Hamdir (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ), Sörli (O.N.: ), and Erpr (O.N.: ) were three brothers in

Germanic heroic legend Germanic heroic legend () is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic peoples, Germanic-speaking peoples, most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period (4th-6th centuries AD). Stories from this time period, to which others were ...

who may have had a historic basis in the history of the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

Legend

According to the

Edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been applied by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems ( ...

and ''

Völsunga saga The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century prose rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story ...

'', Hamdir and Sörli were the sons of Gjuki's daughter Guðrún and King Jonakr (O.N.: ). Erpr was the son of Jonakr from an earlier marriage.

Svanhild Swanhild, Suanhild or Svanhild may refer to: Historical * Swanachild, Bavarian princess who became the wife of Charles Martel (c. 688–741) * Swanhild, wife or concubine of King Harald Fairhair of Norway (c. 850–933) * Swanehilde of Saxony (c. ...

r, the daughter of

Sigurðr Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...

and Guðrún, was also raised by Jonakr. King Jörmunrekr (

Ermanaric Ermanaric (died 376) was a Greuthungian king who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled a sizable portion of Oium, the part of Scythia inhabited by the Goths at the time. He is mentioned in two Roman sources: the contemporary writings of ...

) proposed to Svanhildr through his son Randver, but the treacherous Bicke said that Randver tried to win Svanhild's love. Consequently, Jörmunrekr sentenced Randver to death by hanging and had Svanhildr trampled to death by horses. Guðrún then agitated her sons Hamdir and Sörli to avenge their half-sister, and tells them not to hurt the stones on the road. When Sörli and Hamdir met Erpr en route, they did not understand his riddles and, thinking him arrogant, killed him. During the night, they arrived and they cut off Jörmunrek's hands and feet. This made Jörmunrekr wake up and he cried for his

housecarl A housecarl (; ) was a non- servile manservant or household bodyguard in medieval Northern Europe. The institution originated amongst the Norsemen of Scandinavia, and was brought to Anglo-Saxon England by the Danish conquest in the 11th centur ...

s. Hamdir said that if Erpr had been alive he would have cut off the head, and remark that they shouldn't have damaged the stones of the road. The housecarls could not kill the two brothers with sharp weapons, but an old one-eyed man (

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

) advised them to kill them with stones. They are the last known generation of the Volsung lineage. This is why skaldic poetry used the "sorrow of Jonakr's sons" as a

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (a ...

for stones. In ''

Ynglingatal ''Ynglingatal'' or ''Ynglinga tal'' (Old Norse: 'Enumeration of the Ynglingar') is a Skaldic poem cited by Snorri Sturluson in the ''Ynglinga saga'', the first saga of Snorri's ''Heimskringla''. Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (Thjodolf), who was a poet ...

'' (9th century),

Þjóðólfr of Hvinir Þjóðólfr ór Hvini (; anglicized as Thjódólf of Hvinir or Thiodolf; fl. late 9th–early 10th c. AD), was a Norwegian skald, said to have been one of the court-poets of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair. His name suggests that he was fro ...

mentions their death in a

on the death of the Swedish king

Anund Anund (, meaning ''trail-blazer Anund'' or ''Anund the Land Clearer''), also called ''Brøt-Anundr'' ( Old East Norse) or ''Braut-Önundr'' ( Old West Norse) was a semi-legendary Swedish king of the House of Yngling who reigned in the mid-seve ...

Sources and historic basis

The legend of Jörmunrek appears in the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

'' as ''

Hamðismál The Hamðismál is a poem which ends the Germanic heroic legend, heroic poetry of the ''Poetic Edda'', and thereby the whole collection. Gudrun had been the wife of the hero Sigurd, whom her brothers had killed. With Sigurd she had had the daughte ...

'' and ''

Guðrúnarhvöt Guðrúnarhvöt is one of the heroic poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. Gudrun had been married to the hero Sigurd and with him she had the daughter Svanhild. Svanhild had married the Gothic king Ermanaric (''Jörmunrekkr''), but betrayed him with ...

''. It also appears in

Bragi Boddason Bragi Boddason, known as Bragi the Old (Old Norse language, Old Norse: ''Bragi hinn gamli'') was a Norwegian skald active in the first half of the 9th century in poetry, 9th century, the earliest known skald from whom verses have survived. Portio ...

's ''

Ragnarsdrápa Ragnarsdrápa (Old Norse: ‘Drápa about Ragnarr’)Clunies Ross, p. 27. https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1130&v=intro. is a skaldic poem attributed to the oldest known skald, Bragi inn gamli (‘the old’) Boddason, who lived in the 9th cent ...

'', in the ''

'', and in ''

Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essentia ...

''.

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

wrote in 551 that the Gothic king

was upset with the attack of a subordinate king and had his wife Sunilda (i.e. Svanhildr) torn to pieces by horses and as revenge Ermanaric was pierced with spears by her brothers Ammius (Hamdir) and Sarus (Sörli) and died from the wounds. The ''

Annals of Quedlinburg The ''Annals of Quedlinburg'' (; ) were written between 1008 and 1030 in the convent of Quedlinburg Abbey. In recent years a consensus has emerged that it is likely that the annalist was a woman. The annals are mostly dedicated to the history of ...

'' (end of the 10th century) relates that the brothers Hemidus (Hamdir), Serila (Sörli), and Adaccar (Erpr/

Odoacer Odoacer ( – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube who deposed the Western Roman child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became the ruler of Italy (476–493). Odoacer' ...

) had cut off the hands of Ermanaric.

In popular culture

The legend forms the background behind

Poul Anderson Poul William Anderson ( ; November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until his death in 2001. Anderson also wrote historical novels. He won the Hugo Award seven times an ...

's short story "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth".

Secondary source

An article on Hamder in Nordisk familjebok

References

{{reflist German heroic legends Heroes in Norse myths and legends Nibelung tradition Völsung cycle

Legend

Sources and historic basis

In popular culture

See also

Secondary source

References