The Saga of the Volsungs
by Anonymous · Völsunga saga
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists
An Icelandic prose saga retelling in order the poems of the heroic Edda. It follows the Volsung family from Odin's descendant Volsung through Sigmund, who draws the god's sword from a tree, to his son Sigurd, who kills the dragon Fafnir, wins its cursed gold, wakes the valkyrie Brynhild from her enchanted sleep, and then, drugged into forgetting her, marries Gudrun and wins Brynhild for Gudrun's brother Gunnar. Brynhild has Sigurd murdered and kills herself; Gudrun's later marriage to Atli ends with the slaughter of her brothers and her revenge on her husband.
We recommendThe Saga of the Volsungs, translated by Jesse L. ByockPenguin Classics, 1999A clear prose translation with an introduction on the legend's history and its use by Wagner and Tolkien.
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- Written
- c. 1250-1300
- Era
- Medieval
- Form
- Epic poetry
- Language
- Other
- Length
- Short · 110 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
Why it's on the list
Retelling in one continuous prose story the scattered poems of the heroic Edda preserved the northern legend of Sigurd and the cursed gold in the form that later ages could actually read, and it is through this saga rather than the poems that the story reached Wagner, Morris and Tolkien. Following a single family across five generations, from Odin's descendant to Gudrun's last revenge, makes the saga a study in how a curse and a loyalty pass down a line, each generation inheriting a debt it did not contract. Giving Brynhild the will to have Sigurd murdered and then die beside him, rather than the passive grief of a romance heroine, produced a woman whose pride and rage have no equal in medieval fiction. Setting the killing of the dragon, the winning of the gold, and the waking of the valkyrie within a story that ends in halls burned and brothers slaughtered gives the northern imagination its fullest statement that glory and doom are the same thing seen from two sides.
Key themes
- Fate and freedom
- The gold's curse and Odin's interventions shape every generation, and the heroes act with full knowledge of what will follow, choosing the doom they cannot avoid.
- Family and inheritance
- Following the Volsungs across five generations makes the saga a study in how a curse and a loyalty pass down a line, each inheriting a debt it did not contract.
- Heroism and honour
- Sigurd kills the dragon, wins the gold, rides through the fire and wakes the valkyrie, and the saga treats his murder as the end of the heroic age.
- Love and desire
- Brynhild, given the will to have Sigurd murdered and then die beside him, is a woman whose pride and rage have no equal in medieval fiction.
- Guilt and redemption
- Gudrun's revenge on Atli, killing their sons and burning his hall, closes the cycle of blood without redeeming it, and the saga offers no absolution.
Which translation to read
Our pick
The Saga of the Volsungs, translated by Jesse L. Byock
Penguin Classics, 1999
A clear prose translation with an introduction on the legend's history and its use by Wagner and Tolkien.
Amazon: the Jesse L. Byock translation, opens in a new tabBookshop.org: the Jesse L. Byock translation, opens in a new tab
Overview
About one hundred and ten pages, an Icelandic prose saga written around 1250 to 1300, retelling in order the poems of the heroic Edda. It follows the Volsung family from Odin’s descendant Volsung through Sigmund, who draws the god’s sword from a tree, to his son Sigurd, who kills the dragon Fafnir, wins its cursed gold, wakes the valkyrie Brynhild from her enchanted sleep, and then, drugged into forgetting her, marries Gudrun and wins Brynhild for Gudrun’s brother Gunnar.
Brynhild has Sigurd murdered and kills herself; Gudrun’s later marriage to Atli ends with the slaughter of her brothers and her revenge on her husband.
What happens
The Volsungs. Odin’s descendant Volsung builds a hall around a tree, into which a one-eyed stranger thrusts a sword that only Sigmund can draw. Volsung is killed by his son-in-law Siggeir; Sigmund survives in the forest, fathers Sinfjotli on his own sister Signy, and takes revenge by burning Siggeir’s hall, Signy choosing to die in it.
Sigmund’s death and Sigurd’s birth. Sigmund’s sword breaks against Odin’s spear in his last battle. His widow Hjordis bears Sigurd, who is fostered by the smith Regin and learns from him the story of the otter’s ransom, the cursed gold that Regin’s brother Fafnir took and became a dragon to guard.
Fafnir and the gold. With the reforged sword Gram, Sigurd kills Fafnir from a pit, roasts his heart, tastes the blood and understands the birds, who tell him Regin means to kill him. He kills Regin, takes the gold, and rides to a mountain ringed with fire.
Brynhild. He wakes the valkyrie Brynhild, whom Odin had put to sleep, and they swear to marry. At the court of the Gjukungs, Grimhild gives Sigurd a drink of forgetfulness; he marries Gudrun, and rides through the fire in Gunnar’s shape to win Brynhild for him.
The murder. Quarrelling at the river over whose husband is greater, Gudrun tells Brynhild the truth. Brynhild demands Sigurd’s death; Gunnar’s brother Guttorm kills him in bed, and Brynhild stabs herself and is burned beside him.
Gudrun and Atli. Gudrun is married to Brynhild’s brother Atli, who invites her brothers and kills them for the gold, Gunnar dying in the snake pit with a harp. Gudrun kills her sons by Atli, feeds him their hearts, stabs him and burns his hall, and the saga follows her children into the last of the killings.
How to read it
Read the saga as the form in which the scattered poems of the Edda became one continuous story, and the form through which the legend reached Wagner, Morris and Tolkien.
Pay close attention to the passage of the curse and the sword down five generations, each inheriting a debt it did not contract, and notice that the heroes act in full knowledge of their doom.
Notice Brynhild, given the will to have Sigurd killed and then die beside him, and compare her with the grieving heroines of romance who could not have done either.
Consider the ending, halls burned and brothers slaughtered and no absolution offered, and ask what the northern imagination meant by setting glory and doom so close.
Read this saga alongside the Nibelungenlied to see the same story told in the courtly German manner, with Brynhild diminished, Kriemhild’s revenge enlarged and the gods gone.
Questions it raises
- Is the gold’s curse the cause of the saga’s catastrophes, or an explanation laid over choices the characters make freely and would make again?
- What does the saga think of Sigurd’s forgetting of Brynhild, a drink he did not choose to take: is he innocent, and does innocence matter?
- Why is Brynhild’s rage at being deceived greater than Gudrun’s grief at being widowed, and what does the saga admire in her?
- What is Odin doing in the story, giving the sword and breaking it, and does the god want the Volsungs to prosper or to fall?
- How should a modern reader take Gudrun’s revenge on Atli, killing her own sons: as heroism, madness, or the logic of the feud carried to its end?
- What did Wagner and Tolkien each take from the saga, and what did each have to leave out to make their own stories work?
Highlights
Sigmund draws the sword that Odin thrust into the tree in Volsung's hall, which no other man could move, and the saga follows the sword through its breaking and reforging into the hand of his son Sigurd.
Paraphrase of the saga's founding episode, which Wagner and Tolkien both reworked.
Sigurd kills the dragon Fafnir, wins its cursed gold, tastes its blood and understands the birds who warn him of Regin's treachery, and rides to wake the valkyrie Brynhild from her enchanted sleep.
Paraphrase of the saga's heroic core.
Drugged into forgetting Brynhild, Sigurd marries Gudrun and wins Brynhild for Gunnar in Gunnar's shape; when Brynhild learns the truth she has Sigurd murdered and kills herself to lie beside him on his pyre.
Paraphrase of the saga's tragic centre.
