Volundarkvitha fits somewhat uncertainly between the poems about the gods and the poems about the heroes. It tells of the famously cunning smith Volund (known in England as Wayland, in Germany as Velent); his marriage to a Valkyrie; his mauling, imprisonment, and enslavement by King Nithuth; and finally his revenge on that king, which takes the form of murdering his sons and raping his daughter Bothvild before Volund escapes on a flying machine he has constructed for himself. Volund is the only significant speaking character in a classical Old Norse text who is identified as an elf (alfr). The prose introduction is original to the manuscript.
Nithuth was the name of a king in Sweden. He had two sons and a daughter named Bothvild.
There were three brothers, sons of King Finni: one was named Slagfinn, the other Egil, the third Volund. They skied and hunted, and when they came to Ulfdalir they made themselves houses there. There is a lake called Ulfsja there. Early in the morning they found three women at the lakeshore who were spinning thread. There were swan-skins near them, since the women were Valkyries. Two of them were daughters of King Hlothver, and these were Hlathguth the Swan-White and Hervor the Wise. The third was Olrun, daughter of Kjar, king of France. The men took these three women home with them. Egil married Olrun, Slagfinn took Hlathguth, and Volund took Hervor. They lived like this for seven winters. But then the women left them in order to visit battlefields, and never came home again. Egil and Slagfinn skied away to search for their wives, but Volund stayed home in Ulfdalir. He was, as far as men know, the most capable with his hands of all the people in the old sagas. King Nithuth had him seized, and this poem is about that:
WOMEN FLEW FROM THE SOUTH through Mirkwood, those young Valkyries who choose mens’ fates. These southern ladies paused to rest on a lakeshore, they spun and weaved precious threads.
Egil took one for his wife, he took that beauty in his embrace. Slagfinn took Hlathguth, clad in swan-feathers, and the third, their sister, took Volund’s handsome neck in her embrace.
Afterwards they stayed for seven winters, but in the eighth they became anxious, and in the ninth they had to depart. Those ladies yearned for Mirkwood, those Valkyries were eager to judge wars.
The sharp-eyed archer Egil and his brother Slagfinn came home from hunting and found their homes empty. They went in and out and looked all around, but finally Egil skied east to look for Olrun, and Slagfinn skied south to look for Hlathguth.
But Volund sat alone in Ulfdalir; he worked gold and colorful jewels, he assembled rings and strung them on ropes. In this way he waited to see whether his lady would return.
Nithuth learned this, the lord of Njari, he heard that Volund was alone in his valley. He sent men in the night wearing well-made armor, their shields glimmered in the light of the waning moon.
They dismounted at Volund’s doorstep, they went inside his vast home. They saw Volund’s golden rings, seven hundred altogether, strung on a rope.
They took them in hand, then put them back, but stole a single one before they stepped out. Then the keen-eyed archer Volund came home. He had traveled a long way that day.
He started to roast the meat of a brown bear. The kindling burned, the dry wood burned, the wind-dry logs burned, and it warmed Volund.
Volund the elf sat on the bearskin and counted his rings, but noticed one missing. He thought it must be Hervor, his wife— he thought she’d come back, and taken the ring.
He sat waiting for her so long he fell asleep, and when he awoke he was bound in chains. He saw the heavy chains restraining his hands, and on his feet there were also solid locks.
He called out, “Who are the kings who have put chains on me, who has tied me up?”
Nithuth, lord of Njari, gave him an answer: “Volund, you crafty elf, where did you find our treasures in your valley?”
Volund said, “It was hardly a hoard such as Sigurth’s gold— my home was not near the mountains of the Rhine. I remember that we used to have yet more, when we were a happy family at home in Ulfdalir.
“Hlathguth and Hervor were daughters of Hlothver. Olrun, Kjar’s daughter, was a cunning sorceress.”
Nithuth’s queen came in to the magnificent hall. She stood proudly on the floor and spoke: “This man, who came in from the woods, will not be happy.”
King Nithuth gave his daughter the gold ring that he had taken from Volund. He himself carried Volund’s sword. And the queen said:
“Volund shows his teeth every time he sees that sword, or when Bothvild wears that ring in his presence. His eyes are as cruel as a glistening snake’s. Cut his sinews, rob his strength, and put him away in Saevarstoth.”
So Volund’s hamstrings were cut, and he was placed on a small island next to the land, which was called Saevarstoth. There he made all kinds of treasures for the king, and no one dared to come to the island except the king himself. Volund said:
“My sword shines on Nithuth’s belt, the sword I sharpened, the sword I alone, the greatest smith, could make, the sword I hardened with my unmatched skill. Now that glistening sword is always far from my sight, since Nithuth will not bring that treasure to my workshop. His daughter Bothvild also wears a treasure never meant for her, my bride’s golden ring.”
Volund worked, never sleeping, constantly swinging his hammer. He thought of a daring plot to foil Nithuth. Then Nithuth’s two young sons, the two boys, came to see Volund’s treasures on the Island of Saevarstoth.
They came to the treasure chest, they asked for the keys. They realized Volund’s skill when they peered inside. The boys saw many ornaments, all of them made of gold and gems.
Volund said, “Come back alone, just you two, the day after tomorrow. I will give all this gold to you if you do. Don’t tell the ladies, don’t tell the men— don’t tell anyone at all that you’re meeting with me.”
Early on the appointed day, one boy said to the other: “Let’s go see the rings.” So the two boys came and asked for the keys. They realized Volund’s skill when they peered inside.
He cut off the heads of those young boys, he hid their bodies under his bellows. But he took their skulls and scalped them, set them with silver, and sent them as cups to Nithuth.
And from the eyes of those young boys he made jewels for their mother, Nithuth’s wife. And Volund made ornaments from the teeth of her own two brothers, for Bothvild, Nithuth’s daughter.
BOTHVILD PRAISED a ring Volund had made, she told him it was broken: “And I don’t dare to tell it,” she said, “to anyone but you.”
Volund said:
“I’ll repair it so that your father on his throne will look at it—and to him, and to your mother, it will look even better, and you’ll think so too, when you wear it.”
He gave her beer, he could easily outdrink her, and finally she sat in his chair and she slept. Volund said, “Now I have avenged the wrongs done to me, all except one of the most wicked.
“I have done well. I wish I were on my feet, the ones cut from me by the wicked men of Nithuth.” But then, laughing, Volund launched himself in the air. Bothvild wept as she left the island—she wept for her lover’s departure, and her father’s anger.
Volund saw where Nithuth’s queen stood outside and went into the hall. Volund perched atop the wall and said: “Are you awake, Nithuth, lord of Njari?”
Nithuth said, “I am awake. I have no joy, I barely sleep since my sons’ death. Your cold actions have chilled me. Now I wish I had never dealt with Volund.
“Tell me, Volund, you crafty elf, what kind of fate did my sons meet?”
Volund said, “First, you must swear many oaths. Swear by a ship’s board, by a shield’s edge, by a horse’s withers, by a sword’s blade, that you will not harm my lover, nor cause her death, even if my new bride is a woman of your kin, even if she bears my child inside your own hall.
“Then go to the workshop that you forced me into. There you’ll find bags full of blood. I cut your boys’ heads off and left their bodies beneath the bellows.
“And after I scalped them, I took the bare skulls and decorated them with silver before I sent them to you. And after I took their eyes out, I turned them into jewels for your crafty queen.
“I made jewels from the teeth of those two boys, and I sent those to your daughter Bothvild. Now Bothvild walks about pregnant, yes, the only daughter of the two of you.”
The king said, “You could say nothing more awful to me, I would never torture you worse. There is no man so tall that he could reach you up there, nor so good a shot that he could shoot you down, there where you hang among the clouds, Volund.”
Laughing, Volund flew up and away, and left the joyless Nithuth sitting below.
Nithuth said, “Get up, Thakkrath, my good servant, go to my pretty daughter Bothvild. Tell her to come to me in fine dress, to come talk to her father.”
The king then said to her, “Is it true, Bothvild, what Volund said: That you and he lay together?”
She said, “It is true, father, everything he said to you is true. Volund and I lay together on his island a while—we never should have. I couldn’t fight him, father, I couldn’t withstand him, father.”