"Wayland's Smithy", by Ethan_Doyle_White , licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland%27s_Smithy This image has not been changed and the image owner does not endorse this blog.
Wayland to me is a curious entity for He does not rank amongst the Aesir in the Eddas and yet there is a tendency to consider Him as a divine personage. He is certainly a pan-Germanic entity as He appears right across the ancient Germanic world from the Anglo-Saxons to the Norse and the Germans.
The relevant sources are Volundarkvida (Poetic Edda), Thidrekssaga (based on original Low German material), various German legends concerning Theodoric the Great and Deor, Waldere and Beowulf (Old English). I would encourage my readers to read the aforementioned sources to get a fuller picture of Wayland (Old English Welund) who is known as Volundr or Velentr in Old Norse, Wieland in Modern German and Wiolant in Old High German. The Proto-Germanic has been reconstructed as *Welandaz, meaning 'battle-brave' (see Der Name Wieland, Beitraege zur Namenforschung, Hellmut Rosenfeld, 1969).
The legend of Wayland appears also in sculpture, eg the Franks Casket, a small chest made from whale bone and dating to the 8th century. It features scenes from both Germanic and Roman mythology as well as the Bible and is covered with Anglo-Saxon runes. It is certainly culturally and religiously a hotchpotch! The onset of the Viking Age in England also reintroduced this figure to the Christianised English. A panel featuring Wayland holding Beaduhild above His head is to be found on the 10th century Leeds Cross found in the now demolished Leeds Parish Church. The cross is now housed in Leeds Minster.
In England Wayland is better known for his association with a Neolithic long barrow-Wayland's Smithy in the Berkshire Downs. Archaeologists have dated its construction to around 4500-3800 BCE. Curiously this is used as an argument to state that as the barrow predates the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons it must therefore have nothing whatsoever to do with either the Anglo-Saxons or their Gods. This is an ignorant and ill-informed 'argument' that flies in the face of the facts that there has been two way migration between England and continental Europe for millennia and that a form of English or Germanic was spoken in England many centuries before the official date of 449CE given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles for the arrival of the English tribes. Regardless of this even if they were correct that does not gainsay the sanctity given to the site by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors and this is why it is still sacred to us heathens today.
There is a well known legend attributed to the site referred to in A Letter to Dr. Mead Concerning Some Antiquities in Berkshire by Francis Wise, 1738:
"At this place lived formerly an invisible Smith, and if a traveller's Horse had lost a Shoe upon the road, he had no more to do than to bring the Horse to this place with a piece of money, and leaving both there for some little time, he might come again and find the money gone, but the Horse new shod."
Curiously in 1921 during an excavation two iron bars were discovered which is an indication that at some point in the distant past this burial chamber was indeed used as a smithy.
Whilst the Viking settlers certainly breathed new life into the Wayland legend His memory had not been eradicated by a couple of centuries of Christianity for even the Christian King Alfred the Great makes reference to Him in his translation of Boethius:
"Where now are the bones of Wayland the wise, that goldsmith so glorious of yore? Who now wots of the bones of Wayland the wise or which is the low where they lie?"
In the Thidrekssaga it is revealed that the father of Wayland is a giant called Wade. Wade was the son of King Wilkinus and a mermaid. Wade's Causeway in the North York Moors is a 6,000 years old monument which is associated in folklore with the giant Wade and its more ancient name is Waddes grave. It is tempting to draw a link between Wade and Woden, whose most ancient name was Wode, a storm giant. I am also reminded of Merovech who according to legend was the son of the Quinotaur, the beast of Neptune and the wife of Chlodio, King of the Franks. There is a recurring theme in European mythology of great heroes and kings being born from otherworldly creatures or Gods. Sometimes the Gods would take the form of a beast. We have the example of the birth of Alexander the Great who was according to legend conceived on his mother Olympia by a snake who was Ammon, the Egyptian form of Zeus. Alexander identified closely with Zeus-Ammon and certainly seemed to be convinced of the veracity of the legend of his descent from Him.
The sources make it clear that Wayland was made lame due to being hamstrung by King Nidhad and this provided the motivation for His revenge. I am reminded of the Greek Hephaestus (possibly a son of Zeus) who was made lame following His fall from the heavens. He was of course the smith of the Gods and also like Wayland of apparent divine parentage.
