The Story of the Volsungs

King Siggeir

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 th

kins; 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

ghtway 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

thou not

h to call for thy help for

t the other in the throat, and then ran straightway into the thicket, and took up a leaf and laid in 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 tho

; so on s 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

ace where Sigmund and Sinfjotli lay, and off runs the little one to search for the same, and beholds withal where two men axe sitting, big and grimly to look on, with overhanging helms and bright white byrnies; 23 so he runs up the

ave bewrayed you; come now

I slay thy children for te

drew his sword and slew them both, and cas

uld 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

a great barrow of stones and turf; and when it was done, let set a great flat stone midmost inside thereof, so tha

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, beari

e need meat for a while, for here has the queen cast swine's flesh int

nd's sword; and he knew it by the hilts as mirk as it might be in the

rd bit on the stone. With that Sigmund caught the sword by the point, and in this wise they sawed the

jotli

gmund

n wit

one wa

themselves out thereof. Then they go home to the hall, whenas all men slept there, and bear wood to the hall, a

ut, "Who kindled this

ister's son; and we are minded that thou shalt w

good things at his hands, and great honour, and

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,

jotli, and went back again into the fire, and ther

nd went back to his father's land, and drave away thence the ki

, Norns came to him, 24 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 story tells that he went to the wars when he was fifteen winters old. Helgi was lord and ruler over t