127081 , \ public Hi This volume is for REFERKIsTCE USK Qorrcetm anb Romance of JJortfjern Curope Hifcrarp of Classics $rmtcb in Complete Jform VIKING EDITION THE VOLNGA SAGA TRANSLATED PROM THE ICELANDIC l*Y EIRIKR MAGNUSSON + WILLIAM M. MORRIS WITH INTRODUCTION V H. HALLIDAY SPARUNG, RUX'PLKMHNTttX) WITH LEGENDS OF THE WAGNER TRILOGY JESSIE L. WESTON, And Old Norse Sapas Kindred to the Volsung and Niblung Tale. HON. RASMUS I*. ANDERSON, LL.D. KDXTOK IN ournv*. J. W. KUEL, Ph.D., MANAGING XOX>XTOK. ) y TIJK NORRCENA SOCIETY, LONDON STOCKHOLM COPENHAGEN BERLIN NEW YORK 1000 LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES. (Srouv <>v Frontispiece Water-fairies of the Rhine. Page Andvari (Albcrich) is Robbed of the Magic Ring 182 Hcimer and Aslo# 267 Frithiof at the Court of King Ring 386 CONTENTS. (VO3LSUNOA SAGA) Page Introduction by H. Halliday Sparling 1 Translator's Preface 25 Characters in the Volsung Story 29 Story of the Volsungs, IOf Sigi, the Son of Odin 31 2 Birth of the Volsung 33 3 The Sworcl Gram, Drawn from Branstock 35 4 King Siggeir Weds Signy 37 5 The Slaying of King 1 Volsung 3D 6 Signy Sends her Children to Sigmund 42 7 Birth of Sinfjotli 43 8 Death of Siggcir and Signy 45 9HelKi Weds Sigrun 52 10 The Ending of Sinfjotli 57 It King Signumd's Last Battle 59 12 The Broken Sword Gram 62 13B'irth of Sigurd (Siegfried) 65 J4 Rcgin's Tale of Andvari's Hoard 69 16 Welding of the Sword Gram 72 16 The Prophecy of Grifir .' 73 37 Sigurd Avenges his Father 74 IB Sigurd Slays the Worm Fafnir 77 19 The Slaying of Rcgta 81 JiO Sigurd's Meeting with Brynhild 84 S>1 JRrynhild's Wise Counsel 89 22 The Semblance and Array of Sigurd 91 23 Sigurd Comes to Hlymdale * . 93 24 Sigurd Meets Brynhild at Hlymdale 94 Wi 25 Gudrun's Dream ................................... 07 26 Sigurd is Wedded to Gudrun ....................... 101 37 The Wooing of Brynhihl .......................... 104 88 -ttrynhild and Gudrun Quarrel ...................... KW 29 .Hrynhild's Great Grief ............................. 111 30 Assassination of Sigurd . * ......................... 118 3.1 Lamentation of Gudrun Over Sigurd ......... ..... lU.'i 33 The Ending of Rrynhiid ........................... 129 33 Gudrun is Wedded to Atfi ......................... t:i2 34 Atli Invites the Gjukmgfs to Visit Him .............. iM 35 Dreams of the Gjukings' Wives .................. * . 140 36 Journey of the GjukinKS to Atli .................... t 41 37 Battle in the Burg of Atli ................. ..... ____ t U 38 Slaying of the Gjukings ........................ , , . , 14rt 3D The End of Atli and his Kin .............. , ......... 1 4# 40 Gudrun Casts Herself into the Sea ............ ..... 1M 41 Wedding and Slaying of Svvanhild ................. lft4 43 Gudrun's Sons Avenge Swatihild ................... 157 43 Latter End of the Gjukings ............ , .......... ISH Legend of the Wagner Trilogy. The Nibelungen Ring* Chapter I Origin and Analysis of t!u k Legend .......... 1(11 Legendary and Historical Hypotheses ......... , , HH The Thidrek-Saga ........................... , ..... 187 Considerations on the Thidrek-Satfa . .............. J7tt The Rhine Gold* Chapter IT The Argument as Used liy WatftUT ......... 17H The Ethical Idea Expressed by the t,i*n<*nd ......... IHO The German and Northern Mythology ....,, ...... ina Feuds Between Gods and Giants ........... ,.,,,, t*M The Chapter 1 1 1 Argument of the Story .................... 190 Personification of Nature Principle* , * . ............. tftt What Wotan Ropnwents ............ , ........... , t w Characters of the Northern Dcititt.s Jv 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 322 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 Gunther 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 256 Chapter II Heimcr, an Exiled King, Becomes the Pro- tector of Aslog 260 Seeking Shelter in a Cottage, Heimcr is Murdered by his Host 163 Chapter TIT Aslog, as Kraka, is made a Servant 264 She is Rescued and Become*? 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 Frithiof's Meeting with Ingeborg 272 King Ring's Courtship 274 Frithiof Profanes Balder's Temple 276 Frithiof Collects Tribute from Angantyr 280 Destruction of the Temple of Balder 28S The Wolf in the Temple 283 King Sigurd Ring's Court 284 Frithiofs Meeting with Ingeborg , 280 v COX TEXTS The Test of Frithiofs Loyalty ..................... 2HS Frithiofs Atonement ............................... :>t0 Ilis Winning of Ingeborg ......................... 2t>U Ragnar Lodbrook. A Battle led by a Soldier Maid ..................... S'.i.'i Ragnar Sets out to Fight a Dragon .............. , , ,2i7 How Ragnar won the Princess Thorn, . ............ J.".w He Abandons Thorn for Kraka (Injgchortt ) ......... Wl Adventure with an Enchanted Bull ..... , ...... , ..... ISO I Ragnar's Death in a Den of Serpents. , * ........... .'W7 King Helge and Rolf Kraki. King Ilelge Espouses Tlinra ....................... IWH Dramatic Meeting with his Deserted Bride .......... IttO TTelge Appeals to the Cupidity <>f King Adil ........ :ii'2 Rolf Avenges the Murder of Helge ......... ....... :tl*l The Battle of Bravalla. King Iwar has a Dreadful Drenm .................. ,'ittl Ilarald and Sigurd King ........................... .'t^-< The Battle <f Bravalla ............................ .:WH Sigurd Ring Ctmmauds that Maguifu'rut Funeral Honors be Paid to the Hody of Ilarald ..... , * . ,:i:w Wayland Smith, Forging the Swor<l Ring-Cleaver ............. ..... ;t:i^ Wedding of the Swan Maiden* ...... ,,,,,, ...... , ,;i:t3 The Elf-King is made a Slave to Nidwh ............ ;M7 How he Executed a Dreadful Vengeance, . , , ........ TttH The Elf-King K.scapos and Joins his Bride .......... :HO INTEODUCTION I? 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 land, 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, Becle, Caedmon, as well as he knew Plato, Caesar, Cicero, or Pericles, would be hard bestead were he asked about the great peoples from whom we sprang; the warring of Harald Fairhair or Saint 1 in the Olaf ; the Viking kingdoms (the British) Western Isles; the settlement of Iceland, or even of Normandy, The knowledge of all these things would now be even i or xtten Viking (Ice. Vibingr; vik t a bay or creek, in//r, belonging to, of) rrocbooterg, I 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 and 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 English-speaking 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 ami 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 own INTRODUCTION 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.