The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek

About this saga

One of the most mythologically charged legendary sagas, featuring the famous Awakening of Angantýr, Heidrek's riddles, and the curse of the sword Tyrfing. The saga blends heroic poetry with the narrative conventions of the chivalric saga.

A Svafrlami and the dwarves' sword

King Svafrlami was the son of Sigrlami and the grandson of Odin. One day while hunting in the forest he became separated from his companions. As darkness fell he saw two dwarves step out from a rock. He drew his sword and blocked their path, forcing them to forge him a weapon without equal.

The dwarf Dvalinn and his brother Durinn forged the sword Tyrfing from the finest iron. The blade was sharp as a ray of sunlight and gleamed in the darkness. They promised the king that it would never miss a blow, never rust, and always cut through stone and iron as though through linen.

But the dwarves refused to leave without revenge. Before they vanished into the rock they laid their curse upon the sword: every time Tyrfing was drawn from its sheath it must kill a man, it would cause three great evils in the world, and it would ultimately be Svafrlami's own bane. The king stood alone in the darkness with the gleaming sword in his hand and understood that he had received a gift no man should possess.

A Arngrim's sons and Hjalmar

Svafrlami met his end at the hands of the berserker Arngrim, a man of violent nature and insatiable greed. Arngrim killed the king and took Tyrfing as his prize of war. The sword passed to his twelve sons, of whom Angantýr was the eldest and most feared.

Arngrim's sons ranged far and wide spreading terror wherever they went. They were all berserkers and fought in the fury that renders a man insensible to wounds and fear. But their reputation eventually reached the ears of Hjalmar, a renowned warrior from Sweden, and his sworn companion Örvar-Odd.

The battle was fought on the island of Samsö. Angantýr and his eleven brothers faced Hjalmar and Örvar-Odd. The berserkers' fury was terrible but Hjalmar's skill was without equal. One by one Arngrim's sons fell until all twelve lay dead on the shore. Hjalmar had received sixteen wounds from Tyrfing and died shortly after the battle, singing his death-song to Örvar-Odd.

A Hervör at the burial mound

Angantýr had a daughter named Hervör, raised in ignorance of her origins but carrying her father's blood in her veins. When she learned who her father was and that Tyrfing lay buried with him on Samsö, she did not hesitate. She dressed in men's clothing, took up weapons, and sailed to the shores of that island of the dead.

Samsö lay dark when she came ashore in the night. The shepherds on the island fled from her and warned her that the burial mounds opened at night and spewed fire. Hervör went forward anyway. She sang the incantations of Hervararkviða and called her dead father up from the depths of the grave: Awake Angantýr, Hervör calls you.

Fire rose from the burial mound and the dead stirred in their hills. Angantýr's voice was heard from the darkness and pleaded with her to go her way. But Hervör stood firm and demanded Tyrfing. At last the mound opened and the sword was lowered up from the light of the flames toward the young woman who insisted on taking what was hers. She seized Tyrfing and walked back to the shore with the curse in her hand.

A Heidrek's youth and banishment

Hervör married the wise judge Höfund and bore him a son named Heidrek. From birth the boy showed a fierce temper and a tendency to break all order. His father loved him but understood that the boy would cause disaster if he were allowed to stay.

Heidrek committed offense after offense: he killed his brother's friend, he caused strife and shame. At last Höfund faced the bitter choice of banishing his son from the kingdom. But he did not send him away empty-handed. He gave him Tyrfing and a series of wise counsels that Heidrek would carry with him out into the world.

Höfund's counsel was practical and carefully considered: never delay aid to a thrall, never strike a woman, never kill your guest, never travel alone when an enemy is nearby, never sleep when an enemy is close. It was a father's final gift to a son whose nature was difficult but whose future was still unwritten.

A Heidrek as king

In exile Heidrek acquired the experience and wisdom he had lacked in youth. He fought, he learned, he observed how powerful men governed. At last he came to Reiðgotaland, the land of the Goths, and established himself there as a strong and just king.

As king Heidrek showed that his father's counsel had not fallen on barren ground. He dispensed justice and protected the weak. His reputation spread and people sought his court to receive his judgment in disputed matters. He was sharp in thought and weighty in word, a man who weighed every decision.

But Tyrfing always hung at his belt and the curse never rested. The sword had already taken its victims and it would take more. Heidrek had inherited his mother's will and his father's wisdom but he had also inherited a sword that drank blood and whose thirst could never be quenched.

A The riddles of Heidrek

To Heidrek's court came one day a man named Gestumblindi, an insignificant farmer whom the king had sentenced to death for a crime. The farmer begged for mercy and the king offered him a choice: Gestumblindi could pose riddles that Heidrek would then have to solve, and if he managed to pose one the king could not answer, he would have his life. The man went home and sought Odin's help, and the next day another Gestumblindi came to the court.

The riddles followed one upon another, sharp and difficult, concerning the secrets of nature and the mysteries of life. Heidrek solved them all with calm composure. But the questions grew darker and more elusive and it was clear that the one posing them knew more than an ordinary farmer should know. The riddles of Heiðreks gátur belong among the most memorable in the entire Old Norse poetic tradition.

At last Gestumblindi asked: What did Odin whisper in Baldr's ear before the corpse was laid upon the pyre? Heidrek recognized the question as impossible to answer and understood who stood before him. He drew Tyrfing and struck at the figure but Odin transformed himself into a falcon and flew out through the window. The sword swept only through air and the curse deepened: the king had turned Tyrfing against a god.

A Heidrek's death and Angantýr's inheritance

Kings who live long accumulate enemies and Heidrek was no exception. His end came from his own thralls. One night when he slept without sufficient guard they fell upon him and killed him, taking Tyrfing with them when they fled.

Heidrek had a son named Angantýr, named for his famous ancestor from whom Hervör had retrieved the sword. Young Angantýr was his father's son in courage and his mother's grandson in stubbornness. He hunted down the thralls, avenged his father, and recovered Tyrfing. The circle of the curse closed: the sword had taken its third great man.

With Tyrfing in hand and his father's kingdom to administer, Angantýr faced a divided inheritance. His half-brother Hlöðr, raised among the Huns at his mother's father's court, came to claim his share of the Gothic lands. It was a claim that could not be granted without the kingdom fracturing, and a refusal that led to war.

A The battle of the Huns

Hlöðr came to Angantýr's court with a legitimate claim: half the Gothic kingdom, for he was Heidrek's son just as much as his brother. Angantýr listened but his counsellor Gizurr answered with harsh words and called Hlöðr a bastard child. Hlöðr rode back to Humli the king of the Huns, his maternal grandfather, and assembled an army.

The battle that followed was among the greatest in the saga world. Hlöðskviða's verses are carved into the poet's memory like shards of an ancient song about fraternal war and inescapable tragedy. The masses of the Huns met the Gothic swordsmen on the broad plain of Dúnheiðr and blood flowed for three days.

At last the two half-brothers met face to face. Angantýr killed Hlöðr with Tyrfing and then stood long over the dead man. His grief was real and deep, for he had fought to preserve his kingdom but in the moment of victory he felt only the loss of a brother. The saga concludes with royal genealogies and lines of descent connecting the great heroes to the wider weave of history and mythology.

A Manuscripts and versions

Hervarar saga exists in three main versions that differ considerably from one another. The oldest and most fragmentary version, called R, is found in the manuscript GKS 2845 4to from the fourteenth century. The longest and most elaborate version, called H, is preserved in Hauksbók (AM 544 4to), compiled by the Icelandic lawman Haukr Erlendsson in the early fourteenth century. A third version, called U, is found in manuscripts from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and represents a later reworking.

The relationship between the versions is debated. Scholars such as Christopher Tolkien (who edited the saga in 1960) and Gabriel Turville-Petre have argued that R and H go back to a common exemplar from the thirteenth century, while U represents an independent and partly corrupt tradition. Haukr Erlendsson's version is the most complete and the one most often used as the basis for modern translations.

The composition of the saga is generally dated to the mid- or later thirteenth century. It brings together older poetic material, above all Hervararkviða (the awakening poem) and Heiðreks gátur (the riddle poem), with younger prose sections. This layered compositional history makes the saga a fascinating object of philological study.

A Tyrfing: the cursed sword

The first part of the saga centres on the sword Tyrfing, forged by the dwarves Dvalinn and Durinn under duress. The descendant of Odin, Svafrlami, has captured the dwarves and forces them to create a sword that never misses its mark, never rusts, and cuts through stone and iron as easily as through cloth. The dwarves obey, yet lay a curse on the blade: Tyrfing shall cause three great misfortunes, and each time it is drawn from its sheath it must kill a man.

Tyrfing passes through generations of owners and brings death and grief with it. Svafrlami is slain by the berserker Arngrim, who takes the sword and marries his daughter. Arngrim's twelve sons, all berserkers, inherit the sword. Their fate is sealed in a battle on Samsø, where all twelve fall. This is what leads to the saga's most famous episode: Hervör, the daughter of Angantýr, who travels to the island to retrieve the sword from her father's burial mound.

The sword motif connects the saga to a broader European tradition of cursed objects. Parallels have been drawn to Nothung in the Nibelung tradition and to Excalibur in the Arthurian legends. The curse of Tyrfing serves as the driving force of the saga and gives the narrative its tragic keynote: each generation inherits the misfortune of its predecessor.

A The Awakening of Angantýr

The most famous scene in Hervarar saga is Hervör's awakening of her dead father Angantýr. Hervararkviða, the poetic core of this episode, ranks among the most powerful poems in Old Norse literature. Hervör travels to Samsø, climbs the burial mound at night, and calls out to the dead. Flames flare around the mounds, and the spirits of the dead urge her to turn back.

Hervör refuses to yield. In verse after verse she demands that Angantýr surrender Tyrfing. The dialogue between the living daughter and the dead father is one of the most moving scenes in Norse literature. Angantýr warns her: the sword carries a curse, and whoever accepts it inherits the misfortune. Hervör answers that she would rather take the sword and its fate than live without the inheritance that is hers by right.

The mythological charge of the scene has been analysed by scholars such as Hilda Ellis Davidson, who connects it to broader Norse conceptions of the power of the dead and the burial mound as a place where the boundary between living and dead can be crossed. Parallels exist in Grógaldr and in Baldrs draumar, where Odin awakens a völva from the sleep of death. The strong woman of Hervararkviða, who defies death, has also been discussed from a gender perspective as an unusual example of female agency in the legendary sagas.

A The Riddles of Heidrek

The saga's other great poetic element is Heiðreks gátur, a riddle contest between King Heidrek and Odin in disguise. Heidrek, the grandson of Hervör, has sworn never to refuse anyone who seeks his counsel. Odin exploits this and visits the king in the guise of Gestumblindi. The riddles that follow constitute one of the richest collections of Old Norse riddles.

The riddles treat nature, culture, and cosmology. Some are straightforward descriptions of natural phenomena in riddle form, while others contain deeper mythological allusions. The final riddle (what did Odin whisper in Baldr's ear on the pyre?) is unsolvable for Heidrek, and it reveals the questioner's identity. This closing riddle also appears in Vafþrúðnismál, where Odin poses the same question to the giant Vafþrúðnir.

The riddle tradition in Hervarar saga has been studied by Heusler and Ranke, among others, who placed it in a broader Germanic and Indo-European context. The form and content of the riddles point to a great age, possibly older than the saga itself. They may have circulated as a standalone poem before being incorporated into the saga's prose framework.

B Connections to Eddic and mythological material

The mythological material in Hervarar saga overlaps with the Eddic tradition at several points. The Gestumblindi episode is a direct parallel to Vafþrúðnismál, and it shares the fundamental motif: Odin seeks knowledge through a contest with a mortal, and the contest ends with the unsolvable question of what Odin said at Baldr's pyre. This parallel confirms that the riddle tradition had deep roots in Norse mythological storytelling.

The awakening poem's connection to the necromancy motif in the Eddic poems is equally clear. Odin's raising of the völva in Baldrs draumar and Gróa's awakening in Grógaldr rest on the same idea that the dead possess knowledge the living lack, and that this knowledge can be compelled through magical means. Hervör's awakening of Angantýr belongs to the same cluster of motifs, with the crucial difference that it is an object, Tyrfing, rather than knowledge that is sought.

The saga also contains Gothic-historical material, particularly in the later chapters that depict the conflict between Goths and Huns. This part of the text has been used as a source for Gothic history and has been compared with Jordanes' Getica. The blend of mythological, heroic, and quasi-historical matter makes Hervarar saga one of the most multifaceted legendary sagas.

B Scholarship and reception history

Hervarar saga has had a notable impact on modern fantasy literature. J.R.R. Tolkien, whose son Christopher published the critical edition in 1960, knew the text well and borrowed motifs from it. The dwarf-names Dvalinn and Durinn, already present in the dwarf catalogue of Vǫluspá, gained through Hervarar saga a narrative context that clearly influenced Tolkien's depictions of dwarves. The curse of the sword Tyrfing has been seen as a forerunner to the corrupting power of the One Ring.

Within philology, the saga has been studied above all for its poetic inserts. Hervararkviða has been dated to as early as the tenth century by some scholars, while others prefer a date in the twelfth century. The riddle poem has been compared with Anglo-Saxon riddles (the Exeter Book riddles) and with riddle traditions in Irish and Indian literature.

During the nineteenth century, the saga gained political significance in Scandinavia. Hervararkviða was interpreted as an expression of Nordic heroism, and Hervör was held up as a model for the Nordic woman. This nationalist reading has been criticised by modern scholarship, yet it illustrates how the legendary sagas have been employed for contemporary political purposes across different epochs.

Interpretive traditions

A What we know

Hervarar saga is preserved in three main versions (R, H, U), of which the H version in Hauksbók is the most complete.

The saga contains two major poetic inserts: Hervararkviða (the awakening poem) and Heiðreks gátur (the riddle poem).

The final riddle in Heiðreks gátur is identical to the closing riddle in Vafþrúðnismál.

B What we think we know

The poetic core of Hervararkviða may be considerably older than the prose saga and may date from the tenth or eleventh century.

The riddle poem probably circulated as a standalone text before being incorporated into the saga's framework.

The Gothic-historical material in the saga's later chapters may draw on traditions connected to the Migration Period.

C What we do not know

The identity of the person who compiled the final prose version is unknown, and the exact dating remains debated.

The relationship between the three manuscript versions and their possible common exemplar has not been conclusively established.