THE RESULTS OF THE JUDGMENT PASSED ON THE WORKS OF ART PRODUCED BY THE IVALDE SONS. PARALLEL MYTHS IN RIGVEDA.
In the Younger Edda, which speaks of the judgment passed by the gods on the art works of the Ivalde sons (p. 340, &c.), there is nothing said about the consequences of the judgment; and the mythologists seem therefore to have assumed that no results followed, although it was prepared by the "father of misfortunes," the far-calculating and evil-scheming Loke. The judgment would in that case be an isolated event, without any influence on the future, and without any connection with the other mythic events. On the other hand, no possible explanation was found of Volund's words (Volundarkvida, 28), which he utters after he has taken his terrible vengeance on Nidad and is prepared to fly away in eagle guise from his prison: _Nu hefi ec hefnt harma minna allra nema einna ivithgjarnra_--"Now I have avenged all the wrongs done to me, excepting one, which demands a more terrible vengeance." The wrong here referred to by him is not done to him by Nidad, and did not happen to him while he lived as an exile in the wilderness of the Wolfdales, but belongs to an earlier time, when he and his brothers and their kinsmen dwelt in the realm rich in gold, where, according to Volundarkvida (14), they lived a happy life. This wrong was not avenged when he and his brothers left their home abounding in gold, in order that far from his enemies he might perfect his plan of revenge by making the sword of victory. Volund's words refer to the judgment passed on the art work of the Ivalde sons, and thus the mythic events unite themselves into a continuous chain.