vor 117
German), youngest son of Volsung. Volsung was
a descendant of the god Odin. The myth “Otr’s
Ransom” (see under Otr) and the legends of Sigurd
are from the Volsunga Saga. Richard Wagner based
his opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelung in part on the
Volsunga Saga.
V olund
The hero of the poem Volundarkvida, a
part of the P oetic E dda . This poem is preserved in
fragments in the C odex R egius and in the A rnamag -
naean C odex . See Heroic legends.
The son of a Finnish king, Volund marries a Val-
kyrie who is disguised as a swan maiden. After she
returns to her swan shape and flies away, Volund turns
his skills as a blacksmith to work making treasures for
his lost wife. Captured by a neighboring king, Volund
is set to work at the smith’s bellows making riches for
the king until he is able to seek vengeance. He kills
the king’s sons and turns their eyes to gems, their
teeth to brooches, and their skulls to silver charms, all
of which he sends to the king and his family.
According to Volundarkvida, Volund himself was a
prince of elves, called by his captor “The greatest of
elves.” But his skill as a smith aligns him more closely
with the dwarfs, who were famous for their abilities
to make metal treasures.
Volund, like the hero Sigurd in the V olsunga
S aga , has strong connections with his Germanic
counterpart, Weland the Smith.
V oluspa (The Sibyl’s Prophecy) A Norse poem
from Iceland, recorded in the late 10th or early
11th century. It is perhaps the most important poem
in the P oetic E dda . The poem takes the form of
a monologue delivered by the Volva, or sibyl, in
answer to Odin’s questions. The verses deal with the
creation of the world, of the gods and of humans;
tell of the Aesir/Vanir War; and recount the death
of balder and loki’s punishment. They also tell of
Loki’s monstrous children, Fenrir, the wolf, and
Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, and the part
they played at Ragnarok, the end of the world. At
the end of the poem the new world begins, a kind of
green paradise in Gimle, marred only by the presence
of the corpse-eating dragon Nithog. Many scholars
believe that the Voluspa is one of the greatest literary
achievements in the Norse world.
volva (V ala ) A seeress or soothsayer; a kind of
magician, usually female, able to see into the future
and remember from the past, and capable of giving
advice to the living who call her up from the grave
for consultations.
In the myth of Balder, Odin goes to the under-
world to consult a volva to try to learn the reason for
his son Balder’s frightening dreams. Odin learns from
the volva that his son will die.
In the S vipdagsmal , Svipdag calls up the spirit of
his dead mother, Groa, a volva to ask her advice in
the wooing of the fair Menglod.
The goddess Freya is associated with the volvas,
but no stories survive that describe her role as
seeress.
V or (Wary, Careful) One of the Asynjur, or
goddesses of the Aesir, according to Snorri Stur-
luson in his P rose E dda . Other existing manuscripts
also mention Vor but do not specify that she was a
goddess. They do, however, say that she was very
wise and searched out all things so that nothing was
hidden from her. She had the gift of providence, of
preparing well for the future.