Helgi’s Mound Visit

Overview

After Helgi’s death, the prose says that a mound is raised in his memory. A maiden sees Helgi and his followers riding back to it at night and calls Sigrun out. Sigrun enters the mound, makes him a bed, and briefly remains with him; Helgi says he must leave before dawn. He does not come again the next night, and the closing prose says Sigrun dies early of grief. This is the poem’s image of a night visit, not a rule for resurrection in general.

Key facts

Relationships

• Sigrunenters the mound

  Hearing that Helgi has returned to the mound, Sigrun enters to meet him.

• Sigrunleaves before dawn

  Helgi says he must ride the skyward roads before dawn, and so leaves Sigrun.

Story appearances

• Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II: Dag and the MoundFigure or place in the Dag, mourning, and mound-visit sequence

  The late-night meeting in the Second Lay, when Sigrun enters Helgi’s mound and meets him after his death.

Ancient sources

MythWeave distinguishes ancient-source evidence from later adaptations and modern interpretation.

• Anonymous; translated by Henry Adams Bellows, The Poetic Edda: Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II, Editor’s introduction, prose section VI, stanzas 28–37, mound prose and stanzas 39–50, and closing prose: Dag’s vengeance, Sigrun’s mourning, and the mound visit.