The Saga of the Volsungs

by Jackson Crawford

  Further Reading

  Barnes, Michael, and Anthony Faulkes. A New Introduction to Old Norse. 3 vols. Viking Society for Northern Research, 2008.

  The most accessible and complete resource for anyone who wants to learn the Old Norse language.

  Cook, Robert (translator). Njal’s Saga. Penguin Classics, 2002.

  The most famous of the genre of sagas known as Sagas of Icelanders, a moving and violent tale of revenge in early Iceland.

  Crawford, Jackson (translator). The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes. Hackett, 2015.

  The Poetic Edda preserves older and often different versions of many of the same stories about the heroes of the Saga of the Volsungs, especially Sigurð and Guðrún, and its poems were known and frequently quoted by the saga’s author. The Poetic Edda is also the most important source for the myths of the Norse gods, including Óðin, Thór, and Loki.

  {xxxii} Edwards, Cyril (translator). The Nibelungenlied. Oxford University Press, 2010.

  The Nibelungenlied is an epic poem in Middle High German that tells a parallel but often strikingly different version of the story of the heroes of the Volsung and Gjukung families, set in the feudal chivalric world of medieval Germany.

  Edwards, Paul, and Hermann Pálsson (translators). Seven Viking Romances. Penguin Classics, 1986.

  A collection of seven sagas of mythical heroes, of a similar genre to the two in this volume. The sagas of Arrow-Odd and King Gautrek are particularly famous Viking adventures.

  Haymes, Edward R. (translator). The Saga of Thidrek of Bern. Garland, 1988.

  A sprawling, medieval Norwegian saga, which includes a very different form of the legend of Sigurð. A form of this saga probably influenced parts of the Saga of the Volsungs (for instance, chapter 23 of the Saga of the Volsungs appears to be modeled on chapter 291 of the Saga of Thiðrek of Bern).

  Kellogg, Robert (introduction), and various translators. The Sagas of Icelanders. Penguin Classics, 2001.

  A collection of sagas of the genre called Sagas of Icelanders, featuring The Saga of the People of Laxardal, which is a rich narrative of medieval Iceland filled with allusions to the Saga of the Volsungs.

  Ringler, Dick (translator). Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery. Hackett, 2007.

  A remarkably well-done translation of Beowulf, an Old English poem that relates the story of a dragon-slaying hero similar to the heroes of the sagas in this volume. The text of Beowulf directly references some of the Volsungs by name in a brief allusion.

  {xxxiii} Saxo Grammaticus (author), Karsten Friis-Jensen (editor), and Peter Fisher (translator). Gesta Danorum (The History of the Danes), Volume I. Clarendon Press, 2015.

  A work of medieval scholarship by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, who died in approximately AD 1220. Book 9 includes Saxo’s version of the story of Ragnar Loðbrók and his sons, and other books in this volume include versions of other myths related in Norse sources such as the Poetic Edda.

  Snorri Sturluson (author) and Anthony Faulkes (translator). Edda. Everyman’s Library, 1995.

  A translation not of the Poetic Edda but the Prose Edda, a work by Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) that summarizes many of the same mythological traditions as the Poetic Edda, including a brief overview of the exploits of the Volsungs.

  1

  . Old Norse names ending in -ung are typically designations for families and not for individuals, so it is likely that the original name of the individual Volsung was Volsi, and that his name was extended later to match the name of the family named for him; compare the name Gjúkung for members of the family of King Gjúki. This is supported by the fact that his son Sig(e)mund is called a Wælsing (= Old Norse Volsung) in Beowulf, as well as simply "son of Wæls," an Old English cognate of Old Norse Volsi. The name Volsi occurs in one place in Old Norse literature, in a story about the Norwegian king Ólaf Tryggvason in the manuscript Flateyjarbók. There, the name is applied to a stallion’s preserved phallus that is worshiped by a pagan family. "Phallus," perhaps specifically "stallion’s phallus," may well be the name’s original meaning (the same root is found in other words for cylindrical objects), and the name of Volsung and his family might then have evoked the virility of a stallion.

  2

  . The white wagtail (Motacilla alba) is a black-and-white European bird about the size of a mockingbird. My identification of the birds that talk to Sigurð as wagtails is based on my identification of the word igða in the Old Norse text with the name egde, which is recorded for this bird in the traditional dialect of the Salten district in Norway.

  3

  . Throughout this book, the titles of poems in the Poetic Edda are given first in the Old Norse spelling used in this book (see Language and Pronunciation, later in the Introduction), followed in parentheses by the more anglicized titles in The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes (Hackett, 2015).

  4

  . There were numerous traditional variants of many other parts of the story too, and in some cases the mixing of these variants has occurred already in the poems of the Poetic Edda that the author of the Saga of the Volsungs relies on. For example, while the author of the saga has chosen to relate only one version of the story of Sigurð’s murder (the one in which Sigurð is murdered by Guttorm while in bed), Brynhild’s dying speech in chapter 31 refers to "the men who were killed with Sigurð," which looks like the imperfectly concealed fragment of a very different story. The saga’s author, however, is simply following the poem Sigurðarkviða en skamma (Sigurtharkvitha en skamma) here (which is the source of much of the saga’s account of Sigurð’s murder and funeral), in which Brynhild makes the same confusing remark.

  5

  . Because kennings are artifacts of the Norse poet’s art and require an audience that understands the original language and its poetic demands, I have done the task of "unpacking" or fully translating them in my translations of skaldic poems in the Saga of Ragnar Loðbrók, as I had already done in my published translations of the poems of the Poetic Edda that are quoted in the Saga of the Volsungs. This allows the reader to appreciate the context and meaning of a poem fully, rather than be forced to assemble its meaning line-by-line from glosses in footnotes or parentheses.

  6

  . In that volume, only the twenty-six letters used in English are employed, so the length of vowels is ignored, and both þ and ð are printed as th. In the present book, when the titles of the poems of the Poetic Edda are referenced, they are printed first according to this volume’s rules for anglicizing names and then in parentheses by the form their titles have in that book, e.g., Hamðismál (Hamthismal).

  {1} The Saga of the Volsungs

  (Volsunga saga)

  Chapter 1. Concerning Sigi, a Son of Óðin

  Here begins the story of Sigi, who was said to be a son of Óðin. Another man named Skaði was also involved in this story. He was powerful and considered a great man, though between the two Sigi was more powerful and considered to be from a better family, according to the opinion of the time.

  Skaði owned a slave who is somewhat worthy of being mentioned in this saga, whose name was Breði. He was wise in such matters as concerned him. He was as talented and accomplished as many men who were considered his betters, and perhaps even more so than some such men.

  It is said that one day Sigi went hunting, and Skaði’s slave Breði went with him. They hunted all through the day and into the evening. And when they collected their kills at the end of the day, Breði had killed not only more but better animals than Sigi. Sigi did not approve of this at all, and he said it was a strange thing that a slave outshone him in a hunt. He ran at the slave and killed him, and buried his body in a snowdrift.

  Sigi went home that evening and said that the slave Breði had ridden away from him in the forest: "And he soon got out of sight, and I don’t know where he’s gone."

  Skaði doubted Sigi’s story; he suspected that it was a lie, and that Sigi had killed his slave. Skaði
had his men search for Breði, and they found his body in the snowdrift. Skaði said that this snowdrift ought to be called a "Breði-drift" from then on. Ever since, people have taken after his example, and they call large snowdrifts by this name.

  It was clear that Sigi had murdered the slave Breði. Sigi was declared an outlaw, and he could not remain at home with his father any longer. {2} Óðin traveled with Sigi a long way away from that land, never leaving him until he reached some warships.

  Now Sigi went on raids with an army that his father Óðin gave him before they parted, and he was victorious in many battles. And it turned out well for him, and he was able to claim a land and kingdom for himself. He married well and became a great and powerful king and a mighty warrior, and he ruled Hunland. He had a son he named Rerir, who grew up in his father’s kingdom and who was already a large and accomplished man at a young age.

  Chapter 2. Concerning Rerir and His Son Volsung

  Sigi grew old. He had many enemies, and he was betrayed by those he trusted most, his wife’s brothers. They ambushed him when he least expected it, when he had only a few men with him. In the ensuing struggle, Sigi and all the bodyguards with him were killed.

  Sigi’s son Rerir was not there when his father was killed. When his father died, Rerir assembled a great number of his friends and local chieftains, and in their presence he claimed his father Sigi’s land and kingdom for himself. And once he felt that his claim to the kingdom was secure, Rerir remembered what he owed to his uncles for killing his father. He assembled a large army and went to fight his uncles, since he thought that they had betrayed him so severely that their kinship was now invalid. For this reason he did not give up until he had killed all his father’s killers, even though such a slaughter of near relatives had until then been unheard of in every way. He then took possession of all his uncles’ lands and kingdoms and riches, and Rerir became an even greater man than his father had been.

  Rerir now had plenty of treasure, and a wife who he thought suited him. Nevertheless, they were together a long time without producing a son to be Rerir’s heir. Both of them were unhappy about this, and they prayed earnestly to the gods and asked them to grant them a child.

  Frigg heard their prayer, and she told Óðin what they asked for. He was not in any doubt about how to help, and he sent one of his Valkyries, who was named Hljóð, a daughter of the giant Hrímnir. He {3} gave the Valkyrie an apple and told her to give it to the king. She took the apple and turned into a crow, and flew into Rerir’s kingdom and found him where he sat on a burial mound. She dropped the apple on his lap. He picked up the apple and thought he had an idea of what its significance might be. He went home and met with his queen, and ate a little of the apple.

  The queen discovered shortly afterwards that she was pregnant, but the pregnancy lasted an unusually long time while she remained unable to give birth to the child.

  Eventually it happened that Rerir went to battle, as kings often do in order to secure peace in their country. While he was away, he became sick and died of his illness. He intended to go to Óðin, which was thought to be desirable in his time.

  The queen remained pregnant the same way without being able to give birth to the child, and this continued for six years. After six years of pregnancy, she believed she could not live much longer, and she gave orders to cut her open, and this was done.

  The child was a boy, and as expected, he was already very big when he was born. It is said that the boy kissed his mother before she died.

  The boy was given the name Volsung, and he became the king of Hunland after his father Rerir. He grew big and strong at a young age, and he was very bold in every kind of deed that requires manliness and courage. He became a very great warrior, and he was victorious in his battles.

  When Volsung was full-grown, the giant Hrímnir sent him his daughter Hljóð, who has been mentioned before as the Valkyrie who brought Rerir the apple. He married her, and they were together a long time and had a good marriage.

  Volsung and Hljóð had ten sons and one daughter. Their oldest son was named Sigmund, and their daughter was named Signý. They were twins, and both of them were the foremost and the most beautiful in every way of the children of King Volsung. All of Volsung’s children were great, as has been told in stories for a long time, and it has become a famous tale that they were extremely proud and were the greatest of all those mentioned in ancient sagas, the greatest in wisdom and in all sports and all kinds of combat.

  It is said that King Volsung ordered a magnificent hall to be built, with a large oak that stood in the middle of the floor with its branches {4} and beautiful blossoms weaving among the beams in the roof, and its trunk standing in the middle of the hall. They called this tree Barnstokk.

  Chapter 3. The Marriage of Siggeir to Signý, Volsung’s Daughter

  Siggeir was the name of the king who ruled over Götaland, and he was a powerful ruler with a large following. King Siggeir went to meet with King Volsung and asked Volsung for the hand of his daughter Signý. Volsung thought well of Siggeir’s proposal, and so did his sons, though Signý herself was not eager to marry Siggeir. Nonetheless she let her father have his way in this, as she did in all matters concerning her. And her father thought it was advisable for her to marry Siggeir, so she was engaged to him.

  And at the time when the wedding and wedding-feast were to be held, Siggeir was to come as a guest into Volsung’s hall. King Volsung prepared the feast in the best possible manner, and when everything was ready on the appointed day, the guests came, including King Siggeir, and many noble men came with King Siggeir. It is said that many fires burned within, all along the length of King Volsung’s hall, and at the center was the apple tree [sic] which has been told of before.

  Now it is told that while the guests were seated around the fires during the feast, a man came into the hall. No one recognized this man. He was dressed in this way: he had a spotted cloak draped over himself, he was barefoot, and he had linen pants tied to his legs. He had a wide-brimmed hat on his head, and he was very tall, elderly, and had only one eye. This man drew a sword, and then he stabbed it into the tree trunk and it sank up to the hilt.

  No one greeted this man. Then the man spoke: "Whoever draws this sword out of the tree trunk will receive the sword as a gift from me, and he will say truly that he never held a better sword in his hand than this one." And then the old man left the hall, and no one knew who he was or where he went.

  Now all the men stood up, and they did not hesitate to try to take the sword, since they thought that the man who took it first would be {5} its rightful owner. So the highest-born men went to the sword first, followed by all the others. No one who grasped the sword could pry it loose in any way. But then Sigmund, Volsung’s son, came to try the sword, and it came out in his hands as if it had sat there loose for him. This weapon seemed so good to everyone that no one thought he had ever seen a sword so good, and King Siggeir offered to buy the sword from Sigmund for three times its weight in gold. But Sigmund said, "You could have taken this sword from the tree just as easily as I did, if it had been meant for you. But now, because it came to me, you will never receive it from my hand, even if you offer me all the gold you own."

  King Siggeir was angry and thought he had received a mocking reply. Yet because he was a man of underhanded character, he behaved as though he didn’t care about the sword at all, but during that evening he thought up the revenge that he would later carry out.

  Chapter 4. Siggeir Invites Volsung to Visit Him

  Now it is told that King Siggeir went to bed that same night with his bride Signý. The next day the weather was good, and Siggeir said he would like to go home and not wait for the wind to worsen or the sea to become unpassable. It is not told that Volsung or any of his sons hindered him, especially because Volsung could tell that Siggeir wanted more than anything to depart from the feast.

  Signý told her father, "I don’t want to go away with King Siggeir. There is nothing in
my heart that smiles for him. And I know, thanks to my gift of second sight which is common in our family, that this decision will cause a disaster for us if you won’t change your mind immediately."

  "You ought not to talk this way, daughter," said Volsung, "because it would be an enormous shame both to him and to us to break this agreement, with Siggeir innocent of wrongdoing. And we would lose all his trust and friendship if we broke the marriage agreement, and he would pay us back with as much harm as he could, and the only proper thing for us to do is to honor our end of the agreement."

  Now King Siggeir prepared to leave for home. But before he left the feast with his bride, he invited his father-in-law King Volsung and his {6} sons to visit him in Götaland in three months’ time, and to bring as many warriors as he wished and who would do him credit with their company. King Siggeir wanted to do this as repayment for the shortened wedding-feast, as it was not the custom to do as he had done, leaving the wedding feast after only one night.

  King Volsung promised to make the journey and to meet Siggeir at his home on the agreed day. Then father-in-law and son-in-law parted, and Siggeir went home with his bride.

  Chapter 5. Concerning the Treachery of King Siggeir

  Now it is told that King Volsung and his sons went at the agreed time to Götaland at the invitation of King Siggeir, Volsung’s son-in-law. They had three ships, all of them well-equipped. The journey went well and they came to Götaland late in the evening.

  That same evening Signý came to her father King Volsung and asked to speak with him and her brothers in private. She told them about Siggeir’s plans, including the fact that Siggeir had assembled an unbeatable army and he intended to betray them. "Now I beg you," she said, "that you return to your kingdom and gather the largest army you can, and then come back here and avenge yourselves. Do not walk into this trap, because you won’t fail to be betrayed if you don’t do as I ask."