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The First Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane or the two lays involving Atli, which forms the source of the later portion of the Volsunga Saga. However, most of these poems, and other heroic poems not in the Codex Regius, still relegate the gods to supporting roles.
Hervarar Saga( The Saga of Hervor and King Heidrek) One of the great Norse sagas. Hervarar Saga tells the story of the sword Tyrfing, from the curse at its creation to the final fulfillment of that curse generations later on the battlefields of northern Europe. Two dwarfs, Dvalin( 2) and Durinn( 2), captured by a human king and forced to forge a sword for him, cursed the weapon as they made it, saying it would kill every time it was unsheathed and specifically that it would kill three of the king’ s kinsmen.
The sword features most prominently in the life of Angantyr( 1), the grandson of the king who ordered its creation; in the life of his daughter, Hervor, a warrior maiden; and in the life of Angantyr( 2), Hervor’ s descendent and son of King Heidrek.
The saga blends aspects of Norse mythology in its telling, particularly in the role that the curse of the sword plays in the flow of history. In addition to the part of the dwarfs, the saga contains a seid ritual performed to retrieve the sword from the dead and a long riddle session between King Heidrek and the god Odin.
Hildisvini( Battle Boar) The goddess Freya’ s boar. His golden bristles showed the way in the dark. He was created for Freya by the dwarfs Dain( 1) and Nabbi. Freya’ s human lover, Ottar, took the form of Hildisvini to visit, with Freya, the giantess Hyndla in the poem Hyndluljoth.
Himinbjorg( Cliffs of Heaven, Heaven Mountain) The eighth great hall, or palace, in Asgard, kingdom of the Aesir gods. Himinbjorg is the home of the god Heimdall. The palace stands near Bilrost, the bridge between Heaven and Earth. From his vantage point overlooking this passage between the three worlds of the universe, Heimdall carries out his duty to watch over the lives of the other gods.
Himinbrjot( Heaven Bellowing) The giant black ox killed by Thor, who then used the ox’ s head as bait to catch Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent. Snorri Sturluson mentions Himinbrjot in Gylfaginning as one of the herd kept by the giant Hymir.
Hjadningavig( Battle of the Followers of Hedin) A story of endless battle preserved in three separate sources: a Skaldic poem written in the ninth century by Bragi Boddason, the 13th-century works of Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson, and most fully in the late 14th-century saga sorla thattr.
Through the magic of the goddess Freya or an unknown witch, the armies of two kings, Hogni and Hedin Hjarrandason, engage in a battle that goes on day after day for 143 years. The war begins after Hedin abducts Hild, Hogni’ s beautiful daughter. Hedin is about to return the woman but is too late, for Hogni has already drawn the dread sword, Dainsleif, which must kill a man before it can be returned to its sheath. Each day the warriors fight. At night, the magic restores even the most severely injured, those who would normally die in a battle that was not bewitched.
According to some sources, the end of this tedious battle comes at Ragnarok, the final war between the giants and the gods at the end of time. Others say it ends with the arrival of King Olaf I Tryggvason, who ruled Norway from a. d. 995 to 1001 and forced the conversion of many people to Christianity. Modern scholars see parallels or opposites between the horror described in this battle and the glorious life of the Einherjar, the souls of human warriors in Valhalla.
Hlesey The island under which the sea giant, Aegir, and his wife, Ran, lived in their coral cave. Experts believe the actual site of Hlesey may be the island of Laeso, in the Kattegat( cat’ s throat), a strait between the islands of Jutland and Zealand in Denmark.
Hlidskjalf( Lidskialf; High Seat) Odin’ s throne in the high tower of his palace, Valaskjalf, in Asgard, the home of the gods. From here Odin could see all that occurred in the Nine Worlds. He had his ravens, Hugin and Munin, to help him and the wolves Geri and Freki to keep him company. No one but Odin was allowed to sit on Hlidskjalf with the exception of his wife, Frigg. The god Frey, though, once disobeyed the rules. From the high perch he spotted the Jotun maid Gerda and fell in love with her.
Hlin( Protectress) One of the minor goddesses of the Aesir, according to 13th-century Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson. Frigg assigned Hlin the job of protecting from danger anyone Frigg chose. The