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The Waetlings

Wate was the son of a sea-king called Helsing and a beautiful nymph called Wachilda, said to be a daughter of Aegir and Ran. Wate was called a giant by his own people and a dwarf by the Esa. The English believed Wate to be of elven blood. In every case, he was associated closely with the sea, and the inlet of the Groenasund, in particular. The Groenasund was a rich fiord in the Jutland Peninsula where a tribe of nomadic peoples called Ynglings or Angli settled. Wate was one of these Angles, and his name came from his ability to “wade across the sea” from the Groenasund. Thunor (or Thor) was also said to have this ability, travelling from continent to continent in mere strides. Wate was called Keeper of the Ford; he protected the inlet from invasion and was a ferryman for travellers of the Groenasund. The village of Jutes at this fiord was called Ydalir, the yew-dales. With Greipa, daughter of the Eorl of Ydalir, Wate had two sons – Earendel and Weland. After Greipa’s father’s death, Wate was made Eorl of Ydalir, and the Age of the Waetlings began.

Scyld Scefing, a Jutish king, saw Ydalir as part of his jurisdiction, for he had a son with Greipa, called Thetmar. Scyld gave Thetmar to be a ward of Wate, as an act of trust, and the child was raised with his half-brothers, Earendel and Weland. All three men were fine smiths, though Weland was the greatest of them. Earendel was better known for his archery and Thetmar for his swordsmanship. They became legends in the yew-dales, warriors, smiths, skiers, lovers of women, fairest of men – of elven blood. Because of their father’s reputation as a wader, Thunor befriended the three sons, and gave them the name Three Golden Calves, an endearing image referring to the three "Elven lads" as slayers of Jotunheim's thurses – creatures who received the kenning "Calves of the Elves." This image became a device of the Waetlings, seen in their smithwork, banners, clothing and architecture.

On one cursed evening, Woden King of Esageard had Wate murdered for his possession of a brew called Kvasir's Blood, an exquisite Mead of Enlightenment, and the Scyldings seized Ydalir. In the following years, the three brothers took refuge from the wrath of Woden and the Scyldings in a hidden sanctuary called the Wolfdales, a place of solace in Nibelungland. According to legend, the three brothers were carried across Elivagar, the Great River, by Thunor. On this journey, Earendel’s toe froze off and Thunor cast it into the night sky, where it became the Evening Star. In the Wolfdales, the Sons of Wate plotted their revenge against Woden. It was during this time they began crafting the most wondrous of armour, weapons and ornaments, in gold, silver and bronze. The hoard included a ring called Andvarinaut, a cloak of invisibility called Tarnkappe and a magical sword called Balmung.

The brothers were all to return as kings and take Ydalir back from the Scyldings. But they were distracted and soon fell in love with three beautiful Waelcyrge – swan-maidens – servants of Woden. Weland married Idunn, and Earendel married Gerutha, though Gerutha had first bore a son to Thetmar, called Eormenric. Thetmar's bride Svanhvit revealed to him his true parentage, that his father was Scyld Scefing, progenitor of the Scylding house, the new thegns of Ydalir. Thetmar could certainly not be expected to confront his own kin in hostility, so he and Svanhvit fled the Wolfdales and established the Amelung kingdom of Bern, in the name of Thetmar’s ancestor-god Amal. The Skanian king Nidoth had witnessed Thetmar’s flight from the Wolfdales and found the Waetlings’ sanctuary. Nidoth captured Weland and made him his smith-slave. Earendel returned from hunting to find his two brothers missing. He immediately went in search of them. The Waetling hoard was left unguarded, and the treacherous Volsung thegn called Fafnir stole the riches.

In his travels, Earendel met the Gram-wielder, Sigurd, son of Sigmund the Volsung. The Waetling returned to Ydalir with Sigurd, slaying Scyld and taking back the Waetling throne. Earendel married the swan-maiden Gerutha and with her had a son, Amleth. In return for his aid in battle, Earendel assisted Sigurd in the demise of his uncle Fafnir, lately transformed into a dragon. What Earendel did not realize was that Fafnir had been in possession of the Waetling treasure, which was now being called the Treasure of the Nibelungs. When Fafnir was slain, Sigurd claimed the great hoard as his own, including Balmung, the Tarnkappe and Andvarinaut. Moreover, the lad had drunk of his uncle's dragon blood, blessing him with a tongue that birds and animals could understand and ears to understand them. He also became immune to the weapons of Man, as though he were armoured in dragon scales. Earendel took for himself a single iridescent scale from Fafnir’s dragon mail.

Somehow, a vassal of a thegn called Gunnar had a quarrel with Sigurd and was believed to have slain him, though there was never evidence of Sigurd's death. But this vassal, one Hagen by name, managed to take the Nibelung Hoard from Sigurd and hide it somewhere in the depths of the Rhine.

Thetmar, hearing of his father Scyld’s death by Earendel’s hand, left his kingdom of Bern in the temporary care of his seneschal Hildibrands and his young son, Thidrek. Thetmar visited Ydalir and was embraced as a long-lost brother, though he actually intended to avenge his father with the blood of his half-brother Earendel. Then Ydalir would return to the Scyldings. Once Thetmar had gained the love and trust of the Waetlings, the Amelung slew Earendel in secret. The widowed Gerutha and her son Amleth, like the rest of the people of Ydalir, were told that Earendel died of natural causes. Thetmar was made the next Eorl of Ydalir and took Gerutha as his wife, securing legitimacy through their son Eormenric, half-brother to both Earendel’s son Amleth and Thetmar’s son Thidrek.

Weland escaped Nidoth’s kingdom with the help of his swan-maiden, Idunn, but he was shot dead by one of Amleth’s arrows, at the counsel of the deceitful advisor Sibeche. With a heavy heart, Amleth claimed Weland’s sword, the Mistilteinn. Idunn remarried the poet Brage, but her son Witege went to study at Bern, traveling with Eormenric in Thetmar’s party. The Amelung thought it wise to use Amleth’s murder of Weland as a means of securing Witege as an ally, against Amleth. As king of the Gothic kingdom, Thetmar returned to find a great reception.

Witege, overhearing Eormenric, learned that Thetmar murdered Earendel. Upon learning this, Witege sent for his cousin Amleth, who came to Bern upon his request. During a hunt, Amleth and Witege attacked Thetmar and his son Thidrek, hinting at Thetmar's murder of Earendel. Thetmar fell; Thidrek escaped, but with a terrible secret. He had to protect the memory of his father and revenge his death, but he also feared there was a taint on his family, a breaking of faith between two brothers.

Aided by his cousin Witege and by his advisor Sibeche, who was nobody else than Loki in disguise, Eormenric usurped Thidrek’s throne at Bern. Thidrek found refuge with Atli, the great ruler of the Huns. But things didn’t go well and, after a terrible battle where Atli’s own sons and Thidrek’s kid brother were killed, Thidrek decided to strike out on his own to erase these stains. Ragnarök tore through the Nine Worlds, but Thidrek arrived in Ydalir unscathed to force a confrontation between himself and the wayfaring Amleth. Instead, Thidrek found Wulder, a son of Earendel and the dis called Sif. From Esageard he came to become Eorl, restoring Waetling rule to Ydalir.

Meanwhile, Thidrek’s faithful weapon-master, Hildibrands, ended up in Heorot with Beowulf and Amleth, himself. Entirely unaware that Amleth killed Thidrek’s father, Hildibrands became fast friends with the young man. For what he knew, Amleth was just one of Earendel’s sons and Thidrek’s long-estranged cousin. However, as the effects of Ragnarök vanished, terrible things came to Amleth's mind, things that will decide the fate of the ongoing struggle between Thetmar and Earendel.




*The account given above is fiction, inspired by material found in the Thidrekssaga, Nibelungenlied, the Eddas, Teutonic Mythology by Viktor Rydberg and other classic texts that can be found at Northvegr.

A Genealogy

The Waetlings