In my off moments I’m working a story baed on Völundarkvitha, or The Lay of Völund, a legendary Germanic hero somewhat akin to Daedalus; the main character’s name is usually Anglicized as Weyland. As I plan this story (which will be told from the point of view of Bodvild’s adult son), it occurs to me that I may have misinterpreted a crucial incident in the tale.
Here’s a links to an English translation of the lay, which I’ll summarize below:
Weyland, a smith of great renown, is treacherously captured by a cruel king, Nidud, who imprisons him on an island, hobbles him, and sets him to work. In revenge, Weyland murders the king’s two sons when they foolishly visit him in secret, making goblets and jewelry from their remains and sending them back to their unsuspecting family. The king’s daughter, Boldvild, accidentally damages her gift (a brooch or ring) and goes to Weyland to have it repaired; Weyland then sleeps with, impregnates, and abandons her, escapting from the island by means of wings he had made.
I’ve always interpreted this sexual intercourse as a rape. But it occurs to me that I may have brought my own cultural and personal baggage to that interpretation, and I’d like the input of my fellow Dopers. I’m interested both in your assessment of the source material and in the narrative possibilities of both interpretations.
This is my first time reading it. Is there a larger context to speak of?
Given the last verse in your link, rape seems the likely scenario. He got her drunk, she passed out (it seems) and so he took advantage. As she tells her father:
The only way I can see this not being rape is if she’s not being honest with her father in describing what happened. That’s why more context would be helpful, if it exists. Do people in lays tell the truth? Or do they sometimes lie to suit their own purposes? Now that she’s preggers and Weyland has taken off, would it serve Boldvild better to tell her father it was rape, rather than admit to boozy consensual sex with the man her father imprisoned (and is now known to have killed her brothers)?
I’ve never heard of the legend, but after all these years I now get the joke in the Simpsons character’s name (referred to in the title of one episode as “Waylon the Smithers”).
Speaking from our point of view, I’d say she was raped. Speaking from the point of view of the times, they’d probably say no. The way I read it, what actually happened was Volund took her for a wife without obtaining her father’s permission.
He was motivated by vengeance, pure and simple, but he did extract an oath from Nithuth that Nithuth would not counter by punishing Bothvild or their offspring. Having wed her, he had a responsibility to her, plus there was the fact that their son would be bound by blood-ties to avenge any wrongs done to his father - and to his mother, which is where it could get interesting (if his father raped his mother, should he kill him? Or go after his grandfather who imprisoned his old man?).
I think this part:
set next to this part:
indicates to me that Bothvild, while she may have been initially held on the island by force, eventually fell in love with Volund, or was seduced by him, and is now afraid of her father’s reaction. In the here-and-now we’d call that rape with some Stockholm syndrome on the side. Back then it would be considered more along the lines of an elopement; women weren’t given much choice when it came to husbands anyway, and the wrong that was done was done to her father more than it was to her.
We’re not told how long she and Volund co-habited (one of the interesting things about Scandinavian and Germanic sagas and poems is how much stuff is left out, because the author assumed that everyone hearing it was already familiar with the story). Apparently it was long enough for Volund the Smith to be sure there was a little Smithereen on the way.
Let’s see, I don’t have my copy of the Eddas with me. Isn’t the ring that Nithuth stole from Volund the same one that Volund put a curse on, which eventually led to the whole Sigurd/Brynhild fiasco?
I’d say rape, for the reasons stated above. Volund is a cold motherfucker. Jules would shit his pants if he had to go up against Volund. He murdered and butchered 2 small boys because of what their father did - he’d have no compunction against raping a teenage girl for the same reason.
BTW, David Drake’s Northworld: Vengeance is partially based on Volund. In that book Sparrow (Volund) doesn’t rape the princess himself - he gets his ephebophilic jailer drunk and talks him into doing it.
(I know this is a zombie thread but I just wanted to put in my two cents about Volund.)
The thing is that Volund’s an elf. He’s a member of a race famous for lusting after human women and being amoral. In the sagas and eddas elves take mistreatment by humans or humans breaking any promises badly. Volund’s treatment of King Niðud’s family is entirely consistent with this; the story is essentially about how useless it is to enslave a powerful figure like an elf— Volund himself is still able to escape and flies away on his winged feet even though he was hamstrung.
@Skald: If you’re still working on this I assume Bodvild’s son is her half-elven child with Volund?
@Marlitham: That dwarf’s name is Andvari and the ring is called Andvaranaut. There are two dwarves in the Sigurd tradition-- the other is Regin who was Sigurd’s foster father. (See Dwarven names in the Voluspá.)