Sigurd

Sigurd was a renowned warrior from the Volsunga Saga.  His story begins with his father Sigmund’s final battle.  While surrounded by enemies, his father’s sword, once owned by Odin, was shattered by its former owner.  The shards were gathered by Sigurd’s mother Hiordis while she was pregnant with Sigurd.  She fled and found shelter with King Alf, who fell in love with her.  After Sigurd was born, Alf married her.  Sigurd was raised as a prince and was tutored by the Regin, a blacksmith and a scholar.  Regin felt that Sigurd was merely a spoiled prince, so he decided to deceive him for personal gain.  He told Sigurd the tale of Fafnir, a dragon with a horde of gold.  The tutor spurred the youth to seek the glory of killing Fafnir.  If he won, Regin would kill Sigurd for the gold.  If Sigurd dies, then nothing lost.  Of course, he did not relay those plans to the boy.

Before he could face the dragon, Regin told Sigurd that he needed two things.  His first requirement was for the youth to obtain a horse from King Alf.  Sigurd was given his choice of the horses in the royal stable.  Just before he decided, an old man recommended Grani, a horse that Sigurd discovers was the child of Sleipner, Odin’s horse.

The second requirement was a sword that could pierce the dragon’s underbelly.  Regin forged two swords using all of his skill and talent.  Sigurd lifts up the first blade and decides to test the blade by striking it on the anvil.  The blade shatters after the first blow.  He tries again with the second blade, which also shatters.  Only briefly set back, he recalls the sword shards his mother kept secure.  Upon request, she gave her son his birthright.  Returning with the shards, Regin forges the mighty sword Gram.  When Sigurd tests the weapon on the anvil, he split the anvil in twain.

Regin and Sigurd ride out to a lake where Fafnir comes to drink eat day.  The tutor suggests digging a hole and hiding in it so that when the dragon lands, Sigurd could stab the soft underbelly of his prey.  He also requests that, once the dragon is killed, Sigurd give the dragon’s heart to Regin.  As he heads down the path to dig the hole, an old man again stops Sigurd and this time advises digging multiple holes so that he is not drowned by the dragon’s blood.  Sigurd recognizes the old man as Odin himself.  Sigurd takes the advice and lies in wait for Fafnir.

The dragon soon descends and Sigurd kills it.  He becomes coated in the dragon’s blood, except for a point on his shoulder covered by a leaf.  He then cuts out the heart and prepares to cook it for the blacksmith.  While it is cooking, he burns his thumb which he immediately pops into his mouth.  At the taste of the heart’s blood, Sigurd is endowed with the dragon’s wisdom and the ability to speak to the birds.  The birds inform him of the blacksmith’s plot to kill Sigurd.  In his anger, Sigurd slays his tutor and consumes the heart.  He is told that all of his body coated by the dragon’s blood was made invulnerable, except where the leaf had stuck to his shoulder.  The birds also tell him of a castle surrounded by flames to the north.

Once Sigurd arrives at the castle, he leaps over the flames with Grani.  Inside he finds Brynhild, a Valkyrie punished by Odin to fall in love with a mortal.  Sigurd wakes her from her slumber and the two fall in love with each other.  Here the text breaks, but his story does continue.

Reading:  The Saga of the Volsungs