Another telling of Sigurd; The Volsung Saga.

Why might you read the Volsung Saga?

The Volsung saga is the full story of the family of Volsung. Though we do see some of the stories in the Edda. It exists to show the movement of the Northern families into the Germanic area and becoming the Germanic tribes. As such it is the myth that links the two people groups. It is worth noting that this was written in Icelandic.

It is in my Self Education project because of this link between the nordic and germanic tribes. Also because it is the prehistory of the germanic people and being English by decent some of my heritage is therefore Anglo-Saxon. These are both germanic tribes. This makes this part of the legacy of my past as well as that of a large chunk of Europe.

The Story of The Volsung Saga

Odin Guides Sigi from the otherworld:

Sigi is exiled for murder. Odin leads Sigi out into new lands far away and Sigi establishes himself as king of Hunland. Here he married and had a son named Rerir. His brothers in law killed him but his son retook the kingdom. Rerir cannot have children so he prays to the gods. Odin sends him an apple and he eats it with his wife and produces a child.

The queen was pregnant for six years. She decides it will kill her and asks for the child to be cut out of her. The child is already well grown when he was delivered. He is named Volsung and grew to be a great king. He married the daughter of Hrimnir, a giant. They had ten sons and one daughter. The eldest was Sigmund and his twin sister was Signy. King Volsung builds Barnstock with a great tree in its centre.

Sigmund draws the sword from Barnstock

King Siggeir comes to king Volsung wanting to arrange a marriage for his son. King Volsung agrees but his daughter, Signy is unhappy. Volsung makes the marriage feast and Signy is married to Siggeir's son.

An old wanderer enters the feast. He strikes the tree with the blade and buries it deep. He announces whoever pulls it out can have it and then he leaves. Many of the men try to pull out the sword but none succeed until Sigmund tries his hand and it comes out easily. King Siggeir tries to buy it off Sigmund but he refuses and Siggeir takes offence. Siggeir takes his wife and leaves the next day. He invites Volsung to come to a feast. 

The fall of Volsung

King Volsung goes to the kingdom of Gautland at the appointed time. Signy comes down to meet him and tells him that her husband has an army to meet them and kill them. Volsung refuses to run away and in the morning forms up his men fully armed. Volsung is killed and his ten sons are captured.

Signy convinces her husband to put the brothers in stocks instead of killing them and he agrees. The brothers are chained to a large log and left in the woods. Every night a she-wolf comes and devours one of them. This goes on for nine nights until only Sigmund is left. Signy sends Sigmund honey to smear on his face and in his mouth. When the wolf came she licked up the honey. When she put her tongue in Sigmund's mouth he bit down and would not let go. He ripped out her tongue and she died.

In the process of killing the wolf, Sigmund broke free of his bonds. He stayed in the woods and see himself up an underground hiding place. Signy bought him all he needed. King Siggeir, however, thought that all the Volsungs were dead.

Signy had two sons by Siggeir but they were weak. They are not fit for taking revenge.

Signy gives birth to Sinfjotli

Signy then swaps places with a sorceress and goes and sleeps with her brother in secret. They conceive a son and when he is of age she sends him to Sigmund. Sigmund asks him to bake bread when there is something living in the flour. Sinfjotli kneads it into the bread. Sigmund is impressed as it was a poisonous snake and tells the boy not to eat it.

Sigmund and Sinfjotli take revenge

Sigmund takes Sinfjotli to take vengeance on Siggeir and they sneak into his estate. One of the children spots them and reports them to Siggeir and his wife. Signy brings the children to Sigmund to kill but he refuses, Sinfjotli does it instantly. The two were then overpowered and bound.

The king buried them in a cairn separated by a huge stone. While they were being buried Signy thew in a bale of straw to Sinfjotli. In the straw, he found food and Sigmund's sword. The sword the used first to cut through the stone and then to cut their way out of the cairn.

The two then set the estate on fire. When challenged by the king as to who they are they replied they were Volsungs. Signy comes out of the fire to talk to her brother and reveal the parentage of Sinfjotli. But she returns to the fire to die with her husband.

Sigmund marries Hjordis

Sigmund hears of the Daughter of Eylimi and goes to his estate to try and secure marriage. King Lyngvi is also there trying to win her hand. Eylimi asks his daughter what she wants. She says she will have the well renowned Sigmund.

King Lyngvi went away and gathered an army and invaded. King Sigmund took out his army. He was killed in the action after his sword was broken by Odin.

The Birth of Sigurd

Hjordis gives birth to Sigmund's son, who is named Sigurd. Sigurd is bought up a foster father Regin. Regin the tells Sigurd about the serpent Fafnir and the gold and tries to get him to go and fight the wurm. He tells about how Odin and Loki killed his brother Otter and paid a gold price for his life. Then his brother Fafnir killed his father and took the gold. 

Regin fashions Gram

Before Sigurd will take on the serpent he makes Regin make him a sword. The first two he breaks on delivery. He then asks his mother for the broken sword of his father and has Regin reforge that. The sword is magnificent.

Sigurd goes to war against those that killed his father. He lands in their lands and lays waste to the countryside. The Kings bring an army out to meet him. He states that he is a Volsung and that he has come for vengeance and slays them.

Regin and Sigurd go after Fafnir

Regin convinces Sigurd to go after Fafnir. They ride out along the path the serpent takes to the water. Regin suggests digging a trench and lying in wait for the serpent. This would allow him to stab him from below. While he was working on the trench an old man with one eye came by and told him to make other trenches as well for the poison. This was Odin and Sigurd follows the advice. The plan works and Sigurd stabs the serpent.

While cooking the heart as Refin has asked, Sigrud has the juice on his hand and licks it. Then he can understand the birds, who give him the advice to kill Regin before Regin kills him. Sigurd cuts of Regin's head and eats half of the heart himself. He then goes and claims the gold from Fafnir's cave.

Sigurd and Brynhild

Sigurd rescues Brynhild from her magical slumber.  She teaches him many things with runes. Brynhild gives Sigurd a raft of advice.

Sigurd rides into Heimei's estate and is welcomed. Brynhild is making a tapestry of Sigurd's battles. He happens to see it and insists on seeing her. They make an Oath to marry.

Concerning King Gjuki and his sons

Sigurd arrives at Gjuki's castle and is welcomed. They want him to stay but he is constantly talking of Brynhild. Grimhild the queen brewed a forgetfulness blend and serves it to Sigurd. Sigurd forgets Brynhild. He then pledges brotherhood with the sons of Gjuki and marries their sister. Gunnar, one of the brothers comes to Sigurd and asks him to help him secure Brynhild as a wife. Sigurd and Gunnar head to King Budli, Brynhild's father. They ask him for her hand but are told she will only take the one who rides through the fire. Gunnar tries to ride through the fire both on his horse and on Sigurd's but they both balk. So Sigurd and Gunnar change places with magic and Sigurd does the deed. He tells her he is Gunnar and she consents to marry him. When the marriage feast ends Sigurd finally remembers Brynhild and his oath.

Dispute of the Queens, Brynhild and Gudrun

Brynhild and Gudrun squabble over who has the best husband. Gudrun reveals that it was not Gunnar who went through the fire but rather Sigurd. Brynhild is so grieved that she convinces Gunnar to kill Sigurd. Gunnar and his brother decide to make their younger brother do it as he is not pledged to Sigurd. Guttorm, the younger brother tries to enter Sigurds room while he is asleep. The third time Sigurd does not wake until Guttorm struck him. When he wakes wounded, he flings his sword Gram after the fleeing brother and catches him in the doorway. His sword cuts him in two. Brynhild cannot live with this and kills herself with a sword. Brynhild requests that she share a funeral pyre with Sigurd.

The Disappearance of Gudrun

Gudrun disappears and spends her time in Denmark. Her family find her and marry her off to king Atli against her wishes. King Atli schemes against her brothers to secure Sigurds gold for himself.

Gudrun carves runes on a ring and sends it with the messenger that Atli sends to her brothers. He is inviting them to feast with him but it is a trap. Gudrun's message is for them not to come but it is intercepted by the messenger and the runes changed.

The brothers set out for Atli, though everyone is telling them not to go.

The battle in the fortress and the victory

They arrive at king Atli's hall and are instantly attacked. They slay many of Atli's champions. The brothers continue to fight even though all of their men have fallen. They are then overpowered and captured. Hogni's heart is cut out and shown to Gunnar. This only makes him more resolute not to tell Atli where the treasure is. Eventually, Gunnar is killed by an adder.

Gudrun kills her sons and feeds them to Atli. She does this as revenge for killing her brothers. She and Hgoni's son kill Atli in his bed. 

Concerning Gudrun

Gudrun takes herself into the sea and instead of being killed is swept to the fortress of King Jonakr. Here she is married to the king and they bring up Svanhild, Sigurd daughter.

Svanhild is married off. She is promised to an older King but his son is the one to fetch her. One of the ambassadors tells the King that Svanhild and his son have been lovers and the king has them both killed. Svanhild is trampled to death by horses.

Gudrun Urges her sons to avenge Svanhild

Gudrun's sons by Jonakr come to an age when they can go to war. Gudrun urges them to go to Jormunrek and avenge their half-sister. The son's of Gudrun were warned that they needed to stay as a team cryptically. Instead of taking that advice two of them get angry with the third and kill him. When they arrive to take vengeance one takes off both hands and the other takes off both legs. It is then they realise that if they still had the third he would have taken of the head and they would have prevailed. They were instead captured and then stoned to death.

Reflections of The Volsung Saga

The whole story of the family of Volsung from start to end has a lot of twists and turns. It starts with banishment from the Nordic countries and ends in the Germanic lands. It is interesting that the family is named for someone in the middle of the line rather than a founder. There is less positive to say about Sigi, though, as he was prone to jealousy. Volsung himself on the other hand has a fortunate and fantastical birth. Most of the saga encompasses Sigmund and especially Sigurd. They both have more time devoted to them in the text because there are more stories about them. Both are dealt with in more granular detail than the one that came before. It is also interesting how quickly it becomes he was the very epitome of a Volsung. Even when Volsungs deeds, while we are told they are great, are not detailed in the text.

Brynhild's descent into suicide is interesting. She starts with not even wanting to make the vow with Sigurd, to making the vow. When she marries another who supposedly succeeded in her test, she is happy until she finds he did not do the deed. At this point her whole persona shifts to despair. This is where things get odd though. First, she plots to have her love killed, I think because he tricked her. Then once he is dead she wants to be dead with him. This seems strange as she has caused his death and she does not seem to be repentant for that. Rather she just decides to die with him. Maybe there is something about honour culture in the time that makes sense of it, but as a modern reader, I can't quite grasp it.

The line keeps improving generation on generation, which is rather interesting. We see the line improving until it dies out. This has the effect of keeping the mythic time separate from the time of writing. It allows for there to no longer be heroes about and yet to have this incline in greatness.

What others have to say about The Volsung Saga

Encyclopedia Britannica says The "Vǫlsunga saga, (Icelandic: “Saga of the Volsungs”) most important of the Icelandic sagas called fornaldarsǫgur (“sagas of antiquity”). Dating from roughly 1270."

"Völsunga Saga (Volsunga Saga or Volsungasaga) was the story of love and betrayal, adventure and tragedy, expanding over several generations, began with the son of Odin named Sigi."  Is how Timeless Myths summarises the opening.

Comparisons with other texts

Here we must start with the Edda as the similarities are profound. Both tell the story of Sigmund through to Sigurd. But the Edda tells the story of Otter's ransom as a current tale and in the Volsung Saga is retold by one of the brothers. The Volsung Saga also tells the story of the family before it intersects with Fafnir the Wurm. As such The Volsung Saga is a more complete retelling of the family. Whereas the Edda only covers what is relevant to the Aesir. We can easily conclude that one was used as a source for the other.

If compare Greek Mythology in general with The Volsung saga, we see a difference in understanding of why there aren't great men anymore. We see this referenced especially in Theogony where the decay of the quality of men is specifically discussed. The Greeks saw the slow degradation of man as the reason there were no longer such great heroes. By comparison, the Volsung saga has the men getting better every generation until the line dies out. This I have gone into more detail with above.

Conclusion

The Volsung saga is the story of the family of Volsung. Volsung comes in the middle of the family tree. The line eventually dies out with the daughter of Sigurd. The great feats that they achieved are given in detail, as well as the alliances they married into. In the end, Sigurd's duplicity, in the form of helping his adopted brother, is his downfall. It gives an important Mythical link between the Nordic and Germanic peoples. We see part of this story in the Edda but not in as much detail. Finally, we have looked at how the view of the heroic past differed between this work and the Greek Plays.

Have you read The Volsung Saga? If so what did you think of it? 
 
Want to read The Volsung Saga but haven't? Please leave me a comment and let me know why you want to read it.

Hopefully, this post inspires you to take the time to look into it on your own journey of Self Education.

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