Sigrdrífumál

"Sigrdrífumál" or "Brynhildarljóð" is one of the heroic poems of the "Poetic Edda". It relates the meeting of the valkyrie Sigrdrífa with the hero Sigurðr and largely consists of Sigrdrífa's advice to him, which includes cryptic references to Norse mythology and magical runes. The metre is "fornyrðislag".

The beginning of the poem is preserved in the Codex Regius where it follows "Fáfnismál". The end is in the lost part of the manuscript but it is preserved in later copies. The "Völsunga saga" describes the scene and contains some of the poem.

Pagan prayer

Henry Adams Bellows stated in his commentary that stanzas 2-4 are "as fine as anything in Old Norse poetry" and these three stanzas constituted the basis of much of the third act in Richard Wagner's opera "Sigfried" (the fourth stanza mentioned by Bellows is not shown here as it is a reconstruction from prose that does not appear as a stanza in the Old Norse editions):The last stanza is the only prayer to the Norse gods which has survived the process of Christianization. [Steinsland & Meulengracht 1998:72]

Runic invocation

Sigrdrífa imparts magical lore to the dragon-slayer Sigurðr, expounding how the runes may be employed as a magical sigil and to accompany this process with an invocation. According to the runologist Lars Magnar Enoksen, the Tiwaz rune is referred to in stanza 6:Enoksen, Lars Magnar. "Runor: Historia, tydning, tolkning" (1998) ISBN 9188930327]

Notes

References

Print

*Jansson, Sven B. F. (Foote, Peter; transl.)(1987). "Runes in Sweden". ISBN 91 7844 067 X
*Steinsland, G. & Meulengracht Sørensen, P. (1998): "Människor och makter i vikingarnas värld". ISBN 9173245917

Electronic

* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe25.htm Sigrdrifumol] Henry Adams Bellows' translation and commentary
* [http://www.northvegr.org/lore/poetic2/027_01.php Sigrdrifumal] Benjamin Thorpe's translation
* [http://home.earthlink.net/~wodensharrow/sigrdrifumal.html Sigrdrífumál] Translated by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor
* [http://etext.old.no/Bugge/sigrdrif.html Sigrdrífumál] Sophus Bugge's edition of the manuscript text
* [http://www.heimskringla.no/original/edda/sigrdrifumal.php Sigrdrífumál] Guðni Jónsson's edition with normalized spelling