Page:The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda - tr. Thorpe - 1907.djvu/22

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PREFACE

(Where are now the bones of the famous and wise goldsmith Weland?), evidently taking the proper name of Eabricius for an appellative equivalent to faber. In the Exeter Book, too, there is a poem in substance closely resembling the Eddaic lay. In his novel of Kenilworth, Walter Scott has been guilty of a woeful perversion of the old tradition, travestied from the Berkshire legend of Wayland Smith. As a land-boundary we find Weland's smithy in a Charter of king Eadred A. D. 955.

On the Lay of Helgi Hiorvard's Son there is nothing to remark beyond what appears in the poem itself.

The Lays of Helgi Hundingcide form the first of the series of stories relating to the Volsung race, and the Giukungs, or Niflungs.

The connection of the several personages celebrated in these poems will appear plain from the following tables:

Sigi,king of Hunaland, said to be a son of Odin
Rerir
Volsung
a daughter of the giant Hrimnir
Sigmund
Signi
Borghild
Hiordis
Hamund.Sinflotli.
Helgi
SigrunSigurd
Gudrun
Sigmund,Svanhild.
m Jormunrek.
Giuki
Grimhild.
Gunnar
Glaumvor.Hogni
Kostbera.
Guthorm.
Gudrun,
1 Sigurd.
2 Atli.
3 Jonakr.
Solar.Giuki.Snævar.

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