One day Odin looked down from his high throne into the realm of men. And when he had seen, he called Hljod to him and said, "It seems to me that danger is approaching the wife of King Rerir."

"Then I will defend her," said Hljod. She immediately saddled her horse and departed.

Queen Almveig was returning from a journey, when a fierce she-wolf sprang from the bushes to attack her. The queen was great with child and could not defend herself. The warriors who rode with her took up their weapons to fight the wolf, but the wolf leaped upon them fiercely and slew them one by one. When the queen's maidservants tried to protect her, the wolf slew them as well. And now the wolf turned to leap upon the queen. There Queen Almveig was truly in great danger. At that moment, Hljod alighted - for she rode her horse through the sky-roads in the manner of Valkyries. Hljod wheeled her horse to stand in front of the queen, and she drew her sword against the wolf.

But the she-wolf crouched back from her and spoke: "Will you redden your sword in the blood of your own kindred? Have you forgotten the house in the giants' realm where you were born, and the mother who nursed you?"

And Hljod looked upon the wolf and recognized her mother, the giant Hrimnir's wife. Hljod said, "I do not wish to harm you, mother, but you must not attack the wife of King Rerir, who is protected by Odin. Why do you hold such bitter hatred against her?"

The giantess answered and said, "Because the descendants of Rerir will do great harm to the giants' realm, slaying many of our kindred; and because it is fated that the boy she carries will grow up to be your husband –- surely a wretched lot for a spear-maiden and a giant's daughter!"

"If the Norns have decreed it," Hljod replied, "then no one can prevent it; but I do not think that any man will take me to wife against my will. King Rerir's son will surely be a great warrior - so the raven-god has told me."

"Leave this woman to her fate," the giantess urged, "and let Odin find his own heroes. Why should one of the giants' kindred attend the god's feasts? Only sorrow will come of that. I know a little of what is to come; but Odin knows far more than he has told you."

Hljod said, "I am Odin's shieldmaid, and that I will be while life remains to me. I have sworn oaths, and oaths I will fulfill. Accursed is the oath-breaker, and accursed is the warrior who forsakes her lord."

Then the she-wolf threw back her head and howled under the trees, so all the wood resounded; and she sped away on swift feet, back to the giants' land.

For her part, Hljod set Queen Almveig on her horse and led her back to the hall of King Rerir. When they came to the grave-mound beside the king's house, Hljod smiled and said, "This is where Odin sent me to King Rerir, to give him the golden apple."

The queen said in amazement, "You did so? Then who are you?"

"I am called Hljod, and I am Odin's wish-maiden in Valhalla. Odin's favor is upon your house."

"Yet I have heard," said Almveig, "that Odin's favor does not always lead to good fortune."

"The god looks far ahead to what will be," said Hljod. "For myself, I am glad not to be foresighted. Odin has said that no man should know his destiny beforehand; then his mind will be freest from care."

Almveig smiled. "Whatever your destiny," she said, "may you be blessed for your help this day, and in the former time." She took Hljod's hand in hers –- the queen's hand soft and white, while Hljod's was strong and calloused from the sword. "Perhaps we will meet again."

The giantess meanwhile had returned to her own country. There she found her husband, the giant Hrimnir, and she said to him: "I was not able to kill Rerir's wife."

"Do not be grieved by that," Hrimnir said. "I will cast a spell on her, so that the child will not be born, no matter how long she carries it. Our daughter Hljod will never be the wife of Odin's chosen hero."

"Even if the boy comes to be born," said Hrimnir's wife, "I think their troubles are not ended. Though Hljod go to the hall of Volsung and bear him many sons, I will bite deep in their throats and take the life from them."

"Yet take care," said Hrimnir. "Nine times you may go and devour the Volsungs; but if you go a tenth time, one of them will slay you." This was their conversation.

When five years had passed since that meeting, Queen Almveig went to the grave-mound beside Rerir's house and cried aloud: "Shield-maiden who gave my lord the life-giving apple on this very spot, she who saved me from the wolf in the wood: hear me and come to me now, if so it may be."

Hljod heard and came to her. "Why have you called me, lady?"

"I called you in deadly trouble. Rerir my lord has gone to Odin. I carry the child he left in me, but some curse or spell is upon me. Three years I carried this child while Rerir yet lived, and three years it has been since he went from me, but yet the child will not be born."

Hljod laughed and said, "I am a shieldmaiden; why do you ask me for counsel? I serve Odin, not Frigg. I cannot deliver a child."

Almveig said fiercely, "Your sword must deliver my child."

"What are you saying?"

"Have I not said, that some magic binds this child in the womb? There is only one way to deliver him: you must take your sword and cut him from my body."

Then Hljod was dismayed and said, "Many men have I slain in battle, but I dislike this work. If I do as you ask, you will surely die."

Almveig answered, "Already strangers prey on Rerir's lands and wealth, that should be my child's heritage. Soon some ship-king will come to take what is left; and I, who was Rerir's wife and queen, will end my days miserably in thralldom. Let me give this long-awaited child to the light, and I will be content to die."

Hljod said, "A thought has come into my mind, of runes my shield-sister Brynhild taught me. Let me try those first." And Almveig agreed. Hljod cut runes of aid into Almveig's palms; the queen did not flinch when her flesh was cut. Hljod gripped the queen's hands tightly and chanted staves to Frigg's attendants, who speed the child from the mother; but still the child would not come forth.

Then Almveig spoke again and said, "Do not delay, but cut the child from my body."

While Hljod yet hesitated, the boy spoke from his mother's womb. "Do not leave me here in the dark. Let me come forth, and I will fight without fear. I swear I will flee neither fire nor sword while I live."

Then Hljod did as Almveig asked, though with much sorrow. At last she took the child and laid him in his mother's arms. Almveig smiled and said, "Let his name be Volsung. He will rule over his father's kingdom." She looked upon her child, and so she died.

Hljod gathered them both in her arms, the dead queen and her living son, and carried them back to Rerir's hall. She gave them into the charge of the faithful vassals and went on her way.

When Hljod returned to Valhalla, she sought out Odin. Hljod said, "The son of King Rerir is delivered."

"It is well," said Odin.

"But Almveig who was the wife of Rerir is dead, and that grieves me."

"That child could not have been born," said Odin, "without slaying his mother; or by one other way, which you would have liked still less."

"What is that?"

"By slaying the one who cast the spell, and that is the giant Hrimnir."

Hljod shuddered and was silent.

"I did not wish it," said Odin. "For father to be slain by child would bring the doom-day more quickly. Rerir waits in my halls, and I will send for his son when I have need. None knows when the battle will come."

Notes:

"Odin has said that no man should know his destiny beforehand; then his mind will be freest from care." In Hávámal (Sayings of the High One), from the Poetic Edda.

runes to aid childbirth:

"Aid runes shall you learn
If you would grant assistance
To bring the child from the mother.
Cut them in her palm
And hold her hand in yours.
And bid the Disir not to fail." (From the Sígrdrifomál, trans. Jesse L. Byock)