1. The hero child is born in a tempestuous hour - eagles screaming (in anticipation of carnage) and rain pouring down from the "fells of heaven." The names seem symbolic. See also Helgakviða Hjörvarþssonar, St. 6 and note 10.

2. King Sigmund's wife. See St. 6 below, and Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, Introductory Prose.

3. The fate-thread spinning of the norns is here taken literally.

4. Accepting Grundtvig's emendation.

5. Kenning for "the heavens," similar to those given in Alvismál, St. 12.

6. Evidently one of the norns.

7. See Hyndluljodh, St. 11, and Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, Introductory Prose.

8. No gap is indicated in the manuscript. Did the missing lines, or stanzas, contain the curse of one of the weird sisters, as is the case with Ólaf, the son of Frithleif (Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, liber VI, 4). The impending evil certainly does not refer to the wars foretold by the raven: only by fighting can glory be won.

9. This is, probably, to be interpreted, not literally, but as meaning that on Helgi from his tenderest childhood is imposed the duty to avenge his father.

10. Ravens, wolves, and eagles rejoice at the birth of a hero who will feed them on the carcasses of his slain foes - a standard conceit in Old Germanic poetry.

11. It is one of the attributes of a great king to bring to his land good harvest years. A housecarl is a member of the king's bodyguard.

12. A kenning for "battle."

13. As a fast-growing plant the leek seems symbolic of rapid access to royal power. Compare with the virga ("rod") used, beside the sceptre, in the coronation of the early English kings.

14. "Heaven-meadows"' some of these and other place names in the poem must be symbolic.

15. According to the Völsunga saga, Sinfjötli is Sigmund's son by his own sister, Signý. Another half brother of Helgi's is Sigurth. See Frá dauða Sinfjötla.

16. A heiti, or synonym, for "man," "warrior."

17. As gained by warfare.

18. According to the ancient laws of Norway a lad was of age when he had reached his fifteenth year.

19. Kennings for "battle."

20. This is the standing poetic phrase for the beginning of hostilities. See Grottasöngr, Introductory Prose.

21. The wolves, as scavengers after battle.

22. Supplied after Bugge.

23. Doubtful; possibly a kenning for "battle-field" (as the abode of wolves).

24. Sigrun. See St 54 below and the Prose before Part II of Helgakviða Hundingsbana II.

25. Kenning for "(generous) ruler," "hero." Before the use of coins became general in the Germanic North, the ponderous spiral armrings of gold and silver were cut or broken in pieces, which served as payment and reward.

26. Concerning Granmar and his sons Hothbrodd, Guthmund, and Starkath, see Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, Prose after St. 14.

27 The line is doubtful.

28. Supplied, following Grundtvig.

29. Hothbrodd. We know nothing about his antagonist.

30. Supplied, following Gering.

31. Kenning for "gold": the Niflung treasure, the treasure par exellence, was thrown into the Rhine.

32. Probably, the island of Hiddense, north of Rügen.

33. Accepting Bugge's emendation.

34. Some follower of Helgi's.

35. "Arrow Sound." Compare with the German Stralsund of the same meaning.

36. See Helgakviða Hjörvarþssonar, Note 17.

37. For this as well as Svarins Hill, see St. 31. Compare with the modern Schwerin.

38. See Helgakviða Hjörvarþssonar, St. 13, Note 18.

39.Kennings for "ships."

40. One of Ægir's daughters, hence "the wave."

41. See Helgakviða Hjörvarþssonar, St. 18, Note 23.

42. "The Stained (Piebald) One" (?), perhaps referring to his illegitimate origin (compare with the Anglo-Saxon Fitela). He is Helgi's brother and forecastleman, like Atli (Helgakviða Hjörvarþssonar, St. 14 and Note 19).

43. A red shield indicated warlike intentions, a white one, peace.

44. That is, when made a slave?

45. According to the Völsung saga, both Sigmund and Sinfjotli roam the woods as werewolves until they see their chance to avenge themselves on King Siggeir, who had slain Sigmund's and Signý's father, Eylimi. Coming to Siggeir's hall, Sinfjotli slays the two boys whom his mother Signý has borne to Siggeir and who, hence, are his half brothers. The imputations which the two speakers otherwise heap on each other cannot be verified.

46. That is, to wolves as fierce as the wolf Fenrir; see Völuspa, St. 39 and Note 54.

47. Since his mother Signý was married to Siggeir.

48. Conjectural.

49. Perhaps an allusion to combat between Sigmund and Sinfjotli in their werewolf condition, when Sigmund bit Sinfjotli's throat (Völsung saga, Chap. 8).

50. The name of Sigurth's horse.

51. A plain in eastern Sweden. It is the scene of the great (legendary) battle between the kings Sigurth Ring and Harald Wartooth.

52. Conjectural.

53. The two events referred to are unknown elsewhere.

54. Possibly, the Danish island of Möen.

55. Kenning for "swords."

56. Hothbrodd's sons.

57. Supplied here by the Translator.

58. Here, used as honorific epithet for "warriors."

59. Kenning for "ships."

60. Kenning for "battle."

61. That is, "the wolf ate the slain." see Hyndluljodh, St. 5 and Note 8, and Helgakviða Hjörvarþssonar, Prose before Fragment IV.

62. Yng is the mythical progenitor of the earliest Swedish kings. Here, only an honorific epithet.

All things considered, this lay is perhaps the truest, though certainly not the finest, expression of the spirit of the "Viking Age," when Scandinavia - vagia gentium - poured forth, as the last wave of the Great Age of Migration, those swarms of dragon - ships, manned with the boldest sailors and fiercest warriors of the time, which swept like angry storm clouds over the coastlands of the Western World. In no other lay is there an equal concentration of vision, to the exclusion of all else, on the warrior's life as the only occupation worthy of men - the joyance in dangers on land and on sea of "athelings ever eager for war." In no other lay, too, does the paucity of contents verge so nearly on monotony and thinness of invention. Barring the word - duel between Sinfjotli and Guthmund, it is all about Helgi's warlike deeds, beginning with his birth, and leaving him at the zenith of power, with Sigrún won and the Hundings' lands his. We hear nothing of the tragic end hinted at in Stanza 5. Characterization is totally absent and, indeed, it is not aimed at: both scenes and men are typical and representative, not individual. But within the limits of his art the poet has achieved some truly magnificent stanzas, in the Northern mood; such as the grandiose figure of the norns affixing the fate - threads of the newly born hero to the very heavens, the description of the storm at sea, and of the appearance of the valkyries in the uproar of the elements and the clash of battle.
Otherwise the poem, like "Hymiskviða," is notable in the Collection for its unusually numerous kennings - for hero, battle, ships, and so forth - and frequent intercalated phrases, characteristics which make it approach somewhat the manner of later encomiastic skaldic poetry. And if, as has been surmised, the Helgi of this lay is meant to idealize King Magnús Ólafsson, this would furnish additional reason for placing composition of the lay in the middle of the eleventh century. Its present form may be due to later accretions.


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