The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga); with Excerpts from the Poetic Edda
General
The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga); with Excerpts from the Poetic Edda
Eddas -- Translations into English; Nibelungen -- Romances; Sagas -- Translations into English; Siegfried (Legendary character) -- Romances
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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