1
University of Leeds
Centre for Medieval Studies
The Eddic Poetic Sources of Vôlsunga Saga
Essay submitted for
"Vikings, Saxons and Heroic Culture"
1998/99
by
Antje Frotscher
Flat C 3.21, St Mark's Flats
St Mark's Street
Leeds LS2 9EL
Leeds, 14 March 1998
2
Ye have heard of Sigurd aforetime, how the foes of God he slew;
How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of the Waters he drew;
How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the Bright,
And dwelt upon Earth for a season, and shone in all men's sight.
Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
And the latter world's confusion, and Sigurd gone away;
Now ye know of the Need of the Niblungs and the end of broken troth,
All the death of kings and of kindreds, and the sorrow of Odin the Goth.
William Morris, The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, Book IV
3
1. Introduction
The source-history of Vôlsunga saga is, to say the least, a complicated one. There is certainly
no doubt that the author - or compiler, as some critics prefer to name him - made extensive
use of both extant and lost Eddic poems in the composition of the saga. For a general survey
of the Eddic sources of Vôlsunga saga, I have divided the saga into five major parts, and
gathered the sources accordingly into five groups.
1.1. Part One
The introduction of Eddic material we are familiar with from the Codex Regius into the saga
begins in Chapter 8 with the episodes about Sigurd's half-brothers Sinfjôtli and Helgi. The
passage from the saga which introduces Sigmund's first wife Borghild and reports the birth of
Helgi and his raids with Sinfjôtli at the end of Chapter 8 corresponds to the first few lines of
the Eddic prose piece Frá dauða Sinfjôtla. The tale of the expedition to Gnipalund, Sinfjôtli's
flyting with Granmarr (or Granmar's son Guðmundr in the Eddic version) and Helgi's winning
of Sigrún are told in the Eddic Helgakviða Hundingsbana I. The story is then concluded with
the recounting of Sinfjôtli's death, again from Frá dauða Sinfjôtla.
1.2. Part Two
The ending of this prose piece forms the beginning of the second story-arc, which deals with
Sigurð's youthful deeds. It encompasses his father's death and Sigurð's subsequent birth (VS
11-12 and Frá dauða Sinfjôtla), Sigurð's youth with the appearance of his foster-father
Reginn and the choosing of the horse Grani (VS 13 and Reginsmál), Regin's tale about the
dragon Fáfnir and the history of the Otrsgjôld which forms the dragon's hort (VS 13-14 and
Reginsmál), the forging of Sigurð's sword from the broken pieces of Sigmund's sword Gram
(VS 15 and Reginsmál), the prophecies of his uncle Grípir (VS 15 and Grípisspá), Sigurð's
revenge for his father's death (VS 17 and Reginsmál), the slaying of the dragon Fáfnir (VS 1820 and Fáfnismál), and finally his voyage to Hindarfjall and the counsels of the valkyrie
Sigrdrífa (VS 21-22 and Sigrdrífumál).
4
1.3. Part Three
The sources for some of the third part (VS 23-29) are lost in what is commonly known as "The
Great Lacuna", the gap of eight manuscript pages in the Codex Regius. This third part
contains the main corpus of the Brynhildr-legend: Sigurð's meeting with Brynhildr at Heimir's
home and their renewed engagement, Brynhild's interpretation of Guðrún's dreams, Sigurð's
stay with the Gjúkungs, his bewitchment by Grímhildr and subsequent marriage to Guðrún,
his winning of Brynhildr for his brother-in-law Gunnarr, and the famous quarrel of the queens
Brynhildr and Guðrún which leads to Sigurð's death at the hands of Guttormr and Brynhild's
suicide. The Eddic material known to us which was used by the compiler of Vôlsunga saga
consists of the Brot af Sigurþarkviðu, directly following the Great Lacuna, and Sigurðarkviða
hin skamma. Both tell of Sigurð's death, though the second focusses on Brynhildr rather than
Guðrún. There are several Eddic lays in the Codex Regius which belong to the cycle but were
not, probably because of their late composition, used by the compiler of the saga: Guðrún's
lament in Guðrúnarkviða I as well as Guðrúnarkviða III, the Helreið Brynhildar and the
Oddrúnagrátr.
1.4. Part Four
The fourth part of the saga is the fall of the Vôlsungs in the hall of King Atli. The events are
told in compressed form in the prose Dráp Niflunga, and in the three lays Gruðrúnarkviða hin
forna, Atlakviða and Atlamál. Drawing on these poems, the Vôlsunga saga's chapters 34-40
tell of Guðrún's flight from home, her marriage to Atli, Atli's treacherous plan and invitation
to the Gjúkungs, the portentous dreams of Gunnar's and Hôgni's wives, their battle against
Atli's troops in his hall, the death of the two brothers, and Guðrún's final revenge on Atli
through the killing of his sons and the burning of his hall.
1.5. Part Five
The last two Eddic lays in the Codex Regius, Guðrúnarhvôt and Hamðismál, are the sources
of the last part of Vôlsunga saga, telling of the death of Guðrún's daughter Svanhidr at the
hands of King Jôrmunrekr, Guðrúns incitement of her sons Hamðir, Sôrli and Erpr, and their
deaths in the execution of that revenge.
5
2. Edda and Vôlsunga saga
All in all, the compiler of the Vôlsunga saga has made use of no less than twelve Eddic lays
and two prose pieces recognizable to us from the material in the Codex Regius, as well as
more Eddic material lost in the Great Lacuna.1 A complete, detailed analysis of their use is
impossible within the scope of this essay, and I have therefore decided to restrict my
examination of the Vôlsunga saga's Eddic sources to only one of the five major parts outlined
above, namely the second part which contains the stories of Sigurð's youth. The reasons for
this choice are, among others, that in parts three and four, and in a lesser degree also in part
five, the compiler dealt with two conflicting versions of the same story, and a discussion of
these three tends to be drawn to the differences between the two relevant Eddic lays. Here,
however, I would like to concentrate on the comparison of the poetic and the prose versions
themselves. This relationship of sources to saga has to be approached from two different
angles. The first is the question of contents: which Eddic lays did the compiler of the saga use,
which ones did he know (the answer to which is mostly based on speculation), what additions
did he make to the stories of the Eddic lays, and where did he get the material to these
additions? The second question is concerned with the textual relationship: how did the
compiler change the vocabulary of the Eddic poetry to arrive at the saga text, which stanzas
did he quote, and which did he reshape into prose?
I will be examining the first question by looking at the story of Reginsmál and the changes
made to it in the saga, and the second by exploring the correspondences between the texts of
the saga and Fáfnismál/Sigrdrífumál.2
2.1. Reginsmál
The story of Reginsmál falls into two distinct portions: in the first fourteen stanzas, Sigurð's
foster-father Reginn tells the hero the story of the Otrsgjôld; the rest of the lay is dedicated to
Sigurð's revenge on the murderers of his father, though most of the stanzas deal with Sigurð's
encounter with the disguised Oðin. In Vôlsunga saga, these two episodes of the lay are
separated from each other by the very short chapter 16, in which Sigurðr goes to seek his
1
More detailed lists of correspondences between Eddic material and the Vôlsunga saga are given in The Saga of
the Volsungs, ed. and transl. by R.G. Finch (London/Edinburgh, Nelson, 1965), 85-89; and in Barend Symons,
'Untersuchungen ueber die sogenannte Völsunga saga', in Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und
Literatur 3 (1876), 199-303, pp. 220-222.
2
Since the compiler's use of the Eddic Gripísspá is limited to a very short account of the situation as described in
the prose introduction, but does not really include any of the contents, the poem will be disregarded in this work.
6
uncle Grípir to find out about his destiny - the compiler's version of the Eddic Grípisspá. The
way in which Vôlsunga saga uses Reginsmál raises several questions about matters of
content, most importantly that of a possible lost lay which described the battle between
Sigurðr and the sons of King Hunding. The poet of Reginsmál states laconically in the prose
after stanza 25:
Sigurðr átti orrosto micla við Lyngva, Hundings son, oc brœðr hans. Þar fell Lyngvi
oc þeir þrír brœðr. (Rm, 25 pr)
(Sigurðr had a great battle with Lyngva, the son of Hunding, and his brothers. There Lyngvi and his three
brothers died.)
These two lines (in the Neckel edition) are extended into no less than 29 lines of prose in the
saga (in Finch's edition). A similarly extensive addition to the known poetic sources is made
by the compiler of the saga in the earlier part about Sigurð's birth and education, namely the
choosing of the horse Grani and the forging of Sigurð's sword from the broken pieces of
Sigmund's sword Gram.
In Regismál the fact of the horse-choosing and the name of Sigurð's steed are simply stated:
Sigurðr gecc til stóðs Hiálprecs oc kaus sér af hest einn, er Grani var kallaðr síðan.
(Rm. pr),
(Sigurðr went to Hiálprec's stud farm and choose a horse for himself, which was later called Grani.)
In Vôlsunga saga however, Sigurðr is helped in his choice by an old man with a long beard
(Sigurðr...mœtir einem gômlum manni með síðu skeggi, VS 13, p.23). As in Chapter 18
during the building of the trap for Fáfnir, or later during the stoning of Svanhild's brothers in
Chapter 44, this appearance of Odin is introduced by the compiler himself. Finch, after
pointing out the compiler's general tendency to disregard the mythological or supernatural
elements in his sources,
has no better explanation for this addition than that "[t]he
appearance[s] of Oðin at crucial moments...are all part and parcel of the basic narrative
material." Symons offers historical rather than narrative reasons; talking about "de[n] wol
königliche[n] besteller" of the saga, he believes that
der grund, der den sagaschreiber zu diesem sagenzuwachs bewog, liegt sehr nahe. Es
war der wunsch, die odinische abstammung von Sigurds oder vielmehr Ragnars
geschlecht zum ruhme der norwegischen königsfamilie zum ausgangspunkt der sage
zu machen.3
I do not think that one has to look quite that far for an explanation of Oðins appearance at this
point: it seems to be simply the saga narrator's way of indicating that Sigurð's horse is not an
ordinary animal, but, being of supernatural origin, is destined to play a part in the saga. Of
7
course Grani plays a most important rôle in the wooing of Brynhild: were it not for Grani's
ability to cross the flaming wall, and his reluctance to carry Gunnarr through the fire, which
forces Sigurðr to change shapes with Gunnarr, Brynhildr would never have been won by the
wrong man, never have had cause to bear a grudge against Sigurðr, and never have had
instigated the murders that lead, in the end, to the fall of the Vôlsungs.
The story of the sword, likewise told in one of the nine prose inserts, is slightly more
elaborate:
Reginn gerði Sigurði sverð, er Gramr hét. Þat var svá hvast, at hann brá ofan í Rín oc
lét reca ullarlagð fyrir straumi, oc tóc í sundr lagðinn sem vatnip. Því sverði klauf
Sigurðr í sundr seðia Regins. (Rm. 14 pr)
(Reginn made Sigurð a sword, which was called Gramr. It was so sharp that he dipped it into the Rhine and let a
tuft of wool drift downriver, and it cut the tuft in two like water. With this sword Sigurðr split Regin's anvil
apart.)
Although both the test of the anvil and of the tuft of wool are recorded in Vôlsunga saga, the
actual genesis of the sword is far more complicated there: Reginn forges not one, but three
swords, the first two of which fail the anvil test: only the third sword, made from the remnants
of Sigmund's sword Gramr, satisfies the hero.
The question of the origin of these additional passages has been answered differently by the
critics. Symons explains both passages as mere extensions of the prose. He argues for
example for a lost lay which told of Sigmund's death and his bequest of the sword's pieces to
his unborn son Sigurðr, a lay which the saga's compiler would have used as a source for he
retelling of this incident in Chapter 12 (VS 12, p. 21):
...die vermutung wird deshalb erlaubt sein, dass der sagaschreiber hier, ohne nähere
quelle, die consequenzen jener früheren stelle gezogen und in die paraphrase des
zweiten Sigurdsliedes sich einen einschub erlaubt hat.4
In 1919, Andreas Heusler put forth the interesting theory that since both Reginsmál and
Fáfnismál are composed in a combination of different metres, they were actually compilations
of three earlier, more harmonious poems (the Hortlied, the Vaterrachelied, and a
Vogelweissagung). The Gramr-forging incident, he claims, is part of a now lost section of the
Vaterrachelied:
Für die Dichtung von der Vaterrache hatte das Schmieden des Schwertes....viel mehr
zu bedeuten als ein Zierrat:...es trug die Beziehung zwischen Vater und Sohn. So
zweifeln wir nicht, daß dieses Stück der Völs. auf unser Lied zurückgeht.5
3
Symons, 'Untersuchungen', 194-95.
Ibid., 228.
5
Andreas Heusler, 'Altnordische Dichtung und Prosa von Jung Sigurd', in Kleine Schriften, ed. by H. Reuschel
(Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1943), 26-64, p. 37. Heulser's theorie is accepted by Theodore M. Andersson, The
Legend of Brynhild, Islandica XLIII (Ithaca/London, Cornell, 1980), 88-103, esp. pp. 95-96.
4
8
2.2. Fáfnismál and Sigrdrífumál
In his article on the treatment of the poetic sources by the compiler of Vôlsunga saga, R.G.
Finch lists a number of tendencies the compiler shows in transforming the Eddic poetry into
the prose of the saga. He mentions the rejection of kenningar, the replacement of poetic words
or words that alliterate, the avoidance of poetic diction like epithets and the omission of
superfluous or repeated information.6
One point he mentions especially is the compiler's treatment of mythological references.
There are several such references in the dialogue between Sigurð and Fáfnir in Fáfnismál, a
piece of Eddic poetry which as been turned into the prose account which comprises most of
Vôlsunga saga's Chapter 18. However, the writer's treatment of passages where mythological
figures are mentioned is quite inconsistent. Although the reference to the Norns in Fm. 11
(Norna dóm þú munt fyr nesiom hafa - "the Norns' sentence (death) you have before you (in
front of the cliffs)) is omitted, the compiler did not leave out Sigurð's question about them in
the next stanza, nor Fáfnir's allusion to the Æsir, Álfar and dwarves. 7 The second half of
stanza 15, with the reference to Bifrôst, is also left out, but the compiler has kept most of the
part which resembles wisdom poetry. He has, however, avoided the repetition of the Segðu
mér-formula (Fm. 12,1 and 14, 1). Looking at the actual vocabulary and his handling of for
poetic diction, it is interesting to note that he has included two of the references to the
ægishiálm (Fm. 16,1 and 17,1), but left out the third as well as the earlier one from Reginsmál
(Rm. 14 pr). Sigurð's use of fara til heliar for 'to die' in Fm. 10, 6 is changed to deya, but the
compiler kept the phrase þar er þic Hel hafi from Fm. 21,6. Another example is the
substitution of the poetic constructions Ræð ek þér nú, Sigurðr, enn þú ráð nemir ('I advise
you now, Sigurðr, and take that advice,...', Fm. 20, 1-2), well-known from the Loddfáfnirstanzas of Hávamál, and the polyptoton Ráð er þér ráðit (Fm. 21, 1-2) with the simpler
phrases þat ræð ek þér and þetta eru þín ráð.
In the whole dragon-slaying episode in Vôlsunga saga (chapters 18-20), not a single one of
the 44 stanzas of Fáfnismál is quoted in full, though lines are almost-quoted throughout (e.g.
Veiztu, ef fôður ne áttað, sem fira synir, af hverio vartu undri alinn? (Fm. 3) vs. Ef þú átt
engan feðr né mœðr, af hverju undri ertu þá alinn? (VS 18, p. 31) - '(You know), if you do not
have a father (and mother), (as other men), of what strange creature are you born?'). In the
6
R.G. Finch, 'The Treatment of Poetic Sources by the Complier of Vôlsunga saga', Saga Book 16 (1962-65),
315-353, p. 322-29.
7
VS 18, pp. 31-32. All references to Vôlsunga saga in the next paragraph are to p. 32.
9
whole of Vôlsunga saga, thirty Eddic stanzas are quoted altogether, twenty-five of which
come from poems in the Codex Regius. Twenty of these stanzas can be found in the part
about Sigurð's youth (chapters 11-22), and fifteen of these twenty are the stanzas of runic
wisdom imparted to Sigurðr by the valkyrie Sigrdrífa on the mountain.
Chapter 21 of the saga quotes stanzas 5-21 of Sigrdrífumál in the jumbled order 5, 6, 10, 12,
7- 9, 11, 13, 15, 16-21; stanza 14 is missing. The sequence of stanzas in the prose paraphrase
of the second half is likewise different, namely 22, 32, 24-26, 28, 33, 29-31, 23 and 33-35.
The divergent order could easily be explained by equally divergent sources; Symons thinks
the compiler of Vôlsunga saga was working from a manuscript not only different, but superior
to the Codex Regius:
...so hat bereits Bugge darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass in dem anfang der
Sigrdrífumál die ordnung der Völsunga saga c. 20...gewis die ursprünglichere,
dagegen die in R verderbt ist.8
On the other hand, a case could be made for an intentional re-arranging of stanzas by the
compiler. In Sigrdrífumál, the vakyrie presents the runic wisdom to Sigurðr in the order
sigrúnar, ôlrúnar, biargrúnar, brimrúnar, limrúnar, málrúnar, hugrúnar (victory runes, ale
runes, birth runes, sea runes, twigs runes, speech runes, mind runes, Sd. 6-13), in Vôlsunga
saga it is sigrúnar, brimrúnar, málrúnar, ôlrúnar, bjargrúnar, limrúnar, and hugrúnar
(victory, sea, speech, ale, birth, twig, mind). One could argue that the compiler clearly did not
think the birth runes as important to a hero as sea runes and speech runes, and transposed
them for that reason; or that he thought the runes for midwifing (bjárgrúnar) and healing
(limrúnar) were better suited to stand together, but this is pure speculation and quite farfetched.9
The main question of Vôlsunga saga's chapters 21 and 22 is another practically unanswerable
"why": why did the compiler quote the first part of Sigrdrífa's speech, the runic wisdom, in
the greatest accumulations of Eddic stanzas in the whole saga, only to revert to the proven
method of prose paraphrase for the second part of the lay, the stanzas of gnomic precepts? Or,
for that matter, why did he completely leave out the stanzas of similar contents in Reginsmál
19-25, in which it is Oðin in his disguise as Hnicarr (or Feng, or Fiolni) who counsels the
young Sigurðr?
3. Conclusion
8
Symons, 'Untersuchungen', 222.
R.G. Finch makes a more convincing case for the re-arrangement of stanzas in the prose paraphrase of
Fáfnismál; c.f. his 'Treatment of Poetic Sources', 350-51.
9
10
It seems that at the end of this essay we are left with a veritable host of questions for which
the answers either cannot be found or, however much one might try, have to remain
unverifyable hypotheses. Are the variations of contents in Vôlsunga saga due to the fact that
the compiler worked from a different, now lost source, or are they the independent work of
the compiler, perhaps remnants of a lost oral tradition? Are the textual deviations or the
jumbled order of the quoted stanzas a consequence of a different order in the collection of
Eddic poems the compiler worked from, and are the text and order in Codex Regius really
"verderbt", as Symons puts it? Or was the rearrangement again an independent act of the
compiler? Some translators of the Edda put so much faith in the paraphrases of Vôlsunga
saga that they do not hesitate to supply missing stanzas or lines from the contents of the
saga.10
All in all, the comparison of sources and saga makes the intentions of the writer quite clear.
Finch concludes:
He must have seen it as his task to write a new saga which told the story of the
Völsungs and Gjúkungs, a work which would replace the older Sigurðar saga....There
can be little doubt that the compiler has very largely achieved his object, for he has
created from his various sources a unified prose narrative that lacks neither a certain
vigour, nor yet considerable consistency.11
Commenting on the writer's use of Reginsmál, Symons says:
Ueberblicken wir die benutzung des zweiten Sigurdsliedes [i.e. Reginsmál], so
characterisiert sie des verfassers arbeitsweise deutlich: was benutzt werden konnte,
ward benutzt, kurze andeutungen ausgedehnt, eine widerholung eigener worte nicht
vermieden, gar zu langweiliges ausgelassen, widersprechendes vereinigt. Eins aber
wird dadurch unleugbar erreicht, eine verständliche, gut lesbare erzählung, die zwar
wenig darstellungstalent verrät, ihrem zweck jedoch völlig entspricht. 12
And as to the identification of that 'zweck', Symons later talks about
das bestreben des verfassers, widersprechende angaben zu vereinigen, und es lässt sich
gerade diese bestreben nicht scharf genug betonen, da es die ganze composition der
saga erklärt.13
Or, as Theodore M. Andersson formulates in one sentence in his article on Vôlsunga saga in
the Dictionary of the Middle Ages: 'The author of the saga saw his mission in the
harmonization of his poetic sources.' 14
10
See for example The Poetic Edda, transl by Lee M. Hollander (Austin, University of Texas Press, 21962), 224
(Fáfnismál 3, 4-6).
11
Finch, 'Treatment of Poetic Sources', 353.
12
Symons, 'Untersuchungen', 230.
11
But although the authors overall intentions in his compilation are crystal clear, criticism is still
helplessly floundering in murky waters when it comes to explain the author's individual
moves to attain his goal. Though we can explain his reasons for the more obvious and logical
modifications in both content and diction, for the most part we are dependent on unprovable,
sometimes fantastic theories, and the writer's real object in many of the smaller changes is
still, and will probably forever remain, a mystery to us.
University of Leeds
13
Antje Frotscher
Ibid., 232-33
Theodore M. Andersson, 'Vôlsunga saga', in Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. by Joseph L. Strayer, 13 vols
(New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989), vol. 12, s.v. Vôlsunga saga, p. 489.
14
12
4. Bibliography
4.1. Primary Sources
Edda. Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandter Denkmäler. I. Text, ed. by Gustav
Neckel, 5th ed. by Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1983).
The Poetic Edda, transl by Lee M. Hollander (Austin, University of Texas Press, 21962)
The Saga of the Volsungs, ed. and transl. by R.G. Finch (London/Edinburgh, Nelson, 1965).
4.2. Criticism
Andersson, Theodore M., 'Reginsmál and Fáfnismál', in Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. by
Joseph L. Strayer, 13 vols (New York , Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989), vol. 10, 29091.
----------, The Legend of Brynhild, Islandica XLIII (Ithaca/London, Cornell, 1980)
----------, 'Vôlsunga saga', in Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. by Joseph L. Strayer, 13 vols
(New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989), vol. 12, 488-89.
Finch, R. G., 'The Treatment of Poetic Sources by the Complier of Vôlsunga saga', Saga
Book 16 (1962-65), 315-353.
----------, 'Atlakviða, Atlamál and Völsunga saga: A Study in Combination and Integration', in
Speculum Norroenvm: Norse Studies in Memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre, ed. by
Ursula Dronke et.al. (Odense, 1981), 123-38.
Heusler, Andreas, 'Altnordische Dichtung und Prosa von Jung Sigurd', in Kleine Schriften, ed.
by H. Reuschel (Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1943), 26-64.
Symons, Barend, 'Untersuchungen ueber die sogenannte Völsunga saga', Beiträge zur
Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 3 (1976), 199-303.
13
5. Appendix: Correspondeces of Vôlsunga saga and Edda in Part Two of the saga
1. Sigmundr, Sigurð's father: Vôlsungasaga chapters 10-12; Fra dauða Sinfjôtla
Sinfjôtli's death
Sigmund's death
chapter 1015
chapters 11 and 12
paragraphs 1 and 2
paragraph 3
2. Sigurð's birth and fostering: Vôlsungasaga chapter 13; Reginsmál 1- prose14
Sigurðr chooses his horse Grani
Reginn tells Sigurd about Fáfnir
Regin's story about the Otrsgjôld:
Otrs death, Loki is sent to fetch gold
Loki speaks to Andvari
Andvari answers
Loki takes the gold and the last ring
Loki warns about the ring Andvaranaut
Fáfnir kills his father Hreiðmarr
Reginn forges the sword
chapter 13 (p 23/24)
chapter 13 (p. 24)
Reginsmál prose intr.
Reginsmál prose 14
Reginsmál
chapter 14, (p.24/25) prose introduction
stanza 2 (q)
stanza 1
stanza 3 (q)
stanza 2
prose after 3
prose after 5
stanza 4 (q)
stanza 6
prose 4
prose after 9-stanza 12
chapter 15
Reginsmál prose 14
3. Sigurð's uncle Grípir: Vôlsungasaga chapter 16, Grípisspá
Sigurðr goes to Grípir for prophecies
Grípir prophecies his future
chapter 16
chapter 16
Grípisspá 1-6
Grípisspá 7-53
4. Sigurðr takes vengeance for his father Sigmund's death: Vôlsungasaga chapter 17,
Reginsmál 15-25 pr.
Sigurðr asks for an army and sets out
Sigurð's fleet meets Oðin (Hnicarr)
Sigurðr kills the Hundings
chapter 17, p. 28
chapter 17, p. 28
stanza 5 (q)
chapter 17, pp. 29-30
Reginsmál 15-15 pr
Reginsmál 16-25
stanza 18
prose after 25
5. Sigurðr slays the dragon Fáfnir: Vôlsungasaga chapters (14) 18-20; Fáfnismál
Sigurðr goes to Gnitaheiðr and slays Fáfnir chapter 18, p. 30-31
Dialogue of Fáfnir and Sigurðr
chapter 18, p.31-32
Sigurðr roasts Fáfnir's heart
The advice of the birds
Sigurðr kills Reginn
Sigurðr takes Fáfnir's hort
15
chapter 19, p.33
chapter 20
chapter 20
chapter 20
Fáfnismál intro prose
stanzas 1-15, 22,16,18,
17, 20 u. 21
stanza 23- 31 prose
32-39
39 prose
44 prose
Chapters, page numbers and stanza numbers of Vôlsunga saga according to Finch's edition. Eddic stanzas
according to Neckel/Kuhn. A (q) signifies full quotation of a stanza.
14
6. Sigurðr finds Sigrdrífa on the mountain: Vôlsungasaga chapters 21 and 22; Sigrdrífumál
Sigurðr finds Sigrdrífa
21 (p. 35)
Sigrdrífa's counsels to Sigurðr (runic chapter 21, stanzas:
wisdom stanzas)
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Sigrdrífa counsels some more (gnomic chapter 22
precepts stanzas)
Sigrdrífumál Prose 1
Sigrdrífumál stanzas
5
6
10
12
7
8
9
11
13
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Sigrdrífumál 22, 32, 2426, 28, 33, 29-31, 23
and 33-35