Home of the Eddic Lays
Chapter 23
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE LAY OF HELGI HJÖRVARTHSSON
Page 1
With the exception of the Hrímgerth part, the Lay of Helgi Hjör. is throughout consistent in treatment, the mode of presentation in all the other sections being the same as that with which we have already become familiar from the Lay of Helgi Hund.'s Death: the purely narrative parts are in prose, while the speeches of the leading personages which determine the action and reveal the nature of the characters are in verse, in the metre fornyrðislag; only one half-strophe [36] is narrative.
Here also, then, the prose passages are to be regarded as an original and necessary part of the work, though originally of course they had not exactly that form and order in which they are preserved in the extant MS. On the contrary, the editors have shown that both in the story of Hjörvarth and Sigrlinn and in that of Helgi and Hethin, there is a confusion in the prose which cannot be ascribed to the poet who first gave the work its form.
There is apparently every reason to believe that it is to the author of the story of Hjörvarth and Sigrlinn that we must ascribe the account of Helgi's first meeting with Sváfa, and of his expedition of revenge against Hróthmar, together with that of Helgi's relations with Hethin, and the Lay of Helgi's Death. (2) In what follows, then, I shall treat all the matter regarding Hjörvarth and his son Helgi, with the exception of the Hrímgerth lay, as one single work.
I have shown (pp. 272 ff, 290 ff, 317 above) that this work was composed in Britain. I shall now call attention to certain details which point in the same direction, even though they prove nothing, since the expressions under discussion were also familiar at a later period in Iceland.
Of the sword which Helgi receives from Sváfa, he says (st. 9):
liggr með eggju
ormr dreyrfáiðr,
en á valböstu
verpr naðr hala.
'A blood stained serpent lies along the edge, and on the valböst (some part of the sword, but just what is uncertain) the snake casts its tail.'
In Icelandic skaldic poetry it was very common to call a sword battle serpent or battle snake, wound snake, shield snake, etc. Naðr, 'the snake,' is said to have been the name of Egil Skallagrímsson's sword. It was of course natural to imagine the sword, which is quickly drawn from the sheath, as a viper which leaves its hole and stings. This idea even gave rise to fabulous tales, as e.g. when we read in Kormakssaga, chap. 9, of a sword from whose hilts there crept out a young serpent. It was connected with the figuring of a snake on the sword, and should be compared with statements in Anglo Saxon, Cymric, and Irish literature.
In Béow., 1698, a sword is called wyrmfâh, 'adorned with the picture of a serpent.' In the Cymric story Rhonabwy's Dream, (3) we read of Arthur's sword: 'The picture of two snakes was on the sword in gold. And when the sword was drawn out of its sheath, it looked as if two flames of fire broke out of the jaws of the snakes.' In the Irish tale of the Destruction of Troy in the Book of Leinster (1040), it is said of Paris: 'a new snake sword (claideb nua natharda) was in his hand.' In the Irish tale De Chophur in dá muccida, (4) which belongs to the old North Irish epic cycle, mention is made of 'a sword which has a golden handle and snake shapes of gold and carbuncle.' (5) Other Irish tales contain similar descriptions.
In H. Hj., 35, occurs the word fljóð, neut. 'woman'; but this is not the oldest lay in which it is used. It is to be found in many Eddic poems of which some, e.g. Rígsþula, may safely be assigned to an earlier date. I have elsewhere (6) tried to show that this word is formed after the English names of women in –fled or
-flæd, and that the author of Rígsþula adduced Fljóð as the representative of English born women, who usually bore names in –fled.
This theory is strengthened by the name of the woman Sinrjóð in the prose bit before the Lay of Helgi Hjör.; for Sinrjóð seems to be a reconstruction of an AS form *Sinred (with long or half long e). Additional support is found in the Icelandic name Sigrfljóð, gen. Sigrfljóðar. The earliest use of this name I have noted is in the Fóstbræðrasaga, p. 13, where it is given to a woman who lived in the extreme north western part of Iceland in the eleventh century. In the same district the name is not uncommon, even at the present day; but it is hard to say whether the modern use is due to the influence of the saga, or whether it is preserved from ancient times. The only example of fljóð in prose occurs in Sigrfljóð, and that name is evidently a reconstruction of the AS name Sigefled (Sifled, Syfflæd, Sygfled).
It seems probable that the Scandinavians had reconstructed English names in –fled into names in –fljóð, before the author of Rígsþula used Fljóð in his poem as a designation for 'woman.'
In the Lay of Helgi Hjör. we observe a series of agreements with the story of Helgi Hund., as treated in various poems, some of which seem to me to show that the latter was the model. We have also, I believe, evidence that that particular form of the Lay of Helgi Hjör. which is preserved in the Edda, is later than the extant Lay of Helgi Hund.'s Death; and that this latter lay was known by the author of the Lay of Helgi Hjör.
The following agreements in poetic expressions may be pointed out: (7)---
Both Hjörvarth and his son Helgi are called buðlungr. (8) This appellation seems to have been previously used of Helgi, son of Sigmund; for its application to him may be explained: the mother of Wolfdietrich, Helgi Hund.'s foreign prototype (in German A) was Botelung's sister. Moreover, the fact that the author of the Lay of Helgi Hjör. knew the Lay on the Death of Helgi Hund., is shown by the almost word for word agreement in the expressions used in the poems when the fall of the hero is announced. (9)
Helgi Hjör. falls 'at Wolfstone' (at Frekasteini, H. Hj., 39). This is also the name of the battlefield where Helgi Hund. is victorious. (10) Its use in the connection with Helgi Hund. seems to have been the earlier; for Helgi Hund. was intimately associated with wolves from his birth: he was the friend of wolves.
The Lay of Helgi Hjör. agrees in general with the various Lays of Helgi Hund. in that it too contains several names of places, which exist only in the land of poetic fancy, not in the real world. Just as Sigrún is from Sefafjöllum, 'mountains of passion,' so Sigrlinn, before she becomes Hjörvarth's bride, is í munar heimi (or Munarheimi), H. Hj., I, 'inthe home (dwellingplace) of longing (or love)'; and Sváfa likewise is í munar heimi when Helgi gives her rings, H. Hj., 42. Atli, Hjörvarth's faithful follower, dwells at Glasislundi, H. Hj., I, 'by the tree with the golden foliage,' which, as I have tried to show (above, p. 306 f), is a reconstruction of a foreign place name. Helgi's hereditary kingdom is called á Röðulsvöllum, H. Hj., 6, 'the radiant plains,' with which we may compare Röðulsfjalla, H. Hj., 43. Here too we may have a reconstruction.
Both heroes of the name Helgi are brought into connection with a man called Sigar (H. Hj., 36; H. H., II, 4). In this respect also the Lay of Helgi Hund. appears the more original, for there Sigar is named as a king's son, just as elsewhere he is designated as a king, and there is a hint of hostile relations between him and Helgi. In the Lay of Helgi Hjör., on the contrary, Sigar is Helgi's messenger.
The relations between Sváfa and Helgi Hjör. are analogous to those between Sigrún and Helgi Hund. In both poems there is a love compact between a hero who falls in his youth, and a woman who from the outset watches over and follows him in his warrior life. Sigrún stands near the hero, whose beloved she becomes, in his first fight; and in their conversation she calls him by name, when he wishes to conceal who he is (H. H., II, 5-13). Sváfa gives her favourite a name and a wonderful sword with which to perform warlike deeds (H. Hj., 6-11). (11) A later redaction has brought Sváfa and Sigrún still nearer each other by regarding both as valkyries, or women endowed with supernatural powers.
Helgi Hjörvarthsson is slain by the son of the warrior he has killed. His beloved Sváfa comes to him at his hour of death; and her grief at his death is described in the poem. This was, perhaps, influenced by the account of Helgi Hund.'s Death. Helgi Hund. is slain by Dag, whose father he has killed, and as a dead man he visits his grave-mound, where the living Sigrún rests in his bosom a single night, after which they separate, and she dies of grief. Both heroes are described as noble and mild. Both poems agree, as opposed to the Hrímgerth lay and to the First Helgi lay, in their poetic form, and also in representing the woman, who follows the hero as a truly human, loving woman, who sorrows over her husband's death. They both have close connections with Danish works. Still the Sváfa lay is but, as it were, a subdued echo of the story of the death of Sigrún and Helgi, which surges with passion and grief.
Nor does the Death of Helgi Hjör. present us with the imaginative, high soaring pictures which the Hrímgerth lay has in common with the Lay on the Birth of Helgi Hund. Yet, in contrast to Hrímgerth, Sváfa is described, like Sigrún in the First Lay, as a supernatural woman, in whose portrayal we have features from Irish battle-goddesses and supernatural women in classical stories.
But in the Death of Helgi Hjör., more uniformly than in the First Helgi lay, we find pure and sustained lines, with natural feeling and graphic characterisation. Especially is it the description of Helgi's noble highmindedness in the presence of his penitent brother Hethin which gives the poem its characteristic quality.
The stories both of the First and of the Second Helgi show the influence of Frankish tales. The Wolfing Helgi Hund. may be said to have his foreign prototype in Wolf-Theodoric, the saga hero who corresponds to the historical East-Gothic Theoderik (born ca. 455, died 526) in the latter's youth. On the contrary, the Helgi whom Sváfa loves, and whose father Hjörvarth wins his bride by means of a faithful messenger, corresponds to the Frankish Theuderik (born before 492, died 533 or 534), the husband of Suavegotta and son of Chlodovech, who wins his bride through his wise messenger. But in South Germanic poems Huge-Dietrich, the poetic representative of the Frankish Theuderik, is made Wolfdietrich's father.
This fact, that the two Theodorics were thus even in West Germanic stories brought into connection with each other, the Frankish being regarded as the older, the East Gothic as the younger, was, as I believe, one of the reasons why in the Old Norse lay Helgi Hjör. was represented as born again in Helgi Hund.
This statement is not made in the strophes, but only in the prose passages. After the conclusion of the Lay of Helgi Hjör. we read: 'It is said that Helgi and Sváfa were born again.' In the beginning of the prose passage On the Völsungs: 'King Sigmund, the son of Völsung, was married to Borghild of Brálund. They called their son Helgi, and gave him this name after Helgi Hjörvarthsson.' Before H. H., II, 5: 'Högni's daughter was Sigrún. She was a valkyrie, and rode through the air and over the sea. She was the reborn Sváfa.' Finally, after the account of Helgi's Death: 'It was believed in olden days (í forneskju) that people were born again; but that is now called old women's superstition. It is said that Helgi and Sigrún were born again. He was then called Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kára, daughter of Halfdan.'
1.
The poetic designation of the sword which Helgi, son of Sigmund, gets
at his birth, viz. blóðorm búinn, H. H., I, 8, appears
to have been suggested by the description of the serpent sword which Helgi
Hjörvarthsson gets at his birth, H. Hj., 8-9. With ítrborinn,
H. H., I, 9, cf. H. Hj., 37; with fátt hygg ek yðr sjásk,
H. Hj., 12, cf. sá sésk fylkir fátt at lífi,
H. Hj., II; with vinna grand, H. Hj., 13, cf. grand um vinna, H. Hj.,
38. Back
2. This is also F. Jónsson's opinion; see Litt. Hist., I, 248.
Back
3. Lady Charlotte Guest, Mabinogion, London, 1877, p. 306. Back
4. In a MS. written in 1419. Back
5. Stokes and Windisch, Irische Texte, III, 238; cf. 109 and 252. Back
6. In my Bidrag til den ældste Skaldedigtnings Historie, p. 30.
-fled probably had a long or half long e. Back
7. Cf. fólks oddviti, H. Hj., 10, and H. H., 11, 12. Of less special
resemblances in poetic expressions between H. Hj. and other Eddic poems,
we may give the following examples: harðan hug......gjaldir, H. Hj.,
6, and galzt (MS. gatzt) harðan hug, Fáfn., 19; if er mér
á því, at ek apir koma, H. Hj., 3, and ifi er mér
á, at ek væra enn kominn, Háv., 108. Back
8. H. Hj., 2, 3, 25, 39, 40, 43. Back
9. Féll hér í morgun.....buðlungr sá er
var baztr und sólu, H. Hj., 39; þers er buðlungr var
beztr und sólu, H. Hj., 43; féll i morgun ......buðlungr
sá er var beztr í heimi, H. H., II, 30. Back
10. H. H., II, 21, 26; I, 44, 53. Back
11. Rosenburg (Nordboernes Aandsliv, I, 258 f, 284) is wrong in thinking
that the same poet composed the Hrímgerth lay and the other sections
of the Lay of Helgi Hjör. He thinks that this poet has distinguished
between a divine valkyrie, who gives Helgi a name and a sword, and Helgi's
loved one Sváfa. In opposition to this theory, it may be pointed
out that the appellation valkyrja occurs only in the prose passages. Moreover,
it is only the younger strophes forming the Hrímgerth lay which
describe a supernatural, half-divine woman; such a description is not
found in the older strophes which tell of the woman who gives Helgi a
name and a sword. The identity of Sváfa and the woman, who gives
Helgi a name, seems to me to be suggested in the hero's words to the woman
who has given him a name: 'I will not accept it unless I have (get, win)
thee' (H. Hj., 7). That Sváfa is not considered as unwarlike, we
see from her words when she learns that Helgi is near death: 'I will bring
destruction on the man whose sword has pierced him' (H. Hj., 38). Back
<< Previous Page Next Page >>
© 2004-2007 Northvegr.
Most of the material on this site is in the public domain. However, many people have worked very hard to bring these texts to you so if you do use the work, we would appreciate it if you could give credit to both the Northvegr site and to the individuals who worked to bring you these texts. A small number of texts are copyrighted and cannot be used without the author's permission. Any text that is copyrighted will have a clear notation of such on the main index page for that text. Inquiries can be sent to info@northvegr.org. Northvegr™ and the Northvegr symbol are trademarks and service marks of the Northvegr Foundation.
|