cause, and they immediately turn to him with a question, which at the same time tells him that they know who he is: Hvað, kváðu, hapta snytrir hjálmfaldinn, því valda? "They (the gods) said (kváðu): Why cause this (hvað því valda) thou ornament-giver of the gods (hjálmfaldinn hapta snytrir), concealed in a guise (eagle guise)?" He at once answers that he desires his share of the sacred meal of the gods, and to this Odin gives his consent. Nothing indicates that Odin sees a foe in Thjazi. There is then no difficulty in regard to the roast; and when it is ready and divided into four parts Thjazi flies down, but, to plague Loki, he takes so much that the latter, angry, and doubtless also depending on Odin's protection if needed, seizes the rail lying near at hand and strikes the eagle a blow across the back. But Loki could not let go his hold of the rail; his hand stuck fast to one end while the other end clung to the eagle, and Thjazi flew with him and did not let go of him before he had forced him to swear an oath that he would bring Idun into Thjazi's hands.

So long as it was impossible to assume that Thjazi had been the friend of the gods before this event happened, and in the capacity of ancient artist had given them valuable products of his skill, and thus become a hapta snytrir, it was also impossible to see in him, though he was concealed in the guise of an eagle, the hjálmfaldinn here in question, since hjálmfaldinn manifestly is in apposition to hapta snytrir, "the decorator of the gods". (The common meaning of hjálmur, as is well known, is a covering, a garb, of which hjálmur in the sense of a helmet is a specification.) It therefore became necessary to assume that Odin was meant by hjálmfaldinn and hapta snytrir. This led to the changing of kváðu to kvað and to the insertion in the manuscripts of a mun not found there, and to the exclusion of a því found there. The result was, moreover, that no notice was taken of the use made of the expressions hjálmfaldinn and snytrir in a poem closely related to Haustlaung, and evidently referring to its description of Thjazi. This poem is Einar Skalaglam's "Vellekla," which celebrates Hakon Jarl, the Great. Hakon Jarl regarded himself as descended from Thjazi through the latter's daughter, Skadi (Háleygjatal), and on this account Vellekla contains a number of allusions to the mythic progenitor. The task (from a poetic and rhetorical point of view) which Einar has undertaken is in fact that of taking, so far as possible, the kernel of those paraphrases with which he celebrates Hakon Jarl (see below) from the myth concerning Thjazi, and the task is performed with force and acumen. In the execution of his poem Einar has had before him that part of Thjodolf's Haustlaung which concerned Thjazi. In str. 6 he calls Thjazi's descendant þjóðar snytrir, taking his cue from Haustlaung, which calls Thjazi hapta snytrir. In str. 8 he gives Hakon the epithet hjálmi faldinn, having reference to Haustlaung, which makes Thjazi appear hjálmfaldinn. In str. 10 Hakon is a garð-Rögnir, just as Thjazi is a ving-Rögnir in Haustlaung. In str. 11 Hakon is a miðjungur, just as Thjazi is a miðjungur in Haustlaung. In str. 16 an allusion is made in the phrase vildi Yggs niður friðar biðja to Haustlaung's málunautur hvats mátti friðar biðja. In str. 21 Hakon is called hlym-Narfi, just as Thjazi in Haustlaung is called grjót-Niðaður (Narfi and Niðaður are epithets of Mimir; see Nos. 85, 87). In str. 22 Hakon is called fangsæll, and Thjazi has the same epithet in Haustlaung. Some of the paraphrases in Vellekla, to which the myth about Thjazi furnishes the kernel, I shall discuss below. There can, therefore, be no doubt whatever that Einar in Haustlaung's hjálmfaldinn and hapta snytrir saw epithets of Thjazi, and we arrive at the same result if we interpret the text in its original reading and make no emendations.

Thus we have already found three paraphrases which inform us that Thjazi was an ancient artist, one of the great smiths of mythology: (1) Þjaza þingskil, golden treasures produced as evidence in court owned or made by Thjazi; (2) hapta snytrir, he who gave ornaments to the gods; (3) faðir mörna, the father of the swords.

Thjazi's claim to become a table-companion of the gods and to eat with them, af helgu skutli, points in all probability to an ancient mythological fact of which we find a counterpart in the Iranian records. This fact is that, as a compensation for the services he had rendered the gods, Thjazi was anxious to be elevated to their rank and to receive sacrifices from their worshippers. This demand from the Teutonic star-hero Thjazi is also made by the Iranian star-hero Tistrya, Rigveda's Tishya. Tistrya complains in Avesta that he has not sufficient strength to oppose the foe of growth, Apaosha, since men do not worship him, Tistrya, do not offer sacrifices to him. If they did so, it is said, then he would be strong enough to conquer. Tishya-Tistrya does not appear to have obtained complete rank as a god; but still he is worshipped in Rigveda, though very seldom, and in cases of severe dry weather the Iranians were commanded to offer sacrifices to him.

(17) In Haustlaung Thjazi is called ving-Rögnir vagna, "the Rognir of the winged cars," and fjaðrar blaðs leik-Reginn, "the Reginn of the motion of the feather-leaf (the wing)". In the mythology Thjazi, like Volund, wears an eagle guise. In an eagle guise Volund flies away from his prison at Mimir-Niðaður's. When Thjazi, through Loki's deceit, is robbed of Idun, he hastens in wild despair, with the aid of his eagle guise, after the robber, gets his wings burned in the vaferflames kindled around Asgard, falls pierced by the javelins of the gods, and is slain by Thor. The original meaning of Reginn is maker, creator, arranger, worker. The meaning has been preserved through the ages, so that the word regin, though applied to all the creative powers (Völuspá), still retained even in Christian times the signification of artist, smith, and reappears in the heroic traditions in the name of the smith Reginn. When, therefore, Thjazi is called "the Regin of the motion of the feather-leaf," there is no reason to doubt that the phrase alludes not only to the fact that he possessed a feather guise, but also to the idea that he was its "smith"; the less so as we have already seen him characterised as an ancient artist in the phrases Þjaza þingskil, hapta snytrir, and faðir mörna. Thus we here have a fourth proof of the same kind. The phrase "the Rognir of the winged cars" connects him not only with a single vehicle, but with several. "Wing-car" is a paraphrase for a guise furnished with wings, and enabling its owner to fly through the air. The expression "wing-car" may be applied to several of the strange means used by the powers for locomotion through the air and over the sea, as, for instance, the cars of Thor and Frey, Baldur's ship Hringhorni, Frey's ship Skidbladnir, and the feather garbs of the swan-maids. The mythology which knew from whose hands Skidbladnir proceeded certainly also had something to say of the masters who produced Hringhorni and the above-mentioned cars and feather garbs. That they were made by ancient artists and not by the highest gods is an idea of ancient Aryan birth. In Rigveda it was the Ribhus, the counterparts of the Ivaldi sons, who smithied the wonderful car-ship of the Asvinians and Indra's horses.

The appellations Rögnir and Reginn also occur outside of Haustlaung in connection with each other, and this even as late as in the Skíða-Ríma, composed between 1400 and 1450, where Reginn is represented as a smith (Rögnir kallar Regin til sín: rammlega skaltu smíða - str. 102). In Forspjallsljóð 10 we read Galdur gólu, göndum riðu Rögnir og Reginn að ranni heimis - "Rognir and Reginn sang magic songs at the edge of the earth and constructed magic implements". They who do this are artists, smiths. In strophe 8 they are called viggjar, and viggi is a synonym of smiður (Nafnaþulur: Uxa heiti). While they do this Idun is absent from Asgard (Forspjallsljóð 6), and a terrible cold threatens to destroy the earth. The words in Völuspá, with which the terrible fimbul-winter of antiquity is characterised, loft lævi blandið, are adopted by Forspjallsljóð (str. 6 - lofti með lævi), thus showing that the same mythic event is there described. The existence of the order of the world is threatened, the earth and the source of light are attacked by evil influences, the life of nature is dying, from the north (east), from the Elivagar rivers come piercing, rime-cold arrows of frost, which kill men and destroy the vegetation of the earth. The southern source of the lower world, whose function it is to furnish warming saps to the world-tree, was not able to prevent the devastations of the frost. "It was so ordained," it is said in Forspjallsljóð, str. 2, "that Urd's Óðrærir (Urd's fountain) did not have sufficient power to supply protection against the terrible cold." [*] The destruction is caused by Rognir and Reginn. Their magic songs are heard even in Asgard. Odin listens in Hlidskjalf and perceives that the song comes from the uttermost end of the world. The gods are seized by the thought that the end of the world is approaching, and send their messengers to the lower world in order to obtain there from the wise norn a solution of the problem of the world and to get the impending fate of the world proclaimed.

[* The editions have changed Urðar to Urður, and thereby converted the above-cited passage into nonsense, for which in turn the author of Forspjallsljóð was blamed, and it was presented as an argument to prove that the poem is spurious.]

In the dictionaries and in the mythological text-books Rognir is said to be one of Odin's epithets. In his excellent commentary on Vellekla, Freudenthal has expressed a doubt as to the correctness of this view. I have myself made a list of all the passages in the Old Norse literature where the name occurs, and I have thereby reached the conclusion that the statement in the dictionaries and in the text-books has no other foundation than the name-list in Eddubrot and the above-cited Skíðaríma, composed in the fifteenth century. The conceptions of the latter in regard to heathen mythology are of such a nature that it should never in earnest be regarded as an authority anent this question. In the Old Norse records there cannot be found a single passage where Rögnir is used as an epithet of Odin. It is everywhere used in reference to a mythic being who was a smith and a singer of magic songs, and regularly, and without exception, refers to Thjazi. While Thjodolf designates Thjazi as the Rognir of the wing-cars, his descendant Hakon Jarl gets the same epithet in Einar Skalaglam's paraphrases. He is hjörs brak-Rögnir, "the Rognir of the sword-din," and geirrásar garð-Rögnir, "the Rognir of the wall of the sword-flight (the shield)". The Thjazi descendant, Sigurd Hladajarl, is, in harmony herewith, called fens furs Rögnir. Þrym-Rögnir (Eg., 58) alludes to Thjazi as ruler in Thrymheim. A parallel phrase to þrym-Rögnir is þrym-regin (Ragnarsdrápa, Skáldskaparmál 61). Thus, while Thjazi is characterised as Rögnir, Saxo has preserved the fact that Volund's brother, Orvandil-Egil, bore the epithet Reginn. Saxo latinises Reginn into Regnerus, and gives this name to Ericus-Svipdag's father (Book V, p. 123). The epithet Rögnir confines itself exclusively to a certain group - to Thjazi and his supposed descendants. Among them it is, as it were, an inheritance.

The paraphrases in Vellekla are of great mythological importance. While other mythic records relate that Thjazi carried away Idun, the goddess of vegetation, the goddess who controls the regenerating forces in nature, and that he thus assisted in bringing about the great winter of antiquity, we learn from Vellekla that it was he who directly, and by separate magic acts, produced this winter, and that he, accordingly, acted the same part in this respect as Rognir and Reginn do in Forspjallsljóð.

Thus, for example, the poem on Hakon Jarl, when the latter fought against the sons of Gunhild, says: Hjörs brak-Rögnir skók bogna hagl úr Hlakkar seglum, "the Rognir of the sword-din shook the hail of the bows from the sails of the valkyrie". The mythic kernel of the paraphrase is: Rögnir skók hagl úr seglum, "Rognir shook hails from the sails". The idea is still to be found in the sagas that men endowed with magic powers could produce a hailstorm by shaking napkins or bags, filling the air with ashes, or by untying knots. And in Christian records it is particularly stated of Hakon Jarl that he held in honour two mythic beings - Thorgerd and Irpa - who, when requested, could produce storms, rain, and hail. No doubt this tradition is connected with Hakon's supposed descent from Thjazi, the cause of hailstorms and of the fimbulwinter. By making Rognir the "Rognir of the sword-din," and the hail sent by him "the hail of the bows," and the sails or napkins shook by him "the sails of the valkyrie" - that is to say, the shields - the skald makes the mythological kernel pointed out develop into figures applicable to the warrior and to the battle.

In other paraphrases Vellekla says that the descendant of Thjazi, Hakon, made "the death-cold sword-storm grow against the life of udal men in Odin's storm," and that he was "an elf of the earth of the wood-land" coming from the north, who, with "murder-frost," received the warriors of the south (Emperor Otto's army) at Dannevirke. Upon the whole Vellekla chooses the figures used in describing the achievements of Hakon from the domain of cold and storm, and there can be no doubt that it does so in imitation of the Thjazi-myth.

In another poem to Hakon Jarl, of which poem there is only a fragment extant, the skald Einar speaks of Hakon's generosity, and says: Verk Rögnis mér hugna, "Rognir's works please me". We know that Hakon Jarl once gave Einar two gilt silver goblets, to which belonged two scales in the form of statuettes, the one of gold, the other of silver, which scales were thought to possess magic qualities, and that Hakon on another occasion gave him an exceedingly precious engraved shield, inlaid between the engraved parts with gold and studded with precious stones. It was customary for the skalds to make songs on such gifts. It follows, therefore, that the "works of Rognir," with which Einar says he was pleased, are the presents which Hakon, the supposed descendant of Rognir-Thjazi, gave him; and I find this interpretation the more necessary for the reason that we have already found several unanimous evidences of Thjazi's position in the mythology as an artist of the olden time.

Forspjallsljóð's Rognir "sings magic songs" and "concocts witchcraft" in order to encourage and strengthen by these means of magic the attack of the powers of frost on the world protected by the gods. Haustlaung calls Thjazi ramman reimuð Jötunheima, "the powerful reimud of Jotunheim". The word reimuður occurs nowhere else. It is thought to be connected with reimt and reimleikar, words which in the writings of Christian times refer to ghosts, supernatural phenomena, and reimuður Jötunheima has therefore been interpreted as "the one who made Jotunheim the scene of his magic ants and ghost-like appearances". From what has been stated above, it is manifest that this interpretation is correct.

A passage in Thorsdrapa (str. 3), to which I shall recur below, informs us that at the time when Thor made his famous journey to the fire-giant Geirrod, Rognir had not yet come to an agreement with Loki in regard to the plan of bringing ruin on the gods. Rognir was, therefore, during a certain period of his life, the foe of the gods, but during a preceding period he was not an enemy. The same is true of Thjazi. He was for a time hapta snytrir, "the one giving the gods treasures". At another time he carried away Idun, and appeared as one changed into dólgur ballastur vallar, "the most powerful foe of the earth" (Haustlaung 6), an expression which characterises him as the cause of the fimbul-winter.

There still remain one or two important passages in regard to the correct interpretation of the epithet Rognir. In Atlakviða 33 it is said of Gudrun when she goes to meet her husband Atli, who has returned home, carrying in her hand a golden goblet, that she goes to reifa gjöld Rögnis, "to present that requital or that revenge which Rognir gave". To avenge her brothers, Gudrun slew in Atli's absence the two young sons she had with him and made goblets of their skulls. Into one of these she poured the drink of welcome for Atli. A similar revenge is told about Volund. The latter secretly kills Niðaður's two young sons and makes goblets out of their skulls for their father. In the passage it is stated that the revenge of Gudrun against Atli was of the same kind as Rognir's revenge against some one whom he owed a grudge. So far as our records contain any information, Volund is the only one to whom the epithet Rognir is applicable in this case. Of no one else is it reported that he took a revenge of such a kind that Gudrun's could be compared therewith. In all other passages the epithet Rognir refers to "the father of the swords," to the ancient artist Thjazi, the son of Alvaldi. Here it refers to the father of the most excellent sword, to the ancient artist Volund, the son of Ivaldi.

The strophe in Vellekla, which compares the Thjazi descendant Hakon Jarl with the hail-producing Rognir, also alludes to another point in the myth concerning him by a paraphrase the kernel of which is: Varat svanglýjaði at frýja ofbyrjar né drífu, "it was impossible to defy the swan-pleaser in the matter of storm and bad weather". The paraphrase is made applicable to Hakon by making the "swan-pleaser" into the "pleaser of the swan of the sword's high-billowing fjord" - that is to say, the one who pleases the bird of the battlefield, that is, the raven. The storm is changed into "the storm of arrows," and the bad weather into the "bad weather of the goddess of the battle". The mythological kernel of this paraphrase, and that which sheds light on our theme, is the fact that Rognir in the mythology was "one who pleased the swans". In the heroic poem three swan-maids are devoted in their love to Volund and his brothers. Völundarkviða says that the third one lays her arms around Volund-Anund's white neck.

We will now combine the results of this investigation concerning Rognir, and in so doing we will first consider what is said of him when the name occurs independently, and not connected with paraphrases, and then what is said of him in paraphrases in which his name constitutes the kernel.

Forspjallsljóð describes Rognir as dwelling on the northernmost edge of the earth at the time when Idun was absent from Asgard. There he sings magic songs and concocts witchcraft, by which means he sends a destructive winter out upon the world. He is a "smith," and in his company is found one or more than one mythic person called Regin(n). (Regin(n) may be singular or plural.)

Einar Skalaglam, who received costly treasures from Hakon Jarl, speaks in his song of praise to the latter of the "works of Rognir," which please him, and which must be the treasures he received from the Jarl.

In Thorsdrapa, Eilif Gudrunarson relates that Rognir had not yet "associated himself" with Loki when Thor made his expedition to Geirrod.

Atlakvida states that he revenged himself on some one, with which revenge the song compares Gudrun's when she hands to Atli the goblets made of the skulls of the two young sons of the latter.

All the facts presented in these passages are rediscovered in the myth concerning Ivaldi's sons - Volund, Egil, and Slagfin. There was a time when they were the friends of the gods and smithied for them costly treasures, and there was another time when they had the same plans as Loki tried to carry out in a secret manner - that is, to dethrone the gods and destroy what they had created. They deliver their foster-son Frey, the young god of harvests, to the giants (see Nos. 109, 112) - an event which, like Idun's disappearance from Asgard, refers to the coming of the fimbul-winter - and they depart to the most northern edge of the lower world where they dwell with swan-maids, dises of growth, who, like Idun in Forspjallsljóð (str. 8), must have changed character and joined the world-hostile plots of their lovers. (Of Idun it is said, in the strophe mentioned, that she clothed herself in a wolf-skin given her by the smiths, and lyndi breytti, lék að lævísi, litum skipti.) The revenge which Volund, during his imprisonment by Nidad, takes against the latter explains why Atlakviða characterises Gudrun's terrible deed as "Rognir's revenge". In regard to the witchcraft (gand) concocted by Rognir and Reginn, it is to be said that the sword of victory made by Volund is a gandur in the original sense of this word - an implement endowed with magic powers, and it was made during his sojourn in the Wolfdales.

One passage in Völundarkviða 6, which hitherto has defied every effort at interpretation, shows that his skill was occupied with other magic things while he dwelt there. The passsage reads: Lukti hann alla lindbauga vel. The "lind"-rings in question, smithied of "red gold" (see the preceding lines in strophe 6), are, according to the prefix, lind, linnr, serpent-formed rings, which again are gand- (witchcraft) rings on account of the mysterious qualities ascribed to the serpent. Lindbaugur is another form for linnbaugur, just as lindból is another form for linnból. The part played by the serpent in the magic arts made it, when under the influence or in the possession of the magician, a gand, whence linnur, a serpent, could be used as a paraphrase of gandur, and gandur could in turn, in the compound Jörmungandur, be used as an epithet for the Midgard-serpent. The rings which Volund "closed well together" are gand-rings. The very rope (bast, böstur - Völundarkviða 8, 13) on which he hangs the seven hundred gand-rings he has finished seems to be a gand, an object of witchcraft, with which Volund can bind and from which he can release the wind. When Nidad's men surprised Volund in his sleep and bound him with this rope, he asks ambiguously who "had bound the wind" with it (13). In two passages in Völundarkviða (4, 10) he is called veðureygur, "the storm-observer," or "the storm-terrible". The word may have either meaning. That Volund for his purposes, like Rognir, made use of magic songs is manifest from Saxo (Book VII, p. 203). According to Saxo it was by means of Volund-Haquinus' magic song that the Volund-sword, wielded by Svipdag-Ericus, was able to conquer Thor's hammer and Halfdan's club.

Passing now to the passages where the name Rognir occurs in paraphrases, I would particularly emphasise what I have already demonstrated: that Haustlaung with this name refers to Thjazi; that poems of a more recent date than Haustlaung, and connected with the same celebrated song, apply it to the supposed descendants of Thjazi, Hakon Jarl and his kinsmen; that all of these paraphrases represent Rognir as a producer of storm, snow, and hail; and that Rognir made "wind-cars," was a "Regin of the motion of the feather-leaf" (the wing), and "one who pleased the swans". Therefore (a) Rognir is an epithet of Thjazi, and at the same time it designates Volund; (b) all that is said of Rognir, when the name in the paraphrases is a Thjazi-epithet, applies to Volund; (c) all that is said of Rognir, independently of paraphrases, applies to Volund.

(18) A usage in the Old Norse poetry is to designate a person by the name of his opponent, when, by means of an additional characterisation, it can be made evident that the former and not the latter is meant. Thus, a giant can be called berg-Þórr or grjót-Móði, because he once had Thor or Thor's son Modi as an opponent, and these epithets particularly apply to giants who actually fought with Thor or Modi in the mythology. In contrast with their successors in Christian times, the heathen skalds took great pains to give their paraphrases special justification and support in some mythological event. For the same reason that a giant who had fought with Modi could be called grjót-Móði, Volund, as Nidad's foe, could be called grjót-Niðuður. This epithet also occurs a single time in the Old Norse poetry, namely, in Haustlaung, and there it is applied to Thjazi. The paraphrase shows that the skald had in his mind a corresponding (antithetic) circumstance between Thjazi and Niðaður (Niðuður). What we are able to gather from our sources is, that Volund and Niðaður had had an encounter, and that one of so decisive a character, that the epithet grjót-Niðuður naturally would make the hearers think of Volund.

(19) When Loki had struck Thjazi, who was in eagle guise, with the magic pole, Thjazi flew up; and as Loki's hand was glued fast to one end of the pole and the eagle held fast to the other end, Loki had to accompany the eagle on its flight. Haustlaung says that Thjazi, pleased with his prey, bore him a long distance (of veg langan) through the air. He directed his course in such a manner that Loki's body fared badly, probably being dragged over trees and rocks (svo að slitna sundur úlfs föður mundi.) Then follows in the poem the lines given below, which I quote from Codex Regius, with the exception of a single word (miðjungs, instead of mildings), which I cite from Codex Wormianus. Here, as elsewhere, I base nothing on text emendations, because even such, for which the best of reasons may be given, do not furnish sufficient foundation for mythological investigation, when the changes are not supported by some manuscript, or are in and of themselves absolutely necessary.

þá varð Þórs ofrunni,
þungr var Loptur, of sprunginn;
málunautur hvats mátti
miðjungs friðar biðja.

The contents of these lines, in the light of what has now been stated, are as follows:

Thjazi's pleasure in dragging Loki with him, and making his limbs come in disagreeable contact with objects on their way, was so great that he did not abstain therefrom, before he felt that he had over-exerted himself. Strong as he was, this could not but happen, for he had been flying with his burden very far from the place where he captured Loki in the ambush he had laid; and, besides, Loki was heavy. The badly-hurt Loki had during the whole time desired to beg for mercy, but during the flight he was unable to do so. When Thjazi finally sank to the ground, Loki obtained a breathing space, so that he could sue for mercy.

In the four lines there are four paraphrases. Thjazi is called Þórs ofrunni or Þórs ofrúni, "he who made Thor run," or "he who was Thor's friend," and miðjungur, a word the meaning of which it is of no importance to investigate in connection with the question under consideration. Loki is called Loptur, a surname which is applied to him many times, and málunautur hvats miðjungs, "he who had journeyed with the female companion of the powerful Midjung (Thjazi)". The female companion (mála) of Thjazi is Idun, and the paraphrase refers to the myth telling how Loki carried Idun away from Thjazi's halls, and flew with her to Asgard.

With these preparatory remarks I am ready to present a literal translation of the passage:

(Thjazi flew a long way with Loki, so that the latter came near being torn into pieces), "... thereupon (þá = deinde) became he who caused Thor to run (varð Þórs ofrunni) - or who became Thors friend (Þórs ofrúni) - tired out (ofsprunginn), [for] Lopt was heavy (þungur var Loptur). He (Loki) who had made a journey with the powerful Midjung's (Thjazi's) female companion (málunautur hvats miðjungs) could (now finally) sue for peace (mátti friðar biðja)."

In the lines - þá var Þórs ofrunni,
þungr var Loptr, ofsprunginn -

þungur var Loptur clearly stands as an intermediate sentence, which, in connection with what has been stated above, namely, that Thjazi had been flying a long way with his burden, will justify and explain why Thjazi, though exceedingly strong, stronger than Hrungnir (the Grotti-song), still was at the point of succumbing from over-exertion. The skald has thus given the reason why Thjazi, "rejoicing in what he had caught," sank to the earth with his victim, before Loki became more used up than was the case. To understand the connection, the word mátti in the third line is of importance. Hitherto the words málunautur hvats mátti miðjungs friðar biðja have been interpreted as if they meant that Loki "was compelled" to ask Thjazi for peace. Mátti has been understood to mean coactus est. Finnur Jónsson (Krit. Stud., p. 48) has pointed out that not a single passage can with certainty or probability be found where the verb mega, mátti, means "to be compelled". Everywhere it can be translated "to be able". Thus the words mátti friðar biðja mean that Loki could, was able to, ask Thjazi for peace. The reason why he was able is stated above, where it is said that Thjazi got tired of flying with his heavy burden. Before that, and during the flight and the disagreeable collisions between Loki's body and objects with which he came in contact, he was not able to treat with his capturer; but when the latter had settled on the ground, Loki got a breathing space, and could beg to be spared. The half strophe thus interpreted gives the most logical connection, and gives three causes and three results: (1) Loki was able to use his eloquent tongue on speaking to Thjazi, since the latter ceased to fly before Loki was torn into pieces; (2) Thor's ofrunni or ofrúni ended his air-journey, because he, though a very powerful person, felt that he had over-exerted himself; (3) he felt wearied because Loki, with whom he had been flying, was heavy. But from this it follows with absolute certainty that the skald, with Thor's ofrunni or ofrúni, meant Thjazi and not Loki, as has hitherto been supposed. The epithet Thor's ofrunni, "he who made Thor run," must accordingly be explained by some mythic event, which shows that Thor at one time had to take flight on account of Thjazi. A single circumstance has come to our knowledge, where Thor retreats before an opponent, and it is hardly credible that the mythology should allow its favourite to retreat conquered more than once. On that occasion it is Volund's sword, wielded by Svipdag, which cleaves Thor's hammer and compels him to retire. Thus Volund was at one time Thor's ofrunni. In Haustlaung it is Thjazi. Here, too, we therefore meet the fact which has so frequently come to the surface in these investigations, namely, that the same thing is told of Volund and of Thjazi.

But by the side of ofrunni we have another reading which must be considered. Codex Wormianus has ofrúni instead of ofrunni, and, as Wisén has pointed out, this runni must, for the sake of the metre, be read rúni. According to this reading Thjazi must at some time have been Thor's ofrúni, that is, Thor's confidential friend. This reading also finds its support in the mythology, as shall be demonstrated further on. I may here be allowed to repeat what I have remarked before, that of two readings only the one can be the original, while both may be justified by the mythology.

(20) In the mythology are found characters that form a group by themselves, and whose characteristic peculiarity is that they practise ski-running in connection with the use of the bow and arrow. This group consists of the brothers Volund, Egil, Slagfin, Egil's son Ull, and Thjazi's daughter Skadi. In the introduction to Völundarkviða it is said of the three brothers that they ran on skis in the Wolfdales and hunted. We have already referred to Egil's wonderful skis, that could be used on the water as well as on the snow. Of Ull we read in Gylfaginning (Gylfaginning 31): "He is so excellent an archer and ski-runner that no one is his equal"; and Saxo tells about his Ollerus that he could enchant a bone (the ice-shoe formed of a bone, the pendant of the ski), so that it became changed into a ship. Ull's skis accordingly have the same qualities as those of his father Egil, namely, that they can also be used on the sea. Ull's skis seem furthermore to have had another very remarkable character, namely, that when their possessor did not need them for locomotion on land or on sea, they could be transformed into a shield and be used in war. In this way we explain that the skalds could employ skip Ullar, Ullar far, knörr örva áss, as paraphrases for shields, and that, according to one statement in the Edda Lovasina, Ullur átti skip það, er Skjöldur hét. So far as his accomplishments are concerned, Ull is in fact the counterpart of his father Egil, and the same may be said of Skadi. While UII is called "the god of the skis," Skade is called "the goddess of the skis," "the dis of the skis," and "the dis of the sea-bone," sævar beins dís, a paraphrase which manifestly has the same origin as Saxo's account of the bone enchanted by Ull. Thus Thjazi's daughter has an attribute belonging to the circle of Volund's kinsmen.

The names also connect those whom we find to be kinsmen of Volund with Thjazi's. Alvaldi is Thjazi's father; Ivaldi is Volund's. Ívaldi is another form for Iðvaldi. The long prefixed Í in Ívaldi is explained by the disappearance of ð from Iðvaldi. Ið reappears in the name of Ivaldi's daughter Iðunn and Thjazi's brother Iði, and these are the only mythological names in which Ið appears. Furthermore, it has already been pointed out, that of Alvaldi's (Ölvaldi's) three sons there is one who has the epithet Wildboar (Aurnir, Urnir); and that among Ivaldi's three sons there is one - namely, Orvandil-Egil - who has the same epithet (Ibor, Ebur, Ebbo); and that among Alvaldi's sons one - namely, Thjazi - has the epithet Fjallgyldir, "mountain-wolf" (Haustlaung); while among Ivaldi-Olmod's sons there is one - namely, Volund - who has the epithet Ásólfur, which also means "mountain-wolf".

In this connection it must not be forgotten that tradition has attached the qualities of giants, not only to Thjazi, but also to Volund. That this does not appear in the Elder Edda depends simply on the fact that Volund is not mentioned by this name in the genuine mythic songs, but only in the heroic fragment which we have in Völundarkviða. The memory that Volund, though an elf-prince in the mythology, and certainly not a full-blooded giant on his father's side, was regarded and celebrated in song as a jötunn, - the memory of this not only survives in Vilkinasaga, but appears there in an exaggeration fostered by later traditions, to the effect that his father Vadi (see No. 110) is there called a giant, while his father's mother is said to have been a mermaid. In another respect, too, there survives in Vilkinasaga the memory of a relationship between Volund and the most famous giant-being. He and the giants Etgeir (Eggþér) and Vidolf are cousins, according to chapter 175. If we examine the Norse sources, we find Vidolf mentioned in Hyndluljóð 53 as progenitor of all the mythological valas, and Aurboda, the most notorious of the valas of mythology, mentioned in strophe 30 as a kinswoman of Thjazi. Thus while Hyndluljóð makes Thjazi, the Vilkinasaga makes Volund, a kinsman of the giant Vidolf.

Though in a form greatly changed, the Vilkinasaga has also preserved the memory of the manner in which Volund's father closed his career. With some smiths ("dwarfs") who lived in a remote mountain, Vadi had made an agreement, according to which, in return for a certain compensation, his son Volund should learn their wonderful art as smiths. When, toward the close of the time agreed upon, Vadi appeared outside of the mountain, he was, before entering, killed by an avalanche in accordance with a treacherous arrangement of these smiths.

In the mythology Thjazi's father is the great drink-champion who, among his many names and epithets, as we have seen, also has some that refer to his position in the mythology in regard to fermented beverage: Svigðir (the great drinker), Ölvaldi, Ölmóður, Sumbl Finnakonungur. In regard to Svigðir's death, it has already been shown (see No. 89) that, on his complete disappearance from the mythology, he is outside of a mountain in which Suttung and Suttung's sons, descendants of Surt-Durinn, with Mimir the most ancient smith (see No. 89), have their halls; that on his arrival a treacherous dwarf, the doorkeeper of Suttung's sons, goes to meet him, and that he is "betrayed" by the dwarf, never enters the rocky halls, and consequently must have died outside.

Vilkinasaga's very late statements (probably taken from German traditions), in regard to the death of Volund's father, thus correspond in the main features with what is related in the Norse records as to how Thjazi's father disappeared from the scene of mythology.

In regard to the birth and rank of Thjazi's father among the mythic powers, the following statements in poems from the heathen time are to be observed. When Haustlaung tells how Thjazi falls into the vaferflames kindled around Asgard, it makes use of the words Greipar biðils son sviðnar, "the son of Greip's wooer is scorched". Thus Thjazi's mother is the giantess Greip, who, according to Skáldskaparmál 26, is a daughter of the giant Geirröður and a sister of Gjalp. One of these sisters, and, so far as we can see, Greip, is, in Thorsdrapa, called meinsvarans hapts arma farmur, "the embrace of the arms of the perjurous hapt". Höpt, sing. hapt, is, like bönd, meaning the same, an appellation of lower and higher powers, numina of various ranks. If by the perjurous mistress of the hapt Greip, and not the sister Gjalp, is meant, then Thjazi's father is a being who belonged to the number of the numina of the mythology, and who, with a giantess whose biðill he had been, begat the son Thjazi, and probably also the latter's brothers Iði and Gangur (Aurnir). What rank this perjurous hapt held among the powers is indicated in Vellekla, strophe 9, which, like the foregoing strophe 8, and the succeeding strophes 10, 11, treats of Hakon Jarl's conflicts at Dannnevirke, whither he was summoned, in the capacity of a vassal under the Danish king, Harald Blue-tooth, to defend the heathen North against Emperor Otto II.'s effort to convert Denmark to Christianity by arms. The strophe, which here, too, in its paraphrases presents parallels between Hakon Jarl and his mythic progenitor Thjazi, says that the Danish king (fémildur konungur) desired that the Myrkwood's Hlodyn's (Myrk-wood's earth's, that is to say, the woody Norway's) elf, he who came from the North (myrkmarkar Hlöðynjar álfs, þess er kom norðan), was to be tested in "murder-frost," that is to say, in war (við morð-frost freista), when he (Denmark's king) angrily bade the cold-hard storm-watcher (stirðan veðurhirði, Hakon Jarl) of the Hordaland dwellers (of the Norsemen) defend Dannevirke (virki varða) against the southland Njords of the shield-din (fyr serkja-hlym-val-Njörðum, "the princes of the southland warriors").

Here, too, the myth about Thjazi and of the fimbul-winter forms the kernel out of which the paraphrases adapted to Hakon Jarl have grown. Hakon is clothed with the mask of the cold-hard storm-watcher who comes from the North and can let loose the winter-winds. Emperor Otto and the chiefs who led the southern troops under him are compared with Njord and his kinsmen, who, in the mythology, fought with Volund and the powers of frost, and the battle between the warriors of the South and the North is compared with a "murder-frost," in which Hakon coming from the North meets the Christian continental Teutons at Dannevirke.

Thus the mythical kernel of the strophe is as follows: The elf of the Myrkwood of Hlodyn, the cold-hard storm-watcher, tested his power with frost-weather when he fought with Njord and his kinsmen.

The Hlodyn of the Myrkwood - that is to say, the goddess of the Jotunheim woods - is in this connection Thjazi's daughter Skadi, who, in Háleygjatal, is called Járnviðja of Járnviður, the Ironwood, which is identical with the Myrkwood (Darkwood). Thjazi himself, whose father is called "a perjurous hapt" in Thorsdrapa, is here called an elf. Alone, this passage would not be sufficient to decide the question as to which class of mythical beings Thjazi and his father belonged, the less so as álfur, applied in a paraphrase, might allude to any sort of being according to the characterisation added. But "perjurous hapt" cannot possibly be a paraphrase for a giant. Every divinity that has violated its oath is "a perjurous hapt," and the mythology speaks of such perjuries. If a god has committed perjury, this is no reason why he should be called a giant. If a giant has committed perjury, this is no reason why he should be called a hapt, for it is nothing specially characteristic of the giant nature that it commits perjury or violates its oath. In fact, it seems to me that there should be the gravest doubts about Thjazi's being a giant in the strictest and completest sense of the word, from the circumstances that he is a star-hero; that distinguished persons considered it an honour to be descended from him; that Hakon Jarl's skalds never tired of clothing him with the appearance of his supposed progenitor, and of comparing the historical achievements of the one with the mythical exploits of the other; and that he, Thjazi, not only robbed Idun, which indeed a genuine giant might do, but that he also lived with her many long years, and, so far as we can see, begat with her the daughter Skadi. It should be remembered, from the foregoing pages, what pains the mythology takes to get the other asynje, Freyja, who had fallen into the hands of giants, back pure and undefiled to Asgard, and it is therefore difficult to believe that Idun should be humiliated and made to live for many years in intimacy with a real giant. It follows from this that when Thjazi, in the above-cited mythological kernel of the strophe of Vellekla, is called an álfur, and when his father in Thorsdrapa is called a hapt, a being of higher or lower divine rank, then álfur is a further definition of the idea hapt, and informs us to which class of numina Thjazi belonged - namely, the lower class of gods called elves. Thus, on his father's side, Thjazi is an elf. So is Volund. In Völundarkviða he is called a prince of elves. Furthermore, it should be observed that, in the strophe-kernel presented above, Thjazi is represented as one who has fought with Njord and his allies. In Saxo it is Anund-Volund and his brother the archer who fight with Njord-Fridlevus and his companions; and as Njord in Saxo marries Anund-Volund's daughter, while in the mythology he marries Thjazi's daughter, then this is another recurrence of the fact which continually comes to the surface in this investigation, namely, that whatever is told of Volund is also told of Thjazi.