Hello -
I found the introduction to:
Hatto, A.T., trans. 1965. The Nibelungenlied. Penguin Classics. ISBN
0-14-044137-9
to be a fairly insightful discussion of the origins of the various elements
that were ultimately assimilated into the German and Scandinavian material.
The material on Sigur� and his lineage that composes the earlier part of the
work has many features that are very similiar to the fundamental Indo
European warrior/thunder deity slaying a dragon narrative, the more direct
attestation of which in ON is of course the �or/world serpent episodes.
There is a large body of work on cases where prevalent mythological themes
are reiterated in saga/lays/etc. even when the story itself is by no means a
secularized version of the myth; for instance, the articles that conclude
Sigfreid and Hagen in Nibelungenlied are analogues of Baldr, with his
characterization as virtuous to an unprecedented degree and his early,
tragic death, but somewhat less developed character, and O�in, with his
characterization as evil who is ultimately the most compelling character of
the narrative. The dragon slaying aspect of the early Sigur� episodes could
be conciously or unconciously the employment of this archaic mythological
theme into a new narrative, or the entire narrative could be an independent
theme.
Hervarar saga is a remarkable work for the number of independently very
interesting elements that have been assimilated into a cohesive narrative.
Orvar-Odd, present with Hjalmar during the fight with the twelve
Arngr�mrsonar in which Hjalmar dies, was certainly the subject of his own
independent narratives, in which he has characteristics of a deity. Whether
and to what extent the stories about him in material like Orvar-Odds saga
are secularized iterations of myths or simply independent narratives where
he is given attributes of a deity I think is fairly uncertain.
I don't know if anyone has made reference to this parallel before, but,
while certainly not securely an analogue, the theme of the sword being
cursed to cause three acts of villiany is somewhat similiar to the well
attested IE theme of tertiary misdeeds, with one relevant to each of the
three functions in Georges Dumezeil's system; an act of treachery or
misjudgement which is adverse to theme of sovereignity, an act of cowardice
or military failure which is adverse to the theme of military power, and an
act of sexual misconduct that is adverse to the theme of
abundance/wealth/fertility. The variants that we have occur in two episodes
of Indic epic, Iranian epic, the Starkar� narrative in ON saga and in Saxo
and, somewhat less decisively, in the Greek Herakles narrative. In the
original narrative, the first sovereign of the world, who was likely also
the first man, commited these tertiary misdeeds and therefore lost his
status as sovereign, but had four sons (with two of them representing
aspects of the third function of fertility/wealth, as in the Indic Asvins,
Greek Castor and Pollux, etc.) who cumulatively featured all of his
auspicious characteristics which he had commited the misdeeds in regard to,
and they somehow transfer their attributes back to him in order to restore
his sovereignity. As I said, the scenario of the tertiary misdeeds relating
to the sword is not explicitely apparent as an expression of this theme, but
the material from which this original narrative has been reconstructed is
extremely diverse, and it seems like at least a possibility, analysis of
which could produce insight into the nature of the original narrative. I
know that Dumezeil assessed at least the Indic or Indo-Iranian variants in
his essay Aspects of Sovereignity and in his book The Destiny of a King, and
all of the variants are assessed in:
Puhvel, J. 1987. Comparative Mythology. The John Hopkins University Press.
Baltimore, MD. ISBN: 0-8018-3938-6
Which is a work that I would very strongly reccomend in general.
>From: "llama_nom" <600cell@...>
>Reply-To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
>To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [norse_course] Re: Hervarar saga
>Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 19:55:58 -0000
>
>
> > I wonder, though, is just leaving the incident out, as in R,
> > wouldn't be wise? Still undecided here...
>
>There's also the question of parallels. If the Arngr�mr stays with
>the king and becomes his trusted second-in-command, that parallels the
>development of Hei�rekr. That fits in with the very typical pattern
>in these legends of showing both outcomes from a situation: what
>happens when a hero serves under a king but doesn't betray him, and
>what happens when the hero does betray the king and take over. Some
>good stuff on this in Aguirre, Manuel (2002), "Narrative composition
>in The Saga of the Volsungs" (Saga Book XXVI). And it shows a
>progression in Arngr�mr's descendents of increasing ambition, cunning
>and power. In that respect, the R version seems neater or more subtle
>than U-H, although they have some interesting ideas of their own
>elsewhere.
>
> > Yes, but many of the courtly refernces, for example the 23 chapt.
> > description of Sigur�r, are later interpolations. One only needs to
> > claim so many times in a story about a man that he was the greatest
> > and most famous, etc..;)
>
>I was thinking as well of the way the characters behave after that
>turning point. Take Sigur�r's ancestors: Sigi who kills the thrall in
>a fit of jealously, just because the thrall had a better day's hunting
>than him, V�lsungr with his recklessness and lack of concern for his
>daughter's wishes, Sign� and Sinfj�tli who slaughter their own
>relatives for vengeance and to restore the family to greatness... But
>then Sigur�r, even after he discovers that he was tricked with the
>potion of forgetfulness (end of ch. 29, right after the wedding
>celebrations), is prepared to let things go on as they are for the
>sake of appearnces or because the situation has become too
>complicated, instead of just asserting his will.
>
>Of course, part of this strangeness might come from the fact that
>different versions of the story have been combined and the joins not
>entirely plastered over; or maybe sometimes characters make peculiar
>choices in order to try to fit the different versions together better.
> But still it can make for some interesting effects. It's a while
>since I read this article: Ney, Agneta (2002), "Genus och rumslighet i
>V�lsunga saga" [
>http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/medieval/saga/pdf/ ], but I seem
>to remember it covered some of these themes and makes a lot of the
>contrast between the courtly elements in the later part of the saga,
>as against its wild and mythical beginnings.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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