Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

Though Völund is in the highest degree skilful, he is not able to free himself from
these bonds. They are of magic kind, and resemble those örlögþættir which are tied by
Mimir's kinswoman Urd. Nidad accordingly here appears in Mimir-Njörvi's character as
"binder." With this fetter of sinew we must compare the one with which Loki was bound,
and that tough and elastic one which was made in the lower world and which holds Fenrir
bound until Ragnarok. And as Völund -- a circumstance already made probable, and one
that shall be fully proved below -- actually regards himself as insulted by the gods, and
has planned a terrible revenge against them, then it is an enemy of Odin that Nidhad here
binds, and the above-cited paraphrase for the death-dis, Urd, employed by Egil
Skallagrimson, "the kinswoman of the binder (Njörvi) of Odin's foes" (see No. 85), also
becomes applicable here.
The tradition concerning Nidhad's original identity with Mimir flourished for a
long time in the German Middle-Age sagas, and passed from there into the Þidreks Saga
af Bern, where the banished Völund became Mimir's smith. The author of Þidreks Saga
af Bern, compiling both from German and from Norse sources, saw Völund in the
German records as a smith in Mimir's employ, and in the Norse sagas he found him as
Nidhad's smith, and from the two synonyms he made two persons.
The Norse form of the name most nearly corresponding to the Old English
Nidhad is Niði, "the subterranean," and that Mimir also among the Norsemen was known
by this epithet is plain both from Sólarljóð and Völuspá. The skald of Sólarljóð sees in
the lower world "Nidi's sons, seven together, drinking the clear mead from the well of
ring-Regin." The well of the lower world with the "clear mead" is Mimir's fountain, and
the paraphrase ring-Regin is well suited to Mimir, who possessed among other treasures
the wonderful ring of Hotherus. Völuspá speaks of Nidi's mountain, 1 the Hvergelmir
mountain, from which the subterranean dragon Nidhogg flies (see No. 75), and of Nidi's
plains 2 where Sindri's race have their golden hall. Sindri is, as we know, one of the most
celebrated primeval smiths of mythology, and he smithied Thor's lightning hammer,
Frey's golden boar, and Odin's spear Gungnir (Gylfaginning). 3 Dwelling with his kinsmen
in Mimir's realm, he is one of the artists whom the ruler of the lower world kept around
him (cp. No. 53). Several of the wonderful things made by these artists, as for instance
the harvest-god's Skidbladnir, and golden boar, and Sif's golden locks, are manifestly
symbols of growth or vegetation. The same is therefore true of the original Germanic
primeval smiths as of the Ribhus, the ancient smiths of Rigveda, that they make not only
implements and weapons, but also grass and herbs. Out of the lower world grows the
world-tree, and is kept continually fresh by the liquids of the sacred fountains. In the
abyss of the lower world and in the sea is ground that mould which makes the fertility of
Midgard possible (see No. 80); in the lower world are "smithied" those flowers and those
harvests which grow out of this mould, and from the manes of the subterranean horses,
and from their foaming bridles, falls on the fields and meadows that honey-dew "which
gives harvests to men."
1 verse 66, Niðafjöll
2 verse 36, Niðavöllom
3 The reference here is to the Contest of the Artists in Skáldskaparmál 35; the treasures Sindri creates for
the Aesir are the hammer Mjöllnir for Thor, the boar Gullinbursti for Frey, and the ring Draupnir for Odin.