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The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga); with Excerpts from the Poetic Edda

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Title: The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga); with Excerpts from the Poetic Edda


Translator: Eiríkr Magnússon
        William Morris

Release date: December 1, 1997 [eBook #1152]
                Most recently updated: October 25, 2009

Language: English



*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS (VOLSUNGA SAGA); WITH EXCERPTS FROM THE POETIC EDDA ***



Produced by Douglas B. Killings





THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS, (VOLSUNGA SAGA)

WITH EXCERPTS FROM THE POETIC EDDA

By Anonymous



Originally written in Icelandic (Old Norse) in the thirteenth century
A.D., by an unknown hand. However, most of the material is based
substantially on previous works, some centuries older. A few of these
works have been preserved in the collection of Norse poetry known as the
"Poetic Edda".

The text of this edition is based on that published as "The Story of
the Volsungs", translated by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson (Walter
Scott Press, London, 1888).

Douglas B. Killings


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

RECOMMENDED READING--

Anonymous: "Kudrun", Translated by Marion E. Gibbs & Sidney Johnson
(Garland Pub., New York, 1992).

Anonymous: "Nibelungenlied", Translated by A.T. Hatto (Penguin Classics,
London, 1962).

Saxo Grammaticus: "The First Nine Books of the Danish History",
Translated by Oliver Elton (London, 1894; Reissued by the Online
Medieval and Classical Library as E-Text OMACL #28, 1997).




INTRODUCTION

It would seem fitting for a Northern folk, deriving the greater and
better part of their speech, laws, and customs from a Northern root,
that the North should be to them, if not a holy land, yet at least
a place more to be regarded than any part of the world beside; that
howsoever their knowledge widened of other men, the faith and deeds of
their forefathers would never lack interest for them, but would always
be kept in remembrance. One cause after another has, however, aided
in turning attention to classic men and lands at the cost of our own
history. Among battles, "every schoolboy" knows the story of Marathon
or Salamis, while it would be hard indeed to find one who did more than
recognise the name, if even that, of the great fights of Hafrsfirth or
Sticklestead. The language and history of Greece and Rome, their laws
and religions, have been always held part of the learning needful to an
educated man, but no trouble has been taken to make him familiar with
his own people or their tongue. Even that Englishman who knew Alfred,
Bede, Caedmon, as well as he knew Plato, Caesar, Cicero, or Pericles,
would be hard bestead were he asked about the great peoples from whom
we sprang; the warring of Harold Fairhair or Saint Olaf; the Viking
(1) kingdoms in these (the British) Western Isles; the settlement of
Iceland, or even of Normandy. The knowledge of all these things would
now be even smaller than it is among us were it not that there was one
land left where the olden learning found refuge and was kept in being.
In England, Germany, and the rest of Europe, what is left of the
traditions of pagan times has been altered in a thousand ways by foreign
influence, even as the peoples and their speech have been by the influx
of foreign blood; but Iceland held to the old tongue that was once the
universal speech of northern folk, and held also the great stores of
tale and poem that are slowly becoming once more the common heritage of
their descendants. The truth, care, and literary beauty of its records;
the varied and strong life shown alike in tale and history; and the
preservation of the old speech, character, and tradition--a people
placed apart as the Icelanders have been--combine to make valuable what
Iceland holds for us. Not before 1770, when Bishop Percy translated
Mallet's "Northern Antiquities", was anything known here of Icelandic,
or its literature. Only within the latter part of this century has it
been studied, and in the brief book-list at the end of this volume may
be seen the little that has been done as yet. It is, however, becoming
ever clearer, and to an increasing number, how supremely important is
Icelandic as a word-hoard to the English-speaking peoples, and that in
its legend, song, and story there is a very mine of noble and pleasant
beauty and high manhood. That which has been done, one may hope, is but
the beginning of a great new birth, that shall give back to our language
and literature all that heedlessness and ignorance bid fair for awhile
to destroy.

The Scando-Gothic peoples who poured southward and westward over
Europe, to shake empires and found kingdoms, to meet Greek and Roman
in conflict, and levy tribute everywhere, had kept up their
constantly-recruited waves of incursion, until they had raised a barrier
of their own blood. It was their own kin, the sons of earlier
invaders, who stayed the landward march of the Northmen in the time of
Charlemagne. To the Southlands their road by land was henceforth closed.
Then begins the day of the Vikings, who, for two hundred years and more,
"held the world at ransom." Under many and brave leaders they first
of all came round the "Western Isles" (2) toward the end of the eighth
century; soon after they invaded Normandy, and harried the coasts of
France; gradually they lengthened their voyages until there was no shore
of the then known world upon which they were unseen or unfelt. A glance
at English history will show the large part of it they fill, and how
they took tribute from the Anglo-Saxons, who, by the way, were far
nearer kin to them than is usually thought. In Ireland, where the old
civilisation was falling to pieces, they founded kingdoms at Limerick
and Dublin among other places; (3) the last named, of which the first
king, Olaf the White, was traditionally descended of Sigurd the Volsung,
(4) endured even to the English invasion, when it was taken by men of
the same Viking blood a little altered. What effect they produced
upon the natives may be seen from the description given by the unknown
historian of the "Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill": "In a word,
although there were an hundred hard-steeled iron heads on one neck,
and an hundred sharp, ready, cool, never-rusting brazen tongues in each
head, and an hundred garrulous, loud, unceasing voices from each tongue,
they could not recount, or narrate, or enumerate, or tell what all the
Gaedhil suffered in common--both men and women, laity and clergy,
old and young, noble and ignoble--of hardship, and of injury, and of
oppression, in every house, from these valiant, wrathful, purely pagan
people. Even though great were this cruelty, oppression, and tyranny,
though numerous were the oft-victorious clans of the many-familied
Erinn; though numerous their kings, and their royal chiefs, and their
princes; though numerous their heroes and champions, and their brave
soldiers, their chiefs of valour and renown and deeds of arms; yet not
one of them was able to give relief, alleviation, or deliverance from
that oppression and tyranny, from the numbers and multitudes, and
the cruelty and the wrath of the brutal, ferocious, furious, untamed,
implacable hordes by whom that oppression was inflicted, because of the
excellence of their polished, ample, treble, heavy, trusty, glittering
corslets; and their hard, strong, valiant swords; and their well-riveted
long spears, and their ready, brilliant arms of valour besides; and
because of the greatness of their achievements and of their deeds, their
bravery, and their valour, their strength, and their venom, and their
ferocity, and because of the excess of their thirst and their hunger for
the brave, fruitful, nobly-inhabited, full of cataracts, rivers, bays,
pure, smooth-plained, sweet grassy land of Erinn"--(pp. 52-53). Some
part of this, however, must be abated, because the chronicler is
exalting the terror-striking enemy that he may still further exalt his
own people, the Dal Cais, who did so much under Brian Boroimhe to check
the inroads of the Northmen. When a book does (5) appear, which has
been announced these ten years past, we shall have more material for
the reconstruction of the life of those times than is now anywhere
accessible. Viking earldoms also were the Orkneys, Faroes, and
Shetlands. So late as 1171, in the reign of Henry II., the year after
Beckett's murder, Earl Sweyn Asleifsson of Orkney, who had long been the
terror of the western seas, "fared a sea-roving" and scoured the western
coast of England, Man, and the east of Ireland, but was killed in an
attack on his kinsmen of Dublin. He had used to go upon a regular plan
that may be taken as typical of the homely manner of most of his like
in their cruising: "Sweyn had in the spring hard work, and made them
lay down very much seed, and looked much after it himself. But when
that toil was ended, he fared away every spring on a viking-voyage, and
harried about among the southern isles and Ireland, and came home after
midsummer. That he called spring-viking. Then he was at home until the
corn-fields were reaped down, and the grain seen to and stored. Then
he fared away on a viking-voyage, and then he did not come home till the
winter was one month off, and that he called his autumn-viking." (6)

Toward the end of the ninth century Harold Fairhair, either spurred
by the example of Charlemagne, or really prompted, as Snorri Sturluson
tells us, resolved to bring all Norway under him. As Snorri has it in
"Heimskringla": "King Harold sent his men to a girl hight Gyda.... The
king wanted her for his leman; for she was wondrous beautiful but of
high mood withal. Now when the messengers came there and gave their
message to her, she made answer that she would not throw herself away
even to take a king for her husband, who swayed no greater kingdom than
a few districts; 'And methinks,' said she, 'it is a marvel that no king
here in Norway will put all the land under him, after the fashion that
Gorm the Old did in Denmark, or Eric at Upsala.' The messengers deemed
this a dreadfully proud-spoken answer, and asked her what she thought
would come of such an one, for Harold was so mighty a man that his
asking was good enough for her. But although she had replied to their
saying otherwise than they would, they saw no likelihood, for this
while, of bearing her along with them against her will, so they made
ready to fare back again. When they were ready and the folk followed
them out, Gyda said to the messengers--'Now tell to King Harold these my
words:--I will only agree to be his lawful wife upon the condition that
he shall first, for sake of me, put under him the whole of Norway, so
that he may bear sway over that kingdom as freely and fully as King
Eric over the realm of Sweden, or King Gorm over Denmark; for only then,
methinks, can he be called king of a people.' Now his men came back to
King Harold, bringing him the words of the girl, and saying she was so
bold and heedless that she well deserved the king should send a greater
troop of people for her, and put her to some disgrace. Then answered the
king. 'This maid has not spoken or done so much amiss that she should
be punished, but the rather should she be thanked for her words. She has
reminded me,' said he, 'of somewhat that it seems wonderful I did not
think of before. And now,' added he, 'I make the solemn vow, and take
who made me and rules over all things, to witness that never shall I
clip or comb my hair until I have subdued all Norway with scatt, and
duties, and lordships; or, if not, have died in the seeking.' Guttorm
gave great thanks to the king for his oath, saying it was "royal work
fulfilling royal rede." The new and strange government that Harold tried
to enforce--nothing less than the feudal system in a rough guise --which
made those who had hitherto been their own men save at special times,
the king's men at all times, and laid freemen under tax, was withstood
as long as might be by the sturdy Norsemen. It was only by dint of hard
fighting that he slowly won his way, until at Hafrsfirth he finally
crushed all effective opposition. But the discontented, "and they were a
great multitude," fled oversea to the outlands, Iceland, the Faroes, the
Orkneys, and Ireland. The whole coast of Europe, even to Greece and the
shores of the Black Sea, the northern shores of Africa, and the western
part of Asia, felt the effects also. Rolf Pad-th'-hoof, son of Harold's
dear friend Rognvald, made an outlaw for a cattle-raid within the bounds
of the kingdom, betook himself to France, and, with his men, founded a
new people and a dynasty.

Iceland had been known for a good many years, but its only dwellers had
been Irish Culdees, who sought that lonely land to pray in peace. Now,
however, both from Norway and the Western Isles settlers began to come
in. Aud, widow of Olaf the White, King of Dublin, came, bringing with
her many of mixed blood, for the Gaedhil (pronounced "Gael", Irish) and
the Gaill (pronounced "Gaul", strangers) not only fought furiously, but
made friends firmly, and often intermarried. Indeed, the Westmen were
among the first arrivals, and took the best parts of the island--on its
western shore, appropriately enough. After a time the Vikings who had
settled in the Isles so worried Harold and his kingdom, upon which they
swooped every other while, that he drew together a mighty force, and
fell upon them wheresoever he could find them, and followed them up with
fire and sword; and this he did twice, so that in those lands none could
abide but folk who were content to be his men, however lightly they
might hold their allegiance. Hence it was to Iceland that all turned
who held to the old ways, and for over sixty years from the first comer
there was a stream of hardy men pouring in, with their families and
their belongings, simple yeomen, great and warwise chieftains, rich
landowners, who had left their land "for the overbearing of King
Harold," as the "Landnamabok" (7) has it. "There also we shall escape
the troubling of kings and scoundrels", says the "Vatsdaelasaga". So
much of the best blood left Norway that the king tried to stay the leak
by fines and punishments, but in vain.

As his ship neared the shore, the new-coming chief would leave it to
the gods as to where he settled. The hallowed pillars of the high seat,
which were carried away from his old abode, were thrown overboard, with
certain rites, and were let drive with wind and wave until they came
ashore. The piece of land which lay next the beach they were flung upon
was then viewed from the nearest hill-summit, and place of the homestead
picked out. Then the land was hallowed by being encircled with fire,
parcelled among the band, and marked out with boundary-signs; the houses
were built, the "town" or home-field walled in, a temple put up, and the
settlement soon assumed shape. In 1100 there were 4500 franklins, making
a population of about 50,000, fully three-fourths of whom had a strong
infusion of Celtic blood in them. The mode of life was, and is, rather
pastoral than aught else. In the 39,200 square miles of the island's
area there are now about 250 acres of cultivated land, and although
there has been much more in times past, the Icelanders have always been
forced to reckon upon flocks and herds as their chief resources, grain
of all kinds, even rye, only growing in a few favoured places, and very
rarely there; the hay, self-sown, being the only certain harvest. On
the coast fishing and fowling were of help, but nine-tenths of the folk
lived by their sheep and cattle. Potatoes, carrots, turnips, and several
kinds of cabbage have, however, been lately grown with success. They
produced their own food and clothing, and could export enough wool,
cloth, horn, dried fish, etc., as enabled them to obtain wood for
building, iron for tools, honey, wine, grain, etc, to the extent of
their simple needs. Life and work was lotted by the seasons and
their changes; outdoor work--fishing, herding, hay-making, and
fuel-getting--filling the long days of summer, while the long, dark
winter was used in weaving and a hundred indoor crafts. The climate is
not so bad as might be expected, seeing that the island touches the
polar circle, the mean temperature at Reykjavik being 39 degrees.

The religion which the settlers took with them into Iceland--the
ethnic religion of the Norsefolk, which fought its last great fight at
Sticklestead, where Olaf Haraldsson lost his life and won the name of
Saint--was, like all religions, a compound of myths, those which had
survived from savage days, and those which expressed the various degrees
of a growing knowledge of life and better understanding of nature. Some
historians and commentators are still fond of the unscientific method of
taking a later religion, in this case christianity, and writing down all
apparently coincident parts of belief, as having been borrowed from the
christian teachings by the Norsefolk, while all that remain they lump
under some slighting head. Every folk has from the beginning of time
sought to explain the wonders of nature, and has, after its own fashion,
set forth the mysteries of life. The lowest savage, no less than his
more advanced brother, has a philosophy of the universe by which he
solves the world-problem to his own satisfaction, and seeks to reconcile
his conduct with his conception of the nature of things. Now, it is not
to be thought, save by "a priori" reasoners, that such a folk as the
Northmen--a mighty folk, far advanced in the arts of life, imaginative,
literary--should have had no further creed than the totemistic myths
of their primitive state; a state they have wholly left ere they enter
history. Judging from universal analogy, the religion of which record
remains to us was just what might be looked for at the particular stage
of advancement the Northmen had reached. Of course something may have
been gained from contact with other peoples--from the Greeks during the
long years in which the northern races pressed upon their frontier; from
the Irish during the existence of the western viking-kingdoms; but what
I particularly warn young students against is the constant effort of
a certain order of minds to wrest facts into agreement with their pet
theories of religion or what not. The whole tendency of the more modern
investigation shows that the period of myth-transmission is long over
ere history begins. The same confusion of different stages of
myth-making is to be found in the Greek religion, and indeed in those of
all peoples; similar conditions of mind produce similar practices, apart
from all borrowing of ideas and manners; in Greece we find snake-dances,
bear-dances, swimming with sacred pigs, leaping about in imitation of
wolves, dog-feasts, and offering of dogs' flesh to the gods--all of them
practices dating from crude savagery, mingled with ideas of exalted and
noble beauty, but none now, save a bigot, would think of accusing the
Greeks of having stolen all their higher beliefs. Even were some part of
the matter of their myths taken from others, yet the Norsemen have given
their gods a noble, upright, great spirit, and placed them upon a high
level that is all their own. (8) From the prose Edda the following
all too brief statement of the salient points of Norse belief is made
up:--"The first and eldest of gods is hight Allfather; he lives from
all ages, and rules over all his realm, and sways all things great and
small; he smithied heaven and earth, and the lift, and all that belongs
to them; what is most, he made man, and gave him a soul that shall live
and never perish; and all men that are right-minded shall live and be
with himself in Vingolf; but wicked men fare to Hell, and thence into
Niithell, that is beneath in the ninth world. Before the earth ''twas
the morning of time, when yet naught was, nor sand nor sea was
there, nor cooling streams. Earth was not found, nor Heaven above; a
Yawning-gap there was, but grass nowhere.' Many ages ere the earth was
shapen was Niflheim made, but first was that land in the southern sphere
hight Muspell, that burns and blazes, and may not be trodden by those
who are outlandish and have no heritage there. Surtr sits on the border
to guard the land; at the end of the world he will fare forth, and harry
and overcome all the gods and burn the world with fire. Ere the races
were yet mingled, or the folk of men grew, Yawning-gap, which looked
towards the north parts, was filled with thick and heavy ice and
rime, and everywhere within were fog and gusts; but the south side
of Yawning-gap lightened by the sparks and gledes that flew out of
Muspell-heim; as cold arose out of Niflheim and all things grim, so was
that part that looked towards Muspell hot and bright; but Yawning-gap
was as light as windless air, and when the blast of heat met the rime,
so that it melted and dropped and quickened; from those life-drops
there was shaped the likeness of a man, and he was named Ymir; he was
bad, and all his kind; and so it is said, when he slept he fell into a
sweat; then waxed under his left hand a man and a woman, and one of his
feet got a son with the other, and thence cometh the Hrimthursar. The
next thing when the rime dropped was that the cow hight Audhumla was
made of it; but four milk-rivers ran out of her teats, and she fed Ymir;
she licked rime-stones that were salt, and the first day there came at
even, out of the stones, a man's hair, the second day a man's head, the
third day all the man was there. He is named Turi; he was fair of
face, great and mighty; he gat a son named Bor, who took to him Besla,
daughter of Bolthorn, the giant, and they had three sons, Odin, Vili,
and Ve. Bor's sons slew Ymir the giant, but when he fell there ran so
much blood out of his wounds that all the kin of the Hrimthursar were
drowned, save Hvergelmir and his household, who got away in a boat. Then
Bor's sons took Ymir and bore him into the midst of Yawning-gap, and
made of him the earth; of his blood seas and waters, of his flesh earth
was made; they set the earth fast, and laid the sea round about it in
a ring without; of his bones were made rocks; stones and pebbles of his
teeth and jaws and the bones that were broken; they took his skull and
made the lift thereof, and set it up over the earth with four sides, and
under each corner they set dwarfs, and they took his brain and cast it
aloft, and made clouds. They took the sparks and gledes that went loose,
and had been cast out of Muspellheim, and set them in the lift to give
light; they gave resting-places to all fires, and set some in the lift;
some fared free under it, and they gave them a place and shaped their
goings. A wondrous great smithying, and deftly done. The earth is
fashioned round without, and there beyond, round about it lies the deep
sea; and on that sea-strand the gods gave land for an abode to the giant
kind, but within on the earth made they a burg round the world against
restless giants, and for this burg reared they the brows of Ymir, and
called the burg Midgard. The gods went along the sea-strand and found
two stocks, and shaped out of them men; the first gave soul and life,
the second wit and will to move, the third face, hearing, speech, and
eyesight. They gave them clothing and names; the man Ask and the woman
Embla; thence was mankind begotten, to whom an abode was given under
Midgard. Then next Bor's sons made them a burg in the midst of the
world, that is called Asgard; there abode the gods and their kind, and
wrought thence many tidings and feats, both on earth and in the Sky.
Odin, who is hight Allfather, for that he is the father of all men and
sat there in his high seat, seeing over the whole world and each man's
doings, and knew all things that he saw. His wife was called Frigg, and
their offspring is the Asa-stock, who dwell in Asgard and the realms
about it, and all that stock are known to be gods. The daughter and wife
of Odin was Earth, and of her he got Thor, him followed strength and
sturdiness, thereby quells he all things quick; the strongest of all
gods and men, he has also three things of great price, the hammer
Miolnir, the best of strength belts, and when he girds that about him
waxes his god strength one-half, and his iron gloves that he may not
miss for holding his hammer's haft. Balidr is Odin's second son, and
of him it is good to say, he is fair and: bright in face, and hair, and
body, and him all praise; he is wise and fair-spoken and mild, and that
nature is in him none may withstand his doom. Tyr is daring and best of
mood; there is a saw that he is tyrstrong who is before other men and
never yields; he is also so wise that it is said he is tyrlearned who
is wise. Bragi is famous for wisdom, and best in tongue-wit, and cunning
speech, and song-craft. 'And many other are there, good and great; and
one, Loki, fair of face, ill in temper and fickle of mood, is called the
backbiter of the Asa, and speaker of evil redes and shame of all gods
and men; he has above all that craft called sleight, and cheats all
in all things. Among the children of Loki are Fenris-wolf and
Midgards-worm; the second lies about all the world in the deep sea,
holding his tail in his teeth, though some say Thor has slain him; but
Fenris-wolf is bound until the doom of the gods, when gods and men shall
come to an end, and earth and heaven be burnt, when he shall slay Odin.
After this the earth shoots up from the sea, and it is green and fair,
and the fields bear unsown, and gods and men shall be alive again, and
sit in fair halls, and talk of old tales and the tidings that
happened aforetime. The head-seat, or holiest-stead, of the gods is at
Yggdrasil's ash, which is of all trees best and biggest; its boughs are
spread over the whole world and stand above heaven; one root of the ash
is in heaven, and under the root is the right holy spring; there hold
the gods doom every day; the second root is with the Hrimthursar,
where before was Yawning-gap; under that root is Mimir's spring, where
knowledge and wit lie hidden; thither came Allfather and begged a drink,
but got it not before he left his eye in pledge; the third root is
over Niflheim, and the worm Nidhogg gnaws the root beneath. A fair hall
stands under the ash by the spring, and out of it come three maidens,
Norns, named Has-been, Being, Will-be, who shape the lives of men; there
are beside other Norns, who come to every man that is born to shape his
life, and some of these are good and some evil. In the boughs of the
ash sits an eagle, wise in much, and between his eyes sits the hawk
Vedrfalnir; the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down along the ash,
bearing words of hate betwixt the eagle and the worm. Those Norns who
abide by the holy spring draw from it every day water, and take the clay
that lies around the well, and sprinkle them up over the ash for that
its boughs should not wither or rot. All those men that have fallen in
the fight, and borne wounds and toil unto death, from the beginning of
the world, are come to Odin in Valhall; a very great throng is there,
and many more shall yet come; the flesh of the boar Soerfmnir is sodden
for them every day, and he is whole again at even; and the mead they
drink that flows from the teats of the she-goat Heidhrun. The meat Odin
has on his board he gives to his two wolves, Geri and Freki, and he
needs no meat, wine is to him both meat and drink; ravens twain sit on
his shoulders, and say into his ear all tidings that they see and hear;
they are called Huginn and Muninn (mind and memory); them sends he at
dawn to fly over the whole world, and they come back at breakfast-tide,
thereby becomes he wise in many tidings, and for this men call him
Raven's-god. Every day, when they have clothed them, the heroes put on
their arms and go out into the yard and fight and fell each other; that
is their play, and when it looks toward mealtime, then ride they home to
Valhall and sit down to drink. For murderers and men forsworn is a great
hall, and a bad, and the doors look northward; it is altogether wrought
of adder-backs like a wattled house, but the worms' heads turn into the
house, and blow venom, so that rivers of venom run along the hall, and
in those rivers must such men wade forever." There was no priest-class;
every chief was priest for his own folk, offered sacrifice, performed
ceremonies, and so on.

In politics the homestead, with its franklin-owner, was the unit; the
"thing", or hundred-moot, the primal organisation, and the "godord",
or chieftainship, its tie. The chief who had led a band of kinsmen and
followers to the new country, taken possession of land, and shared it
among them, became their head-ruler and priest at home, speaker and
president of their Thing, and their representative in any dealings with
neighbouring chiefs and their clients. He was not a feudal lord, for
any franklin could change his "godord" as he liked, and the right
of "judgment by peers" was in full use. At first there was no higher
organisation than the local thing. A central thing, and a speaker to
speak a single "law" for the whole island, was instituted in 929, and
afterwards the island was divided in four quarters, each with a court,
under the Al-thing. Society was divided only into two classes of men,
the free and unfree, though political power was in the hands of the
franklins alone; "godi" and thrall ate the same food, spoke the same
tongue, wore much the same clothes, and were nearly alike in life and
habits. Among the free men there was equality in all but wealth and the
social standing that cannot be separated therefrom. The thrall was a
serf rather than a slave, and could own a house, etc., of his own. In a
generation or so the freeman or landless retainer, if he got a homestead
of his own, was the peer of the highest in the land. During the tenth
century Greenland was colonised from Iceland, and by end of the same
century christianity was introduced into Iceland, but made at first
little difference in arrangements of society. In the thirteenth century
disputes over the power and jurisdiction of the clergy led, with other
matters, to civil war, ending in submission to Norway, and the breaking
down of all native great houses. Although life under the commonwealth
had been rough and irregular, it had been free and varied, breeding
heroes and men of mark; but the "law and order" now brought in left
all on a dead level of peasant proprietorship, without room for hope
or opening for ambition. An alien governor ruled the island, which
was divided under him into local counties, administered by sheriffs
appointed by the king of Norway. The Al-thing was replaced by a royal
court, the local work of the local things was taken by a subordinate
of the sheriff, and things, quarter-courts, trial by jury, and all the
rest, were swept away to make room for these "improvements", which have
lasted with few changes into this century. In 1380 the island passed
under the rule of Denmark, and so continues. (9) During the fifteenth
century the English trade was the only link between Iceland and the
outer world; the Danish government weakened that link as much as it
could, and sought to shut in and monopolise everything Icelandic; under
the deadening effect of such rule it is no marvel that everything found
a lower level, and many things went out of existence for lack of use.
In the sixteenth century there is little to record but the Reformation,
which did little good, if any, and the ravages of English, Gascon, and
Algerine pirates who made havoc on the coast; (10) they appear toward
the close of the century and disappear early in the seventeenth. In the
eighteenth century small-pox, sheep disease, famine, and the terrible
eruptions of 1765 and 1783, follow one another swiftly and with terrible
effect. At the beginning of the present century Iceland, however,
began to shake off the stupor her ill-hap had brought upon her, and
as European attention had been drawn to her, she was listened to.
Newspapers, periodicals, and a Useful Knowledge Society were started;
then came free trade, and the "home-rule" struggle, which met with
partial success in 1874, and is still being carried on. A colony, Gimli,
in far-off Canada, has been formed of Icelandic emigrants, and large
numbers have left their mother-land; but there are many co-operative
societies organised now, which it is hoped will be able to so revive the
old resources of the island as to make provision for the old population
and ways of life. There is now again a representative central council,
but very many of the old rights and powers have not been yet restored.
The condition of society is peculiar absence of towns, social equality,
no abject poverty or great wealth, rarity of crime, making it easy for
the whole country to be administered as a co-operative commonwealth
without the great and striking changes rendered necessary by more
complicated systems.

Iceland has always borne a high name for learning and literature; on
both sides of their descent people inherited special poetic power. Some
of older Eddaic fragments attest the great reach and deep overpowering
strength of imagination possessed by their Norse ancestors; and
they themselves had been quickened by a new leaven. During the first
generations of the "land-taking" a great school of poetry which had
arisen among the Norsemen of the Western Isles was brought by them to
Iceland. (11) The poems then produced are quite beyond parallel with
those of any Teutonic language for centuries after their date, which lay
between the beginning of the ninth and the end of the tenth centuries.
Through the Greenland colony also came two, or perhaps more, great poems
of this western school. This school grew out of the stress and storm of
the viking life, with its wild adventure and varied commerce, and the
close contact with an artistic and inventive folk, possessed of high
culture and great learning. The infusion of Celtic blood, however
slight it may have been, had also something to do with the swift intense
feeling and rapidity of passion of the earlier Icelandic poets. They
are hot-headed and hot-hearted, warm, impulsive, quick to quarrel or
to love, faithful, brave; ready with sword or song to battle with all
comers, or to seek adventure wheresoever it might be found. They leave
Iceland young, and wander at their will to different courts of northern
Europe, where they are always held in high honour. Gunnlaug Worm-tongue
(12) in 1004 came to England, after being in Norway, as the saga
says:--"Now sail Gunnlaug and his fellows into the English main, and
come at autumntide south to London Bridge, where they hauled ashore
their ship. Now, at that time King Ethelred, the son of Edgar, ruled
over England, and was a good lord; the winter he sat in London. But
in those days there was the same tongue in England as in Norway and
Denmark; but the tongues changed when William the Bastard won England,
for thenceforward French went current there, for he was of French kin.
Gunnlaug went presently to the king, and greeted him well and worthily.
The king asked him from what land he came, and Gunnlaug told him all as
it was. 'But,' said he, 'I have come to meet thee, lord, for that I have
made a song on thee, and I would that it might please thee to hearken to
that song.' The king said it should be so, and Gunnlaug gave forth the
song well and proudly, and this is the burden thereof--

     "'As God are all folk fearing
     The fire lord King of England,
     Kin of all kings and all folk,
     To Ethelred the head bow.'

The king thanked him for the song, and gave him as song-reward a scarlet
cloak lined with the costliest of furs, and golden-broidered down to
the hem; and made him his man; and Gunnlaug was with him all the winter,
and was well accounted of.

The poems in this volume are part of the wonderful fragments which
are all that remain of ancient Scandinavian poetry. Every piece which
survives has been garnered by Vigfusson and Powell in the volumes of
their "Corpus", where those who seek may find. A long and illustrious
line of poets kept the old traditions, down even to within a couple
centuries, but the earlier great harvest of song was never again
equalled. After christianity had entered Iceland, and that, with other
causes, had quieted men's lives, although the poetry which stood to the
folk in lieu of music did not die away, it lost the exclusive hold it
had upon men's minds. In a time not so stirring, when emotion was not so
fervent or so swift, when there was less to quicken the blood, the story
that had before found no fit expression but in verse, could stretch its
limbs, as it were, and be told in prose. Something of Irish influence
is again felt in this new departure and that marvellous new growth, the
saga, that came from it, but is little more than an influence. Every
people find some one means of expression which more than all else suits
their mood or their powers, and this the Icelanders found in the saga.
This was the life of a hero told in prose, but in set form, after a
regular fashion that unconsciously complied with all epical requirements
but that of verse--simple plot, events in order of time, set phrases for
even the shifting emotion or changeful fortune of a fight or storm,
and careful avoidance of digression, comment, or putting forward by
the narrator of ought but the theme he has in hand; he himself is never
seen. Something in the perfection of the saga is to be traced to the
long winter's evenings, when the whole household, gathered together at
their spinning, weaving, and so on, would listen to one of their number
who told anew some old story of adventure or achievement. In very truth
the saga is a prose epic, and marked by every quality an epic should
possess. Growing up while the deeds of dead heroes were fresh in memory,
most often recited before the sharers in such deeds, the saga, in its
pure form, never goes from what is truth to its teller. Where the saga,
as this one of the Volsungs is founded upon the debris of songs and
poems, even then very old, tales of mythological heroes, of men quite
removed from the personal knowledge of the narrator, yet the story is
so inwound with the tradition of his race, is so much a part of his
thought-life, that every actor in it has for him a real existence. At
the feast or gathering, or by the fireside, as men made nets and women
spun, these tales were told over; in their frequent repetition by men
who believed them, though incident or sequence underwent no change,
they would become closer knit, more coherent, and each an organic whole.
Gradually they would take a regular and accepted form, which would ease
the strain upon the reciter's memory and leave his mind free to adorn
the story with fair devices, that again gave help in the making it
easier to remember, and thus aided in its preservation. After a couple
of generations had rounded and polished the sagas by their telling and
retelling, they were written down for the most part between 1141 and
1220, and so much was their form impressed upon the mind of the folk,
that when learned and literary works appeared, they were written in the
same style; hence we have histories alike of kingdoms, or families, or
miracles, lives of saints, kings, or bishops in saga-form, as well as
subjects that seem at first sight even less hopeful. All sagas that have
yet appeared in English may be found in the book-list at end of this
volume, but they are not a tithe of those that remain.

Of all the stories kept in being by the saga-tellers and left for our
delight, there is none that so epitomises human experience; has within
the same space so much of nature and of life; so fully the temper and
genius of the Northern folk, as that of the Volsungs and Niblungs, which
has in varied shapes entered into the literature of many lands. In
the beginning there is no doubt that the story belonged to the common
ancestral folk of all the Teutonic of Scando-Gothic peoples in the
earliest days of their wanderings. Whether they came from the Hindu
Kush, or originated in Northern Europe, brought it with them from Asia,
or evolved it among the mountains and rivers it has taken for scenery,
none know nor can; but each branch of their descendants has it in one
form or another, and as the Icelanders were the very crown and flower of
the northern folk, so also the story which is the peculiar heritage of
that folk received in their hands its highest expression and most noble
form. The oldest shape in which we have it is in the Eddaic poems, some
of which date from unnumbered generations before the time to which most
of them are usually ascribed, the time of the viking-kingdoms in the
Western Isles. In these poems the only historical name is that of
Attila, the great Hun leader, who filled so large a part of the
imagination of the people whose power he had broken. There is no doubt
that, in the days when the kingdoms of the Scando-Goths reached from the
North Cape to the Caspian, that some earlier great king performed his
part; but, after the striking career of Attila, he became the recognised
type of a powerful foreign potentate. All the other actors are
mythic-heroic. Of the Eddaic songs only fragments now remain, but
ere they perished there arose from them a saga, that now given to the
readers of this. The so-called Anglo-Saxons brought part of the story to
England in "Beowulf"; in which also appear some incidents that are again
given in the Icelandic saga of "Grettir the Strong". Most widely known
is the form taken by the story in the hands of an unknown medieval
German poet, who, from the broken ballads then surviving wrote the
"Nibelungenlied" or more properly "Nibelungen Not" ("The Need of the
Niblungs"). In this the characters are all renamed, some being more
or less historical actors in mid-European history, as Theodoric of the
East-Goths, for instance. The whole of the earlier part of the story has
disappeared, and though Siegfried (Sigurd) has slain a dragon, there is
nothing to connect it with the fate that follows the treasure; Andvari,
the Volsungs, Fafnir, and Regin are all forgotten; the mythological
features have become faint, and the general air of the whole is that of
medieval romance. The swoard Gram is replaced by Balmung, and the Helm
of Awing by the Tarn-cap--the former with no gain, the latter with great
loss. The curse of Andvari, which in the saga is grimly real, working
itself out with slow, sure steps that no power of god or man can turn
aside, in the medieval poem is but a mere scenic effect, a strain of
mystery and magic, that runs through the changes of the story with
much added picturesqueness, but that has no obvious relation to the
working-out of the plot, or fulfilment of their destiny by the different
characters. Brynhild loses a great deal, and is a poor creature when
compared with herself in the saga; Grimhild and her fateful drink have
gone; Gudrun (Chriemhild) is much more complex, but not more tragic;
one new character, Rudiger, appears as the type of chivalry; but Sigurd
(Siegfred) the central figure, though he has lost by the omission of so
much of his life, is, as before, the embodiment of all the virtues that
were dear to northern hearts. Brave, strong, generous, dignified, and
utterly truthful, he moves amid a tangle of tragic events, overmastered
by a mighty fate, and in life or death is still a hero without stain or
flaw. It is no wonder that he survives to this day in the national songs
of the Faroe Islands and in the folk-ballads of Denmark; that his legend
should have been mingled with northern history through Ragnar Lodbrog,
or southern through Attila and Theodoric; that it should have inspired
William Morris in producing the one great English epic of the century;
(13) and Richard Wagner in the mightiest among his music-dramas. Of the
story as told in the saga there is no need here to speak, for to read
it, as may be done a few pages farther on, is that not better than to
read about it? But it may be urged upon those that are pleased and moved
by the passion and power, the strength and deep truth of it, to find out
more than they now know of the folk among whom it grew, and the land in
which they dwelt. In so doing they will come to see how needful are
a few lessons from the healthy life and speech of those days, to be
applied in the bettering of our own.

H. HALLIDAY SPARLING.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Viking (Ice. "Vikingr"; "vik", a bay or creek, "ingr",
       belonging to, (or men of) freebooters.
  (2)  "West over the Sea" is the word for the British Isles.
  (3)  See Todd (J. H.). "War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill".
  (4)  He was son of Ingiald, son of Thora, daughter of Sigurd
       Snake-I'-th'-eye, son of Ragnar Lodbrok by Aslaug, daughter
       of Sigurd by Brynhild.  The genealogy is, doubtless, quite
       mythical.
  (5)  A Collection of Sagas and other Historical Documents
       relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on
       the British Isles. Ed., G. W. Dasent, D.C.L, and Gudbrand
       Vigfusson, M.A. "In the Press. Longmans, London. 8vo.
  (6)  "Orkneyinga Saga".
  (7)  Landtaking-book--"landnam", landtaking, from "at nema
       land", hence also the early settlers were called
       "landnamsmenn".
  (8)  To all interested in the subject of comparative mythology,
       Andrew Lang's two admirable books, "Custom and Myth" (1884,
       8vo) and "Myth, Ritual, and Religion" (2 vols., crown 8vo,
       1887), both published by Longmans, London, may be warmly
       recommended.
  (9)  Iceland was granted full independence from Denmark in 1944.
       --DBK.
  (10) These pirates are always appearing about the same time in
       English State papers as plundering along the coasts of the
       British Isles, especially Ireland.
  (11) For all the old Scandinavian poetry extant in Icelandic, see
       "Corpus Poeticum Borealis" of Vigfusson and Powell.
  (12) Snake-tongue--so called from his biting satire.
  (13) "Sigurd the Volsung", which seems to have become all but
       forgotten in this century.--DBK.




TRANSLATORS' PREFACE.

In offering to the reader this translation of the most complete and
dramatic form of the great Epic of the North, we lay no claim to special
critical insight, nor do we care to deal at all with vexed questions,
but are content to abide by existing authorities, doing our utmost to
make our rendering close and accurate, and, if it might be so, at the
same time, not over prosaic: it is to the lover of poetry and nature,
rather than to the student, that we appeal to enjoy and wonder at this
great work, now for the first time, strange to say, translated into
English: this must be our excuse for speaking here, as briefly as may
be, of things that will seem to the student over well known to be worth
mentioning, but which may give some ease to the general reader who comes
across our book.

The prose of the "Volsunga Saga" was composed probably some time in the
twelfth century, from floating traditions no doubt; from songs which,
now lost, were then known, at least in fragments, to the Sagaman;
and finally from songs, which, written down about his time, are still
existing: the greater part of these last the reader will find in this
book, some inserted amongst the prose text by the original story-teller,
and some by the present translators, and the remainder in the latter
part of the book, put together as nearly as may be in the order of the
story, and forming a metrical version of the greater portion of it.

These Songs from the Elder Edda we will now briefly compare with the
prose of the Volsung Story, premising that these are the only metrical
sources existing of those from which the Sagaman told his tale.

Except for the short snatch on p. 24 (1) of our translation, nothing is
now left of these till we come to the episode of Helgi Hundings-bane,
Sigurd's half-brother; there are two songs left relating to this, from
which the prose is put together; to a certain extent they cover the same
ground; but the latter half of the second is, wisely as we think, left
untouched by the Sagaman, as its interest is of itself too great not to
encumber the progress of the main story; for the sake of its wonderful
beauty, however, we could not refrain from rendering it, and it will be
found first among the metrical translations that form the second part of
this book.

Of the next part of the Saga, the deaths of Sinfjotli and Sigmund, and
the journey of Queen Hjordis to the court of King Alf, there is no trace
left of any metrical origin; but we meet the Edda once more where Regin
tells the tale of his kin to Sigurd, and where Sigurd defeats and slays
the sons of Hunding: this lay is known as the "Lay of Regin".

The short chap. xvi. is abbreviated from a long poem called the
"Prophecy of Gripir" (the Grifir of the Saga), where the whole story
to come is told with some detail, and which certainly, if drawn out at
length into the prose, would have forestalled the interest of the tale.

In the slaying of the Dragon the Saga adheres very closely to the "Lay
of Fafnir"; for the insertion of the song of the birds to Sigurd the
present translators are responsible.

Then comes the waking of Brynhild, and her wise redes to Sigurd, taken
from the Lay of Sigrdrifa, the greater part of which, in its metrical
form, is inserted by the Sagaman into his prose; but the stanza relating
Brynhild's awaking we have inserted into the text; the latter part,
omitted in the prose, we have translated for the second part of our
book.

Of Sigurd at Hlymdale, of Gudrun's dream, the magic potion of Grimhild,
the wedding of Sigurd consequent on that potion; of the wooing of
Brynhild for Gunnar, her marriage to him, of the quarrel of the Queens,
the brooding grief and wrath of Brynhild, and the interview of Sigurd
with her--of all this, the most dramatic and best-considered parts of
the tale, there is now no more left that retains its metrical form than
the few snatches preserved by the Sagaman, though many of the incidents
are alluded to in other poems.

Chap. xxx. is met by the poem called the "Short Lay of Sigurd",
which, fragmentary apparently at the beginning, gives us something of
Brynhild's awakening wrath and jealousy, the slaying of Sigurd, and the
death of Brynhild herself; this poem we have translated entire.

The Fragments of the "Lay of Brynhild" are what is left of a poem partly
covering the same ground as this last, but giving a different account
of Sigurd's slaying; it is very incomplete, though the Sagaman has drawn
some incidents from it; the reader will find it translated in our second
part.

But before the death of the heroine we have inserted entire into the
text as chap. xxxi. the "First Lay of Gudrun", the most lyrical, the
most complete, and the most beautiful of all the Eddaic poems; a
poem that any age or language might count among its most precious
possessions.

From this point to the end of the Saga it keeps closely to the Songs of
Edda; in chap. xxxii. the Sagaman has rendered into prose the "Ancient
Lay of Gudrun", except for the beginning, which gives again another
account of the death of Sigurd: this lay also we have translated.

The grand poem, called the "Hell-ride of Brynhild", is not represented
directly by anything in the prose except that the Sagaman has supplied
from it a link or two wanting in the "Lay of Sigrdrifa"; it will be
found translated in our second part.

The betrayal and slaughter of the Giukings or Niblungs, and the fearful
end of Atli and his sons, and court, are recounted in two lays, called
the "Lays of Atli"; the longest of these, the "Greenland Lay of Atli",
is followed closely by the Sagaman; the Shorter one we have translated.

The end of Gudrun, of her daughter by Sigurd and of her sons by her last
husband Jonakr, treated of in the last four chapters of the Saga, are
very grandly and poetically given in the songs called the "Whetting of
Gudrun", and the "Lay of Hamdir", which are also among our translations.

These are all the songs of the Edda which the Sagaman has dealt with;
but one other, the "Lament of Oddrun", we have translated on account of
its intrinsic merit.

As to the literary quality of this work we in say much, but we think we
may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever
entanglement of strange manners or unused element may at first trouble
him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we
cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding,
amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such a startling realism,
such subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move
himself to-day.

In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this
Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before
been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the
North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the
Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the
world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been--a
story too--then should it be to those that come after us no less than
the Tale of Troy has been to us.

WILLIAM MORRIS and EIRIKR MAGNUSSON.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Chapter viii.--DBK.




THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS AND NIBLUNGS.



CHAPTER I. Of Sigi, the Son of Odin.

Here begins the tale, and tells of a man who was named Sigi, and called
of men the son of Odin; another man withal is told of in the tale, hight
Skadi, a great man and mighty of his hands; yet was Sigi the mightier
and the higher of kin, according to the speech of men of that time.
Now Skadi had a thrall with whom the story must deal somewhat, Bredi by
name, who was called after that work which he had to do; in prowess and
might of hand he was equal to men who were held more worthy, yea, and
better than some thereof.

Now it is to be told that, on a time, Sigi fared to the hunting of the
deer, and the thrall with him; and they hunted deer day-long till the
evening; and when they gathered together their prey in the evening, lo,
greater and more by far was that which Bredi had slain than Sigi's prey;
and this thing he much misliked, and he said that great wonder it was
that a very thrall should out-do him in the hunting of deer: so he
fell on him and slew him, and buried the body of him thereafter in a
snow-drift.

Then he went home at evening tide and says that Bredi had ridden away
from him into the wild-wood. "Soon was he out of my sight," he says,
"and naught more I wot of him."

Skadi misdoubted the tale of Sigi, and deemed that this was a guile of
his, and that he would have slain Bredi. So he sent men to seek for him,
and to such an end came their seeking, that they found him in a certain
snow-drift; then said Skadi, that men should call that snow-drift
Bredi's Drift from henceforth; and thereafter have folk followed, so
that in such wise they call every drift that is right great.

Thus it is well seen that Sigi has slain the thrall and murdered him; so
he is given forth to be a wolf in holy places, (1) and may no more abide
in the land with his father; therewith Odin bare him fellowship from the
land, so long a way, that right long it was, and made no stay till he
brought him to certain war-ships. So Sigi falls to lying out a-warring
with the strength that his father gave him or ever they parted; and
happy was he in his warring, and ever prevailed, till he brought
it about that he won by his wars land and lordship at the last; and
thereupon he took to him a noble wife, and became a great and mighty
king, and ruled over the land of the Huns, and was the greatest of
warriors. He had a son by his wife, who was called Refir, who grew up in
his father's house, and soon became great of growth, and shapely.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  "Wolf in holy places," a man put out of the pale of society
       for crimes, an outlaw.



CHAPTER II. Of the Birth of Volsung, the Son of Rerir, who was the Son
of Sigi.

Now Sigi grew old, and had many to envy him, so that at last those
turned against him whom he trusted most; yea, even the brothers of his
wife; for these fell on him at his unwariest, when there were few
with him to withstand them, and brought so many against him, that they
prevailed against him, and there fell Sigi and all his folk with him.
But Rerir, his son, was not in this trouble, and he brought together so
mighty a strength of his friends and the great men of the land, that
he got to himself both the lands and kingdom of Sigi his father; and so
now, when he deems that the feet under him stand firm in his rule, then
he calls to mind that which he had against his mother's brothers, who
had slain his father. So the king gathers together a mighty army, and
therewith falls on his kinsmen, deeming that if he made their kinship
of small account, yet none the less they had first wrought evil against
him. So he wrought his will herein, in that he departed not from strife
before he had slain all his father's banesmen, though dreadful the deed
seemed in every wise. So now he gets land, lordship, and fee, and is
become a mightier man than his father before him.

Much wealth won in war gat Rerir to himself, and wedded a wife withal,
such as he deemed meet for him, and long they lived together, but had
no child to take the heritage after them; and ill-content they both were
with that, and prayed the Gods with heart and soul that they might get
them a child. And so it is said that Odin hears their prayer, and Freyia
no less hearkens wherewith they prayed unto her: so she, never lacking
for all good counsel, calls to her her casket-bearing may, (1) the
daughter of Hrimnir the giant, and sets an apple in her hand, and bids
her bring it to the king. She took the apple, and did on her the gear of
a crow, and went flying till she came whereas the king sat on a mound,
and there she let the apple fall into the lap of the king; but he took
the apple, and deemed he knew whereto it would avail; so he goes home
from the mound to his own folk, and came to the queen, and some deal of
that apple she ate.

So, as the tale tells, the queen soon knew that she big with child, but
a long time wore or ever she might give birth to the child: so it befell
that the king must needs go to the wars, after the custom of kings, that
he may keep his own land in peace: and in this journey it came to pass
that Rerir fell sick and got his death, being minded to go home to Odin,
a thing much desired of many folk in those days.

Now no otherwise it goes with the queen's sickness than heretofore, nor
may she be the lighter of her child, and six winters wore away with the
sickness still heavy on her; so that at the last she feels that she may
not live long; wherefore now she bade cut the child from out of her; and
it was done even as she bade; a man-child was it, and great of growth
from his birth, as might well be; and they say that the youngling kissed
his mother or ever she died; but to him is a name given, and he is
called Volsung; and he was king over Hunland in the room of his father.
From his early years he was big and strong, and full of daring in all
manly deeds and trials, and he became the greatest of warriors, and of
good hap in all the battles of his warfaring.

Now when he was fully come to man's estate, Hrimnir the giant sends to
him Ljod his daughter; she of whom the tale told, that she brought the
apple to Rerir, Volsung's father. So Volsung weds her withal; and long
they abode together with good hap and great love. They had ten sons and
one daughter, and their eldest son was hight Sigmund, and their daughter
Signy; and these two were twins, and in all wise the foremost and the
fairest of the children of Volsung the king, and mighty, as all his seed
was; even as has been long told from ancient days, and in tales of long
ago, with the greatest fame of all men, how that the Volsungs have been
great men and high-minded and far above the most of men both in cunning
and in prowess and all things high and mighty.

So says the story that king Volsung let build a noble hall in such a
wise, that a big oak-tree stood therein, and that the limbs of the tree
blossomed fair out over the roof of the hall, while below stood the
trunk within it, and the said trunk did men call Branstock.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  May (A.S. "maeg"), a maid.



CHAPTER III. Of the Sword that Sigmund, Volsung's son, drew from the
Branstock.

There was a king called Siggeir, who ruled over Gothland, a mighty king
and of many folk; he went to meet Volsung, the king, and prayed him for
Signy his daughter to wife; and the king took his talk well, and his
sons withal, but she was loth thereto, yet she bade her father rule in
this as in all other things that concerned her; so the king took such
rede (1) that he gave her to him, and she was betrothed to King Siggeir;
and for the fulfilling of the feast and the wedding, was King Siggeir
to come to the house of King Volsung. The king got ready the feast
according to his best might, and when all things were ready, came the
king's guests and King Siggeir withal at the day appointed, and many a
man of great account had Siggeir with him.

The tale tells that great fires were made endlong the hall, and the
great tree aforesaid stood midmost thereof; withal folk say that, whenas
men sat by the fires in the evening, a certain man came into the hall
unknown of aspect to all men; and suchlike array he had, that over him
was a spotted cloak, and he was bare-foot, and had linen-breeches knit
tight even unto the bone, and he had a sword in his hand as he went up
to the Branstock, and a slouched hat upon his head: huge he was, and
seeming-ancient, and one-eyed. (2) So he drew his sword and smote it
into the tree-trunk so that it sank in up to the hilts; and all held
back from greeting the man. Then he took up the word, and said--

"Whoso draweth this sword from this stock, shall have the same as a gift
from me, and shall find in good sooth that never bare he better sword in
hand than is this."

Therewith out went the old man from the hall, and none knew who he was
or whither he went.

Now men stand up, and none would fain be the last to lay hand to the
sword, for they deemed that he would have the best of it who might first
touch it; so all the noblest went thereto first, and then the others,
one after other; but none who came thereto might avail to pull it out,
for in nowise would it come away howsoever they tugged at it; but now up
comes Sigmund, King Volsung's son, and sets hand to the sword, and pulls
it from the stock, even as if it lay loose before him; so good that
weapon seemed to all, that none thought he had seen such a sword before,
and Siggeir would fain buy it of him at thrice its weight of gold, but
Sigmund said--

"Thou mightest have taken the sword no less than I from there whereas it
stood, if it had been thy lot to bear it; but now, since it has first of
all fallen into my hand, never shalt thou have it, though thou biddest
therefor all the gold thou hast."

King Siggeir grew wroth at these words, and deemed Sigmund had answered
him scornfully, but whereas was a wary man and a double-dealing, he
made as if he heeded this matter in nowise, yet that same evening he
thought how he might reward it, as was well seen afterwards.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Rede (A.S. raed), counsel, advice, a tale or prophecy.
  (2)  The man is Odin, who is always so represented, because he
       gave his eye as a pledge for a draught from the fountain of
       Mimir, the source of all wisdom.



CHAPTER IV. How King Siggeir wedded Signy, and bade King Volsung and his
son to Gothland.

Now it is to be told that Siggeir goes to bed by Signy that night, and
the next morning the weather was fair; then says King Siggeir that he
will not bide, lest the wind should wax, or the sea grow impassable;
nor is it said that Volsung or his sons letted him herein, and that the
less, because they saw that he was fain to get him gone from the feast.
But now says Signy to her father--

"I have no will to go away with Seggeir; neither does my heart smile
upon him, and I wot; by my fore-knowledge, and from the fetch (1) of our
kin, that from this counsel will great evil fall on us if this wedding
be not speedily undone."

"Speak in no such wise, daughter!" said he, "for great shame will it be
to him, yea, and to us also, to break troth with him, he being sackless;
(2) and in naught may we trust him, and no friendship shall we have of
him, if these matters are broken off; but he will pay us back in as evil
wise as he may; for that alone is seemly, to hold truly to troth given."

So King Siggeir got ready for home, and before he went from the feast he
bade King Volsung, his father-in-law, come see him in Gothland, and all
his sons with him, whenas three months should be overpast, and to bring
such following with him, as he would have; and as he deemed meet for his
honour; and thereby will Siggeir the king pay back for the shortcomings
of the wedding-feast, in that he would abide thereat but one night only,
a thing not according to the wont of men. So King Volsung gave word to
come on the day named, and the kinsmen-in-law parted, and Siggeir went
home with his wife.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Fetch; wraith, or familiar spirit.
  (2)  Sackless (A.S. "sacu", Icel. "sok".) blameless.



CHAPTER V. Of the Slaying of King Volsung.

Now tells the tale of King Volsung and his sons that they go at the time
appointed to Gothland at the bidding of King Siggeir, and put off from
the land in three ships, all well manned, and have a fair voyage, and
made Gothland late of an evening tide.

But that same night came Signy and called her father and brothers to a
privy talk, and told them what she deemed King Siggeir was minded to do,
and how that he had drawn together an army no man may meet. "And," says
she, "he is minded to do guilefully by you; wherefore I bid you get
ye gone back again to your own land, and gather together the mightiest
power ye may, and then come back hither and avenge you; neither go ye
now to your undoing, for ye shall surely fail not to fall by his wiles
if ye turn not on him even as I bid you."

Then spake Volsung the king, "All people and nations shall tell of the
word I spake, yet being unborn, wherein I vowed a vow that I would flee
in fear from neither fire nor the sword; even so have I done hitherto,
and shall I depart therefrom now I am old? Yea withal never shall the
maidens mock these my sons at the games, and cry out at them that they
fear death; once alone must all men need die, and from that season shall
none escape; so my rede is that we flee nowhither, but do the work of
our hands in as manly wise as we may; a hundred fights have I fought,
and whiles I had more, and whiles I had less, and yet ever had I the
victory, nor shall it ever be heard tell of me that I fled away or
prayed for peace."

Then Signy wept right sore, and prayed that she might not go back to
King Siggeir, but King Volsung answered--

"Thou shalt surely go back to thine husband, and abide with him,
howsoever it fares with us."

So Signy went home, and they abode there that night; but in the morning,
as soon as it was day, Volsung bade his men arise and go aland and make
them ready for battle; so they went aland, all of them all-armed, and
had not long to wait before Siggeir fell on them with all his army, and
the fiercest fight there was betwixt them; and Siggeir cried on his men
to the onset all he might; and so the tale tells that King Volsung and
his sons went eight times right through Siggeir's folk that day, smiting
and hewing on either hand, but when they would do so even once again,
King Volsung fell amidst his folk and all his men withal, saving his ten
sons, for mightier was the power against them than they might withstand.

But now are all his sons taken, and laid in bonds and led away; and
Signy was ware withal that her father was slain, and her brothers taken
and doomed to death; that she called King Siggeir apart to talk with
her, and said--

"This will I pray of thee, that thou let not slay my brothers hastily,
but let them be set awhile in the stocks, for home to me comes the saw
that says, "Sweet to eye while seen": but longer life I pray not for
them, because I wot well that my prayer will not avail me."

Then answered Siggeir:

"Surely thou art mad and witless, praying thus for more bale for thy
brothers than their present slaying; yet this will I grant thee, for the
better it likes me the more they must bear, and the longer their pain is
or ever death come to them."

Now he let it be done even as she prayed, and a mighty beam was brought
and set on the feet of those ten brethren in a certain place of the
wild-wood, and there they sit day-long until night; but at midnight, as
they sat in the stocks, there came on them a she-wolf from out the wood;
old she was, and both great and evil of aspect; and the first thing she
did was to bite one of those brethren till he died, and then she ate him
up withal, and went on her way.

But the next morning Signy sent a man to the brethren, even one whom she
most trusted, to wot of the tidings; and when he came back he told her
that one of them was dead, and great and grievous she deemed it, if they
should all fare in like wise, and yet naught might she avail them.

Soon is the tale told thereof: nine nights together came the she-wolf
at midnight, and each night slew and ate up one of the brethren, until
all were dead, save Sigmund only; so now, before the tenth night came,
Signy sent that trusty man to Sigmund, her brother, and gave honey into
his hand, bidding him do it over Sigmund's face, and set a little deal
of it in his mouth; so he went to Sigmund and did as he was bidden, and
then came home again; and so the next night came the she-wolf according
to her wont, and would slay him and eat him even as his brothers; but
now she sniffs the breeze from him, whereas he was anointed with the
honey, and licks his face all over with her tongue, and then thrusts
her tongue into the mouth of him. No fear he had thereof, but caught
the she-wolf's tongue betwixt his teeth, and so hard she started back
thereat, and pulled herself away so mightily, setting her feet against
the stocks, that all was riven asunder; but he ever held so fast that the
tongue came away by the roots, and thereof she had her bane.

But some men say that this same she-wolf was the mother of King
Siggeir, who had turned herself into this likeness by troll's lore and
witchcraft.



CHAPTER VI. Of how Signy sent the Children of her and Siggeir to
Sigmund.

Now whenas Sigmund is loosed and the stocks are broken, he dwells in the
woods and holds himself there; but Signy sends yet again to wot of the
tidings, whether Sigmund were alive or no; but when those who were sent
came to him, he told them all as it had betid, and how things had gone
betwixt him and the wolf; so they went home and tell Signy the tidings;
but she goes and finds her brother, and they take counsel in such wise
as to make a house underground in the wild-wood; and so things go on a
while, Signy hiding him there, and sending him such things as he needed;
but King Siggeir deemed that all the Volsungs were dead.

Now Siggeir had two sons by his wife, whereof it is told that when the
eldest was ten winters old, Signy sends him to Sigmund, so that he might
give him help, if he would in any wise strive to avenge his father;
so the youngling goes to the wood, and comes late in evening-tide to
Sigmund's earth-house; and Sigmund welcomed him in seemly fashion, and
said that he should make ready their bread; "But I," said he, "will go
seek firewood."

Therewith he gives the meal-bag into his hands while he himself went to
fetch firing; but when he came back the youngling had done naught at the
bread-making. Then asks Sigmund if the bread be ready--

Says the youngling, "I durst not set hand to the meal sack, because
somewhat quick lay in the meal."

Now Sigmund deemed he wotted that the lad was of no such heart as that
he would be fain to have him for his fellow; and when he met his sister,
Sigmund said that he had come no nigher to the aid of a man though the
youngling were with him.

Then said Signy, "Take him and kill him then; for why should such an one
live longer?" and even so he did.

So this winter wears, and the next winter Signy sent her next son to
Sigmund; and there is no need to make a long tale thereof, for in like
wise went all things, and he slew the child by the counsel of Signy.



CHAPTER VII. Of the Birth of Sinfjotli the Son of Sigmund.

So on a tide it befell as Signy sat in her bower, that there came to her
a witch-wife exceeding cunning, and Signy talked with her in such wise,
"Fain am I," says she, "that we should change semblances together."

She says, "Even as thou wilt then."

And so by her wiles she brought it about that they changed semblances,
and now the witch-wife sits in Signy's place according to her rede, and
goes to bed by the king that night, and he knows not that he has other
than Signy beside him.

But the tale tells of Signy, that she fared to the earth-house of her
brother, and prayed him give her harbouring for the night; "For I have
gone astray abroad in the woods, and know not whither I am going."

So he said she might abide, and that he would not refuse harbour to one
lone woman, deeming that she would scarce pay back his good cheer by
tale-bearing: so she came into the house, and they sat down to meat,
and his eyes were often on her, and a goodly and fair woman she seemed
to him; but when they are full, then he says to her, that he is right
fain that they should have but one bed that night; she nowise turned
away therefrom, and so for three nights together he laid her in bed by
him.

Thereafter she fared home, and found the witch-wife and bade her change
semblances again, and she did so.

Now as time wears, Signy brings forth a man-child, who was named
Sinfjotli, and when he grew up he was both big and strong, and fair of
face, and much like unto the kin of the Volsungs, and he was hardly yet
ten winters old when she sent him to Sigmund's earth-house; but this
trial she had made of her other sons or ever she had sent them to
Sigmund, that she had sewed gloves on to their hands through flesh and
skin, and they had borne it ill and cried out thereat; and this she now
did to Sinfjotli, and he changed countenance in nowise thereat. Then she
flayed off the kirtle so that the skin came off with the sleeves, and
said that this would be torment enough for him; but he said--

"Full little would Volsung have felt such a smart this."

So the lad came to Sigmund, and Sigmund bade him knead their meal up,
while he goes to fetch firing; so he gave him the meal-sack, and then
went after the wood, and by then he came back had Sinfjotli made an end
of his baking. Then asked Sigmund if he had found nothing in the meal.

"I misdoubted me that there was something quick in the meal when I first
fell to kneading of it, but I have kneaded it all up together, both the
meal and that which was therein, whatsoever it was."

Then Sigmund laughed out, he said--

"Naught wilt thou eat of this bread to-night, for the most deadly of
worms (1) hast thou kneaded up therewith."

Now Sigmund was so mighty a man that he might eat venom and have no hurt
therefrom; but Sinfjotli might abide whatso venom came on the outside of
him, but might neither eat nor drink thereof.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Serpents.



CHAPTER VIII. The Death of King Siggeir and of Signy.

The tale tells that Sigmund thought Sinfjotli over young to help him to
his revenge, and will first of all harden him with manly deeds; so in
summer-tide they fare wide through the woods and slay men for their
wealth; Sigmund deems him to take much after the kin of the Volsungs,
though he thinks that he is Siggeir's son, and deems him to have the
evil heart of his father, with the might and daring of the Volsungs;
withal he must needs think him in no wise a kinsome man, for full oft
would he bring Sigmund's wrongs to his memory, and prick him on to slay
King Siggeir.

Now on a time as they fare abroad in the wood for the getting of wealth,
they find a certain house, and two men with great gold rings asleep
therein: now these twain were spell-bound skin-changers, (1) and
wolf-skins were hanging up over them in the house; and every tenth
day might they come out of those skins; and they were kings' sons: so
Sigmund and Sinfjofli do the wolf-skins on them, and then might they
nowise come out of them, though forsooth the same nature went with them
as heretofore; they howled as wolves howl, but both knew the meaning of
that howling; they lay out in the wild-wood, and each went his way; and
a word they made betwixt them, that they should risk the onset of seven
men, but no more, and that he who was first to be set on should howl in
wolfish wise: "Let us not depart from this," says Sigmund, "for thou art
young and over-bold, and men will deem the quarry good, when they take
thee."

Now each goes his way, and when they were parted, Sigmund meets certain
men, and gives forth a wolf's howl; and when Sinfjotli heard it, he went
straightway thereto, and slew them all, and once more they parted. But
ere Sinfjotli has fared long through the woods, eleven men meet him,
and he wrought in such wise that he slew them all, and was awearied
therewith, and crawls under an oak, and there takes his rest. Then came
Sigmund thither, and said--

"Why didst thou not call on me?"

Sinfjotli said, "I was loth to call for thy help for the slaying of
eleven men."

Then Sigmund rushed at him so hard that he staggered and fell, and
Sigmund bit him in the throat. Now that day they might not come out of
their wolf-skins: but Sigmund lays the other on his back, and bears
him home to the house, and cursed the wolf-gears and gave them to the
trolls. Now on a day he saw where two weasels went, and how that one bit
the other in the throat, and then ran straightway into the thicket, and
took up a leaf and laid it on the wound, and thereon his fellow sprang
up quite and clean whole; so Sigmund went out and saw a raven flying
with a blade of that same herb to him; so he took it and drew it over
Sinfjotli's hurt, and he straightway sprang up as whole as though he had
never been hurt. Thereafter they went home to their earth-house, and
abode there till the time came for them to put off the wolf-shapes; then
they burnt them up with fire, and prayed that no more hurt might come
to any one from them; but in that uncouth guise they wrought many famous
deeds in the kingdom and lordship of King Siggeir.

Now when Sinfjotli was come to man's estate, Sigmund deemed he had tried
him fully, and or ever a long time has gone by he turns his mind to the
avenging of his father, if so it may be brought about; so on a certain
day the twain get them gone from their earth-house, and come to the
abode of King Siggeir late in the evening, and go into the porch before
the hall, wherein were tuns of ale, and there they lie hid: now the
queen is ware of them, where they are, and is fain to meet them; and
when they met they took counsel, and were of one mind that Volsung should
be revenged that same night.

Now Signy and the king had two children of tender age, who played with
a golden toy on the floor, and bowled it along the pavement of the hall,
running along with it; but therewith a golden ring from off it trundles
away into the place where Sigmund and Sinfjotli lay, and off runs the
little one to search for the same, and beholds withal where two men are
sitting, big and grimly to look on, with overhanging helms and bright
white byrnies; (2) so he runs up the hall to his father, and tells him
of the sight he has seen, and thereat the king misdoubts of some guile
abiding him; but Signy heard their speech, and arose and took both the
children, and went out into the porch to them and said--

"Lo ye! These younglings have bewrayed you; come now therefore and slay
them!"

Sigmund says, "Never will I slay thy children for telling of where I lay
hid."

But Sinfjotli made little enow of it, but drew his sword and slew them
both, and cast them into the hall at King Siggeir's feet.

Then up stood the king and cried on his men to take those who had lain
privily in the porch through the night. So they ran thither and would
lay hands on them, but they stood on their defence well and manly, and
long he remembered it who was the nighest to them; but in the end they
were borne down by many men and taken, and bonds were set upon them, and
they were cast into fetters wherein they sit night long.

Then the king ponders what longest and worst of deaths he shall mete out
to them; and when morning came he let make a great barrow of stones and
turf; and when it was done, let set a great flat stone midmost inside
thereof, so that one edge was aloft, the other alow; and so great it was
that it went from wall to wall, so that none might pass it.

Now he bids folk take Sigmund and Sinfjotli and set them in the barrow,
on either side of the stone, for the worse for them he deemed it, that
they might hear each the other's speech, and yet that neither might pass
one to the other. But now, while they were covering in the barrow with
the turf-slips, thither came Signy, bearing straw with her, and cast it
down to Sinfjotli, and bade the thralls hide this thing from the king;
they said yea thereto, and therewithal was the barrow closed in.

But when night fell, Sinfjotli said to Sigmund, "Belike we shall scarce
need meat for a while, for here has the queen cast swine's flesh into
the barrow, and wrapped it round about on the outer side with straw."

Therewith he handles the flesh and finds that therein was thrust
Sigmund's sword; and he knew it by the hilts, as mirk as it might be in
the barrow, and tells Sigmund thereof, and of that were they both fain
enow.

Now Sinfjotli drave the point of the sword up into the big stone, and
drew it hard along, and the sword bit on the stone. With that Sigmund
caught the sword by the point, and in this wise they sawed the stone
between them, and let not or all the sawing was done that need be done,
even as the song sings:

     "Sinfjotli sawed
     And Sigmund sawed,
     Atwain with main
     The stone was done."

Now are they both together loose in the barrow, and soon they cut both
through stone and through iron, and bring themselves out thereof. Then
they go home to the hall, whenas all men slept there, and bear wood to
the hall, and lay fire therein; and withal the folk therein are waked by
the smoke, and by the hall burning over their heads.

Then the king cries out, "Who kindled this fire, I burn withal?"

"Here am I," says Sigmund, "with Sinfjotli, my sister's son; and we are
minded that thou shalt wot well that all the Volsungs are not yet dead."

Then he bade his sister come out, and take all good things at his hands,
and great honour, and fair atonement in that wise, for all her griefs.

But she answered, "Take heed now, and consider, if I have kept King
Siggeir in memory, and his slaying of Volsung the king! I let slay both
my children, whom I deemed worthless for the revenging of our father,
and I went into the wood to thee in a witch-wife's shape; and now
behold, Sinfjotli is the son of thee and of me both! and therefore has
he this so great hardihood and fierceness, in that he is the son both of
Volsung's son and Volsung's daughter; and for this, and for naught else,
have I so wrought, that Siggeir might get his bane at last; and all
these things have I done that vengeance might fall on him, and that I
too might not live long; and merrily now will I die with King Siggeir,
though I was naught merry to wed him."

Therewith she kissed Sigmund her brother, and Sinfjotli, and went back
again into the fire, and there she died with King Siggeir and all his
good men.

But the two kinsmen gathered together folk and ships, and Sigmund went
back to his father's land, and drave away thence the king, who had set
himself down there in the room of king Volsung.

So Sigmund became a mighty King and far-famed, wise and high-minded: he
had to wife one named Borghild, and two sons they had between them, one
named Helgi and the other Hamund; and when Helgi was born, Norns came to
him, (3) and spake over him, and said that he should be in time to come
the most renowned of all kings. Even therewith was Sigmund come home
from the wars, and so therewith he gives him the name of Helgi, and
these matters as tokens thereof, Land of Rings, Sun-litten Hill, and
Sharp-shearing Sword, and withal prayed that he might grow of great
fame, and like unto the kin of the Volsungs.

And so it was that he grew up high-minded, and well-beloved, and above
all other men in all prowess; and the story tells that he went to the
wars when he was fifteen winters old. Helgi was lord and ruler over the
army, but Sinfjotli was gotten to be his fellow herein; and so the twain
bare sway thereover.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  "Skin-changers" were universally believed in once, in
       Iceland no less than elsewhere, as see Ari in several places
       of his history, especially the episode of Dufthach and
       Storwolf o' Whale.  Men possessing the power of becoming
       wolves at intervals, in the present case compelled so to
       become, wer-wolves or "loupsgarou", find large place in
       medieval story, but were equally well-known in classic
       times.  Belief in them still lingers in parts of Europe
       where wolves are to be found.  Herodotus tells of the Neuri,
       who assumed once a year the shape of wolves; Pliny says that
       one of the family of Antaeus, chosen by lot annually, became
       a wolf, and so remained for nine years; Giraldus Cambrensis
       will have it that Irishmen may become wolves; and Nennius
       asserts point-blank that "the descendants of wolves are
       still in Ossory;" they retransform themselves into wolves
       when they bite.  Apuleius, Petronius, and Lucian have
       similar stories.  The Emperor Sigismund convoked a council
       of theologians in the fifteenth century who decided that
       wer-wolves did exist.
  (2)  Byrny (A.S. "byrne"), corslet, cuirass.
  (3)  "Norns came to him."  Nornir are the fates of the northern
       mythology.  They are three--"Urd", the past; "Verdandi",
       the present; and "Skuld", the future.  They sit beside the
       fountain of Urd ("Urdarbrunur"), which is below one of the
       roots of "Yggdrasil", the world-tree, which tree their
       office it is to nourish by sprinkling it with the waters of
       the fountain.



CHAPTER IX. How Helgi, the son of Sigmund, won King Hodbrod and his
Realm, and wedded Sigrun.

Now the tale tells that Helgi in his warring met a king hight Hunding,
a mighty king, and lord of many men and many lands; they fell to battle
together, and Helgi went forth mightily, and such was the end of that
fight that Helgi had the victory, but King Hunding fell and many of his
men with him; but Helgi is deemed to have grown greatly in fame because
he had slain so mighty a king.

Then the sons of Hunding draw together a great army to avenge their
father. Hard was the fight betwixt them; but Helgi goes through the
folk of those brothers unto their banner, and there slays these sons
of Hunding, Alf and Eyolf, Herward and Hagbard, and wins there a great
victory.

Now as Helgi fared from the fight, he met a many women right fair and
worthy to look on, who rode in exceeding noble array; but one far
excelled them all; then Helgi asked them the name of that their lady and
queen, and she named herself Sigrun, and said she was daughter of King
Hogni.

Then said Helgi, "Fare home with us: good welcome shall ye have!"

Then said the king's daughter, "Other work lies before us than to drink
with thee."

"Yea, and what work, king's daughter?" said Helgi.

She answers, "King Hogni has promised me to Hodbrod, the son of King
Granmar, but I have vowed a vow that I will have him to my husband no
more than if he were a crow's son and not a king's; and yet will the
thing come to pass, but and if thou standest in the way thereof, and
goest against him with an army, and takest me away withal; for verily
with no king would I rather bide on bolster than with thee."

"Be of good cheer, king's daughter," says he, "for certes he and I shall
try the matter, or ever thou be given to him; yea, we shall behold which
may prevail against the other; and hereto I pledge my life."

Thereafter, Helgi sent men with money in their hands to summon his folk
to him, and all his power is called together to Red-Berg: and there
Helgi abode till such time as a great company came to him from Hedinsey;
and therewithal came mighty power from Norvi Sound aboard great and fair
ships. Then King Helgi called to him the captain of his ships, who was
hight Leif, and asked him if he had told over the tale of his army.

"A thing not easy to tell, lord," says he, "on the ships that came out
of Norvi Sound are twelve thousand men, and otherwhere are half as many
again."

Then bade King Helgi turn into the firth, called Varin's firth, and they
did so: but now there fell on them so fierce a storm and so huge a sea,
that the beat of the waves on board and bow was to hearken to like as
the clashing together of high hills broken.

But Helgi bade men fear naught, nor take in any sail, but rather hoist
every rag higher than heretofore; but little did they miss of foundering
or ever they made land; then came Sigrun, daughter of King Hogni, down
on to the beach with a great army, and turned them away thence to a good
haven called Gnipalund; but the landsmen see what has befallen and
come down to the sea-shore. The brother of King Hodbrod, lord of a land
called Swarin's Cairn, cried out to them, and asked them who was captain
over that mighty army. Then up stands Sinfjotli, with a helm on his
head, bright shining as glass, and a byrny as white as snow; a spear
in his hand, and thereon a banner of renown, and a gold-rimmed shield
hanging before him; and well he knew with what words to speak to kings--

"Go thou and say, when thou hast made an end of feeding thy swine and
thy dogs, and when thou beholdest thy wife again, that here are come
the Volsungs, and in this company may King Helgi be found, if Hodbrod
be fain of finding him, for his game and his joy it is to fight and win
fame, while thou art kissing the handmaids by the fire-side."

Then answered Granmar, "In nowise knowest thou how to speak seemly
things, and to tell of matters remembered from of old, whereas thou
layest lies on chiefs and lords; most like it is that thou must have
long been nourished with wolf-meat abroad in the wild-woods, and has
slain thy brethren; and a marvel it is to behold that thou darest to
join thyself to the company of good men and true, thou, who hast sucked
the blood of many a cold corpse."

Sinfjotli answered, "Dim belike is grown thy memory now, of how thou
wert a witch-wife on Varinsey, and wouldst fain have a man to thee, and
chose me to that same office of all the world; and how thereafter thou
wert a Valkyria (1) in Asgarth, and it well-nigh came to this, that for
thy sweet sake should all men fight; and nine wolf whelps I begat on thy
body in Lowness, and was the father to them all."

Granmar answers, "Great skill of lying hast thou; yet belike the father
of naught at all mayst thou be, since thou wert gelded by the giant's
daughters of Thrasness; and lo thou art the stepson of King Siggeir, and
were wont to lie abroad in wilds and woods with the kin of wolves; and
unlucky was the hand wherewith thou slewest thy brethren, making for
thyself an exceeding evil name."

Said Sinfjotli, "Mindest thou not then, when thou were stallion Grani's
mare, and how I rode thee an amble on Bravoll, and that afterwards thou
wert giant Golnir's goat-herd?"

Granmar says, "Rather would I feed fowls with the flesh of thee than
wrangle any longer with thee."

Then spake King Helgi, "Better were it for ye, and a more manly deed, to
fight, rather than to speak such things as it is a shame even to hearken
to; Granmar's sons are no friends of me and of mine, yet are they hardy
men none the less."

So Granmar rode away to meet King Hodbrod, at a stead called Sunfells,
and the horses of the twain were named Sveipud and Sveggjud. The
brothers met in the castle-porch, and Granmar told Hodbrod of the
war-news. King Hodbrod was clad in a byrny, and had his helm on his
head; he asked--

"What men are anigh, why look ye so wrathful?"

Granmar says, "Here are come the Volsungs, and twelve thousand men of
them are afloat off the coast, and seven thousand are at the island
called Sok, but at the stead called Grindur is the greatest company of
all, and now I deem withal that Helgi and his fellowship have good will
to give battle."

Then said the king, "Let us send a message through all our realm, and go
against them, neither let any who is fain of fight sit idle at home; let
us send word to the sons of Ring, and to King Hogni, and to Alf the Old,
for they are mighty warriors."

So the hosts met at Wolfstone, and fierce fight befell there; Helgi
rushed forth through the host of his foes, and many a man fell there; at
last folk saw a great company of shield-maidens, like burning flames to
look on, and there was come Sigrun, the king's daughter. Then King Helgi
fell on King Hodbrod, and smote him, and slew him even under his very
banner; and Sigrun cried out--

"Have thou thanks for thy so manly deed! now shall we share the land
between us, and a day of great good hap this is to me, and for this deed
shalt thou get honour and renown, in that thou hast felled to earth so
mighty a king."

So Helgi took to him that realm and dwelt there long, when he had wedded
Sigrun, and became a king of great honour and renown, though he has
naught more to do with this story.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Valkyrja, "Chooser of the elected."  The women were so
       called whom Odin sent to choose those for death in battle
       who were to join the "Einherjar" in the hall of the elected,
       "Val-holl."



CHAPTER X. The ending of Sinfjotli, Sigmund's Son.

Now the Volsungs fare back home, and have gained great renown by these
deeds. But Sinfjotli betook himself to warfare anew; and therewith he
had sight of an exceeding fair woman, and yearned above all things for
her; but that same woman was wooed also of the brother of Borghild, the
king's wife: and this matter they fought out betwixt them, and Sinfjotli
slew that king; and thereafter he harried far and wide, and had many
a battle and even gained the day; and he became hereby honoured and
renowned above all men; but in autumn tide he came home with many ships
and abundant wealth.

Then he told his tidings to the king his father, and he again to the
queen, and she for her part bids him get him gone from the realm, and
made as if she would in nowise see him. But Sigmund said he would not
drive him away, and offered her atonement of gold and great wealth for
her brother's life, albeit he said he had never erst given weregild
(1) to any for the slaying of a man, but no fame it was to uphold wrong
against a woman.

So seeing she might not get her own way herein, she said, "Have thy will
in this matter, O my lord, for it is seemly so to be."

And now she holds the funeral feast for her brother by the aid and
counsel of the king, and makes ready all things therefor or in the best of
wise, and bade thither many great men.

At that feast, Borghild the queen bare the drink to folk, and she came
over against Sinfjofli with a great horn, and said--

"Fall to now and drink, fair stepson!"

Then he took the horn to him, and looked therein, and said--

"Nay, for the drink is charmed drink"

Then said Sigmund, "Give it unto me then;" and therewith he took the
horn and drank it off.

But the queen said to Sinfjotli, "Why must other men needs drink thine
ale for thee?" And she came again the second time with the horn, and
said, "Come now and drink!" and goaded him with many words.

And he took the horn, and said--

"Guile is in the drink."

And thereon, Sigmund cried out--

"Give it then unto me!"

Again, the third time, she came to him, and bade him drink off his
drink, if he had the heart of a Volsung; then he laid hand on the horn,
but said--

"Venom is therein."

"Nay, let the lip strain it out then, O son," quoth Sigmund; and by then
was he exceeding drunk with drink, and therefore spake he in that wise.

So Sinfjotli drank, and straightway fell down dead to the ground.

Sigmund rose up, and sorrowed nigh to death over him; then he took the
corpse in his arms and fared away to the wood, and went till he came to
a certain firth; and there he saw a man in a little boat; and that man
asked if he would be wafted by him over the firth, and he said yea
thereto; but so little was the boat, that they might not all go in it
at once, so the corpse was first laid therein, while Sigmund went by
the firth-side. But therewith the boat and the man therein vanished away
from before Sigmund's eyes. (2)

So thereafter Sigmund turned back home, and drave away the queen, and a
little after she died. But Sigmund the king yet ruled his realm, and is
deemed ever the greatest champion and king of the old law.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Weregild, fine for man-slaying ("wer", man, and "gild", a
       payment).
  (2)  The man in the boat is Odin, doubtless.



CHAPTER XI. Of King Sigmund's last Battle, and of how he must yield up his
Sword again.

There was a king called Eylimi, mighty and of great fame, and his
daughter was called Hjordis, the fairest and wisest of womankind; and
Sigmund hears it told of her that she was meet to be his wife, yea if
none else were. So he goes to the house of King Eylimi, who would make
a great feast for him, if so be he comes not thither in the guise of
a foe. So messages were sent from one to the other that this present
journey was a peaceful one, and not for war; so the feast was held in
the best of wise and with many a man thereat; fairs were in every place
established for King Sigmund, and all things else were done to the aid
and comfort of his journey: so he came to the feast, and both kings hold
their state in one hall; thither also was come King Lyngi, son of King
Hunding, and he also is a-wooing the daughter of King Eylimi.

Now the king deemed he knew that the twain had come thither but for one
errand, and thought withal that war and trouble might be looked for
from the hands of him who brought not his end about; so he spake to his
daughter, and said--

"Thou art a wise woman, and I have spoken it, that thou alone shalt
choose a husband for thyself; choose therefore between these two kings,
and my rede shall be even as thine."

"A hard and troublous matter," says she; "yet will I choose him who is
of greatest fame, King Sigmund to wife, albeit he is well stricken in
years."

So to him was she betrothed, and King Lyngi gat him gone. Then was
Sigmund wedded to Hjordis, and now each day was the feast better and
more glorious than on the day before it. But thereafter Sigmund went
back home to Hunland, and King Eylimi, his father-in-law, with him, and
King Sigmund betakes himself to the due ruling of his realm.

But King Lyngi and his brethren gather an army together to fall on
Sigmund, for as in all matters they were wont to have the worser lot,
so did this bite the sorest of all; and they would fain prevail over the
might and pride of the Volsungs. So they came to Hunland, and sent King
Sigmund word how that they would not steal upon him, and that they deemed
he would scarce slink away from them. So Sigmund said he would come and
meet them in battle, and drew his power together; but Hjordis was borne
into the wood with a certain bondmaid, and mighty wealth went with them;
and there she abode the while they fought.

Now the vikings rushed from their ships in numbers not to be borne up
against, but Sigmund the King, and Eylimi, set up their banners, and the
horns blew up to battle; but King Sigmund let blow the horn his father
erst had had, and cheered on his men to the fight, but his army was far
the fewest.

Now was that battle fierce and fell, and though Sigmund were old, yet
most hardily he fought, and was ever the foremost of his men; no shield
or byrny might hold against him, and he went ever through the ranks
of his foemen on that day, and no man might see how things would fare
between them; many an arrow and many a spear was aloft in air that day,
and so his spae-wrights wrought for him that he got no wound, and none
can tell over the tale of those who fell before him, and both his arms
were red with blood, even to the shoulders.

But now whenas the battle had dured a while, there came a man into
the fight clad in a blue cloak, and with a slouched hat on his head,
one-eyed he was, (1) and bare a bill in his hand; and he came against
Sigmund the King, and have up his bill against him, and as Sigmund smote
fiercely with the sword it fell upon the bill and burst asunder in the
midst: thenceforth the slaughter and dismay turned to his side, for the
good-hap of King Sigmund had departed from him, and his men fell fast
about him; naught did the king spare himself, but the rather cheered on
his men; but even as the saw says, "No might 'gainst many", so was it
now proven; and in this fight fell Sigmund the King, and King Eylimi,
his father-in-law, in the fore-front of their battle, and therewith the
more part of their folk.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Odin coming to change the ownership of the sword he had
       given Sigmund. See Chapter 3.



CHAPTER XII. Of the Shards of the Sword Gram, and how Hjordis went to
King Alf.

Now King Lyngi made for the king's abode, and was minded to take the
king's daughter there, but failed herein, for there he found neither
wife nor wealth: so he fared through all the realm, and gave his men
rule thereover, and now deemed that he had slain all the kin of the
Volsungs, and that he need dread them no more from henceforth.

Now Hjordis went amidst the slain that night of the battle, and came
whereas lay King Sigmund, and asked if he might be healed; but he
answered--

"Many a man lives after hope has grown little; but my good-hap has
departed from me, nor will I suffer myself to be healed, nor wills Odin
that I should ever draw sword again, since this my sword and his is
broken; lo now, I have waged war while it was his will."

"Naught ill would I deem matters," said she, "if thou mightest be healed
and avenge my father."

The king said, "That is fated for another man; behold now, thou art
great with a man-child; nourish him well and with good heed, and the
child shall be the noblest and most famed of all our kin: and keep well
withal the shards of the sword: thereof shall a goodly sword be made,
and it shall be called Gram, and our son shall bear it, and shall work
many a great work therewith, even such as eld shall never minish; for
his name shall abide and flourish as long as the world shall endure: and
let this be enow for thee. But now I grow weary with my wounds, and I
will go see our kin that have gone before me."

So Hjordis sat over him till he died at the day-dawning; and then she
looked, and behold, there came many ships sailing to the land: then she
spake to the handmaid--

"Let us now change raiment, and be thou called by my name, and say that
thou art the king's daughter."

And thus they did; but now the vikings behold the great slaughter of men
there, and see where two women fare away thence into the wood; and they
deem that some great tidings must have befallen, and they leaped ashore
from out their ships. Now the captain of these folks was Alf, son of
Hjalprek, king of Denmark, who was sailing with his power along the
land. So they came into the field among the slain, and saw how many men
lay dead there; then the king bade go seek for the women and bring
them thither, and they did so. He asked them what women they were; and,
little as the thing seems like to be, the bondmaid answered for the
twain, telling of the fall of King Sigmund and King Eylimi, and many
another great man, and who they were withal who had wrought the deed.
Then the king asks if they wotted where the wealth of the king was
bestowed; and then says the bondmaid--

"It may well be deemed that we know full surely thereof."

And therewith she guides them to the place where the treasure lay: and
there they found exceeding great wealth; so that men deem they have
never seen so many things of price heaped up together in one place. All
this they bore to the ships of King Alf, and Hjordis and the bondmaid
went with them. Therewith these sail away to their own realm, and talk
how that surely on that field had fallen the most renowned of kings.

So the king sits by the tiller, but the women abide in the forecastle;
but talk he had with the women and held their counsels of much account.

In such wise the king came home to his realm with great wealth, and he
himself was a man exceeding goodly to look on. But when he had been but
a little while at home, the queen, his mother, asked him why the fairest
of the two women had the fewer rings and the less worthy attire.

"I deem," she said, "that she whom ye have held of least account is the
noblest of the twain."

He answered: "I too have misdoubted me, that she is little like a
bondwoman, and when we first met, in seemly wise she greeted noble men.
Lo now, we will make a trial of the thing."

So on a time as men sat at the drink, the king sat down to talk with the
women, and said:--

"In what wise do ye note the wearing of the hours, whenas night grows
old, if ye may not see the lights of heaven?"

Then says the bondwoman, "This sign have I, that whenas in my youth I
was wont to drink much in the dawn, so now when I no longer use that
manner, I am yet wont to wake up at that very same tide, and by that
token do I know thereof."

Then the king laughed and said, "Ill manners for a king's daughter!" And
therewith he turned to Hjordis, and asked her even the same question;
but she answered--

"My father erst gave me a little gold ring of such nature, that it
groweth cold on my finger in the day-dawning; and that is the sign that
I have to know thereof."

The king answered: "Enow of gold there, where a very bondmaid bore it!
But come now, thou hast been long enow hid from me; yet if thou hadst
told me all from the beginning, I would have done to thee as though we
had both been one king's children: but better than thy deeds will I deal
with thee, for thou shalt be my wife, and due jointure will I pay thee
whenas thou hast borne me a child."

She spake therewith and told out the whole truth about herself: so there
was she held in great honour, and deemed the worthiest of women.



CHAPTER XIII. Of the Birth and Waxing of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane.

The tale tells that Hjordis brought forth a man-child, who was
straightly borne before King Hjalprek, and then was the king glad
thereof, when he saw the keen eyes in the head of him, and he said that
few men would be equal to him or like unto him in any wise. So he was
sprinkled with water, and had to name Sigurd, of whom all men speak
with one speech and say that none was ever his like for growth and
goodliness. He was brought up in the house of King Hjalprek in great
love and honour; and so it is, that whenso all the noblest men and
greatest kings are named in the olden tales, Sigurd is ever put before
them all, for might and prowess, for high mind and stout heart, wherewith
he was far more abundantly gifted than any man of the northern parts of
the wide world.

So Sigurd waxed in King Hjalprek's house, and there was no child but
loved him; through him was Hjordis betrothed to King Alf, and jointure
meted to her.

Now Sigurd's foster-father was hight Regin, the son of Hreidmar; he
taught him all manner of arts, the chess play, and the lore of runes,
and the talking of many tongues, even as the wont was with kings' sons
in those days. But on a day when they were together, Regin asked Sigurd,
if he knew how much wealth his father had owned, and who had the ward
thereof; Sigurd answered, and said that the kings kept the ward thereof.

Said Regin, "Dost thou trust them all utterly?"

Sigurd said, "It is seemly that they keep it till I may do somewhat
therewith, for better they wot how to guard it than I do."

Another time came Regin to talk to Sigurd, and said--

"A marvellous thing truly that thou must needs be a horse-boy to the
kings, and go about like a running knave."

"Nay," said Sigurd, "it is not so, for in all things I have my will, and
whatso thing I desire is granted me with good will."

"Well, then," said Regin, "ask for a horse of them."

"Yea," quoth Sigurd, "and that shall I have, whenso I have need
thereof."

Thereafter Sigurd went to the king, and the king said--

"What wilt thou have of us?"

Then said Sigurd, "I would even a horse of thee for my disport."

Then said the king, "Choose for thyself a horse, and whatso thing else
thou desirest among my matters."

So the next day went Sigurd to the wood, and met on the way an old man,
long-bearded, that he knew not, who asked him whither away.

Sigurd said, "I am minded to choose me a horse; come thou, and counsel
me thereon."

"Well then," said he, "go we and drive them to the river which is called
Busil-tarn."

They did so, and drave the horses down into the deeps of the river, and
all swam back to land but one horse; and that horse Sigurd chose for
himself; grey he was of hue, and young of years, great of growth, and
fair to look on, nor had any man yet crossed his back.

Then spake the grey-beard, "From Sleipnir's kin is this horse come, and
he must be nourished heedfully, for it will be the best of all horses;"
and therewithal he vanished away.

So Sigurd called the horse Grani, the best of all the horses of the
world; nor was the man he met other than Odin himself.

Now yet again spake Regin to Sigurd, and said--

"Not enough is thy wealth, and I grieve right sore that thou must needs
run here and there like a churl's son; but I can tell thee where there
is much wealth for the winning, and great name and honour to be won in
the getting of it."

Sigurd asked where that might be, and who had watch and ward over it.

Regin answered, "Fafnir is his name, and but a little way hence he lies,
on the waste of Gnita-heath; and when thou comest there thou mayst well
say that thou hast never seen more gold heaped together in one place,
and that none might desire more treasure, though he were the most
ancient and famed of all kings."

"Young am I," says Sigurd, "yet know I the fashion of this worm, and how
that none durst go against him, so huge and evil is he."

Regin said, "Nay it is not so, the fashion and the growth of him is even
as of other lingworms, (1) and an over great tale men make of it; and
even so would thy forefathers have deemed; but thou, though thou be of
the kin of the Volsungs, shalt scarce have the heart and mind of those,
who are told of as the first in all deeds of fame."

Sigurd said, "Yea, belike I have little of their hardihood and prowess,
but thou hast naught to do, to lay a coward's name upon me, when I
am scarce out of my childish years. Why dost thou egg me on hereto so
busily?"

Regin said, "Therein lies a tale which I must needs tell thee."

"Let me hear the same," said Sigurd.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Lingworm--longworm, dragon.



CHAPTER XIV. Regin's tale of his Brothers, and of the Gold called
Andvari's Hoard.

"The tale begins," said Regin. "Hreidmar was my father's name, a mighty
man and a wealthy: and his first son was named Fafnir, his second Otter,
and I was the third, and the least of them all both for prowess and good
conditions, but I was cunning to work in iron, and silver, and gold,
whereof I could make matters that availed somewhat. Other skill my
brother Otter followed, and had another nature withal, for he was a
great fisher, and above other men herein; in that he had the likeness of
an otter by day, and dwelt ever in the river, and bare fish to bank
in his mouth, and his prey would he ever bring to our father, and that
availed him much: for the most part he kept him in his otter-gear, and
then he would come home, and eat alone, and slumbering, for on the
dry land he might see naught. But Fafnir was by far the greatest and
grimmest, and would have all things about called his.

"Now," says Regin, "there was a dwarf called Andvari, who ever abode in
that force, (1) which was called Andvari's force, in the likeness of a
pike, and got meat for himself, for many fish there were in the force;
now Otter, my brother, was ever wont to enter into the force, and bring
fish aland, and lay them one by one on the bank. And so it befell that
Odin, Loki, and Hoenir, as they went their ways, came to Andvari's
force, and Otter had taken a salmon, and ate it slumbering upon the
river bank; then Loki took a stone and cast it at Otter, so that he gat
his death thereby; the gods were well content with their prey, and
fell to flaying off the otter's skin; and in the evening they came to
Hreidmar's house, and showed him what they had taken: thereon he laid
hands on them, and doomed them to such ransom, as that they should fill
the otter skin with gold, and cover it over without with red gold; so
they sent Loki to gather gold together for them; he came to Ran, (2)
and got her net, and went therewith to Andvari's force, and cast the net
before the pike, and the pike ran into the net and was taken. Then said
Loki--

       "'What fish of all fishes,
       Swims strong in the flood,
     But hath learnt little wit to beware?
       Thine head must thou buy,
       From abiding in hell,
     And find me the wan waters flame.'

He answered--

       "'Andvari folk call me,
       Call Oinn my father,
     Over many a force have I fared;
       For a Norn of ill-luck,
       This life on me lay
     Through wet ways ever to wade.'

"So Loki beheld the gold of Andvari, and when he had given up the gold,
he had but one ring left, and that also Loki took from him; then
the dwarf went into a hollow of the rocks, and cried out, that that
gold-ring, yea and all the gold withal, should be the bane of every man
who should own it thereafter.

"Now the gods rode with the treasure to Hreidmar, and fulfilled the
otter-skin, and set it on its feet, and they must cover it over utterly
with gold: but when this was done then Hreidmar came forth, and beheld
yet one of the muzzle hairs, and bade them cover that withal; then Odin
drew the ring, Andvari's loom, from his hand, and covered up the hair
therewith; then sang Loki--

       "'Gold enow, gold enow,
       A great weregild, thou hast,
     That my head in good hap I may hold;
       But thou and thy son
       Are naught fated to thrive,
     The bane shall it be of you both.'

"Thereafter," says Regin, "Fafnir slew his father and murdered him, nor
got I aught of the treasure, and so evil he grew, that he fell to lying
abroad, and begrudged any share in the wealth to any man, and so became
the worst of all worms, and ever now lies brooding upon that treasure:
but for me, I went to the king and became his master-smith; and thus is
the tale told of how I lost the heritage of my father, and the weregild
for my brother."

So spake Regin; but since that time gold is called Ottergild, and for no
other cause than this.

But Sigurd answered, "Much hast thou lost, and exceeding evil have thy
kinsmen been! But now, make a sword by thy craft, such a sword as that
none can be made like unto it; so that I may do great deeds therewith,
if my heart avail thereto, and thou wouldst have me slay this mighty
dragon."

Regin says, "Trust me well herein; and with that same sword shalt thou
slay Fafnir."


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Waterfall (Ice. "foss", "fors").
  (2)  Ran is the goddess of the sea, wife of Aegir.  The otter was
       held sacred by Norsefolk and figures in the myth and legend
       of most races besides; to this day its killing is held a
       great crime by the Parsees (Haug. "Religion of the Parsees",
       page 212).  Compare penalty above with that for killing the
       Welsh king's cat ("Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales".
       Ed., Aneurin Owen. Longman, London, 1841, 2 vols. 8vo).



CHAPTER XV. Of the Welding together of the Shards of the Sword Gram.

So Regin makes a sword, and gives it into Sigurd's hands. He took the
sword, and said--

"Behold thy smithying, Regin!" and therewith smote it into the anvil,
and the sword brake; so he cast down the brand, and bade him forge a
better.

Then Regin forged another sword, and brought it to Sigurd, who looked
thereon.

Then said Regin, "Belike thou art well content therewith, hard master
though thou be in smithying."

So Sigurd proved the sword, and brake it even as the first; then he said
to Regin--

"Ah, art thou, mayhappen, a traitor and a liar like to those former kin
of thine?"

Therewith he went to his mother, and she welcomed him in seemly wise,
and they talked and drank together.

Then spake Sigurd, "Have I heard aright, that King Sigmund gave thee the
good sword Gram in two pieces?"

"True enough," she said.

So Sigurd said, "Deliver them into my hands, for I would have them."

She said he looked like to win great fame, and gave him the sword.
Therewith went Sigurd to Regin, and bade him make a good sword thereof
as he best might; Regin grew wroth thereat, but went into the smithy
with the pieces of the sword, thinking well meanwhile that Sigurd pushed
his head far enow into the matter of smithying. So he made a sword, and
as he bore it forth from the forge, it seemed to the smiths as though
fire burned along the edges thereof. Now he bade Sigurd take the sword,
and said he knew not how to make a sword if this one failed. Then Sigurd
smote it into the anvil, and cleft it down to the stock thereof, and
neither burst the sword nor brake it. Then he praised the sword much,
and thereafter went to the river with a lock of wool, and threw it up
against the stream, and it fell asunder when it met the sword. Then was
Sigurd glad, and went home.

But Regin said, "Now whereas I have made the sword for thee, belike thou
wilt hold to thy troth given, and wilt go meet Fafnir?"

"Surely will I hold thereto," said Sigurd, "yet first must I avenge my
father."

Now Sigurd the older he grew, the more he grew in the love of all men,
so that every child loved him well.



CHAPTER XVI. The prophecy of Grifir.

There was a man hight Grifir,(1) who was Sigurd's mother's brother, and
a little after the forging of the sword Sigurd went to Grifir, because
he was a man who knew things to come, and what was fated to men: of him
Sigurd asked diligently how his life should go; but Grifir was long
or he spake, yet at the last, by reason of Sigurd's exceeding great
prayers, he told him all his life and the fate thereof, even as
afterwards came to pass. So when Grifir had told him all even as he
would, he went back home; and a little after he and Regin met.

Then said Regin, "Go thou and slay Fafnir, even as thou hast given thy
word."

Sigurd said, "That work shall be wrought; but another is first to be
done, the avenging of Sigmund the king and the other of my kinsmen who
fell in that their last fight."


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Called "Gripir" in the Edda.



CHAPTER XVII. Of Sigurd's Avenging of Sigmund his Father.

Now Sigurd went to the kings, and spake thus--

"Here have I abode a space with you, and I owe you thanks and reward,
for great love and many gifts and all due honour; but now will I away
from the land and go meet the sons of Hunding, and do them to wit that
the Volsungs are not all dead; and your might would I have to strengthen
me therein."

So the kings said that they would give him all things soever that
he desired, and therewith was a great army got ready, and all things
wrought in the most heedful wise, ships and all war-gear, so that his
journey might be of the stateliest: but Sigurd himself steered the
dragon-keel which was the greatest and noblest; richly wrought were
their sails, and glorious to look on.

So they sail and have wind at will; but when a few days were overpast,
there arose a great storm on the sea, and the waves were to behold even
as the foam of men's blood; but Sigurd bade take in no sail, howsoever
they might be riven, but rather to lay on higher than heretofore. But
as they sailed past the rocks of a ness, a certain man hailed the ships,
and asked who was captain over that navy; then was it told him that the
chief and lord was Sigurd, the son of Sigmund, the most famed of all the
young men who now are.

Then said the man, "Naught but one thing, certes, do all say of him, that
none among the sons of kings may be likened unto him; now fain were I
that ye would shorten sail on some of the ships, and take me aboard."

Then they asked him of his name, and he sang--

     "Hnikar I hight,
     When I gladdened Huginn,
     And went to battle,
     Bright son of Volsung;
     Now may ye call
     The carl on the cliff top,
     Feng or Fjolnir:
     Fain would I with you."

They made for land therewith, and took that man aboard.

Then quoth Sigurd,(1) as the song says--

       "Tell me this, O Hnikar,
       Since full well thou knowest
     Fate of Gods, good and ill of mankind,
       What best our hap foresheweth,
       When amid the battle
     About us sweeps the sword edge."

Quoth Hnikar--

       "Good are many tokens
       If thereof men wotted
     When the swords are sweeping:
       Fair fellow deem I
       The dark-winged raven,
     In war, to weapon-wielder.

       "The second good thing:
       When abroad thou goest
     For the long road well arrayed,
       Good if thou seest
       Two men standing,
     Fain of fame within the forecourt.

       "A third thing:
       Good hearing,
       The wolf a howling
     Abroad under ash boughs;
       Good hap shalt thou have
       Dealing with helm-staves,
     If thou seest these fare before thee.

       "No man in fight
       His face shall turn
       Against the moon's sister
       Low, late-shining,
       For he winneth battle
       Who best beholdeth
       Through the midmost sword-play,
       And the sloping ranks best shapeth.

       "Great is the trouble
       Of foot ill-tripping,
     When arrayed for fight thou farest,
       For on both sides about
       Are the D?sir (2) by thee,
     Guileful, wishful of thy wounding.

       "Fair-combed, well washen
       Let each warrior be,
     Nor lack meat in the morning,
       For who can rule
       The eve's returning,
     And base to fall before fate grovelling."

Then the storm abated, and on they fared till they came aland in the
realm of Hunding's sons, and then Fjolnir vanished away.

Then they let loose fire and sword, and slew men and burnt their abodes,
and did waste all before them: a great company of folk fled before the
face of them to Lyngi the King, and tell him that men of war are in the
land, and are faring with such rage and fury that the like has never
been heard of; and that the sons of King Hunding had no great forecast
in that they said they would never fear the Volsungs more, for here was
come Sigurd, the son of Sigmund, as captain over this army.

So King Lyngi let send the war-message all throughout his realm, and has
no will to flee, but summons to him all such as would give him aid. So
he came against Sigurd with a great army, he and his brothers with him,
and an exceeding fierce fight befell; many a spear and many an arrow
might men see there raised aloft, axes hard driven, shields cleft and
byrnies torn, helmets were shivered, skulls split atwain, and many a man
felled to the cold earth.

And now when the fight has long dured in such wise, Sigurd goes forth
before the banners, and has the good sword Gram in his hand, and smites
down both men and horses, and goes through the thickest of the throng
with both arms red with blood to the shoulder; and folk shrank aback
before him wheresoever he went, nor would either helm or byrny hold
before him, and no man deemed he had ever seen his like. So a long while
the battle lasted, and many a man was slain, and furious was the onset;
till at last it befell, even as seldom comes to hand, when a land army
falls on, that, do whatso they might, naught was brought about; but so
many men fell of the sons of Hunding that the tale of them may not be
told; and now whenas Sigurd was among the foremost, came the sons of
Hunding against him, and Sigurd smote therewith at Lyngi the king, and
clave him down, both helm and head, and mail-clad body, and thereafter
he smote Hjorward his brother atwain, and then slew all the other sons
of Hunding who were yet alive, and the more part of their folk withal.

Now home goes Sigurd with fair victory won, and plenteous wealth and
great honour, which he had gotten to him in this journey, and feasts
were made for him against he came back to the realm.

But when Sigurd had been at home but a little, came Regin to talk with
him, and said--

"Belike thou wilt now have good will to bow down Fafnir's crest
according to thy word plighted, since thou hast thus revenged thy father
and the others of thy kin."

Sigurd answered, "That will we hold to, even as we have promised, nor
did it ever fall from our memory."


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  This and verses following were inserted from the "Reginsmal"
       by the translators.
  (2)  "D?sir", sing. "D?s".  These are the guardian beings who
       follow a man from his birth to his death.  The word
       originally means sister, and is used throughout the Eddaic
       poems as a dignified synonym for woman, lady.



CHAPTER XVIII. Of the Slaying of the Worm Fafnir.

Now Sigurd and Regin ride up the heath along that same way wherein
Fafnir was wont to creep when he fared to the water; and folk say that
thirty fathoms was the height of that cliff along which he lay when he
drank of the water below. Then Sigurd spake:

"How sayedst thou, Regin, that this drake (1) was no greater than other
lingworms; methinks the track of him is marvellous great?"

Then said Regin, "Make thee a hole, and sit down therein, and whenas
the worm comes to the water, smite him into the heart, and so do him to
death, and win thee great fame thereby."

But Sigurd said, "What will betide me if I be before the blood of the
worm?"

Says Regin, "Of what avail to counsel thee if thou art still afeard of
everything? Little art thou like thy kin in stoutness of heart."

Then Sigurd rides right over the heath; but Regin gets him gone, sore
afeard.

But Sigurd fell to digging him a pit, and whiles he was at that work,
there came to him an old man with a long beard, and asked what he
wrought there, and he told him.

Then answered the old man and said, "Thou doest after sorry counsel:
rather dig thee many pits, and let the blood run therein; but sit thee
down in one thereof, and so thrust the worm's heart through."

And therewithal he vanished away; but Sigurd made the pits even as it
was shown to him.

Now crept the worm down to his place of watering, and the earth shook
all about him, and he snorted forth venom on all the way before him as
he went; but Sigurd neither trembled nor was adrad at the roaring of
him. So whenas the worm crept over the pits, Sigurd thrust his sword
under his left shoulder, so that it sank in up to the hilts; then up
leapt Sigurd from the pit and drew the sword back again unto him, and
therewith was his arm all bloody, up to the very shoulder.

Now when that mighty worm was ware that he had his death-wound, then he
lashed out head and tail, so that all things soever that were before him
were broken to pieces.

So whenas Fafnir had his death-wound, he asked "Who art thou? And who is
thy father? And what thy kin, that thou wert so hardy as to bear weapons
against me?"

Sigurd answered, "Unknown to men is my kin. I am called a noble beast:
(2) neither father have I nor mother, and all alone have I fared
hither."

Said Fafnir, "Whereas thou hast neither father nor mother, of what
wonder wert thou born then? But now, though thou tellest me not thy name
on this my death-day, yet thou knowest verily that thou liest unto me."

He answered, "Sigurd am I called, and my father was Sigmund."

Says Fafnir, "Who egged thee on to this deed, and why wouldst thou be
driven to it? Hadst thou never heard how that all folk were adrad of
me, and of the awe of my countenance? But an eager father thou hadst, O
bright eyed swain!"

Sigurd answered, "A hardy heart urged me on hereto; and a strong hand
and this sharp sword, which well thou knowest now, stood me in stead in
the doing of the deed; 'Seldom hath hardy eld a faint-heart youth.'"

Fafnir said, "Well, I wot that hadst thou waxed amid thy kin, thou
mightest have good skill to slay folk in thine anger; but more of a
marvel is it, that thou, a bondsman taken in war, shouldst have the
heart to set on me, 'for few among bondsmen have heart for the fight.'"

Said Sigurd, "Wilt thou then cast it in my teeth that I am far away from
my kin? Albeit I was a bondsman, yet was I never shackled. God wot thou
hast found me free enow."

Fafnir answered, "In angry wise dost thou take my speech; but hearken,
for that same gold which I have owned shall be thy bane too."

Quoth Sigurd, "Fain would we keep all our wealth til that day of days;
yet shall each man die once for all."

Said Fafnir, "Few things wilt thou do after my counsel; but take heed
that thou shalt be drowned if thou farest unwarily over the sea; so bide
thou rather on the dry land, for the coming of the calm tide."

Then said Sigurd, "Speak, Fafnir, and say, if thou art so exceeding
wise, who are the Norns who rule the lot of all mothers' sons."

Fafnir answers, "Many there be and wide apart; for some are of the kin
of the Aesir, and some are of Elfin kin, and some there are who are
daughters of Dvalin."

Said Sigurd, "How namest thou the holm whereon Surt (3) and the Aesir
mix and mingle the water of the sword?"

"Unshapen is that holm hight," said Fafnir.

And yet again he said, "Regin, my brother, has brought about my end,
and it gladdens my heart that thine too he bringeth about; for thus will
things be according to his will."

And once again he spake, "A countenance of terror I bore up before all
folk, after that I brooded over the heritage of my brother, and on every
side did I spout out poison, so that none durst come anigh me, and of
no weapon was I adrad, nor ever had I so many men before me, as that
I deemed myself not stronger than all; for all men were sore afeard of
me."

Sigurd answered and said, "Few may have victory by means of that same
countenance of terror, for whoso comes amongst many shall one day find
that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all."

Then says Fafnir, "Such counsel I give thee, that thou take thy horse
and ride away at thy speediest, for ofttimes it falls out so, that he
who gets a death-wound avenges himself none the less."

Sigurd answered, "Such as thy redes are I will nowise do after them;
nay, I will ride now to thy lair and take to me that great treasure of
thy kin."

"Ride there then," said Fafnir, "and thou shalt find gold enow to
suffice thee for all thy life-days; yet shall that gold be thy bane, and
the bane of every one soever who owns it."

Then up stood Sigurd, and said, "Home would I ride and lose all that
wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; but
every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that
last day; but thou, Fafnir, wallow in the death-pain till Death and Hell
have thee."

And therewithal Fafnir died.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Lat. "draco", a dragon.
  (2)  "Unknown to men is my kin."  Sigurd refusing to tell his
       name is to be referred to the superstition that a dying man
       could throw a curse on his enemy.
  (3)  Surt; a fire-giant, who will destroy the world at the
       Ragnarok, or destruction of all things.  Aesir; the gods.



CHAPTER XIX. Of the Slaying of Regin, Son of Hreidmar.

Thereafter came Regin to Sigurd, and said, "Hail, lord and master, a
noble victory hast thou won in the slaying of Fafnir, whereas none durst
heretofore abide in the path of him; and now shall this deed of fame be
of renown while the world stands fast."

Then stood Regin staring on the earth a long while, and presently
thereafter spake from heavy mood: "Mine own brother hast thou slain, and
scarce may I be called sackless of the deed."

Then Sigurd took his sword Gram and dried it on the earth, and spake to
Regin--

"Afar thou faredst when I wrought this deed and tried this sharp sword
with the hand and the might of me; with all the might and main of a
dragon must I strive, while thou wert laid alow in the heather-bush,
wotting not if it were earth or heaven."

Said Regin, "Long might this worm have lain in his lair, if the sharp
sword I forged with my hand had not been good at need to thee; had that
not been, neither thou nor any man would have prevailed against him as
at this time."

Sigurd answers, "Whenas men meet foes in fight, better is stout heart
than sharp sword."

Then said Regin, exceeding heavily, "Thou hast slain my brother, and
scarce may I be sackless of the deed."

Therewith Sigurd cut out the heart of the worm with the sword called
Ridil; but Regin drank of Fafnir's blood, and spake, "Grant me a boon,
and do a thing little for thee to do. Bear the heart to the fire, and
roast it, and give me thereof to eat."

Then Sigurd went his ways and roasted it on a rod; and when the blood
bubbled out he laid his finger thereon to essay it, if it were fully
done; and then he set his finger in his mouth, and lo, when the
heart-blood of the worm touched his tongue, straightway he knew the
voice of all fowls, and heard withal how the wood-peckers chattered in
the brake beside him--

"There sittest thou, Sigurd, roasting Fafnir's heart for another, that
thou shouldest eat thine ownself, and then thou shouldest become the
wisest of all men."

And another spake: "There lies Regin, minded to beguile the man who
trusts in him."

But yet again said the third, "Let him smite the head from off him then,
and be only lord of all that gold."

And once more the fourth spake and said, "Ah, the wiser were he if he
followed after that good counsel, and rode thereafter to Fafnir's lair,
and took to him that mighty treasure that lieth there, and then rode
over Hindfell, whereas sleeps Brynhild; for there would he get great
wisdom. Ah, wise he were, if he did after your redes, and bethought him
of his own weal; 'for where wolf's ears are, wolf's teeth are near.'"

Then cried the fifth: "Yea, yea, not so wise is he as I deem him, if he
spareth him, whose brother he hath slain already."

At last spake the sixth: "Handy and good rede to slay him, and be lord
of the treasure!"

Then said Sigurd, "The time is unborn wherein Regin shall be my bane;
nay, rather one road shall both these brothers fare."

And therewith he drew his sword Gram and struck off Regin's head.

Then heard Sigurd the wood-peckers a-singing, even as the song says. (1)

For the first sang:

     "Bind thou, Sigurd,
     The bright red rings!
     Not meet it is
     Many things to fear.
     A fair may know I,
     Fair of all the fairest
     Girt about with gold,
     Good for thy getting."

And the second:

     "Green go the ways
     Toward the hall of Giuki
     That the fates show forth
     To those who fare thither;
     There the rich king
     Reareth a daughter;
     Thou shalt deal, Sigurd,
     With gold for thy sweetling."

And the third:

     "A high hall is there
     Reared upon Hindfell,
     Without all around it
     Sweeps the red flame aloft.
     Wise men wrought
     That wonder of halls
     With the unhidden gleam
     Of the glory of gold."

Then the fourth sang:

     "Soft on the fell
     A shield-may sleepeth
     The lime-trees' red plague
     Playing about her:
     The sleep-thorn set Odin
     Into that maiden
     For her choosing in war
     The one he willed not.

     "Go, son, behold
     That may under helm
     Whom from battle
     Vinskornir bore,
     From her may not turn
     The torment of sleep.
     Dear offspring of kings
     In the dread Norns' despite."

Then Sigurd ate some deal of Fafnir's heart, and the remnant he kept.
Then he leapt on his horse and rode along the trail of the worm Fafnir,
and so right unto his abiding-place; and he found it open, and beheld
all the doors and the gear of them that they were wrought of iron: yea,
and all the beams of the house; and it was dug down deep into the earth:
there found Sigurd gold exceeding plenteous, and the sword Rotti; and
thence he took the Helm of Awe, and the Gold Byrny, and many things
fair and good. So much gold he found there, that he thought verily that
scarce might two horses, or three belike, bear it thence. So he took
all the gold and laid it in two great chests, and set them on the horse
Grani, and took the reins of him, but nowise will he stir, neither will
he abide smiting. Then Sigurd knows the mind of the horse, and leaps on
the back of him, and smites and spurs into him, and off the horse goes
even as if he were unladen.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  The Songs of the Birds were inserted from "Reginsmal" by the
       translators.



CHAPTER XX. Of Sigurd's Meeting with Brynhild on the Mountain.

By long roads rides Sigurd, till he comes at the last up on to Hindfell,
and wends his way south to the land of the Franks; and he sees before
him on the fell a great light, as of fire burning, and flaming up even
unto the heavens; and when he came thereto, lo, a shield-hung castle
before him, and a banner on the topmost thereof: into the castle went
Sigurd, and saw one lying there asleep, and all-armed. Therewith he
takes the helm from off the head of him, and sees that it is no man, but
a woman; and she was clad in a byrny as closely set on her as though it
had grown to her flesh; so he rent it from the collar downwards; and then
the sleeves thereof, and ever the sword bit on it as if it were cloth.
Then said Sigurd that over-long had she lain asleep; but she asked--

"What thing of great might is it that has prevailed to rend my byrny,
and draw me from my sleep?"

Even as sings the song: (1)

     "What bit on the byrny,
     Why breaks my sleep away,
     Who has turned from me
     My wan tormenting?"

"Ah, is it so, that here is come Sigurd Sigmundson, bearing Fafnir's
helm on his head and Fafnir's bane in his hand?"

Then answered Sigurd--

     "Sigmund's son
     With Sigurd's sword
     E'en now rent down
     The raven's wall."

"Of the Volsung's kin is he who has done the deed; but now I have heard
that thou art daughter of a mighty king, and folk have told us that thou
wert lovely and full of lore, and now I will try the same."

Then Brynhild sang--

     "Long have I slept
     And slumbered long,
     Many and long are the woes of mankind,
     By the might of Odin
     Must I bide helpless
     To shake from off me the spells of slumber.

     "Hail to the day come back!
     Hail, sons of the daylight!
     Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter!
     Look with kind eyes a-down,
     On us sitting here lonely,
     And give unto us the gain that we long for.

     "Hail to the Aesir,
     And the sweet Asyniur! (2)
     Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty!
     Fair words, wise hearts,
     Would we win from you,
     And healing hands while life we hold."

Then Brynhild speaks again and says, "Two kings fought, one hight Helm
Gunnar, an old man, and the greatest of warriors, and Odin had promised
the victory unto him; but his foe was Agnar, or Audi's brother: and so
I smote down Helm Gunnar in the fight; and Odin, in vengeance for that
deed, stuck the sleep-thorn into me, and said that I should never
again have the victory, but should be given away in marriage; but
thereagainst I vowed a vow, that never would I wed one who knew the
name of fear."

Then said Sigurd, "Teach us the lore of mighty matters!"

She said, "Belike thou cannest more skill in all than I; yet will I
teach thee; yea, and with thanks, if there be aught of my cunning that
will in anywise pleasure thee, either of runes or of other matters that
are the root of things; but now let us drink together, and may the Gods
give to us twain a good day, that thou mayst win good help and fame
from my wisdom, and that thou mayst hereafter mind thee of that which we
twain speak together."

Then Brynhild filled a beaker and bore it to Sigurd, and gave him the
drink of love, and spake--

       "Beer bring I to thee,
       Fair fruit of the byrnies' clash,
       Mixed is it mightily,
       Mingled with fame,
       Brimming with bright lays
       And pitiful runes,
       Wise words, sweet words,
       Speech of great game.

       "Runes of war know thou,
       If great thou wilt be!
     Cut them on hilt of hardened sword,
       Some on the brand's back,
       Some on its shining side,
     Twice name Tyr therein.

       "Sea-runes good at need,
       Learnt for ship's saving,
     For the good health of the swimming horse;
       On the stern cut them,
       Cut them on the rudder-blade
     And set flame to shaven oar:
       Howso big be the sea-hills,
       Howso blue beneath,
     Hail from the main then comest thou home.

       "Word-runes learn well
       If thou wilt that no man
     Pay back grief for the grief thou gavest;
       Wind thou these,
       Weave thou these,
     Cast thou these all about thee,
       At the Thing,
       Where folk throng,
     Unto the full doom faring.

       "Of ale-runes know the wisdom
       If thou wilt that another's wife
     Should not bewray thine heart that trusteth:
       Cut them on the mead-horn,
       On the back of each hand,
     And nick an N upon thy nail.

       "Ale have thou heed
       To sign from all harm
     Leek lay thou in the liquor,
       Then I know for sure
       Never cometh to thee,
     Mead with hurtful matters mingled.

       "Help-runes shalt thou gather
       If skill thou wouldst gain
     To loosen child from low-laid mother;
       Cut be they in hands hollow,
       Wrapped the joints round about;
     Call for the Good-folks' gainsome helping.

       "Learn the bough-runes wisdom
       If leech-lore thou lovest;
     And wilt wot about wounds' searching
       On the bark be they scored;
       On the buds of trees
     Whose boughs look eastward ever.

       "Thought-runes shalt thou deal with
       If thou wilt be of all men
     Fairest-souled wight, and wisest,
       These areded
       These first cut
     These first took to heart high Hropt.

     "On the shield were they scored
     That stands before the shining God,
     On Early-waking's ear,
     On All-knowing's hoof,
     On the wheel which runneth
     Under Rognir's chariot;
     On Sleipnir's jaw-teeth,
     On the sleigh's traces.

     "On the rough bear's paws,
     And on Bragi's tongue,
     On the wolf's claws,
     And on eagle's bill,
     On bloody wings,
     And bridge's end;
     On loosing palms,
     And pity's path:

     "On glass, and on gold,
     And on goodly silver,
     In wine and in wort,
     And the seat of the witch-wife;
     On Gungnir's point,
     And Grani's bosom;
     On the Norn's nail,
     And the neb of the night-owl.

       "All these so cut,
       Were shaven and sheared,
     And mingled in with holy mead,
     And sent upon wide ways enow;
       Some abide with the Elves,
       Some abide with the Aesir,
     Or with the wise Vanir,
     Some still hold the sons of mankind.

       "These be the book-runes,
       And the runes of good help,
     And all the ale-runes,
     And the runes of much might;
       To whomso they may avail,
       Unbewildered unspoilt;
     They are wholesome to have:
     Thrive thou with these then.
     When thou hast learnt their lore,
     Till the Gods end thy life-days.

       "Now shalt thou choose thee
       E'en as choice is bidden,
     Sharp steel's root and stem,
       Choose song or silence;
       See to each in thy heart,
     All hurt has been heeded."

Then answered Sigurd--

     "Ne'er shall I flee,
     Though thou wottest me fey;
     Never was I born for blenching,
     Thy loved rede will I
       Hold aright in my heart
     Even as long as I may live."


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  The stanzas on the two following pages were inserted here
       from "Sigrdrifasmal" by the translators.
  (2)  Goddesses.



CHAPTER XXI. More Wise Words of Brynhild.

Sigurd spake now, "Sure no wiser woman than thou art one may be found in
the wide world; yea, yea, teach me more yet of thy wisdom!"

She answers, "Seemly is it that I do according to thy will, and show
thee forth more redes of great avail, for thy prayer's sake and thy
wisdom;" and she spake withal--

"Be kindly to friend and kin, and reward not their trespasses against
thee; bear and forbear, and win for thee thereby long enduring praise of
men.

"Take good heed of evil things: a may's love, and a man's wife; full oft
thereof doth ill befall!

"Let not thy mind be overmuch crossed by unwise men at thronged meetings
of folk; for oft these speak worse than they wot of; lest thou be called
a dastard, and art minded to think that thou art even as is said; slay
such an one on another day, and so reward his ugly talk.

"If thou farest by the way whereas bide evil things, be well ware of
thyself; take not harbour near the highway, though thou be benighted,
for oft abide there ill wights for men's bewilderment.

"Let not fair women beguile thee, such as thou mayst meet at the feast,
so that the thought thereof stand thee in stead of sleep, and a quiet
mind; yea, draw them not to thee with kisses or other sweet things of
love.

"If thou hearest the fool's word of a drunken man, strive not with him
being drunk with drink and witless; many a grief, yea, and the very
death, groweth from out such things.

"Fight thy foes in the field, nor be burnt in thine house.

'Never swear thou wrongsome oath; great and grim is the reward for the
breaking of plighted troth.

"Give kind heed to dead men,--sick-dead, Sea-dead; deal heedfully with
their dead corpses.

"Trow never in him for whom thou hast slain father, brother, or whatso
near kin, yea, though young he be; 'for oft waxes wolf in youngling'.

"Look thou with good heed to the wiles of thy friends; but little skill
is given to me, that I should foresee the ways of thy life; yet good it
were that hate fell not on thee from those of thy wife's house."

Sigurd spake, "None among the sons of men can be found wiser than thou;
and thereby swear I, that thee will I have as my own, for near to my
heart thou liest."

She answers, "Thee would I fainest choose, though I had all men's sons
to choose from."

And thereto they plighted troth both of them.



CHAPTER XXII. Of the Semblance and Array of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane. (1)

Now Sigurd rides away; many-folded is his shield, and blazing with red
gold, and the image of a dragon is drawn thereon; and this same was dark
brown above, and bright red below; and with even such-like image was
adorned helm, and saddle, and coat-armour; and he was clad in the golden
byrny, and all his weapons were gold wrought.

Now for this cause was the drake drawn on all his weapons, that when he
was seen of men, all folk might know who went there; yea, all those who
had heard of his slaying of that great dragon, that the Voerings call
Fafnir; and for that cause are his weapons gold-wrought, and brown
of hue, and that he was by far above other men in courtesy and goodly
manners, and well-nigh in all things else; and whenas folk tell of all
the mightiest champions, and the noblest chiefs, then ever is he named
the foremost, and his name goes wide about on all tongues north of the
sea of the Greek-lands, and even so shall it be while the world endures.

Now the hair of this Sigurd was golden-red of hue, fair of fashion, and
falling down in great locks; thick and short was his beard, and of no
other colour, high-nosed he was, broad and high-boned of face; so
keen were his eyes, that few durst gaze up under the brows of him; his
shoulders were as broad to look on as the shoulders of two; most duly
was his body fashioned betwixt height and breadth, and in such wise as
was seemliest; and this is the sign told of his height, that when he was
girt with his sword Gram, which same was seven spans long, as he went
through the full-grown rye-fields, the dew-shoe of the said sword smote
the ears of the standing corn; and, for all that, greater was his
strength than his growth: well could he wield sword, and cast forth
spear, shoot shaft, and hold shield, bend bow, back horse, and do all
the goodly deeds that he learned in his youth's days.

Wise he was to know things yet undone; and the voice of all fowls he
knew, wherefore few things fell on him unawares.

Of many words he was, and so fair of speech withal, that whensoever he
made it his business to speak, he never left speaking before that to all
men it seemed full sure, that no otherwise must the matter be than as he
said.

His sport and pleasure it was to give aid to his own folk, and to prove
himself in mighty matters, to take wealth from his unfriends, and give
the same to his friends.

Never did he lose heart, and of naught was he adrad.


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  This chapter is nearly literally the same as chapter 166 of
       the "Wilkinasaga"; Ed.: Perinskiold, Stockholm, 1715.



CHAPTER XXIII. Sigurd comes to Hlymdale.

Forth Sigurd rides till he comes to a great and goodly dwelling, the
lord whereof was a mighty chief called Heimir; he had to wife a sister
of Brynhild, who was hight Bekkhild, because she had bidden at home, and
learned handicraft, whereas Brynhild fared with helm and byrny unto the
wars, wherefore was she called Brynhild.

Heimir and Bekkhild had a son called Alswid, the most courteous of men.

Now at this stead were men disporting them abroad, but when they see
the man riding thereto, they leave their play to wonder at him, for none
such had they ever seen erst; so they went to meet him, and gave him
good welcome; Alswid bade him abide and have such things at his hands as
he would; and he takes his bidding blithesomely; due service withal was
established for him; four men bore the treasure of gold from off the
horse, and the fifth took it to him to guard the same; therein were many
things to behold, things of great price, and seldom seen; and great
game and joy men had to look on byrnies and helms, and mighty rings, and
wondrous great golden stoups, and all kinds of war weapons.

So there dwelt Sigurd long in great honour holden; and tidings of that
deed of fame spread wide through all lands, of how he had slain that
hideous and fearful dragon. So good joyance had they there together,
and each was leal to other; and their sport was in the arraying of
their weapons, and the shafting of their arrows, and the flying of their
falcons.



CHAPTER XXIV. Sigurd sees Brynhild at Hlymdale.

In those days came home to Heimir, Brynhild, his foster-daughter,
and she sat in her bower with her maidens, and could more skill in
handycraft than other women; she sat, overlaying cloth with gold, and
sewing therein the great deeds which Sigurd had wrought, the slaying of
the Worm, and the taking of the wealth of him, and the death of Regin
withal.

Now tells the tale, that on a day Sigurd rode into the wood with hawk,
and hound, and men thronging; and whenas he came home his hawk flew up
to a high tower, and sat him down on a certain window. Then fared Sigurd
after his hawk, and he saw where sat a fair woman, and knew that it was
Brynhild, and he deems all things he sees there to be worthy together,
both her fairness, and the fair things she wrought: and therewith he
goes into the hall, but has no more joyance in the games of the men
folk.

Then spake Alswid, "Why art thou so bare of bliss? this manner of thine
grieveth us thy friends; why then wilt thou not hold to thy gleesome
ways? Lo, thy hawks pine now, and thy horse Grani droops; and long will
it be ere we are booted thereof?"

Sigurd answered, "Good friend, hearken to what lies on my mind; for my
hawk flew up into a certain tower; and when I came thereto and took him,
lo there I saw a fair woman, and she sat by a needlework of gold, and
did thereon my deeds that are passed, and my deeds that are to come."

Then said Alswid, "Thou has seen Brynhild, Budli's daughter, the
greatest of great women."

"Yea, verily," said Sigurd; "but how came she hither?"

Aswid answered, "Short space there was betwixt the coming hither of the
twain of you."

Says Sigurd, "Yea, but a few days agone I knew her for the best of the
world's women."

Alswid said, "Give not all thine heed to one woman, being such a man as
thou art; ill life to sit lamenting for what we may not have."

"I shall go meet her," says Sigurd, "and get from her love like my love,
and give her a gold ring in token thereof."

Alswid answered, "None has ever yet been known whom she would let sit
beside her, or to whom she would give drink; for ever will she hold to
warfare and to the winning of all kinds of fame."

Sigurd said, "We know not for sure whether she will give us answer or
not, or grant us a seat beside her."

So the next day after, Sigurd went to the bower, but Alswid stood
outside the bower door, fitting shafts to his arrows.

Now Sigurd spake, "Abide, fair and hale lady,--how farest thou?"

She answered, "Well it fares; my kin and my friends live yet: but who
shall say what goodhap folk may bear to their life's end?"

He sat him down by her, and there came in four damsels with great golden
beakers, and the best of wine therein; and these stood before the twain.

Then said Brynhild, "This seat is for few, but and if my father come."

He answered, "Yet is it granted to one that likes me well."

Now that chamber was hung with the best and fairest of hangings, and the
floor thereof was all covered with cloth.

Sigurd spake, "Now has it come to pass even as thou didst promise."

"O be thou welcome here!" said she, and arose therewith, and the four
damsels with her, and bore the golden beaker to him, and bade him drink;
he stretched out his hand to the beaker, and took it, and her hand
withal, and drew her down beside him; and cast his arms round about her
neck and kissed her, and said--

"Thou art the fairest that was ever born!"

But Brynhild said, "Ah, wiser is it not to cast faith and troth into a
woman's power, for ever shall they break that they have promised."

He said, "That day would dawn the best of days over our heads whereon
each of each should be made happy."

Brynhild answered, "It is not fated that we should abide together; I am
a shield-may, and wear helm on head even as the kings of war, and them
full oft I help, neither is the battle become loathsome to me."

Sigurd answered, "What fruit shall be of our life, if we live not
together: harder to bear this pain that lies hereunder, than the stroke
of sharp sword."

Brynhild answers, "I shall gaze on the hosts of the war-kings, but thou
shalt wed Gudrun, the daughter of Giuki."

Sigurd answered, "What king's daughter lives to beguile me? neither am
I double-hearted herein; and now I swear by the Gods that thee shall I
have for mine own, or no woman else."

And even suchlike wise spake she.

Sigurd thanked her for her speech, and gave her a gold ring, and now
they swore oath anew, and so he went his ways to his men, and is with
them awhile in great bliss.



CHAPTER XXV. Of the Dream of Gudrun, Giuki's daughter.

There was a king hight Giuki, who ruled a realm south of the Rhine;
three sons he had, thus named: Gunnar, Hogni, and Guttorm, and Gudrun
was the name of his daughter, the fairest of maidens; and all these
children were far before all other king's children in all prowess, and
in goodliness and growth withal; ever were his sons at the wars
and wrought many a deed of fame. But Giuki had wedded Grimhild the
Wise-wife.

Now Budli was the name of a king mightier than Giuki, mighty though they
both were: and Atli was the brother of Brynhild: Atli was a fierce man
and a grim, great and black to look on, yet noble of mien withal, and
the greatest of warriors. Grimhild was a fierce-hearted woman.

Now the days of the Giukings bloomed fair, and chiefly because of those
children, so far before the sons of men.

On a day Gudrun says to her mays that she may have no joy of heart; then
a certain woman asked her wherefore her joy was departed.

She answered, "Grief came to me in my dreams, therefore is there sorrow
in my heart, since thou must needs ask thereof."

"Tell it me, then, thy dream," said the woman, "for dreams oft forecast
but the weather."

Gudrun answers, "Nay, nay, no weather is this; I dreamed that I had a
fair hawk on my wrist, feathered with feathers of gold."

Says the woman, "Many have heard tell of thy beauty, thy wisdom, and thy
courtesy; some king's son abides thee, then."

Gudrun answers, "I dreamed that naught was so dear to me as this hawk,
and all my wealth had I cast aside rather than him."

The woman said, "Well, then, the man thou shalt have will be of the
goodliest, and well shalt thou love him."

Gudrun answered, "It grieves me that I know not who he shall be; let us
go seek Brynhild, for she belike will wot thereof."

So they arrayed them in gold and many a fair thing, and she went with
her damsels till they came to the hall of Brynhild, and that hall was
dight with gold, and stood on a high hill; and whenas their goings were
seen, it was told Brynhild, that a company of women drove toward the
burg in gilded waggons.

"That shall be Gudrun, Giuki's daughter," says she: "I dreamed of her
last night; let us go meet her! No fairer woman may come to our house."

So they went abroad to meet them, and gave them good greeting, and they
went into the goodly hall together; fairly painted it was within, and
well adorned with silver vessel; cloths were spread under the feet of
them, and all folk served them, and in many wise they sported.

But Gudrun was somewhat silent.

Then said Brynhild, "Ill to abash folk of their mirth; prithee do not
so; let us talk together for our disport of mighty kings and their great
deeds."

"Good talk," says Gudrun, "let us do even so; what kings deemest thou to
have been the first of all men?"

Brynhild says, "The sons of Haki, and Hagbard withal; they brought to
pass many a deed of fame in the warfare."

Gudrun answers, "Great men certes, and of noble fame! Yet Sigar took
their one sister, and burned the other, house and all; and they may be
called slow to revenge the deed; why didst thou not name my brethren, who
are held to be the first of men as at this time?"

Brynhild says, "Men of good hope are they surely, though but little
proven hitherto; but one I know far before them, Sigurd, the son of
Sigmund the king; a youngling was he in the days when he slew the sons
of Hunding, and revenged his father, and Eylimi, his mother's father."

Said Gudrun, "By what token tellest thou that?"

Brynhild answered, "His mother went amid the dead, and found Sigmund the
king sore wounded, and would bind up his hurts; but he said he grew over
old for war, and bade her lay this comfort to her heart, that she should
bear the most famed of sons; and wise was the wise man's word therein:
for after the death of King Sigmund, she went to King Alf, and there was
Sigurd nourished in great honour, and day by day he wrought some deed of
fame, and is the man most renowned of all the wide world."

Gudrun says, "From love hast thou gained these tidings of him; but for
this cause came I here, to tell thee dreams of mine which have brought
me great grief."

Says Brynhild, "Let not such matters sadden thee; abide with thy friends
who wish thee blithesome, all of them!"

"This I dreamed," said Gudrun, "that we went, a many of us in company,
from the bower, and we saw an exceeding great hart, that far excelled
all other deer ever seen, and the hair of him was golden; and this
deer we were all fain to take, but I alone got him; and he seemed to me
better than all things else; but sithence thou, Byrnhild, didst shoot
and slay my deer even at my very knees, and such grief was that to
me that scarce might I bear it; and then afterwards thou gavest me a
wolf-cub, which besprinkled me with the blood of my brethren."

Brynhild answers, "I will arede thy dream, even as things shall come
to pass hereafter; for Sigurd shall come to thee, even he whom I have
chosen for my well-beloved; and Grimhild shall give him mead mingled
with hurtful things, which shall cast us all into mighty strife. Him
shalt thou have, and him shalt thou quickly miss; and Atli the king
shalt thou wed; and thy brethren shalt thou lose, and slay Atli withal
in the end."

Gudrun answers, "Grief and woe to know that such things shall be!"

And therewith she and hers get them gone home to King Giuki.



CHAPTER XXVI. Sigurd comes to the Giukings and is wedded to Gudrun.

Now Sigurd goes his ways with all that great treasure, and in friendly
wise he departs from them; and on Grani he rides with all his war-gear
and the burden withal; and thus he rides until he comes to the hall
of King Giuki; there he rides into the burg, and that sees one of the
king's men, and he spake withal--

"Sure it may be deemed that here is come one of the Gods, for his array
is all done with gold, and his horse is far mightier than other horses,
and the manner of his weapons is most exceeding goodly, and most of all
the man himself far excels all other men ever seen."

So the king goes out with his court and greets the man, and asks--

"Who art thou who thus ridest into my burg, as none has durst hitherto
without the leave of my sons?"

He answered, "I am called Sigurd, son of King Sigmund."

Then said King Giuki, "Be thou welcome here then, and take at our hands
whatso thou willest."

So he went into the king's hall, and all men seemed little beside him,
and all men served him, and there he abode in great joyance.

Now oft they all ride abroad together, Sigurd and Gunnar and Hogni,
and ever is Sigurd far the foremost of them, mighty men of their hands
though they were.

But Grimhild finds how heartily Sigurd loved Brynhild, and how oft he
talks of her; and she falls to thinking how well it were, if he might
abide there and wed the daughter of King Giuki, for she saw that none
might come anigh to his goodliness, and what faith and goodhelp there
was in him, and how that he had more wealth withal than folk might tell
of any man; and the king did to him even as unto his own sons, and they
for their parts held him of more worth than themselves.

So on a night as they sat at the drink, the queen arose, and went before
Sigurd, and said--

"Great joy we have in thine abiding here, and all good things will
we put before thee to take of us; lo now, take this horn and drink
thereof."

So he took it and drank, and therewithal she said, "Thy father shall be
Giuki the king, and I shall be thy mother, and Gunnar and Hogni shall be
thy brethren, and all this shall be sworn with oaths each to each; and
then surely shall the like of you never be found on earth."

Sigurd took her speech well, for with the drinking of that drink all
memory of Brynhild departed from him. So there he abode awhile.

And on a day went Grimhild to Giuki the king, and cast her arms about
his neck, and spake--

"Behold, there has now come to us the greatest of great hearts that the
world holds; and needs must he be trusty and of great avail; give him
thy daughter then, with plenteous wealth, and as much of rule as he
will; perchance thereby he will be well content to abide here ever."

The king answered, "Seldom does it befall that kings offer their
daughters to any; yet in higher wise will it be done to offer her to
this man, than to take lowly prayers for her from others."

On a night Gudrun pours out the drink, and Sigurd beholds her how fair
she is and how full of all courtesy.

Five seasons Sigurd abode there, and ever they passed their days
together in good honour and friendship.

And so it befell that the kings held talk together, and Giuki said --

"Great good thou givest us, Sigurd, and with exceeding strength thou
strengthenest our realm."

Then Gunnar said, "All things that may be will we do for thee, so thou
abidest here long; both dominion shalt thou have, and our sister freely
and unprayed for, whom another man would not get for all his prayers."

Sigurd says, "Thanks have ye for this wherewith ye honour me, and
gladly will I take the same."

Therewith they swore brotherhood together, and to be even as if they
were children of one father and one mother; and a noble feast was
holden, and endured many days, and Sigurd drank at the wedding of him
and Gudrun; and there might men behold all manner of game and glee, and
each day the feast better and better.

Now fare these folk wide over the world, and do many great deeds, and
slay many kings' sons, and no man has ever done such works of prowess as
did they; then home they come again with much wealth won in war.

Sigurd gave of the serpent's heart to Gudrun, and she ate thereof, and
became greater-hearted, and wiser than ere before: and the son of these
twain was called Sigmund.

Now on a time went Grimhild to Gunnar her son, and spake--

"Fair blooms the life and fortune of thee, but for one thing only, and
namely whereas thou art unwedded; go woo Brynhild; good rede is this,
and Sigurd will ride with thee."

Gunnar answered, "Fair is she certes, and I am fain enow to win her;"
and therewith he tells his father, and his brethren, and Sigurd, and
they all prick him on to that wooing.



CHAPTER XXVII. The Wooing of Brynhild.

Now they array them joyously for their journey, and ride over hill and
dale to the house of King Budli, and woo his daughter of him; in a good
wise he took their speech, if so be that she herself would not deny
them; but he said withal that so high-minded was she, that that man
only might wed her whom she would.

Then they ride to Hlymdale, and there Heimir gave them good welcome; so
Gunnar tells his errand; Heimir says, that she must needs wed but him
whom she herself chose freely; and tells them how her abode was but a
little way thence, and that he deemed that him only would she have who
should ride through the flaming fire that was drawn round about her
hall; so they depart and come to the hall and the fire, and see there a
castle with a golden roof-ridge, and all round about a fire roaring up.

Now Gunnar rode on Goti, but Hogni on Holkvi, and Gunnar smote his horse
to face the fire, but he shrank aback.

Then said Sigurd, "Why givest thou back, Gunnar?"

He answered, "The horse will not tread this fire; but lend me thy horse
Grani."

"Yea, with all my good will," says Sigurd.

Then Gunnar rides him at the fire, and yet nowise will Gram stir, nor
may Gunnar any the more ride through that fire. So now they change
semblance, Gunnar and Sigurd, even as Grimhild had taught them; then
Sigurd in the likeness of Gunnar mounts and rides, Gram in his hand, and
golden spurs on his heels; then leapt Grani into the fire when he felt
the spurs; and a mighty roar arose as the fire burned ever madder, and
the earth trembled, and the flames went up even unto the heavens, nor
had any dared to ride as he rode, even as it were through the deep mirk.

But now the fire sank withal, and he leapt from his horse and went into
the hall, even as the song says--

     "The flame flared at its maddest,
     Earth's fields fell a-quaking
     As the red flame aloft
     Licked the lowest of heaven.
     Few had been fain,
     Of the rulers of folk,
     To ride through that flame,
     Or athwart it to tread.

     "Then Sigurd smote
     Grani with sword,
     And the flame was slaked
     Before the king;
     Low lay the flames
     Before the fain of fame;
     Bright gleamed the array
     That Regin erst owned.

Now when Sigurd had passed through the fire, he came into a certain fair
dwelling, and therein sat Brynhild.

She asked, "What man is it?"

Then he named himself Gunnar, son of Giuki, and said--"Thou art awarded
to me as my wife, by the good will and word of thy father and thy
foster-father, and I have ridden through the flames of thy fire,
according to thy word that thou hast set forth."

"I wot not clearly," said she, "how I shall answer thee."

Now Sigurd stood upright on the hall floor, and leaned on the hilt of
his sword, and he spake to Brynhild--

"In reward thereof, shall I pay thee a great dower in gold and goodly
things?"

She answered in heavy mood from her seat, whereas she sat like unto swan
on billow, having a sword in her hand, and a helm on her head, and being
clad in a byrny, "O Gunnar," she says, "speak not to me of such things,
unless thou be the first and best of all men; for then shalt thou slay
those my wooers, if thou hast heart thereto; I have been in battles with
the king of the Greeks, and our weapons were stained with red blood, and for
such things still I yearn."

He answered, "Yea, certes many great deeds hast thou done; but yet call
thou to mind thine oath, concerning the riding through of this fire,
wherein thou didst swear that thou wouldst go with the man who should do
this deed."

So she found that he spoke but the sooth, and she paid heed to his
words, and arose, and greeted him meetly, and he abode there three
nights, and they lay in one bed together; but he took the sword Gram and
laid it betwixt them: then she asked him why he laid it there; and he
answered, that in that wise must he needs wed his wife or else get his
bane.

Then she took from off her the ring Andvari's-loom, which he had given
her aforetime, and gave it to him, but he gave her another ring out of
Fafnir's hoard.

Thereafter he rode away through the same fire unto his fellows, and he
and Gunnar changed semblances again, and rode unto Hlymdale, and told
how it had gone with them.

That same day went Brynhild home to her foster-father, and tells him
as one whom she trusted, how that there had come a king to her; "And he
rode through my flaming fire, and said he was come to woo me, and named
himself Gunnar; but I said that such a deed might Sigurd alone have
done, with whom I plighted troth on the mountain; and he is my first
troth-plight, and my well-beloved."

Heimir said that things must needs abide even as now they had now come
to pass.

Brynhild said, "Aslaug the daughter of me and Sigurd shall be nourished
here with thee."

Now the kings fare home, but Brynhild goes to her father; Grimhild
welcomes the kings meetly, and thanks Sigurd for his fellowship; and
withal is a great feast made, and many were the guests thereat; and
thither came Budli the King with his daughter Brynhild, and his son
Atli, and for many days did the feast endure: and at that feast was
Gunnar wedded to Brynhild: but when it was brought to an end, once more
has Sigurd memory of all the oaths that he sware unto Brynhild, yet
withal he let all things abide in rest and peace.

Brynhild and Gunnar sat together in great game and glee, and drank
goodly wine.



CHAPTER XXVIII. How the Queens held angry converse together at the
Bathing.

On a day as the Queens went to the river to bathe them, Brynhild waded
the farthest out into the river; then asked Gudrun what that deed might
signify.

Brynhild said, "Yea, and why then should I be equal to thee in this
matter more than in others? I am minded to think that my father is
mightier than thine, and my true love has wrought many wondrous works of
fame, and hath ridden the flaming fire withal, while thy husband was but
the thrall of King Hjalprek."

Gudrun answered full of wrath, "Thou wouldst be wise if thou shouldst
hold thy peace rather than revile my husband: lo now, the talk of all
men it is, that none has ever abode in this world like unto him in all
matters soever; and little it beseems thee of all folk to mock him who
was thy first beloved: and Fafnir he slew, yea, and he rode thy flaming
fire, whereas thou didst deem that he was Gunnar the King, and by thy
side he lay, and took from thine hand the ring Andvari's-loom;--here
mayst thou well behold it!"

Then Brynhild saw the ring and knew it, and waxed as wan as a dead
woman, and she went home and spake no word the evening long.

So when Sigurd came to bed to Gudrun she asked him why Brynhild's joy
was so departed.

He answered, "I know not, but sore I misdoubt me that soon we shall know
thereof overwell."

Gudrun said, "Why may she not love her life, having wealth and bliss,
and the praise of all men, and the man withal that she would have?"

"Ah, yea!" said Sigurd, "and where in all the world was she then, when
she said that she deemed she had the noblest of all men, and the dearest
to her heart of all?"

Gudrun answers, "Tomorn will I ask her concerning this, who is the
liefest to her of all men for a husband."

Sigurd said, "Needs must I forbid thee this, and full surely wilt thou
rue the deed if thou doest it."

Now the next morning they sat in the bower, and Brynhild was silent;
then spake Gudrun--

"Be merry, Brynhild! Grievest thou because of that speech of ours
together, or what other thing slayeth thy bliss?"

Brynhild answers, "With naught but evil intent thou sayest this, for a
cruel heart thou hast."

"Say not so," said Gudrun; "but rather tell me all the tale."

Brynhild answers, "Ask such things only as are good for thee to
know--matters meet for mighty dames. Good to love good things when all
goes according to thy heart's desire!"

Gudrun says, "Early days for me to glory in that; but this word of thine
looketh toward some foreseeing. What ill dost thou thrust at us? I did
naught to grieve thee."

Brynhild answers, "For this shalt thou pay, in that thou hast got Sigurd
to thee,--nowise can I see thee living in the bliss thereof, whereas
thou hast him, and the wealth and the might of him."

But Gudrun answered, "Naught knew I of your words and vows together; and
well might my father look to the mating of me without dealing with thee
first."

"No secret speech had we," quoth Brynhild, "though we swore oath
together; and full well didst thou know that thou wentest about to
beguile me; verily thou shalt have thy reward!"

Says Gudrun, "Thou art mated better than thou are worthy of; but thy
pride and rage shall be hard to slake belike, and therefor shall many a
man pay."

"Ah, I should be well content," said Brynhild, "if thou hadst not the
nobler man!"

Gudrun answers, "So noble a husband hast thou, that who knows of a
greater king or a lord of more wealth and might?"

Says Brynhild, "Sigurd slew Fafnir, and that only deed is of more worth
than all the might of King Gunnar."

(Even as the song says):

     "The worm Sigurd slew,
     Nor e'er shall that deed
     Be worsened by age
     While the world is alive:
     But thy brother the King
     Never durst, never bore
     The flame to ride down
     Through the fire to fare."

Gudrun answers, "Grani would not abide the fire under Gunnar the King,
but Sigurd durst the deed, and thy heart may well abide without mocking
him."

Brynhild answers, "Nowise will I hide from thee that I deem no good of
Grimhild."

Says Gudrun, "Nay, lay no ill words on her, for in all things she is to
thee as to her own daughter."

"Ah," says Brynhild, "she is the beginning of all this hale that biteth
so; an evil drink she bare to Sigurd, so that he had no more memory of
my very name."

"All wrong thou talkest; a lie without measure is this," quoth Gudrun.

Brynhild answered, "Have thou joy of Sigurd according to the measure of
the wiles wherewith ye have beguiled me! Unworthily have ye conspired
against me; may all things go with you as my heart hopes!"

Gudrun says, "More joy shall I have of him than thy wish would give unto
me: but to no man's mind it came, that he had aforetime his pleasure of
me; nay not once."

"Evil speech thou speakest," says Brynhild; "when thy wrath runs off
thou wilt rue it; but come now, let us no more cast angry words one at
the other!"

Says Gudrun, "Thou wert the first to cast such words at me, and now thou
makest as if thou wouldst amend it, but a cruel and hard heart abides
behind."

"Let us lay aside vain babble," says Brynhild. "Long did I hold my peace
concerning my sorrow of heart, and, lo now, thy brother alone do I love;
let us fall to other talk."

Gudrun said, "Far beyond all this doth thine heart look."

And so ugly ill befell from that going to the river, and that knowing of
the ring, wherefrom did all their talk arise.



CHAPTER XXIX. Of Brynhild's great Grief and Mourning.

After this talk Brynhild lay a-bed, and tidings were brought to King
Gunnar that Brynhild was sick; he goes to see her thereon, and asks what
ails her; but she answered him naught, but lay there as one dead: and
when he was hard on her for an answer, she said--

"What didst thou with that ring that I gave thee, even the one which
King Budli gave me at our last parting, when thou and King Giuki came to
him and threatened fire and the sword, unless ye had me to wife? Yea, at
that time he led me apart, and asked me which I had chosen of those who
were come; but I prayed him that I might abide to ward the land and be
chief over the third part of his men; then were there two choices for me
to deal betwixt, either that I should be wedded to him whom he would, or
lose all my weal and friendship at his hands; and he said withal that
his friendship would be better to me than his wrath: then I bethought me
whether I should yield to his will, or slay many a man; and therewithal
I deemed that it would avail little to strive with him, and so it fell
out, that I promised to wed whomsoever should ride the horse Grani with
Fafnir's Hoard, and ride through my flaming fire, and slay those men
whom I called on him to slay, and now so it was, that none durst ride,
save Sigurd only, because he lacked no heart thereto; yea, and the Worm
he slew, and Regin, and five kings beside; but thou, Gunnar, durst do
naught; as pale as a dead man didst thou wax, and no king thou art,
and no champion; so whereas I made a vow unto my father, that him alone
would I love who was the noblest man alive, and that this is none save
Sigurd, lo, now have I broken my oath and brought it to naught, since
he is none of mine, and for this cause shall I compass thy death; and a
great reward of evil things have I wherewith to reward Grimhild;--never,
I wot, has woman lived eviler or of lesser heart than she."

Gunnar answered in such wise that few might hear him, "Many a vile
word hast thou spoken, and an evil-hearted woman art thou, whereas thou
revilest a woman far better than thou; never would she curse her life
as thou dost; nay, nor has she tormented dead folk, or murdered any; but
lives her life well praised of all."

Brynhild answered, "Never have I dwelt with evil things privily, or done
loathsome deeds;--yet most fain I am to slay thee."

And therewith would she slay King Gunnar, but Hogni laid her in fetters;
but then Gunnar spake withal--

"Nay, I will not that she abide in fetters."

Then said she, "Heed it not! For never again seest thou me glad in thine
hall, never drinking, never at the chess-play, never speaking the words
of kindness, never over-laying the fair cloths with gold, never giving
thee good counsel;--ah, my sorrow of heart that I might not get Sigurd
to me!"

Then she sat up and smote her needlework, and rent it asunder, and bade
set open her bower doors, that far away might the wailings of her sorrow
be heard; then great mourning and lamentation there was, so that folk
heard it far and wide through that abode.

Now Gudrun asked her bower-maidens why they sat so joyless and downcast.
"What has come to you, that ye fare ye as witless women, or what
unheard-of wonders have befallen you?"

Then answered a waiting lady, hight Swaflod, "An untimely, an evil day
it is, and our hall is fulfilled of lamentation."

Then spake Gudrun to one of her handmaids, "Arise, for we have slept
long; go, wake Brynhild, and let us fall to our needlework and be
merry."

"Nay, nay," she says, "nowise may I wake her, or talk with her; for many
days has she drunk neither mead nor wine; surely the wrath of the Gods
has fallen upon her."

Then spake Gudrun to Gunnar, "Go and see her," she says, "and bid her
know that I am grieved with her grief."

"Nay," says Gunnar, "I am forbid to go see her or to share her weal."

Nevertheless he went unto her, and strives in many wise to have speech
of her, but gets no answer whatsoever; therefore he gets him gone and
finds Hogni, and bids him go see her: he said he was loth thereto, but
went, and gat no more of her.

Then they go and find Sigurd, and pray him to visit her; he answered
naught thereto, and so matters abode for that night.

But the next day, when he came home from hunting, Sigurd went to Gudrun,
and spake--

"In such wise do matters show to me, as though great and evil things
will betide from this trouble and upheaving; and that Brynhild will
surely die."

Gudrun answers, "O my lord, by great wonders is she encompassed, seven
days and seven nights has she slept, and none has dared wake her."

"Nay, she sleeps not," said Sigurd, "her heart is dealing rather with
dreadful intent against me."

Then said Gudrun, weeping, "Woe worth the while for thy death! Go and
see her; and wot if her fury may not be abated; give her gold, and
smother up her grief and anger therewith!"

Then Sigurd went out, and found the door of Brynhild's chamber open; he
deemed she slept, and drew the clothes from off her, and said--

"Awake, Brynhild! The sun shineth now over all the house, and thou hast
slept enough; cast off grief from thee, and take up gladness!"

She said, "And how then hast thou dared to come to me? in this treason
none was worse to me than thou."

Said Sigurd, "Why wilt thou not speak to folk? for what cause sorrowest
thou?"

Brynhild answers, "Ah, to thee will I tell of my wrath!"

Sigurd said, "As one under a spell art thou, if thou deemest that there
is aught cruel in my heart against thee; but thou hast him for husband
whom thou didst choose."

"Ah, nay," she said, "never did Gunnar ride through the fire to me, nor
did he give me to dower the host of the slain: I wondered at the man
who came into my hall; for I deemed indeed that I knew thine eyes; but I
might not see clearly, or divide the good from the evil, because of the
veil that lay heavy on my fortune."

Says Sigurd, "No nobler men are there than the sons of Giuki, they slew
the king of the Danes, and that great chief, the brother of King Budli."

Brynhild answered, "Surely for many an ill-deed must I reward them; mind
me not of my griefs against them! But thou, Sigurd, slewest the Worm,
and rodest the fire through; yea, and for my sake, and not one of the
sons of King Giuki."

Sigurd answers, "I am not thy husband, and thou art not my wife; yet did
a farfamed king pay dower to thee."

Says Brynhild, "Never looked I at Gunnar in such a wise that my heart
smiled on him; and hard and fell am I to him, though I hide it from
others."

"A marvellous thing," says Sigurd, "not to love such a king; what angers
thee most? for surely his love should be better to thee than gold."

"This is the sorest sorrow to me," she said, "that the bitter sword is
not reddened in thy blood."

"Have no fear thereof!" says he, "no long while to wait or the bitter
sword stand deep in my heart; and no worse needest thou to pray for
thyself, for thou wilt not live when I am dead; the days of our two
lives shall be few enough from henceforth."

Brynhild answers, "Enough and to spare of bale is in thy speech, since
thou bewrayedst me, and didst twin (1) me and all bliss;--naught do I
heed my life or death."

Sigurd answers, "Ah, live, and love King Gunnar and me withal! and all
my wealth will I give thee if thou die not."

Brynhild answers, "Thou knowest me not, nor the heart that is in me;
for thou art the first and best of all men, and I am become the most
loathsome of all women to thee."

"This is truer," says Sigurd, "that I loved thee better than myself,
though I fell into the wiles from whence our lives may not escape; for
whenso my own heart and mind availed me, then I sorrowed sore that thou
wert not my wife; but as I might I put my trouble from me, for in a
king's dwelling was I; and withal and in spite of all I was well content
that we were all together. Well may it be, that that shall come to pass
which is foretold; neither shall I fear the fulfilment thereof."

Brynhild answered, and said, "Too late thou tellest me that my grief
grieved thee: little pity shall I find now."

Sigurd said, "This my heart would, that thou and I should go into one
bed together; even so wouldst thou be my wife."

Said Brynhild, "Such words may nowise be spoken, nor will I have two
kings in one hall; I will lay my life down rather than beguile Gunnar
the King."

And therewith she call to mind how they met, they two, on the mountain,
and swore oath each to each.

"But now is all changed, and I will not live."

"I might not call to mind thy name," said Sigurd, "or know thee again,
before the time of thy wedding; the greatest of all griefs is that."

Then said Brynhild, "I swore an oath to wed the man who should ride my
flaming fire, and that oath will I hold to, or die."

"Rather than thou die, I will wed thee, and put away Gudrun," said
Sigurd.

But therewithal so swelled the heart betwixt the sides of him, that the
rings of his byrny burst asunder.

"I will not have thee," says Brynhild, "nay, nor any other!"

Then Sigurd got him gone.

So saith the song of Sigurd--

     "Out then went Sigurd,
     The great kings' well-loved,
     From the speech and the sorrow,
     Sore drooping, so grieving,
     That the shirt round about him
     Of iron rings woven,
     From the sides brake asunder
     Of the brave in the battle."

So when Sigurd came into the hall, Gunnar asked if he had come to a
knowledge of what great grief lay heavy on her, or if she had power of
speech: and Sigurd said that she lacked it not. So now Gunnar goes
to her again, and asked her, what wrought her woe, or if there were
anything that might amend it.

"I will not live," says Brynhild, "for Sigurd has bewrayed me, yea,
and thee no less, whereas thou didst suffer him to come into my bed:
lo thou, two men in one dwelling I will not have; and this shall be
Sigurd's death, or thy death, or my death;--for now has he told Gudrun
all, and she is mocking me even now!"


  ENDNOTES:
  (1)  Sunder.



CHAPTER XXX. Of the Slaying of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane.

Thereafter Brynhild went out, and sat under her bower-wall, and had
many words of wailing to say, and still she cried that all things were
loathsome to her, both land and lordship alike, so she might not have
Sigurd.

But therewith came Gunnar to her yet again, and Brynhild spake, "Thou
shalt lose both realm and wealth, and thy life and me, for I shall fare
home to my kin, and abide there in sorrow, unless thou slayest Sigurd
and his son; never nourish thou a wolfcub."

Gunnar grew sick at heart thereat, and might nowise see what fearful
thing lay beneath it all; he was bound to Sigurd by oath, and this way
and that way swung the heart within him; but at the last he bethought
him of the measureless shame if his wife went from him, and he said
within himself, "Brynhild is better to me than all things else, and the
fairest woman of all women, and I will lay down my life rather than lose
the love of her." And herewith he called to him his brother and spake,--

"Trouble is heavy on me," and he tells him that he must needs slay
Sigurd, for that he has failed him where in he trusted him; "so let us
be lords of the gold and the realm withal."

Hogni answers, "Ill it behoves us to break our oaths with wrack and
wrong, and withal great aid we have in him; no kings shall be as
great as we, if so be the King of the Hun-folk may live; such another
brother-in-law never may we get again; bethink thee how good it is to
have such a brother-in-law, and such sons to our sister! But well I see
how things stand, for this has Brynhild stirred thee up to, and surely
shall her counsel drag us into huge shame and scathe."

Gunnar says, "Yet shall it be brought about: and, lo, a rede
thereto;--let us egg on our brother Guttorm to the deed; he is young,
and of little knowledge, and is clean out of all the oaths moreover."

"Ah, set about in ill wise," says Hogni, "and though indeed it may well
be compassed, a due reward shall we gain for the bewrayal of such a man
as is Sigurd."

Gunnar says, "Sigurd shall die, or I shall die."

And therewith he bids Brynhild arise and be glad at heart: so she arose,
and still ever she said that Gunnar should come no more into her bed
till the deed was done.

So the brothers fall to talk, and Gunnar says that it is a deed well
worthy of death, that taking of Brynhild's maidenhead; "So come now, let
us prick on Guttorm to do the deed."

Therewith they call him to them, and offer him gold and great dominion,
as they well have might to do. Yea, and they took a certain worm and
somewhat of wolf's flesh and let seethe them together, and gave him to
eat of the same, even as the singer sings--

     "Fish of the wild-wood,
     Worm smooth crawling,
     With wolf-meat mingled,
     They minced for Guttorm;
     Then in the beaker,
     In the wine his mouth knew,
     They set it, still doing
     More deeds of wizards.

Wherefore with the eating of this meat he grew so wild and eager, and
with all things about him, and with the heavy words of Grimhild, that
he gave his word to do the deed; and mighty honour they promised him in
reward thereof.

But of these evil wiles naught at all knew Sigurd, for he might not deal
with his shapen fate, nor the measure of his life-days, neither deemed
he that he was worthy of such things at their hands.

So Guttorm went in to Sigurd the next morning as he lay upon his bed,
yet durst he not do aught against him, but shrank back out again; yea,
and even so he fared a second time, for so bright and eager were the
eyes of Sigurd that few durst look upon him. But the third time he went
in, and there lay Sigurd asleep; then Guttorm drew his sword and thrust
Sigurd through in such wise that the sword point smote into the bed
beneath him; then Sigurd awoke with that wound, and Guttorm gat him unto
the door; but therewith Sigurd caught up the sword Gram, and cast it
after him, and it smote him on the back, and struck him asunder in the
midst, so that the feet of him fell one way, and the head and hands back
into the chamber.

Now Gudrun lay asleep on Sigurd's bosom, but she woke up unto woe that
may not be told of, all swimming in the blood of him, and in such wise
did she bewail her with weeping and words of sorrow, that Sigurd rose up
on the bolster, and spake.

"Weep not," said he, "for thy brothers live for thy delight; but a young
son have I, too young to be ware of his foes; and an ill turn have these
played against their own fortune; for never will they get a mightier
brother-in-law to ride abroad with them; nay, nor a better son to their
sister, than this one, if he may grow to man's estate. Lo, now is that
come to pass which was foretold me long ago, but from mine eyes has it
been hidden, for none may fight against his fate and prevail. Behold
this has Brynhild brought to pass, even she who loves me before all
men; but this may I swear, that never have I wrought ill to Gunnar, but
rather have ever held fast to my oath with him, nor was I ever too much
a friend to his wife. And now if I had been forewarned, and had been
afoot with my weapons, then should many a man have lost his life or
ever I had fallen, and all those brethren should have been slain, and
a harder work would the slaying of me have been than the slaying of the
mightiest bull or the mightiest boar of the wild-wood."

And even therewithal life left the King; but Gudrun moaned and drew
a weary breath, and Brynhild heard it, and laughed when she heard her
moaning.

Then said Gunnar, "Thou laughest not because thy heart-roots are
gladdened, or else why doth thy visage wax so wan? Sure an evil creature
thou art; most like thou art nigh to thy death! Lo now, how meet would
it be for thee to behold thy brother Atli slain before thine eyes, and
that thou shouldst stand over him dead; whereas we must needs now
stand over our brother-in-law in such a case, our brother-in-law and our
brother's bane."

She answered, "None need mock at the measure of slaughter being
unfulfilled; yet heedeth not Atli your wrath or your threats; yea, he
shall live longer than ye, and be a mightier man."

Hogni spake and said, "Now hath come to pass the soothsaying of
Brynhild; an ill work not to be atoned for."

And Gudrun said, "My kinsmen have slain my husband; but ye, when ye next
ride to the war and are come into the battle, then shall ye look about
and see that Sigurd is neither on the right hand nor the left, and ye
shall know that he was your good-hap and your strength; and if he
had lived and had sons, then should ye have been strengthened by his
offspring and his kin."



CHAPTER XXXI. Of the Lamentation of Gudrun over Sigurd dead, as it is
told told in ancient Songs. (1)

     Gudrun of old days
     Drew near to dying
     As she sat in sorrow
     Over Sigurd;
     Yet she sighed not
     Nor smote hand on hand,
     Nor wailed she aught
     As other women.

     Then went earls to her.
     Full of all wisdom,
     Fain help to deal
     To her dreadful heart:
     Hushed was Gudrun
     Of wail, or greeting,
     But with a heavy woe
     Was her heart a-breaking.

     Bright and fair
     Sat the great earls' brides,
     Gold arrayed
     Before Gudrun;
     Each told the tale
     Of her great trouble,
     The bitterest bale
     She erst abode.

     Then spake Giaflaug,
     Giuki's sister:
     "Lo upon earth
     I live most loveless
     Who of five mates
     Must see the ending,
     Of daughters twain
     And three sisters,
     Of brethren eight,
     And abide behind lonely."

     Naught gat Gudrun
     Of wail and greeting,
     So heavy was she
     For her dead husband,
     So dreadful-hearted
     For the King laid dead there.

     Then spake Herborg
     Queen of Hunland--
     "Crueller tale
     Have I to tell of,
     Of my seven sons
     Down in the Southlands,
     And the eighth man, my mate,
     Felled in the death-mead.

     "Father and mother,
     And four brothers,
     On the wide sea
     The winds and death played with;
     The billows beat
     On the bulwark boards.

     "Alone must I sing o'er them,
     Alone must I array them,
     Alone must my hands deal with
     Their departing;
     And all this was
     In one season's wearing,
     And none was left
     For love or solace.

     "Then was I bound
     A prey of the battle,
     When that same season
     Wore to its ending;
     As a tiring may
     Must I bind the shoon
     Of the duke's high dame,
     Every day at dawning.

     "From her jealous hate
     Gat I heavy mocking,
     Cruel lashes
     She laid upon me,
     Never met I
     Better master
     Or mistress worser
     In all the wide world."

     Naught gat Gudrun
     Of wail or greeting,
     So heavy was she
     For her dead husband,
     So dreadful-hearted
     For the King laid dead there.

     Then spake Gullrond,
     Giuki's daughter--
     "O foster-mother,
     Wise as thou mayst be,
     Naught canst thou better
     The young wife's bale."
     And she bade uncover
     The dead King's corpse.

     She swept the sheet
     Away from Sigurd,
     And turned his cheek
     Towards his wife's knees--
     "Look on thy loved one
     Lay lips to his lips,
     E'en as thou wert clinging
     To thy king alive yet!"

     Once looked Gudrun--
     One look only,
     And saw her lord's locks
     Lying all bloody,
     The great man's eyes
     Glazed and deadly,
     And his heart's bulwark
     Broken by sword-edge.

     Back then sank Gudrun,
     Back on the bolster,
     Loosed was her head array,
     Red did her cheeks grow,
     And the rain-drops ran
     Down over her knees.

     Then wept Gudrun,
     Giuki's daughter,
     So that the tears flowed
     Through the pillow;
     As the geese withal
     That were in the homefield,
     The fair fowls the may owned,
     Fell a-screaming.

     Then spake Gullrond,
     Giuki's daughter--
     "Surely knew I
     No love like your love
     Among all men,
     On the mould abiding;
     Naught wouldst thou joy in
     Without or within doors,
     O my sister,
     Save beside Sigurd."

     Then spake Gudrun,
     Giuki's daughter--
     "Such was my Sigurd
     Among the sons of Giuki,
     As is the king leek
     O'er the low grass waxing,
     Or a bright stone
     Strung on band,
     Or a pearl of price
     On a prince's brow.

     "Once was I counted
     By the king's warriors
     Higher than any
     Of Herjan's mays;
     Now am I as little
     As the leaf may be,
     Amid wind-swept wood
     Now when dead he lieth.

     I miss from my seat,
     I miss from my bed,
     My darling of sweet speech.
     Wrought the sons of Giuki,
     Wrought the sons of Giuki,
     This sore sorrow,
     Yea, for their sister,
     Most sore sorrow.

     "So may your lands
     Lie waste on all sides,
     As ye have broken
     Your bounden oaths!
     Ne'er shalt thou, Gunnar,
     The gold have joy of;
     The dear-bought rings
     Shall drag thee to death,
     Whereon thou swarest
     Oath unto Sigurd.

     Ah, in the days by-gone
     Great mirth in the homefield
     When my Sigurd
     Set saddle on Grani,
     And they went their ways
     For the wooing of Brynhild!
     An ill day, an ill woman,
     And most ill hap!"

     Then spake Brynhild,
     Budli's daughter--
     "May the woman lack
     Both love and children,
     Who gained greeting
     For thee, O Gudrun!
     Who gave thee this morning
     Many words!"

     Then spake Gullrond,
     Giuki's daughter--
     "Hold peace of such words
     Thou hated of all folk!
     The bane of brave men
     Hast thou been ever,
     All waves of ill
     Wash over thy mind,
     To seven great kings
     Hast thou been a sore sorrow,
     And the death of good will
     To wives and women."

     Then spake Brynhild,
     Budli's daughter--
     "None but Atli
     Brought bale upon us,
     My very brother
     Born of Budli.

     When we saw in the hall
     Of the Hunnish people
     The gold a-gleaming
     On the kingly Giukings;
     I have paid for that faring
     Oft and full,

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