[15]. In this poem the manuscript indicates the speakers. Some editors make lines 1–2 into a separate stanza, linking lines 3–5 (or 4–5) with stanza 16. Line 3 is very possibly spurious, a mere expansion of “Nithuth spake.” Nithuth, of course, has come with his men to capture Völund, and now charges him with having stolen his treasure.
[16]. The manuscript definitely assigns this stanza to Völund, but many editors give the first two lines to Nithuth. In the manuscript [[260]]stanza 16 is followed by the two lines of stanza 2, and many editions make of lines 3–4 of stanza 16 and stanza 2 a single speech by Völund. Grani’s way: Grani was Sigurth’s horse, on which he rode to slay Fafnir and win Andvari’s hoard; this and the reference to the Rhine as the home of wealth betray the southern source of the story. If lines 1–2 belong to Völund, they mean that Nithuth got his wealth in the Rhine country, and that Völund’s hoard has nothing to do with it; if the speaker is Nithuth, they mean that Völund presumably has not killed a dragon, and that he is far from the wealth of the Rhine, so that he must have stolen his treasure from Nithuth himself.
[17]. Line 1 is lacking in the manuscript, lines 2–4 following immediately after the two lines here given as stanza 2. Line 1, borrowed from line 1 of stanza 32, is placed here by many editors, following Bugge’s suggestion. Certainly it is Nithuth’s wife who utters line 4. Who comes from the wood: Völund, noted as a hunter. Gering assumes that with the entrance of Nithuth’s wife the scene has changed from Völund’s house to Nithuth’s, but I cannot see that this is necessary.
[Prose]. The annotator inserted this note rather clumsily in the midst of the speech of Nithuth’s wife. [[261]]
[18]. In the manuscript lines 2–3 stand before line 1; many editors have made the transposition here indicated. Some editors reject line 3 as spurious. Sævarstath: “Sea-Stead.”
[19]. This stanza is obviously in bad shape. Vigfusson makes two stanzas of it by adding a first line: “Then did Völund speak, | sagest of elves.” Editors have rejected various lines, and some have regrouped the last lines with the first two of [[262]]stanza 20. The elimination of the passages in parenthesis produces a four-line stanza which is metrically correct, but it has little more than guesswork to support it.
[20]. The editions vary radically in combining the lines of this stanza with those of stanzas 19 and 21, particularly as the manuscript indicates the third line as the beginning of a stanza. The meaning, however, remains unchanged.
[21]. Several editions make one stanza out of lines 3–4 of stanza 20 and lines 1–2 of stanza 21, and another out of the next four lines. The evil was open: i.e., the gold in the chest was destined to be their undoing.
[22]. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza, and several editors have adopted this grouping. In the Thithrekssaga Völund sends the boys away with instructions not to come back until just after a fall of snow, and then to approach his dwelling walking backward. The boys do this, and when, after he has killed them, Völund is questioned regarding them, he points to the tracks in the snow as evidence that they had left his house. [[263]]
[23]. No gap indicated in the manuscript. Some editors assume it, as here; some group the lines with lines 3–4 of stanza 22, and some with lines 1–2 of stanza 24.