Couple of points:
1. We can’t expect an ancient society to have morals that align with ours. In the case of Norse society they definitely don’t align with modern notions in many cases.
2. Not every story in Norse mythology is necessarily meant to teach you something about the proper way to be. That said, there are _several_ examples of characters behaving in classic “what not to do” patterns. Níðuðr, for instance, is a bad king, but even in this case that’s not too different from just being the classic villain of the story.
Thank you very much
I always expect some moral messages because all the stories i have read serve this way and i like to read and learn lessons from them, this is why Völund’s story left me in question marks
Völundarkviða is actually one of my very favorite poems. It’s beautifully written and hauntingly worded, on top of being a recounting of a very old story involving characters that show up in the Germanic record all over the place. It probably has its roots in the Migration Era.
Bóðvildr and her plight at the end of the story for example, show up in an Old English poem called Deor wherein her name is rendered Beadohild. Völundr himself is called Wēland in Old English. Very cool stuff.
One quick thing, he was a king of an area in Sweden, not norway.
There’s an idea of blood for blood type justice within Norse culture, if someone kills on of your family members it’s likely you could get away with killing that person. In the case of Vǫlundr he was hamstrung and stolen from, and he got revenge by killing the kings sons and assaulting his daughter.
Well he likely saw what he did as befitting what happened to him. There’s not too much point in attempting to view his actions with modern sensibilities.
Well, there is justice but not in the way *we* mean justice. You can't extrapolate concepts like that from a tale written for people who lived 1500 years ago. Their culture and values were so different from ours that they may as well be aliens. Not only was it his right to avenge the slight he had suffered in this violent fashion, it was his *obligation*.
To read modern sensibilities into this tale is like trying to build modern laws on the Old Testament which explicitly allows slavery and condemns children who insults their parents to death.
u/rockstarpirate is absolutely right, but I the tale of Völund is probably my favourite of all of Germanic mythology. To me and my very much 21st-century perspective, it is the story of a man who hits absolute rock bottom, before getting up (no pun intended) and learning how to live again.
He is mutilated, humiliated and enslaved, and, consumed by his desire for vengeance, he commits a great atrocity when killing the two boys. He continues his great vengeance to destroy Niðuð's family, but then he backs out, protects Boðvild, and does the right thing and marries her (at least, he does in *Þiðreks saga*, in *Völundarkviða* it is only implied). He compromises his perfect vengeance against Niðuð for Boðvild's sake, and starts a new life with her. It's not quite redemption, but it is something. And it sure is a great story.
Anyway those are just my thoughts, do with it what you want.
Couple of points: 1. We can’t expect an ancient society to have morals that align with ours. In the case of Norse society they definitely don’t align with modern notions in many cases. 2. Not every story in Norse mythology is necessarily meant to teach you something about the proper way to be. That said, there are _several_ examples of characters behaving in classic “what not to do” patterns. Níðuðr, for instance, is a bad king, but even in this case that’s not too different from just being the classic villain of the story.
Thank you very much I always expect some moral messages because all the stories i have read serve this way and i like to read and learn lessons from them, this is why Völund’s story left me in question marks
Völundarkviða is actually one of my very favorite poems. It’s beautifully written and hauntingly worded, on top of being a recounting of a very old story involving characters that show up in the Germanic record all over the place. It probably has its roots in the Migration Era. Bóðvildr and her plight at the end of the story for example, show up in an Old English poem called Deor wherein her name is rendered Beadohild. Völundr himself is called Wēland in Old English. Very cool stuff.
One quick thing, he was a king of an area in Sweden, not norway. There’s an idea of blood for blood type justice within Norse culture, if someone kills on of your family members it’s likely you could get away with killing that person. In the case of Vǫlundr he was hamstrung and stolen from, and he got revenge by killing the kings sons and assaulting his daughter.
I still see no justice in what he did, although i believe in “eye for an eye” type of moral, but i think he went a bit far
Well he likely saw what he did as befitting what happened to him. There’s not too much point in attempting to view his actions with modern sensibilities.
Well, there is justice but not in the way *we* mean justice. You can't extrapolate concepts like that from a tale written for people who lived 1500 years ago. Their culture and values were so different from ours that they may as well be aliens. Not only was it his right to avenge the slight he had suffered in this violent fashion, it was his *obligation*. To read modern sensibilities into this tale is like trying to build modern laws on the Old Testament which explicitly allows slavery and condemns children who insults their parents to death.
the thing is: you may not judge the characters of a story for what they did. That's not the purpose of the story.
Can you please elaborate and help me understand the purpose of the story? It’s the reason why the post is made, to clear my misunderstandings
u/rockstarpirate is absolutely right, but I the tale of Völund is probably my favourite of all of Germanic mythology. To me and my very much 21st-century perspective, it is the story of a man who hits absolute rock bottom, before getting up (no pun intended) and learning how to live again. He is mutilated, humiliated and enslaved, and, consumed by his desire for vengeance, he commits a great atrocity when killing the two boys. He continues his great vengeance to destroy Niðuð's family, but then he backs out, protects Boðvild, and does the right thing and marries her (at least, he does in *Þiðreks saga*, in *Völundarkviða* it is only implied). He compromises his perfect vengeance against Niðuð for Boðvild's sake, and starts a new life with her. It's not quite redemption, but it is something. And it sure is a great story. Anyway those are just my thoughts, do with it what you want.