In Germanic mythology, Wayland the Smith is a master blacksmith originating in Germanic heroic legend, described by Jessie Weston as "the weird and malicious craftsman, Weyland".
Wayland in Fredrik Sander's 1893 Swedish edition of the Poetic Edda
Gold solidius dated AD 575−625; wela(n)du in runes of the Elder Futhark. Found near Schweindorf, East Frisia, Germany.
The smith Wayland from the front of the eighth-century Northumbrian Franks Casket in the British Museum.
Panel Civ (south face, lowest panel) of the c. tenth-century Leeds Cross found in Leeds Minster, depicting Wayland (below) holding Beaduhild/Bǫðvildr above his head, at a right angle. Wayland's head has been lost, but his wings are visible to the left and right, and his tools at the bottom of the panel.
Germanic heroic legend is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic-speaking peoples, most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period. Stories from this time period, to which others were added later, were transmitted orally, traveled widely among the Germanic speaking peoples, and were known in many variants. These legends typically reworked historical events or personages in the manner of oral poetry, forming a heroic age. Heroes in these legends often display a heroic ethos emphasizing honor, glory, and loyalty above other concerns. Like Germanic mythology, heroic legend is a genre of Germanic folklore.
Hagen kills Siegfried while the Burgundian kings Gunther, Giselher, and Gernot watch. Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1847.
A depiction of Sigmund by Arthur Rackham.
"Neither the Huns nor their hornbows make us afraid!" The Geatish king Gizur challenges the invading Huns to a pitched battle on behalf of the Goths, from the Scandinavian epic poem Battle of the Goths and the Huns, which preserves place names from the Gothic rule in South-Eastern Europe. Painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1886.
The shieldmaiden Hervor dying after the Battle of the Goths and Huns, by Peter Nicolai Arbo, before 1892.
