p. 44  "Scholars' opinions of the mythological value of the Prose Edda has been almost amusingly diverse. Writing simultaneously in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Rydberg and Vigfusson held views as opposite as the poles. Viktor Rydberg in Teutonic Mythology (published in English in 1889) used Snorri's work when it suited his book but otherwise did not hesitate to slight Gylfaginning as being "produced in the thirteenth century by a man who had a vague conception of the mythology of his ancestors." (page 380) Vigfusson on the other hand claimed that Guylfaginning 'rested upon a purer, fuller, and earlier text" of Völuspá "than any other version preserved"; and that Snorri basing his work on the two Sibyls Songs (i.e. Völuspá and the shorter Völuspá) plus Wafthruni's and Grimni's Lays," has "not scrupled to omit or rearrange where it suited his purpose though he has not falsified or defaced his authority." Snorri did make mistakes, but I find myself in greater agreement with Vigfusson than with Rydberg."
 
p. 139-141 Branstock paraphrases Rydberg's exact argument on "Heimdall as the double of Agni, the fire god of the ancient Hindu Rigveda" from Undersökningar i Germanisk Mytologi, v. I, no. 82 down to specific citations from the Rigveda.  Rydberg is not mentioned.
 
 p.  161 "Again Freyja's connection with Tacitus' Nerthus or Mother Earth is suggested by her names Hörn and Sýr and by her carriage and teem of cats. In Hörn Rydberg sees a connection with the German harn meaning liquid manure;"
 
Thre is no such reference to this in Rydberg's work. In Volume I, no. 100, he writes:
 
Freyja's lover and husband (Voluspa, Hyndluljod); that he went far, far away; that Freyja then wept for him, that her tears became gold, that she sought him among unknown peoples, and that she in her search assumed many names: Mardoll, Horn, Gefn, Syr (Younger Edda, 114). To get further contributions to the Svipdag myth we must turn to Saxo, where the name Svipdag should be found as Svipdagerus, Ottar as Otharus or Hotharus, and Odr as Otherus or Hotherus.
There cannot be the least doubt that Saxo's Otharus is a figure borrowed from the mythology and from the heroic sagas therewith connected, since in the first eight books of his History not a single person can be shown who is not originally found in the mythology. But the mythic records that have come down to our time know only one Ottarr, and he is the one who wins Freyja's heart. This alone makes it the duty of the mythologist to follow this hint here given and see whether that which Saxo relates about his Otharus confirms his identity with Svipdag-Ottar.
The Danish king Syvaldus had, says Saxo, an uncommonly beautiful daughter, Syritha, who fell into the hands of a giant. The way this happened was as follows: A woman who had a secret understanding with the giant succeeded in nestling herself in Syritha's confidence, in being adopted as her maidservant, and in enticing her to a place where the giant lay in ambush. The latter hastened away with Syritha and concealed her in a wild mountain district. When Otharus learned this he started out in search of the young maiden. He visited every recess in the mountains, found the maiden and slew the giant. Syritha was in a strange condition when Otharus liberated her. The giant had twisted and pressed her locks together so that they formed on her head one hard mass which hardly could be combed out except with the aid of an iron tool. Her eyes stared in an apathetic manner, and she never raised them to look at her liberator.
....Freyja's surname Horn (also Horn) may possibly be explained by what Saxo relates about the giant's manner of treating her hair, which he pressed into one snarled, stiff, and hard mass. With the myth concerning Freyja's locks, we must compare that about Sif's hair. The hair of both these goddesses is subject to the violence of the hands of giants, and it may be presumed that both myths symbolised some feature of nature. Loke's act of violence on Sif's hair is made good by the skill and goodwill of the ancient artists Sindre and Brok (Younger Edda, i. 340). In regard to Freyja's locks, the skill of a "dwarf" may have been resorted to, since Saxo relates that an iron instrument was necessary to separate and comb out the horn-hard braids. In Voluspa's list of ancient artists there is a smith by name Hornbori, which possibly has some reference to this."
 
That's all Rydberg says of the matter.
 
 
p. 175 "Rydberg argued in his Teutonic Mythology that Gollveig-Heiðr-Angrboða was also known in Giantland as Aurboða. This Aurboða was the mother of Gerd, who married the Vanr Frey.  If Frey's mother-in-law was indeed murdered by the Æsir then by the Gothonic code Frey would be morally bound to avenge her death and to call on his near realatives to help him; and so we should arrive at a satisfactory cause for the war between Æsir and Vanir."

 p. 255-9  "Two eddaic poems Grógaldr (Groa's spell) and Fjölvinnsmál (The Lay of Fjölsviðr) are so obviously connected that most editors unite them under the title of Svipdagsmál. Both poems survived only in late paper manuscriptrs none of which antedate the seventeenth century; to the lateness Broedur attributes "the frequent errors in mythology", while Vigfusson and Powell believed part of the poem to be such a jumble that they did not bother to translate it in Corpus Poeticum Boreale, But Viktor Rydberg in his Teutonic Mythology decided there was a good deal of sense in the nonsense."

"...In his Teutonic Mythology Viktor Rydberg erected a glittering structure upon his interpretation of the Lay of Svipdag. It may be true (and most likely is) that Menglöð the "Necklace Glad" is a hypostatis of Freyja, the beautiful owner of the necklace of the Brisings; it seems certian that Menglöð is depicted as a3aiting Svipdagr in Asgard and that the main scene of Svipdgsmál takes place at Asgard's gate; Fjölsviðr may even be Odin. But Odin (as concort of Frigg-Freyja) ought to be identified as Svipdagr too. When Rydberg comes to emploty such proofs as that the sword was made by Völundr (Wayland the Smith) because it was made by Loptr ("Airy") and because Völundr in Völundarkviða 14 is supposed to refer to himself as "Wind" (Byr), then one must suppose that such 'proofs' are similar to those employed to 'prove' that Bacon was Shakespeare. Surely a more fruitful line of inquiry is to compare the stories of Skirnir and Svipdagr and find what, if anything, they have in common: to do this, I will analyze the three side-by-side."

Rydberg's identification is based on much more than a comparison of the names Loptr and Byrr. The argument occurs in Vol. 1, no. 98:


"The continuation of the poem shows that what was impossible for everybody else has already been accomplished by Svipdag. When he stands at the gate of the castle in conversation with Fjolsvith he has the sword by his side, and knows perfectly well that the gate is to be opened so soon as it pleases him to put an end to the talk with Fjolsvith and pronounce his own name. The very moment he does this the gate swings on its hinges, the mighty wolf-dogs welcome (fagna) him, and Menglad, informed by Fjolsvith of his arrival, hastens eagerly to meet him (42, &c.). Fjölsvinnsmál, so far as acumen in plot and in execution is concerned, is the finest old poem that has been handed down to our time, but it would be reduced to the most absurd nonsense if the sword were not in Svipdag's possession, as the gate is never to be opened to anyone else than to him who brings to Menglad's castle the sword in question.
So far as the sword is concerned we have now learned:
That it was made by an artist who must have been a foe of the gods, for Fjolsvith designates him by the Loki-epithet Loftur;
That the place where the artist dwelt when he made the weapon was situated fyr nágrindur neðan;
That while he dwelt there, and after he had finished the sword, he was robbed of it (Loftur rúinn fyr nágrindur neðan);
That he or they who robbed him of it must have been closely related to Night and the night dises, for the sword was thereafter in the keeping of the night-being Sinmara;
That she regarded it as exceedingly precious, and also dangerous if it came into improper hands, since she keeps it in a "tough iron chest" beneath nine magical locks;
That the eleven guards that dwell in the same castle with Menglad regard it as of the greatest importance to get the sword within their castle wall;
That it has qualities like no other weapon in the world: this sword, and it alone, can kill the golden cock on the world-tree - a quality which seems to indicate that it threatens the existence of the world and the gods.
It is evident that the artist who made this incomparable and terrible weapon was one of the most celebrated smiths in mythology. The question now is, whether the information given us by Fjölsvinnsmál in regard to him is sufficient to enable us to determine with certainty who he is.
The poem does not name him by any of his names, but calls him by the Loki-epithet Loftur, "the airy". Among the ancient smiths mentioned in our mythic fragments there is one who refers to himself with the epithet Byrr, "Wind," suggesting to us the same person - this one is Volund. After he in his sleep had been made prisoner by Mimir-Niðaður and his Njarians (see No. 87), he says when he awakes:

"Who are the mighty, who with bonds (besti, dative of böstr) bound the wind (lögðu síma á Byr) and fettered me?" The expression implies that it is as easy to bind the wind as Volund. He was also able to secure his liberty again in spite of all precautions.
According to the Norse version of the Volund saga, one of the precautions resorted to is to sever the sinews of his knees (Völundarkviða 17 and the prose). It is Niðaður's queen who causes this cruel treatment. In Fjölsvinnsmál the nameless mythic personality who deprived the "airy one" of his weapon has left it to be kept by a feminine person, Sinmara. The name is composed of sin, which means "sinew," and mara, which means "the one that maims". (Mara is related to the verb merja, "to maim" - see Vigfusson's Dictionary) Thus Sinmara means "the one who maims by doing violence to the sinews". The one designated by this epithet in Fjölsvinnsmál has therefore acted the same part as Mimir-Niðaður's queen in the Völundarkviða.
Mimir-Niðaður, who imprisons Volund and robs him of his sword and the incomparable arm-ring, is the father of Night and her sisters (see No. 85). He who robs "the airy one" of his treasures must also have been intimately related to the dises of night, else he would not have selected as keeper of the weapon Sinmara, whose quality as a being of night is manifested by the meaning incubus nocturnes which is the name Mara acquired. In Fjölsvinnsmál 29 Sinmara is called hin fölva gýgur, "the ashes-coloured giantess " - a designation pointing in the same direction.
She is also called Eir aurglasis (28), an expression which, as I believe, has been correctly interpreted as "the dis of the shining arm-ring" (cp. Bugge Edda, p. 348). In Völundarkviða the daughter of Mimir-Niðaður receives Volund's incomparable arm-ring to wear.
According to Fjölsvinnsmál "the airy one" makes his weapon fyr nágrindur neðan. The meaning of this expression has already been discussed in No. 60. The smith has his abode in the frost-cold and foggy Niflheim, while he is at work on the sword. Niflheim, the land fyr nágrindur neðan, as we already know, is the northern subterranean border-land of Mimir's domain. The two realms are separated by Mount Hvergelmir, on which the Na-gates are set, and where the world-mill, called Eylúður and Lúður have their foundation-structure (see Nos. 59, 60, 79, 80). In its vicinity below the southern slope of the Hvergelmir mountain Night has her hall (Nos. 84, 93). According to Fjölsvinnsmál Sinmara also dwells here. For Fjolsvith says that if Svipdag is to borrow the sword which she keeps, he must carry the above-mentioned hooked bone "to Lúður and give it to Sinmara" (ljósan ljá skaltu í Lúður bera, Sinmöru að selja - stanza 30). Lúður, the subterranean world-mill, which stands on the Nida mountain above Night's hall, has given its name to the region where it stands. In Völundarkviða Mimir-Niðaður suddenly appears with his wife and daughter and armed Njarians in the remote cold Wolfdales, where Volund thinks himself secure, and no one knows whence these foes of his come. The explanation is that the "Wolfdales" of the heroic saga were in the mythology situated in Niflheim, the border-land of Mimir's realm. Like "the airy one," Volund made his sword fyr nágrindur neðan; the latter, like the former, was robbed of the weapon as soon as it was finished by a lower-world ruler, whose kinswomen are dises of the night; and in the saga of the one, as of the other, one of these night dises has caused a maiming by injuring the sinews.
Thus we can also understand why Svipdag must travers Niflheim, "meet Night on Niflway," visit the world-mill, wade across Hel-rivers, and encounter Mimir himself, "the weapon honoured". If Svipdag wants the sword made by Loftur, he must risk these adventures, since the sword is kept in the lower world by a kinswoman of Mimir.

Rydberg's mythological theories are referenced extensively throughout this work.

According to the index of names (Autorenverzeichnis) "Rydberg, V." is referenced on pages:  61, 176, 428, 452, 490, 510, 511, 557, 585.