Tyrfing

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Tyrfing (Old Norse. Tyrfingr) is the name of a magical sword in Norse mythology . The original, probably from Sweden legend of the sword Tyrfing has survived in the Icelandic Hervarar saga and embedded therein four songs: Hjalmar Sterbelied, Hervörlied ( Hervararkviða ) Heidreksrätsel ( Heiðreks gátur or gátur Gestumblinda ) and Hunnenschlacht song ( Hlöðskviða ), which also to the Eddica minora (the songs of the song Edda , which are not in the Codex Regius ).

Svafrlami (or Sigrlami ) is King of Gardarike and grandson of Odin . He succeeds in capturing the dwarves Dvalinn and Durinn and forcing them to forge him a sword with a golden hilt that will never miss its target, never rust and can cut through stone and metal as easily as clothing. They forge the sword, but curse it: it should bring three times great evil to its bearer.

Svafrlami is killed by the berserk Arngrim (Arngrímr), who takes the sword. He bequeaths it to his son Angantyr (Angantýr), who is killed with his eleven brothers on the island of Samsø (Sámsey) in a duel with the Swede Hjalmar (Hjálmarr) and his Norwegian brother Örvar-Odd (the hero of the Örvar-Odds saga ). This fight is about the favor of Ingibjörg, the daughter of Yngvi , the king of Sweden. The badly wounded Hjalmar dies, and Örvar-Odd brings his body to Ingibjörg in Uppsala (Hjalmar's death song, also known as the "fight on Samsey"). Tyrfing is buried with Angantyr.

When Angantyr's daughter Hervör found out about this, she went to Samsø and asked Tyrfing from her dead father (Hervörlied, also known as "Agantyr's awakening"). She married Hofund , with whom she has two sons: Heidrek (Heiðrek) and Angantýr (Hofundson). Hervör gives Tyrfing to Angantyr. During a walk, Heidrek asks to see the sword. However, this leads him to kill his brother Angantyr.

Heidrek leaves his country, marries the Princess of Reidgotaland and becomes King of the Goths . Heidrek camps on a trip in the Carpathian Mountains , where one night he is murdered by eight serfs and Tyrfings robbed. This is the last of Tyrfing's three evil deeds, the curse is gone. Heidrek's son Angantyr (Heidrekson) kills the thieves and takes the sword back.

Angantyr becomes the new king, but his half-brother Hlöd (Hlöðr), who grew up with the Huns , whom Heidrek fathered with the princess of Húnaland, demands half of the kingdom. When Angantyr refuses to do this, a battle of nations between the Goths and the Huns ensues, in which the 343,200 Huns outnumber the Goths by far. The Goths win this battle because Angantyr uses Tyrfing and kills his brother Hlöd ( Hunnenschlachtlied ).

In the Hervararsagar ok Heidreks konungs , Tyrfing is portrayed as a sword that must kill as soon as it is drawn from its scabbard, because Dvalin's curse is: "This sword becomes a man's murderer as often as it is drawn. [...]" . That would explain the death of one of the brothers mentioned above.

Snorri Sturluson mentions Tyrfing in his Edda as a paraphrase ( kenning ) for sword.

expenditure

  • Matthias Reifegerste: The Hervarar saga. An annotated translation and research on the origin and integration of their traditional stories. (Old Norse Library, Volume 6). Norden Reinhardt, Leverkusen 1989, ISBN 3-927153-01-X .
  • Arthur Häny: The Edda. Songs of gods and heroes of the Germanic peoples . 4th edition. Manesse-Verlag, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-7175-1730-9 .
  • Felix Genzmer : The Edda. Poetry of gods, proverbs and heroic songs of the Germanic peoples. Introduced by Kurt Schier. (Diederich's yellow row). Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag, Kreuzlingen / Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7205-2759-X . (previously: Diederichs, Düsseldorf / Cologne 1981ff, ISBN 3-424-00718-8 )
  • Snorri Sturluson : Edda . Viking Society for Northern Research, London 1999, ISBN 0-903521-41-5 . (Reprinted from London 1987 edition, translated by Anthony Faulkes)

literature

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