the legend of wayland the smith — a story of cruelty and revenge #norsemythology #mythsandlegends

追加: 2026-06-05

[00:00:00]Today I have for you one of the strangest revenge stories in European mythology.

[00:00:05]And it's about a blacksmith.

[00:00:07]His name is Wayland.

[00:00:09]Also known as Volundr in Old Norse, Völundr in Old High German. He's one of the few mythological figures whose name shows up across nearly the entire Germanic world. In Old English poems like Beowulf, in the Icelandic Poetic Edda, on a gold coin from 6th century Frisia, carved onto 8th century Gotlandic image stones, and on the 8th century Anglo-Saxon whalebone box called the Franks Casket.

[00:00:35]The story, as told most fully in the Icelandic I'm not going to attempt to pronounce this word, goes like this.

[00:00:43]Wayland is the most skilled smith of his age. He forges legendary weapons, including a sword that is said to never fail its wielder. According to some versions, he's also the lord of the elves.

[00:00:55]A king captures Wayland in his sleep, and upon his wife's instigation, cuts his hamstrings so he can't escape.

[00:01:02]Wayland is crippled, imprisoned on an island, and forced to forge weapons for the man who enslaved him. Until that is, out of curiosity, the king's two young sons come to the forge to see the jewels. Wayland kills them both, turns their skulls into drinking cups, their eyes into gemstones, and their teeth into a brooch. He sends all of this as gifts to the royal family, who of course wear it without knowing what it's made of. Then he builds himself a pair of wings out of feathers and flies away from the island where he's been imprisoned. Fun fact, there's a Neolithic burial mound in Oxfordshire that locals still call Wayland's Smithy.

[00:01:40]Local folklore said that if you left your horse there with a silver coin overnight, the invisible smith would shoe it by morning.