| Ivalda synir gengu i ardaga Scidbladni at skapa, scipa bezt, scirom Frey, nytom Njardar bur. | The sons of Ivalde went in ancient times to make Skidbladner, among ships the best, for the shining Frey, Njord's useful son. |
| (Grimnismal.) |
Another group of original artists were Sindre and his kinsmen, who dwelt on Nida's plains in the happy domain of the lower world (Völusp., Nos. 93, 94). According to the account given in Gylfaginning, ch. 37, Loke meets Sindre's brother Brok, and wagers his head that Sindre cannot make treasures as good as the above-named gifts from Ivalde's sons to the Asas. Sindre then made in his smithy the golden boar for Frey, the ring Draupner for Odin, from which eight gold rings of equal weight drop every ninth night, and the incomparable hammer Mjolner for Thor. When the treasures were finished, Loke cunningly gets the gods to assemble for the purpose of deciding whether or not he has forfeited his head. The gods cannot, of course, decide this without at the same time passing judgment on the gifts of Sindre and those of Ivalde's sons, and showing that one group of artists is inferior to the other. And this is done. Sindre's treasures are preferred, and thus the sons of Ivalde are declared to be inferior in comparison. But at the same time Sindre fails, through the decision of the gods, to get the prize agreed on. Both groups of artists are offended by the decision.
Gylfaginning does not inform us whether the sons of Ivalde accepted the decision with satisfaction or anger, or whether any noteworthy consequences followed or not. An entirely similar judgment is mentioned in Rigveda (see No. 111). The judgment there has the most important consequences: hatred toward the artists who were victorious, and toward the gods who were the judges, takes possession of the ancient artist who was defeated, and nature is afflicted with great suffering. That the Teutonic mythology has described similar results of the decision shall be demonstrated in this work.
Just as in the names Alveig and Almveig, Bil-röst and Bifröst, Arinbjörn and Grjótbjorn, so also in the name Ivaldi or Ivaldr, the latter part of the word forms the permanent part, corresponding to the Old English Valdere, the German Walther, the Latinised Waltharius.[14]
The former part of the word may change without any change as to the person indicated: Ívaldi, Allvaldi, Ölvaldi, Audvaldi, may be names of one and the same person. Of these variations Ívaldi and Allvaldi are in their sense most closely related, for the prefix Í (Id) and All may interchange in the language without the least change in the meaning. Compare all-líkr, ílikr, and idglíkr; all-lítill and ilítill; all-nóg, ígnog and idgnog. On the other hand, the prefixes in Ölvaldi and Audvaldi produce different meanings of the compound word. But the records give most satisfactory evidence that Ölvaldi and Audvaldi nevertheless are the same person as Allvaldi (Ivaldi). Thjasse's father is called in Harbardsljod (19) Allvaldi; in the Younger Edda (i. 214) Ölvaldi and Audvaldi. He has three sons, Ide, Gang, also called Urner (the Grotte-song), and the just-named Thjasse, who are the famous ancient artists, "the sons of Ivalde" (Ivalda synir). We here point this out in passing. Complete statement and proof of this fact, so important from a mythological standpoint, will be given in Nos. 113, 114, 115.
Nor is it long before it becomes apparent what the consequences are of the decision pronounced by the Asas on Loke's advice upon the treasures presented to the gods. The sons of Ivalde regarded it as a mortal offence, born of the ingratitude of the gods. Loke, the originator of the scheme, is caught in the snares laid by Thjasse in a manner fully described in Thjodolf's poem "Haustlaung," and to regain his liberty he is obliged to assist him (Thjasse) in carrying Idun away from Asgard.
Idun, who possesses "the Asas' remedy against old age," and keeps the apples which symbolise the ever-renewing and rejuvenating force of nature, is carried away by Thjasse to a part of the world inaccessible to the gods. The gods grow old, and winter extends its power more and more beyond the limits prescribed for it in creation. Thjasse, who before was the friend of the gods, is now their irreconcilable foe. He who was the promoter of growth and the benefactor of nature—for Sif's golden locks, and Skidbladner, belonging to the god of fertility, doubtless are symbols thereof—is changed into "the mightiest foe of earth," dolg ballastan vallar (Haustl., 6), and has wholly assumed the nature of a giant.
At the same time, with the approach of the great winter, a terrible earthquake takes place, the effects of which are felt even in heaven. The myth in regard to this is explained in No. 81. In this explanation the reader will find that the great earthquake in primeval time is caused by Thjasse's kinswomen on his mother's side (the Grotte-song)—that is, by the giantesses Fenja and Menja, who turned the enormous world-mill, built on the foundations of the lower world, and working in the depths of the sea, the prototype of the mill of the Grotte-song composed in Christian times; that the world-mill has a möndull, the mill-handle, which sweeps the uttermost rim of the earth, with which handle not only the mill-stone but also the starry heavens are made to whirl round; and that when the mill was put in so violent a motion by the angry giantesses that it got out of order, then the starry constellations were also disturbed. The ancient terrible winter and the inclination of the axis of heaven have in the myth been connected, and these again with the close of the golden age. The mill had up to this time ground gold, happiness, peace, and good-will among men; henceforth it grinds salt and dust.
The winter must of course first of all affect those people who inhabited the extensive Svithiod north of the original country and over which another kinsman of Heimdal, the first of the race of Skilfings or Ynglings, ruled. This kinsman of Heimdal has an important part in the mythology, and thereof we shall give an account in Nos. 89, 91, 110, 113–115, and 123. It is there found that he is the same as Ivalde, who, with a giantess, begot the illegitimate children Ide, Urner, and Thjasse. Already before his sons he became the foe of the gods, and from Svithiod now proceeds, in connection with the spreading of the fimbul-winter, a migration southward, the work at the same time of the Skilfings and the primeval artists. The list of dwarfs in Völuspa has preserved the record of this in the strophe about the artist migration from the rocks of the hall (Salar steinar) and from Svarin's mound situated in the north (the Völuspa strophe quoted in the Younger Edda; cp. Saxo., Hist., 32, 33, and Helg. Hund., i. 31, ii. to str. 14). The attack is directed against aurvanga sjöt, the land of the clayey plains, and the assailants do not stop before they reach Jöruvalla the Jara plains, which name is still applied to the south coast of Scandinavia (see No. 32). In the pedigree of these emigrants—
their er sóttu
frà Salar steina (or Svarins haugi)
aurvanga sjot
til Jöruvalla—
occur the names Álfr and Yngvi, who have Skilfing names; Fjalarr, who is Ivalde's ally and Odin's enemy (see No. 89); Finnr, which is one of the several names