Vǫlsunga saga. The Saga of the Volsungs [2nd ed.] 392244167X, 9783922441670

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Bibliotheca Germanica Series Nova • Vol. 3 Texts of the Germanic Middle Ages and Early Modem Period in bilingual editions and translations edited by Hans Fix

Facsimile MS Nks 1824 b, 4°, fol. 21v by permission ofThe Royal Library in Copenhagen

To the memory of my friend and colleague Haukur Böðvarsson 10 March 1932 - 3 June 1986

Vglsunga saga The Saga ofthe Volsungs

The Icelandic Text According to MS Nks 1824 b, 4° With an English Translation, Introduction and Notes by Kaaren Grimstad

AQ-Verlag

© 2000 by the author and AQ-Verlag 2nd Edition 2005 AQ-Verlag Weinbergweg 16 D-66119 Saarbriicken www.aq-verlag.de Made in Germany by atelier niedemjesa ISBN 3-922441-67-X ISSN 0939-544X

Contents

Abbreviations and sym b ols................................................................ 10 P reface.....................................................................................................11 Introduction The S a g a .......................................................................................................13 The E dition.................................................................................................. 68 The Translation............................................................................................70

Genealogy Chart ............................................................................................74

Vglsunga saga • The Saga ofthe Volsungs

1 L Capitulum • C h a p terI...........................................................................76 2 FoeddrVglsungr • TheBirthofVolsung ..................................................80 3 Siggeir Weds Signy, Daughter ofVolsung ................................................ 82 4 Siggeir Invites King Volsung ......................................................................84 5 Fall Vplsungs konungs • The Death ofKing Volsung ........................... 86

6 Sigmund Slays King Siggeir’s S o n s ...........................................................90 7 Signý gat Sinfj9tla • Signy Gave Birth to SinJjotli ...............................92

8 Þeir Sigmundr fóru i hamina • Sigmund and Sinfjotli Donned Wolfskins ................................................. 96 9 Helgi fekk Sigmnar • Helgi Married Sigrun........................................ 104 10

FráVglsungum • ConcerningtheVolsungs......................................... 110

Contents 1

11 KingSigmundMarriesHjordis ................................................................114 12 The Deaths ofKing Sigmund and King Eylimi ......................................116 13 FœddrSigurðr • T h eB irth o fS ig u rd .....................................................122 14 Wergild Paid fo r O tr ................................................................................. 126 15 Reginn gjgrði Gram • Regin Forged G ra m .......................................... 130 16 Sigurðr varð viss ørlgga sinna • Sigurd Learned ofH is F a te ..............132 17 Sigurðr drap Lyngva ok Hjgrvarð ok þá alla • Sigurd Slew Lyngvi and Hjorvard and Everyone Else ......................... 132 18 Nu ríða þeir Reginn ok Sigurðr • Regin and Sigurd Go Riding ......... 136 19 Reginn drakk blóð Fáfnis • Regin Drank Fafttir’s B lo o d ....................142 20 Sigurðráthjartatormsins • SigurdAtetheD ragon’s H e a r t................144 21 Frá Sigurði • Concerning Sigurd......................................................... 146 22 SpekiráðBrynhildar • Brynhild’s W ordsofW isdom ............................ 152 23 FráyfirlitumSigurðar • ConcerningSigurdsAppearance .................154 24 Sigurðr kom til Heimis • Sigurd Came to H eim ir................................156 25 Viðrtal Sigurðar ok Brynhildar • A Conversation between Sigurd and Brynhild ..................................... 158 26 FráGjúkakóngioksonum • ConcerningKingGjukiandHisSons ..162 27 Draumr Guðrúnar ráðinn af Brynhildi • BrynhildInterpretsGudrunsDream .................................................... 166 28 Sigurði var blandat óminnisgl • A Potion ofForgetfulness Was Concocted fo r S ig u rd ........................... 166 29 Sigurðr reið vafrlogan Brynhildar Buðladóttur • Sigurd Rode through Brynhilds Wall ofFire ......................................... 170 30 Deild dróttninganna Brynhildar ok Guðrúnar • The Quarrel between the Queens, Brynhild and Gudrun.................... 176

8 Contens

31 H arm rB rynhildaróxateins • Brynhild’s G riefIntensified.................180 32 SvikinnSigurðr • TheB etrayalofSigurd..............................................190 33 BœnBrynhildar • Brynhild’s L a stR eq u est........................................... 196 34 BrotthvarfGuðrúnar • GudrunsDisappearance .................................198 35 Guðrun reist rúnar • Gudrun Carved R u n es.........................................204 36 Hggni réð drauma konu sinnar • Hogni Interpreted His Wife's Dreams ................................................... 210 37 Heimanferðþeirrabrœðra • TheBrothers'Departure ........................212 38 Orrosta í borginni ok sigr • The Battle in the Palace and the Victory...............................................214 39 Hpgnihandtekinn • H ognilsC aptured................................................ 218 40 Viðtal Atla ok Guðrúnar • A Conversation between Atli and Gudrun.............................................. 222 41 Frá Guðrúnu • Concerning Gudrun.......................................................226 42 Gipt Svanhildr ok troðin undir hrossa fótum til bana • Svanhild Is Married and Trampled to Death by Horses ..................... 228 43 Guðrún eggjar sonu sina at hefna Svanhildar • Gudrun Incites Her Sons to Avenge Svanhild ...................................... 230 44 Frá sonum Guðrunar capitulum • A Chapter Concerning the Sons ofGudrun ........................................... 232

Bibliography ................................................................................................. 237

Contents 9

Abbreviations and symbols

AT

Antti Aame, The Types ofthe Folktale

Atlakv.

Atlakviða

Atlam.

Atlamál

Bugge

Sophus Bugge, ed. Völsunga saga

FFC

Folklore Fellows Communications

Finch

Guðrk. II MO

R. G. Finch, ed. and trans. Völsunga saga: The Saga ofthe Volsungs GuÖrúnarkviða gnnur Magnus Olsen, ed. Vglsunga saga ok Ragnars saga lodbrókar

Reginsm.

Reginsmál

Sigrdm.

Sigrdrífumál

ÖT

Ömólfur Thorsson, ed. Völsunga saga og Ragnars saga loðbrókar

10 Abbreviations and symbols

Preface

This book is the product of my long-standing fascination with the story and characters of Vglsunga saga. From early in my teaching career the saga has held a featured spot in my courses. As I discussed the text with each suc­ cessive group of students, I became increasingly absorbed by the power and drama of the narrative and came to realize that I needed to express my enthu­ siasm in a scholarly study. Thus was a research project bom, and, as is often the case with research projects, this one grew successively larger rather than smaller, from a modest essay to a translation with an introduction and finally to a diplomatic edition with an accompanying translation. The idea of translating VQlsunga saga was originally suggested to me as a collaborative project in the early 1980’s by my Icelandic friend and col­ league Haukur Böðvarsson. He drafted a translation of the saga, and it was our intention that I would make revisions and write an introduction. Unfortu­ nately, Haukur’s untimely death brought an end to our collaboration, and the prospects of publishing yet another English translation of the saga seemed dim. At this point Hans Fix proposed publishing the project in his series of bilingual editions. This entailed producing a new, diplomatic text of the medieval manuscript to accompany the translation. The finished product combines an Old Norse text prepared according to recent principles of text editing with a fresh translation, in which I have retained Haukur’s fine ren­ derings of the poetic stanzas. I owe a debt of gratitude to the many people and institutions whose sup­ port has aided in the completion of this project. The staff at the Amamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen generously made its resources and expertise avail­ able to me; in particular I wish to thank Elin Lindhardt Pedersen for provid­ ing me with a new set of photographs of the manuscript. Likewise, my col­ leagues at Stofnun Áma Magnussonar in Iceland extended their hospitality and professional resources to me many times over the course of this work. Of their staff members I would especially like to thank Stefán Karlsson for his invaluable assistance on questions regarding the manuscript, Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir for supplying me with the dates of Haukur’s birth and death, and Ólöf Benediktsdóttir for her cheerful services as librarian. Support and inspi­ ration have also come from other sources. These include all of my students at

Preface 11

the University of Minnesota who over the years have read, discussed, and written research papers on VQlsunga saga, and Holly Doyle, Kathy Lloyd, Lita Newdick, Ellen Sarkisian, and Peggy Schmertzler, a group of friends in Cambridge, Massachusetts who regularly meet to read Shakespeare, but who one summer volunteered to read my translation instead. To Bob and Holly Doyle and to my colleague Thomas Dubois I am also indebted for discus­ sions on various topics relating to my introduction to the saga. Finally, I would especially like to express my gratitude to each and every one of my friendly editors, who gave generously of their time to read and reread earlier versions of the introduction, translation, or Old Norse text, pro­ viding me with their constructive and insightful suggestions for improve­ ments. They are Maria Bonner, Hans Fix, Fred Franklin, Kirsten Grimstad, Arsena Ianeva-Lockney, Steven A. Mitchell, and Cathy Parlin, whose skills in design gave form to the Genealogy Chart.

12 Preface

The Saga I. The History o f the Saga VQlsunga saga (VS) is one of the foremost works of prose written in thir­ teenth-century Iceland. A highly dramatic rendering of tales about heroes from the remote Germanic past, the saga is the product of a period of more than a century of intense writing activity. This was a time when the Ice­ landers, who first acquired an alphabet for vernacular writing in the eleventh century and who already had a reputation among Scandinavians as redoubtable poets and storytellers, tumed from oral narration to writing as the medium for recording history and culture. This activity encompassed the writing down of their own cultural documents as well as the translation of numerous works of both religious and secular nature from Latin and from Continental vernacular tradition. Through translation medieval Icelanders gained access to a wide range of contemporary European literature from learned Latin philosophical treatises to fashionable French courtly romances. Of the native cultural documents written by the Icelanders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, best known to modern audiences are probably the sagas of Norwegian kings (,konungasögur), the sagas of famous Icelanders from the early period of Icelandic history (,íslendingasögur), and the Edda of Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), a remarkable treatise on Icelandic poetry which also contains the only surviving systematic account of Norse mythology encom­ passing the span from the creation to the destruction of the world. Here myth, legend, and history are combined in the fashion of leamed medieval histori­ ography, much influenced by Virgil’s Aeneid and other versions of the fall of Troy. In his prologue to the Edda Snorri explains that the gods of Norse mythology were actually kings from Asia Minor, descendants of King Priam of Troy, who migrated to Scandinavia bringing their own belief system with them. So powerful and in every way exceptional were these immigrants per­

Introduction 13

ceived to be that they were worshipped as gods by the native people who adopted their (Trojan/Asian) language and culture. As the immigrants moved northward towards Scandinavia, their leader Odin placed his sons as rulers over various Germanic lands. Finally they settled in Sweden, and Odin founded a dynasty there known as the Ynglings from whom subsequent kings of Sweden and eventually the kings of Norway were descended. Thus Snorri establishes a genealogical link between indigenous, historical kings and the divine ancestor Odin, a dynastic fiction that he also later employed in writing the monumental series of Norwegian royal biographies known as Heims­ kringla (ca. 1230). Snorri mentions that one of Odin’s sons was named Siggi, and from him were descended the Volsungs who ruled over the kingdom known in Snorri’s time as France. Such genealogical information was incor­ porated into the legends and stories about the Volsungs to which Snorri had access when he compiled his Edda (ca. 1225). As part of the same project linking myth to history and history to myth, an anonymous author sqme time in the middle of the thirteenth century took the heroic legends relating the deeds of the Volsungs and their tragic dealings with the Gjukungs and the Budlungs, legends that were already well known in oral (and quite likely also in written) poetic form, and retold them in written prose. The result of that creative effort is the work presented in this edition, the legendary history Vglsunga saga. Although the composition of the saga itself is generally dated to the mid­ dle of the thirteenth century, the stories in Norse tradition about its cast of characters are certainly older. We know that the author composed the saga using earlier cycles of heroic poems that recounted the adventures and des­ tinies of these characters because the prose text includes a number of poetic stanzas and even one nearly complete poem from the heroic poems recorded in a thirteenth-century collection of mythological and heroic poetry known as the Poetic Edda. Altogether, this collection contains eighteen poems and two short prose pieces covering the story told in the saga after the birth of Helgi. Of this material twelve of the existing poems and one of the prose pieces were clearly used as sources for the saga, most likely in a written manuscript. We must also add as source material the poem or poems relating the wooing and deception of Brynhild in the saga’s central episode. The eight leaves con­ taining this material were at some point removed from the main and most complete manuscript of the Poetic Edda and never recovered.

14 Introduction

Within Norse tradition there is further literary testimony to the popularity of these legends. In the second section of his Edda (“Skáldskaparmál”) Snorri presents a summary of the story, beginning with the tale of Otr’s ransom and continuing to the deaths of Hamdir and Sorli (Edda 99-106). At the end of his account the narrator observes that “[m]ost poets have composed poetry based on these stories and have used various elements in them.” The example he then cites is from a poem composed in honor of Ragnar Lodbrok, a Danish king of somewhat shadowy historicity who, according to tradition, married Aslaug, the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild, and fathered a line of famous heroes (see below, II. The Saga as History). Other significant literary sources include the Norwegian Þiðriks saga a fB em , probably written in the middle of the thirteenth century, in which the story of the Volsungs is one of the heroic tales included in the legendary history of Theoderic the Great, Ostrogothic ruler of Italy (493-526), and ballads from the individual Nordic coun­ tries, all written down much later but most likely originating in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Within the corpus of Icelandic sagas there are intertextual connections with the story of the Volsungs and the Gjukungs, notably through the literary imitation of the story of Sigurd and Brynhild in Laxdœla saga and the allusion to Gudrun’s allegiance to her brothers in Gisla saga. The underlying source for this wealth of literary narratives in Scandi­ navia and Iceland was a stock of traditional oral legends surrounding histori­ cal figures from the Germanic migration period (fourth and fifth centuries AD), characters such as Attila the Hun, Ermanaric the Ostrogoth, and a Bur­ gundian leader named Gundicarius. That this body of legends was also popu­ lar and widely known in medieval Germanic literary tradition outside of Scandinavia and Iceland can be concluded by the many retellings of or allu­ sions to the story in German and Anglo-Saxon sources. Chief among these is the great Middle High German epic the Nibelungenlied, dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century. Here, as in the Norse version, legendary characters, who in historical fact lived at different times and would have had no connection to each other, are all placed on stage as contemporaries who form tragic alliances. However, despite some similarity in the characters and details of the plot, the German epic poem and the Norse saga tell quite differ­ ent stories, due not only to variation in the oral tradition but also to audience tastes. The poet who composed the epic poem was writing for an audience at Austro-Bavarian courts; the author of the Icelandic saga for an audience of Introduction 15

large landholders (,stórbœndr) and their rural households. In Old English tra­ dition there are references to the tale or its characters in Beowulf and the poems Widsith and Waldere. The ninth-century Latin poem Waltharius con­ tains a comic version of King Atli’s banquet, where, instead of being killed as in VS, the king and all his courtiers fall into a drunken sleep. Turning to more recent times, we find that the tragic tale of the Volsungs has retained its appeal and fascination for artists and audiences alike. In the nineteenth century the story was recreated as a major cultural document by Richard Wagner in his cycle of epic music dramas Der Ring des Nibelungen (first complete performance 1876), inspired at least in part by the version he encountered in VS; and one of Ibsen’s early plays, Hærmændene på Helge­ land (1858), derives its plot from the central marriage conflict between Sig­ urd and Gunnar. In the twentieth century the story’s powerful and lasting cre­ ative influence can be seen in the works of, among others, Thomas Mann and J. R. R. Tolkien. The legends about the Volsungs and the Gjukungs did notjust live in oral and written narrative form; in England and Scandinavia are found numerous wood and stone carvings of scenes from the story dating from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. Especially popular were depictions of Gunnar in the snake pit and Sigurd slaying the dragon Fafnir. The latter scene was often carved on portals of Norwegian stave churches, where Sigurd served as a substitute for the great biblical dragon slayer St. Michael, perhaps because of his traditional genealogical connection with the Norwegian royal house (Byock 1990).

II. The Saga as History What is evident from Snorri’s particular synthesis of myth and history, which identifies the Norse gods as descendants of King Priam of Troy and ancestors in a direct line of the Scandinavian royal dynasties, a line that includes the Volsungs as kings of France, is that the heroes in this family were commonly granted the status of historical persons, forming what Mar­ garet Clunies Ross calls “a meaningful and cohesive historical continuum” between the past and the present {Reception 85). The marriage between Sig­ urd’s and Brynhild’s daughter Aslaug and Ragnar Lodbrok, an important ancestor in the genealogy lists of Scandinavian royalty as well as of several

16 Introduction

prominent Icelandic families of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, creates yet another integration of fiction and reality so characteristic of medieval Icelandic historiography. Consequently, we must consider the saga in its role as history. Like the majority of Icelandic sagas, the plot of VS is structured chrono­ logically. Through five generations it follows the lives of the male line of the family known as the Volsungs, beginning with King Volsung’s grandfather, who is descended from Odin, and ending with his grandson Sigurd. After the deaths of Sigurd and his young son the story turns to follow the fortunes of his wife Gudrun and her brothers, who are the children of King Gjuki and known as the Gjukungs. A third family, the Budlungs, becomes linked through the main character Brynhild and her connection with Sigurd and through Gudrun’s marriage to Brynhild’s brother Atli (see the Genealogy Chart). As the narrative unfolds, the hero in each new generation displaces his predecessor, surpassing him in both quantity and quality of heroic adven­ tures. In this way, the narrative expands little by little so that the reader comes to know successively more about each hero, culminating in the tragic tale of the principal character Sigurd, whose heroic adventures constitute the subject matter for the saga’s longest episode. The saga begins with a short chapter in which the lives and deaths of Sigi and Rerir are recounted. In chapter 2, with the introduction of King Volsung and his family, the saga moves into its first major episode. The events sur­ rounding the marriage of his daughter Signy cause the death of Volsung and nine of his sons; the hero of this episode is the remaining son Sigmund, whose task is to avenge the killings of his father and brothers. This he accom­ plishes with the aid of his twin sister Signy, who in pursuit of this vengeance even commits incest with her brother to provide him with a son Sinfjotli, an accomplice of pure Volsung lineage. Sigmund’s son by his second wife Hjordis is Sigurd, the famous slayer of the dragon Fafnir, whose encounters with Brynhild, the daughter of King Budli, and with Gunnar, Hogni, and Gudrun, the children of King Gjuki, form the central episode of the saga. As in the first episode marriage alliances are the cause of conflict. Sigurd has pledged himself to Brynhild, but forgets her after drinking a magic potion and marries Gudrun instead; disguised as Gunnar, he subsequently woos and wins Brynhild for Gunnar. The revelation of this deception brings about the deaths of Sigurd and his young son and Brynhild’s suicide. At thisjuncture the story moves into its third major episode, which focuses on the Gjukungs and Introduction 17

relates the tale of Gudrun’s disastrous marriage to King Atli, brother of Brynhild, an alliance that leads to the deaths of Gunnar and Hogni through Atli’s treachery. Like Signy before her, Gudrun avenges the deaths of her brothers by slaying her husband. In the saga’s final act Gudrun marries again and has three sons, Hamdir, Sorli, and Erp. Svanhild, her daughter with Sigurd, also lives with her and attracts the attention of the mighty King Jormunrek, who sends his son and a counselor to woo her on his behalf. As we might expect by this time, the betrothal ends disastrously: the son and Svanhild fall in love on the way home to Jormunrek’s kingdom; the king is told about this by the counselor and orders them both executed. Gudrun’s sons set out to avenge the death of their half-sister and meet their deaths in the attempt. Although the saga does not resolve the fate of Gudrun, nearly all other members of these great families have vanished, and the saga ends on an apocalyptic note. According to the literary historical classification system established by modern scholars, VS belongs to the category known as mythical-heroic sagas tfornaldarsögur). These sagas recreate the remote world of the legendary past, of Icelandic prehistory, as conceived by medieval saga writers. The characters in the saga are not Icelanders, but rather the Germanic ancestors of Icelanders. The geographical setting is generally unspecified, although from the few references we have, we can imagine a broad sweep of Germanic terri­ tory from Denmark in the north to Burgundy in the south. For example, the Volsungs rule over a kingdom called Hunland, and Sigurd is called the “Hunnish” king; Sigurd’s mother Hjordis marries the son of King Hjalprek of Den­ mark, where Sigurd is born; King Gjuki rules “lands south of the river Rhine” (chap. 26); Gudrun flees north to Denmark after Sigurd has been slain; peo­ ple identified as Langobards, Franks, and Saxons are encountered by Gunnar and Hogni in the hall of King Half when they seek reconciliation with Gudrun. The time of the action is “once upon a time,” that is, some time prior to the settlement of Iceland (ca. 870), the Christianization of Iceland (ca. 1000), or the reign of any of several Norwegian kings, all of which are stan­ dard time references in Icelandic historiography. The saga also makes exten­ sive use of mythological and folkloric elements: e.g., the god Odin appears in human form, men tum into wolves, Sigurd kills a dragon. Because of features such as these, typical of the mythical-heroic sagas in general, a modem audi­ ence will experience VS as a fantasy adventure story, pure fiction with no conceivable connection to anything we might call history.

18 Introduction

To a medieval Icelander, however, the legendary heroes of the mythical-hero­ ic sagas were not necessarily considered fictitious. As the case of the Volsungs demonstrates, they might well appear as glorious ancestors in the genealogical lists of prestigious Icelandic families on either the patemal or matemal side, since family lines were bilateral - that is, reckoned back to a common ancestor through both male and female kin. Seen from this perspec­ tive, a critical character in the saga is Aslaug, the last remaining Volsung, mentioned only in passing in chapter 29 when Brynhild asks her foster father Heimir to raise her. As second wife of Ragnar Lodbrok and mother of his heroic sons, Aslaug plays a major role in Ragnars saga loðbrókar, a mythi­ cal-heroic saga about Ragnar and his family, to which VS constitutes a pre­ lude in its only medieval source, the manuscript Ny kgl. saml. 1824 b, 4°. Through Aslaug’s sons and her husband Ragnar, politically influential fami­ lies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries - among others, the Sturlungs and the Oddaverjar, a powerful family living at the estate of Oddi - claimed rela­ tionship with the Volsungs and the peerless dragon-slayer Sigurd. In fact it is probable that individual and family interest in genealogy played a crucial role in the preservation and writing down of the tales of ancestors in saga form. Seen in this context, the mythical-heroic sagas and sagas of early Icelanders may be said to constitute “the historiography of the Icelandic descent group” (Clunies Ross, Reception 93). The treatment of legendary history in VS can also be compared to accounts of Greek and Roman history found in the heroic epics of Homer and Virgil. The subject matter is a world of beginnings and heroic times, of forefathers and the founding of families. The founder of the Volsung family is none other than Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology; he is reputed to be the father of Sigi, and he also takes an active role in the magical conception of Volsung by providing the apple that makes the king fertile. As unpredictable as Zeus in Homer’s epics or Jupiter in the Aeneid, he can be regarded as one of the forces steering the course of events in the saga; his appearance at critical moments in the guise of a venerable, bearded man signals a change either for the better or for the worse in the fortunes of a given character. The sources for the story lie in the distant heroic past, in legends told orally for generations about important figures like Sigurd, Gunnar, Hogni, Atli, and Jormunrek, whose lives and deaths comprise such a critical part of Germanic tradition. With the advent of literacy, committing these oral legends - or the poems in which form the leg­ ends were first cast - to writing can be seen as a way of preserving the tradi­ lntroduction 19

tional wisdom and historical knowledge contained in the tales. A written saga could always be read aloud to the audience, thereby retaining some features of oral performance and maintaining the community’s collective memory of its origins and history. As in other heroic traditions, the legendary Norse heroes were perceived as far superior in strength and courage to ordinary mortals: without flinching Sinfjotli withstands having his skin flayed from his arms; Sigurd slays a dragon and rides through a wall of flame; Hogni laughs as his heart is cut from his breast. It was important for the contemporary Icelandic audience to remember not only the names and genealogical links, but also the deeds of these heroes and the nature of their conflicts as ideals of behavior. Especially significant in a society in which blood feud played a critical role was the way in which a man confronted death, and the saga presents a number of performance models of the hero face-to-face with death. Who, for example, can forget the unparalleled courage and extraordinary death scenes of Gunnar and Hogni? Model performances such as these clearly helped to reinforce codes of conduct described time and again in the sagas, whether in the sagas of Icelanders living in the early days of the society or in the contemporary sagas about twelfth- and thirteenth-century Iceland. In every instance story was used to relate history, and the past was continually recreated as story.

III. Structure of the Saga The previous discussion suggests some of the ways in which VS would be viewed as history by its contemporary audience, although a modem audi­ ence will experience it as a fabulous adventure story, especially when com­ pared to the more realistic sagas of Icelanders or sagas of Norwegian kings. With its sources in eddic heroic poetry well known to us, VS has always been regarded as a classic mythical-heroic saga. In his book Heroic Sagas and Bal­ lads, Stephen A. Mitchell proposes the following definition of the genre: “Old Icelandic prose narratives based on traditional heroic themes, whose numerous fabulous episodes and motifs create an atmosphere of unreality” (27). With this definition in mind, let us examine some of the stmctural aspects of the narrative to see how the storyteller weaves his web of fabulous episodes and motifs in order to articulate the heroic themes to his audience. We will begin with the narrative’s larger episodic structures and then consider smaller structural elements. 20 Introduction

A. Episodes A helpful way to begin a discussion of the structure of the saga is to survey the plot as it unfolds in a series of chronological episodes. In the introduction to his bilingual edition R. G. Finch has divided the story into five sections (xiii-xv). 1) Chapters 1-12 contain the stories of Sigurd’s ancestors Sigi, Rerir, Volsung, the twins Sigmund and Signy, their son Sinfjotli, and Helgi, son of Sigmund. The section concludes with King Sigmund’s death. 2) Chapters 13-25 recount the stories of Sigurd’s birth, of Sigurd’s foster father Regin the smith and his family, of how Sigurd avenges his father’s death and then kills the dragon Fafnir, of Sigurd’s meeting with the valkyrie Brynhild, and of their exchange of vows. 3) Chapters 26-33 relate the lengthy story of Sigurd’s marriage to Gudrun and Brynhild’s marriage to Gunnar, of how Brynhild discovers that she has been deceived and married to the wrong man, and of the consequences of that deception, namely the slaying of Sigurd and Brynhild’s suicide. 4) Chapters 33-40 recount the story of how Gudrun marries Brynhild’s broth­ er Atli (thus continuing the connection between the Gjukungs and the Budlungs), of how he treacherously kills her brothers Gunnar and Hogni, and of how she gets revenge by killing their children and murdering him. 5) Chapters 41-44 present the story of Gudrun’s last marriage, of the death of her daughter Svanhild at the hands of Svanhild’s intended husband Jormunrek, and of the deaths of Hamdir and Sorli, Gudrun’s sons from her last marriage, in an attempt to avenge the killing of their half-sister. Viewing the action of the plot in this way, it appears that VS also falls into two parts, each rising to a dramatic peak with the deaths of the major protago­ nists. Sections 1-3 tell the story of the Volsungs proper and focus on the hero Sigurd, whose biography can be subdivided into two episodes, that of his youthful adventures and that of his adventures as husband of Gudrun and brother-in-law to Gunnar and Hogni. The treacherous slaying of Sigurd and Brynhild’s suicide comprise the dramatic peak of this first part. Sections 4-5 feature the Gjukungs with the primary focus on Gudrun and the tragic events surrounding her last two marriages, the dramatic highpoint being the heroic deaths of Gunnar and Hogni and Gudrun’s revenge on Atli.

Introduction 21

An alternate episodic model highlights the marriages of the three main female characters, Signy, Brynhild, and Gudrun, as the plot’s structural framework. The episodes relating the stories of these extraordinary women and their men constitute the main body of the narrative; within these episodes there is both symmetry and variation of motifs and themes, allowing us to compare and contrast the situations of the three women. Framed by the sto­ ries of Signy and of Gudrun’s later marriage, the peak of the drama occurs in the central episode relating the disastrous alliances of Brynhild and Gudrun to Gunnar and Sigurd. Here the narrative becomes thick with dialogues between the various parties, and the author presents us with close-ups reveal­ ing a considerable amount of psychological depth (see below, V. Character Portrayal). The women’s reactions to each other and to the men to whom they are related either by blood or marriage constitute the focal point of authorial and audience interest in each of the three major episodes in the saga. One cannot speak of Sigmund without calling to mind his incestuous union with his twin sister Signy, nor think of Sigurd without mentioning his alliances with Brynhild and Gudrun, nor mention the brothers Gunnar and Hogni or King Atli without remembering the revenge of Gudrun. As in other Icelandic sagas and in much medieval literature in general, the narrative structure ofVS reveals features that we associate with oral com­ position, a vestige of a time before writing became the preferred mode of transmitting knowledge. For example, we can point to the way the saga pro­ gresses chronologically in fairly short episodes; to the stock character roles (hero, villain, heroine, etc.) and character types; to the formulaic repetition of structural patterns and themes; and to the characteristic use of certain num­ bers in repetition, especially three or multiples of three (for example, Regin tries three times to forge a sword for Sigurd, Sinfjotli undergoes three tests of valor, Sigurd listens to the advice of six nuthatches). These features strongly evoke the style of such traditional oral narratives as myths, legends, and folk­ tales, whose highly formulaic structure renders them easy to remember and tell while allowing the audience to anticipate the narrative development and thereby to participate in the performance. In telling his tale the saga author employs a rich repertoire of traditional narrative devices, known as motifs, ranging from smaller elements, such as magic potions or transformation, to potentially larger structures like quests. The following section presents a selection of the motifs used in VS.

22 Introduction

B. Motifs Motifs, which can be defined as narratable building blocks, are among the most common and familiar elements in traditional narratives, for they provide the storyteller with enormous flexibility in telling his tale. Because motifs depend on a set of expectations shared by the storyteller and his audi­ ence, through their repetition, subversion, and variation he can alert his audi­ ence to significant parallels and contrasts in theme, situation, and character portrayal; by amplifying them with additional narrative material he can vary the length of his tale. Prevalent motifs in VS include food and drink, tests, transformations, mythological lore, dreams and prophecies, and quests. 1. Food and Drink Because eating and drinking are such basic human activities, they offer considerable potential for dramatic twists and turns in the traditional plot. Although in the real world the consumption of food or drink normally has beneficial consequences, in the world of folklore and myth it is more likely to cause harm than good. In this respect VS proves no exception, for its ban­ quets and other social gatherings more often occasion treachery than convivi­ ality (see below, IV. B. Hospitality). Let us begin by considering drink. Offering drink is a standard part of a welcoming ritual, a gesture of hospitality and goodwill, but it may also be associated with leave-taking, especially when the parting is expected to be final. In the spirit of welcome Brynhild twice offers Sigurd drink, the first time in chapter 21, in order that he may remember their conversation on the mountain, and the second time in chapter 25, when they swear public vows to marry each other. In both cases the drink is clearly meant to enhance Sigurd’s memory. Drinking prior to departure on a dangerous journey occurs in chap­ ter 37, when the Gjukungs set off to visit King Atli, and in chapter 43, when Gudrun sends her last two sons to attack King Jormunrek. Instead of enhancing memory, a magic drink may be concocted to pro­ duce amnesia. This is the purpose of the brew served by the witch Queen Grimhild on two occasions: the first time to cause Sigurd to forget Brynhild so that he will marry Gudrun and become allied to their family (chap. 28); and the second time to erase Gudrun’s memory of the ill will she bears her family so that she will marry Brynhild’s brother King Atli (chap. 34). In the latter instance the narrator provides us with a recipe for the potion together Introduction 23

with two stanzas from the eddic poem “Guðrúnarkviða gnnur” (“The Second Lay of Gudrun”), in which we leam that the drink is mixed with the power of the earth and sea and the blood of her son. In a third instance, the proffered drink is deadly and part of a woman’s revenge scheme. Queen Borghild offers her stepson Sinfjotli a poisoned drink at the funeral banquet for her brother, whom Sinfjotli has killed in a duel. We know that Sinfjotli is exter­ nally impervious to the effects of poison, but that, unlike his father Sigmund, he cannot consume it. Twice, Sinfjotli refuses the drink, and Sigmund drinks it for him. The third time, however, Sinfjotli’s honor as a Volsung is at stake. Sigmund tells his son to drain the cup, whereupon he dies (chap. 10). The motif is varied to include food as well as drink. In chapter 1, Odin supplies King Rerir with a magic apple that makes him fertile and leads to the conception of Volsung. A noxious magic stew is concocted and fed to Guttorm by his brothers and mother in order to give him the courage to kill Sig­ urd (chap. 32). In several other situations the fare includes hearts and blood: in the first case Fafnir’s blood, which his brother Regin drinks (chap. 19), and Fafnir’s heart, of which Sigurd eats a portion (chap. 20), later feeding some to Gudrun as well (chap. 28); and in the second case the blood and hearts of Atli’s two sons, which Gudrun serves to him at the funeral banquet for Gunnar and Hogni (chap. 40). In this connection may be noted the partial analogy with Hogni’s death scene (and by extension the death of the slave Hjalli), where the hero’s heart is cut out of his breast and shown to Gunnar, but not eaten (chap. 39). In most of the examples mentioned above, eating and drinking lead not to health and good fellowship, but to destruction and death, whether or not magic is involved. The question arises whether the story provides adequate motivation for this shocking inversion of normal custom. In the two examples featuring the magic forgetfulness potion, Grimhild resorts to this stratagem because she wishes to bring about marriage alliances ( 1) between her daugh­ ter Gudrun and Sigurd and (2) between Gudrun and King Atli, marriages that can never take place as long as the characters remember the past. The poi­ soned drink given to Sinfjotli and the flesh and blood of his sons fed to King Atli are strategies devised by women who see no other way to carry out their duty to avenge the death of a kinsman (in both cases brothers). Ghastly though it is, Gudrun’s revenge has two illustrious analogues in Greek mytho­ logy. Understood as an act of sadistic humiliation and a violation of the taboo

24 Introduction

against cannibalism, Gudrun’s action is reminiscent of the crime of Atreus, who under the pretext of reconciliation invites his brother to a grisly banquet at which the latter’s sons are the main course, or the act of Procne, who cooks her son and serves him to her husband.

2 . Tests Tests are conventional fare in traditional narratives and function to distin­ guish the true heroes and heroines who succeed in their quests from the pre­ tenders who fail. Typical motivations for quests in the mythical-heroic sagas are vengeance and bride-wooing. A character departs from home, encounters a series of adventures in which he is tested, and either succeeds or fails in ful­ filling his mission. In VS the heroes tested are Sigmund, Sinfjotli, and Sig­ urd, and the tests are those of identity, endurance, courage, the power to sur­ vive, and suitor eligibility. The first major episode in the saga focuses on betrayal by a daughter’s husband, and, as the hero of this episode, Sigmund’s mission is to take revenge for the treacherous slaying of his father Volsung and nine brothers. To underscore his status as the primary hero and champion of this cause, Sig­ mund faces three tests, the first of identity and the second two of survival power, ln the first test he alone manages to draw a sword from the tree into which it had been thrust by a mysterious stranger during the feast celebrating the wedding of Sigmund’s sister Signy to King Siggeir (chap. 3). The stranger is Odin in human guise, and the sword is his special gift, symboliz­ ing his continued patronage as the original ancestor and distinguishing Sig­ mund as the outstanding Volsung of his generation. While this test establishes Sigmund’s superiority, it simultaneously brands King Siggeir, who fails to draw the sword, as inferior. The resulting envy triggers Siggeir’s betrayal and provides the motivation for Sigmund’s mission. Once into his quest of revenge, he twice escapes from captivity and death, tests of his power to sur­ vive. In the first instance he sits imprisoned in stocks, facing a fierce man­ eating she-wolf that has already devoured his nine brothers, one each night. In a dramatic escape aided by his sister Signy he kills the monster wolf (pre­ figuring Sigurd’s monster-slaying) and breaks out of the stocks (chap. 5). In his second escape Sigmund must rely on more help from his sister. He and Sinfjotli have failed in their first attempt to kill King Siggeir, have been taken prisoner and buried alive in a mound. Before the mound is closed, Signy

Introduction 25

throws them some meat in a bundle of straw, in which she has hidden Sig­ mund’s sword. With the sword they cut their way free and exact revenge by burning King Siggeir to death (chap. 8). Sinfjotli, son of Sigmund and Signy, functions as a secondary hero in this episode; his major role in the saga is to assist Sigmund in carrying out the revenge against King Siggeir. However, it is crucial to demonstrate that he is a true Volsung, and therefore he faces tests of endurance, courage, and the power to survive. To test his endurance Signy sews Sinijotli’s shirt sleeves to the skin of his arms and then strips the shirt off him, pulling his skin off along with the sleeves; he withstands this without flinching (chap. 7). As a trial of courage Sigmund asks Sinfjotli to knead flour, in which is concealed a large, venomous snake, and bake bread out of it while he goes out to fetch firewood (chap. 7). A second test of Sinfjotli’s courage nearly causes his death. Sig­ mund and Sinfjotli have donned wolfskins and turned into werewolves in the forest. Violating an agreement with Sigmund and boasting of his accomplish­ ment, Sinfjotli demonstrates that he is the stronger and braver of the two by single-handedly fighting and killing eleven men, whereupon Sigmund attacks and bites him savagely in the throat (chap. 8). His life is saved by the applica­ tion of a magic healing herb. Escaping from the burial mound together with Sigmund constitutes the final test, after which they successfully complete their mission. Bride-wooing is the principal motivation for the adventures in the saga’s central episode, and accordingly, the tests that Sigurd undergoes serve to dis­ tinguish him as the one eligible suitor who in a typical fairy tale would win the princess and live happily ever after. However, the saga does not follow fairy-tale conventions, since it is based on Germanic heroic legend, and con­ sequently, instead of marriage and comedy, the bride-wooing adventures result in death and tragedy. In VS Sigurd woos Brynhild on three separate occasions, once privately when he awakens her on Hindarfell after he has slain Fafnir, and twice publicly, the first time for himself and the second time on Gunnar’s behalf. The narrative function of this repetition is to emphasize the thematic importance of bride-wooing in Sigurd’s story, which focuses on the complications arising from the rivalry between Brynhild and Gudrun, both attached to Sigurd. Testing Sigurd’s eligibility as a suitor is a critical component of Sigurd’s bride-wooing quest, for Brynhild is a warrior maiden, reluctant to marry.

26 Introduction

The task of killing a monster is one classic test of suitor eligibility in tradi­ tional tales. Before he meets Brynhild for the first time, Sigurd slays the mighty dragon Fafnir, thereby establishing his everlasting fame as the Nordic dragon-slayer (chap. 18). Although this accomplishment is not, strictly speak­ ing, a condition for marriage set by the bride, he can understand the birds and leam the way to Brynhild’s mountain only by slaying Fafnir, eating his heart, and tasting his blood. Like the prince in the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty,” he must awaken Brynhild from her enchanted sleep. This he does by cutting the armor from her body (chap. 21), an action recalling his recent penetration of Fafnir’s scaly skin. Upon awakening, Brynhild recognizes him immediately as Sigurd, the slayer of Fafnir, and they swear betrothal vows to each other. Their second meeting takes place in Brynhild’s tower at the castle of her fos­ ter father Heimir; Brynhild receives Sigurd in her chambers, an honor other­ wise reserved for her father, and there they publicly renew their oaths (chap. 25). In the third courting episode Brynhild has vowed that she will only marry the suitor who can pass through the flames surrounding her hall (chap. 29). At this point, Sigurd is married to Gudrun and accompanies Gunnar, who wants to win Brynhild. However, Gunnar proves himself ineligible when he fails to ride through the flames, while Sigurd, disguised as Gunnar, executes the maneuver with ease, thus winning the peerless Brynhild for the secondrate Gunnar and setting the stage for the ensuing tragedy. Repeated trials or tests constitute a crucial component of initiation, the ritualized progression of an individual from child to adult or from young man to warrior. Initiation involves several stages, as outlined by Joyce Tally Lionarons: a stage of separation from the previous social identity; a stage of marginal existence outside the bounds of society; and a final reincorporation stage in which the initiate assumes a new social identity (60). Common to the ritual are ordeals set by an initiation master, such as ritualized torture and bat­ tle, and mock death and reawakening, elements featured in the adventures of Sigmund and Sinfjotli. Sinfjotli’s half-brothers fail their initiation tests of endurance and courage (they cry out when Signy tortures them and are afraid of the venomous serpent in the flour) and die as a result. Both Sigmund and Sinfjotli succeed and become warrior heroes, engaged in a quest for revenge while living as fugitives in enemy territory. They are subjected to trials that suit their roles in the story, trials that demand fearlessness, the ability to with­ stand pain, and survival skills, as when Sinfjotli is healed after the near fatal bite or when the two kinsmen escape from the burial mound. These latter two Introduction 27

tests are viewed by Lionarons as examples of mock death and reawakening, characteristic of the second phase of the initiation and “symbolized by physi­ cal transformation, outlawry or community ostracism, being devoured by a monster, or entering a grave mound alive” (60). Sigurd, on the other hand, is primarily a romantic hero on a bride-wooing quest, and his initiation trials relate to his eligibility to win Brynhild’s hand. These include slaying the dragon, riding through the flames, and acquiring knowledge about the past, present, and future (see below, 3. Transformations and 6 . Quests). 3. Transformations Transformations constitute a highly popular device for creating suspense in traditional storytelling because they examine the indefinable nature of the boundary between humans and supernatural “others,” exposing the dangers involved in transgressing this boundary. In fairy tales, for example, characters often fall victim to villainous magic spells and are transformed into animals or other non-human forms. The task of the hero or heroine is to break the spell and restore the victim to human shape. Shape-shifting of a different kind occurs when a character, usually a villain, temporarily impersonates another human (for example, an evil witch disguises herself as a beautiful maiden). Myths and legends also feature transformations, which may be temporary or permanent. In Old Norse myths gods and other supernatural beings can change into and out of another shape, often that of a bird or a fish (e.g., the dwarf Andvari lives in the waterfall as a pike). Transformation into a bird is achieved by donning the bird’s feather coat (as the giant’s daughter does in chapter 1 ofVS). Shape-shifting, both temporary and permanent, plays a crit­ ical role in the plot of VS, where we encounter instances of transformation into animal form, but also situations where two characters temporarily exchange appearances. The animal of choice for transformations in the story of the Volsungs’ revenge on King Siggeir is the wolf, which seems to underscore the “wolfish” nature of Siggeir’s original treachery and may also invoke the image of the “age of wolves” that precedes Ragnarqk in the mythology (see below, IV. A. Kinship Alliances). Death stalks the captive sons of King Volsung in the form of a man-eating she-wolf. According to the narrator, this fiendish monster is rumored to be King Siggeir’s mother, a woman skilled in witchcraft (chap. 5). A magic spell causes Sigmund and Sinfjotli to tum into

28 Introduction

wolves as they range through the forests in King Siggeir’s kingdom, harden­ ing themselves for their task. Having found and donned wolfskins in a hut, they immediately assume the shape and all the characteristics of wolves, even to the point of communicating by howling (chap. 8). For ten days they live as werewolves until the spell allows them to shed the wolf pelts and resume their human forms. Superficially Sigmund’s and Sinfjotli’s brief sojoum as werewolves can be read as an exciting and dangerous adventure. However, an audience of medieval Icelanders might bring a more subtle understanding to the episode, based on their familiarity with at least two cultural schemas (frames of refer­ ence), one mythic and the other legal. The mythic schema refers to initiation into a special warrior cult under the aegis of the god Odin, himself reputed to be a shape-changer, according to Snorri’s Heimskringla. These warriors were known as úlfhednar ‘wolfskin wearers’ and were famous in medieval Ice­ landic tradition (along with the closely associated berserkir ‘bear shirts’) as being exceptionally ferocious and invincible. Knowing this, the audience would expect the kinsmen to prevail and to exact a savage vengeance (see above, 2. Tests). The legal frame of reference provides additional cultural information about the symbolism of wolves. In chapter 1 the legal term for outlaw, vargr f véum ‘wolf in the sanctuary,’ is introduced as the judgment pronounced on Sigi for murdering the slave Bredi. As a result, he must flee to another country, for any man declared an outlaw may, like a wolf, be hunted down and killed with impunity (see below, IV. C. Death). This episode makes the abstract idea expressed in the legal terminology visually concrete by depicting Sigmund and Sinfjotli as “real” outlaw wolves, committing murder and mayhem in enemy territory (see below, 4. Mythological Lore). Transformation into animal form is a distinguishing feature of Hreidmar’s strange family (chap. 14). His son Otr fishes during the day in the shape of an otter, resuming his human form in the evening. The god Loki kills Otr while he is eating a fish in his otter guise. Otr’s brother Fafnir changes permanently into a monstrous dragon after killing his own father and taking sole possession of the treasure paid by the gods in compensation for killing Otr. Whereas Otr’s skill in fishing serves as a simple etiological explanation for his transformation, Fafnir’s metamorphosis into a terrifying dragon guard­ ing his hoard carries a more complex symbolic significance. As a human, Fafnir is characterized by such voracious greed that in order to get possession Introduction 29

of the treasure he commits the vile and unnatural crime of patricide, an act that threatens the social fabric and brands him as an outlaw living outside the boundaries of civilization. Since dragons and serpents commonly represent evil, chaos, and greed in the universal language of symbols, it is singularly appropriate that Fafnir transforms himself into a dragon or giant serpent, the embodiment of all the antisocial characteristics he displayed as a human (see below, 4. Mythological Lore, IV. A. Kinship Alliances, and B. Hospitality). In VS witches instruct characters in the art of impersonation, an appar­ ently temporary exchange of shapes that, in fact, signifies a profound and irreversible change in a character’s identity (see below, V Character Portray­ al). To accomplish the revenge against her husband, Signy changes shape with a witch and in this disguise commits incest with her brother Sigmund, thereby violating a taboo for which she chooses to pay with her life (chap. 7). In order to win Brynhild for Gunnar, Sigurd and Gunnar exchange shapes, as the witch Queen Grimhild has taught them to do, so that Sigurd in the guise of Gunnar can ride through the wall of flame surrounding Brynhild’s hall (chap. 29). This deception constitutes a pivotal point in the plot and has dire consequences for all the characters. 4. Mythological Lore A ubiquitous narrative feature of mythical-heroic sagas is the presence of motifs from Norse mythology. This component, considered by many scholars to be a defining aspect of the genre, is generally comprised of references to deities in the Old Norse pantheon as well as to such lesser mythological fig­ ures as norns, valkyries, or giants. On one level these motifs simply allude to a supernatural world and cast of characters that contribute to the saga’s atmo­ sphere of unreality, but they also function on a deeper, thematic level by invoking paradigms from Norse mythology, such as Ragnarqk (the destruc­ tion of the old order), that would be fully understood and accepted by a medieval Icelander. Clunies Ross calls these paradigms “myths to live by” and explains that, although not the only interpretive schema available to the contemporary audience, “the traditional mythic world, based on the belief system of the time before Christianity, formed an implicit frame of reference whereby medieval Icelanders understood and represented human life and behavior, both past and present” (Reception 23). With this in mind, the fol­ lowing discussion explores two particular aspects of the use of mythological

30 Introduction

lore in VS: the appearance of gods as characters in the saga; and serpents and wolves as bringers of death and destruction. As is common in Greek and Roman epics and in medieval Latin and ver­ nacular historiography as well, the founding ancestor of the Volsung clan is descended from a god, in this case none other than Odin, foremost of all the Norse gods and equivalent in status to Zeus in Greek tradition and to Jupiter in Roman mythology. According to Snorri’s Edda and Heimskringla, one of Odin’s chief roles is that of god of war and patron of warriors; as such, he is closely associated with death and in fact maintains in Valhalla an army of warriors slain in battle. He is therefore ideally suited to be the patron of famous warrior heroes like the Volsungs and, in fact, intervenes a second time in the family line by supplying the apple that leads to Volsung’s conception (chap. 1). At certain moments in the saga he appears in the guise of a bearded stranger, aged and often one-eyed, to steer the course of events and to protect or destroy a character. In his role as protector, he first appears after Sigi has been declared an outlaw and banished from his kingdom and guides him to the ships which take him to a new kingdom (chap. 1). He reappears at the wedding celebration of Signy and Siggeir to place a sword in the tree with the promise that whoever can draw the sword from the tree will receive it as a gift and will find it to be the best of weapons (chap. 3). The old man inter­ venes at three critical moments in Sigurd’s life: the first time to help him choose the right horse (chap. 13); the second time to quiet the storm which threatens to capsize Sigurd’s ships (chap. 17); and the third time to give him advice on how best to slay the dragon Fafnir without suffering harm from his poison(chap. 18). In his more ominous role as an agent of death, Odin makes three appear­ ances. On the first occasion he plays the mysterious ferryman who carries the body of Sinfjotli away in his boat (chap. 10). Next he appears as an opponent in the battle between King Sigmund and his rival King Lyngvi, causing Sig­ mund’s sword (the special sword Gram that was originally Odin’s gift to Sig­ mund) to shatter against his spear, whereupon Sigmund is fatally wounded and his forces lose the battle (chap. 11). His last entrance comes at the end of the saga, when he counsels King Jormunrek to stone Hamdir and Sorli to death (chap. 44). Regin’s tale about the killing of his brother Otr is a story within the larger story relating an adventure Odin has together with two of his fellow gods Hcenir and Loki (chap. 14). On their travels they encounter Otr eating a fish Introduction 31

in his otter guise, and Loki kills him. Because of this Otr’s father Hreidmar holds the gods for ransom, which Loki secures by robbing the dwarf Andvari of his treasure and his ring. But Andvari puts a curse on the treasure, thereby creating the conditions for further acts of violence. Regin concludes with the curious remark that his tale explains why gold is called Otr’s wergild, an allu­ sion to Snorri’s Edda (99-100), where the same tale answers the question why otter-payment is used in poetry as a kenning for gold. Odin is the most complex of all the deities in Norse mythology, and this complexity is reflected in the roles he plays in the saga. Like his classical analogues, he wields the supreme power over the lives and deaths of mortal heroes, and it is therefore tempting to regard him as a symbol of immutable destiny. Unlike the Graeco-Roman deities, however, he is not immortal, for he dies together with virtually all the other gods and goddesses in the final battle against the giants and monsters, and in this way he resembles mortal men. Although the saga gives us brief glimpses of Odin in his divine world, as when he answers the prayers of King Rerir and his wife for a child or trav­ els together with Hcenir and Loki, primarily he appears in human form to interact with other human characters. There is an aura of mystery surrounding him; he is always a stranger who materializes and then vanishes suddenly, and he has power and wisdom beyond that of any human (for example, the hero Sigmund’s otherwise invincible sword shatters against Odin’s spear shaft, and Odin knows exactly how to vanquish Fafnir). Structurally his role is that of a supernatural donor or helper figure, and it is consonant with the saga’s mythological veneer that his interventions sometimes help and other times harm the character involved. What is most intriguing is that, although Odin acting as the supernatural agent of fate is directly involved in the deaths of Sigmund, Hamdir, and Sorli, he plays no role whatsoever in the deaths of Sigurd, Gunnar, and Hogni, who die as a result of their own and others’ actions. Recognizing this fact allows for a more nuanced understanding of how the force of destiny is represented in this and other sagas: on the one hand, as divine intervention, but, on the other hand, also as the result of the flawed decisions and actions of individual characters. In the world of Old Norse mythology as described in the eddic poetry and in Snorri’s Edda, serpents and wolves figure prominently as symbols of chaos and bringers of death and destruction. The serpent Nidhogg gnaws at the world ash tree Yggdrasill from below, constantly destroying its roots; as god of war and death, Odin keeps and feeds the two wolves Geri and Freki, 32 Introduction

whose names both signify voraciousness (Edda 33). But the most terrifying and infamous wolf and serpent are the monster children of Loki and a giant­ ess, Fenrir and the Midgard serpent respectively. Implacable enemies of the gods and their social order, they play key roles in the final apocalyptic battle between the gods and the giants known as Ragnargk (which in the mythologi­ cal texts is an event yet to come, but from the perspective of a thirteenth-cen­ tury Christian audience would have occurred in the distant past). In this struggle each side destroys the other; Thor slays the Midgard serpent and then dies from its poison, while the wolf, after swallowing Odin, is in turn destroyed when Odin’s son tears apart its jaws. Because of audience familiar­ ity with the paradigm of Ragnargk, the author’s use of wolves and serpents communicates a powerful symbolic message of ultimate doom for the heroic order. Wolves are prominent in the early part of the story, both as death-bring­ ing monsters that threaten the Volsungs and as animals that mark the Volsungs themselves as outsiders and outlaws. As was mentioned above (see 3. Transformations), the theme of outlawry is introduced in the very beginning of the saga when Volsung’s grandfather Sigi, reputed to be the son of Odin, is declared vargr ‘wolf’ and banished from his kingdom for murdering the slave Bredi. Accompanied to the coast by Odin, he takes to the sea and wins for himself the kingdom of Hunland, where he and the next three generations of Volsungs reign. Whereas Sigi becomes a wolf in a metaphorical legal sense, his two descendants Sigmund and Sinfjotli are transformed into actual were­ wolves as fugitives in enemy territory (chap. 8). In addition, Sigmund and his sister Signy should probably also be regarded as outlaws for having trans­ gressed the boundary of social taboo by committing incest. The wolf in its other role as monster menaces Sigmund as he sits imprisoned in the stocks (chap. 5). In a demonstration of true heroic prowess Sigmund dispatches the beast by ripping out its tongue, a feat evocative of the mythological slaying of Fenrir. His victory over the terrifying she-wolf designates him as a mon­ ster-slayer and foreshadows his son Sigurd’s conquest of the dragon. In this episode the use of the wolf motif also introduces the theme of the interrela­ tionship between hero and monster, of the transitory nature of the boundary between humans and supernatural “others”: after the hero Sigmund has destroyed the monster wolf, he and his son in their tum become werewolves, killing and eating men in the forest, a point made explicit in Sinfjotli’s con­ test of insults with Granmar (chap. 9). Introduction 33

Particularly striking is the saga author’s use of serpents as narrative links that serve to highlight parallels and contrasts in the three major structural episodes of the saga. Familiar symbols of death and destruction in the Norse mythic schema, serpents function as opponents to test the heroic mettle of Sinfjotli, Sigurd, and Gunnar. The saga author varies the motif in a way that emphasizes the pyramidal structure of the plot: Sinfjotli encounters one ser­ pent, Gunnar a pit full of vipers, and Sigurd a gigantic and terrifying dragon; the trials of Sinfjotli atid Gunnar frame the narrative’s heroic centerpiece Sigurd’s victory over Fafnir. In order to test the courage of his potential accomplice, Sigmund con­ ceals a large, venomous snake in some flour to be used in baking bread. The snake in the flour terrifies Signy’s first two sons, who refuse to touch the flour and forfeit their lives as a result. Sinfjotli, however, who is the pure essence of Volsung courage, scarcely notices the snake and bakes it into the bread (chap. 7). At the conclusion of this test the narrator informs us that, in contrast to his father Sigmund who is so hardy that he could even consume poison with no ill effects, Sinfjotli is only immune to poison externally. This is of course his fatal flaw. In the saga’s third major episode Gunnar faces his final ordeal - to die heroically - surrounded by snakes. After being taken captive by Atli, the defi­ ant Gunnar is tied up and left to die in a snake pit. In a vain attempt to save his life, his sister Gudrun sends him a harp which he plays with his toes, putting all the snakes to sleep except one that bores into his chest and bites him in the heart (chap. 39). Gunnar’s death clearly captured the imagination of medieval Scandinavians, as the many extant stone and wood carvings of this scene confirm (see above, I. The History of the Saga). The saga’s complex central episode, which relates the adventures and misalliances of Sigurd, the greatest of the Volsungs, also features the most dramatic encounter between hero and serpent. The single snake in Sinfjotli’s bread dough and the multiple snakes in Gunnar’s death scene provide a narra­ tive prelude and postlude for the entrance of the giant serpent/dragon Fafnir, who is not only the most awesome supernatural opponent encountered by any hero in this saga, but also one of the two great dragons in Germanic tradition (the other being the dragon in Beowulf). A character in his own right, Fafnir has a personality, a family background, great wisdom, and the ability to speak and to foretell the future. We learn that he once was human and that he became a dragon after killing his father and seizing for himself the gold paid 34 Introduction

by the gods (chap. 14). Since that time he has greedily guarded his hoard of gold, as dragons typically do, striking fear in the hearts of all around him with his helm of terror (œgishjálmr). His brother Regin wants him dead because Fafnir has failed to share the treasure with him. Fafnir represents all that is antipathetical and threatening to a heroic society - he is a greedy tyrant, hoarding gold instead of sharing it, and an evil father-murderer who has violated sacred kinship bonds. In slaying him Sigurd acts to uphold social order(chap. 18). In the broader context of traditional myth and legend, serpents and drag­ ons function as interchangeable symbols whose primary role is one of oppo­ sition to cosmic or social order. They are also connected with the earth, are guardians of thresholds, temples, treasures; and they may possess great wis­ dom. All these attributes can be applied to Fafnir: lacking wings, he is a gigantic serpent (ormr) that crawls along the ground and drinks from a cliff thirty fathoms high; his lair, in which the hoard is kept, is described as a solid structure fortified with iron; in his death speech the dragon imparts esoteric wisdom and knowledge of the future to the hero. Once again the author invokes the theme of a boundary negotiation between the human hero and the supernatural monster: when he eats of Fafnir’s heart and drinks his blood, Sigurd not only gains the ability to understand the language of the birds but also internalizes the dragonish essence of the “other.” At the same time that his deed constitutes the greatest test of the hero and distinguishes him as the preeminent Volsung, foremost among Germanic heroes, by eating the drag­ on’s heart, taking possession of the cursed hoard, and killing Regin Sigurd has placed himself in mortal peril and unleashed the forces that lead to his own downfall. Treachery and greed follow him, until, unsuspecting like the dragon, he meets an untimely and unheroic end. 5. Dreams and Prophecies The motif of ordaining the future by means of dreams and prophecies is a time-honored story-telling device, widely used in various traditional oral genres as well as in a broad range of literary works from biblical to medieval times. The tradition encompasses such venerable figures as the prophet Daniel or the dreamer Joseph from the Bible; the famous prophets in Graeco-Roman tradi­ tion, Tiresius who foretells the future of Odysseus, and Anchises and the Cumaean Sibyl who grant Aeneas a vision of Rome’s future glory; Merlin,

Introduction 35

magician and seer in Arthurian romance; and the sibyl of eddic poetry who reveals her vision of the destruction of the Norse mythological world to Odin. In VS dreams and prophecies abound. With the exception of Sigurd’s uncle Gripir, who reluctantly tells the young hero exactly what will happen to him (chap. 16), the ability to predict the future is granted either to female characters or to a character on the point of death, and predictions are uttered at critical moments in the unfolding of the story. In warning her father of the dire consequences if he does not break the marriage contract uniting her to King Siggeir, Signy cites her inherited foreknowledge as the source of her fears (chap. 4). Norns, those supernatural women in Norse mythology who control men’s destinies, appear at the birth of Sigmund’s son Helgi to proph­ esy his future fame (chap. 9); norns are also blamed for Andvari’s life as a pike in the waterfall (chap. 14). After learning his fate from Gripir, informa­ tion fortunately withheld from the audience at this point, Sigurd proceeds on his course and slays Fafnir, who with his dying breath utters several prophe­ cies regarding Sigurd’s ultimate doom (chap. 18). Widely acclaimed as the wisest of women, Brynhild possesses considerable oracular powers: she pre­ dicts that Sigurd will encounter hatred from his in-laws (chap. 22) and that he will marry Gudrun (chap. 25); on her deathbed she tells Gunnar what will happen to him and all the remaining characters in the saga (chap. 32). Finally, Gudrun, like Signy before her, warns her mother of the harm that will befall all the Gjukungs, should she be forced to marry King Atli (chap. 34). Like prophecies, dreams play an anticipatory narrative role, informing char­ acters (and the audience) about future events. In VS, however, dream messages are potentially ambiguous texts encoded in visual symbols and open to interpre­ tation, which allows for a buildup of narrative suspense based on such factors as the nature of the relationship between the dreamer and the dream interpreter, the various and often divergent interpretations offered, and the response of the dreamer to the message. Women wield considerable power as skillful inter­ preters of dreams in VS: Brynhild gives the definitive interpretation of Gudrun’s stag and wolf’s cub dreams, leaving Gudrun sad and resigned (chap. 27); Gunnar’s wife Glaumvor and Hogni’s wife Kostbera are both dreamers and inter­ preters of their ominous dreams, readings which Gunnar and Hogni dismiss, preferring their own innocuous and incorrect interpretations as they prepare for their finaljourney (chap. 35-36); Gudrun obscures the clear import of Atli’s two graphically foreboding dreams, intentionally misinterpreting the first dream and giving the second one a highly superficial interpretation (chap. 35). 36 Introduction

Although dreams and prophecies reveal the events to come in the story, they should not be regarded as devices that “spoil the suspense,” equivalent to reading the ending first. For a medieval audience used to oral storytelling, periodic reiteration of the plot through such anticipatory devices acts as a memory aid, which in tum increases the pleasure of the suspense in discover­ ing how a character reacts to a prophecy or a dream interpretation, how the individual’s foreordained destiny unfolds, or how the hero attempts to defy his preordained fate. One simply cannot imagine an Achilles who, knowing full well that he was destined to die at the hands of a Trojan, would leave Troy and retum to Greece in order to escape that fate or a Sigurd who, having heard his uncle’s predictions, would abandon his heroic career to stay at home with his mother and step-father. 6. Quests In traditional narratives, plots commonly revolve around a quest under­ taken by the hero or heroine to which a cycle of adventures is attached. Defmed as narrative sequences composed of a departure from home, a series of adventures, and a return home, quests - or what Lars Lönnroth has dubbed “the Travel Pattern” (71-76) - appear frequently as smaller structural units in all Icelandic sagas; in the mythical-heroic sagas, however, the quest forms the main action of the plot, as Ruth Righter-Gould demonstrates in her structural analysis of these sagas (423-41). According to Righter-Gould, the motivation for the hero’s adventures is normally revenge, bride-wooing, or a combina­ tion of both, and the adventure cycles are structured around two peak exploits or “pivots” separated by an interval of relative inactivity. Using RighterGould’s model, the following section examines the quests in VS. Mythical-heroic sagas follow one of two basic types of plot structure: either the biographical type, which focuses on the adventures of a single eponymous hero; or the dynastic chronicle type, which relates the lives and deeds of a series of characters in chronological order, moving toward and away from the primary hero, whose exploits form the core of the narrative. VS belongs to the latter category. Although the adventure cycles of Sigurd’s precursors and successors are presented in abbreviated form compared to the extensive narration of his own life cycle, they provide important intratextual thematic and structural connections, parallels and contrasts that enrich the reading and understanding of the story. Therefore, we will first consider

Introduction 37

briefly the quests of Sigurd’s father Sigmund, as well as the adventures of the Gjukungs Gunnar and Hogni and of Gudrun’s last two sons Hamdir and Sorli. In the early part of the saga revenge for the killing of a blood relative, a matter of honor and moral obligation in the society of the Icelandicsagas, pro­ vides the motivation for the hero’s adventures. Prefaced by a brief account of King Rerir’s successful mission of revenge against his father’s slayers, the saga’s first lengthy adventure cycle begins with the departure of King Volsung and his ten sons to visit Volsung’s daughter Signy and her husband King Siggeir (chap. 4). Instead of hospitality, the Volsungs meet with a treacherous attack, and after a vigorous defense against overwhelming odds King Volsung falls and his sons are taken captive. While this departure from home and courageous struggle result in death for Volsung and nine of his sons, for Sig­ mund they mark the beginning of his adventures as a hero. Aided by his sister and Sinfjotli, he undertakes the requisite quest of vengeance, which provides the context for the adventures and exploits discussed previously (see above, 2. Tests and 3. Transformations). With the successful completion of his mission and his reputation secure, he retums home to restore rule over his kingdom. After an interval Sigmund again sets out from home, this time to woo a bride (chap. 11). His initial success in this venture is short-lived, for upon his return home he is attacked by the forces of his rival and killed in battle (chap. 12). Elements from the initial quest pattem are repeated and varied in the saga’s final episodes. Like King Volsung and his sons, Gunnar and Hogni depart on a joumey to visit their sister’s husband and find death awaiting them at theirjoum ey’s end (chap. 37-39). They too encounter an attack from their perfidious host and fight valiantly against hopeless odds. As vivid and dramatic as the depiction of the she-wolf gobbling up one of Sigmund’s brothers each night are the death scenes of Gunnar and Hogni, Hogni laugh­ ing as his heart is cut out, and Gunnar in a pit of writhing snakes plucking a harp with his toes (chap. 39). Inasmuch as the way in which a hero confront­ ed death was viewed as the ultimate test of his honor and posthumous reputa­ tion in Old Norse literary texts, Gunnar and Hogni can be said to have per­ formed well and have brought their quest for fame to a successful conclusion. Not so in the case of Hamdir and Sorli, however, whose grim and humiliating defeat in their mission of retribution against King Jormunrek contrasts strik­ ingly with the earlier success of Sigmund and Sinfjotli (chap. 44).

38 Introduction

Sigurd participates in an extended series of adventures culminating in two peak exploits. As in the case of his father before him, Sigurd’s initiatory quest is one of revenge. Equipped with a special horse and his father’s sword, Sigurd avenges Sigmund’s death by killing all the sons of King Hunding (chap. 17). This victory functions as a preparation for Sigurd’s next exploit, in which he vanquishes a supernatural adversary, the mighty dragon Fafnir (chap. 18). Like the battle against the sons of Hunding, the dragon-slaying, which, according to Righter-Gould’s model, constitutes the “first pivot” of Sigurd’s adventure cycle, is an act of retribution, this time undertaken on behalf of his foster father Regin. This youthful achievement wins him Fafnir’s hoard of gold and lasting fame, as the saga tells us: “When all the greatest heroes and most famous leaders are mentioned, he will always be ranked as foremost among them. His name is widely known in all the lan­ guages spoken north of the Greek Sea, and so it will be until the end of time” (chap. 23). Immediately following his encounter with the dragon, Sigurd dis­ covers Brynhild in full armor, asleep on a mountain. Using the same sword with which he stabbed Fafnir in the heart (immediately identified by Brynhild as Fafnir’s bane), he awakens Brynhild by cutting through her armor, and they vow to marry each other. This scene introduces bride-wooing as the dominant theme for Sigurd’s second quest. Instead of returning home to his kingdom during the interval between his first and second peak exploits, Sig­ urd journeys onward to the kingdom of the Gjukungs. Here he stays for sev­ eral years, drinks a magic potion that causes him to forget Brynhild and his vows to her, and subsequently marries King Gjuki’s daughter Gudrun. The climax of his quest as a romantic hero is the dramatic moment when Sigurd, impersonating Gunnar, rides through Brynhild’s wall of flame (chap. 29). This feat distinguishes him as the only suitor eligible to marry Brynhild and simultaneously signals his doom as a hapless betrayer, bringing in its wake his tragic death - a formal alternative to weddings or other more felicitous concluding elements (Righter-Gould 424). The heroic quest in which the hero slays a dragon, thereby cleansing a land of an evil monster, recovering a treasure hoard or something else of cul­ tural value, and often rescuing a maiden, forms the main plotline of what folklorists call the Dragon-Slayer Tale (AT 300), an ancient story found wide­ ly in Indo-European traditional narratives. Famous examples of dragon-slay­ ers include Zeus, Apollo, Heracles, and Perseus from Greek myth and heroic legend, Beowulf from Old English epic tradition, Thor in Old Norse mytho­ Introduction 39

logy, and Saints George and Michael in Christian tradition. Because of their association with primeval chthonic forces, dragons or giant serpents in the dragon-slaying myth are potent images of chaos and death and adversaries of social order; by the same token this association with elemental powers makes them sources of great wisdom and knowledge of the supernatural. Slaying a dragon constitutes a sacrificial act of enormous cosmic and cultural signifi­ cance, for as long as the dragon reigns, creation of cosmic order and of life itself is impossible. At the same time, heroes and dragons are inextricably linked to each other, since in the myth each defines the other, and the down­ fall of the monster may ultimately cause the downfall of the hero. Lionarons captures the portentous implications of this interrelationship when she observes that “heroes and dragons create each other, and although dragons may be defeated, they cannot be destroyed without the destruction of the hero and of the heroic world as well” (70). While Sigurd is not the only dragon-slayer in Icelandic saga tradition, he is certainly the most famous. In killing Fafnir, Sigurd accomplishes several things of great significance: he proves his mettle and establishes his reputa­ tion and lasting fame as the saga’s incomparable hero; he performs an impor­ tant social service by taking on another man’s cause and punishing a crimi­ nal, whose crimes of patricide, greed, and terrorism are infamous; and he acquires knowledge both esoteric and practical from the dying Fafnir as well as the great treasure hoard which symbolizes his primacy as hero. However, as mentioned above (see also 4. Mythological Lore), the attendant negative consequences of this feat are dire: by eating Fafnir’s heart, Sigurd internal­ izes the essence of the monster; in killing his foster father Regin, he perpetu­ ates the cycle of betrayal and murder associated with Hreidmar’s family; and in taking possession of the very treasure which marks him as the greatest hero, he also assumes the legacy of its curse. Although technically the dragon is not guarding or threatening her, the slaying of Fafnir nevertheless opens the way to Brynhild, whom Sigurd awakens from her enchanted sleep, a motif familiar from the tale of Sleeping Beauty (AT 410). Like Fafnir, Brynhild is possessed of supernatural wisdom. She instructs Sigurd extensively both in the lore of runes and in general rules for sensible and honorable behavior in a heroic society. The scene concludes with their vows to marry one another - a union of peerless valor and match­ less wisdom.

40 Introduction

IV. Cultural Themes Common to all Icelandic sagas is the concept of recreating history as story in order to transmit the timeless, traditional wisdom considered relevant to the contemporary audience. Thus, although VS takes place outside Iceland and its characters belong to the distant past of Germanic legend and therefore to Icelandic prehistory, its ethical world is one that would have been familiar to a thirteenth-century Icelander. The narrative raises issues that were of interest to its contemporary audience, in particular concerning the characters’ performance of deeds deemed honorable or dishonorable. While, as we have seen, the saga author employs numerous narrative devices that create an atmosphere of the unreal, in its thematic content VS is clearly concerned with the ideals of honor and heroism as understood by the medieval Icelandic soci­ ety. Viewed as case studies depicting characters acting honorably or dishon­ orably in various situations, the stories related in the saga create a commen­ tary on the medieval Icelandic value system of honorable behavior. As Richard Bauman characterizes such a system, “[i]f what counts is hospitality, or courage, or the fulfillment of obligations to kinsmen, what counts best in honor-seeking behavior is the doing of actions that index these qualities with special skill and effectiveness, that is, with noteworthy competence” (143). This section examines the degree to which the performance of various char­ acters in the saga meets accepted standards of honor in the areas of kinship alliances, hospitality, and death. A. Kinship Alliances (see the Genealogy Chart) From studies of sagas written in medieval Iceland, scholars have drawn inferences about the structure of Icelandic society and of the alliance system vital to its stability. Kinship solidarity was of fundamental importance in the society portrayed by the sagas, a society in which the honor of an individual or a family was constantly at risk through the actions of another party, and often blood revenge was the only or the preferred means of restitution. For this reason individuals sometimes had to make hard choices about offering support in a conflict, and a blood relative might not always be a reliable ally. Therefore people also depended on other types of alliances in order to secure a reliable support system, chief among them marriage alliances, but also the pseudo-kinship ties of blood brotherhood and fosterage. The success or fail­ Introduction 41

ure of these alliances is a principal theme of VS. With its dark vision of betrayal and treachery that infect nearly every kind of human relationship, VS evokes the description of social collapse prior to Ragnarqk in the eddic poem “Vgluspá” as cited in Snorri’s Edda (53), when depravity of all kinds, kinship violations, and intemecine strife will put an end to civilization as men know it: “Brothers will fight and kill each other, cousins will break the bonds of their relationship. It will be harsh for heroes, much depravity, age of axes, age of swords, shields cloven, age of winds, age of wolves, until the world is ruined.” VS is dynastic history, its episodes linked thematically by the red thread of domestic tragedy in one generation after the next until all the great families are destroyed, a perspective the modem reader may find unrelentingly grim and bleak. In one sense this is due to the sources from which the saga was composed, the eddic heroic poems, whose outlook as examples of typical Germanic heroic poetry Theodore M. Andersson has aptly described as “rich in family tensions and [...] peopled by men and women living under the remorseless constraints of duty, courage, honor, contempt for life, and the imperative necessity of revenge” (.Preface 6). Bearing these heroic impera­ tives in mind, let us proceed to the case studies offered by the saga. Family tensions are most clearly evident in the various marriage alliances ostensibly created in order to strengthen and promote the power and prestige of the two families involved, but which instead cause conflict and death. Already in the first chapter it is related that Sigi dies as a result of an attack by his wife’s brothers, and the narrator comments negatively on this act: “There were many who envied him, and in the end those he trusted most namely, his wife’s brothers - tumed against him.” Here two issues of impor­ tance in the further development of this theme are raised: (1) that Sigi trusted his wife’s brothers most (in good marriage alliances trust is a given and is honorable); and (2) that his wife’s brothers attacked and killed him out of envy (any perceived imbalance in power and prestige in an alliance can pro­ voke treachery, which is dishonorable). The deed serves as a portent of events to come in the saga; trust and envy recur as leitmotifs in the succeeding episodes of domestic tragedy. The first fully developed conflict has its roots at the banquet celebrating the marriage of King Siggeir and King Volsung’s daughter Signy. Signy is a reluctant bride, the first of three in the saga. Although she does not want to marry King Siggeir, the decision is her father’s, according to traditional legal 42 Introduction

custom in medieval Iceland, and she accepts it (chap. 3): “King Volsung reacts favorably to the proposal, as do his sons, but Signy herself was reluctant; however, she asks her father to decide in this matter as in other matters con­ cerning her.” Signy’s deferral to her father’s judgment is a formulaic response of marriageable girls in the sagas, but the fact that she does not freely enter into the marriage strikes an ominous chord. Only after the marriage has taken place do we discover the reasons for Signy’s unwillingness: in the first place, King Siggeir has proven himself inferior to her brother Sigmund when the for­ mer fails to draw the prized sword out of the tree; and, in the second place, Signy possesses the gift of foresight and knows that their marriage will end in disaster for all (chap. 4). King Siggeir’s inferiority in the competition for power and prestige and consequent loss of honor are emphasized when he offers to buy the sword from Sigmund and Sigmund replies with a stinging taunt (chap. 3): “‘You had no less of a chance than I to take the sword when it was in the tree, had you been intended to carry it. But since it only came out in my hand, it will never be yours even if you offer all the gold you possess.’” To Signy’s postnuptial plea that the marriage contract with Siggeir be dissolved, King Volsung responds that such an action would be unthinkable, for it would bring shame and dishonor upon both parties (chap. 4): “‘And if we do, we can expect neither allegiance nor friendship from him.’” Siggeir, on the other hand, has no such scruples and has already conceived a devious plot to repair the damage to his prestige. He invites his kinsmen-in-law to visit him, and, upon their arrival, he ambushes them, killing all but Sigmund. Having survived, Sigmund must avenge the deaths ofhis father and broth­ ers if the Volsungs are to recover their family honor. Caught in a situation of conflicting loyalties, Signy gives clear priority to blood kin over marriage ties and goes to extraordinary lengths to aid Sigmund, even to the point of order­ ing her children killed because they are inadequate to the task of revenge and of sleeping with her brother in order to provide him with a suitable accom­ plice. In the end, his mission successful, Sigmund wishes to honor his sister for her assistance, but Signy now reveals the extent of the measures she has taken, confessing that in addition to killing her own children she has commit­ ted incest with Sigmund. Since she can no longer live with honor, she prefers to die in the flames with King Siggeir (chap. 8): “ T have gone to such lengths to bring about the revenge that under no circumstances am I fit to live. There­ fore I am ready and willing to die with King Siggeir, reluctant though I was to marry him.’” Introduction 43

This episode, which relates the conflict caused by an imbalance of power between two families allied by marriage, contains all the basic ingredients of the witch’s brew of domestic tragedy depicted in the rest of the saga. The inequality, we should note, may apply to either spouse (as, for example, when Sigi’s brothers-in-law kill him because they envy his power), but in the saga’s primary conflicts it refers specifically to a situation in which a woman mar­ ries beneath her, as in the case of Signy. Siggeir’s envy of Sigmund’s superi­ ority leads him to betray the trust of the marriage alliance (something King Volsung considers unthinkable), and this dishonorable deed gives rise to fur­ ther conflict and social chaos, that includes incest. To summarize: the saga’s first full-blown domestic tragedy results from extensive kinship violation in which King Volsung is killed by his daughter’s husband, his sons by their sis­ ter’s husband, King Siggeir by his wife’s brother, and Signy’s children by order of their mother. These events then serve as a tragic paradigm in suc­ ceeding episodes. The structural parallels between the saga’s first and third episodes noted above (see III. 6. Quests) serve to illuminate the thematic ones. Here the reluctant bride is Gudrun, whose mother and brothers wish to marry her to King Atli, the brother of Brynhild. Like Signy, Gudrun can see into the future and warns of the danger to her brothers in such an alliance, but her objections are overridden and she is given a drink to make her forget the past (chap. 34). This latter ploy is necessary, for, in contrast to Signy, Gudrun is a widow and would therefore legally be able to make her own decision about a proposed marriage. With no more male Volsungs to provide any competition, the renewed marriage alliance between the Gjukungs and the Budlungs secures their hege­ mony in the region. However, within this alliance the saga makes it clear that Gunnar and Hogni are more powerful and wealthier than Atli; as a mark of their superiority, they possess the dragon’s hoard that Sigurd had won. Like Siggeir before him, Atli covets the status symbol and plots to take it from them, even though this entails violation of kinship bonds. True to his duplici­ tous nature, King Atli claims that his treacherous attack against the brothers is motivated by honorable revenge for the killing of Sigurd (chap. 38): “ T had this in mind a long time ago - to take your lives and get possession of the gold in order to repay you for the shameful betrayal of your illustrious broth­ er-in-law. I’m going to avenge his death.’” However, the narrator has revealed his actual motive as greed and envy (chap. 35): “King Atli now 44 Introduction

begins to muse over where the great hoard of gold that Sigurd had owned might be, something which now only King Gunnar and his brother know.” Thus, desire for the cursed treasure causes further violence, and, like the sons of Volsung, Gunnar and Hogni meet their deaths at the hands of their sister’s husband. Whereas in the saga’s initial episode Signy plays a more traditional female role, rendering her assistance in the retribution against her husband behind the scenes, in this case Gudrun must act alone since both of her broth­ ers are dead (although a son of Hogni suddenly appears on the scene to help Gudrun murder her husband). She thereby assumes what would normally be a male role. Here as well loyalty to blood kin is valued over spousal loyalty, and in her orchestration of the revenge, Gudrun far surpasses her predecessor, transforming herself into a veritable goddess of death. Two elements encoun­ tered earlier, namely killing the king’s children and setting fire to the royal hall, are repeated in this revenge drama, but this time Gudrun does the actual killing and the lighting of the fire. In addition, she feeds Atli his children’s hearts and blood for dinner and then stabs him as he lies sleeping in a drunk­ en stupor (chap. 40). The effect of the vengeance she stages is one of inex­ orable horror that centers on the ritualistic humiliation of Atli, an incident apparently unique in Old Norse literature, but with its analogues in the Greek legends of the curse on the house of Atreus and the revenge of Procne. Atli is cast as a monster because of his greed and sadistic torture of Gudrun’s broth­ ers, but in slaying this monster Gudrun does not escape contamination any more than Signy or Sigurd do. With their last words Gudrun’s children, speaking for all the children murdered by their mothers in this story, pro­ nounce judgment on their mother (chap. 40): ‘“ You have the power to do what you want with your children - no one can stop you. But you are com­ mitting an outrage by doing this.’” That the root of the evil is Atli’s inferiority and therefore unsuitability as her husband is underscored in their fmal dia­ logue when Gudrun compares him to Sigurd (chap. 40): “‘My sorest regret is that I came to you after having had the most illustrious king as husband. You never came out of a battle without losing.’” Her mission accomplished at the price of her personal honor, Gudrun, like Signy before her, now wishes to die, but unlike the latter she fails because, as the narrator informs us, “the time for her death had not yet come” (chap. 40). Betrayal and treachery from kin by marriage also bring about the tragic death of Sigurd, the last and greatest of the Volsung heroes, and the motiva­ lntroduction 45

tion once again is a demonstrated inequality in prestige and honor between Sigurd and his wife’s brothers. In this central drama three families, the Volsungs, Gjukungs, and Budlungs, are allied by marriage through the two brides Gudrun and Brynhild. A complicating factor arises because, although Brynhild and Sigurd are clearly the perfect match (she is a warrior maiden and superior in wisdom) and they have sworn betrothal vows (chap. 22 and 25), they do not marry each other after all, thanks to the machinations of the Gjukungs. Fiercely ambitious to secure their own honor and prestige at all costs, the Gjukungs cause Sigurd to forget his obligations to Brynhild and offer him a marriage alliance with their sister Gudrun. This offer violates nor­ mal social custom, in which a suitor brings his suit to the bride’s family, as King Gjuki’s remark confirms (chap. 28): “Tt is hardly the custom to offer one’s daughters in marriage [...] But offering her to Sigurd is a greater honor than having anyone else come courting her.’” However, Sigurd accepts the offer, and the bonds are further strengthened when Gunnar and Hogni swear oaths of blood brotherhood with Sigurd. The marriage between Sigurd and Gudrun leaves Brynhild unclaimed, but Gunnar is determined to win her, even though, as the events of the plot clearly show, his qualifications are insufficient: he cannot ride through Brynhild’s wall of flame; only Sigurd can. That Brynhild has been cruelly and dishonorably deceived comes to light in the bathing scene in the Rhine, when Brynhild taunts Gudrun by boasting of her own illustrious husband, while denigrating Gudrun’s (chap. 30): “Tn my opinion my father is more powerful than yours. And my husband has per­ formed many heroic deeds and rode through the burning fire, whereas your husband was merely King Hjalprek’s slave.’” On learning the truth, Brynhild becomes a reluctant bride, setting as a condition for her continued marriage to Gunnar that he prove himself the superior hero by killing Sigurd, whom she claims has broken his oaths to Gunnar by sleeping with her in the flameenclosed hall. Rather than face the humiliation of a divorce, Gunnar complies with her request on the grounds that Sigurd is an oath-breaker, but possession of the treasure is certainly a strong contributing factor, as his conversation with Hogni reveals (chap. 32): ‘“Then you and I alone will be in control of the gold and have all the power.’” Although Gunnar is aware that he is on dangerous moral ground in violating not only the bonds of the marriage alliance, but also the fictive kinship ties of blood brotherhood, he commits himself to the deed, while Hogni protests and states clearly that it is wrong. Once the foul deed is done, however, Brynhild kills herself, giving as her rea­ 46 Introduction

son that she is dishonored because she has broken her oath to marry Sigurd (chap. 31): “ ‘I swore an oath to marry the man who could ride through my wall of flames. I meant to keep that oath or die.’” Critical to this discussion is how to judge Sigurd’s behavior. Clearly his breach of faith and betrayal of Brynhild constitute dishonorable behavior, but there are extenuating circumstances: the narrator consistently portrays Sigurd as a trusting person taken advantage of by the scheming Gjukungs, Grimhild in particular. As Andersson has observed, “Sigurd becomes the sad instru­ ment of her perfidy” {Brynhild 53). Therefore we may concur with the Ice­ landic scholar Torfi Tulinius (Matiere du Nord 132) in positing intention as a central factor dividing honorable from dishonorable behavior, a position which rescues Sigurd’s reputation as a hero and strengthens the force of his dying claim of innocence (chap. 32): “ T swear that I never behaved dishonor­ ably toward Gunnar. I kept our oaths and was never more than a friend to his wife.’” Significantly, and ironically, it was failing to keep his oaths to Bryn­ hild that brought about his death. As our discussion has revealed, inequality in power and prestige between the parties is a key factor in the repeated violations of marital kinship ties that eventually destroy the entire social fabric of the saga. Volsung is killed by his daughter’s husband; his nine sons and Gudrun’s brothers Gunnar and Hogni are killed by their sisters’ husbands; Sigi, Siggeir, and Sigurd are all slain by their wives’ brothers, who are in Sigurd’s case also his blood brothers. When­ ever a woman is in conflict over loyalty to her husband or to her blood kin, the latter tie is given priority: Gudrun slays her second husband Atli, and Signy takes extreme measures to help her brother kill her husband Siggeir; both Signy and Gudrun sacrifice the children born to them in these unhappy unions. Of all the heroes only Sigmund escapes betrayal in his second mar­ riage; he falls in battle against his unsuccessful rival for Hjordis’s hand. The fates of the saga’s three reluctant brides, each of whom finds herself constrained by circumstances to marry beneath her, is a theme of consider­ able interest to any audience - a thirteenth-century Icelandic one in this case - concerned with legal authority and social stability. The saga appears to stress the message, found in other Icelandic sagas as well, that social stability depends on two crucial factors: (1) that a suitable marriage partner be equal or superior in power and status to the bride’s family; and (2) that the woman should freely consent to the marriage. That this is indeed the issue at stake in the saga is demonstrated by the two contrasting examples of successful mar­ Introduction 47

riage alliances: those of Helgi and Sigrun (chap. 9) and of Sigmund and Hjordis (chap. 11). In both cases the woman makes her own choice based on the man’s preeminence. Although in theory all the eligible males in the three families are sons of kings and therefore equal in status, in fact the Volsungs are socially dominant, and this dominance is marked by their genealogy (Odin as the original ancestor) and by the sword and the treasure, which they own and others covet. Thus, Signy must either marry an inferior man or not marry at all, and all Volsung males are at high risk from their competitive and envious in-laws. In Sigurd’s generation the warrior maiden Brynhild is the most desirable bride, and her failure to secure an equal match brings violence and death in its wake. Once all the male Volsungs are dead, the treasure pass­ es to the Gjukungs, who become the socially dominant heroes and final carri­ ers of this distinction, for Atli fails in his attempt to take over the gold and dies ignominiously, slain by his wife. The more egregious outrages against the bonds of blood kinship are ini­ tially confined to the supernatural family of Hreidmar (chap. 14). Here greed (and the curse placed on the dwarf’s stolen treasure) motivates Fafnir to kill his father and seize all the treasure, after which he tums into a terrifying ser­ pent, fair game for a dragon-slayer like Sigurd. However, the real responsibil­ ity for his death rests with his brother Regin, who in order to get the treasure for himself incites Sigurd to kill Fafnir. Thus, the crime of killing a close adult blood relative is isolated from the human community until the very end of the saga, at which point the forces of evil and chaos that have gradually been encroaching on human social order get the upper hand in a violent denouement strongly suggestive of the collapse of civilization just prior to Ragnargk: King Jormunrek orders his son and heir hanged, his bride trampled to death, and pays for this by terrible mutilation; Gudrun’s last sons Hamdir and Sorli kill their brother and then suffer death by stoning (chap. 42 and 44). When the curtain falls on the saga’s final struggle, all the great heroes have perished and with them the heroic age of the Volsungs. B. Hospitality Prominent in VS is the theme of hospitality, a topos with ancient and venerable roots in western literary tradition and one that articulates critical cultural information about the rules of civilized social behavior. The theme is composed of several crucial components: for example, the contract of mutual 48 Introduction

respect and honor between guest and host; the sharing of food and drink in an atmosphere of conviviality and harmony; and the location of the feast, which functions as a place of sanctuary for the duration of the festivities. These ele­ ments signify the positive and civilized side of human relationships and are closely associated with comedy. The converse - the violation of the rules of hospitality and the guest/host relationship, the desecration of the place of sanctuary with bloody deeds unleashing chaos - has long served as the stuff of conflict and tragedy. According to the research of Calvert Watkins (cited in Lionarons 12), the “monstrous guest/host” aspect of the theme is in fact an extension of the ancient dragon-slayer myth, in which either the guest or the host may be identified as “dragonish.” Greek legend contains several famous examples of monstrous hosts: in the Odyssey the Cyclops Polyphemus eats several of his visitors; Tantalus, the progenitor of the line of Atreus, kills and cooks his son Pelops to serve the gods for dinner, a crime for which he is condemned to eternal torment; and Tantalus’s grandson Atreus repeats the atrocity by feeding his brother’s son to him at a false reconciliation banquet. In Germanic epic tradition “deadly banquets” at which guests and hosts slaughter each other play a critical role in Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied; and feasts with their attendant possibilities for good fellowship or aggression constitute an important literary convention in Old Norse poetry and prose. Closer to our own time, Shakespeare makes powerful use of dragonish hosts and guests in his tragedies: for example, the evil hosts Macbeth and Lady Macbeth murder their helpless guest King Duncan in his sleep; in King Lear the host Gloucester is hideously tortured and mutilated by his monstrous guests and then turned out of his own castle. In Norse mythology banquets are a recurrent feature of social interac­ tions between the gods and the giants, serving to underscore the problematic nature of host/guest relationships in a situation of ongoing hostility. A peace­ ful feast hosted by the gods at which the giant Ægir is a guest functions as a narrative frame for storytelling in the “Skáldskaparmál” section of Snorri’s Edda; however, in “Gylfaginning,” which employs a similar frame device, the human guest Gylfi is an unwelcome intruder, whose presence is tolerated only as long as he can ply his hosts with challenging questions. Open conflict breaks out at the banquet in the eddic poem “Lokasenna,” when Loki kills a servant of the giant host, is ejected from the feast, and then returns as an intruder to hurl insults at all the gods. Because of the rigid social hierarchy in this system with gods at the top of the social ladder and giants at the bottom, Introduction 49

uninvited guests, whether gods or giants, are generally regarded at best as unwelcome intruders in the territory of the other, and hospitality is offered warily and unwillingly. As Clunies Ross demonstrates in her study of Old Norse myths, social relations in this system are marked by inequality and pre­ dation with interactions between individual members of these hostile parties “based on stratagems like theft and duplicity rather than the open and public dealings one might expect between social groups” (The Myths 143). In VS feasts are held on the occasion of weddings, funerals, and the arrival of visitors, all situations with the clear potential for tension and strife unless comity prevails. And; indeed, examples of “deadly banquets” predomi­ nate with their emphasis on the dishonorable and perfidious behavior of a host who feels he has a score to settle. However, the saga does present us with several instances of feasting in the ideal sense. The wedding feast for Sigmund and Hjordis is one such instance (chap. 11). Here there is apparent equality between the parties, and Hjordis herself has chosen Sigmund over his rival. The wedding feast is preceded by the celebration surrounding Sig­ mund’s arrival in King Eylimi’s kingdom, which the latter arranges after he has been assured that the visitor has come on an errand of friendship (chap. 11): “Messages are exchanged between them confirming that they had come in friendship, not for war. The banquet was prepared with the very best fare and a large number of guests.” Harmony and good fellowship also prevail at the festivities that Heimir and his son arrange when Sigurd arrives after killing Fafnir (chap. 24). Initially a stranger whose intentions are unknown to his hosts, Sigurd is accorded due honor and hospitality and remains as an honored guest, universally admired by everyone. It is specifically mentioned that Sigurd and his hosts “got on well together and became loyal compan­ ions.” In stark contrast to these depictions of feasts which function to unite peo­ ple in a social contract based on reciprocal trust and respect are the anti-feasts or “deadly banquets” of VS which underscore lack of reciprocity, inequality, and enmity and lead to the dissolution of social order and death. Unlike the wedding festivities of Sigmund and Hjordis, those of Signy and King Siggeir (chap. 3-4) and of Gudrun and King Atli (chap. 34) prepare the ground for future strife between the marital kin groups because, as we have seen, both women are compelled to marry beneath their station. Treacherous violation of the host/guest relationship is the focus of the saga’s several “deadly ban­ quets,” at which the invited guests are slain by the host or hostess. The exam­ 50 Introduction

ples are King Siggeir’s invitation to a feast, at which King Volsung is slain and nine of his ten sons are eaten alive by a she-wolf (chap. 5); the funeral banquet for Queen Borghild’s brother, at which the queen takes revenge on Sinfjotli by serving him poisoned drink (chap. 10); King Atli’s invitation to Gunnar and Hogni, which results in the capture and deaths of the brothers (chap. 35-39); and the funeral banquet honoring her brothers and Atli’s fallen men, at which Gudrun serves Atli his sons’ hearts and blood, thereafter stab­ bing him to death and setting fire to the hall (chap. 40). Inasmuch as Gudrun and Atli plan the banquet jointly, this last example would appear to present a case of hostess killing host; however, because Gudrun actually prepares and serves the food to Atli, there is some argument for identifying her as hostess and Atli and his men as guests. This reading may be supported by the words Gudrun speaks to Atli in their altercation immediately following the death of her brothers, which imply that she has taken charge (chap. 40): “T ll accept these terms; let us arrange a great funeral banquet, and I will honor the mem­ ory ofm y brothers and your kinsmen as well.’” Violation of the bonds of hospitality reiterates the violation of the bonds of kinship alliances in the world of the saga, and the grim imperatives of honor and revenge exact their toll on human society. Reciprocity is blocked by envy and social inequality, as in the mythological system, turning hosts into monsters that prey upon their unsuspecting guests. Gudrun is certainly not exempt from this charge, for her behavior in killing and cooking her chil­ dren is truly monstrous. However, viewed from Gudrun’s perspective, Atli is the greater monster for his treatment of her brothers, and therefore she per­ forms the necessary slaying of the monster guest (see above, IV. A. Kinship Alliances). Once individual acts of treachery have eliminated all the possibili­ ties for honorable and civilized intercourse, the dark forces of the Norse apocalypse are unleashed as the saga comes to its remorseless and tragic con­ clusion. C. Death A third theme, ubiquitous in medieval Icelandic literature and inextrica­ bly linked to the two discussed above, is that of death. As with the two previ­ ous themes, the notion of performance is central to our consideration of the two aspects of the theme that involve display and hence public evaluation of honor-seeking behavior, namely killing and dying. Introduction 51

As cultural background in understanding how thirteenth-century Ice­ landers viewed killing, it is helpful to remember that medieval Iceland was a society in which blood revenge was sanctioned as one means of redressing a breach of individual and family honor and that Norse law distinguished between manslaughter and murder. A killing was called manslaughter (vfg) when a certain procedure was followed: the killer had to announce his deed publicly at one of three houses nearest the scene of the killing. As a way of settling scores and demonstrating social dominance, manslaughter occurs fre­ quently in the sagas and in many cases is not only accepted but even expected as the honorable course of action by the perpetrator’s side, especially if his support group is large and powerful. Monetary restitution might be paid in a manslaughter case, if the offended party were willing. If a killer failed to announce his deed publicly, the killing was judged to be a secret killing or murder (mord). The penalty for murder was outlawry, a dire form of punish­ ment in which the murderer was literally ejected from the social space pro­ tected by the law. Murder was dishonorable and invariably brought shame and disgrace to the murderer and his family. VS contains three instances in which a killing is labelled as murder. The first occurs when Sigi, the progenitor of the Volsung clan, kills the slave Bredi and hides his body in a snowdrift, claiming that he knows nothing of Bredi’s whereabouts (chap. 1). When the body is discovered, he stands con­ demned and, his power and family background notwithstanding, is outlawed and banished from his kingdom. A second murderer is Fafnir, whose transfor­ mation into a monster living in the wildemess is strong and unambiguous evi­ dence of the social stigma attached to the patricide he has committed (chap. 14). The question can be raised whether the text implies that the entire family of the Volsungs is similarly stigmatized because of Sigi’s shameful crime. Sigi murders Bredi because the latter has bested him, a king, at hunting, clearly a blow to his royal reputation and therefore his honor. Since Bredi is only a slave, he has the social status of property, and therefore killing him amounts to destroying Skadi’s property, which may be reckoned as serious but not of the same magnitude as killing one’s father. However, concealing the deed still carries the penalty of outlawry. Sigi is branded a “wolf,” and, as we have seen, several of his descendants are identified with wolves (see above, III. B. 3. Transformations). The contamination introduced into the family line because of this outlawry can be seen as the reason for Odin’s intervention in the direct lineage from Sigi to Volsung when he provides the 52 Introduction

magic apple that makes Rerir’s queen pregnant and creates the family anew. The eponymous hero of the saga is the offspring of this second creation. Mur­ der with its attendant shame and disgrace is invoked a third time in the text. In their bitter exchange following the deadly banquet Atli seeks to vilify Gudrun by denouncing her as a murderer when she reveals that she has killed their sons (chap. 40). That Gudrun herself understands all too well the cost to personal honor of her act of revenge is revealed by her subsequent attempt to kill herself. Whether the act of an individual or a group, other killings in VS qualify as publicly acknowledged. While these killings do not warrant the shame and social ostracism reserved for murder, they generally involve such dishonor­ able and socially destabilizing behavior as treachery against kinship ties or breach of guestdiost bonds. As the discussion of the two previous cultural themes revealed, the killings follow a recurrent pattem of moves. The initial move is motivated by one party’s envy or perceived inequality of status and loss of honor; the second move by the other party’s need for revenge and restitution of honor. This pattern is typical for the blood feuds of the Icelandic sagas, but instead of being directed outward towards non-kin groups as in other sagas, in VS the acts of aggression and revenge occur within the affinal kin groups, resulting in their total destruction. As long as the Volsungs are alive, they represent the heroic standard against which all others must mea­ sure themselves. For this reason they become the targets of the treacherous plots of their less heroic and honorable in-laws and become ensnared in the saga’s web of inexorable destruction. The strategy of the sneak attack against an unsuspecting victim, employed in Sigurd’s killing of Fafnir, Guttorm’s killing of Sigurd, and Gudrun’s killing of Atli, alerts the audience to other possible parallels between the death scenes of these three characters. The description of King Lyngvi’s attack against King Sigmund shows that another - open and honorable - model for conflict obtains between rival groups not related through marriage (chap. 11): “Intent on teaching the ambitious Vol­ sungs a lesson, they arrive in Hunland and send word to King Sigmund, for they do not want to take him by surprise and feel sure that he will not flee.” The introduction of this model serves to set the corrupt relationships among the saga’s three main families in sharp relief. Dying in the heroic world was a performative act crucial to the posthu­ mous reputation, and hence the honor, of the deceased. As Bauman expresses this idea: “In a society in which the exercise of violence was an ever present Introduction 53

prospect, the way in which a man confronted death was fraught with signifi­ cance - perhaps the ultimate significance - for his reputation” (144). A good heroic death scene should contain elements of drama which would make it both memorable and recountable: unflinching valor, fighting against over­ whelming odds, contempt for death, a death speech or some form of famous last words. Originating as they do in the venerable heroic tradition preserved in the poems of the Poetic Edda, the deaths of Volsung, Sigmund, Gunnar, and Hogni constitute the prototypes which set the standards for later depic­ tions of heroic deaths. Although the greatest of the Volsung heroes, Sigurd is denied an heroic last stand, for he has forgotten Brynhild and her words of wisdom - more specifically, her advice to beware of betrayal from friends and in-laws (chap. 22). Like the decidedly unheroic Atli, Sigurd is stabbed to death in bed, the unsuspecting victim of his deceitful brothers-in-law. However, his death scene is by no means devoid of dramatic and heroic touches. He slices his killer in two with his ebbing strength and delivers a stirring death speech, depicting the heroic performance he would have delivered had he been awake and on his feet (chap. 32): ‘“ If I had known about this in advance and been on my feet with my weapons, then many would have lost their lives before I fell. All the brothers would have been slain, and they would have found me more difficult to kill than the fiercest bison or wild boar.”’ Ironically Sigurd’s death is most similar to those of Fafnir, a monstrous dragon, and of Atli, a monster host. All three are unsuspecting victims, stabbed to death by an unlikely killer in vulnerable circumstances; in their death speeches all three attempt to justify their behavior and reputations; Fafnir and Atli engage in rancorous dialogues with their killers, while Sigurd ostensibly speaks words of comfort to his grieving wife. These similarities serve to communicate the idea of the interrelationship between hero and monster, the notion that the hero has been tainted by his confrontation with the monster and is now flawed (see above, III. B. 4. Mythological Lore and 6. Quests). His less than heroic death notwithstanding, Sigurd’s posthumous reputation as the quintessential Germanic hero is ensured by the number of eulogies spoken by the characters immediately following his demise, by Gudrun’s frequent out­ bursts of grief and lamentation, and by the narrator’s reference to the com­ mon opinion that Sigurd was unique and that his name would never be for­ gotten (chap. 34).

54 Introduction

In her words of caution to Sigurd (chap. 22), Brynhild advises him that open battle with one’s enemies is preferable to being bumed to death in one’s house. From the point of view of the staging of the death drama the prefer­ ence is completely understandable. Although catching your enemy unawares and setting fire to his house may be an efficient means to an end without risk­ ing significant injury to your own forces, it also suggests cravenness on the part of the killer, who dares not face his opponent in open battle, and humilia­ tion of the victim, who is denied the opportunity of a heroic last stand. This is the death allotted to the villainous King Siggeir, who has repeatedly tried and failed to kill all the Volsungs. When the end comes, he has disappeared silent­ ly into the interior of his hall, and the final words are Signy’s. No one grieves over his death. As we have seen, this scene foreshadows the much more elab­ orately staged death of King Atli, in which humiliation of the villain takes on mythic proportions (see above, Kinship Alliances). His degradation is made complete in the final dialogue between husband and wife; when Atli attempts to justify his own position and to accuse Gudrun of dishonorable behavior, she reviles him as a failure and a coward, destroying his chances for favor­ able recognition from posterity. His last words - a humble request for an hon­ orable burial - are the words of the totally defeated. Ignominious defeat and humiliation also characterize the death scene of Hamdir and Sorli, who, because they have slain their brother, fail in their attempt to avenge the death of their sister and are in tum stoned to death, a demeaning method of execu­ tion normally reserved in the Icelandic sagas for such outcasts as witches and wizards. The actions of the women in VS are dictated in no less measure than those of the men by the pressures of personal and collective honor, and there­ fore it is of interest to examine their death scenes. Here the paradigm is sui­ cide, a rare occurrence in medieval Icelandic literature, but common in Greek and Latin literary tradition as a way for a woman to die with honor. Both Signy and Brynhild choose to commit suicide because they have sacrificed their personal honor; Gudrun attempts to do the same, but fails. Although a heroic death by definition must be reserved for male heroes, Signy’s death scene nevertheless contains elements that may be termed hero­ ic. Signy shows no fear of death; taking full responsibility for her actions, she refuses to accept honor under false pretenses; her stirring and memorable death speech contains both a justification of her behavior (she has gone to extremes to restore the family honor) and the revelation that she has commit­ Introduction 55

ted incest with her brother and that Sinfjotli is their son; she chooses death as the honorable alternative to living with shame and retums to die in the blaz­ ing hall. Her suicide prefigures the death of Brynhild, which is much more elabo­ rately staged and, as Hallvard Magerøy has shown (75-136), bears striking similarities to Virgil’s account of the death of Dido, itself an extremely popu­ lar tale in medieval Europe, as is apparent from Marilynn Desmond’s study Reading Dido. Following the killing of Sigurd, a condition she had set for continuing her marriage to Gunnar, Brynhild reveals that Sigurd had never broken faith with Gunnar when he wooed her in Gunnar’s guise. Instead she accuses Gunnar and Hogni of being the oath-breakers. Her own course of action is clear, for she has repeatedly swom oaths to marry Sigurd (variously described as the man who rode through her wall of fire, the noblest man ever bom, or the son of King Sigmund). Rather than join the ranks of the dishon­ ored oath-breakers she complies with the second half of the condition of her oath, as formulated in chapter 31, and dies: “ ‘I swore an oath to marry the man who could ride through my wall of flames. I meant to keep that oath or die.’” In complete command of her performance, Brynhild stabs herself with a sword, distributes her wealth to the onlookers, and delivers a lengthy death speech in which she foretells the fates of Gunnar, Hogni, and Gudrun. Her final instructions concern the staging of her and Sigurd’s funeral: in a simula­ tion of their wedding night inside the wall of flames, they are to lie next to each other on the funeral pyre with a drawn sword between them and there be cremated along with an entire entourage, in what Brynhild envisions as a grand entrance into the land of the dead. Because of its dramatic staging and allusions to the classical paradigm of Dido’s death (love for a man who has abandoned her, the shame of having broken an oath, death by sword, and cre­ mation on a funeral pyre), Brynhild’s death scene is highly memorable; her resolute adherence to the terms of her oath distances her from the oath-break­ ing Gjukungs and distinguishes her life with an honorable conclusion.

56 Introduction

V. Character Portrayal It remains to consider how the author of VS portrays his characters, a topic of particular importance because medieval narrative communicates information about broader social issues through the medium of the protago­ nists, their actions and relationships. In the words of Preben Meulengracht Sørensen (142), “the hero is the bearer of social problems and conflicts,” a statement which should be understood to apply to the female characters as well. Therefore, in addition to the structure of the saga and its cultural the­ matic content, we must also examine character depiction if we wish to under­ stand fully the text’s commentary on the nature of honor and heroism in times past. Because the roots of their development lie in the oral tradition, charac­ ters in the sagas tend to be stock types culled from the repertory of Nordic myth and legend, cast in such standard dramatic roles as hero, villain, helper, tester, heroine, etc. Thus, for example, Lönnroth proposes a list of roles and character types for Njáls saga that can be readily applied to the cast of any mythical-heroic saga (61-68). Although in common scholarly opinion charac­ ters in the mythical-heroic sagas are predictable and lacking in interest, VS contains at least some of the most memorable character portraits in all of saga tradition, portraits that can be considered archetypal from the perspective of character typecasting, e.g., the original Sigurd of the “Sigurd/Siegfried type” or the Brynhild from which the “Brynhild type” derives (L5nnroth 65-66). The following discussion examines these portraits with a focus on three stan­ dard narrative techniques typical of character depiction in VS and elsewhere: (1) narrative description of the character’s physical appearance and tempera­ ment; (2) portrayal of the character through his or her actions and interactions with other figures in the story; (3) use of dialogue. In VS, as in other mythical-heroic sagas, the description of a character’s physical appearance and temperament nearly always accompanies his or her introduction into the story. Typically brief and formulaic in nature, the description typecasts the character at the onset, and any subsequent details merely confirm the status quo. For the male characters such attributes as lin­ eage, physical stature, strength, and political power are emphasized. High social status is a given: all the major characters are of royal rank. Often the text compares or contrasts two characters or mentions some other mark of special distinction. Thus, both Sigi and Skadi are wealthy and powerful, “but Sigi was the more nobly born of the two because, according to the recollec­ 1ntroduction 51

tion of his contemporaries, he was descended from the gods and said to be the son of Odin” (chap. 1). The saga’s eponymous hero Volsung is unusual because he is already six years old at his birth (chap. 2). This is clearly an omen of his future greatness, for “[h]e became big and strong at an early age and was daring in all things that required manliness and courage. He grows to be a great warrior and is victorious in the battles he fought while on raids.” The twins Sigmund and Signy are described simply as “in every way the best looking and most accomplished of King Volsung’s children” (chap. 2). In the comparison between King Gjuki and King Budli (chap. 26), the latter is said to be the more powerful, but the former’s children Gunnar, Hogni, Guttorm, and Gudrun “surpassed other young royalty in beauty, stature, and all accom­ plishments. The sons were frequently away on war expeditions, where they performed many mighty deeds.” King Budli’s son Atli, on the other hand, is portrayed as “a fierce man who was big and swarthy, yet stately; he was a famous warrior” (chap. 26). Here the mention of his fierceness and swarthi­ ness functions as a clue to his future role as a villain. Sigurd’s two brothers Sinfjotli and Helgi possess attributes that are associated with the Volsung clan. The former is big, strong, and handsome, and the latter is characterized as noble-minded and popular. The qualities valued in women are those that make them desirable as brides - beauty, wisdom, and artistic skills. Hjordis is a typical example (chap. 11), “the fairest and wisest of all women.” The narrator stresses Brynhild’s skill in embroidery (chap. 25), and her beauty is noted by Sigurd and Gunnar. Her chief mark of distinction, however, is her wisdom, and for this reason Sigurd vows to marry her (chap. 22): “‘No one is wiser than you [...] I swear that I will marry you. You’re a perfect match.’” Svanhild receives a rather more elaborate description than the other female characters, but here, too, her beauty is featured (chap. 41): “She was a woman of matchless beauty and, like her father, had such piercing eyes that few dared to meet her gaze. In beauty she surpassed other women as the sun surpasses other heavenly bodies.” Only Sigurd is described in greater detail, as we might expect, since he is the most illustrious of the Volsungs and the saga’s major hero. The brief introductory description at his birth highlights his piercing glance and great strength; the initial impression is augmented later by a full-length, formal portrait positioned immediately after his slaying of Fafnir and first encounter with Brynhild (chap. 23). First mentioned are Sigurd’s clothing and weapons: 58 Introduction

he is dressed in knightly attire with the dragon insignia emblazoned on all his weapons. Next come the details of his physical appearance: his handsome looks, characteristic piercing glance, and remarkable height and strength are all enumerated (Sigurd’s sword is over five feet long). Finally, we learn that he excels in every kind of sport, that he is extremely wise and able to see into the future, and that he is eloquent in speaking and arguing his point. The por­ trait depicts Sigurd as a knight, an anachronism that suggests a character in transition from the distant and dimly perceived prehistorical world of myth and heroic legend with its infusions of the supernatural and harsh world view to a society based on courtly ideals more familiar to a thirteenth-century audi­ ence (Pálsson and Edwards 16-17). Indeed, Sigurd is on his way to visit Heimir, where the men hunt with hawks and the women embroider tapestries, a description that at least implies a courtly setting. To supplement his sketchy and conventional character descriptions the saga author shows the characters in action. The male protagonists in VS pur­ sue activities similar in type, though exaggerated in form, to those of male characters in other Icelandic sagas with their pervasive social theme of feud and conflict. Through their deeds and interactions the audience comes to know these actors and to evaluate their behavior as honorable, dishonorable, heroic, or cowardly. In battle heroes commonly win, only losing under extraordinary circumstances (Sigmund); if they fail to prevail against their enemies, they die heroically (Gunnar and Hogni); they can withstand extreme tests of valor (Sinfjotli); and they woo brides to establish alliances and secure their power (Siggeir, Sigmund, Sigurd, Gunnar, Atli). Here again the use of comparison and contrast provides the tools for the audience to assess how well the individual meets the necessary standard of performance. For exam­ ple, Sinfjotli, the son of Sigmund, successfully withstands the extraordinary tests of courage and fortitude that his half-brothers - King Siggeir’s sons fail; according to Gudrun, Sigurd never lost a single battle, whereas Atli never claimed a single victory. Even though the narrative clearly portrays a society already beset with decay and corruption, this comparative technique allows the saga author to demonstrate that the Volsungs are nevertheless superior to all their contemporaries in the qualities of integrity and heroism. The case of Sigurd deserves special comment. We observe Sigurd from childhood developing into a hero of exceptional qualities in every respect. Unlike his Volsung forebears, Sigurd receives an extensive education. His childhood mentors are his foster father Regin the smith, who teaches him Introduction 59

skills in sports, games, runes, and languages and later forges his sword Gram, and Odin, who helps him choose a horse, assists in his first war expedition of retribution against King Lyngvi and his brothers, and advises him in how best to kill the dragon. His uncle Gripir tells Sigurd what his future holds. Once he has slain the dragon, Sigurd acquires further knowledge crucial to a hero of his caliber from the dying Fafnir and from Brynhild, who instructs him exten­ sively in runic lore and gives him practical advice. Not all of Sigurd's wis­ dom is acquired by way of traditional mentoring, for by tasting the dragon’s blood he comes to understand the language of birds, learning among other things that Regin is plotting to kill him and seize the gold. Without neglecting the traditional heroic attributes of strength and courage, in the saga’s portray­ al of Sigurd acquisition of knowledge is given priority over prowess in fighting battles. Learning and remembering is a theme of such significance that, as Lionarons has pointed out, “Sigurðr’s successes come as he gains knowledge; his death and the deaths of the Gjukungar come as a result of his loss of knowledge through Grimhildr’s potion” (53). Sigurd’s education pre­ pares him to slay the dragon of evil and chaos, ensuring his universal and perpetual fame; yet this signal victory carries with it the germ of his own tragic downfall because, in eating Fafnir’s heart, Sigurd incorporates the essence of the monster into his own being. Henceforth he assumes a new identity - Sigurd the slayer of Fafnir. Equipped with the wisdom he has acquired from Brynhild, with his new status as foremost among all the great legendary heroes, and with his arms bearing the insignia of the dragon, Sig­ urd the knight leaves behind him the old world of the mythic, prehistorical past with its dragons and gods and rides forth into a society with at least a courtly veneer. However, this new order proves to be as corrupt as the old, for here he encounters and leams deception from the Gjukungs and undergoes another transformation, becoming a Gjukung by adoption and marrying Gudrun, while forgetting Brynhild and all his previously acquired knowledge. This metamorphosis is graphically depicted in his exchange of shapes with Gunnar, the moment when he betrays Brynhild and breaks his oaths to her by wooing her for another man (Lionarons 57-58). At this point his actions visa-vis Brynhild may bejudged as “dragonish” rather than honorable. Yet, iron­ ically, he falls because of the (false) accusation that he has broken faith with his Gjukung brother-in-law, the one person he did not betray. Despite the fact that his deception of Brynhild is unintentional (because the magic drink made him forget her), Sigurd’s integrity as a hero is blemished. His unheroic death 60 Introduction

with its allusions to the deaths of Fafnir and Atli serves as the fmal evidence for his loss of honor. The sphere of activity for the women in VS, as in other Icelandic sagas, is typically limited to their roles within the family, either as daughters and sisters or as wives and mothers. We see them as marriageable daughters, either choosing their husbands (Sigrun, Hjordis) or marrying unwillingly (Signy, Brynhild, Gudrun); as mothers giving birth to exceptional children (Volsung’s mother, Signy, Hjordis), avenging their children (Gudrun), or sac­ rificing their children (Signy, Gudrun); and as wives, whose loyalty remains with their natal family (Signy, Gudrun) or is transferred to their marital fami­ ly (Grimhild). We also see them engaged in ordinary domestic activities, such as weaving (Brynhild, Gudrun) or acting as hostess at banquets (Borghild, Grimhild, Gudrun). In accordance with the style of the saga the women are larger than life and their actions often not so very ordinary: for example, Vol­ sung’s mother gives birth to a six-year-old son; Gudrun’s dinner menu includes the hearts of her own children. VS also contains three instances of women acting as warriors, a role completely outside the range of a woman’s normal domestic sphere: Sigrun, who helps Helgi win his battle against King Hodbrodd (chap. 9); Brynhild, who makes her entrance clad in armor and who, according to her own testimony, prefers war to marriage (chap. 21); and Gudrun, who takes up arms to help her brothers in their fight against King Atli (chap. 38). For the women the issue of maintaining honor and integrity in the face of the impossible albeit necessary choices demanded by the saga’s power struggles is just as essential as for the male protagonists. For help in gauging the degree to which a woman’s actions constitute honorable behav­ ior, the audience relies on internal comments by the narrator, by the woman in question (Signy, Brynhild) or by other characters (for example, Brynhild decries Grimhild’s perfidy; Gudrun’s children condemn their mother as she prepares to kill them). Given the woman’s crucial role as link between two family systems, the question of how the woman’s quest for honor affects the dynamics of the conflicts in the narrative can best be illustrated by examining the portraits of the saga’s three strong-willed women, Signy, Gudrun, and Brynhild. As the previous discussion has revealed, the saga places a high value on the ideal of loyalty and fulfillment of obligations to one’s allies, but through­ out the course of the story this ideal proves unattainable in one power strug­ gle after another, in which individuals are forced to choose between loyalty to Introduction 61

spouse or to cognatic family. Caught in a trap of conflicting loyalties because their husbands have killed their blood kin, Signy and Gudrun come down firmly in support of their natal families, each embarking on a determined course of vengeance against her husband that involves acts violating funda­ mental social taboos. For each of these women the intensity of the moral con­ flict is mitigated by the fact that they do not love their husbands, whom they were reluctant to marry in the first place. Gudrun’s case is most extreme and highlights the social dilemma in which women fmd themselves. Although her brothers have slain her first husband, whom she loved, she nevertheless remains loyal to them in their conflict with her second husband. This loyalty is hard-won, made possible only after Grimhild’s magic potion brings about the necessary reconciliation. The result is that Signy and Gudrun sacrifice personal honor and the honor of their marital families to restore the honor of their blood kin. While this sacrifice is essential to maintaining the integrity of the privileged unit, at the same time the women may be viewed as victims of the system’s stern imperative, for they judge themselves degraded to the point of death. The extraordinary and momentous nature of the woman’s sacrifice of personal honor in pursuit of family honor is represented in the saga by the transformation each heroine undergoes. Like Sigurd, Signy is transformed irreversibly on a spiritual level when she changes shape with the witch in order to commit incest with her brother. This process and its consequences for Signy - which apply equally well to Gudrun - are here summarized by Lionarons: “She quite literally becomes another woman, neither Siggeirr’s wife nor Sigmundr’s sister, in order to avenge [her blood relatives’] deaths; although her vengeance is successful, her transformation tragically recreates her as a woman whose actions leave her no place in human society and no choice but to die with her husband in the course of her revenge” (57). Gudrun becomes transformed upon her marriage to Sigurd, when she eats part of the dragon’s heart (chap. 28): “Sigurd gave Gudrun some of Fafnir’s heart to eat, and she became much fiercer and wiser than before.” Gudrun’s metamorpho­ sis is similar to Sigurd’s transformation into the victorious slayer of Fafnir; they have both internalized the essence of the monstrous “other,” which con­ tains beneficent as well as maleficent properties, for it grants its host the gift of wisdom and foresight. When Sigurd loses his memory and knowledge through Grimhild’s potion, his career begins its descent into betrayal and death, and the same can be said of Gudrun. At this point, however, Sigurd’s greatest performance lies behind him, while Gudrun’s is yet to come. From 62 Introduction

the moment of her marriage to Atli revenge becomes, in the words of Jenny Jochens (136), “the operating principle in Gudrun’s life” and determines her role for the duration of the story. In staging the terrible vengeance against her husband, the dragon heart provides her with the ferocity required to cast aside her identity as wife and mother and carry out her abominable deeds. Dialogue and narration interact to intensify the drama of the revenge scene, revealing the escalation of hatred and tension between husband and wife until the cli­ mactic moment when Atli is stabbed and his hall burnt to the ground. Brynhild’s pursuit of honor is at the same time similar to and different from that of Signy and Gudrun. Similar to theirs in that marriage to a man who is her inferior diminishes her personal honor, but different because Brynhild does not face a conflict of loyalties between marital and natal bonds. Although saga provides her with a family - she is the daughter of King Budli, sister of Atli and Bekkhild, and foster daughter of Heimir - she remains aloof, unintegrated with her family, a warrior woman asleep on a mountain, living in a tower or behind a wall of flames. Brynhild’s primary allegiance is to her own personal integrity expressed in the oath she has sworn: to marry no one but the greatest hero (understood as Sigurd). This oath, frequently repeated or referred to in the context of the numerous dialogues between Brynhild and others, defines Brynhild’s character and represents the very essence of her nature, for it provides a link between her somewhat mysteri­ ous, supernatural past and her human present. Initially she swears the oath in an attempt to soften the harsh punishment that Odin has allotted her (chap. 21): “‘[Odin] said that I would never again win victory in battle, but that I must marry instead. In return, I vowed to wed only a man who knew no fear.’” That Odin is a witness to her pledge intensifies its solemnity and sig­ nificance. ln the development of the central conflict, the saga author com­ ments negatively on the tarnished quality of honor and heroism in this society by using Brynhild’s adherence to her oath as a standard against which the behavior of other characters is measured and found wanting. For example, Sigurd swears twice to marry Brynhild (chap. 22 and 25), a pledge he breaks; Gunnar and Hogni swear a pact of blood brotherhood with Sigurd “with oaths as binding as if they were brothers born of the same parents” (chap. 28) but later plot to kill him. Sigurd himself does not break faith with Gunnar when he woos Brynhild, although Brynhild claims he does. Brynhild’s unswerving commitment to the terms of her pledge places her husband Gunnar in a posi­ tion of conflict between loyalty to spouse or to sister and blood brother. Introduction 63

Unlike Signy and Gudrun who are resolute and determined in their stipport of family honor, Gunnar is depicted as torn and vacillating (chap. 32). To his discredit, he chooses to believe that Sigurd has betrayed him and does his wife’s bidding, thereby suffering a devastating loss of personal honor (Brynhild brands him an oath-breaker) without any gain in honor from the marriage alliance (Brynhild leaves him by committing suicide). Thus, Brynhild’s sui­ cide can be read, not as the desperate act of an abandoned romantic heroine, but as the dignified exit of a woman of strength and integrity, who pursues * the only honorable course of action as required by the conditions of her oath. Direct discourse is the third, and most obviously dramatic, technique used by the saga author to develop character portraits. In contrast to narra­ tion, it allows the audience to experience the characters as performers engag­ ing in direct verbal interaction with one another and playing out their various roles. Owing in large part to their sources in eddic dialogic poetry, many of the speeches in VS can be classified as pure or modified traditional generic forms of discourse in Germanic literature, for example, the complex dialogue between the victorious Sigurd and the dying Fafnir, which Lionarons ana­ lyzes as a mixture of verbal combat or flyting, death speech, and wisdom contest (64-70). A brief survey of traditional discourse genres found in the saga includes the flyting, both boasting and insulting (Sinfjotli and Granmar in chap. 9, Fafnir and Sigurd in chap. 18, Brynhild and Gudrun in chap. 30); the wisdom contest or wisdom catalogue (Fafnir and Sigurd in chap. 18, Brynhild and Sigurd in chap. 21 and 22); the death speech (numerous exam­ ples); the goading speech (Regin in chap. 13, Gudrun in chap. 43); the elegy or lament (Gudrun in chap. 43); and prophecy (numerous examples). Dialogue is a particularly useful tool in character portrayal because it supplies critical information on the conversation partners’ communicative and social skills, providing psychological insight into their interactions and allowing the audience to understand their motivations. Our experience getting to know literary characters can from an analyst’s perspective be viewed as similar to our experience with real people, since we “have no direct access to a speaker’s intended meaning; we can only interpret what happens and specu­ late about underlying assumptions and intentions” and have to rely on gain­ ing “insight by observing [the characters], interpreting their verbal and non­ verbal action in context, studying the reaction of others to them” (Bonner and Grimstad 7). A literary dialogue gives the illusion of a real dialogue and thus, just as in contemporary spoken discourse, activates a selection of the full 64 Introduction

range of roles a character might play or of communication strategies a char­ acter might employ. To look at one example, the long dialogue between Brynhild and Sigurd that takes place after Brynhild has discovered Sigurd’s deception (chap. 31) reveals a great deal about how the characters view their tragic dilemma and about how they negotiate their positions. Sent by Gudrun, Gunnar, and Hogni as mitigator to break Brynhild’s ominous silence, Sigurd initiates the interac­ tion by entering her chamber, which she immediately sees as invading her space. In Brynhild’s eyes his roles are those of her former betrothed (first husband, as she puts it), present husband of Gudrun, and most illustrious of all heroes. He comes to mollify Brynhild and convince her that her present status is quite acceptable, to which end his initial strategy (in essence: all is well, you chose your husband, he’s as noble as I am) is adopted. But his attempt to blame the victim for fabricating problems where none exist infuri­ ates Brynhild, who reacts as the abandoned and deceived betrothed of Sigurd, present wife of Gunnar, and a woman who considers herself dishonored by the actions of all those around her. Brynhild’s counter strategy is to denounce Sigurd by reproaching him for his participation in the treachery against her and asserting her unwillingness to be mollified and accept the status quo. Against his facile assurances that they can all live happily together, she coun­ ters that she has no desire to live at all. Only when Brynhild claims that her presence has become a source of aggravation to him, does Sigurd back down and acknowledge his feelings of love and grief, while at the same time main­ taining that his betrayal was unintentional. His various solutions at this point - to take Brynhild as a mistress or to leave Gudrun and marry Brynhild - are all firmly rejected by Brynhild as further examples of dishonorable behavior, and she remains resolved to die. In assessing this interaction we observe that Brynhild successfully maintains her position of strength and control of the dialogue, while Sigurd’s position is weakened. He fails in his initial strategy and then is forced to acknowledge his real feelings, resorting to hastily improvised solutions which only serve to diminish further his own honor and make valid Brynhild’s claims. When he leaves her chambers, he has not only failed as a mitigator but has lost the game. It is by witnessing Brynhild’s mas­ terful performances in dialogues such as this one, along with other indica­ tions of her power, that we come to know her as one of the classic strongwilled women of saga literature.

Introduction 65

VI. Final Remarks The literary analysis of VS presented in this introduction is the result of many years of reading and discussing the saga with students. While I feel that all the topics addressed are central to understanding the story, my selection nevertheless reflects a personal choice and by no means exhausts the interpre­ tive possibilities contained in this rich and rewarding tale. Not included in my discussion - or only briefly mentioned - are three issues of importance that in my view have been adequately covered in the introductions of earlier transla­ tors: the relationship between VS and its poetic sources; discussion of the his­ torical figures and events from the Germanic migration period that gave rise to many of the legends on which the saga is based; and Richard Wagner’s use of the Volsung legends, specifically the saga version, in his cycle of music dramas. In reflecting on the saga, several of its features stand out in my mind. First of all, the theatrical elements in its composition: the dramatic curve of the plot with its apocalyptic denouement; its many well-written speeches and dialogues; the extraordinary performances of its characters, in particular their death scenes. Its theatricality must have immediately caught the imagination of a consummate dramatist like Richard Wagner. Secondly, the triumvirate of remarkable heroines, prototypes of the famous strong-willed saga women, whose dedication to their causes brooks no resistance and whose portraits overshadow those of their male counterparts both in richness and complexity. Through these women and their interactions with the male protagonists, the saga author paints his troubling picture of a doomed society, in which men and women of character and integrity fall victim to the intrigues and conflicts caused by the harsh demands of personal and family honor and prestige. And, thirdly, there is the overarching thematic frame of reference linking the saga to the mythological society of gods and giants, on the one hand, and the ethi­ cal world of thirteenth-century Iceland, on the other. Central to the saga’s eth­ ical theme is the grave significance of oath-taking. An oath, once sworn, may only be broken at great peril to both parties involved and to the social fabric in general. VS presents case after case where breach of oath, whether inten­ tional or not, brings the deaths of individual characters in its wake and ulti­ mately causes the downfall of the entire heroic society.

66 Introduction

Critical to every society is the need to recreate its past in the form of stories, a need served for medieval Icelanders by their extensive body of native literature. VS provides a prime example ofhistory fashioned as a story, whose genealogical connections link the Icelanders’ peripheral position to continental Europe. Thus one motivation for - and appeal of - VS can be found in its capacity to overcome possible feelings of remoteness or inconse­ quence, for it establishes the forebears of Icelanders as major players in world history. Although the popular legendary history of the Volsungs would have been known to a thirteenth-century audience in many forms, both oral and written, a modem audience has access only to written versions. VS presents the story of the Volsungs, Gjukungs, and Budlungs in its most sustained and effective narrative form. In reading the long prose saga we come to know the characters and to engage with them on an emotional level not feasible through the medium of short episodic poems. Inspired by the stories in the eddic poems, the saga author set out to render poetry into prose and in so doing succeeded in preserving for us the most complete and memorable version of the tale. For that we owe him a profound debt of gratitude.

Introduction 67

The Edition

The text of VQlsunga saga presented in this edition is preserved in a sin­ gle vellum manuscript Ny kgl. saml. 1824 b, 4°, which is kept in the Royal Library in Copenhagen. Dated to ca. 1400, the manuscript consists of 80 leaves and contains VQlsunga saga (l-51r), Ragnars saga loðbrókar (51r79r), and a fragment of the poem “Krákumál” (79r-80v). With the exception of fol. 50v-51 and a short passage on fol. 19r the entire manuscript is written in one hand by an Icelandic scribe (MO xii, lxiii-lxix, lxxvi-lxxviii). The vellum manuscript is generally undamaged and legible except for the first page and some passages on fol. 8v. To supplement the main manuscript in the case of these illegible passages I have chosen AM 6, 2°, one of 21 paper manuscripts containing the saga from the seventeenth century or later, all of which are judged to derive directly or indirectly from the vellum (MO vii-x). AM 6, 2° is from the seventeenth century and is kept in the collection of the Arnamagnaean Institute in Copenhagen. Due to the poor condition of the first page of the vellum manuscript, we do not know the original title of the work or even whether there was a title. The title given in the paper manuscript is Saga af Ragnar Loöbrók ok mQrgum konungum merkelegum, indicating that at least in the context of later reception the story of the Volsungs was regarded as a prehistory to the saga of King Ragnar and his heroic sons. However, we do have an independent reference to a saga entitled VQlsunga saga in a collection of mythical-heroic sagas in the inventory of the Möðruvalla monastery from 1461-1510 {Diplomatarium Islandicum V 290). Although we have no way of knowing whether this is the same saga as the one in the vellum, scholars have connected the two, and therefore the present edition bears the title traditionally associated with this work. Of the previous editions of VQlsunga saga, Magnus Olsen’s diplomatic edition from 1908 has served as my inspiration and my guide. In all cases where the manuscript is illegible today I have relied on his readings, except where I have substituted readings from AM 6, 2°. I have also followed his orthographic normalizations in expanding abbreviations; however, in the pre­ sent edition all expansions are marked by means of italics or parentheses (see below). In accordance with recent editorial practice, the only corrections made in the text are those clearly indicated by the scribe. Comments on textu-

68 Introduction

al problems are contained in the apparatus. A thorough and detailed discus­ sion of the paleography, orthography, and syntax of Ny kgl. saml. 1824 b, 4° is provided in the introduction to Magnus Olsen’s edition, to which the reader is referred. Other editions consulted are R. G. Finch’s 1965 bilingual edition in nor­ malized orthography and Ömólfur Thorsson’s 1985 edition in modern Ice­ landic orthography. There are occasional references to these editions in the footnotes. The only other important edition prior to Magnus Olsen’s is that of Sophus Bugge from 1865. In the present edition the text of the manuscript is reproduced as exactly as possible. Abbreviations are expanded in accordance with the normal spelling of the scribe as ascertained by Magnus Olsen’s analysis of the manuscript’s orthography (MO xlvii-lxi). Expansion of unambiguous abbre­ viations is marked in italics. Expansion of ambiguous abbreviations is marked in parentheses; this is limited to the use of present or past tense of the verba dicendi (kveda, mœla, segja, spyrja, svara) and indicates an editorial decision in the matter of verb tense. Words or letters now illegible are printed in square brackets, according to the reading of either Magnus Olsen or AM 6 , 2°. Manuscript page numbers are noted in bold type in square brackets. The editorial marks v ' indicate that the letter or word is written above the line, that the letter or word is written below the line, and > < that the words are written in the margin. The only mark of punctuation used in the manuscript is the full stop, and all full stops not following an abbreviation by suspension are retained in the edition, including full stops associated with Roman numer­ als. Chapter division in the manuscript is indicated by oversized red initials and by red chapter headings, described in Magnus Olsen’s introduction (iiiv); paragraph division is indicated by capitals written in the margin. In the edition chapter headings have been taken out of the manuscript line and set off from the rest of the text. Where they are illegible now but were read by previous editors, they appear in square brackets; where illegible even to earli­ er editors, they are noted simply as chapter and number in square brackets. Upper and lower case letters and small capitals appear as in the manuscript. Poetic stanzas are left imbedded in the manuscript line and supplied with numbers in square brackets and marked with quotation marks in order to set them off from the surrounding prose.

Introduction 69

The Translation

The present translation of VQlsunga saga into English is the sixth to appear since 1870 when Eirikur Magnusson and William Morris fLrst pub­ lished their version of the saga. Of the remaining four, R. G. Finch’s transla­ tion (1965), like the present one, includes an Old Norse text on facing pages, while those of Margaret Schlauch (1930), George K. Anderson (1982), and Jesse L. Byock (1990) offer an English text only. The translation presented here renders into English the Icelandic text in the vellum manuscript Ny kgl. saml. 1824 b, 4°. The poetic stanzas were translated by my late Icelandic colleague Haukur Böðvarsson, and because I feel that his translations capture both the meaning and the style of the original poetry with its characteristic use of alliteration, I have left them largely intact, making minimal changes only where they diverged too much from the Old Norse text. The audience for whom this translation is intended includes stu­ dents of Old Norse and medieval Icelandic literature and culture, students and others who are interested in the Middle Ages in general but who do not read Old Norse, and scholars who want a diplomatic edition of the text with an accompanying new translation. The following comments are meant to help the reader in understanding my approach to the translation. Because of the bilingual format with Old Norse and English texts on facing pages, I have attempted to follow the Old Norse syntax and style as closely as possible wherever this would not result in awkward English style. However, when that proved problematic, I have opted for a more colloquial English. This applies, for example, to the typical paratactic style of the Old Norse text, in which the utterances are connected with strings of the coordinating conjunctions ok ‘and’ and enn ‘ancEbut,’ which I have generally modified to a more familiar English written style that uses subordinate clause construction. On the other hand, one of the possible markers of oral style, the repeated initial use of nú ‘now,’ I have with few exceptions kept in the translation, only varying the position slightly to avoid monotony. Another feature of oral narrative and common in Icelandic saga texts is what many consider to be unmotivated tense switching. Whereas all the previous translators of the saga except MagnússonÆVtorris standardized the narrative tense into the past, I have chosen to preserve the tense variations of the original wherever feasible, and therefore the reader will find that a con70 Introduction

siderable amount of the narration occurs in the present. My decision in this case was motivated by the conviction that shifting tenses between present and past is an equally familiar phenomenon in oral narration in English and that this particular feature of a text from medieval Iceland should be preserved in the translation. The difference in paragraph division between Old Norse and contempo­ rary English poses one obvious problem in the presentation of parallel texts. Because English style both requires more paragraphs and sometimes follows a different logic concerning the contents of a paragraph than the Old Norse text, in some dozen instances the coordination of the beginnings of para­ graphs in the two texts was not possible. In these cases the English text corre­ sponding to the beginning of the Old Norse paragraph is found either just before or after the paragraph break. In general, the Old Norse text contains very few examples of phrases that appear incomprehensible to a modern reader. However, two cases come to mind: the first is the invidious comparison of Hodbrodd to a krákaungi ‘fledgling crow’ in chapter 9, for which I chose “old buzzard” as an equiva­ lent insult in English; the second occurs in chapter 33, when Brynhild uses the phrase eigi fellr honum þá hurd á hœla in describing her and Sigurd’s joint funeral procession, which I translated literally as “no door will fall shut on his heels,” leaving the exact interpretation of that remark up to the reader. Occasionally I have used an explanatory phrase to translate a word. An exam­ ple of this is in chapter 8, where the word forstofa is used twice to describe Sigmund’s and Sinfjotli’s hiding place. This is really an entrance hall, but in the first instance the text informs us that the room was in front of the hall, and so I have described it as a small room, while in the second instance I have called it an entrance hall. The spelling of proper names has largely been anglicized according to normal practice of omitting consonantal inflectional endings in the nomina­ tive case and replacing non-English letters with their closest equivalents. Place names have been partially anglicized, using familiar equivalents in English such as “dale,” “stead,” “fjord,” “ness,” etc., wherever possible. Where chapter headings are currently illegible in the original, I have either translated the headings as read by Sophus Bugge and Magnus Olsen or, in those cases where even they could no longer read them, supplied my own. Both types of chapter titles are enclosed in square brackets. In those instances where the manuscript text appears to be corrupt, the translation follows Introduction 71

Olsen’s emendations in the footnotes to the edition. To aid the modem reader in understanding the text, I have provided occasional cultural footnotes. Inasmuch as translation of a work can be regarded as a cumulative and continuous process, any new version necessarily builds on those that have preceeded it. Among the earlier translations of VQlsunga saga, I have benefitted in particular from consulting the solutions of Finch and Byock to various problems presented by the original text without, I hope, sacrificing my own authenticity.

72 Introduction

Introduction 73

74 Genealogy Chart

Genealogy Chart 15

Vglsunga Saga I. Capitulum' Hie; hefuj upp ok feig er fiå þeim manne e; Sigi ej nefnð:. Annar madur et nefnnöur til søgunrcar er Skade heiter hann var rijkur ok mykill fyrer sier enn þo var Sigi þe/rra enn ættstærre >þvi haN var komiN fra godonum ok kallaþur fon Odins nu £tlan sina. ok siGeirs konungf at hann hefir ditgit samann v vigian her ok £tlar at suikia ydr. Nu bid ek yð* stgir hun at þer farit þtgar aptr j yðart Riki. ok fait yði lið sem meft ok førit higat siðan ok hefnið yðar sialfír ok gangit tigi j v feru. þviat tigi miffe þer svika af honum ef tigi take þer þetta. b*agð. sem ek beidi ydr. Þa mglUi. volsungr konungr. þat munv allar þiod/r at oedvm g/ora at ek m$llta eitt o*ð vboúnn ok ftrengða ek þes heit. at ek íkyllda hvarke flygia elld ne iarn fyrir hr$zlv sakir ok sva hefe ek en gioU her t/7 ok hvi munða. ek tigi efna þat a gamalf allðr/ ok tigi fkulo meygiar þvi bz^gða fonum min um i leikum at þeir hr^ðizt bana sinn þviat eitt sinn fkal hverr deyia. enn maa engi vndan komazt at deyia vm sinn er þat mitt Rað at ver flygium hvergi. ok giorvm af vo*re hendi sem hreyftilighazt.

33 [fall ... konungs] Bugge 90; MO 9 unable to read more than Fall Volsungs.

86 Vylsunga Saga

King Siggeir now makes ready for his voyage home. Before he and his companions departed, he invited his father-in-law King Volsung and all his sons to come to Gautland in three months, along with a retenue of a size befitting his rank. In this way King Siggeir wants to make amends for having cut short the customary celebration by refusing to stay longer than one night. King Volsung promises to visit and to arrive on the appointed day; then the in-laws part, and King Siggeir travels home with his wife.

5. [The Death of King Volsung] Now the story goes that on the appointed day King Volsung and his sons set out for Gautland at the invitation of their kinsman-in-law King Siggeir. They sail off in three well-manned ships, and after a pleasant voyage they reach Gautland late one evening. That same evening Signy, the daughter of King Volsung, came to their ships and asks to speak privately with her father and brothers. She tells them that she suspects a plot on the part of King Siggeir, “for he has mustered an invincible force, and intends to betray you. I now ask you to return at once to your kingdom. You should gather as many troops as possible and then come back for revenge, instead of walking into a trap. You can be sure of treachery from him unless you adopt the plan I have suggested.” King Volsung said, “It’s common knowledge that I made one vow before I was bom. I swore that I would never flee in fear of enemies’ weapons or fire, and to this day I have kept my word. So why shouldn’t I live up to my vow in my old age? And thereTl be no young women taunting my sons dur­ ing games5 by saying that they were afraid to die. For everyone must die sometime, and no one can escape dying once. My advice is that we should not flee at all, but conduct ourselves as bravely as we can. I have fought a hundred battles, sometimes with more troops, other times with less, and I have always been victorious. I never want it said that I fled or asked for quar­ ter.”

5 These games would include sports and other types of competition.

The Saga of the Volsungs 87

E k hefe barizt .c. sinnunt ok hefe ek haft ftundnm meiraa lið enn ftundum minna. ok hefe ek iafnan sigi haft, ok eigi fkal þat spyriazt at ek flygia n§ fr/ðar bidia. Nv g ^tr signy sarliga ok bað at hun fkyllde eigi kama34 til siggeirs konungt. volsungr konungr su(arar) þu fkallt at vifv fara heim til bonda þinnf ok vera (amt med hann hverfv 'fem ' med os fek. Nv gengt signy heim enn þe/r bva eptir vm [5v] nottina ok um myrginin þegar er ðagar þa biðz. volsungr konungr vpp ftanða sina menn alla. ok ganga a lanð vpp ok bvazt vid barðaga. Nv ganga þe/r a lanð vpp allir alvopnað/r ok er eigi langt at biða. a61 þar kemr siggeirr konungr med allan sinn her ok ver6i þar inn harðazta otofta med þe/m. ok eggiar konungr lið sitt til fram. gavngv sem harðligazt. ok er sva sagt at. volsungr konungr ok iynir ham gengv .viij sinnum i gegnum fylkingar siggeirs konungt vm daginn ok hoggva a tu$r hendt ok er þe/r §tla enn sva at fara. þa fellr volsungr konungr i miðti fylkingv sinne ok þar allt lið hanf med honum n$ma syn ir hanf .x. þv/at miklv meira ofrefli var i moti enn þe/r m$tti vid ftanda. nv erv [ynir hanf allir tekn/r ok j bonð reknir ok a bratt leidd/r. signy varð vot vid at fað/r hennar var d*epinn enn br$6i hennar baunðvm tekn/r ok til bana raðnir nv kallar hwn siggeir konung a ein m^li. nv m^//ti signy þes vil ek bidia þik at þu lat ir eigi sva fkiott dtepa bi$6i mina. ok latit þav hellðt settia i ftock ok kemr mer at þv/ fem m^/lt er at vn/r auga meðan a ser ok þv/ bið ek þe/m eigi lengra at ek §tla. at mer muni ecki tioa. þa svarar siggeirr $r ertu ok otuita er þv biðt bt^ðtvnz þinnm meira baulf enn þe/r se hoónir enn þo fkal þat veita þer þv/at þes betr þicke mer er þe/r þola verraa. ok hafa lengr/ kaul35 til bana. nv l^tr hann sva g/ara sem hun bauð [6r] ok var tekinn einn mikill ftockr ok fellðt a f^tr þe/m .x. bt$drnm i fkogi einfhverf ftadar ok fitia þe/r nv þar þann ðag allan til n$tr. enn at miðte nott. þa kon? þar ylgt ein ot íkogi. gaumul. at þe/m er þe/r satu i ftockinum hnn var b^ði m/£il ok illilig henne varð þat fyrir at hwn bitr ein þe/rra til bana. siðan át þann vpp allan. ept ir þat fot hnn i btott enn ept ir vm motgininn þa senði signy mann til bt^ðta finna. þann er hnn trwði b§zt ok36 hvat tith sé. ok er hann kemr aptr seg/r hann henne at ðauðt fe einn þe/rra. henne þotti þerta mikit ef þe/r fkn/o sva fara all/r enn hvn matte ecki dyga37 þe/m fkiot er þar fra at segia niu n§tr i famt kom sea enn sama

34 kama] Read koma. 35 kaul] Read kval or kvaul. 36 ok] MO 11 emends to at vita according to AM 6, 2° 142. 37 dyga] Read duga.

88 VQlsunga Saga

Signy weeps bitterly and said that she didn’t want to go back to King Siggeir. King Volsung replies, “Of course you will retum home to your hus­ band and stay with him, whatever happens to us.” Signy goes home, but the others stay behind that night. At daybreak King Volsung orders all his men to get up, go ashore, and prepare for battle. They go ashore fully armed, and it’s not long before King Siggeir approaches with all his forces. A fierce battle ensues, and King Vol­ sung urges his troops to advance with all their might. It’s said that King Vol­ sung and his sons broke the battle formation of King Siggeir eight times that day, striking blows right and left. But when they try this again, King Volsung falls in the middle of his battle line and all his men with him, except his ten sons, for they were too badly outnumbered to withstand the onslaught for long. All his sons are captured, bound, and led away. Signy leamed that her father had been killed and her brothers taken pris­ oner and sentenced to death. She calls King Siggeir aside and said, “I want to ask you not to have my brothers executed so swiftly, but have them put in stocks instead, for the old saying ‘happy the eye that gazes its fill’ expresses my feelings well. I won’t ask for a longer stay of execution for them, for I expect that my request would fall on deaf ears.” Siggeir replies, “You must be completely out of your mind. You ask for worse treatment than beheading for your brothers. But your wish shall be granted. The greater their suffering before they die, the better I like it.” He now gives orders to do as she asked. A huge pair of stocks were fas­ tened over the legs of the ten brothers somewhere out in the forest. They are left sitting there all that day and into the night. But in the middle of the night an old she-wolf came to them out of the forest as they sat trapped in the stocks. This large and ferocious-looking beast bites one of them to death, devoured the entire body, and then made off. In the moming Signy sent the man she trusted most to her brothers to find out how they were. Upon returning, he tells her that one of them is dead. It grieved her to think that the same might happen to all the others, but she was at a loss for a way to help them.

The Saga of the Volsungs 89

ylgr wm miðn^tte ok $tr einn þe/rra fenrø til bana vnzt allir erv daudir nema sigmundr einn er ephr ok nv aðt tiunda nott kemr. sendir signy trwnadar mann sina til. sigmundar bioður finf. ok fellde i honð honum hunang ok m^/lii at hann fkyllde Rida a anðlit sigm undar ok leggia i munrc honum fumt

Nv [ferr hann]38 til sigm undar ok giorix sew honum war boðit ok fo i heim fiþan vm nottina eptzr þa kemr fv inn sama ylgt at vanða s'mum ok $tlade at bita hanrø til bana sew ba$d: hanL enn nv dr$gz hun veddt af honum þar sew hunagit39 war aRÍðit. ok ileik anðlit han[ allt med tungv ser ok Rett/r siðan tunguna i mvnn honum. hann l$tr fer wer6a vbilt ok beit i tunguna. [6v] ylginm hun bt$gdr wid faft ok hnyck/r at s^r hartt ok Rak f$twrnaa i ftockinw sva at hann klofnade allr i svnð*. enn hann hellt sva faft at tungan geck ox ylginrce vpp i tungv Rotunww ok feck af þui bána em2 þat er fögn sumra40 manna at su hin fama ylgt wen moð/r siggeirs konung[ ok hafe hun bmgdit a sik þesv like fyR/r trollfkapar sak/r ok fiolkyngi.

[Chapter 6 ]41 Nv er sigm undr lauf oid'mn enn btotinrc er ftockin^42 ok hefzt [\gmundr þar nv wid i íkoginwm enn fendir signy at vitha hwat tit er eða hvart rigmundr lifir enn er þeir koma. þa fegir hann þeim allan ath bvtð. hve fzzrit hafde med þeim ok ylginwe. Nv fara þeix heiw ok fegia fignyiu hwat tit er foz hun nv ok hittir bzoðu* sin^ ok taka þav þat Rað at hann giorix þar iarðhws i fkoginww ok fara nv þvi fram wm hrið. at signy leynir honum þaar ok f$R honum þaí er hann þyrfti at hafa. enn siggeirr konungx $tlar at þeix se allir daudir volfvngar

38 [ferr hann] MO 11. 39 hunagit] Read hunangit. 40 sumra] MS saumra\ a deleted by superscript dots. 41 Chapter title illegible. 42 ftockinrt] Read stockrinn.

90 VQlsunga Saga

To make a long story short, the same she-wolf came at midnight nine nights in a row, killing and eating one of the brothers each night until only Sig­ mund remains alive. But before the tenth night arrives, Signy sends her trusted messenger to her brother Sigmund. She gave the man some honey and instruct­ ed him to smear it on Sigmund’s face, putting some of it into his mouth. The messenger now goes to Sigmund, does as he was told, and then returned home. During the following night, the she-wolf comes as usual. She intended to bite Sigmund to death as she had done to his brothers, but she catches the scent of the honey that had been smeared on him; she licked his face all over and then sticks her tongue into his mouth. Afraid of nothing, he bit into the wolf’s tongue. She gives a violent start and pulls back, pressing so hard with her paws against the stocks that they split apart. Sigmund held on so tightly with his teeth that the she-wolf’s tongue was tom out by the roots, leaving her dead. Some say that this beast was the mother of King Siggeir and that she resorted to foul witchcraft to take on this guise.

6. [Sigmund Slays King Siggeir’s Sons] Now that the stocks are broken, Sigmund is set free, but he remains in the forest. Signy again sends men to find out how things are, whether Sig­ mund is still alive. When they find him, he tells them the whole story about his encounter with the she-wolf, whereupon Signy’s men return home and report the news to her. Now she went to meet with her brother, and they decide that he should build an underground hideout in the forest. Signy hides him there for a while and keeps him supplied with all his needs. Meanwhile, King Siggeir believes that all of the Volsungs are dead.

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 91

siggeirr konungr atti .ij. fonv vid konv sinne, ok er fra þui fagt. þa er enn ellri fon haní er x. [vettra]43 at signy send/r hann til moz vid sigmund at hann íkyllðe veita honum lið. ef hann villde nockut leita vid at h§fna feð* finf Nv fe n sueinnin til íkogarinf ok kemr sið vm aptaninn til iarðhw^ figmnrcðar ok tekr hann vid honum vel at hofe. ok m^/lri at hann íkyllde g/øra til b:auð þezrra. enn ek man s$kia elldi við [7r] ok felr i h$nð honum einn miolbelg enn hann feR sialfr ath s^kia viðinn ok er hann kemr aptr þa hef/'r sueinnin ecki at giort vm bzavð giorÖina. Nv spyR sigm undr hvari buit fe bzauðið. hann f(egir) tigi þo*ða ek at taka miolbelginn fyrir þui at þ#r la nockut k'v'ykt i miolinv Nv þickizt Sigm undr vita at þeffi sueinn mun eigi sva vel hugaðz at hann vili hann med ser hafa. Nu er þau syfkinn finnaz fegir figmundr at hann þotti ecki manni at n$r þott sueinnin veri hia honum. signy m%lUi tak þv hann þa ok d*ep hann eigi þarf hann þa leng* at lifa. ok sva giorái hann nv [lidr]44 sea vetr ok einwm vetr/ sidar þa sendir signy enn yngrrd er heita mun gramr ok fonr ockar mun bera ok þar mavrg fto*verk med vinna þau er alldr/ munv fyrnaft medan verolldinn ftendr92 ok han[ nafn mun vppi meðan verollðin ftenðr vni nv vid þat enn mik m$ða far. ok ek mun nv vitia f/rnða vaÉa fram genginna. hiotðif sitr nv yfir honum vnzt hann deyá ok þa lysir af ðegi. hun ser at motgh fkip erv kominn vid land hun mgllh til ambattarinrtar vid ikulum fkipta kl^ðvm ok fkalltu nefnazt nafne minv ok segft konungí dott/r ok þ§r giora sva vikingar geta at lita mik\i mann fall ok fa hvör konumar foru til fkogør fkilia at ftoUidendwm man gegna ok hlaupa af fkipum enn fyrir þesv liðe Reð alfr fon hialprex kongf af danmotk hann hafde farit iyrir lanð fram med her sin um koma nv i valinw þar fea þ^r93 mikit mannfall. konungrinn biðt nv at leita [16r] [a]t94 konvnwm ok sva gioráv þeir. hann spyR hvmar þ$r veri enn þar fkipt/r [eigi]95 at Iikendwm til ambattinw hef/r svør iyrir þeim ok segir fall sigmundar konungí [ok]969 7 eylima konung[ ok n w g f anrcarf ftotmenmf ok sva hverir giort hafa. konungr spwrde hvRume a ikipinv. hann a tal vid þ$r ok leggr v/rðing a r^ður þe/rra. kønwngr kom heim i Riki fitt vid miklv fe alfr var manna g/ørfviligazt ok er þav hafa fkama ftunð heima verit. fpyR ðröttninginn alf fon finn. hvi hef/r enn fegn kona f$Ri hrmga eða verra bvnað. ok v/rðizt mer at fu mvne $ðú er þer hafit minna yfir lat." hann sv(arar) grwnað hef/r mik þaí at eigi fe ambattar mot a henne ok þa er ver fvndvmzt þa tokz henne vel at fagna tignum monnum ok her til fka/ g/øra eina Ravn. þat er nv eitt sinn vid chyckiu at konungr fezt a tal vid þ^r. ok m^/lri. hvat hafi þer at marke vm d$gr far þa er nott ellð/r ef þer seait ei himinn tungl hwn su(arar) þaí mark, hofwm ver her t// at ek var þv/ vavn i §fkv at ðzecka miok. [16v] i ottu ok er ek let af þui vauknvdv ver ept/r þvi siðan ok [er]100 þaí mitt mark konungr b*ofti at ok m^llti. illa var kønwngf dott/r vavnð [hann]101 hitt/r þa hiozðifi ok spyR hana flikf enf sama hwn sv(arar) h[onum]102 fad/r minn gaf mer eitt gull litið vid natwru þat kolnar i ottu a fing[ri]103 mer þaí er mitt mark her um. kønwngr sv(arar) gnott var þar gvllz er ambatt/r barv ok mvnv þer $rit leingi leynzt hafa fyrir mer ok sva mwnd[a]104 ek t// þin g/ørt hafa sem vid v$rim einf kønwngf bomn b$di þottu hefð/r þetta sagt. ok enn fka/ g/øra verdleikwm betr v/d þik. þv/at þv fkallt vera minn kona. ok fkal ek giallða mvnd við þer þa er þv hef/r bam getið. hnn sv(arar) ok seg/r allt [it]105 fanna vm sitt Rad er hwn þar nv i miklvm soma ok þickir hin v/rdvligazta kona.

98 voru] Corrected from er. 99 lat] MO 30 emends to latid. 100 ler] MO 30. 101 [hann] MO 30. 102 h[onum] MO 30. 103 fing[ri] MO 30. 104 mund[a] M 0 31. 105 [it] MO 31.

120 VglsungaSaga

kingdom to report the deaths of those most famous kings. On board ship the king sits at the helm and the women on the first bench. He converses with them and listens respectfully to what they have to say. The king arrived home in his kingdom, laden with treasure. Alf was a man of impressive accomplishments. After they have been home for a while, the queen asks her son Alf, “Why is it that the better-looking woman wears fewer rings and poorer clothes? In my opinion it’s the woman to whom you’ve paid less attention who is the more nobly born.” “It has occurred to me that she doesn’t behave like a servant,” he replies. “And when we first met, she knew the proper way to greet noble men. IT1 put this to a test.” So one day while they were drinking, the king sits down to talk to the two women and said, “How do you know that dawn is breaking if you can’t see the sun, moon, or stars?” The servant woman answers, “I know because when I was little, I was in the habit of taking a big drink in the early morning. And even when I stopped doing this, I still woke up at about the same time. That’s how I can tell what time it is.” Smiling, the king said, “That was a bad habit for a king’s daughter.” He next tums to Hjordis and asks her the same question. “My father gave me a small gold ring with a special nature,” she replies. “Just before daybreak it grows cold on my finger. Thafs how I know.” “There must have been gold aplenty if the servant women wore rings,” remarks the king. “You two have hidden the truth about yourselves from me long enough. I would have treated you as though we were both children of the same king if you had told me this. I will now treat you as you deserve, even better, for you shall be my wife. I will pay the bride price15 once your child has been bom.” She responds and tells him the whole truth about her situation. She remains there in great honor and is considered to be the worthiest of women.

15 The bride price was the sum paid by the bridegroom to the bride, as opposed to the dowry, which was paid by the bride’s family. No marriage was legitimate without payment of the bride price.

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 121

f?ddr sig urdr Þ a t er nv sa g t at h io*d if f $ ð /r sv e in b a m ok e r sv e in m n n f$ [r ]d r 106

konungi konungrinn varÖ g la ð r vid er h ann sa þav in n h a u ff v 107108 a v g v e r h ann bar j h a v fd e o k sa g d e h ann a v n g um mun&v lik a n v erd a. ed a fam iafn an o k var h ann vattn e a u ffin /1 m ed sigwrdar n a fn e ira honum se g ia allir eitt. at vm ath ferð ok v o x t var e n g i hant m aki. h ann var þar f$ddr m ed hialpR^ki konungi. a f m/&illi aft ok þa e r n e fn d /r erv a ll ir e n /r ag^ ztv m e n n o k konungdx i ftwrui savghw m þa fk al sigw rdr iram gang a vm afl ok a tg /ø r fe k app o k hzeyfti e r harcrc h e f/r haft um h v e m m a n n íram annara i no:ð* alfv. h ialp rek i

h eim fin f.

vnni hvert b a m n honum h ann fa ftn a [17r] þi a lfi konungr{OS h io ið ifi ok m^l\t\ henne m v n ð R eginw het fo ftri sigwrdar o k var h reiðm aR f fo n h ann kenrcdi honum iþ io tt/r tafl o k Rvnar o k tungw r n w g ú fr at m §la. sera þa var titt konungafonum o k n w g a lu ti að:a. E itt sin n spw rði Reginn sigurá er þeir voru b aðir sam an E f hann v iffi h v^ rfv miJát fe fad /r hann109 h e fð i att. e ð a hverir þat v a r ð v e ittu . Sigw rðr sv(arar) o k fe g /r at konungar varöve ita Reginn m (^ lir) truir þ v þeim all v e l S igurdr fv(arar) þat fa m /r at þeir varöveite þar til e r o f f h allk v$m izt. þviaX þeir kvnnv b$tr at g$ta e n n ek. Anwaþ sinAzi k$m r Reginn at m ali vid sigw rð o k mgliti k y n lig t er þat e r þu v illt v era h efta sueinw konunga. e ð a fa r a sem h lau p arar sigw rdr fv(arar) eigi er þat þviat ver Rad um au llu m ed þeim. er o s ok h e im o llt þat er ver v iliu m h afa Reginn m%liti. b ið hann g e fa þer e in n h eft. Sigw rði fv(arar) þ e g a r mun þat er e k v il s igurdr h itt/r nv konunga. þa mqlXti konungr vid s igurd hvat v illtu a f o s þ ig g ia s igurdr fv(arar) e in n h eft v iliu w ver þ ig g ia Sigw rðr o x

þar

upp m ed hialpR eki o k

106 f^[rJdr] M 0 31. 107 hauffv] Read hvgssu. 108 konungx] Read konungi. 109 hann] Read hans.

122 VglsungaSaga

13. The Birth of Sigurd The story now goes that Hjordis gives birth to a boy. The boy is brought to King Hjalprek, who was delighted when he saw the baby’s keen eyes. He declared that no one would be his match or his equal. The child was sprinkled with water and given the name Sigurd. All accounts of him agree that in his conduct and physical stature he was unparalleled. He was brought up loving­ ly in King Hjalprek’s household. And when all the most celebrated kings and heroes in ancient tales are mentioned, Sigurd will be counted peerless in prowess, strength, ambition, and daring; these qualities he possessed in far greater measure than any other man in the northern part of the world. Sigurd grew up there with Hjalprek, and everyone loved him. He betrothed Hjordis to King Alf and fixed the bride price for her. Sigurd’s foster father16 was a man named Regin, son of Hreidmar. He taught the boy sports, chess, runes, and how to speak many languages - skills deemed proper for kings’ sons at that time - and many other things as well. Once when the two of them were together, Regin asked Sigurd whether he knew how much treasure his father had owned and who was looking after it. Sigurd replies and says that the kings were looking after it. Regin says, “Do you trust them completely?” “It’s appropriate that they take care of my inheritance as long as it suits me,” answers Sigurd, “for they can look after it better than I can.” Another time Regin comes to talk to Sigurd and said, “It’s odd that you are content to be the kings’ stableboy and run around like a vagabond.” “That’s not true, for I have my say in everything with them,” replies Sig­ urd. “And they let me have whatever I want.” “Then ask the king to give you a horse,” said Regin. “I will get one as soon as I ask for it,” replies Sigurd. Sigurd now goes to see the kings. The king said to Sigurd, “What would you like us to give you?” Sigurd answers, “I would like a horse for riding.”

16 It was a common Norse custom for children to be reared by foster parents as a way o f forming pseudo-kinship alliances with another family. In this case, the usefulness of a political alliance with Regin’s family is dubious, since his last remaining relative is Fafnir the dragon, so we must imagine that what makes him desirable as a foster father to Sigurd is his skill as mentor.

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 123

os til fkemtanar konungnnn m^llti. kiof þer sialfr heft ok flikt or þv vill hafa af votre eigv. annan ðag eptir fo: sigwrð* til Skogar ok m$tir einum gavmlum manne med siðv fkeg#e. fa var honum. vkunmgr. hann spyR hvert sigurdr fkyllðe fara hann fv(arar) heft fkyllðvm ver kiofa. Rað vm med os. hann mellti faurwm ok Rekwm til arin/zar er bufiltiom heit/r þeir Reka hrosinn ut a ðiup arinwar. ok leggiazt at \andi nema einn heftr hann tok sigur6i. hann var grar at lit ok ungr at alldr/ mikiW vexti ok v$nn [17v] engi hafðe honum abak komit fkegg madr'mn m%l\ú þese heftr er kommn fra fleipne ok fka/ hann vanðliga vpp feda. þvz'at hann verdx hver’mm hefte betrz madr’mn hverfr þa sigwrdr kallar heftimz grana, ok hefzr sa heftr b^ztr vent oþinzz hafde hann hittan enn mqlXti. Reginn til sigurdar oflitið fe eigv þer þat harmar os er þ$r hlavpit fem þozpara sveinar enn ek veith mikla fe von at segia þe/r.110 ok er þat meri111 uan at þat se fome at s$kia ok v/rðing ef þu n^þ/r sigwrðr fp(yrr) hvar veri eda hverx varðueitte Reginn fv(arar) sa heitzr fafn/r er her ligr fkamt heðan a b*ott þat heitir gnita heidz ok er þv. kemr þar112 þa muntu þat mfla alldn' fattu meiRa fe i gulli ieinwm ftað ok eigi þarftu meiRa þottu ver&ir allra konunga. ellztr ok fr^gftr. sigurdr fv(arar) kann ek kyn þesa ozmf þott ver sém ungz> ok hefe ek spwrt at eingi þoR/r at koma amoth honum fyrir vaxtar fakir ok illzkv Reginn fv(arar) þat er ecki. fa va'v'xtr er eptzr hetti lynghozma. ok er gzart af miklv meira onn er ok sva munði þotth hafa hinnum fyRum frenÖum þinwm ok þott volfvngha $tt fe at þer þa munþu oigi hafa þezrra. fkaplynðe er fyrft erv talðir til allz frama. sigwrðr fv(arar) véra ma at eigi hofum ver mikit af þe/rra kappe eda fnillð. en oigi ber naufvn tz7 at frygia off. er ver113 enn litt af bamf alldr/ eda hvi eóiar þv þessa sva miok Reginn fv(arar) faga er til þes ok mun ek fegia þéT sigwrðz m%llti. lat mik heyra

110 þWr] Read þer 111 meri] Read meiri. 112 þtír] Corrected from þat. 113 \er] MO 33 emends to ver erum.

124 Vglsunga Saga

“Then pick out a horse for yourself and anything else of ours that you would like to have,” said the king. The next day Sigurd went out into the forest, where he meets an old man with a long beard, a stranger to him. He asks Sigurd where he was headed. “I’m supposed to pick out a horse,” he replies. “Give me some advice.” He said, “Let us go and drive the horses to the river Busiltarn.” They drive the horses out into the river, into deep water. All of the horses swim back to shore except one. And that was the one Sigurd took. He was a young, gray stallion, big and handsome. No one had ever mounted him. “This stallion was sired by Sleipnir,” 17 said the bearded man, “and he should be carefully reared, for heTl turn out to be better than any other horse.” The old man then disappears. Sigurd names the horse Grani, and he indeed became the very best horse ever. It was Odin himself whom Sigurd had encountered. Once again Regin spoke with Sigurd. “You have too little wealth. It grieves me to see you running around like a peasant boy. I can tell you where you’re likely to find a great treasure, and I rather suspect that you will gain great honor and fame if you can seize it.” Sigurd asks where the hoard was and who was guarding it. “His name is Fafnir,” answers Regin, “and his lair is a short distance from here at a place called Gnitaheath. When you get there, you will say to yourself that you never saw a larger hoard of gold all in one place. You will never need more than that, even if you become the oldest and most famous king ever.” Sigurd replies, “Even though I’m young, I know what that dragon18 is like. I’ve heard that no one dares to face him because of his size and evil nature.” “That’s not true,” responds Regin. “His size is normal for serpents and has merely been exaggerated, or at least that would have been the view of your late kinsmen. Although you are a descendant of the Volsungs, it seems that you did not inherit the mettle of those who ranked foremost in distinction.” “I may not have much of their prowess and skills,” answers Sigurd, “but you don’t have to taunt me, for I’m just barely beyond my childhood. For that matter, why are you egging me on to do this?” “There is a story that explains it,” replies Regin, “which IT1 tell you.” “Let me hear it,” said Sigurd. 17 Odin’s eight-legged horse. 18 The text more often refers to Fafnir as ormr ‘serpent,’ not dreki ‘dragon.’ The semantic range of ormr includes “snake,” “serpent,” and “dragon.”

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 125

[Chapter 1 4 ]114 [18r] Þat er upp115 saugv þesar at hreidmar het fadir minn mikiW ok auðigr fon hanf het fafnir enn annar het otthr ok var ek enn þViðe ok var ek minftr fyrir mer vm ath giorfi ok yf/rlat kunna ek af iamne gzara ok af silfri ok gulli ok hverium lut g/ørde vek" navkvat nytt. ottr biobir minn hafde adra iðn ok natnru hann var veide madr mikill. ok vm fram a6ra menn ok var i ottnrf liki vm dagha ok var iafnan i anne ok bar vpp fifka med munne ser veiði faunginn f$rdi hann fedt finum ok var honum þat mikiW ftyRkr miok hefir hann otturf liki a ser kom fið heim ok ath blunðande ok einn saman þv/at hann matte tigi sea [at]116 þyRe. fafn ir var miklv meftr ok gr/mmaftr ok villðe sitt eitt kalla lata allt þat er var Einn deyrgr117 heiUr Andvarri f(egir) R eginn hann var iafnan i foxfmum er anðvara foif heit ir i geddv liki. ok feck ser þar matar þv/at þar var fiolðe fifka i þe/m fózfe ottr broðir minn foz iafnan i þenna fó^f ok bar vpp fifka i munne ser ok lagde einn senn a land, oþinn lok§. h^n/r foiv leidar sinnar ok komv til anðvara fóif. ottr hafde þa tekit einn láx ok át blunðanðe a ár backanwm loki tok einn fte'i"nn ok lavft ottr/n til bana. $sir þottuz miok hepn/r af veide finne ok flogu belg af ottrinum þat kvellð kuomv þe/r til hreidmarf. ok synðv hannm veidina þa tokv ver þa h9nðvm ok fggðvm a þa gialld ok fiodaufn at þeir fyllðe belginn af gvlli. ok. hvlðe hann vtan med Ravdv gvlli. þa sennðv þe/r loka at aflaa [18v] gvllzinf hann kom til Ranar ok feck net hennar. foi þa til anðvara fo^ff ok kaftaðe netinv fynr geððuna. enn hwn hliop i netid þa m(9lir) loki

114 Chapter title apparently missing. 115 upp] MO 33 cmcnds to upphaf. 116 [at] MO 34. 117 deyrgr] Read dvergr, error marked by underlining and in margin.

126 VQlsunga Saga

14. [Wergild Paid for Otr] “My story begins with my father, whose name was Hreidmar, a powerful and wealthy man. One of his sons was Fafnir, another was Otr, and I was the third, the least talented and therefore the least regarded. I knew how to work iron, silver, and gold and could make something useful out of anything. My brother Otr’s nature and skills were different. He was an expert fisherman, far superior to anyone else. During the day he assumed the shape of an otter and stayed in the river, bringing fish ashore in his mouth. He gave his catch to his father, who benefitted a good deal from his support. He was very much like a real otter. He came home late and ate alone with his eyes closed so that he could not see the food disappearing. Fafnir was by far the biggest and fiercest of us and had the idea that everything belonged to him alone. “There was a dwarf called Andvari,” says Regin. “He always stayed in a waterfall known as Andvari’s Falls in the shape of a pike and caught food there for himself, for the falls were teeming with fish. My brother Otr also habitually caught fish in that waterfall, carrying them ashore in his mouth and laying them on the bank one at a time. “In their wanderings Odin, Loki, and Hœnir19 came to Andvari’s Falls. Otr had just caught a salmon and was eating it with his eyes closed on the river bank. Loki picked up a rock and struck the otter a fatal blow. The Aesir20 were delighted with their luck in hunting and skinned the otter. That evening they reached Hreidmar’s place and showed him the catch. Then we seized them and demanded in compensation and ransom that they should fill the otter skin with gold and cover it on the outside with red gold.21 They sent Loki off to find the gold. He visited Ran,22 borrowed her net, and then went to Andvari’s Falls. He cast the net into the water in front of the pike, and it swam into the trap. Then Loki said:

19 Loki may be regarded as a trickster figure among the Norse gods; he is the offspring of a union between a goddess and a giant and is himself the father of three monsters. Hcenir plays a minor role in Norse mythology but appears in several stories as a third companion, together with Odin and Loki. 20 The chief gods of Norse mythology. Here the reference is to Odin, Loki, and Hœnir. 21 Red gold gets its name because alloys of gold and copper containing about 60-75% of the for­ mer by weight are a deep red in color. 22 A goddess linked to the sea and wife of Ægir, a giant associated with the sea.

The Saga of the Volsungs 127

[2] “Hvtff er þat fifka. er Rennur flode i kannat ser vid viti varazt ha/fvþ þit leyftv heliu oi. ok finn mer lionar118 loga.” [3] “An^ðvare ek heite oþirm119 het minn fað/r nwghanw hefi ek ftnf of farit aumligh nom fkop os iardaga. at ek fkyllða i vatng vaða” loki ser gvll þat er anðvare átte enn er hann hafde íram Reith gvllit þa hafde hann einn hrmgh. ok tok loki hann af honum. duergrin^ geck i fteininn ok m%l\á. at hverium íkyllde at bana verÖa er þann gvllhrmg gtti. ok sva allt gvllit gfimir Reiddv hreidmare feit ok traðv vpp ottwr belginrc ok settu a fgtr þa íkylldu $sirm'r hlaða vpp hia gvllinv. ok hylia vtan enn er þarí var gioH þa geck hreiðnwr íram ok sa eitt grana hár ok bað hylia. þa d*o oþinw hrmginn af hendi ser andvara nauth ok hvlðe harit þa kvað loki [4] “Gvll er þer nv Reitt enn þv giollð hef/r m/£il minf hgfvðs $yne þinum verÖi at sgla íkavpvð. þat er yckar bgggia bani.” siþan d*ap fafn/r favdwr sin« f(egir) Reginw ok myrde hann ok naða ek avngv af fenv. hann gioráizt sva illr at hann lagðizt vt. ok vn^e aungum at niota fiarinf ngma ser ok varþ fiþan at hinwm verfta o*me ok liggr nv a þui fe. siðan fo* ek til konungL ok giorðvmzt ek smidr haní ok er þese R$ða til minwar [19r] favgv at ek miffe faudwr arffinf ok bíoðvzgiallðanrca. gvllit er fiþan kallat ottwrf giolld. ok her dgmi af tekinn Sigurdr fvarar mikit hefir þu latið ok fto* illir hafa þin/r frenðr uerit

1,8 lionar] MO 35 emends to lindar. 119 oþintt] MO 35 notes this as mistake for Oinn; see Reginsm. 2.

128 Vplsunga Saga

2

You strange fish found in this water, seeking no safety, buy your head back from a horrible death with a rich ransom of gold.

3

I am Andvari and son of Odin,23 doomed to run rapids, a spell cast by cruel norns. I have no other haunts.

“Loki sees the gold that Andvari owned. But when Andvari had handed over the gold, he withheld one ring. Loki took it from him. As the dwarf entered the rock wall, he declared that whoever possessed the gold ring and the rest of the gold would be doomed to die. The Aesir delivered the treasure to Hreidmar. They first stuffed the otter pelt with gold and made it stand on its feet and then piled gold around it until it was covered. When the job was finished, Hreidmar walked up and saw one whisker sticking out; he demand­ ed that it too should be covered, whereupon Odin drew Andvari’s ring from his hand to cover the hair. Then Loki said: 4

A debt is paid. A dear ransom you hold for my head. No luck in life is the lot of your son. You are both doomed to death.

“After this Fafnir killed his father,” Regin says, “and concealed his corpse, and I got no part of the treasure. He grew so malevolent that he took to the wilderness and allowed none but himself any pleasure from the gold. In time he became a vicious dragon and now lies on the hoard. Then I went to see the king and became his smith. This tale of mine has explained to you how I lost my patrimony and the wergild for my brother. Because of this case, gold has since been called Otr’s wergild.” Sigurd replies, “You have suffered great losses at the hands of your mon­ strous kinsmen.”

23 Most likely a scribal mistake for Oin, the name of a dwarf, whom Andvari identifies as his father in the eddic poem “The Lay of Regin.”

The Saga of the Volsungs 129

Regina giorði gram G io z nv e itt

sverð

a f þ in um h a g le ik

þat

e r e c k e fe iafnrc g o tth

giorth

ok

e k m e g a v in « a fto* v e r k e f h u gr d u g h ir e f þ v v illt at e k ð ^ p a þew na e n n m/&la d*$ca Reginn f(e g ir )

þat giore e k med traufti o k muntv m e g h a 6 rep a fa fn e gioriv n v eitt s v e r ð o k f^R i h au n ð sigw rðe h ann tok v id fv m 5 in v o k m ^ d d . þetta e r þ itt sm id e R eginn o k h a v g g r i fte ð ia n n o k baottnaði sv erd it. h ann k aft ar bianðinw m o k b a ð h ann fm ið a anwat b ettra. Reginw giorit120 anwat sv e r ð it o k f$R sigw rd e. h ann le it a. þ etta m un þer lik a &nn van t m un yd* at fm ið a s igurdr R eyn ir þ etta fv e r ð ok b*ytr sem it fyRa þa m ^ /ld s igurdr til Regins þu m vnw t lik r v e r a . inrøum fyRwm fr e n ð v m þinwm o k v e r a vtrvr. G e c k n v iil m oþw r fin a r h o n fa g n a r h onum v e l. T alaz nu v ið ok d reck a. Þ a m%l\ú Sigurdr hvart h a /f um ver rett til fpurth. at figm wndz konungx fe lld i ydi fu erd it gram i tv eim h lutum h un su(arar) fatt e r þat Sigurdr m%llti. F a mer i haw nð. e k v il h a f a", h un k u a ð h ann likligdw til fr ø m a o k fyrr honum su erdit sigurdr hitt/r n v Regin o k b ad hann þar gior& a f fu^rþ e ft ir efn u m R eginn r eid d iz o k g e c k til fm iþ iu med [uer6z brotin o k þickir sigurdr íram giarw 121 vm fm iþ in a m ed þ v i sv e r d i Reginn

bar oi aflinw m fy n ð iz t biynne cn tgginum bið* n v sigw rd r122 uid taka s v e r ð in v o k k u $ z t eigi kunwa f verÖ at g /ø r a e f þ etta b ilar sigurdr h io i fteðianrc o k k la u f n iðr i fotinrø o k baaft zigi n$ b rottn aðe h ann lo fa d e svcrdzY m io k . o k foi til arinrcar med a u lla r123 la g ð o k k aftar ig e g n ftra u m i o k to k i sundr e r h ann bza vid sv^ rðin v. nv. g e c k sigw rdr þa g la ð r h eim Rtginn m ^ /líi. [1 9 v ]

Keginn giorcr

nu eitt su erð . o k e r h ann

fm ið iu fueinw m sem e llð a r

120 giorit] Read giorir. 121 fram giarw] MSfram graiarn\ error marked by underlining. 122 sigwrdr] Read sigurd; error marked by underlining. 123 aullar] Read ullar, error marked by underlining.

130 Vglsunga Saga

15. Regin Forged Gram “Now use your skills as a smith to forge for me the best sword ever made, a weapon which will enable me to accomplish mighty deeds if I prove brave enough - that is, if you want me to kill that great dragon/’ “I am confident that I can make a sword with which you’ll be able to kill Fafnir,” says Regin. Regin then fashions a sword and hands it to Sigurd, who said, “Now comes the test of your work, Regin.” He swings the weapon at the anvil, and the sword shattered. Flinging aside the blade, he told the smith to make a better one. Regin forges a second sword and gives it to Sigurd to inspect. “You will like this one, though you’re a hard man to forge weapons for.” Sigurd tests this sword, and it shatters like the first one. Then Sigurd said to Regin, “You’re just like all your forebears - untrust­ worthy.” And he walked off to visit his mother, who welcomes him warmly. They talk and drink together for a while. Then Sigurd said, “Am I right in understanding that King Sigmund gave you the two pieces of the sword Gram?” “Yes, that’s right,” she replies. “Give them to me,” Sigurd said. “I want them.” She pronounced him likely to win fame and hands him the sword. Sigurd now goes to see Regin and told him to do his very best to make a sword from the pieces. Regin became furious and went to the forge with the sword frag­ ments, thinking that Sigurd was much too demanding in this matter. Now Regin forges a sword, and when he brought it out of the forge, the apprentices thought they saw flames darting from the edges. He tells Sigurd to take the sword and remarks that, if this one fails, then he has no skill in forging blades. Sigurd swung at the anvil, and without shattering or breaking the sword split the anvil to the base. He praised the sword loudly and went to the river, tak­ ing along a tuft of wool, which he tosses into the water upstream; the tuft was sliced in two when he tumed the sword against it. Delighted, Sigurd returned home.

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 131

efna mvne þer heit ydr nv. er ek hefi giort fverdit ok hitta fafne sigurdr fv(arar) efna munvm ver ok þo anwað fyR at hefna favdwr minf sigurdr var þvi aft f$lli sem hann var ellri af avllv folke sva at hvert bam vnne honum hvgaftum

Sigwrdr vard [vis amlaugha f/n ]124 GRif/r125 het madr ok var moþwr btoð/r sigwrdar enn litlu fiþar enn sverdit var giort foz hann a fvnð gr/pis. þv/at hann var fram viff ok viffe fyrir avrlavgh man^a sigur6i leitar eftir hverfv ganga man $fi hanf enn hann var þo leinge fyrir ok fagðe þo lokfinf vid akafIigha b$n sigwrdar avll fodavgh hanf eptir þvi sem eptir gek siþan. ok þa er gripir hafde þesa lvte. faghða. fem hann beiððe. þa Reið hann heim ok bratt eptir þat finwazt þeir Reginn þa m^/lri hann ðtep fafne sem þ§r hetuð. Sigwrðr. fv(arar) giora fkal þat ok þo anwat fyR. at hefna figmwftðar konungf ok anwara fr^nða votra er þar fellv i þeke126 otoftv.

Sigurd* drap lyngha ok hiozvarð ok þa alla [20r] Nv hittir sigurÖi konunga ok m^llti til þe/rra. her hofwm ver verit vm hr/ð ok eigwm ver yði aft femð at launa ok mz&la v/rþingh enn nu vilivm ver oi lanðe fara ok fimza hunðinghf sonv ok villde ek ath þeir viffe. at volfunghar veri eigi allir ðauðir. viliam ver hafa þar til yðam ftyrk. konungar kvaduzt allt vilia tz7 fa. þat er hann beiddizt er nv buit lið mikit ok allt vanðat sem meft fkip ok allr herbunaðr sva at ha«s ferð veri þa vegligri enn að*. sigwrðz ftyR/r dreca þeim er meftr var ok ag^tligaztr fegl þe/rra voru miok vonðvt ok itarligh at s$a. sigla þe/r nv goðan byr. ok er fa degr voru liðinw þa

124 Chapter title partially illegible; reading based on MO 38. 125 GRif/>] Read Gripir.

126 þeRe] Read þeirre.

132 VQlsunga Saga

“Now that I have made you a sword,” Regin said, “I expect you to live up to your promise to seek out Fafnir.” “I’ll keep my promise,” replies Sigurd, “but first there’s something else I need to do - avenge the death of my father.” As Sigurd grew to manhood, he became ever more well loved by everyone, young and old alike.

16. [Sigurd Leamed o fh is Fate] There was a man named Gripir, the brother of Sigurd’s mother. Soon after the sword had been made, Sigurd visited Gripir, who was known to be prescient and able to foretell the fates of men. Sigurd wants to leam what life holds in store for him, but Gripir was hesitant for some time. In the end, how­ ever, he yielded to Sigurd’s pleading and foretold his fate, all of which came true. When Gripir had told him the things he wanted to know, he rode back home. Soon afterwards he meets Regin, who said, “Kill Fafnir as you promised.” “I will indeed,” answers Sigurd. “But this other is my first priority - to avenge King Sigmund and other kinsmen of mine who fell in that battle.”

17. Sigurd Slew Lyngvi and Hjorvard and Everyone Else Sigurd now goes to see the kings and said to them, “I have been here for some time and am indebted to you for the affection and great honor you have bestowed on me. Now I have set my mind on an expedition abroad to seek out the sons of Hunding, for I want them to know that not all of the Volsungs are dead. I would like your help in this enterprise.” The kings said they would gladly provide all that he required. A large force is assembled and equipped with the very best war gear and ships, so that his expedition would be more magnificent than any previous one. Sigurd is captain of the flagship, an impressive vessel. Their sails were beautifully made and a splendid sight to behold. They now set out with a favorable wind. However, after a few days a furious storm broke out, chum-

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 133

kom a veð: mikit med fto*me enn sva var searinw fem i RoðRv s§i. eig/ bað sigwrð* fvipta feglvnwm þott RÍfnvðv. hellðr bað hann h^Ra fetia enn aðz. ok er þeir sigldv fram fyrir bergnavf nockwra. þa kallade madr vpp a fkipz7 ok spyR hverr fyrir lidinv eige at Raða honum \a r fagt at þar var hofdinge sigurái sigmundar fon er nv er fregftr vnghra manrca. Maðúnw fv(arar) allir segia þar eitt fra honum. at eigi megi konunga synir iafnazt vid hm n villde ek at þer felldit seglinn a nockwrv fkipinv ok t^ki þer vid mer þeir spwrdv hann at nafne. han« fvarar.

[5] “HNikar hetu mik þa er ek huginn gladde. volfvnghr vnghi ok v^ghat hafðe. nv mattu kalla karl af biarghe. feng eda fiolne far vil ek þigghia.” þeir vikv at lande ok tokv karl afkip sin þa tok af veðút ok fara vnz þeir koma at lande i Rike [20v] hvndingf fona þa hvarf fioln/r þeir lata þegar geifaa ellð ok iarn drepa menn enn bienna bygdina ok eyða þar fem þeix fara. ftaukr fiolðe vnðan afund lywgha konungf ok fegia at her er kominn i larcdit ok fe n med meira geyfinge enn d^me fin/iizt til kuaðv hvnðingf fonv eigi langhfyna. þa er þeir fogdvzt eigi mundv hredazt volfvnga Enn nv ftyR/r þesvm her sigwrd* figmwrtdarfon Lynge konungx letr nu fara vm allt sití Riki herboð vill eigi aa flotta leggiaz ftefmr til fin aullum þeim monnum er honum vilia lið veita k^mr nu a moth sigwrðe med Mmikinn her ok b*§dr hanf med honum tekz þar inn harðafta owst& med þeim matte þar a lopte fea mart fpiot. ok aurvar marghar áuxi hart Reidda fkiolldv klofna. ok bryniur flitnar hialmæ fkyfða. havfa klofna. ok marghmn mann fteypaft til iarþar ok er oRortan hef/r sva

134 Vglsunga Saga

ing the water into foam that looked like blood. Even though they would be ripped to shreds, Sigurd did not order the sails reefed, but instead command­ ed them to be hoisted higher than before. As the fleet rounded a promontory, a man standing there shouted to the ship, asking who was in command. He was told that the commander was Sig­ urd, son of Sigmund and now the most famous of all young men. The man answers, “Everyone says the same thing about him - that no other kings’ sons can claim to be his equals. I would like you to lower the sails on one of the ships and take me along.” They asked him his name, and he replies: 5

Called Hnikar once, I hacked men down to gladden ravens with gory carrion. Young Volsung, now this cliff-man is known as Feng, as Fjolnir too. Bring me on board.

They steered to shore and took the old man on board. The storm soon subsided, and they sail on until they make landfall in the kingdom of Hunding’s sons; then Fjolnir vanished. Sigurd and his men immediately go on a rampage, buming and slaughtering wherever they go, leaving a trail of slain foes, fire-gutted ruins, and devastation. Large numbers of refugees flee to King Lyngvi and report that an invading force is ranging throughout the land with unparalleled fury. They accuse the sons of Hunding of not being very farsighted when they declared that the Volsungs no longer posed any threat “for now Sigurd, son of Sigmund, is leading this army.” King Lyngvi promptly has troops called up in every part of his realm. He rejects the idea of retreat and summons all warriors willing to fight for him; he and his brothers then move against Sigurd with a huge force. The encounter is bloody and a sight to be seen: countless spears and arrows whistling through the air; battle axes swinging fiercely, leaving shields cleft, coats of mail gashed, helmets smashed, and skulls split; many men falling dead on the ground.

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 135

ftaðit. miok langha hnð fekir sigwrdr íram vm merkmn ok hefir i hende sverdit gram, hann hauggr b^ði men« ok hefta ok gengr i gegnum fylkinghar ok hefir baðar hendr bloðghar t/7 axlar. ok ftgck vnðan folk þar sem hann foi ok hellzt hverki við hialme ne brynia. ok enghe maðr þottizt fyR seð hafa þilikan. mann þerfg owstR ftoð lenghe med mik\u mann falle. ok akafre fokn. fek þar sem sialldnaR kan« henða. þa er land herinn f^k/r [21r] til at þat kom fyR/r ecke fell þar sv a mari íyrir hvndmgs tonum ath einge madr viffe taul a. ok sigwrdr var framarla i fylk/ngu þa koma a moth honum synir hundingf konung[ sigurdr havggr t/7 lyngha konungs ok klyfr hialm hans ok havfvð ok bzyniaðanw bvk ok ftþan hwggx hann hiotvarð broður hant funðr i tua luti ok þa árap hann alla hvndings fonv er eptir lifðu ok meftan luta liðf þe/rra fek figvzðr nv heim med faugrwm sigre ok mik\u fe. ok ag$ti er hann hafðe fengit. i þese ferð. voru nu veiflur giorvar imot honum heima i Rikinv ok er sigwrðr hefrr fkamma ftunð. heima verit. kemr Reginn at mali. vid sigwrðz127 ok segir nv munu þer vilia fteypa hialminwm fafnif sva sem þer hgtuð þviaX nv hefir þu hefnt fauþur þinf ok anrcarra frenða. sinna128 sigurdr fv(arar) efna munv ver þat sem ver haufum þar vm heitið ok ecki fellr os þat o* minrce

nv Riða þeir Reginn ok fignrdr Nv Rida þeir sigwrðr ok Regin^ vpp a heidina a þann far veg er fafn/r var vanr at fkr/ða er hann fo* t// vaz. ok þat er fagt. at sa hamar uar þr/tughr er hann la at vatne þa er hann árack. þa m%llti sigurdr þat fagð/r þv Reginn at ðaeki fea ven eig i meÍRe en n ein n lyngh o*mr. enn mer fynazt veg ar haní gfar miklir Reginn m^/líi gioi grof eina ok sezt þar i ok þa er o*mrinfl fkridr til vaz legg þa til hiarta honum ok vinn honum sva bana. þar fyrir fek þv mikinn frama. sigwrdr m^/líi. huerfu man þa veita. ef ek verd fyrir fveita o*mfinf. Regin^ svarar eigi ma þgr Rad Rada er þu ert vid hvarlu% [21v] tna hrgddr ok ertu v likr þinwm írendum at hvg hreyfte nv Ridi sigurdr a heiðina enn Reginn

127 sigurðz] Read sigurd. 128 sjrwa] MO 41 emends to þinna.

136 Vglsunga Sagi

After the battle has raged on for a long time, Sigurd, the sword Gram in hand, fights his way alone past his war standards, shattering enemy lines. With both his arms drenched in blood to the shoulders he hacks down men and horses right and left; warriors fled wherever he advanced, for neither hel­ met nor coat of mail withstands him. No one recalled ever before having seen such a man. The battle went on and on with vast slaughter from repeated assaults on both sides. But the outcome was not what usually happens when the home forces attack: their effort came to naught. The sons of Hunding lost countless numbers of men. Sigurd was in the vanguard of his troops when the sons of King Hunding attack him. Aiming a blow at King Lyngvi, Sigurd splits his helmet, skull, and mail-clad torso. With another stroke he slices Lyngvi’s brother Hjorvard in two. He then struck down the remaining sons of Hunding and the better part of their army. After this signal triumph, Sigurd returns home with great wealth and glory; banquets are held to honor him in his homeland. A short time later, Regin approaches Sigurd and says, “Now you will want to lay low that terror Fafnir, as you promised, for now you have avenged the deaths of your father and other kinsmen.” “I will keep the promise I made to you,” replies Sigurd. “I haven’t for­ gotten.”

18. Regin and Sigurd Go Riding Now Sigurd and Regin ride up into the highlands to the path Fafnir always took when he went to drink. The cliff on which he lay to reach the water was said to be thirty fathoms high. Then Sigurd said, “Regin, you told me that this dragon was no bigger than an ordinary serpent, but his trail looks enormous to me.” “Dig a pit and sit in it,” Regin said. “And when the dragon'crawls to the water, stab him in the heart and kill him that way. For that you will win great fame.” “What will happen if I get splashed by the dragon’s blood?” said Sigurd. “There is no point in giving you advice if everything frightens you,” replies Regin. “You certainly lack the courage of your kinsmen.”

The Saga of the Volsungs 137

hverfr i brøtt yfri6 hr^ððz. sigurði giordc grauf eina ok er hann er at þeffv verke kemr at honum einn gamall madr med fiðv fkeggi ok fpyá hvat hann giorix þar hann segir þa fv(arar) inn gamle madr þeíta er vrað gior fleire grafar ok lath þar J Renwa fveitin enn þv fit i eine ok legg til hiartanz oiminum þa hvarf fa madr a brattv.

Enn sigurdr

giorix grafar eptir þv/ fem fyrir var fagt ok er o*mRinn íkreið til vaz. varþ mz7dll lawðíkiafte fua aat aull io*ð fkalf i nand. hann fnyfti eitn alla leid fyrir fik. fram ok eigi hR^ddizt sigurdr n$ ottazt vid þann gny ok er o*mrinn íkreið yfir gravfina þa leggr ílg urdr fv^rdinv vnðir b^xlit vinftra sva at vid hiolltum nam. þa hleyrpr129 sigurdr vpp oR grafinrce ok kipp/r at ser sverdinv ok hef/r allar henð* bloðgar vpp til axlar. ok er enn mikli o*mr kende finnf bana farf. þa lavft hann havfðinv ok fpozðinwm sua at allt braft i fvnðr er fyrix utfrð ok er fafnir feck bana sár. fpwrde hann hverx ertu eda hverx er þinn faðzr eda hverR er $tt þinn er þv vart sva diarfr ath þv þoiir at bera vopn amik sigurdr fv(arar) $th min $r monnum vkunmgh ek heite gaufugt dyR ok a ek engan faudwr ne moðwr ok einn fan\an hefi ek farit fafnir fv(arar) ef þv att eingwm feð* ne mpdr af hveriu vnðze ertv þa alinrc ok þott þv feg/r mer tigi þitt nafn a bana d£gr/ minu. þa veiztv at þv lygi nv. hann fv(arar) [22r] ek heite sigurdr enn fað/r minn sigmwndr. fafn/r fv(arar) hverr eggiade. þik þessa verkf cda hvi 'léttv at" eggiazt hafdir þv eigi fr§tth þat hverfv allt foUc er hr^tt vid mik ok vid minn egiff hialm en franeyge sueinrc þu attir feð* fnarpan sigurdr fv(arar) til þessa. huat/e mik enn htt s em ík io a z t135 þviat þat h e n d /r op p t at fa er ban a far fen h e fn /r a ll/r

131 enrt] Read enns. 132 maugi] Read maugu. 133 h[ior]l$gi] MO 43. 134 nadJ Read nand. 135 fkioazt] Read skiotazt.

140 VglsungaSaga

war, dared attack me, for such men are generally not courageous fighters.” “You reproach me for having grown up far from my kinsmen,” Sigurd said. “I may have been captured in battle, but I was not bound. That I was a free man is something you havejust found out.” “You interpret my every word as vindictive,” responds Fafnir. “Still, that treasure of mine will be the cause of your death.” “Everyone wants to keep his wealth until his dying day,” replies Sigurd, “but everyone must die sometime.” “You’ll pay scant heed to my advice,” said Fafnir, “but you’ll drown if you travel carelessly by sea. Better wait on shore until the weather is calm.” “Tell me, Fafnir,” said Sigurd, “if you are so wise, which are those norns that deliver sons from their mothers?” “They are many and of different origins,” answers Fafnir. “Some hail from the Aesir, others are kin to the elves, and a third group are the daughters of Dvalin.”26 Sigurd said, “What is the name of the island where Surt27 and the Aesir will shed each other’s blood?” “It is called Uncreated,” replies Fafnir. And again Fafnir spoke: “It’s my brother Regin who is the cause of my death, but it makes me laugh that he will also be the cause of your death and getjust what he wanted.” Fafnir continued, “Ever since I began guarding my brother’s inheritance, I have been a terror to all men. I snorted venom in every direction so no one dared come near me. I feared no weapon, and, even though I have faced many men, I have never doubted that I was far stronger than all of them together. They were all terrified of me.” “The terror that you described makes few victorious,” Sigurd said, “for anyone who encounters many is bound to find out, sooner or later, that no one is invincible.” Fafnir replies, “I advise you to get on your horse and ride off as fast as you can, for it often happens that one who receives a fatal wound will avenge himself.”

26 A dwarf. 27 A fire-giant who will set fire to the world at the end of the final battle between the gods and the giants. This is a reference to Ragnarpk.

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 141

s in n sia lfr. s ig w rd r fv ( a r a r ) þ e rta e r v þ in R að e n n anrcat m un e k R Íd a

til

þ in f b o lf . o k ta k a

þar þat

eð

mikla

giora

ek m

un

g v l l e r fre n d r þ in ir h a fa att. f a f n ir

fv ( a r a r )

Riða muntv þar til er þv finnr sva m/&it gvll at §rit er vm þina dagha ok þat fama gull vm h þinn bana ok hverf anrcarf er þat aa. sigwrd* ftod vpp ok m%llh. heim munda ek Riða þott ek m'iTta þesa enwf mikla. fiars ef ek viffa at ek fkyllda alldr/ deyia enn hwerr fr^kn mad* vill fe Raða allt til inf eina ðagf enn þu fafnir ligg i fio*brotwm þar er þik hel hafe. [23r] ok þa ðeyrr fafn ir

Regirni dtack blod fafnis E ptir þetta kom Reginn til úgurdar ok m^/lri heill herra minn mikinn sig* hefir þv vnmt er þv hefir drepit fafne. er engi varþ fyR sva diarfr at a hans gautu þozþi fitia ok þetta fremþar \e rk mun vppe meðan verollðimz ftendr Nv ftend; Reginn ok ser niði. i iozðina langha hrið. ok þegar ept ir þetta. m^/lri hann af miklum moþe broðvr minn hefir þu 6i$pit ok varla ma ek þessa verk[ faklauf vera. N v tekr sigurdr fitt sv^rð gram ok þeR/r a grafinv ok mgllá til Regins f$Ri geck þv þa er ek vanrc þetta verk ok ek Reynða þetta fnarpa sverð med minne hende ok minu afle atta136 ek \id o*mf meginn m'e'þart þv lat i einum lyng Rvnne ok viffir þv137 hvørt eð138 var himinn eða iozð Reginn fv(arar) þessi o*mr m$tte leinghe liggia i finv bole ef zigi hefdir þv notid sverdf þess er ek giorda þer minne hende ok e/g/ he'f'ðir þetta enn vnmt ok enghe annara sigurdr fv(arar) þa er menn koma til vigf. þa er manni betra gott hiarta enn hauft139 sverð. þa mqllú Reginn vid figwrd af a hyggiu m/Aille þv drapt minn brødvz ok varla ma ek þessa verkí sak lavf þa fkar sigurdr hiartað oi oimmum med þvi sverde er RÍðill het. þa drack. Reginn bloð fafnef. ok mgllá veit mer eina b^n er þer er litið fyRir gack til ellz med hiartað ok fteik ok gef

136 atta] From etja. 137 viffir þv] MO 45 emends to vissir þu eigi. 138 eð] Read er. 139 hauft] Read hvasst.

142 VQlsunga Saga

“That is your advice, but I have a different plan,” responds Sigurd. ‘T intend to ride to your lair and take possession of the great hoard of gold that belonged to your kinsmen .” Fafnir repUes, “You will ride until you find gold enough to last your entire life. But that same gold wiU be your death and the death of anyone else who owns it.” As he stood up, Sigurd said, “I would leave that huge treasure and ride home empty-handed if I could count on living forever. But every brave man wants to be wealthy until his dying day. As for you, Fafnir, you can lie there in your death-throes until Hel28 takes y o u ” And then Fafnir dies.

19. Regin Drank Fafnir’s Blood After this, Regin came to Sigurd and said, “Hail, my lord. Kilhng Fafnir is a proud victory for you, for until now there was no one courageous enough to lie in wait for the dragon. This brave deed of yours will be remembered until the end of time.” Regin now stands gazing at the ground for a long while. Then he said with a heavy heart, “You have killed my brother, but I am scarcely free of responsibility in this matter.” Sigurd wipes his sword Gram on the grass and said to Regin, “You ran far away when I accomplished this feat. I wielded this sharp sword with my own hand, pitting my strength against the dragon’s might, while you were cowering in a heather bush, so terrified you didn’t know up from down.” “This dragon might still be lying in his lair if you had not had the advan­ tage of the sword that I made for you with my own hand,” responds Regin. “Otherwise, neither you nor anyone else could have accomplished this feat.” “When men meet in combat, a fearless heart is more useful than a keen sword,” replies Sigurd. Full of concern, Regin again said to Sigurd, “You killed my brother, but I am scarcely free of responsibility in this matter.” Then Sigurd cut the heart out of the dragon with the sword called Ridill. Regin drank Fafnir’s blood and then said, “Grant me a small request, no trou­ ble at all for you. Take the heart to the fire, roast it, and let me eat it.” 28 The daughter of Loki, who presides over the world of the dead.

The Saga ofthe Volsungs 143

mer at eta. figwrdr fo: ok fteikte a teinwe ok er freydde o* þa tok hanri fingr/ finum a. ok íkyniaþi hvan fteikt vet i. hann bra iingrinum i mvnn ser ok er hiarta blod o*mfinf kom a tungv bonum þa fkilde hann fvgla Ra/dd [23v] hann heyrde at igþur klavkvþv a hr/finv hia bonum.

sigurðz at hiartað [ormsins]140 Þar fitr þv141 sigwrðr ok fteik/r fafrmif hiarta þat fky//di hann fialfr eta. þa munde hann \erÖa hvérium manwe uitrøre aunwur fegir þar liggr Regina ok vill v^la þann sem honum trwir. þa m%lln enn þriðe142 havggvi hann þa haufuð af honum ok ma hann þa Rada gullinv þui env mikla einn. þa m^/líi enn fioaða þaa ueri hann uitrare. ef hann hefde þat sem vþ$r' hofdv Raðit honum ok RÍþy siþan til bolf fanmnef ok t^ke þat eð mikla gvll. er þar er ok ride siþan vpp a hindar fiall. þar sem bzynhillðz sefr ok mun hann nema þar mikla fpeke ok þa v m hann uitr ef hann hefde ydi rað ok hygði hann um fina þyrft ok þar er mer vlffinf ván er ek eyrvn fá. þa m(§lir) enn fimta eigi er hann sva hofkr sem ek $tla. ef hann v$gir honum. enn árepit að* broðwr han[ þa m%llti enn setta. þat veri fn^allR^ðe ef hann ð^pe hann ok Rede em2143 fenv. þa m(§lir) sigurdr eigi munv þau ufkaup at Reginn fe minn bane ok hellda fkulv þeir fara bað/r breði einn ueg. biegði nv svérdinv gram ok hauggr hofvð af Regin ok ept/r þetla etr hann fvman lut hiartanf o*mfinf enn fumt hirdir hann hleypr sidan a heft sir\n ok Reið eptir floð fafrmif ok til hanf herbergiff ok fann ath þath var opith ok af iarnne hvrðimar allar ok þar með allr ðyra um buninghrinw ok af iamne allir ftockar i hvffinv [24r] ok g*afit ioiá nid* sigwrdr fan« þar fto*m/&it gvll ok sverdit hrotta ok þar tok hann egiff hiallm ok gullbrymuna ok marga dyR gdpe. hann fann þar sva mikh gull at honum þotte van at eigi munÖe meiRa berm ij. heftar eða þúr þat gull

140 [ormsins] MO 46. 141 þv] MO 46 omits as scribal error. 142 þriðe] Read þriðia\ error marked by underlining and in margin. 143 enn] Read einn.

144 VylsungaSaga

Sigurd went and roasted the heart on a spit. When the heart began to froth, he touched it with a fmger to check if it were cooked and then quickly stuck his fmger into his mouth. As soon as the blood from the dragon’s heart touched his tongue, he could understand the voices of birds. He listened to the chattering of some nuthatches in a nearby thicket.

20. Sigurd Ate the Dragon’s Heart “There sits Sigurd roasting Fafnir’s heart. He’d be better off eating it himself. Then he would be wiser than anyone else.” The second bird says, “Over there lies Regin, planning to betray the man who trusts him.” The third then said, “He should cut off Regin’s head. Then he can keep that entire vast treasure for himself.” “He would be wise to follow their advice,” the fourth said. “And after that he should ride to Fafnir’s lair and take possession of the great treasure lying there. Then he should ride on to the top of Hindarfell, where Brynhild is sleeping. He can gain much wisdom from her. And then he would be prudent to follow your advice in watching out for himself. The wolf can’t be far off when his ears are in sight.” “He’s not as clever as I think if he spares a man whose brother he has killed,” says the fifth bird. The sixth said, “It would be a good idea for him to kill Regin and keep all of the treasure for himself.” Then Sigurd says, “I can’t possibly be so unlucky as to be killed by Regin. Better instead for both brothers to go the same way” - whereupon he swings the sword Gram and strikes off Regin’s head. He next eats some ofthe dragon’s heart, keeping the rest. Then hejumps into the saddle and followed the trail to Fafnir’s lair. He found it open; the doors and their frames were made of iron, as were all the building supports, which were sunk in the ground. Inside Sigurd discovered a huge store of gold and a sword called Hrotti; there he took Fafnir’s helmet of terror, a golden coat of mail, and many other priceless objects. The hoard of gold he found there was so large that he judged it more than two or three horses could carry.

The Saga of the Volsungs 145

tekr hann allt ok berr i ij. kiftwr mzfclar tekr nv i tauma heftinwm grana, heftrin vill nv e/g/ ganga ok ecke tiar at keyRa sigurð* finwr nv hvat heftrm vill. hleypr hann abak ok lyftr hann fpoxum ok Renrcr sea heftr sem lavf veri.

fra sigwrde Sigwrðr Ridr nv langar leid ir ok allt til þeff er hann kemr vpp a hindar fiall ok ftefnde a leið fuðr til fracklö^dz a fiallenv fa hann fyrir ser liof mikit sem elld* b*ynwe ok liomade af til himinf. enn er kom at ftoð þar fyrir honum íkiallð bo*g. ok vpp ox merki sigurdr geck i fkiallð borgina ok fa at þar svaf madr ok la med avllvwz hervopnum hann tok fyft hialmimz af havfðe honum ok fa at þat var kona. hun var i bzyniv ok var sva fauft stm hun veri hollð gzoinrø þa Reift hann ofan oi havfvðfmatt ok igegnwm niðr ok sva vt i gavgnwm badar $rmar ok beit sem kl$de. sigwrðz kuað hans. hellte144 leinge fofit hafa. hun spwrde hvat sva var mattukt er beith bzyniuna ok bra minum svefne eda man her kominrc sigwrðz figmwrcdar fon er hefir hialm fafnif ok harcf bana i hende. þa fvarar sigurdr fa er volfunga $tar er þetta verk hefir giorth ok þat hefi ek fpwrt at þu ert rikf konung[ dottir ok þat fama hefir off fagt vm t fra ydmra v$nleik ok vitrv [24v] ok þat fkulv v$rr145 R$ina brynhillðr feg/r at tueR konung3X bavrðuz het anzzar hialm gunzzar. hann var gamall ok hinw mefti her madr ok hafde oþim? honum sign heitið. enn anrøar agnar eda avða b*odzr ek fellða hialmgvnzzar i oxostv enn oþimi ftack mik fvefn þoznzze i hefað þess ok kvað mik alldri fiðanw fkyllðv sigr hafa ok kvað mzA: giptaz fkulo enn ek ftrengða þess heit. þar i mot at giptaz engum þezm er hr^ðazt kvnrce sigurdr m^/lrí ken« off Rað til ftoza lvta. hun sv(arar) þer mvnvð betr kvnna.. enn med þauckwm kenwa yðr ef þat er nauckvt er ver kunnum þat er yðr m^tte lika i Rvnwm eða oðxum lutum er liggia tz7 hverf lutar ok dx$ckvm b§ðe faman ok gefi 'godinw' ockr goðan dag at þer verÖc nyth ok fregð at minum vitrleik ok þv mvnz’r eptzr þat er við R%dvm

144 hellte] Read hellzte; error marked by underlining. 145 v^rr] Read vqr\ error marked by underlining.

146 VQlsunga Saga

He takes all that gold and packs it into two large chests, then takes the reins to lead his horse Grani. But the horse refuses to budge, whip or no whip. Sig­ urd figures out what the horse wants; he leaps on his back and spurs him on, and the horse gallops off as if he were running free.

21. Concerning Sigurd Sigurd now rides a long way until he comes up on Hindarfell, where he tumed south toward Frankland. He saw a bright light shimmering in the sky over the mountain, as if from a blazing fire. As he approached, he came to a structure made of shields with a banner flying at the top. Sigurd entered and found a fully equipped warrior lying there asleep. He removed the stranger’s helmet and discovered that it was a woman; she wore a coat of mail so tight that it seemed fused to her skin. He slit the armor open, from the neck down and then out through both sleeves, and the sword bit the metal as though it were cloth. Sigurd said she had been sleeping far too long. She asked what had been so powerful that it had cut through her coat of mail - “and roused me from sleep. Could it be that Sigurd, son of Sigmund, has arrived? - with Fafnir’s helmet on his head and Fafnir’s bane in his hand?” “The man who accomplished this feat is a Volsung,” replies Sigurd. “I have heard that you are the daughter of a mighty king. I have also been told about your beauty and your wisdom - and this I intend to put to the test.” Brynhild tells him that two kings had fought a battle. One of them was named Hjalmgunnar; he was old and a great warrior, and Odin had promised him the victory. The other was Agnar or Auli’s brother. “But I slew Hjalm­ gunnar in the fight, and in retaliation Odin pierced me with a sleep thom. He said that I would never again win victory in battle, but that I must marry instead. In retum, I vowed to wed only a man who knew no fear.” “Advise me how to accomplish mighty deeds,” said Sigurd. She answers, “I would guess that you know this better than I. But I will gladly teach you whatever I may know that is of interest to you, whether about runes or about lore pertaining to any and everything. Let us drink together, and may the gods grant us both a good day, so that my wisdom may prove useful to you and bring you fame - and so that you may remember what we speak of.” The Saga ofthe Volsungs 147

brynhilldr fyllde eitt ker ok f^rde sigwrðe ok m^/lri [6] “Bio* feri ek þer brynþmga vallðr. maghne blanden ok megirw tire fvllr er liona146 ok likn ftafa. goðra gallðra ok gaman R^ðna.” [7] “Sigh Rvnar fka//tv kvnrca. ef þu villt fnotr vera. 'o k' Rift a hiallte hio*f a vett Rvnww147 ok a valbyftwm148 ok nefna tyfvar ty.” [8] “Brim Rvnar fka//tu g/ora. ef þu villt boigit hafa a fvnðe seglmaurum a ftafne íkal þer RÍfta ok a ftio*ruzr blaðe ok leggia ellð i aar fallat sv