Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 158

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The Valkyries in the Heroic Literature
him, intending, no doubt, to become his successor. Only they are both burned
to death by an Yngling king, Ingjaldr, who tries to expand his territory in another
way.
AIl these women are only puppets in a political play. The only one to become
alive to us for a moment is Hildr, who pledges to her future bridegroom (as the
valkyries did with their heroes) and remembers the illustrious family to which he
belonged with the remarkable words: “Allir heilir Ylfingar at Hrólfs minni kraka”.
Perhaps it is not irrelevant to remember, that also Helgi Hundingsbani belonged
to the Ylfingar.
Reading about another woman, Asa hin illráða (Asa the ill-minded) reminds
us vividly of the valkyries. But there is another constellation here: she takes the
part of her father against her husband and also has her father kill his own brother.
However, she is as determined as the valkyries to take her life into her own hands.
All these women become a part — a vital part - of the political plans of the
conquerors. The Ynglinga Saga sdll remembers the motifs of heroic literature.
And where heroic literature still has the stature of myth, the heroes reach kingship
through their valkyrie, Óðinn’s handmaiden.
3. We have still another problem to discuss. Dagr slays Helgi Hundingsbani in
violation of the oaths that bound him, because he had his father and brothers to
revenge. This is a clear case of blood feud, but at the same time it reminds us of
an ancient ritual connected with human sacrifice. Helgi Hjörvarðsson sets off to
face an assignment with his enemy, with the intention to die. Gehrts compares
this gesture to the Roman devotio as reported by Livy. Helgi’s voluntary death
is a kind of sacrifice, and perhaps it is still seen as a sacrifice. Yet both cases can
also be easily interpreted in another way.
That a war leader should die a violent death - nothing is more to be expected
than that, and he himself would be very much amazed and even dismayed, were
he to die on his bed of sickness and old age. Also Óðinn expected him to die in
another way. Yet must he die in order to give a young and vigorous leader to his
people? This, Fraser made clear to us, is the central idea of sacral kingship. The
Helgi Lays still seem to recall that there once was a time when the king had to
die for the benefit of his people, but in a dark, veiled way. Not everybody need
be conscious of it.
4. What happens to the valkyrie? Either she survives and finds a new lover, or her
dead body is soon put beside his. The last alternative is found in some of the most
poignant stories: Sigrún dies of grief, and Svanhvita dies soon after her husband
Regnerus. Brynhildr lies down on Sigurðr’s pyre and lets herself be burnt to death.
(Cp. Nanna, who died of grief, and whose body was put on the pyre next to the
dead Baldr.) But the valkyrie can also survive: Ulvilda is married three times all
79 Gehrts (1977).