Rune Poems - House of Dubhros

Deor 73
evil days after Nithhad had laid fetters upon him, supple
bonds of sinew on a nobler man.
That was surmounted;
so can this be.
On Beadohild's mind her brothers' death preyed far less
sorely than her own condition, when she clearly perceived
that she was with child; she could not bear to think on
what must happen.
Many
That was surmounted;
so can this be.
of us have heard that the Geat's affection for
14. MS. we pKt maff hilde monge gefrugnon.
A number of editors retain this reading and connect mseff (elsewhere
unknown in AS.) with the ON. meiifa, translating " Many of us have heard
of Hild's violation." They cannot agree, however, upon the identity of the
lady. Gummere (O.E.E. p. 185) suggests Odila, the wife of Sifka, outraged
by Erminrik in pi'Sriks saga, c. 276 (Bertelsen, n. 158 ff.). Perhaps the most
plausible of these explanations is that put forward by Frederick Tupper, Jr
(Mod. Phil. ix. 265 ff.) he ; suggests that this, like the preceding stanzas,
refers to the Weland story. The Geat he identifies with NrShad (cf. Vkv. ix.,
Nif>oJ>r Niara dr6ttin = "lord of Nerike," a part of the Swedish Gotaland
in medieval times), the Hild with Beadohild. With v. 16 he compares
Vkv. xxxin. :
Vaki ek ofvalt viljalauss,
sofna ek minst siz sunu daupa.
But elsewhere in AS. frige is used for sexual rather than parental love.
Besides the story of NrShad and Widia, the son of Beadohild and Weland
(Niduda ? and Vidigoia in Jordanes) is almost certainly of Gothic origin and
little likely to be connected with Sweden (as in Vkv.) in a poem so early as
Deor.
With less probability Lawrence (Mod. Phil. ix. 29 ff.) argues that it deals
with the love of Hild and Heflinn, comparing particularly the version found
in Saxo, Bk v.
But the case is far from proven, and it is safer to regard this stanza as
alluding to one of those stories, familiar enough to an Anglo-Saxon audience,
which have not come down to us. Klaeber (Anglia, Beiblatt, xvn. 283 ff.)
regards mstif hilde as the Dat. of a compound name, Msefhilde. For the
use of MSB'S- as the first element of a personal name there is at least one
parallel in the Mseffhelm of Liber Vitae, 96 (Sweet, O.E.T. p. 156). It is
perhaps derived by haplology from Mffiflelhild, for the first element of which
cf. the Prankish Mallobaudes (Schonfeld, Worterbuch der Germanischen
Personen- und Volkernamen, p. 159).
The name Geat does occur at the head of the West-Saxon and Bernician
genealogies, and in Old Norse literature there are a number of kings called
to connect this Geat
Gautr (Chadwick, O.E.N. p. 270) ; but there is nothing
with them. It should be taken therefore as a national rather than a
personal name ; Beowulf is spoken of as Geat in vv. 1715, 1792.
The Scandinavian story of the god Freyr's love for the giantess Gerflr
(found in Skirnismal, XLIH. :
Lyng es ntftt, langar 'u tvser,
hv of prfyjak firiar?
Opt mr monupr minni potti
an sjd hyntitt hglf;
and Gylfaginning, c. xxxvu. : ekki svaf hann, ekki drakk hann ; engi }>or$i
at krefja hann mdlsins) is interesting as a parallel but nothing more.