SOURCE: Taylor, Paul Beekman. “Völundarkviða, Þrymskviða and the Function of Myth.” Neophilologus 78, no. 2 (April 1994): 263-81.

In the following essay, Beekman surveys thematic and narrative resemblances between the Eddic poems Völundarqviða (concerning the smith-hero Volund) and Þrymsqviða (centered on the god Thor), considering the ways in which these poems link the mythological and heroic portions of the Elder Edda.

In the careful ordering of the poems in the Codex Regius 2365, known familiarly as the Poetic Edda, the story of Völund, the archetypal smith of Germanic folklore, appears in the midst of a group of five poems which feature the god Thor, starting with Hárbarðsljóð and concluding with Alvissmál.¹ Appearing before these are four poems with Odin as main character, and one—Skírnismál—which records Freyr's taking of a bride from the world of the giants. Völundarkvi...