Niðhad
Encyclopedia
King Niðhad, Níðuðr or Niðung was a cruel king in Germanic legend.
He appears as Níðuðr in the Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

 Völundarkviða
Völundarkviða
Völundarkviða is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda...

, as Niðung in the Þiðrekssaga, and as Niðhad in the Anglo-Saxon poem
Anglo-Saxon literature
Old English literature encompasses literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England, in the period from the 7th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others...

s Deor
Deor
"Deor" is an Old English poem found in the late 10th century collection the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title. Modern scholars do not actually believe Deor to be the author of this poem.In the poem, Deor's...

and Waldere
Waldere
Waldere or Waldhere is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments from a lost epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E. C. Werlauff, Librarian, in the Danish Royal Library at Copenhagen, where it is still preserved. The parchment pages had been reused as stiffening in the binding of an...

.

The legend of Níðuðr and Wayland also appears on the Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...

ic Ardre image stone
Ardre image stone
The Ardre image stones are a collection of ten rune and image stones, dated to the 8th to 11th centuries, that were discovered at a church in Ardre, which is about four kilometers north of Stånga, Gotland County, Sweden.-Description:...

 VIII from the 8th century and possibly on the front panel of the 7th century Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 Franks Casket
Franks Casket
The Franks Casket is a small Anglo-Saxon whalebone chest from the seventh century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes...

. However, Austin Simmons has recently argued that it is not Niðhad who is depicted, but his daughter Beadohilde (twice).

Völundarkviða

In Völundarkviða
Völundarkviða
Völundarkviða is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda...

, Níðuðr appears to be a king of Närke
Närke
' is a Swedish traditional province, or landskap, situated in Svealand in south central Sweden. It is bordered by Västmanland to the north, Södermanland to the east, Östergötland to the southeast, Västergötland to the southwest, and Värmland to the northwest...

 (the Njars
Njars
Njarar or Njars were an ancient Germanic people of Närke, Sweden, that appears in the Scandinavian version of the Lay of Weyland the smith...

) and captures Völund
Weyland
In Germanic and Norse mythology, Wayland the Smith is a legendary master blacksmith. In Old Norse sources, Völundr appears in Völundarkviða, a poem in the Poetic Edda, and in Þiðrekssaga, and his legend is also depicted on the Ardre image stone VIII...

. Níðuðr orders Völund hamstrung
Hamstring
In human anatomy, the hamstring refers to any one of the three posterior thigh muscles, or to the tendons that make up the borders of the space behind the knee. In modern anatomical contexts, however, they usually refer to the posterior thigh muscles, or the tendons of the semitendinosus, the...

 and imprisoned on the island of Sævarstaðir. There Völund was forced to forge items for the king. Völund's wife's ring was given to the king's daughter, Bodvild, and Níðuðr wore Völund's sword
Sword
A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...

.

For revenge, Völund killed the king's sons when they visited him in secret, fashioned goblets from their skulls, jewels from their eyes, and a brooch from their teeth. He sent the goblets to the king, the jewels to the queen and the brooch to the kings' daughter. When Bodvild took her ring to him to be mended, he took the ring and seduced her, fathering a son and escaping on wings he made.

Þiðrekssaga

In the Þiðrekssaga, Niðung is the king of Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

.
A master smith named Velent arrived in Niðung's kingdom, and Niðung graciously accepted Velent as a servant at his court. One day Velent had lost Niðung's knife, but he secretly made another one for the king. When Niðung discovered that his knife cut better than it used to, he enquired about this with Velent. The smith lied and said that it was Amilias, the court smith, who had made it.

Suspicious, Niðung put the two smiths to a test. Velent would forge a sword and Amilias an armour, and then Velent was to use the sword trying to kill Amilias who would wear the armour. However, when Velent was to make the sword he discovered that his tools had disappeared. As he suspected the chieftain Regin to be the thief, Velent made a lifelike statue of Regin. Niðung understood that Velent was the master smith Velent himself, and Velent got his tools back.

Velent forged the great sword Mimung and an ordinary sword. When Velent and Amilias began to fight Velent cut Amilias so finely with Mimung that Amilias did not discover that he was cut in half until Velent asked him to shake. Then Amilias fell apart. Niðung then asked for the great sword Mimung, but Velent gave him the ordinary sword, which was a copy of Mimung.

One day during a war expedition Niðung found out that he had forgotten his magic victory stone Siegerstein. Desperately he offered his own daughter to the knight who could bring the stone to him before the next morning. Velent went back and fetched the stone, but another knight wanted to claim the stone and the princess. Velent killed the knight which greatly upset Niðung. Velent had to leave Niðung's kingdom.

Velent later returned in disguise to Niðung's kingdom and gave the daughter a love philter
Potion
A potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...

. The plan failed because the princess' magic knife showed her the danger before she had imbibed the potion. Velent then exchanged the knife for an ordinary knife of his own making, but when the princess noticed that the new knife was much better than the old one, the disguised Velent was revealed. Niðung then ordered that Velent's knee tendons be cut as a punishment and Velent was set to work in the smithy.

Wanting revenge, Velent seduced and impregnated the princess and killed Niðung's two sons, making table ware of their bones. Then Velent's brother Egil
Agilaz
Egil is a legendary hero of the Völundarkviða and the Thidreks saga. The name is from Proto-Germanic *Agilaz, and the same legend is reflected in Old English Ægil of the Franks Casket and Alamannic Aigil of the Pforzen buckle....

 arrived at the court. Niðung ordered Egil to shoot an apple from the head of his son. He readied two arrows, but succeeded with the first one. Asked by the king what the second arrow was for, he said that had he killed his son with his first arrow, he would have shot the king with the second one. This tale is directly comparable to the legends of William Tell
William Tell
William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th century Swiss chronicle....

 and Palnetoke
Palnetoke
Palnatoke or Palnatoki, sometimes written Palna-Toki or Palna Toki , was a legendary Danish hero and chieftain of the island of Fyn. He raised Harald Bluetooth's son Sweyn Forkbeard and was a staunch supporter of the old pagan faith...

. Unlike Tell, however, the king does not punish Egil for his openness, but rather commended him for it.

To help his brother, Egil shot birds and collected their feathers, of which Velent made a pair of wings. Velent tied a bladder filled with blood around his waist and flew away. Niðung commanded Egil to shoot his fleeing brother, who hit the bladder, deceiving Niðung, and so Velent got away.

Deor

In the poem Deor
Deor
"Deor" is an Old English poem found in the late 10th century collection the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title. Modern scholars do not actually believe Deor to be the author of this poem.In the poem, Deor's...

there is a stanza which refers to an Old English version of the legend of Welund and his captivity at the court of Nithad:
Welund him be wurman wræces cunnade,
anhydig eorlearfoþa dreag,
hæfde him to gesiþþe sorge ond longaþ,
wintercealde wræce; wean oft onfond,
siþþan hine Niðhad onnede legde,
swoncre seonobendeon syllan monn.
Þæs ofereode,þisses swa mæg!
-
Beadohilde ne wæshyre broþra deaþ
on sefan swa sarswa hyre sylfre þing,
þæt heo gearoliceongieten hæfde
þæt heo eacen wæs;æfre ne meahte
þriste geþencan,hu ymb þæt sceolde.
Þæs ofereode,þisses swa mæg!
Welund tasted misery among snakes.
The stout-hearted hero endured troubles
had sorrow and longing as his companions
cruelty cold as winter - he often found woe
Once Nithad laid restraints on him,
supple sinew-bonds on the better man.
That went by; so can this.
-
To Beadohilde, her brothers' death was not
so painful to her heart as her own problem
which she had readily perceived
that she was pregnant; nor could she ever
foresee without fear how things would turn out.
That went by, so can this.

Waldere

In the Old English fragment known as Waldere
Waldere
Waldere or Waldhere is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments from a lost epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E. C. Werlauff, Librarian, in the Danish Royal Library at Copenhagen, where it is still preserved. The parchment pages had been reused as stiffening in the binding of an...

, Niðhad is mentioned together with Wayland and Widia
Widia
Widia may refer to:* Widia , also known as Wudga, a hero in several early Germanic legends* Widia , hard material used for machining* Widia Products Group, a subsidiary of Kennametal, umbrella brand of cutting tools...

 in a praise of Mimmung, Waldere
Walter of Aquitaine
Walter of Aquitaine is a legendary king of the Visigoths. He figures in several epic poems and narratives in medieval languages:* Waldere, an Old English fragment* Waltharius, a Latin epic written by the monk Ekkehard I of St Gall...

's sword that Weyland had made.
....... ... me ce bæteran
buton ðam anum, ðe ic eac hafa,
on stanfate stille gehided.
Ic wat þæt hit dohte Ðeodric Widian
selfum onsendon, ond eac sinc micel
maðma mid ði mece, monig oðres mid him
golde gegirwan, iulean genam,
þæs ðe hine of nearwum Niðhades mæg,
Welandes bearn, Widia ut forlet,
ðurh fifela geweald forð onette.
........... a better sword
except the one that I have also in
its stone-encrusted scabbard laid aside.
I know that Theodric
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...

thought to Widia's self
to send it and much treasure too,
jewels with the blade, many more besides,
gold-geared; he received reward
when Nithhad's kinsman, Widia, Welund's son,
delivered him from durance;
through press of monsters hastened forth.'

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