Völsunga saga
The Völsunga saga begins with a killing over bruised pride. Sigi, son of Odin and ancestor of the Vǫlsung lineage, murders a thrall named Breði. Breði had outperformed him in a day's hunt, and that was enough.
Written in Old Norse prose in the late 13th century, the saga draws mainly on older poetry from the Elder Edda. Its only surviving medieval manuscript dates to about 1400 and is held by the Royal Library of Denmark. In that manuscript, the saga runs without pause into Ragnars saga loðbrókar.
What the saga tracks is not a single hero's journey but a dynasty's unraveling across several generations. It asks how a clan descended from a god loses everything it built. It asks what a cursed ring can do when each new owner dies before the next one inherits it. And whether a man as strong as Sigurd can be killed without ever being truly defeated.
Sigi hid Breði's body in a snowdrift and lied to Skaði, claiming Breði had ridden off into the forest. Skaði found the body and named the snowdrift 'Breði's drift.' The saga notes that every large snowdrift came to be called by that name in the murdered thrall's honor.
Cast out as 'a wolf in hallowed places,' Sigi found longships and became a raider and warlord. He seized a kingdom called Hunaland. His wife's brothers grew envious of his power and wealth, raised an army, and killed him in battle.
Sigi's son Rerir avenged the killing by slaying his uncles and reclaiming the throne. But Rerir and his wife had no children. Odin and Frigg sent a wish-maiden disguised as a crow to drop an enchanted apple onto Rerir's lap. After the queen ate the apple, she conceived. The pregnancy lasted extraordinarily long. Rerir went on campaign to pacify his land and died of illness before his heir was born.
Vǫlsung survived a birth that killed his mother, cut from her womb at her own order when she knew she could not survive. He grew to be a great king and married Hljod, the jötunn's daughter who had carried the enchanted apple as the wish-maiden. Their ten sons and one daughter were born into a dynasty already built on sacrifice. The eldest and strongest of those children were the twins Sigmund and Signý.
King Vǫlsung built a grand palace around a living tree called Barnstokkr that stood at the center of his great hall. At a wedding feast held there, a hooded man with one eye walked in and drove a sword into the trunk. He announced that whoever could pull it free would receive it as a gift, then left without a word.
Sigmund was the only man who could draw the sword out. The groom at that feast was Siggeir, king of Gautland, who had just married Signý. Siggeir offered to buy the sword. Sigmund refused. Signý warned her father that Siggeir was plotting against them. Vǫlsung agreed to invade Gautland before Siggeir could strike first. He sent his army to Gautland's shore, lost the battle, and was killed. His sons were tied by their hands and feet and left in the forest to die.
A she-wolf came each night and killed and ate one brother until only Sigmund remained. Signý's scouts brought Sigmund honey; he smeared it on his face. When the wolf came and put her tongue in his mouth to lick the honey out, Sigmund bit through her tongue and killed her. The saga suggests the wolf may have been Siggeir's mother, transformed through witchcraft.
Signý wanted a child strong enough to help Sigmund avenge the family. She exchanged forms with a traveling seeress and went in the form of a stranger to Sigmund's underground hiding place. Their union produced a son named Sinfjǫtli. When Sinfjǫtli was ten years old, Signý tested him and her other sons to find who could bear pain without crying out. Only Sinfjǫtli passed.
Sigmund and Sinfjǫtli eventually forced their way into Siggeir's hall, were captured, and escaped using the sword Signý returned to Sigmund. They forced Siggeir to walk into a bonfire. Signý walked in with him, unwilling to outlive the husband she had helped destroy. Sigmund took the throne and later married a woman named Borghild, who killed Sinfjǫtli by poison after Sinfjǫtli killed her brother.
Sigmund died in battle as an old man, mortally wounded after a one-eyed stranger appeared on the battlefield and broke his sword. He gave the shards to his pregnant wife Hjördís, prophesying that their unborn son would have them reforged. That son was Sigurd.
Sigurd grew up in the court of Hjalprek, king of Denmark, fostered by a tutor named Reginn. In the forest one day, he encountered Odin disguised as an old man, who gave him a horse named Grani, descended from Sleipnir. Reginn then told Sigurd the story of his brother Fáfnir.
Their father Hreiðmarr had three sons: Reginn, Fáfnir, and Ótr. Ótr could take the shape of an otter. When Odin, Loki, and Hœnir killed Ótr while fishing, not recognizing him as human, Hreiðmarr demanded compensation. He wanted gold enough to fill and cover Ótr's otter skin. Loki coerced a dwarf named Andvari into paying the debt with his entire hoard. Andvari tried to hold back one ring. Loki forced him to hand it over. Andvari cursed the ring Andvaranaut and the entire treasure, declaring it would bring death to every owner. Fáfnir later killed Hreiðmarr for the gold and transformed into a dragon to guard it.
Sigurd's mother gave him the shards of his father's broken sword. Reginn reforged them into a weapon called Gram. When Sigurd tested it on an iron anvil, the blade split the anvil down to its base. He first avenged his father by sailing to Hunding's kingdom and killing King Lyngvi and Hunding's sons in battle. He then went to Fáfnir's territory and dug several pits at Odin's advice to drain the dragon's blood. As Fáfnir crawled over, Sigurd stabbed him from below. Fáfnir, dying, warned that the gold would cause Sigurd's death.
Reginn had hidden in the heather during the fight. He asked Sigurd to roast Fáfnir's heart for him to eat. When Sigurd tasted the juices while testing whether it was cooked, he suddenly understood birds' speech. Nuthatches nearby were describing Reginn's plan to kill Sigurd for the treasure. Sigurd killed Reginn, ate part of the heart himself, and took the Helm of Terror and the Andvaranaut. He loaded as much treasure as Grani could carry and rode away.
The birds told him to find a sleeping warrior. He discovered a woman in full armor, removed her helmet, and cut open her chainmail. She was Brynhild. Odin had stabbed her with a sleeping thorn as punishment for killing a king named Hjalmgunnar, to whom Odin had promised victory. She woke, taught Sigurd knowledge of magical runes, and they pledged to marry each other.
Queen Grimhild prepared a drink that erased Sigurd's memory of Brynhild entirely. Sigurd married Grimhild's daughter Guðrún, swore brotherhood with Grimhild's sons Gunnar and Hǫgni, and settled at their court. Guðrún ate part of Fáfnir's heart and bore Sigurd a son also named Sigmund.
Brynhild had vowed to marry only a man brave enough to ride through fire to reach her hall. Gunnar could not pass through the flames. He and Sigurd exchanged shapes through sorcery. Sigurd, wearing Gunnar's face, rode through the fire and asked Brynhild to marry Gunnar. She reluctantly agreed because of her oath. She left behind a daughter named Aslaug with Heimr when she departed.
The deception broke open publicly when Brynhild and Guðrún argued about whose husband was the greater man. Guðrún showed Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut. Brynhild recognized it as the ring she had once given Sigurd. She understood that Sigurd, not Gunnar, had ridden through the fire. She confronted Gunnar, told him she knew he had deceived her, and threatened to kill him and take revenge on Grimhild.
Gunnar consulted his brothers. To kill Sigurd without breaking their oath of brotherhood, they needed someone not bound by it. They gave Guthormr, who had never sworn brotherhood with Sigurd, a meal of snake's and wolf's meat to turn him violent. Guthormr stabbed Sigurd while he slept. Sigurd woke, threw Gram after the assassin, and cut Guthormr in two. Brynhild laughed when she heard Guðrún weeping. Then she told Gunnar he had made a mistake and stabbed herself. Before dying, she predicted in detail what would happen to Gunnar and Guðrún in the years ahead. Gunnar honored her last request: he placed Brynhild and Sigurd on a funeral pyre together, alongside Guthormr and Sigurd's three-year-old son.
Guðrún fled after the funerals and found shelter with King Half in Denmark. Grimhild tracked her down and compelled her to marry King Atli, Brynhild's brother. Atli wanted Sigurd's gold. He sent Guðrún's brothers an invitation through his messenger Vingi, who altered Guðrún's runic warning to them into a friendly summons.
Hǫgni's wife Kostbera read the original runes correctly and warned her husband the message was a trap. Gunnar's wife Glaumvor had symbolic dreams that pointed to treachery and death. Neither brother turned back. Vingi admitted the deception when they arrived, and Gunnar and Hǫgni killed him with their axe handles. In the battle that followed, Guðrún armed herself and fought on her brothers' side. Both brothers were eventually captured. Hǫgni's heart was cut out and shown to Gunnar. Gunnar was placed in a snake pit. Guðrún managed to get a harp to him. He played it with his toes until all the snakes fell asleep except one, which bit him through the heart.
Guðrún killed Atli's two sons and served their blood and hearts to Atli at a feast. She told him what he had consumed only after. Hǫgni's son Niflung joined her in killing Atli while he slept. She then set fire to the hall, and all of Atli's retainers died inside.
Guðrún tried to drown herself in the sea afterward, but was swept to the court of King Jonakr, who married her. Their three sons were named Hamdir, Sorli, and Erp. Guðrún's daughter from Sigurd, Svanhild, was raised among them. King Jormunrek wished to marry Svanhild. His counselor Bikki persuaded Jormunrek's son Randver that he should marry her instead. When Bikki told Jormunrek what Randver had done, Jormunrek hanged his son and had Svanhild trampled to death by horses.
Guðrún urged Hamdir and Sorli to avenge their half-sister. On the road they killed their brother Erp after misreading his offer of help, coming to regret it later. At Jormunrek's hall they cut off his hands and feet. Erp would have cut off his head, but his brothers had already killed him. Odin appeared as a one-eyed old man and advised Jormunrek's housecarls to use stones. Sharp weapons could not harm the brothers. The housecarls stoned Hamdir and Sorli to death, and the saga's long account of the Vǫlsung line reached its end.
Andvari named exactly what his curse would do: "This ring... and indeed the entire treasure, will be the death of whoever owns it." The saga makes good on that claim in full. Fáfnir killed his father Hreiðmarr for the gold. Sigurd killed Fáfnir. Sigurd died because Brynhild recognized the Andvaranaut in Guðrún's possession and understood the deception it revealed. Gunnar and Hǫgni died because Atli wanted the treasure. Each death followed Andvari's script.
J. R. R. Tolkien drew on the Andvaranaut as one of the sources for the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien also wrote his own version of the Sigurd and Guðrún legend. He derived it from the Elder Edda poems rather than the saga, believing the saga's author had jumbled the older poetry. Richard Wagner built his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen on the same underlying tradition. Ernest Reyer composed an opera titled Sigurd. Henrik Ibsen wrote The Vikings at Helgeland. William Morris wrote an epic poem called The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs.
The related Middle High German epic the Nibelungenlied covers much of the same material. Scholars have debated which version preserves the older tradition. Research into both texts has shown the relationship between them to be more complex than earlier assumptions about a single original source.
The Ramsund carving, made around 1000 CE in Sweden, is the oldest known pictorial record of this legend. It predates the only surviving manuscript by roughly four centuries. That carved stone image remains in Sweden today, showing scenes from the Vǫlsung legend cut into rock long before any writer set the full saga down in prose.
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Common questions
What is the Völsunga saga?
The Völsunga saga is an Old Norse prose saga written in the late 13th century, tracing the origin and destruction of the Vǫlsung clan from its founding ancestor Sigi through the deaths of Guðrún's sons. The only surviving medieval manuscript dates to about 1400 and is held by the Royal Library of Denmark.
Who kills the dragon Fáfnir in the Völsunga saga?
Sigurd kills Fáfnir by hiding in a pit and stabbing him from below as the dragon crawls overhead. On Odin's advice, Sigurd dug several pits so that the dragon's blood would drain away from him as Fáfnir died.
What is the ring Andvaranaut in the Völsunga saga?
Andvaranaut is a gold ring owned by the dwarf Andvari, taken from him by force by Loki. Andvari cursed the ring and the entire treasure, declaring both would bring death to every owner. Every major character who holds the ring in the saga dies as a result.
Did the Völsunga saga inspire J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings?
Tolkien drew on the Andvaranaut, the cursed ring in the Völsunga saga, as one source for the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. He also wrote a separate retelling of the Sigurd and Guðrún legend derived from the Elder Edda poems rather than the saga itself, because he believed the saga's author had jumbled the older poetry.
How does Sigurd die in the Völsunga saga?
Sigurd is stabbed in his sleep by Guthormr, a man who had not sworn brotherhood with him and could therefore kill him without breaking an oath. Gunnar and Hǫgni arranged the killing after Brynhild discovered that Sigurd, not Gunnar, had ridden through fire to win her as Gunnar's wife.
What operas and literary works are based on the Völsunga saga?
Richard Wagner based his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen on the same legendary tradition as the Völsunga saga. Other adaptations include Ernest Reyer's opera Sigurd, Henrik Ibsen's play The Vikings at Helgeland, and William Morris's epic poem The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs.
All sources
12 references cited across the entry
- 1Clash of the Gods-Tolkien's Monsters – video dailymotion26 October 2016
- 2Database of medieval Icelandic saga literary adaptations23 February 2019
- 4The Saga of the Volsungs: The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, Together with The Lay of Kraka1930
- 5The Saga of the VolsungsLondon: Nelson — 1965
- 6The Saga of the Volsungs – together with Excerpts from the Nornageststháttr and Three Chapters from the Prose Edda1982
- 7Saga of the VolsungsUniversity of California Press — 1990
- 8Vǫlsunga saga. The saga of the Volsungs. The Icelandic Text According to MS Nks 1824 b, 4AQ-Verlag, Saarbrücken — 2005
- 9The Saga of the Volsungs with The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok2017
- 11The story of Sigurd the Volsung and the fall of the NiblungsBoston, Roberts brothers — 1877