Summary of the Thidrekssaga

One time king Wilkinus sailed with his army on the Baltic SeaAustrveg, and one day when his ship was on the beach in ReusslandNot Russia he went into a forest all alone, without any of his men. And he found a woman in the forest, and she pleased him and he lay with her. This was what one calls a mermaid, which in the sea is a monster but on land a woman. Then the king returned to his ship and they set sail.

When they had come some distance from the land, a woman appeared and she took hold of the ship’s stern so fast that the ship stood still. The king recognised her and told her: Let us continue on our way, and if you have anything to tell us, then come to my country and I will welcome you warmly. Then she released the ship and went back into the sea, and the king went to his kingdom.

Half a year later a woman came to him and told him she was pregnant from him. And he took her in, and after a short while she gave birth to a son who was called Wade. She no longer wanted to stay and left, and no one knows what became of herSee, however, 439..

When the boy grew up he became so large that he was a giant, and took after his mother so that he wasn’t like other human children. He was unpleasant to be with, and his father liked him little and only gave him twelve farms in Seeland before he died.

King Wilkinus had another son called Nordian, a great hero, but he was greedy and forgetful of those who used to be his friends, and was therefore less praised than his father.

• The chromology is off here. Sigfrid and Witig were of the same generation, so Wieland was a lot older than Sigfrid and it's unlikely they were ate Mime's together.
• Possibly Mime was inserted here to explain why Wieland called his masterpiece Mimung.

The giant Wade, son of king Wilkinus and the sea-womanSee 23 lived in Seelandthe main island of Denmark on an estate granted to him by his father. And he was no particularly great warrior, but was content with what has father had given him.

Now the giant Wade in Seeland heard how two dwarves lived in a mountain called BallovaAccording to Ritter Balve in Sauerland. These dwarves were better smiths than any other dwarf or human, and they made excellent swords, armour, and helmets; and also they could make gold and silver into jewelry.

Wade took his son Wieland and traveled there. And on the way they had to cross the sea, but found no ship. And there they stayed for a while. When they had waited a long time Wade took the boy, put him on his shoulders and waded through the sea, which was nine ells deep6.3 meters if we stick to the High-Medieval definition of an ell. Nothing more is said about their travels until they came to the mountain.

Wade now negotiated with the dwarves and asked them to teach his son for twelve months, and he would give them as much gold as they wanted. The dwarves agreed and asked for a mark in gold, and he paid them immediately. They agreed on the day he would come back to pick up his son.

Wade went back to Seeland, but Wieland stayed behind and learned the craft of smithing. And he was so eager to learn that he copied anything they made. And he served the dwarves so well that when his father Wade returned on the agreed date they didn't want to let him go. And they asked Wade if he could stay for another twelve months and offered to return the mark of gold, and they promised to teach him as much as he had already learned. Wade agreed, and they made another appointment a year from them when he would return.

But the dwarves repented having bought his service for so much money, and they stipulated that if Wade did not return on exactly the correct day they would behead Wieland. Wade agreed to this as well, and wanted to travel back home. He called his son to him, and asked him to go down the mountain with him. Wade had a sword with him, and he hid that in a moor so that it was not visible. And he told Wieland that if he did not come on the agreed date, and Wieland needed help he should take that sword and defend himself, because that was better than being killed by two dwarves, and Wade wanted his friends to say he had raised a man, not a woman. But he did promise to come on the agreed day. Then father and son parted and Wade went back home.

Wieland went back to the mountain and learned as much as he already knew, and he did not stop learning until he knew all of the dwarves' craft. The dwarves eagerly took his services, but they misliked how good he had become, but comforted themselves that he would not anjoy his craft for long, since his head was forfeit.

When the twelve months ended giant Wade preferred to come sooner rather than later, so he traveled by day and night until he came to the agreed place, and he was three days early. But the mountain was closed and he could not enter, so he sat down on the agreed spot and waited. And because the quick travel had exhausted him he fell asleep, and he snored so loudly it could be clearly heard. Meanwhile a heavy rain fell, which caused a landslide higher up, and that broke off a cliff that came down with water and trees and soil, and all that fell straight on to Wade. And this is how he died.

When the agreed day had come the dwarves opened the mountain, went outside and looked for Wade. Wieland, too, went out of the mountain to search for his father, but could not find him. But then he came to a cliff that had broken off, and he suspected his father had been crushed under it. Then he saw that he could not take revenge for his death, but remembered his father's counsel and searched for the sword Wade had hidden. Initially he searched near the cliff, but then he remembered the sword was in a moor, but the moor had changed considerably due to the landslide.

Then Wieland saw he was in dire straits. His father, dead, he himself, sentenced to death. But then he saw the sword's hilt above the ground and took it. He saw the dwarves on the mountain looking for Wade, Wieland went to them but hid the sword under his clothes. Then he went to the one closest to him and killed him, and then the other one. Then Wieland went into the mountain and took all the smithing tools and also all the gold and silver he could find. Then he took a horse that belonged to the dwarves, packed it with treasure and went north to Denmark.

When he had traveled for three days he came to the Weser river and he could not cross it. Along the river was a large forest, and he stayed there for a while. It was close to the sea. Then Wieland went to work: he felled a large tree close to the river bank, cleaved it in two and hollowed out the parts, and on the thinner side he hid his tools and treasure, and in the thicker part he put his food and drink and himself, and then closed it so firmly that river and sea would not do him damage, and before the holes in the tree he put glass in such a way that he could take them out, but when the glass was in the holes no water could come through them, except as much as when the tree had been whole.

Then the tree lay on the bank, and Wieland and all his goods in it, and he moved within the tree as long as was necessary to get the tree into the river. And this tree now floated into the sea, and floated there for eighteen days until it finally came to land.

• Chapters 195 and 196 do not mention Etger's name again. They just call him 'the giant'. See also 433.

Although they did not cultivate it much, Witig and Etger the giant were related. Because Witig was the son of Wieland the Smith, whom the NorthmenVæringjar call Völund fyrir hagleiks sakarGoogle Translate says 'for the sake of good fortune'. This part is missing from Von der Hagen's translation., and Wieland was a son of the giant Wade, and Wade was the son of king Wilkinus and a sea ladysjókona, as was said earlier23. But king Wilkinus had another son with his own wifeeiginkona called Nordian, who was also a king, but a lesser one than his father, and Nordian had four sons who were all strong giants: Aventrod, Widolf with the Staff, and the third was Etger, who lived in this forest, and the fourth was Aspilian, who was also a king, and he was like other children of meni.e. not a giant. In this way Witig and the giant Etger were related.