Egil (archer)
The archer Egil (also Egill o. Eigill ) is a brother of Wieland the blacksmith and thus involved in the legendary circle around Dietrich von Bern .
Egil in the written tradition
In the Thidreksaga
As an excellent marksman, Egil is mentioned three times in the Thidreksaga . The first time he came to King Nidung's court and had to carry out the famous apple shot as a test (see excerpt). The second time he was collecting feathers from wild birds for his brother. Wieland uses these feathers to make his wings, which enable him to escape through the air, as he cannot walk due to severed hamstrings. And finally, a third time, when King Nnung orders Egil to shoot his escaping brother from the sky. However, as previously agreed with his brother, Egil aims at a calf's bladder full of blood that Wieland is carrying under his armpit. Through this ruse, it looks like Egil was fulfilling his allegiance to King Nease. In reality, however, this is precisely how he helps Wieland to escape successfully, because Nothing no longer needs to hunt down a fatally wounded man.
Text excerpt from the Thidreksaga with the scene of the apple shot
| Old Swedish | German (freely translated) |
|---|---|
|
Tha kom welandz broder till konungen. |
Then Wieland's brother came to the king. |
In the song Edda
We also come across Egil in the Lieder Edda . Here he is mentioned in the Wieland song (Völundarkviða) together with his two brothers Wieland (Völund) and Slagfidr. While hunting you come to a lake, on the banks of which three women spin flax. There are Valkyries with the names Hladgud Swanhwit (Hladgud the swan white), Herwör Alwit and Ölrun (German Alrun). Each of the three brothers takes one of them as their bride, with Egil choosing Alrun. After nine years, however, the Valkyries leave their men to go back to the battles (örlög). Slagfidr and Egil then start looking for their wives. Wieland is left alone and is soon captured by King Nidung, from which Egil then frees him.
Egil on archaeological finds
Runic buckle from Pforzen
The names Egil and Alrun appear, written in runes , on the rune buckle from Pforzen (6th century AD). There it says:
Line 1: aigil andi aïlrun
Line 2: ltahu gasokun
As surely as one recognizes first a man's name and then a woman's name in the first line, the interpretation of the second line is so controversial. Hardly any runologist can do without the addition of a vowel at the beginning of the word "ltahu". If a vowel is added there (although it has obviously not been scratched), a complete allotted rhyme emerges , which in turn could represent a fragment from a lost song about Egil.
Runic box from Auzon
Other possible representations of Egil can be found on Auzon's Anglo-Saxon runic box (also known as Frank's Casket). The archer on the top of the box is probably the Egil. He defends a fortress from attackers with his bow. The name Ægili is recorded in runes above the archer. The woman sitting behind him under an arcade could be his wife Alrun. She hands him an arrow. We know from the Wielandlied that the three brothers, Völund, Egil and Slagfið were married to three swan girls . So you can see Egils Fylgja or Valkyrie in this woman . After an overall interpretation of the box, the scene will show the defense of Walhall against the frost giants ( Hrimthursen ), with the famous shooter and his combat assistant being a powerful couple on the side of the sir. This is also indicated by the Wotan's knots. Since the carver of the box functionally inserts traditional motifs from the legends into his sequence of images, it is not surprising that Edda and Thidreksaga are not familiar with this narrative.
On the obverse there is a scene from the Wieland tradition, in which Wieland, after killing a king's son, hands Nidung's daughter a potion with which he makes her mindless in order to impregnate her. To the right, between two runic ornaments, is a woman with a bottle. This could be Wieland's partner Herwör Alwit, a Fylgja or Valkyrie . To the right of it you can see a person grabbing two birds by the neck. Occasionally this is interpreted as the Wieland brother Egil "collecting the feathers". The "plumage" or the "forged wing" are narrative features that the Wieland song ( Völundarkviða ) does not know. In that early period (7th century), the blacksmith was seen as the “King of the Elves ”, as an alb and was thus able to change his form again after liberating revenge (killing the twins and desecrating the daughter). The third bird that escapes here is likely to be the freed blacksmith, while the hapless bird catcher is the desperate father (Nnung). A corresponding scene (Wieland escapes in the form of a bird) is shown in the Ardre VIII picture stone.
literature
- Alfred Becker, Franks Casket: To the pictures and inscriptions of the rune box by Auzon . Hans Carl, Regensburg 1973, ISBN 3-418-00205-6 .
- Klaus Düwel: Runic lore . Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-476-13072-X (3rd edition).
- Jacob Grimm: German Mythology . Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-86539-143-8 .
- Arnulf Krause: The hero songs of the older Edda . Reclam, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-15-018142-9 .
Web links
- Images: Frank's Casket (rune box by Auzon)
- Austin Simmons, The Cipherment of the Franks Casket (PDF)
- Wieland - a tradition of legends
- Fylgja and Valkyrie
- Wielandlied der Lieder-Edda, translation by Karl Simrock 1878 (German)
- Wielandlied of the Edda songs in Icelandic and other Scandinavian languages
- Thidreksaga (Swedish) Part 1, quoted passage at # 54