The correspondence of so different sources in so unexpected a matter was altogether too remarkable to permit it to be overlooked in my mythological researches. The fact that the name-variation itself, Alvalde (for Olvalde), as Thjasse's father is called in Harbardsljod, was in meaning and form a complete synonym of Ivalde I had already observed, but without attaching any importance thereto.
The next step was to examine whether a similar proof of the identity of Thjasse's and Volund's mother was to be found. In one Norse mythological source Thjasse's mother is called Greip. Volund's and Egil's (Ayo's and Ibor's, Aggo's and Ebbo's) mother is in Paulus Diaconus and in Origo Longobardorum called Gambara, in Saxo Gambaruc. The Norse stem in the Latinised name Gambara is _Gammr_, which is a synonym of Greip, the name of Thjasse's mother. Thus I found a reference to the identity of Thjasse's mother and Volund's mother.
From the parents I went to the brothers. One of Volund's brothers bore the epithet Aurnir, "wild boar." Aurnir's wife is remembered in the Christian traditions as one who forebodes the future. Ebur's wife is a mythological seeress. One of Thjasse's brothers, Ide, is the only one in the mythology whose name points to an original connection with Ivalde (Idvalde), Volund's father, and with Idun, Volund's half-sister. Volund himself bears the epithet Brunne, and Thjasse's home is Brunnsacre. One of Thjasse's sons is slain at the instigation of Loke, and Loke, who in Lokasenna takes pleasure in stating this, boasts in the same poem that he has caused the slaying of Thjasse.
In regard to bonds of relationship in general, I found that on the one side Volund, like Thjasse, was regarded as a giant, and had relations among the giants, among whom Vidolf is mentioned both as Volund's and Thjasse's relative, and that on the other hand Volund is called an elf-prince, and that Thjasse's father belonged to the clan of elves, and that Thjasse's daughter is characterised, like Volund and his nearest relatives, as a skee-runner and hunter, and in this respect has the same epithet as Volund's nephew Ull. I found, furthermore, that so far as tradition has preserved the memory of star-heroes, every mythic person who belonged to their number was called a son of Ivalde or a son of Olvalde. Orvandel-Egil is a star-hero and a son of Ivalde. The Watlings, after whom the Milky Way is named, are descendants of Vate-Vade, Volund's father. Thjasse is a star-hero and the son of Olvalde. Ide, too, Thjasse's brother, "the torch-bearer," may have been a star-hero, and, as we shall show later, the memory of Volund's brother Slagfin was partly connected with the Milky Way and partly with the spots on the moon; while, according to another tradition, it is Volund's father whose image is seen in these spots (see Nos. 121, 123).
