Nidation
Niden was a king in Germanic sagas.
He appears as King Nidud in the Völundarkviða , as Nished in the Thidrek saga and as Nidhad in the Anglo-Saxon poems Deor and Waldere .
In the Thidrek saga
In the Thidrek saga, Nnung appears as king in Jutland. Wieland (Velent) the blacksmith comes to his farm on the run from the dwarves from whom he learned the blacksmith's trade. Wieland initially hired himself as a cupbearer. He once washed three knives by the sea and lost one in the process. As a good blacksmith, it was easy for him to make a new knife. When the king used this knife while eating, it cut not only through the food but also through the plate and deep into the table. Niden wanted to know who had forged such good steel and found out that it was Velent (Wieland). The king's blacksmith, Aemilias , became jealous of Velent and offered him a competition. Aemilias was supposed to forge armor and Velent a sword, and whose art turned out to be weaker would die. Velent (Wieland) then forged the sword Mimung, Ämilias forged a helmet. In the fight Velent killed Ämilias, through whose helmet the sword Mimung went "like through butter". After a falling out, Nleid had Velent (Wieland) paralyzed because he didn't want such a good blacksmith to be lost. Velent retaliated by killing both of the king's sons and embedding their skulls in golden goblets for the king's table. He also raped the king's daughter Badhilde , who then gave birth to Wittich , who then appears in the German heroic saga (including as a follower of Dietrich von Bern ). The lame Velent freed himself by forging a plumage and fled with it.
Nothing in the Völundlied (Völundarkviða)
In the Völundlied, Nnung (Nidud) is described as the king in Sweden who had Wieland captured. He takes Wieland's sword from and wears it on his belt. He gives the ring from Wieland's wife to his daughter Badhilde. In order for Wieland not to be able to flee, his hamstring tendons are cut at the behest of the not named wife von Nnung and he is brought to the island of Säwarstad. In revenge, Wieland kills the king's two sons, also not named, seduces and impregnates Badhilde and flees.
Nothing in the deor
In the poem Deor, Nnung (Nidhad) appears next to Badhilde (Beadohilde) in a stanza about Wieland's imprisonment at the court of Nendung.
Cut in the woods fragment
In the Waldere fragment, Nnung (Nidhad) is mentioned together with Wieland the blacksmith and Wittich (Widia) in a stanza about Walter's sword Mimung, which was forged by Wieland.
literature
- Alfred Becker: Frank's Casket. Regensburg 1973, Appendix VI on the Wielandsage , pp. 154–186.
- Robert Nedoma: The written and pictorial monuments of the Wieland legend. Kümmerle Verlag, Göppingen 1988.
- Arnulf Krause: The hero songs of the older Edda. Reclam-Verlag, Ditzingen 2001, ISBN 3-15-018142-9 .
- Rudolf Simek: The Edda. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56084-2 , pp. 85-88.
