The Edda, Volume 2 | Page 6

must die some time," and asks questions of the dragon in the manner of
Vafthrudnismal. Fafni, after repeating his warning, speaks of his
brother's intended treachery: "Regin betrayed me, he will betray thee;
he will be the death of both of us," and dies. Regin returning bids
Sigurd roast Fafni's heart, while he sleeps. A prose-piece tells that
Sigurd burnt his fingers by touching the heart, put them in his mouth,
and understood the speech of birds. The advice given him by the birds
is taken from two different poems, and partly repeats itself; the
substance is a warning to Sigurd against the treachery plotted by Regin,
and a counsel to prevent it by killing him, and so become sole owner of
the hoard. Sigurd takes advantage of the warning: "Fate shall not be so
strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence: both brothers shall go
quickly hence to Hel." Regin's enjoyment of the hoard is therefore short.
The second half of the story begins when one of the birds, after a

reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to the sleeping Valkyrie:
"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a maid,
fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green roads lead
to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a mighty king has a
daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There is a hall high on
Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I know a battle-maid who
sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over her; Odin touched the maid
with a thorn, because she laid low others than those he wished to fall.
Thou shalt see, boy, the helmed maid who rode Vingskorni from the
fight; Sigrdrifa's sleep cannot be broken, son of heroes, by the Norns'
decrees."
Sigrdrifa (dispenser of victory) is, of course, Brynhild; the name may
have been originally an epithet of the Valkyrie, and it was probably
such passages as this that misled the author of Gripisspa into
differentiating the Valkyrie and Brynhild. The last lines have been
differently interpreted as a warning to Sigurd not to seek Brynhild and
an attempt to incite him to do so by emphasising the difficulty of the
deed; they may merely mean that her sleep cannot be broken except by
one, namely, the one who knows no fear. Brynhild's supernatural origin
is clearly shown here, and also in the prose in _Sigrdrifumal. Völsunga
Saga_, though it paraphrases in full the passages relating to the magic
sleep, removes much of the mystery surrounding her by providing her
with a genealogy and family connections; while the Nibelungen Lied
goes further still in the same direction by leaving out the magic sleep.
The change is a natural result of Christian ideas, to which Odin's
Wishmaidens would become incomprehensible.
Thus far the story is that of the release of the enchanted princess,
popularly most familiar in the nursery tale of the Sleeping Beauty.
After her broken questions to her deliverer, "What cut my mail? How
have I broken from sleep? Who has flung from me the dark spells?"
and his answer, "Sigmund's son and Sigurd's sword," she bursts into the
famous "Greeting to the World":
"Long have I slept, long was I sunk in sleep, long are men's misfortunes.
It was Odin's doing that I could not break the runes of sleep. Hail, day!

hail, sons of day! hail, night! Look on us two with gracious eyes, and
give victory to us who sit here. Hail, Aesir! hail, Asynjor! hail, Earth,
mother of all! give eloquence and wisdom to us the wonderful pair, and
hands of healing while we live."
She then becomes Sigurd's guardian and protectress and the source of
his wisdom, as she speaks the runes and counsels which are to help him
in all difficulties; and from this point corresponds to the maiden who is
the hero's benefactress, but whom he deserts through sorcery: the
"Mastermaid" of the fairy-tales, the Medeia of Greek myth. Gudrun is
always an innocent instrument in drawing Sigurd away from his real
bride, the actual agent being her witch-mother Grimhild. This part of
the story is summarised in Gripisspa, except that the writer seems
unaware that the Wishmaiden who teaches Sigurd "every mystery that
men would know" and the princess he betrays are the same:
"A king's daughter bright in mail sleeps on the fell; thou shalt hew with
thy sharp sword, and cut the mail with Fafni's slayer.... She will teach
thee every mystery that men would know, and to speak in every man's
tongue.... Thou shalt visit Heimi's dwelling and be the great king's
joyous guest.... There is a maid fair to see at Heimi's; men call her
Brynhild, Budli's daughter, but the great king Heimi fosters the proud