Wayland- Germanic HeroHero"The Smith"

The Swan-Maidens

The Völundarkvida calls Völundr a prince of the Álfar and the son of a Finnish king. He and his brothers Slagfiðr and Egill married three Valkyries who had set aside their feathered cloaks by a lake. For seven winters the couples lived together. In the eighth year the Valkyries, compelled by their nature to return to the battlefields, donned their swan-cloaks and flew away.

Egill and Slagfiðr set out on skis to search for their wives. Völundr stayed in his hall in Wolfdale, crafting golden rings and waiting for Hervör alvítr to come back. He made seven hundred rings, each identical, and strung them on a rope of bast. When he found one missing, he believed his wife had returned to claim it and fell asleep waiting. It was in that hopeful sleep that King Níðuðr's men found him.

The Captive Smith

Níðuðr, king of the Njárar, had heard of the golden rings. His warriors found Völundr sleeping after a bear hunt and bound him in chains. They counted seven hundred rings on the rope and noted the one missing. The king took the rings. He seized Völundr's sword for himself and gave Hervör's ring to his daughter Böðvildr.

The queen recognized the danger. A master smith held captive would never stop planning escape. She advised her husband to cut the tendons behind Völundr's knees. They hamstrung him and set him on the island of Sævarstaðr, alone with his forge, forced to make treasures for the king who had crippled him. "Sitting, he never slept; always he struck," the poem says. His hatred grew with every hammer-blow.

The Vengeance

King Níðuðr's two young sons came to the island in secret, eager to see the smith's treasures. Völundr killed them both and hid the bodies beneath his bellows. From their skulls he crafted drinking cups, trimmed with silver, and sent them to the king. From their eyes he made jewels for the queen. The king and queen received the gifts and used them, unknowing.

Then Böðvildr came to the island, bringing Hervör's ring. It was broken, and she wanted it repaired. Völundr gave her drugged beer, raped her, and took back his ring.

Finally he put on wings he had forged in secret. As he rose into the air, he called down to Níðuðr and told him what the cups were made from. He told him about Böðvildr. The poem closes with Níðuðr speaking to his weeping daughter, who confirms she is pregnant. There is no resolution. Only the raw aftermath.

Weland in England

In Old English, Weland appears in the poem Deor: "Weland knew exile well, that resolute man experienced hardship; he had for companions sorrow and longing, winter-cold exile." The poet names his suffering under Níðhad but does not retell the revenge, assuming the audience knew the full story. Beowulf calls a fine mail-coat "Welandes geweorc," Wayland's work, the highest praise a craftsman's name could carry.

The Franks Casket, a carved whalebone box from eighth-century Northumbria, shows Völundr at his forge offering a cup to a female figure, probably Böðvildr. A headless body lies beneath the anvil. Birds in the scene may be the wings of his escape.

Near the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, a Neolithic long barrow bears the name Wayland's Smithy. A charter of 955 CE records it as "Welandes smidde." Local legend held that if a traveler left a horse there overnight with a silver coin, the horse would be reshod by morning. The invisible smith at work in a five-thousand-year-old tomb: his craft outlasting his story.

The Apprenticeship

The Þiðrekssaga, composed in Norway from Low German oral sources, gives Völundr a fuller origin. He learns smithcraft first from the master smith Mimir, then among dwarves in a mountain forge. The dwarves agree to teach him on condition that he leave after a set time. When the time comes, Völundr has surpassed his teachers. They try to kill him. He kills them instead and takes their tools.

This version also elaborates the escape. Völundr's brother Egill, the archer, shoots arrows at him as he flies, a staged test: if Egill appears to be attacking the fugitive, the king will think him loyal. The arrows miss by design. Both brothers survive. Völundr's son Witige later becomes a hero in the cycle of Dietrich von Bern.