These prose tales were called Sagas, and among the very greatest is the Volsunga Saga, or Story of Sigurd.  It is a tale which has been told in other lands besides Iceland.  We read part of the same story in the Old English poem of Beowulf, and in Germany it was made into a great poem called the Nibelungenlied.  The German musician, Richard Wagner, set it to music in a famous series of operas called the Nibelungen Ring.  But his tale differs in many points from that contained in Morris’s poem, for Morris chose the old saga as it was written in Iceland, not the German story.  On this he founded his poem, adding much beautiful description, and greatly lengthening the whole.

The story deals first with a certain King Volsung, to whose son, Sigmund, Odin presented a magic sword.

But Siggeir, the jealous king of the Goths, slew Volsung, and took Sigmund prisoner that he might have the sword for himself.  Only after many toils and perils did Sigmund win it back and reign in his father’s kingdom.  At last in his old age he fell in battle and the sword of Odin was shattered.  But his wife, Queen Hiordis, kept the fragments for the son who was born to her soon after in Denmark, whither she fled for safety.  This son of Sigmund and Hiordis was Sigurd the Volsung.  He was brought up in Denmark and grew strong and beautiful, brave, kind of heart, and utterly truthful in word and deed.

When he became a man he longed to win fame and kingship by mighty deeds, and when his tutor told him of a great dragon that guarded a hoard of ill-gotten gold in the mountains, he resolved to kill it.  So the fragments of Odin’s sword were forged into a new blade, and Sigurd slew the dragon and took the gold, but with it he brought on himself a curse which had been put upon the treasure by the dwarf from whom it had been stolen.

Sigurd then found and wakened Brynhild, a maiden who lay in an enchanted sleep upon a high mountain.  They loved one another, and Sigurd gave her a ring from the dragon’s treasure, promising to return and marry her.

Then the curse led him to join with the fierce and treacherous Niblungs or Cloudy People.  Their king and his mother grew jealous when they saw Sigurd more mighty and more beloved than themselves, and by enchantments they caused him to forget Brynhild, to wed the princess Gudrun, and at last to aid the Niblung king, Gunnar, to win Brynhild for his own wife.

Then the curse of the gold brought death to many, for Sigurd and Brynhild discovered all the treachery of the Niblungs, who, in their anger, slew Sigurd, and Brynhild killed herself that she might not live and sorrow for him.

Such is the story of Sigurd as it was told a thousand years ago in distant Iceland, and as it is retold in this poem by William Morris.

THE STORY OF SIGURD THE VOLSUNG.

BOOK I.