Volsunga Saga - Notes
| P. 2.—'Wolf in holy places,' a man put out of the pale of society for his crimes, an outlaw. P. 7-—' One-eyed;' the man is Odin, who is always so represented, because he gave his eye as a pledge for a draught from the fountain of Mimir, the source of all wisdom. P. 25.—' Norns came to him.' Nornir are the fates of the northern mythology. They are three — Uror, the past; Veroandi, the present; and Skuld, the future. They sit beside the fountain of Uro (Uroarbrunur), which is below one of the roots of Yggdrasil, the world-tree, which tree their office it is to nourish by sprinkling it with the waters of the fountain. P. 30.—Valkyrja, 'Chooser of the elected.' The women were so called whom Odin sent to choose those for death in battle who were to join the Einherjar in the hall of the elected, 'Val-holl.' P. 34.—The man in the boat is Odin, doubtless, as in the next chapter. P. 37.—'There came a man into the fight, &c.' Odin, coming to change the ownership of the sword he had given to Sigmund. See above, p. 7. P. 47.—Ran is the goddess of the sea wife of AEgir. P. 52.—'Grifir,' called Gripir in the Edda. P. 54.-—'Then, quoth Sigurd,' &c. This and verses following are inserted from the Reginsmal by the present translators. P. 56.—Di'sir, sing. Dis. These are the guardian beings who follow a man from his birth to his death. The word originally means sister, and is used throughout the Eddaic poems as a dignified synonym for woman, lady. P. 60. —'Unknown to men is my kin.' Sigurd refusing to tell his name is to be referred to the superstition that a dying man could throw a curse on his enemy. P. 62.—Surt; a fire-giant, who will destroy the world at the Ragnarok, or destruction of all things. The 'AEsir' are the gods of the Scandinavian mythology. P. 66.—The Songs of the Birds is inserted from Regins-mal by the translators. P. 67.—'Mayst thou,' misprinted for 'may not.' P. 69,70,71.— The stanzas here are inserted from Sigrdrifa-mal by the translators. P. 70. — Asyniur are the goddesses of Scandinavian mythology. P. 78.—This chapter is nearly literally the same as chapter 166 of the Wilkina-Saga: Ed.: Perinskiold, Stockholm, 1715. P. 117.—Chap. xxxi. is the Eddaic poem, called the first Lay of Gudrun, and is inserted here by the translators. P. 127.—'Dyed red by folk of the Gauls.' The original has 'rauou manna blooi— red dyed in the blood of men;' the Sagaman's original error in dealingwith the word 'Valaript,' in the corresponding passage of the Short Lay of Sigurd. P. 158.—In the prose Edda, the slaying of Swanhild is a spontaneous and sudden act on the part of the king. As he came back from hunting one day, there sat Swanhild, washing her linen; and it came into the king's mind how that she was the cause of all his woe; so he and his men rode over her and slew her. P. 161.—'A certain man,' &c. Odin again; he ends the tale as he began it. P. 163.— 'And now,' &c, inserted by translators from the prose Edda. The stanza at the end is inserted by translators from the Whetting of Gudrun. |