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WALDERE
169
B
“. . . a better sword[1]
save only this, which I as well[2]
have kept concealed in the stone-bright case.[3]
I know that Theodric[4] thought to send it
5to Widia[5] himself, with wealth of treasure,
of gold with that glaive, and gifts enow
precious:—so Widia was paid his reward
that the kinsman of Nithhad[6] from cruel straits,
son of Wayland, saved his lord,
10who journeyed fast from the giants’ land.”
Waldere spake, warrior famous,
- ↑ Guthhere is making his boast before opening fight. Hagen still holds off. In preceding lines Guthhere probably said that his own sword was better than Waldere’s.
- ↑ As thou?
- ↑ “Jewelled scabbard” seems a good meaning. “Here is a sword as good as any, though, like thyself, I have not yet unsheathed it,” may be the purport of this speech. Then we come into smooth water. The sword was once property of the great hero, etc.
- ↑ Theodoric the Goth played a main part in Germanic legend as Dietrich of Bern, chief vassal of Attila. His figure is familiar in the last scene of the Nibelungen.
- ↑ Widia is probably the Wudga of Widsith, vv. 124 ff., where he is one of the great warriors of Ermanric; here he is transferred to the Theodric legend.
- ↑ Widia is thought to be the historical Vidigoja; but by this account he was son of Wayland (Wēland, Vølundr) by Baduhild, daughter of Nithhad. In the well-known myth, Nithhad captures Wayland and takes away his magic ring so that he cannot fly (by another more prosaic account, hamstrings him), gives the ring, with others, to his daughter Baduhild, and sets the divine smith to useful work in captivity. The daughter comes to Wayland to have her ring repaired; but Wayland detains her, and begets this son by her. One of Widia’s feats in his service with Theodric is to free his lord from the giants.
- ↑ Kenning for “sword.”
