Review: Saga of the Volsungs

 

Völsunga Saga

or,

The Saga of the Volsungs

Author Unknown

Classics Club Review #5/50

An all round bizarre but thoroughly enjoyable history of the lineage and legacy of Volsung. I haven't much to say, I'm afraid, and I read it a while back now. Consider this post less as a review, but more of an acknowledgement.

The best known story from this is that of Sigurd and the Dragon. Sigurd is the original Siegfried I encountered as a child in Die Nibelungen (1924), which was in turn based on the German epic poem 'Nibelungenlied'.

"Brunhilde knelt at his feet", 1905, Ferdinand Leeke

The beautiful warrior queen Brunhild/Brynhild, whom you do not want to mess with, lies sleeping within castle walls surrounded by a barrier of fire, through which, if any man would awaken her and take her to wife, he must go. And then there's whatever Brunhild might do to him. The only reason for all this palaver is because, after killing one of Odin's favorite kings in battle, the Valkyrie was doomed to mortality and marriage, and she requested this literal Trial by Fire be put in place in the hope that no man could come through it. To do so – well, he'd have to be invincible!

A little birdie tells me you called?
Paul Richter as Siegfried, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried, directed by Fritz Lang

Bathed in the blood and fed on the heart of Fafnir, a king's son turned dragon in his greed, Sigurd, the Nordic Achilles, rides through the flames unscathed and the two are betrothed, not to Brunhild's utter dismay. However, by a trick of enchanted wine, Sigurd forgets her and marries Gudrun, later helping her brother, Gunnar, to marry Brunhild. This gets complicated.

The dragon Fafnir, as represented by the wonderful Arthur Rackham

Hanna Ralph as Brunhild in Die Nibelungen

Whether the story reminds you of Sleeping Beauty, St. George, or Eustace Scrubb, it's probably one you feel you've encountered before. It's recently had a full circle moment in the new All Creatures Great and Small, with Siegfried Farnon being played by Samuel West – Caspian in the 1980s Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Apart from Eustace's journey to redemption, the death scene of the lord-dragon in that has a distinct feel of Fafnir's death in Die Nibelungen to it, perhaps only down to the puppetry (On a side note: though that series is the definitive Narnia adaptation to me, I give full credit to Will Poulter as THE  Eustace! OUTSTANDING!).

Earlier tales include that of Sigmund and Signy, twin descendants of Volsung, and their story features wolves, sorceresses, hiding in the greenwood, house-fires, — and gets us Sinfjötli, who is later a competitor in a session of some of the weirdest trash-talk (or "flyting") I've ever come across.

Before this I had only read the Vinland Sagas, and while I think I enjoyed those a tad more I am very happy to have read this. My apologies again for such a thin review!

The lovely edition I read.

The edition I used on Goodreads – the cover art struck me as very Tolkien-esque in style.

I look forward to reading more Norse literature before I finish my course upon the whale-road of life and lay at last in my earth-hall, never to flyte again.