(also known as ) is the conventional title given to a section of the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic me ...

'' text in . It follows without interruption, and it relates the meeting of

Sigurðr Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovin ...

with the

valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997:36) ...

Brynhildr Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label=New High German, Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigoths, Vis ...

, here identified as ("driver to victory"). Its content consists mostly of verses concerned with

runic magic There is some evidence that, in addition to being a writing system, runes historically served purposes of magic. This is the case from the earliest epigraphic evidence of the Roman to the Germanic Iron Age, with non-linguistic inscriptions and th ...

and general

wisdom literature Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it w ...

, presented as advice given by Sigrdrífa to Sigurd. The

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

is , except for the first stanza. The end is in the lost part of the manuscript but it has been substituted from younger paper manuscripts. The describes the scene and contains some of the poem.

Name

The compound means "driver to victory" occurs both as a common noun, a synonym of , and as a proper name of the valkyrie named Hild or Brynhild in the Prose Edda. H. Reichert, "Sigrdrifa (Brynhildr)" in: McConnell et al. (eds.), ''The Nibelungen Tradition: An Encyclopedia'', Routledge (2013)
p. 119
H. Reichert, "Zum Sigrdrífa-Brünhild-Problem" in: Mayrhofer et al. (eds.), ''Antiquitates Indogermanicae'' (FS Güntert), Innsbruck (1974), 251–265. (or "victory-urger", "inciter to victory"Orchard (1997:194). Simek (2007:284).) It occurs only in (stanza 44) and in stanza 4 of the . In , it could be a common noun, a synonym of ''

'', while in it is explicitly used as the name of the valkyrie whose name is given as or in the Prose Edda. Bellows (1936) emphasizes that is an epithet of Brynhildr (and not a "second Valkyrie").

The follows the 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 the

Great Lacuna The Great Lacuna is a lacuna of eight leaves where there was heroic Old Norse poetry in the ''Codex Regius''. The gap would have contained the last part of ''Sigrdrífumál'' and most of ''Sigurðarkviða''. What remains of the last poem consis ...

of the . 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 the , 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 of . In stanzas 6-12, Brynhild teaches Sigurd the magic use of the

rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

s. 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 historical

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 in . 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 valkyrie's drinking-speech

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 by

Bellows A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtigh ...

(1936) is actually placed right after stanza 2, introduced only by ("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: : : "Sigurth sat beside her and asked her name. She took a horn full of mead and gave him a

memory-draught Symbel ( OE) and sumbl ( ON) are Germanic terms for "feast, banquet". Accounts of the ''symbel'' are preserved in the Anglo-Saxon '' Beowulf'' (lines 489-675 and 1491–1500), ''Dream of the Rood'' (line 141) and '' Judith'' (line 15), Old Saxo ...

." Henry Adams Bellows stated in his commentary that stanzas 2-4 are "as fine as anything in

Old Norse poetry Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century (see Eggjum stone) to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was preserved in Iceland ...

" and these three stanzas constituted the basis of much of the third act in

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's opera ''

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

''. This fragment is the only direct invocation of the Norse gods which has been preserved, and it is sometimes dubbed a "pagan prayer".Steinsland & Meulengracht 1998:72 The first two stanzas are given below in close transcription (Bugge 1867), in normalized Old Norse (Jonsson 1905) and in the translations by Thorpe (1866) and of Bellows (1936):

Runic stanzas

Stanzas 5-18 concern

, explaining the use of runes in various contexts. In stanza 5, Sigrdrífa brings Sigurd ale which she has charmed with runes: Stanza 6 advises to carve "victory runes" on the sword hilt, presumably referring to the ''t'' rune named for Tyr:Enoksen, Lars Magnar. ''Runor: Historia, tydning, tolkning'' (1998) The following stanzas address "

Ale Ale is a Type of beer, type of beer brewed using a Warm fermentation, warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typicall ...

-runes" (7), "birth-runes" (8), "wave-runes" (9), "branch-runes" (10), "speech-runes" (11), "thought-runes" (12). Stanzas 13-14 appear to have been taken from a poem about the finding of the runes by

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

. 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 the

æsir The Æsir (Old Norse: ) are the gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. They include Odin, Frigg, Höðr, Thor, and Baldr. The second Norse pantheon is the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage war against each other, resu ...

elves An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes " ...

vanir In Norse mythology, the Vanir (; Old Norse: , singular Vanr ) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods (the other being the Æsir) and are the namesake of the ...

and mortal men.

Gnomic stanzas

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 in ), which are gnomic in nature. Like , 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).

Editions and translations

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis. A ...

(trans.), ''The Edda Of Sæmund The Learned'', 186
online copy, at northvegr.org
*

Sophus Bugge Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic ...

, ''Sæmundar Edda'', 1867 (edition of the manuscript text
online copy
* Henry Adams Bellows (1936) (translation and commentary
online copy, at sacred-texts.com
*

Guðni Jónsson Guðni Jónsson (22 July 1901 – 4 March 1974) was an Icelandic professor of history and editor of Old Norse texts. Life and career Guðni was born at Gamla-Hraun at EyrarbakkiPáll Lýðsson"GUÐNI JÓNSSON" Minningargreinar, ''Morgunblaði ...

, ''Eddukvæði: Sæmundar-Edda'', 1949 (edition with normalized spellin
online copy
*

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

and P. B. Taylor (trans.), ''The Elder Edda: A Selection'', 1969

References

*Jansson, Sven B. F. ( Foote, Peter; transl.)(1987). ''Runes in Sweden''. * Steinsland, G. & Meulengracht Sørensen, P. (1998): ''Människor och makter i vikingarnas värld''. *Einar G. Pétursson, ''Hvenær týndist kverið úr Konungsbók Eddukvæða? '', Gripla 6 (1984), 265-29

*Einar G. Pétursson, ''Eddurit Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða: Samantektir um skilning á Eddu og Að fornu í þeirri gömlu norrænu kölluðust rúnir bæði ristingar og skrifelsi: Þættir úr fræðasögu 17. aldar'', Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, Rit 46 (1998), vol I, pp. 402–40: introduction to Jón's commentary on the poem Brynhildarljóð (Sígrdrífumál) in Völsunga saga; vol. II, 95-102: the text of the commentary. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sigrdrifumal Völsung cycle Eddic poetry Sources of Norse mythology Nibelung tradition Old Norse philosophy Valkyries Brunhild

Name

Contents

The valkyrie's drinking-speech

Runic stanzas

Gnomic stanzas

Editions and translations

References