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Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II

King Sigmund, and each slew the other's kinsmen. King Sigmund and his family were called Volsungs[1] and Ylfings[1].

Helgi went as a spy to the home of King Hunding in disguise. Hæming[2], a son of King Hunding's, was at home. When Helgi went forth, then he met a young herdsman, and said:

1.[3] "Say to Hæming  that Helgi knowsWhom the heroes  in armor hid;A gray wolf had they  within their hall,Whom King Hunding  Hamal thought."

[4]Hamal was the name of Hagal's[5] son. King Hunding

    was named after Helgi Hjorvarthsson is a naive way of getting around the difficulties created by the two sets of Helgi stories. He might equally well have said that the new Helgi was the old one born again, as he accounts for Sigrun in this way ("she was Svava reborn").

    Hagal: not elsewhere mentioned; it was a common custom to have boys brought up by foster-parents.

    Hunding and Hundland: cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 10 and note.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Volsungs and Ylfings: regarding this confusion of family names cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 5 and note.
  2. ↑ Hæming: his name does not appear in the list of Hunding's sons. It is quite possible that these opening stanzas (1-4) do not refer to Hunding at all.
  3. ↑ Helgi appears to have stayed with Hunding under the name of Hamal, but now, thinking himself safe, he sends word of who he really is. Hunding: it has been suggested that the compiler may have inserted this name to fit what he thought the story ought to be, in place of Hæming, or even Hadding. If stanzas 1-4 are a fragment of the Karuljoth (Lay of Kara), this latter suggestion is quite reasonable, for in that poem, which we do not possess, but which supplied material for the compilers of the Hromundar saga Greipssonar, Helgi appears as Helgi Haddingjaskati (cf. final prose note). Nothing beyond this one name connects stanzas 1-4 with Hunding.
  4. ↑
  5. ↑

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