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Sigrdrífumál (also known asBrynhildarljóð[1]) is the conventional title given to a section of thePoetic Edda text inCodex Regius.
It followsFáfnismál without interruption, and it relates the meeting ofSigurðr with thevalkyrieBrynhildr, here identified asSigrdrífa ("driver to victory").[2]Its content consists mostly of verses concerned withrunic magic and generalwisdom literature, presented as advice given by Sigrdrífa to Sigurd.Themetre is differing throughout the poem. Most staves are wrote inljóðaháttr, but there are also some infornyrðislag and a few ingaldralag.
The end is inthe lost part of the manuscript but it has been substituted from younger paper manuscripts. TheVölsunga saga describes the scene and contains some of the poem.
The compoundsigr-drífa means "driver to victory"[2] (or "victory-urger", "inciter to victory"[3]) It occurs only inFáfnismál (stanza 44) and in stanza 4 of theSigrdrífumál.InFáfnismál, it could be a common noun, a synonym ofvalkyrie, while inSigrdráfumál it is explicitly used as the name of the valkyrie whose name is given asHildr orBrynhildr in the Prose Edda.[2]Bellows (1936) emphasizes thatsigrdrífa is an epithet of Brynhildr (and not a "second Valkyrie").[4]
TheSigrdrífumál follows theFáfnismál without break, and editors are not unanimous in where they set the title.Its state of preservation is the most chaotic in the Eddaic collection. Its end has been lost in theGreat Lacuna of theCodex Regius. The text is cut off after the first line of stanza 29, but this stanza has been completed, and eight others have been added, on the evidence of the much later testimony of paper manuscripts.
The poem appears to be a compilation of originally unrelated poems. However, this state of the poem appears to have been available to the author of theVölsungasaga, which cites from eighteen of its stanzas.
The basis of the text appears to be a poem dealing with Sigurd's finding of Brynhild, but only five stanzas (2-4, 20-21) deal with this narrative directly. Stanza 1 is probably taken from another poem about Sigurd and Brynhild.Many critics have argued that it is taken from the same original poem as stanzas 6-10 ofHelreid Brynhildar.
In stanzas 6-12, Brynhild teaches Sigurd the magic use of therunes. To this has been added similar passages on rune-lore from unrelated sources, stanzas 5 and 13-19.This passage is the most prolific source about historicalrunic magic which has been preserved.
Finally, beginning with stanza 22 and running until the end of the preserved text is a set of counsels comparable to those inLoddfáfnismál. This passage is probably an accretion unrelated to the Brynhild fragment, and it contains in turn a number of what are likely interpolations to the original text.
The first three stanzas are spoken by Sigrdrífa after she has been awoken by Sigurd (stanza 1 in Bellows 1936 corresponds to the final stanza 45 of Fáfnismál in the edition of Jonsson 1905).
What is labelled as stanza 4 byBellows (1936) is actually placed right after stanza 2, introduced only byHon qvaþ ("she said"), marking it as the reply of the valkyrie to Sigmund's identification of himself in the second half of stanza 1.
The following two stanzas are introduced as follows:
Henry Adams Bellows stated in his commentary that stanzas 2-4 are "as fine as anything inOld Norse poetry" and these three stanzas constituted the basis of much of the third act inRichard Wagner's operaSiegfried.This fragment is one of the few direct invocations of the Norse gods which have been preserved, and it is sometimes dubbed a "pagan prayer".[5]
The first two stanzas are given below in close transcription (Bugge 1867), in normalized Old Norse (Finnur Jónsson 1932) and in the translations by Thorpe (1866) and of Bellows (1936):
Heill dagr (ed. Bugge 1867)[6] | Hęill dagr, (ed. Finnur Jónsson 1932)[7] | Hail Dag, (Thorpe 1866)[8] | Hail,day! (Bellows 1936)[10] |
Stanzas 5-18 concernrunic magic, explaining the use of runes in various contexts.
In stanza 5, Sigrdrífa brings Sigurd ale which she has charmed with runes:
Biór fori ec þer / brynþings apaldr!
magni blandinn / oc megintíri;
fullr er hann lioþa / oc licnstafa,
godra galdra / oc gamanrvna.
Beer I bring thee, tree of battle,
Mingled of strength and mighty fame;
Charms it holds and healing signs,
Spells full good, and gladness-runes.
Stanza 6 advises to carve "victory runes" on the sword hilt, presumably referring to thet rune named forTyr:[11]
Sigrúnar þú skalt kunna,
ef þú vilt sigr hafa,
ok rísta á hialti hiǫrs,
sumar á véttrimum,
sumar á valbǫstum,
ok nefna tysvar Tý[12]
Victory runes you must know
if you will have victory,
and carve them on the sword's hilt,
some on the grasp
and some on the inlay,
and name Tyr twice.[12]
The following stanzas addressØlrunar "Ale-runes" (7),biargrunar "birth-runes" (8),brimrunar "wave-runes" (9),limrunar "branch-runes" (10),malrunar "speech-runes" (11),hugrunar "thought-runes" (12).Stanzas 13-14 appear to have been taken from a poem about the finding of the runes byOdin.Stanzas 15-17 are again from an unrelated poem, but still about the topic of runes. The same holds for stanzas 18-19, which return to the mythological acquisition of the runes, and the passing of their knowledge to theæsir,elves,vanir andmortal men.
Allar váro af scafnar / þer er váro a ristnar,
oc hverfðar viþ inn helga mioþ
oc sendar a viþa vega;
þer 'ro meþ asom / þer 'ro meþ alfom,
sumar meþ visom vanom
sumar hafa mennzkir menn.
Þat ero bocrunar / þat ero biargrunar
oc allar alrunar
oc metar meginrunar
hveim er þer kná oviltar / oc ospilltar
ser at heillom hafa;
niottu, ef þu namt,
unz riufaz regin.
18. Shaved off were the runes that of old were written,
And mixed with the holy mead, And sent on ways so wide;
So the gods had them, so the elves got them,
And some for the Wanes so wise, And some for mortal men.
19. Beech-runes are there, birth-runes are there,
And all the runes of ale. (And the magic runes of might;)
Who knows them rightly and reads them true,
Has them himself to help;
(Ever they aid, till the gods are gone.)[13]
Stanzas 20-21 are again in the setting of the frame narrative, with Brynhild asking Sigurd to make a choice. They serve as introduction for the remaining part of the text, stanzas 22-37 (of which, however, only 22-28 and the first line of 29 are preserved inCodex Regius), which aregnomic in nature.LikeLoddfáfnismál, the text consists of numbered counsels, running from one to eleven.The "unnumbered" stanzas 25, 27, 30, 34 and 36 are considered interpolations by Bellows (1936).
| Individual valkyries | .png) | |
|---|---|---|
| Poems about valkyries | ||
| See also | ||
