by Ben Waggoner
THE TALE OF WIELAND SMITH
translated by Ben Waggoner
The Troth
2020
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Cover image: Detail of the Ardre Kyrka stone. Swedish Historical Museum 108199. CC BY 2.5 SE.
Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the historical ruler of much of the former western Roman Empire, became the hero of a medieval German cycle of tales, in which he is known as Dietrich af Bern, “Theodoric of Verona.” An unknown Norse translator is responsible for Þiðreks saga af Bern, a great compilation of translated tales of Dietrich and his heroes. It was once thought that the translator compiled the saga from tales that he had heard,1 but it now seems more likely that he translated a now-lost Middle Low German manuscript, adding very little. There was active trade between Norway and the Rhineland from the late 1100s on, and the manuscript may have come to Scandinavia via those trade links, possibly during the reign of Hákon IV or even earlier.2 The translator’s prologue was well aware that the German material overlaps with Scandinavian legends about the heroes who had come to be associated with Dietrich; he seems to regard the German tales as more trustworthy than Norse oral tradition, which he saw as variable:
The Danes and Swedes are also able to tell many of these stories, and they have put some of them into their poems with which they entertain powerful men. Many of these poems that follow the story were made a long time ago and are recited now. Norse men have brought together a certain part of the story, some of it in poetry. First we must mention Sigurd Fafnir’s Bane, the Volsungs and Niflungs, and Wieland the Smith and his brother Egil and King Nidung. And although the ways of expressing men’s names or deeds vary somewhat, this is not surprising, with as many stories as these men have told, although it all comes from one source. This saga has been put together according to the tales of German men, but partly from their poems, which are meant to entertain powerful men, and which were composed in olden times, right after the events that are told in the saga. Even if you were to take one man from every city throughout Saxony, they would all tell this story in the same way, and the ancient poems are the reason for that.3
The author of the German manuscript probably drew on an epic about Dietrich; a lost epic now known as the Ältere Not (“Elder Trials”), about the downfall of the Burgundians; and a lay of Siegfried’s exploits.4 To this core, he added episodes and details from many other sources, filling in the life stories of Dietrich’s champions. Unfortunately, his source for Wieland’s tale is unknown.5 The author also seems to have transplanted most of the saga’s action to his homeland; every location that can be identified is in or near Westphalia in northwestern Germany.6 All in all, it seems likeliest that the author worked in Westphalia, probably in or near the city of Soest, a little before the year 1200.
This excerpt consists of Velents þáttr smiðs—The Tale of Wieland the Smith7 —plus one chapter from an earlier section, Vilkina saga or The Saga of King Vilkinus. I translated from Guðni Jónsson’s normalized edition from 1954, but checked it against Unger’s 1853 edition which gives readings from different manuscripts.
CHAPTER XXIII. About the Sons of King Vilkinus
It is said that King Vilkinus once invaded the Eastern realms8 with his forces. On one occasion, when his ships were anchored along the coast, the king himself came onto land and went into a forest. None of his men were with him. There he met a woman. She was beautiful, and the king fell in love with her and lay with her. But the woman was none other than the so-called “sea-woman;” it has a monster’s nature in the sea, but looks like a woman on land.9 His men, who should have gone with him, missed him and searched for him throughout the forest. Just then, the king reached his men and ships. There was a favorable wind, and they sailed out to sea.
When they had sailed a long way from land, the woman came up alongside the king’s ship, next to the afterdeck. She seized the stern and gripped it so tightly that the ship stood still. Now the king realized what this must mean: he must have met this same woman in the forest by the seashore. He said to her, “Let us go on our way. If you have anything to discuss with us, come to my land and I will give you a good welcome. Stay with me then, and be well honored.”
She turned the ship loose and went back into the sea, and the king sailed on his way back to his kingdom.
When the king had been home for half a year, a woman came to him and said that she was pregnant with his child. He recognized this woman quite clearly, and had her brought to a house that he owned. When she had stayed there for a little while, she gave birth to a boy-child, and the boy was called Wade.10 She didn’t want to stay there any longer, and she disappeared, and no one knows what became of her ever since.
When this boy grew up, he grew so huge that he was a giant, and he took after his mother’s side, since he wasn’t like human beings. He was hard to deal with, and for that reason he was unpopular, and his father didn’t love him very much. Still, he gave him twelve estates in Sweden before he died.
CHAPTER LVII. Wieland Learns Smithing With Mimir
Wade the Giant, son of King Vilkinus and the sea-woman, lived in Zealand11 on the estates that his father gave him, as was told before. It’s not said that he was a warrior. Rather, he was always content with what his father had given him.
Wade the Giant had a son and named him Wieland. When he was nine years old, Wade wanted him to learn some skills. He had heard of a certain smith in Hunland, who was called Mimir, the cleverest of all men. Wade went there with his son Wieland, and he put him in Mimir’s hands to teach him blacksmithing. Then Wade went home to his estates in Zealand.
At the time, the boy Sigurd was with Mimir, and he did many wicked things to his apprentices, beating and bruising them. Wade the Giant heard that his son Wieland was being mistreated by Sigurd, and he went to get him and brought him home to Zealand. Wieland had spent three years in Hunland, and now he was twelve years old. He stayed at home for twelve months. He was popular with everyone, and he was the cleverest of all men.
CHAPTER LVIII. Wieland Lodges With Two Dwarves For A Year
In Zealand, Wade the Giant found out where two dwarves were living, in a mountain called Ballova.12 These dwarves knew how to forge iron better than anyone else, dwarves or humans. They knew well how to make all sorts of iron goods, swords and mailcoats and helmets. They knew how to make all sorts of treasures from gold and silver, and they could make whatever they wanted from any material that could be shaped.
Now Wade the Giant took his son Wieland and left home, and came to the Grønsund. There was no ship to cross the sound. He waited there for a while. Then he took the boy and set him on his shoulder and waded over the sound—it was nine ells deep.13
There’s nothing to tell about their journey until they came to the mountain. Wade the Giant met these dwarves and spoke with them. He said that he had his son Wieland there, and he wanted them to take the boy for twelve months and teach him all manner
of smithcraft, and he would give them as much gold as they agreed on. The dwarves said that they would accept this boy and teach him all kinds of skill, if Wade the Giant would give them a mark of gold. He was willing to do that, and put it into their hands. They appointed a day, twelve months in advance, at which time he was to come for the boy, and the bargain was sealed.
CHAPTER LIX. Wade Hires Out Wieland For Another Year
Wade the Giant now went home to Zealand, and Wieland stayed behind and learned smithing. He was so quick to learn that he forged anything at all that the dwarves set for him, and he served them so well that when his father came for him, according to the terms of their bargain, they didn’t want to let him leave. They begged to let the boy stay there for another twelve months. Instead of Wieland leaving, they were willing to give back the mark of gold that they had taken for him, and they were willing to teach him half again as much skill as he had already learned. Wade the Giant accepted.
Now the dwarves regretted having to pay so dearly for his service. They spoke with Wade the Giant and told him that if he didn’t come for his son on the correct appointed day, they would be free to cut off his son’s head. Wade the Giant accepted this condition and wanted to go home.
Wade the Giant called his son Wieland and told him to come with him out of the mountain, and he did so. They conversed for a long time. Wade the Giant had a sword, and he took that sword and stuck it into some bushes, so that it didn’t stick out. He said to Wieland: “If I don’t come on the appointed day that we’ve agreed on, and something happens to break our agreement, and these dwarves want to take your life, take this sword and defend yourself well and bravely. That’s better than being murdered by two dwarves. I want our kinfolk to say that I’ve raised a son rather than a daughter, such a one as you are. But I don’t intend to come after the appointed day, which has now been decided.”14
Then father and son parted, and Wade went home to his estate, but Wieland went into the mountain to the dwarves and learned half again as much as before. Before it was over, Wieland knew all the skill that the dwarves knew. Although he served them well, and the dwarves were pleased with his service, they were still terribly jealous of him for how skilled he had become. They brooded over how he wouldn’t make use of his skill for long, because they held a mortgage on his life.
CHAPTER LX. The Death of Wade the Giant
Now these twelve months passed. Wade the Giant wanted to come for his son sooner rather than later, because the way was long, and he didn’t want to arrive after the appointed day. He left home, traveling both day and night, and he arrived three days before the agreed day. The mountain was shut before him, and he couldn’t get in. He lay down in a certain place on the mountain, wanting to wait there until the mountain would be opened for him.
But because of the strenuous journey that he had made, he’d grown very weary, and for that reason he fell asleep and slept very deeply and long. He wasn’t wicked. Now he lay just as he had come, and he snored so loudly that it could be heard a long way off. Then such a downpour broke out that it was a wonder. At that moment a great earthquake struck, releasing a landslide down the mountain, with water and trees, stones and soil and much earth. It surged over the giant, and so Wade lost his life.
CHAPTER LXI. Wieland Kills the Dwarves and Is Carried Out To Sea
Now the appointed day arrived. The dwarves opened up the mountain and wondered whether Wade the Giant had come for his son Wieland. Wieland went outside and looked around for his father, and didn’t see him anywhere. He went up onto one side of the mountain and saw where a landslide had newly come down, and he realized that that landslide must have destroyed his father. He saw that there was no use seeking vengeance there, and he remembered what his father had advised him before they parted. He wondered where the bushes were, where Wade the Giant had hidden the sword—but the underbrush was completely uprooted. Now Wieland felt that he was in dire straits; his father was dead, and he himself was condemned to death.
He looked around and saw a sword’s hilt sticking up out of the earth. Wieland went and pulled up the sword and looked at it and said, “Why should I entrust myself to the worst ones now?”
He saw the dwarves standing on a mountain, looking around. Wieland went up onto the mountain with the sword concealed under his tunic, and didn’t let them see it. He came up to the one nearest to him and struck him a deadly blow, and then he killed the other one. Wieland went into the mountain and took all their tools, and all the gold and silver that he could carry. He loaded a horse with gold and treasures that the dwarves had owned, yet he took as heavy a load on himself as he could manage. He set out northwards for Denmark.
Wieland traveled as far as he could for three days. Then he came to a great river called the Weser. He couldn’t get over the river. There was a great forest along the river, and he waited there for a little while. It wasn’t far to the sea. Wieland camped there. He went to the riverbank and saw where a single great tree was standing, and he felled it to earth. Then he split the tree in two and hollowed it out inside. Inside the thinner part, towards the branches, he put his tools and his treasure. Where the tree was thicker, he put in his food and drink. He went in there himself, and closed it up so firmly and watertight that nothing could harm him. And he set glass in front of the openings on the tree, made so that he could remove it whenever he wanted to. When the glass was in place, no more water got in than when the tree was whole.15
Now the tree lay alongside the river, with Wieland inside with all his wealth and all his tools. He shook himself inside the trunk until it rolled out into the river. The trunk drifted to the sea, and then out on the ocean, and drifted for eighteen days, and in the end the trunk came to land.
CHAPTER LXII. Wieland Comes to King Nidung
There was a certain king named Nidung. He ruled over Jutland from the place called Thy.16
One day, the king’s men rowed out to sea with a long net, to catch fresh fish for the king’s table. They cast their net and dragged it to land, and the long net was so heavy that they could hardly manage to haul it in. Now they saw that there was an enormous tree-trunk before them. They brought the trunk to shore and onto land, and carefully considered what kind of tree it must be. They found that the tree had been shaped with amazing skill, and they thought it must be a treasure chest, since it was so heavy and well-made. They sent a man to find the king and ask him to come and see this tree.
When the king arrived and saw the tree trunk, he ordered them to examine it and find out what was going on inside. They chopped at the trunk, and when Wieland realized what they were doing, he shouted at them and told them to stop, saying that there was a man in the trunk. When they heard the voice, they thought that the devil himself must be in the tree. They were all terrified, and each man fled to his own home.
Then Wieland opened up the trunk and went before the king and spoke thus: “I am a man, my lord, not a troll. I would very much like to ask you to grant me sanctuary and protection for my life and property.”
The king saw that this was a peaceful man and no fiend, even though he had arrived there in a strange fashion. He granted him sanctuary and all of his wealth.
Wieland took his tools and treasure and secretly hid everything all together in the earth, with the tree-trunk. One of the king’s knights saw this. He was named Regin.
CHAPTER LXIII. Wieland Forges A Knife For the King
Now Wieland stayed with King Nidung and was held in high esteem. He was a courteous lad. This was the service he rendered: he was to take care of three knives that had to lie on the king’s table in front of the king himself when he dined. When he had stayed there for twelve months, Wieland went to the sea one day, wanting to wash and polish the king’s knives. He dropped the best knife that the king owned out of his hand and into the sea, where it was so deep that there was no hope that it would be found.
Wieland went home, thinking that the
king would take the loss of his knife badly. He said to himself: “Certainly I may end up as a terrible disgrace to my family, and it does me little good to be descended from good kin. I’d entered the service of a good king, and he didn’t give me many tasks. That’s how he wanted to test me. I suppose that if he were to see how I took good care of a little thing, he might think that I would take good care of more important matters if they were put into my hands, and I would gain some rise in status from that. But I’ve neglected the small service that I had to do, and every man will call me a fool.”
There was a certain smith with King Nidung, whose name was Amilias. He forged everything for the king that could be made out of iron. Wieland went to Amilias the smith, but he wasn’t in the smithy, because he and his apprentices had gone to eat. Wieland sat there in the smithy and forged a knife. Then he forged one nail with three edges and laid it on the anvil. No one had ever seen smithcraft as good as that, neither before nor since. Wieland finished all his forging before Amilias came.
CHAPTER LXIV. The Wager of Wieland and Amilias the Smith
Wieland went to meet the king and stood before the king’s table as before and served, acting as if nothing had happened. The king took a knife that lay before him and cut a wheat loaf with it. The knife sliced the loaf in two—along with as much of the table as it touched. The king found it incredible that this iron could be so sharp, and he said to Wieland, “Who could have made this knife?”
Wieland answered, “Who could have made it but Amilias your smith, who’s made all your knives and everything else that you’ve had him forge?”
Amilias heard their conversation and answered, “My lord, I made that knife, and you have no other smith than myself to make everything that you want.”
The king answered, “I have never seen iron that good come from your hands. Whoever made that knife, you never did.” Then the king turned to Wieland and said, “Didn’t you make that knife?”