Poetic EddaNorse MythologyAncient Myth / ComparativeOld NorseSharePoetic Edda 50Bellows - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableBellowsLanguageEnglishEspañol‹Poetic Edda 1Poetic Edda 2Poetic Edda 3Poetic Edda 4Poetic Edda 5Poetic Edda 6Poetic Edda 7Poetic Edda 8Poetic Edda 9Poetic Edda 10Poetic Edda 11Poetic Edda 12Poetic Edda 13Poetic Edda 14Poetic Edda 15Poetic Edda 16Poetic Edda 17Poetic Edda 18Poetic Edda 19Poetic Edda 20Poetic Edda 21Poetic Edda 22Poetic Edda 23Poetic Edda 24Poetic Edda 25Poetic Edda 26Poetic Edda 27Poetic Edda 28Poetic Edda 29Poetic Edda 30Poetic Edda 31Poetic Edda 32Poetic Edda 33Poetic Edda 34Poetic Edda 35Poetic Edda 36Poetic Edda 37Poetic Edda 38Poetic Edda 39Poetic Edda 40Poetic Edda 41Poetic Edda 42Poetic Edda 43Poetic Edda 44Poetic Edda 45Poetic Edda 46Poetic Edda 47Poetic Edda 48Poetic Edda 49Poetic Edda 50Poetic Edda 51Poetic Edda 52Poetic Edda 53Poetic Edda 54Poetic Edda 55Poetic Edda 56Poetic Edda 57Poetic Edda 58Poetic Edda 59Poetic Edda 60Poetic Edda 61Poetic Edda 62Poetic Edda 63Poetic Edda 64Poetic Edda 65Poetic Edda 66Poetic Edda 67Poetic Edda 68Poetic Edda 69Poetic Edda 70Poetic Edda 71Poetic Edda 72Poetic Edda 73Poetic Edda 74Poetic Edda 75Poetic Edda 76Poetic Edda 77Poetic Edda 78Poetic Edda 79Poetic Edda 80Poetic Edda 81Poetic Edda 82Poetic Edda 83Poetic Edda 84Poetic Edda 85Poetic Edda 86›Introductory NotePoetic Edda 50ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1It has been pointed out that the Helgi tradition, coming originally from Denmark, was early associated with that of the Volsungs, which was of German, or rather of Frankish, origin (cf. Introductory Note to Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar). The connecting links between these two sets of stories were few in number, the main point being the identification of Helgi as a son of Sigmund Volsungsson. Another son of Sigmund, however, appears in the Helgi poems, though not in any of the poems dealing with the Volsung cycle proper. This is Sinfjotli, whose sole function in the extant Helgi lays is to have a wordy dispute with Gothmund Granmarsson. 2Sinfjotli’s history is told in detail in the early chapters of the Volsungasaga. The twin sister of Sigmund Volsungsson, Signy, had married Siggeir, who hated his brother-in-law by reason of his desire to possess a sword which had belonged to Othin and been won by Sigmund. Having treacherously invited Volsung and his ten sons to visit him, Siggeir slew Volsung and captured his sons, who were set in the stocks. Each night a wolf (“some men say that she was Siggeir’s mother”) came out of the woods and ate up one of the brothers, till on the tenth night Sigmund alone was left. Then, however, Signy aided him to escape, and incidentally to kill the wolf. He vowed vengeance on Siggeir, and Signy, who hated her husband, was determined to help him. Convinced that Sigmund must have a helper of his own race, Signy changed forms with a witch, and in this guise sought out Sigmund, who, not knowing who she was, spent three nights with her. Thereafter she gave birth to a boy, whom she named Sinfjotli (“The Yellow-Spotted”?), whom she sent to Sigmund. For a time they lived in the woods, occasionally turning into wolves (whence perhaps Sinfjotli’s name). When Sinfjotli was full grown, he and his father came to Siggeir’s house, but were seen and betrayed by the two young sons of Signy and Siggeir, whereupon Sinfjotli slew them. 3Siggeir promptly had Sigmund and Sinfjotli buried alive, but Signy managed to smuggle Sigmund’s famous sword into the grave, and with this the father and son dug themselves out. The next night they burned Siggeir’s house, their enemy dying in the flames, and Signy, who had at the last refused to leave her husband, from a sense of somewhat belated loyalty, perishing with him. 4Was this story, which the Volsungasaga relates in considerable detail, the basis of an old poem which has been lost? Almost certainly it was, although, as I have pointed out, many if not most of the old stories appear to have been handed down rather in prose than in verse, for the Volsungasaga quotes two lines of verse regarding the escape from the grave. At any rate, Sinfjotli early became a part of the Volsung tradition, which, in turn, formed the basis for no less than fifteen poems generally included in the Eddic collection. Of this tradition we may recognize three distinct parts: the Volsung-Sigmund-Sinfjotli story; the Helgi story, and the Sigurth story, the last of these three being by far the most extensive, and suggesting an almost limitless amount of further subdivision. With the Volsung-Sigmund-Sinfjotli story the Sigurth legend is connected only by the fact that Sigurth appears as Sigmund’s son by his last wife, Hjordis; with the Helgi legend it is not connected directly at all. Aside from the fact that Helgi appears as Sigmund’s son by his first wife, Borghild, the only link between the Volsung story proper and that of Helgi is the appearance of Sinfjotli in two of the Helgi poems. 5Originally it is altogether probable that the three stories, or sets of stories, were entirely distinct, and that Sigurth (the familiar Siegfried) had little or nothing more to do with the Volsungs of northern mythological-heroic tradition than he had with Helgi. 6The annotator or compiler of the collection of poems preserved in the Codex Regius, having finished with the Helgi lays, had before him the task of setting down the fifteen complete or fragmentary poems dealing with the Sigurth story. Before doing this, however, he felt it incumbent on him to dispose of both Sigmund and Sinfjotli, the sole links with the two other sets of stories. He apparently knew of no poem or poems concerning the deaths of these two; perhaps there were none, though this is unlikely. Certainly the story of how Sinfjotli and Sigmund died was current in oral prose tradition, and this story the compiler set forth in the short prose passage entitled Of Sinfjotli’s Death which, in Regius, immediately follows the second lay of Helgi Hundingsbane. The relation of this passage to the prose of the Reginsmol is discussed in the introductory note to that poem. 7Sigmund, the son of Volsung, was a king in the land of the Franks; Sinfjotli was his eldest son, the second was Helgi, and the third Hamund. Borghild, Sigmund’s wife, had a brother who was named ——. Sinfjotli, her stepson, and —— both wooed the same woman, wherefore Sinfjotli slew him. And when he came home, Borghild bade him depart, but Sigmund offered her atonement-money, and this she had to accept. At the funeral feast Borghild brought in ale; she took poison, a great horn full, and brought it to Sinfjotli. But when he looked into the horn, he saw that it was poison, and said to Sigmund: “Muddy is the drink, Father!” Sigmund took the horn and drank therefrom. It is said that Sigmund was so hardy that poison might not harm him, either outside or in, but all his sons could withstand poison only without on their skin. Borghild bore another horn to Sinfjotli and bade him drink, and all happened as before. And yet a third time she brought him a horn, and spoke therewith scornful words of him if he should not drink from it. He spoke as before with Sigmund. The latter said: “Let it trickle through your beard, Son!” Sinfjotli drank, and straightway was dead. Sigmund bore him a long way in his arms, and came to a narrow and long fjord, and there was a little boat and a man in it. He offered to take Sigmund across the fjord. 8But when Sigmund had borne the corpse out into the boat, then the craft was full. The man told Sigmund to go round the inner end of the fjord. Then the man pushed the boat off, and disappeared. 9King Sigmund dwelt long in Denmark in Borghild’s kingdom after he had married her. Thereafter Sigmund went south into the land of the Franks, to the kingdom which he had there. There he married Hjordis, the daughter of King Eylimi; their son was Sigurth. King Sigmund fell in a battle with the sons of Hunding, and Hjordis then married Alf the son of King Hjalprek. There Sigurth grew up in his boyhood. Sigmund and all his sons were far above all other men in might and stature and courage and every kind of ability. Sigurth, however, was the foremost of all, and all men call him in the old tales the noblest of mankind and the mightiest leader. ‹Previous chapterPoetic Edda 49Next chapterPoetic Edda 51›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. 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