Sigrdrífumál

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Woken from her slumber Sigrdrífa greets the day, the night, the gods and the goddesses. Illustration by Arthur Rackham.

Illustration of Sigrdrífa on the Drävle Runestone.

Sigrdrífumál or Brynhildarljóð is one of the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda. It relates the meeting of the valkyrie Sigrdrífa with the hero Sigurðr and largely consists of Sigrdrífa's advice to him, which includes cryptic references to Norse mythology and magical runes. The metre is fornyrðislag.

The beginning of the poem is preserved in the Codex Regius where it follows Fáfnismál. The end is in the lost part of the manuscript but it is preserved in later copies. The Völsunga saga describes the scene and contains some of the poem.

[edit] Pagan prayer

Henry Adams Bellows stated in his commentary that stanzas 2-4 are "as fine as anything in Old Norse poetry" and these three stanzas constituted the basis of much of the third act in Richard Wagner's opera Sigfried (the fourth stanza mentioned by Bellows is not shown here as it is a reconstruction from prose that does not appear as a stanza in the Old Norse editions):

The last stanza is the only prayer to the Norse gods which has survived the process of Christianization.^[3]

[edit] Runic invocation

Sigrdrífa imparts magical lore to the dragon-slayer Sigurðr, expounding how the runes may be employed as a magical sigil and to accompany this process with an invocation. According to the runologist Lars Magnar Enoksen, the Tiwaz rune is referred to in stanza 6^[4]:

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] Print

• Jansson, Sven B. F. (Foote, Peter; transl.)(1987). Runes in Sweden. ISBN 91 7844 067 X
• Steinsland, G. & Meulengracht Sørensen, P. (1998): Människor och makter i vikingarnas värld. ISBN 9173245917

[edit] Electronic

• Sigrdrifumol Henry Adams Bellows' translation and commentary
• Sigrdrifumal Benjamin Thorpe's translation
• Sigrdrífumál Translated by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor
• Sigrdrífumál Sophus Bugge's edition of the manuscript text
• Sigrdrífumál Guðni Jónsson's edition with normalized spelling

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