Norse Mythology Source Texts: Elder Edda Conclusion

At last we come to the of our foray into that ancient northern epic known as The Elder Edda. Two more lays remain after the Atli-Gudrun sections end, and these bring in the tale of Jormunrek and Svanhild, an originally unrelated story connected later by making Svanhild a daughter of Gudrun and the historical Gothic king Jormunrek (Eormanrech). This gives our long-suffering arch-heroine yet further reason for lament, as nothing works out well for her. She is destined, it seems, to make bad decisions, the results of which hurt her as much as anyone.

Guðrúnarhvöt, or "Gudrún's Lament." Gudrún, now married to her third husband, suffers further tragedy and instigates another round of tragic vengeance, this time on Jormunrek for his killing of her daughter Svanhild. This is the true "Lament of Gudrún," of which all others are mere shadows and imitations. It doesn't get much sadder than this, as the poor Gudrún can't even succeed in committing suicide.

Hamðismál, or "The Ballad of Hamthir." In this "old" lay of Hamthir is told in greater detail the attempted revenge of Gudrún's sons on Jormunrek for the death of their half-sister Svanhild, taking up where the narrative of Gudrún's Lament leaves off, thus giving the reason for her latest grief. Here ends The Elder Edda, but not the story of the Volsungs, which will undergo futher mutation and accretion in the following centuries.

Having finished these off, I've now posted up two additional genealogies drawn from the Eddas, the first based on the Volsung lays and giving that bloodline, while the second details Gudrun's offspring from her three husbands as given in the Atli-Jormunrek sections. There are some inevitable divergences among them, as the lays are drawn from various traditions spanning thousands of miles and hundreds of years. I've done my best to make them clear and complete. They are intended for my own use in developing the characters and story of The Ring Saga, and consequently will be greatly amplified and altered as work progresses.

There is also a new outline containing a chronological sequence of events as they occur throughout the heroic sections of the Edda. Again, there is a great deal of discrepancy at certain points, and I've used colored fonts to indicate where conflicts occur, while still retaining as accurate a timeline as possible. References to the relevant lays are given for each event for ease of research, which is my purpose. Here again my reasoning behind this extended effort is to sort out all the variant strains and changes and try to make some sense of it, with the intent to forge it into as cohesive a plot as possible. Not that I intend to use it all, or in this form - for that I look to Wagner - but it is upon this foundation that the Volsung tale is built, and a good understanding of that base can only serve to aid in constructing an edifice upon it, however shaky it may be.

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