View source for Wayland the Smith

{{short description|Germanic mythological blacksmith}}
{{redirect|Weyland Smith|the Vertigo comics character|List of Fables characters }}
[[File:Ed0026.jpg|thumb|Wayland in Fredrik Sander's 1893 Swedish edition of the ''[[Poetic Edda]]'']]

In [[Germanic mythology]], '''Wayland the Smith''' ({{langx|ang|Wēland}}; {{Langx|non|Vǫlundr}} {{IPA|non|ˈvɔlundr̩|}}, {{lang|non|Velent}} {{IPA|non|ˈvelent|}}; [[Old Frisian]]: ''Wela(n)du''; {{langx|de|Wieland der Schmied}}; {{langx|goh|Wiolant}}; {{langx|fro|Galans}} ({{lang|fro|Galant}});{{sfn|Gillespie|1973|pp=142–143}} {{langx|gem-x-proto|Wēlandaz|italic=no}} from ''{{lang|gem-x-proto|Wilą-ndz}}'', lit. "crafting one"<ref>Gillespie, George T. ''A Catalogue of Persons Named in Germanic Heroic Literature'',{{full citation needed|date=June 2017}}</ref>) is a master blacksmith originating in [[Germanic heroic legend]], described by [[Jessie Weston (scholar)|Jessie Weston]] as "the weird and malicious craftsman, Weyland".<ref name=Weston29_p841f>Weston, J. (1929). 'Legendary Cycles of the Middle Age', in Tanner, J.R. (ed.), ''The Cambridge Medieval History'' Vol. VI, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, p. 841f.</ref>

Wayland's story is most clearly told in the Old Norse sources ''[[Völundarkviða]]'' (a poem in the ''[[Poetic Edda]]'') and ''[[Þiðreks saga]]''.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Wayland the Smith|volume=28|pages=431–432}}</ref> In them, Wayland is a smith who is enslaved by a king. Wayland takes revenge by killing the king's sons and then escapes by crafting a winged cloak and flying away. A number of other visual and textual sources clearly allude to similar stories, most prominently the Old English poem ''[[Deor]]'' and the [[Franks Casket]].

Wayland is also mentioned in passing in a wide range of texts, such as the Old English ''[[Waldere]]'' and ''[[Beowulf]]'', as the maker of weapons and armour. He is mentioned in the [[Dietrich von Bern|German poems about Theoderic the Great]] as the father of [[Wudga|Witige]].<ref name="Weston29_p841f" /> He is also attributed to have made various swords for [[Charlemagne]] and his [[paladin]]s, namely [[Cortain|Curtana]], [[Durendal]] and [[Joyeuse]].<ref>[https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_2/illustr/i2_1_1.html Swords with Names]</ref>

== Attestations ==

===Earliest evidence===
[[File:Wela(n)du.jpg|thumb|Gold solidius dated AD 575−625; ''wela(n)du'' in runes of the [[Elder Futhark]]. Found near [[Schweindorf]], [[East Frisia]], Germany.]]
The oldest reference known to Wayland the Smith is possibly a gold [[Solidus (coin)|solidus]] with a Frisian runic inscription {{runic|ᚹᛖᛚᚪᛞᚢ}} {{xlit|Runr|wela[n]du}} 'wayland'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.frisiacoasttrail.com/post/2019/11/16/weladu-the-flying-blacksmith|title=Weladu the flying blacksmith|first=Hans|last=Faber|date=Nov 16, 2019|website=frisia-coast-trail|access-date=May 26, 2020}}</ref> It is not certain whether the coin depicts the legendary smith or bears the name of a moneyer who happened to be called Wayland (perhaps because he had taken the name of the legendary smith as an epithet). The coin was found near [[Schweindorf]], in the region [[East Frisia|Ostfriesland]] in north-west Germany, and is dated AD 575–625.<ref>Düwel, K., Merkwürdiges zu Goldbraktaeten und anderen Inschriftenträgern (2018)</ref>

===Scandinavian===
[[File:Völund on ardre 01.png|thumb|right|Völund's smithy in the centre, Niðhad's daughter to the left, and Niðhad's dead sons hidden to the right of the smithy. Between the girl and the smithy, Völund can be seen in a [[fjaðrhamr]] flying away. From the [[Ardre image stones|Ardre image stone VIII]].]]

====Visual====
Wayland's legend is depicted on [[Ardre image stones|Ardre image stone VIII]],{{sfnp|Vandersall|1972|p=18}}<ref name=zachrisson/> and probably on a tenth-century copper mount found in Uppåkra in 2011.<ref name=helmbrecht/><ref name=zachrisson/> A number of other possible visual representations exist in early medieval Scandinavia, but are harder to verify as they do not contain enough distinctive features corresponding to the story of Wayland found in textual sources.<ref>Sigmund Oehrl, '[https://www.academia.edu/12596272/Bildliche_Darstellungen_vom_Schmied_Wieland_und_ein_unerwarteter_Auftritt_in_Walhall Bildliche Darstellungen vom Schmied Wieland und ein unerwarteter Auftritt in Walhall]', in ''Goldsmith Mysteries: Archaeological, Pictorial and Documentary Evidence from the 1st Millennium AD in Northern Europe'', ed. by Alexandra Pesch and Ruth Blankenfeldt, Schriften des archäologischen Landemuseums, Ergänzungsreihe, 8 (Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2012), 297-32.</ref>

====''Völundarkviða''====
According to ''[[Völundarkviða]]'', the king of the [[Finn (ethnonym)|Finns]] (the Old Norse term for the [[Sámi peoples|Sámi]])<ref>{{cite book|title=Norske gaardnavne: Finmarkens amt|edition=18|author-link=Oluf Rygh|last=Rygh|first=Oluf|publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri|year=1924|location=Kristiania, Norge|pages=1–7|language=no}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Robertson|first=Isobel Rennie|year=2020|title=Wayland Smith: A cultural-historical biography|degree=PhD|publisher=University of Leeds|pages=182–183|url=https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/29025/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Aalto |first1=Sirpa |last2=Lehtola |first2=Veli-Pekka |date=2017 |title=The Sami Representations Reflecting the Multi-Ethnic North of the Saga Literature |url=https://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1191573/FULLTEXT02 |journal=Journal of Northern Studies |language=en |volume=11 |issue=2 |doi=10.36368/jns.v11i2.884 |issn=2004-4658|page=14}}</ref> had three sons: Völundr (Wayland) and his two brothers [[Agilaz|Egil]] and [[Slagfiðr]]. In one version of the myth, the three brothers lived with three [[Valkyrie]]s: [[Alruna|Ölrún]], [[Hervör alvitr]] and [[Hlaðguðr svanhvít]]. After nine years, the Valkyries left their lovers. Egil and Slagfiðr followed, never to return. In another version, Völundr married the [[swan maiden]] Hervör, and they had a son, Heime, but Hervör later left Völundr. In both versions, his love left him with a [[ring (jewellery)|ring]]. In the former myth, he forged seven hundred duplicates of this ring.

Later, King [[Niðhad]] captured Völundr in his sleep in [[Närke|Nerike]] and ordered him [[hamstringing|hamstrung]] and imprisoned on the island of Sævarstöð. There Völundr was forced to forge items for the king. Völundr's wife's ring was given to the king's daughter, [[Böðvildr]]. Niðhad wore Völundr's [[sword]].

In revenge, Völundr killed the king's sons when they visited him in secret, and fashioned [[skull cup|goblets from their skull]]s, jewels from their eyes, and a [[brooch]] from their teeth. He sent the goblets to the king, the jewels to the queen and the brooch to the king's daughter. When Böðvild takes her ring to Völundr for mending, he tricks and seduces her, and gets her pregnant. Later, he flies to Niðhad's hall where he explains how he has murdered the king's sons, fashioned jewelry from their bodies and fathered a child with Böðvild. The crying king laments that his archers and horsemen can't reach Völundr, as the smith flies away never to be seen again. Niðhad summons his daughter, asking her if Völundr's story was true. The poem ends with Böðvild stating that she was unable to protect herself from Völundr as he was too strong for her.

====''Þiðreks saga''====
[[File:Badhild in Wielands Schmiede.png|thumb|Böðvild in Wayland's forge]]
''[[Þiðreks saga]]'' also includes a version of the story of Wayland ({{langx|non|Velent}}).<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 57–79: "Velents saga" {{harvp|Unger|1853|pp=65–96}}; "The Story of Velent the Smith" {{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|pp=40–55}}</ref> This part of the saga is sometimes called ''[[Velents þáttr smiðs]]''.

The events described at King [[Niðung]]'s court (identifiable with Niðhad in the Eddic lay) broadly follow the version in the Poetic Edda (though in the saga his brother, Egil the archer, is present to help him to make his wings and to help Velent escape<ref name=schroeder/>). However, the rest of the story is different. It tells of how Wayland was the son of a giant named [[Wade (folklore)|Wade]] ({{langx|non|Vadi}}), and how he was taught to smith by two dwarfs.<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 57–61, {{harvp|Unger|1853|pp=65–70}}; {{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|pp=40–42}})</ref> It also tells of how he came to be with King Niðung, crossing the sea in a hollow log, and how he forged the sword [[Mimung]] as part of a bet with the king's smith.<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 61–68, {{harvp|Unger|1853|pp=70–82}}; {{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|pp=42–48}})</ref> And it also tells about the argument that led to Niðung's hamstringing of Wayland, and ultimately to Wayland's revenge: Niðung had promised to give Wayland his daughter in marriage and also half his kingdom, and then went back on this promise.<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 70–74, {{harvp|Unger|1853|pp=82–90}}; {{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|pp=48–52}})</ref>

The saga elaborates on the flying contraption he builds using feathers collected by Egil; the contraption was called the ''flygil'' which suggests it was a pair of wings ({{langx|de|{{linktext|Flügel}}}}<ref name=cleasby-vigfusson-flygil/>) in the original German version, but conceived of as a ''[[fjaðrhamr]]'' (feather cloak) by the saga-writers. Wayland here also wears a blood-filled bladder as a prop, instructing Egil to aim his arrow at this bag, thus feigning injury and deceiving the king.<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 75, 77–78, {{harvp|Unger|1853|pp=90–96}}; {{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|pp=52–54}})</ref><ref name=schroeder/>{{sfnp|Wadstein|1900|pp=19, 7}}

The saga also tells of the birth of a son, [[Wudga|Wideke]] ({{langx|non|Viðga}}), to Wayland and Niðung's daughter. While he was still in captivity, the couple have a conversation, and they vow to each other love; the smith also reveals that he has fashioned a weapon and hidden it in the forge for his unborn son.<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 76, {{harvp|Unger|1853|p=92}}; {{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|p=53}}, though translated as "armor".)</ref> He settles in his native Sjoland and eventually marries the princess with the blessing of her brother who became the next king after Niðung's death.<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 78–79, {{harvp|Unger|1853|pp=94–96}}; {{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|pp=54–55}})</ref>

This son inherits the sword Mimung, and goes on to become one of Þidrek/Didrik's warriors.<ref>''Þidriks saga'' Ch. 80–81ff (to Ch. 95), "Vidgas förste Bedrifter", {{harvp|Unger|1853|pp=96–98}}; "The Story of Vidga, son of Velent" ,{{harvp|Haymes tr.|1988|pp=56–57ff}})</ref>

====Other====
In Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century onwards, the terms ''[[Labyrinth]]'' and ''Domus Daedali'' ('home of [[Daedalus]]') are rendered ''Vǫlundarhús'' ('house of Vǫlundr'). This shows that Völundr was seen as equivalent to, or even identical with, the classical hero Daedalus.<ref>Rudolf Simek, '''Völundarhús -- Domus Daedali'' Labyrinths in Old Norse Manuscripts', ''NOWELE: North-Western European Language Evolution'', 21-22 (1993), 323-68; {{doi|10.1075/nowele.21-22.23sim}}.</ref>

In ''[[Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar]]'', Völundr is the manufacturer of the [[magic sword]] [[Gram (mythology)|Gram]] (also named ''Balmung'' and ''Nothung'') and the [[magic ring]] that Þorsteinn retrieves.

===English===
====Visual====
[[Image:Franks Casket vorne links.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The smith Wayland from the front of the eighth-century Northumbrian [[Franks Casket]] in the [[British Museum]].]]
The [[Franks Casket]] is one of a number of other early English references to Wayland, whose story was evidently well known and popular, although no extended version in Old English has survived. In the front panel of the Franks Casket, incongruously paired with an ''[[Adoration of the Magi]]'', Wayland stands at the extreme left in the forge where he is held as a slave by King [[Niðhad]], who has had his [[hamstring]]s cut to hobble him. Below the forge is the headless body of Niðhad's son, whom Wayland has killed, making a goblet from his skull; his head is probably the object held in the tongs in Wayland's hand. With his other hand Wayland offers the goblet to Böðvildr, Niðhad's daughter. Another female figure is shown in the centre; perhaps Wayland's helper, brother Egil, or Böðvildr again. To the right of the scene his brother catches birds, from whose feathers he makes wings with which he escapes.{{sfnp|Wadstein|1900|pp=18–20}}<ref>[[George D. S. Henderson|Henderson, George]] (1977) [1972]. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jHdPAAAAMAAJ&q=weland Early Medieval]''. London: Penguin, p. 157.</ref>

During the [[Viking Age]] in [[northern England]], Wayland is depicted in his smithy, surrounded by his tools, at [[Halton, Lancashire]], and fleeing from his royal captor by clinging to a flying bird, on a cross at [[Leeds]] Minster, [[West Yorkshire]], and stone carvings at [[Sherburn, North Yorkshire]] and [[Bedale]], also in [[North Yorkshire]].<ref>All noted in Hall, Richard (1995). ''Viking Age Archaeology In Britain & Ireland'', Shire Archaeology Series (60), (Shire: 1990) p. 40</ref>

English local tradition placed Wayland's forge in a Neolithic long barrow mound known as [[Wayland's Smithy]], close to the [[Uffington White Horse]] in Oxfordshire. If a horse to be shod, or any broken tool, were left with a [[Sixpence (British coin)|sixpenny piece]] at the entrance of the barrow the repairs would be executed.<ref name="EB1911"/>

====Textual====
[[File:Leeds Cross panel Cii (3).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Panel Civ (south face, lowest panel) of the c. tenth-century [[Leeds Cross]] found in [[Leeds Minster]], depicting Wayland (below) holding Beaduhild/Bǫðvildr above his head, at a right angle. Wayland's head has been lost, but his wings are visible to the left and right, and his tools at the bottom of the panel.]]
The [[Old English]] poem ''[[Deor]]'', which recounts the famous sufferings of various figures before turning to those of Deor, its author, begins with "Welund":
<blockquote><poem>
Welund tasted misery among snakes.
The stout-hearted hero endured troubles
had sorrow and longing as his companions
cruelty cold as winter - he often found woe
Once [[Niðhad|Nithad]] laid restraints on him,
supple sinew-bonds on the better man.
That went by; so can this.

To [[Böðvildr|Beadohilde]], her brothers' death was not
so painful to her heart as her own problem
which she had readily perceived
that she was pregnant; nor could she ever
foresee without fear how things would turn out.
That went by, so can this.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Pollington, Steve (Transl.) | date = 1997 | title = deor | journal = Wiðowinde | volume = 100 | page = 64 |url-access=subscription | url = http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/readings/deor_me.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/19970410105954/http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/readings/deor_me.html  | archive-date = 10 April 1997 | access-date = 18 March 2017 }} The home page for this print journal can he found [https://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/our-magazine-wiowinde here].</ref>
</poem></blockquote>

Weland had fashioned the [[Mail (armour)|mail shirt]] worn by [[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]] according to lines 450–455 of the [[epic poetry|epic poem]] of the [[Beowulf|same name]]:
{{poem quote|
No need then
to lament for long or lay out my body.
If the battle takes me, send back
this breast-webbing that Weland fashioned
and [[Hrethel]] gave me, to Lord [[Hygelac]].
[[Wyrd|Fate]] goes ever as fate must.
|sign=([[Seamus Heaney|Heaney]] trans.)
}}

The reference in ''[[Waldere]]'' is similar to that in Beowulf – the hero's sword was made by Weland<ref>[[R. K. Gordon|Gordon, R. K.]] (1954). [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11406305 ''Anglo-Saxon Poetry''], London: Dent, p. 65. This is a partial text of the ''Walder'' fragments in modern English. See the start of fragment A for Wayland. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908134235/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11406305 |date=2011-09-08 }}</ref> – while [[Alfred the Great]] in his translation of [[Boethius]] asks plaintively: "What now are the bones of Wayland, the goldsmith preeminently wise?"<ref name="Shippey92">{{cite book|last=Shippey |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qGzAAgAAQBAJ |year=2014 |title=The Road to Middle-earth: Revised and Expanded Edition |isbn=9780547524412 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt}}</ref>{{rp|p=29}}

Swords fashioned by Wayland are regular properties of medieval [[chivalric romance|romance]]. King [[Rhydderch Hael]] gave one to [[Merlin]], and Rimenhild made a similar gift to [[Romance of Horn|Child Horn]]. English literature was also aware of the character [[Wade (folklore)|Wade]], whose name is similar to that of Vaði, the father of Wayland in ''Þiðreks saga''.<ref name="Weston29_p841f" />

===Continental Germanic===
Wayland is known by the name ''Wieland'' in line 965 of the Latin epic ''[[Waltharius]]'', a literary composition based on [[Old High German]] oral tradition, as the smith who made the poem's eponymous protagonist's armor: 
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|la|Et nisi duratis Wielandia fabrica giris
Obstaret, spisso penetraverit ilia ligno.}}
|
And had not Weland's work obstructed with hardened rings,
He would have pierced his guts with the tough wood.}}

==Toponyms and folklore==
[[File:Wayland Smithy Long barrow.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The entrance to the Neolithic long barrow of [[Wayland's Smithy]]]]
Wayland is associated with [[Wayland's Smithy]], a [[tumulus|burial mound]] in the [[Berkshire Downs]].<ref name=Shippey92/>{{rp|p=109}} This was named by the English, but the [[megalith]]ic mound significantly predates them. It is from this association that the folk belief came about that a [[horse]] left there overnight with a small silver coin ([[Groat (coin)|groat]]) would be [[horseshoe|shod]] by morning.

This belief is mentioned in the first episode of ''[[Puck of Pook's Hill]]'' by [[Rudyard Kipling]], "Weland's Sword", which narrates the rise and fall of the god.<ref name=Shippey92/>{{rp|p=351}}

==In modern culture==
[[Sir Walter Scott]] includes Wayland Smith as a character in his novel [[Kenilworth (novel)|''Kenilworth'']] set in 1575.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Both the Austrian [[composer]] [[Siegmund von Hausegger]] (1904) and the Russian composer [[Leopold van der Pals]] (1913) used the Wayland saga as inspiration for symphonic poems.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

In the 1978 [[BBC]] TV series ''[[The Moon Stallion]]'', the character of the Green King (played by [[Michael Kilgarriff]]) states that he is also known as Wayland the Smith.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bramwell |first=Peter |date=2009 |title=Pagan Themes in Modern Children's Fiction |location=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=174 |isbn=9780230236899}} </ref>

In the [[ITV (TV_network)|ITV]] series ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]'', Wayland the Smith was credited for creating seven swords charged with "the Power of Light and Darkness". 
{{quote|”Morax, Solas, Orias, Albion, Elidor, Beleth, Flauros. On each of them, words of high magic unspoken since they were made. Wayland knew the danger. Oh yes, he knew. That’s why he scattered them, and for hundreds of years they remained apart. Two of them were buried. Others lost in battle, and some so cunningly hidden that none had knowledge of them, except the Cauldron of Lucifer. They knew. The search took many years, many lives.” — Morgwyn of Ravenscar}} Of the seven, the protagonist Robin of Loxley is given Albion by [[Herne the Hunter]] at the beginning of the series.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tait |first=Matt |date=2025-03-02 |title="The Swords of Wayland": A Dark Odyssey in Robin of Sherwood |url=https://sevenswords.uk/the-swords-of-wayland-robin-of-sherwood/ |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=Seven Swords |language=en-US}}</ref>

In [[Gene Wolfe]]'s book ''[[The Wizard Knight]]'', Weland the smith was the forger of the sword Eterne, which forms a central part of the novel's plot.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Gene |title=The Wizard Knight |publisher=Tor Books |year=2020}}</ref>

In the ''[[Rivers of London (book series)|Rivers of London]]'' book series, the Sons of Weyland are a modern day magical blacksmithing society responsible for creation of magical artefacts in the United Kingdom.

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* [[Culture of Närke]]
* [[Deor]]
* [[Flibbertigibbet]]
* [[Gobannus]]
* [[Goibniu]]
* [[Ilmarinen]]
* [[Kaveh the Blacksmith|Kāve]] 
* [[Kenilworth (novel)|''Kenilworth'']]
* [[Kurdalægon]]
* [[Sigurd]]
* [[Tlepsh]]
* [[Widia (hero)|Widia]]
* [[Wieland der Schmied (libretto)|''Wieland der Schmied'']]
* ''[[Velents þáttr smiðs]]''
* [[Vulcan (mythology)]]
* [[Wieland der Schmied (Hitler)]]
}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|2|refs=
<ref name=cleasby-vigfusson-flygil>Cleasby & Vigfusson (1974), ''An Icelandic-English Dictionary'', s.v. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=ne9fAAAAcAAJYpg=PA162 flygil]".</ref>

<ref name=helmbrecht>Helmbrecht, Michaela (2012). "[https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1226564/FULLTEXT01.pdf A Winged Figure from Uppåkra]", ''Fornvännen'', '''107'''; 171-78.</ref>

<ref name=schroeder>Shröder, Franz Rolf (1977) "Der Name Wieland", ''BzN'', new ser. '''4''':53–62. Quoted by: {{cite book|last=Harris |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph C. Harris |title=Eddic Poetry |editor1-last=Clover |editor1-first=Carol J. |editor1-link=Carol J. Clover |editor2-last=Lindow|editor2-first=John |editor2-link=John Lindow |series=Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2005 |orig-year=1985 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pvarZQOft3UC&pg=PA103 |page=103<!--68–157--> |isbn=<!--0802038239, -->9780802038234}}</ref>

<ref name=zachrisson>{{citation |last=Zachrisson |first=Torun |author-link=<!--Torun Zachrisson, Stockholm University--> |title=Volund Was Here: A Myth Archaeologically Anchored in Viking Age Scania |editor1-last=Hermann |editor1-first=Pernille |editor1-link=<!--Pernille Hermann--> |editor2-last=Mitchell|editor2-first=Stephen A. |editor2-link=<!--Stephen Arnold Mitchell--> |editor3-last=Schjødt |editor3-first=Jens Peter |editor3-link=<!--Jens Peter Schjødt--> |others=Amber J. Rose |work=Old Norse Mythology – Comparative Perspectives |location=Cambridge, Mass. |publisher=Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, Harvard University |url=https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6847.torun-zachrisson-volund-was-here-a-myth-archaeologically-anchored-in-viking-age-scania |pages=139–162}}</ref>

}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}

* {{cite book|last=Gillespie |first=George T. |author-link=<!--George T. Gillespie--> |title=Catalogue of Persons Named in German Heroic Literature, 700-1600: Including Named Animals and Objects and Ethnic Names |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University |date=1973 |isbn=9780198157182}}
* {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Haymes tr.|1988}}|last=Haymes |first=Edward R. |author-link=<!--Edward R. Haymes--> |author-mask=Haymes, Edward R., tr. |title=The Saga of Thidrek of Bern |publisher=Garland |date=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVTXAAAAMAAJ&q=velent |isbn=0-8240-8489-6}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Unger|editor-first=Henrik |editor-link=Carl Richard Unger |title=Saga Điðriks konungs af Bern: Fortælling om Kong Thidrik af Bern og hans kæmper, i norsk bearbeidelse fra det trettende aarhundrede efter tydske kilder |location=Christiania |publisher=Feilberg & Landmark |date=1853 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HmEAAAAAcAAJ}}
* {{cite journal|last=Vandersall |first=Amy L. |author-link=<!--Amy L. Vandersall--> |title=The Date and Provenance of the Franks Casket |journal=Gesta |volume=11 |number=2 |publisher=<!--The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Center of Medieval Art--> |date=1972 |pages=9–26 |doi=10.2307/766591 |jstor=766591|s2cid=192781403 }}
* {{cite book|last=Wadstein |first=Elis |author-link=<!--Elis Wadstein--> |title=The Clermont Runic Casket |location=Uppsala |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell |date=1900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERkrAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA7 |series=<!--Skrifter utgivna av K. Humanistiska vetenskapssamfundet i Uppsala, Kungliga Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet Uppsala--> |issn=0280-0918}}
* {{cite book|last=Vierck |first=Hayo |title=Wieland der Schmied – und Schamane? Ein Schmiedeheld und Halbgott im Spiegel skandinavischer und angelsächsischer Bilddenkmäler. |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |date=2021–2022 |isbn=978-3-11-048604-9}}
{{refend}}
<!--
==Further reading==
* Bradley, James. "Sorcerer or Symbol?: Weland the Smith in Anglo-Saxon Sculpture and Verse." Pacific Coast Philology 25, no. 1/2 (1990): 39-48. doi:10.2307/1316803.
* Cecire, Maria Sachiko. "Ban Welondes: Wayland Smith in Popular Culture." In Anglo-Saxon Culture and the Modern Imagination, edited by Clark David and Perkins Nicholas, 201-18. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK; Rochester, Ny, USA: Boydell & Brewer, 2010. doi:10.7722/j.ctt169wfjg.20.
* Larrington, Carolyne (transl.) (1996). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nBzuQZ4MCPIC The Poetic Edda]''. Oxford World's Classics. {{ISBN|0-19-283946-2}}.
* Maurus, P., ''Die Wielandsage in der Litteratur'', Münchener Beiträge zur romanischen und englischen Philologie, 25 (Erlangen: Böhme, 1902)
* Mortensson-Egnund, Ivar (transl.) (2002). ''Edda: The Elder Edda and the Prose Edda''. Oslo: Samlaget. {{ISBN|82-521-5961-3}}.
-->

==External links==
{{Commons category|Wieland}}
* [https://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Völundarkviða Völundarkviða - Heimskringla.no]

{{Anglo-SaxonPaganism}}
{{Norse mythology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Characters in Norse mythology]]
[[Category:English legendary characters]]
[[Category:Germanic gods]]
[[Category:Germanic heroic legends]]
[[Category:Legendary Norsemen]]
[[Category:Smithing gods]]
[[Category:Swordsmiths]]
[[Category:Swan maidens]]