other · epic

Volsunga Saga — The Saga of the Volsungs

c. 1250–1300 CE (compilation); older oral traditions · Medieval Iceland (late 13th century CE) · Iceland

The Birth of Volsung

1There was a king called Sigi, of whom it is said that he was the son of Odin.
2Sigi's line grew mighty. His son was Rerir. And Rerir's son was Volsung,
3king of Hunland, of whom this saga takes its name.
4Volsung had ten sons and one daughter — Signy, who was fair beyond all women,
5and Sigmund her twin, the greatest warrior of his time.

The Sword in the Tree

6Signy was given in marriage to Siggeir, king of the Goths,
7against her will, for she foresaw evil from him.
8At the wedding feast, a stranger came into the hall.
9An old man he was, tall, and one-eyed, and cloaked and hooded.
10He drew a great sword from beneath his cloak,
11and drove it up to the hilts into the trunk of the tree Branstock
12that grew in the midst of Volsung's hall.
13"This sword," he said, "shall belong to him who can draw it forth.
14Never shall he bear a better weapon in his hand."
15Then the stranger was gone.
16All the guests tried in turn.
17Only Sigmund, son of Volsung, could draw the sword from the tree.

The Betrayal of Volsung

18Siggeir would have bought the sword from Sigmund.
19Sigmund refused. Siggeir hid his wrath, but went home planning vengeance.
20Some months later he invited Volsung and his ten sons to visit him.
21Signy sent word warning them not to come.
22They came anyway, saying: "We shall not turn from an invitation for fear."
23Siggeir set upon them with a great army.
24Volsung was killed, and his ten sons were bound to the roots of a great tree in the forest.
25Each night a she-wolf came from the forest and ate one of the brothers.
26Nine of them perished thus.
27Only Sigmund was left.

Sigmund and the She-Wolf

28Signy sent a servant to smear honey on Sigmund's face.
29When the she-wolf came, she began to lick the honey.
30As she thrust her tongue into Sigmund's mouth, he bit her tongue and held fast.
31She struggled, and in her struggle broke the bonds and the fetters.
32Then Sigmund tore her tongue out by the roots, and she died.
33Some men say that she-wolf was Siggeir's mother, who had taken that shape by witchcraft.
34Sigmund fled into the forest and lived there many years alone,
35plotting vengeance.

Sinfjotli and the Fall of Siggeir

36Signy bore to Sigmund a son named Sinfjotli
37(for she had disguised herself and gone to him in the forest, so fierce was her longing for vengeance).
38When Sinfjotli was grown, they went together to Siggeir's hall,
39and burned it about the ears of the enemies of the Volsungs.
40Signy came out from the burning hall to speak to Sigmund and Sinfjotli.
41She embraced them and said: "Now have I lived to see our vengeance accomplished."
42And she turned and walked back into the fire, saying:
43"I have brought about the deaths of many, and now I shall die with the doers of them."
44The hall fell in flames upon her.

Sigmund's Death

45Sigmund became king of Hunland again, and reigned long, and married Hjordis.
46But in a great battle against the sons of King Hunding,
47a one-eyed stranger came against him with a spear.
48The stranger held out the spear.
49Sigmund struck it with his great sword.
50The sword broke in pieces.
51Then Sigmund fell wounded upon the battlefield.
52Hjordis came to him. He said:
53"This is my fate now. I am wounded to death. My time is past.
54Gather up the pieces of the sword. They shall be forged again for the son thou bearest.
55He shall be greater than I. His name shall be Sigurd."

Sigurd and the Dragon

56Sigurd grew up in the hall of King Hjalprek, fostered by Regin the smith.
57Regin was the brother of Fafnir the dragon,
58who guarded a great hoard of gold in the wilderness.
59Regin urged Sigurd to slay the dragon.
60The pieces of Sigmund's sword were reforged, and the new sword was called Gram.
61It was so sharp that it clove Regin's anvil in two, and cut a lock of wool floating in the river without any stir.
62Sigurd rode to Gnitaheath where the dragon dwelt.
63He dug a pit in the dragon's path.
64When Fafnir came slithering down the slope for water,
65Sigurd thrust up from below and drove Gram deep into the dragon's heart.

The Dragon's Blood

66As Sigurd roasted the dragon's heart at Regin's bidding,
67he burnt his thumb testing whether it was cooked.
68He thrust his thumb into his mouth.
69And as soon as the dragon's blood touched his tongue,
70he understood the speech of the birds sitting in the trees around him.
71"Regin is planning to kill him and take all the treasure," said one bird.
72"Better he should kill Regin first."
73Sigurd struck off Regin's head, and took the gold for himself.

Brynhild

74Riding through Frankland he saw a great light on a mountain.
75He climbed up and found a wall of shields around a sleeping warrior.
76He cut through the armour with Gram, and discovered a beautiful woman —
77Brynhild, once a Valkyrie, whom Odin had punished by pricking her with a sleep-thorn
78for disobeying his will in battle.
79Sigurd and Brynhild plighted their troth to each other with rings and oaths.

The Doom of the Volsungs

80But Sigurd came later to the court of Gjuki, king of the Nibelungs,
81and Grimhild the queen gave him a drink of forgetfulness.
82He forgot Brynhild, and married Gudrun, daughter of Gjuki.
83Then Gunnar son of Gjuki wooed Brynhild — and Sigurd, in disguise, won her for Gunnar.
84When Brynhild learned of the deception, her wrath was terrible.
85She persuaded Gunnar to slay Sigurd. He was killed in his bed by Guttorm.
86Brynhild laughed once at the news, and then died of her sorrow,
87and was burned on the same pyre as Sigurd.
88Gudrun mourned Sigurd all her life.
89The gold that Sigurd had taken from the dragon was cast into the Rhine,
90and it lies there still.

notes

Volsunga Saga (Vǫlsunga saga — "the Saga of the Volsungs") is a late 13th-century Icelandic prose retelling of much older Germanic legendary material, drawing on the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda (some of which are lost except as summarised here). It is the greatest of the Fornaldarsögur ("Sagas of Ancient Times") and the primary literary source for the Nibelungenlied and, through both, for Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. The saga follows five generations of the Volsung line — Sigi, Rerir, Volsung, Sigmund, and finally Sigurd (Siegfried) the dragon-slayer — culminating in Sigurd's tragic entanglement with Brynhild and Gudrun and the destruction of both his own line and the Nibelung kings by a curse laid on the dragon's gold. The one-eyed stranger who drives the sword into the tree, and who later shatters it with his spear at Sigmund's last battle, is Odin — the god intervening in his own descendants' fate, first bestowing and then withdrawing his favour. William Morris (poet, designer, and socialist) and his Icelandic collaborator Eiríkr Magnússon produced their translation in 1870 as part of the great 19th-century rediscovery of Norse literature. Morris considered the story of Sigurd "the great story of the North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the Greeks." Translation: William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon, "The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, with Certain Songs from the Elder Edda," London: F.S. Ellis, 1870. Public domain.

currently held: Royal Library of Denmark, MS Ny kgl. saml. 1824 b 4to

WarIcelandicNorseFateSaga

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