While the Greeks imagined that the Nightmares were the evil dreams which escaped from the cave of Somnus, the Northern race fancied they were female dwarfs or trolls, who crept out of the dark recesses of the earth to torment them. All magic weapons in the North were the work of the dwarfs, the underground smiths, while those of the Greeks were manufactured by Vulcan and the Cyclops, under Mount Ætna, or on the Island of Lemnos.
In the Sigurd myth we find Odin one-eyed like the Cyclops, who are also personifications of the sun. Sigurd is instructed by Gripir, the horse trainer, who, like Chiron, the centaur, is not only able to teach a young hero all he need know, and to give him good advice concerning his future conduct, but is also possessor of the gift of prophecy.
The marvelous sword which becomes the property of Sigmund and of Sigurd as soon as they prove themselves worthy to wield it reminds us of the weapon which Ægeus concealed beneath the rock, and which Theseus secured as soon as he had become a man. Sigurd, like Theseus, Perseus, and Jason, seeks to avenge his father’s wrongs ere he sets out in search of the golden hoard, the exact counterpart of the golden fleece, which is also guarded by a dragon, and is very hard to secure. Like all the Greek sun-gods and heroes, Sigurd has golden hair and bright blue eyes. His struggle with Fafnir reminds us of Apollo’s fight with Python, while the ring Andvaranaut can be likened to Venus’s cestus, and the curse attached to its possessor is like the doom which accompanied Helen and caused endless bloodshed wherever she went.
Sigurd could never have conquered Fafnir without the magic sword, just as the Greeks could never have taken Troy without the arrows of Philoctetes, which are also emblems of the all-conquering rays of the sun. The recovery of the stolen treasure is like Menelaus’s recovery of Helen, and it apparently brings as little happiness to Sigurd as his recreant wife did to the Spartan king.
Brunhild resembles Minerva in martial tastes, in physical appearance, and in knowledge; but when Sigurd deserts her in favor of Gudrun, she becomes angry and resentful like Œnone, when Paris left her to woo Helen. Brunhild’s anger continues to accompany Sigurd through life, and she even seeks to compass his death, while Œnone, feeling she can cure her wounded lover, refuses to do so and permits him to die. Œnone and Brunhild are both overcome by the same remorseful feelings when their lovers have breathed their last, and both insist upon sharing their funeral pyres, and end their lives lying by the side of those whom they had loved.
Containing, as it does, a whole series of sun myths, the Volsunga Saga repeats itself in every phase; and just as Ariadne, forsaken by the sun hero Theseus, finally marries Bacchus, so Gudrun, when Sigurd has departed, marries Atli, the King of the Huns. He, too, ends his life amid the flickering flames of his burning palace or ship. Gunnar, like Orpheus or Amphion, plays such marvelous strains upon his harp that even the serpents are lulled to sleep. According to some interpretations, Atli is like Fafnir, and covets the possession of the gold. Both are therefore probably personifications “of the winter cloud which broods over and keeps from mortals the gold of the sun’s light and heat, till in the spring the bright orb overcomes the powers of darkness and tempests, and scatters his gold over the face of the earth.”
Swanhild, Sigurd’s daughter, is another personification of the sun, as is shown by her blue eyes and golden hair; and her death under the hoofs of black steeds represents the blotting out of the sun by the clouds of storm or of darkness.
Just as Castor and Pollux hasten off to rescue their sister Helen when she has been borne away by Theseus, so Swanhild’s brothers, Erp, Hamdir, and Sörli, hasten off to avenge her death.
Such are the main points of resemblance between the mythologies of the North and South, and the analogy serves to prove that they were originally formed from the same materials, and that the difference consists principally in the local coloring unconsciously given by each nation.