(9) In Lokasenna (17), Loke reproaches Idun that she has embraced the slayer of her own brother:
thic queth ec allra quenna
vergjarnasta vera,
sitztu arma thina
lagdir itrthvegna
um thinn brothurbana.
Idun is a daughter of Ivalde (Forspjallsljod), and hence a sister or half-sister of the famous smiths, Ivalde's sons. From the passage it thus appears that one of Ivalde's sons was slain, and Loke insists that Idun had given herself to the man who was the cause of his death.
There is not the slightest reason to doubt that in this instance, as in so many other cases, Loke boasts of the evil deeds he has committed, and of the successes he has had among the asynjes, according to his own assurances. With the reproaches cast on Idun we should compare what he affirms in regard to Freyja, in regard to Tyr's wife, in regard to Skade and Sif, in reference to all of whom he claims that they have secretly been his mistresses. Against Idun he could more easily and more truthfully bring this charge, for the reason that she was at one time wholly in his power, namely, when he stole into Thjasse's halls and carried her away thence to Asgard (Younger Edda, i. 210-214). Under such circumstances, that slayer of Idun's brother, whom she is charged with embracing, can be none other than Loke himself. As a further allusion to this, the author of the poem makes Loke speak of a circumstance connected with the adventure—namely, that Idun, to sweeten the pleasure of the critical hour, washed her arms shining white—a circumstance of which none other than herself and her secret lover could know. Thus Loke is the cause of the slaying of one of the famous artists, Ivalde's sons. The murders of which Loke boasts in the poem are two only, that of Balder and that of Thjasse. He says that he advised the killing of Balder, and that he was the first and foremost in the killing of Thjasse (fyrstr oc ofstr). Balder was not Idun's brother. So far as we can make out from the mythic records extant, the Ivalde son slain must have been identical with Thjasse, the son of Alvalde. There is no other choice.
(10) It has already been shown above that Volund and the swan-maid who came to him in the Wolfdales were either brother and sister or half-brother and half-sister. From what has been stated above, it follows that Thjasse and Idun were related to each other in the same manner.
(11) Thjasse's house is called Brunn-akr (Younger Edda, i. 312). In Volundarkvida (9) Volund is called Brunni.
(12) Idun has the epithet Snót (Younger Edda, 306), "the wise one," "the intelligent one." Volund's swan-maid has the epithet Alvitr, "the much-knowing one," "the very intelligent one" (Volundarkvida, 1). Volund has the epithet Ásólfr (Hyndluljod; cp. No. 109). Thjasse has the epithet Fjallgylder (Younger Edda, 308), which is a paraphrase of Ásólfr (áss = fjöll, olfr = gyldir).
(13) One of Volund's brothers, namely Orvandel-Egil, had the epithet "Wild boar" (Ibor, Ebur). One of Thjasse's brothers is called Urnir, Aurnir. This name means "wild boar." Compare the Swedish and Norwegian peasant word orne, and the Icelandic word runi (a boar), in which the letters are transposed.
(14) At least one of Alvalde's sons was a star-hero, viz., Thjasse, whose eyes Odin and Thor fastened on the heavens (Harbardsljod, 18; Younger Edda, i. 318, 214). At least one of Ivalde's sons was a star-hero, viz., Orvandel-Egil (Younger Edda, i. 276, &c.). No star-hero is mentioned who is not called a son of Alvalde or is a son of Ivalde, and not a single name of a star or of a group of stars can with certainty be pointed out which does not refer to Alvalde's or Ivalde's sons. From the Norse sources we have the names Örvandilstá thjaza augu Lokabrenna and Reid Rögnis. Lokabrenna, the Icelandic name of Sirius, can only refer to the brenna (fire) caused by Loke when Thjasse fell into the vaferflames kindled around Asgard. In Reid Rögnis, Rogner's car, Rogner is, as shall be shown below, the epithet of a mythic person, in whom we rediscover both Volund and Thjasse. In Old English writings the Milky Way is called Vætlingastræt, Watlingestræt. The Watlings or Vætlings can only be explained as a patronymic meaning Vate's sons. Vate is one of the names of the father of Volund and his brothers (see No. 110). Another old English name of star-group is Eburthrung, Eburthring. Here Egil's surname Ebur, "wild boar," reappears. The name Ide, borne by a brother of Thjasse, also seems to have designated a star-hero in England.
At least two of these figures and names are very old and of ancient Aryan origin. I do not know the reasons why Vigfusson assumes that Orvandel is identical with Orion, but the assumption is corroborated by mythological facts. Orion is the most celebrated archer and hunter of Greek mythology, just as Orvandel is that of the Teutonic. Like Orvandel-Egil, he has two brothers of whom the one Lykos (wolf) has a Telchin name, and doubtless was originally identical with the Telchin Lykos, who, like Volund, is a great artist and is also endowed with powers to influence the weather. Orion could, so it is said, walk on the sea as well as on the land. Orvandel-Egil has skees, with which he travels on the sea as well as on the snow-fields, whence small ships are called Egil's andrar, Egil's skees (Kormak, 5). Orion wooes a daughter of Oinopion. The first part of the word is oinos (wine); and as Oinopion is the son of Bacchus, there is no room for doubt that he originally had a place in the Aryan myth in regard to the mead. Orvandel-Egil woos a daughter of Sumbl (Olvalde), the king of the Finns, who in the Teutonic mythology is Oinopion's counterpart. Orion is described as a giant, a tall and exceedingly handsome man, and is said to be a brother of the Titans. His first wife, the beautiful Sida, he soon lost by death; just as Orvandel lost Groa. Sida, Sida with its Dorian variation Rhoa, Roa, means fruit. The name Groa refers, like Sida, Rhoa, to vegetation, growth. After Sida's decease, Orion woos Oinopion's daughter just as Orvandel-Egil woos the daughter of the Finnish king Sumbl after Groa's death. He has a third erotic alliance with Eos. According to one record he is said to have been killed because, in his love of the chase, he had said that he would exterminate all game on earth. This statement may have its origin in the myth preserved by the Teutons about Volund's and Orvandel-Egil's effort to destroy all life on the earth by the aid of the powers of frost. Hesiod says that the Pleiades (which set when Orion rises above the horizon) save themselves from Orion in the stream of the ocean. The above-mentioned Old English name of a constellation Eburthrung may refer to the Pleiades, since the part thrung, drying, refers to a dense cluster of stars. The first part of the word, Ebur, as already stated, is a surname of Orvandel-Egil. It should be added that the points of similarity between the Orion and Orvandel myths are of such a nature that they exclude all idea of being borrowed one from the other. Like the most of the Greek myths in the form in which they have been handed down to us, the Orion myth is without any organic connection with any epic whole. The Orvandel myth, on the other hand, dovetails itself as a part into a mythological epic which, in grand and original outlines, represents the struggle between gods, patriarchs, ancient artists, and frost-giants for the control of the world.