hero
Helgi Hjörvarðsson
A silent, nameless prince named by the valkyrie Sváva, who wins a sword, kills the giant Hati, and dies in battle after his brother vows to take his bride.
Helgi Hjörvarðsson is the hero of Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, the first of the three Helgis whom the manuscript's prose links by rebirth. He is not a Völsung. He is the son of King Hjörvarðr and Sigrlinn, whom Hjörvarðr won after his man Atli (not Atli the Hun) carried her off from her burning homeland Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, prose 1 Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, prose 2.
As a youth Helgi was silent and no name would stick to him. On a hill he saw nine valkyries riding. The fairest, Sváva, daughter of King Eylimi, named him Helgi and told him of a sword in Sigarsholm, with a snake along its blade Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, prose 3 Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar 6-9 Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, prose 4. With it he avenged his mother's father on King Hróðmarr. He also killed the giant Hati, whose daughter Hrímgerðr came to the ships by night. Atli kept her talking in a long exchange of insults until the sun rose and turned her to stone Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, prose 5 Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar 12-30.
Helgi and Sváva swore vows to each other. Then, on Yule-eve, his brother Heðinn met a troll-woman riding a wolf and refused her company. That night, at the king's toast, he vowed over the sacred boar that he would have Sváva Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, prose 8. Helgi took this as a sign of his own death. Mortally wounded in battle against Hróðmarr's son Álfr, he asked Sváva to give her love to Heðinn. She answered that she had vowed never to take "a man unfamed" Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar 40-42. The prose ends by saying that Helgi and Sváva were born again Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, prose 11. The prose of Helgakviða Hundingsbana II says that Helgi Hundingsbane was named after him and that Sigrún was Sváva reborn Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, prose 1 Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, prose 6.
In the sources
Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.
he was a silent man, and no name stuck fast to him.
Swords I know lying in Sigarsholm, Fifty there are save only four
As a harbor mark men shall mock at thee, Where in stone thou shalt ever stand.
The bed for Hethin have thou ready, And yield thy love to the hero young.
Where the sources disagree or fall silent
- Where he died: the prose sets the battle at Sigarsvöllr, but the messenger's stanza says he fell at Frekasteinn, the name of a battlefield in the Helgi Hundingsbane poems.
- The poem is generally thought to be stitched together from several older poems by the compiler who wrote the prose links.
