Artisanal Revenge in Völundarkviða: Völundr’s Creations in the Spatial Relations of the Poem

In this article I argue for the significance of Völundr’s creations as social commentary and social corrective, particularly in relation to the two key spaces and communities in Völundarkviða.¹ This poem has received ample scholarly attention, as Ármann Jakobsson’s use of litotes emphasizes: “Few Eddic poems have suffered less from scholarly neglect.”² Little of the scholarship on Völundarkviða, however, examines the emphasis in the poem on both artisanal creation and spatial relations. Three categories of scholarship concern this article: first, studies of the language (especially the hapax legomena and descriptions of artifacts), metrics, and compositional contexts of the poem; second, studies of the poem alongside other written and archaeological evidence about smiths in medieval Germanic settings; third, abstract and comparative studies of Völundr, often in relation to archetypal figures (smiths, shamans, dwarves) in the Germanic tradition and beyond. For too long Völundr has been scrutinized for creating artifacts described only by hapax legomena while, in other contexts, he has been transported into the company of central Siberian tribal idioms.³ Why not study Völundr and his creations within the spaces described in the poem?⁴ Völundarkviða is a poem of details, particularly in terms of spatial relations and material creations. Völundr is therefore not just a smith, and certainly not a smith divorced from his specific environs. The poem itself emphasizes the importance of spatial details and their significance to the artifacts and techniques associated with them. For example, although representations of the Germanic smith Völundr proliferate, only Völundarkviða portrays the smith in his brothers’ settlement, with their wives, before he is abandoned, abducted, and enslaved in King Níðuðr’s settlement. This juxtaposition of two settlements provides a context in which to understand Völundr’s gruesome gifts not only as revenge but also as social commentary: Völundr’s gifts are specifically designed to reinforce the horizontal and reciprocal nature of exchanges between highly skilled artisans and the aristocrats that depend upon those artisans. It is for these reasons that attention is due to the details the poem provides about this specific smith, his creations and his specific social and spatial settings.

I. THE SHORE OF ÚLFSIÁR—THE SWAN–MAIDENS AND THE BROTHERS:

Before examining Volundr’s artisanal creations in the spaces of Völundarkviða, each spatial and artisanal motif must first be considered individually. I consider these motifs in the order in which they appear in the verse. (The order in the prose differs slightly.)

The first settlement in Völundarkviða is located on the sævar strönd (beach of a lake)⁵ of Úlfsiár in Úlfsdalir (1.5, 5.2, 6.4, 13.6).⁶ The prose prelude and the verse characterize this location differently. The prose prelude initially describes a hús (house or farmstead)⁷ which the three brothers gøra (build). In a few instances, hús refers to temporary huts or outbuildings.⁸ The prelude later describes a singular skáli, (dwelling, house)⁹ where the brothers live with the swan-maidens. Skáli (or the plural skálar) can refer to “a hut, shed,” a structure put up for temporary or occupational use: for example, fiski-skálar (fishing-huts). This is “the earliest Norse sense, and it is still so used in Norway.”¹⁰ The secondary meaning of skáli, however, is “hall” or the main room of a large, often ceremonial hall.¹¹

Thus, the prose is ambiguous. It is unclear whether the settlement started with a temporary structure, later replaced by something more permanent, or if a larger (perhaps more prestigious) settlement complex or farmstead was built immediately. In either case, once the swan-maidens arrive, three aristocratic couples are living together in the single skáli, which therefore likely refers to a large hall and/or a prestigious settlement complex.¹²

In the verse, however, the dwellings are not described until after the departure of the swan-maidens...