Chapters 114-123 - Germanic Mythology

From the parents I went to the brothers. Thjazi belonged to a trio of brothers, like
Völund. 41 One of Völund's brothers bore the epithet Aurnir, "wild boar." Aurnir's wife is
remembered in the Christian traditions as a future-foreboder. Ebur's wife in the myths is a
seer. One of Thjazi's brothers, Idi, is the only one in the mythology whose name points to
an original connection with Ivaldi (Idvaldi), Völund's father, and with Idun, Völund's
half-sister. Völund himself bears the epithet Brunni, and Thjazi's home is Brunns-acre.
One of Thjazi's sons is slain at Loki's instigation and Loki, who in Lokasenna takes
pleasure in stating this, boasts in the same poem that he has caused the slaying of Thjazi.
In regard to bonds of relationship in general, I found that on the one side Völund,
like Thjazi, was regarded as a giant, and had relations among the giants, among whom
Vidolf is mentioned both as Völund's and Thjazi's relative, and that on the other hand
Völund is called an elf-prince, and that Thjazi's father belonged to the clan of elves, and
that Thjazi's daughter is characterized, like Völund and his nearest relatives, as a skier
and hunter, and in this respect has the same epithet as Völund's nephew Ull. I found,
furthermore, that so far as tradition has preserved the memory of star-heroes, every
mythic person who belonged to their number was called a son of Ivaldi or a son of
Ölvaldi. Örvandil-Egil is a star-hero and a son of Ivaldi. The Watlings, after whom the
Milky Way is named, are descendants of Vati-Vadi, Völund's father. Thjazi is a star-hero
and the son of Ölvaldi. Idi, too, Thjazi's brother, "the torch-bearer," may have been a starhero,
and, as we shall show later, the memory of Völund's brother Slagfinn was partly
connected with the Milky Way and partly with the spots on the moon; while, according to
another tradition, it is Völund's father whose image is seen in these spots (see no. 121, no.
123).
I found that Rögnir is a Thjazi-epithet, and that all [715] that is stated of Rögnir is
also told of Völund. Rögnir was, like the latter, first the friend of the gods and then their
foe. He was a "swan-gladdener," and Völund a swan-maid's lover. He has, like Völund,
fought against Njörd. He has, like Völund, proceeded to the northernmost edge of the
world, and there worked with gand-implements for the gods' and the world's destruction
through the powers of frost. And on someone he has exacted the same revenge as Völund
did, when the latter killed Nidad's young sons and made drinking vessels of their skulls.
I found that while Ölvaldi's sons, Idi, Aurnir (Gang), and Thjazi, still were friends
of the gods, they had their abode on the south coast of the Elivogar, where Ivaldi had his
home, called after him Geirvaðils setur, and where his son Örvandil-Egil lived after him;
that Thor on his way to Jötunheim visits Idi's chalet and that he is a guest in Egil's
dwelling; that the myths' warriors who dwell around Idi's chalet are called "Gang's
warrior-Vanir," and that these "Gang's warrior-Vanir" have these very persons, Egil and
his foster-son Thjalfi, as their leaders when they accompany Thor to fight the giants,
wherefore the chalet of Ölvaldi's sons, Idi and Gang, must be identical with that of
Ivaldi's sons, and Idi, Gang, and Thjazi identical with Slagfinn, Egil, and Völund.
On these foundations the circumstance of identity between Ölvaldi's sons and
Ivaldi's rests and gets sufficient support, even though our mythic fragments have not
preserved any evidence that Thjazi, like Völund, was the myths' most famous artist. But
such evidence is not wanting. As the real meaning of Reginn is shaper, workman, and as
this has been retained as a "smith"-name in Christian times, there is every reason to
assume that Thjazi, who is called fjaðrar-blaðs leik-Reginn and vingvagna Rögnir, like
41 Anderson omits this sentence.