1907 74-00123 reference collection book kansas city public library kansas city, "missouri KANSAS CITY, MO PUBLIC LIBRARY D ODD1 SlbDEDM 5 OF THE There art but four hundred and fifty complete sets made for the world^ of -which this is copy No.. ANGtO-SAXON CLASSICS CWYKHiKT T. H, SMART 1905 THE VOLSUNGA SAGA TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC BY EIRIKR MAGNUSSON + WILLIAM MORRIS WITH INTRODUCTION BY H. HALLIDAY SPARLING, 8UPPLBMKXTK1) WITH LEGENDS OF THE WAGNER TRILOGY BY JESSIE L. WESTON, And Old Norse Sagas Kindred to the Volsung and Niblung Tale. HON. RASMUS B. ANDERSON, LL.D*. K0ITOM IN CHIKF. J. W. BUEL, Ph.D., MANAGING KDITOR. PtriJLISUKl> BY THK NORRCENA SOCIETY, LONDON STOCKHOLM COPENHAGEN BERLIN NEW YORK 11)07 LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES. (RTOltY OK THK YOLHPXG8 AND NlULUNGS) Frontispiece Water-fairies of the Rhine. Pago Anclvari (Alberich) is Robbed of the Magic Ring 183 Ileimer and Aslog 257 Frithiof at the Court of King Ring 28C CONTENTS. (VoL6UNA SAGA) Page Introduction by H. Halii day Sparling 1 Translator's Preface 25 Characters in the VoLsung Story 39 Story of the Volsungs. .1 Of Sigi, the Son of Odin 31 2 Birth of the Volsung , 33 3 The Sword Gram, Drawn from Branstock 35 4 King Siggeir Weds Signy 37 5 The Slaying of King Volsung 39 Signy Sends her Children to Sigmund 42 7 Birth of Sinfjotli 43 R Death of Siggeir and Signy 45 9~-Helgi Weds Sigrun 52 10 The Ending of Sinfjotli 57 1 1 King Sigmund's Last Battle 59 IS- The Broken Sword Gram 62 13 Birth of Sigurd (Siegfried) 65 14 Resin's Talc of Andvari's Hoard 69 15 Welding of the Sword Gram 72 10 The Prophecy of Grifir 73 17 Sigurd Avenges his Father 74 18 Sigurd Slays the Worm Fafnir 77 19 The Slaying of Re gin 81 20 Sigurd's Meeting with Brynhild 84 21 Brynhild's Wise Counsel 89 SS The Semblance and Array of Sigurd 91 8:i S'iffnrd Comes to Hlymdalc 93 24 Sigurd Meets Brynhild at lllymdale 94 ill CONTENTS Page 25 Gudrun's Dream * 97 26 Sigurd is Wedded to Gudrun 101 27 The Wooing of Brynhild 104 28 Brynhild and Gudrun Quarrel 108 29 Brynhild's Great Grief Ill 30 Assassination of Sigurd 118 31 Lamentation of Gudrun Over Sigurd 123 32 The Ending of Brynhild 129 33 Gudrun is Wedded to Atli 132 34 Atli Invites the Gjukings to Visit Him 136 35 Dreams of the Gjukings' Wives 140 36 Journey of the Gjukings to Atli 141 37 Battle in the Burg of Atli 144 38 Slaying of the Gjukings 146 39 The End of Atli and his Kin 149 40 Gudrun Casts Herself into the Sea 154 41 Wedding and Slaying of Swanhild 154 42 Gudrun's Sons Avenge Swanhild 157 43 Latter End of the Gjukings 158 Legend of the Wagner Trilogy* The Nibelungen Ring. Chapter I Origin and Analysis of the Legend 161 Legendary and Historical Hypotheses -. 164 The Thidrek-Saga 167 Considerations on the Thidrek-Saga 176 The Rhine Gold. Chapter II The Argument as Used by Wagner 178 The Ethical Idea Expressed by the Legend ISO The German and Northern Mythology 182 Feuds Between Gods and Giants 186 The Valkyrie. Chapter III Argument of the Story 190 Personification of Nature Principles 193 What Wotan Represents '. 199 Characters of the Northern Deities 203 iv CONTENTS Siegfried. Page Chapter IV The Tale as Dramatically Treated 208 Origin of the Myth Traced to Aryan Sources 210 Wieland Overcomes Siegfried 215 Siegfried Connected with the Grail Legends 222 Gotterdammerung. Chapter V Condensed Story of the Downfall of the Gods 225 Influence of Christian Faith Noticeable in the Story...227 Obscuration of the Original Legend 231 Gunthcr the Greatest Character in the Drama 235 Disagreements Respecting Siegfried's Death 242 Grandeur of the Closing Scene 253 Legends Kindred to those of the Volsungs. The Story of Aslog. Chapter I Aslog, Daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild 356 Chapter II Heimer, an Exiled King, Becomes the Pro- tector of Aslog 260 Seeking Shelter in a Cottage, Heimer is Murdered by his Host 163 is a Servant 264 Chapter III Aslog t as Kraka, made She is Rescued and Becomes the Wife of Ragnar Lodbrook 266 Story of Aslog's Abandonment and Restoration 268 Frithiof, the Bold and Fair Ingeborg. The Vow of King Bele and Torsten '. 271 FrithxoPs Meeting with Ingeborg 272 King Ring's Courtship 274 Frithiof Profanes Haider's Temple 276 Frithiof Collects Tribute from Angantyr 280 Destruction of the Temple of Balder 28!J The Wolf in the Temple 283 KittR Sigurd Ring's Court 284 FrithioPs Meeting with Ingeborg 286 CONTENTS Page The Test of Frithiof's Loyalty 283 Frithiofs Atonement 290 His Winning of Ingeborg 293 Ragnar Lodbrook. A Battle led by a Soldier Maid 295 Ragnar Sets out to Fight a Dragon 297 How Ragnar won the Princess Thora 299 He Abandons Thora for Kraka (Ingeborg) 301 Adventure with an Enchanted Bull 304 Ragnar's Death in a Den of Serpents 307 King Helge and Rolf Kraki. King Helge Espouses Thora 303 Dramatic Meeting with his Deserted Bride 310 Helge Appeals to the Cupidity of King Adils 312 Rolf Avenges the Murder of Helge 316 The Battle of Bravalla. King Iwar has a Dreadful Dream 321 Harald and Sigurd Ring 324 The Battle of Bravalla 328 Sigurd Ring Commands that Magnificent Funeral Honors be Paid to the Body of Harald 330 Wayland Smith. Forging the Sword Ring-Cleaver 332 Wedding of the Swan Maidens 333 The Elf- King is made a Slave to Niduth 337 How he Executed a Dreadful Vengeance 338 The Elf-Khig Escapes and Joins his Bride 340 INTRODUCTION IT would seem fitting for a Northern folk, deriving the greater and better part of their speech, laws and customs from a Northern root, that the North should be to them, if not a holy hncl, yet at least a place more to be regarded than any part of the world beside; that howsoever their knowledge widened of other men, the faith and deeds of their forefathers would never lack interest for them, but would always be kept in remembrance. One cause after another has, however, aided in turning attention to classic men and lands at the cost of our own history. Among battles, "every schoolboy" knows the story of Marathon or Salamis, while it would be hard indeed to find one who did more than recognize the name, if even that, of the great fights of Hafrsfirth or Sticklestead. The language and history of Greece and Rome, their laws and religions, have been always held part of the learning needful to an educated man, but no trouble has been taken to make him familiar with his own people or their tongue. Even that Englishman who knew Alfred, Bede, Caedmon, as well as he knew Plato, Caesar, Cicero, or Pericles, would be hard bestead were he asked about the great peoples from or whom we sprang ; the warring of Harald Fairhair Saint 1 in the Western Olaf ; the Viking kingdoms (the British) Isles; the settlement of Iceland, or even of Normandy. The knowledge of all these things would now be even iVTklnff (Ice. VtKingr; vile, a bay or creek, ingr, belonging to, or men. of) freebooters. INTRODUCTION smaller than it is among us were it not that there was one land left where the olden learning found refuge and was kept in being. In England, Germany, and the rest of Europe, what is left of the traditions of pagan times has been altered in a thousand ways by foreign influence, even as the peoples and their speech have been by the influx of to the that foreign blood ; but Iceland held old tongue was once the universal speech of northern folk, and held also the great stores of tale and poem that are slowly becoming once more the common heritage of their descendants. The truth, care, and literary beauty of its records; the varied and strong life shown alike in tale ami history and the preservation of the old speech, character, and tradition a people placed apart as the Icelanders have been combine to make valuable what Iceland holds for us. Not before 1770, when Bishop Percy translated Mallet's Northern Antiquities, was anything known here of Ice- land, or its literature. Only within the latter part of the nineteenth century has it been studied, and little has been done as yet It is, however, becoming ever clearer, and to an increasing number, how supremely important is Icelandic as a word-hoard to the Knglish-speakmg peoples, and that in its legend, song, and story there is a very mine of noble- and pleasant beauty and high manhood. That which has been done, one may hope, is but the beginning of a great new birth, that shall give back to our language and litera- ture all that heedlessncss and ignorance bid fair for awhile to destroy. The Scando-Gothic peoples who poured southward and westward over Europe, to shake empires and found king- doms, to meet Greek and Roman in conflict, and levy tribute everywhere, had kept up their constantly-recruited waves of incursion, until they had raised a barrier of their o\\n LVTRODCCTIOX blood. It was their own kin, the sons of earlier invaders, who stayed the landward march of the Northmen in the time of Charlemagne. To the Southlands their road by land was henceforth closed. Then begins the day of the Vikings, who, for two hundred years and more, "held the world at ransom." Under many and brave leaders they first of all came round the "Western Isles" 1 toward the end of the eighth century; soon after they invaded Nor- mandy, and harried the coasts of France; gradually they lengthened their voyages until there was no share of the then known world upon which they were unseen or unfelt.