The Story of the Volsungs

CHAPTER III. Of the Sword that Sigmund, Volsung’s son, drew...

There was a king called Siggeir, who ruled over Goth­land, a mighty king and of many folk; he went to meet Vol­sung, the king, and prayed him for Signy his daugh­ter to wife; and the king took his talk well, and his sons with­al, but she was loth there­to, yet she bade her fa­ther rule in this as in all oth­er things that con­cerned her, so the king took such rede (1) that he gave her to him, and she was be­trothed to King Siggeir; and for the ful­fill­ing of the feast and the wed­ding, was King Siggeir to come to the house of King Vol­sung. The king got ready the feast ac­cord­ing to his best might, and when all things were ready, came the king’s guests and King Siggeir with­al at the day ap­point­ed, and many a man of great ac­count had Siggeir with him.

The tale tells that great fires were made end­long the hall, and the great tree afore­said stood mid­most there­of, with­al folk say that, whenas men sat by the fires in the evening, a cer­tain man came in­to the hall un­known of as­pect to all men; and such­like ar­ray he had, that over him was a spot­ted cloak, and he was bare- foot, and had linen-​breech­es knit tight even un­to the bone, and he had a sword in his hand as he went up to the Bran­stock, and a slouched hat up­on his head: huge he was, and seem­ing-​an­cient, and one-​eyed. (2) So he drew his sword and smote it in­to the tree- trunk so that it sank in up to the hilts; and all held back from greet­ing the man. Then he took up the word, and said –

“Whoso draweth this sword from this stock, shall have the same as a gift from me, and shall find in good sooth that nev­er bare he bet­ter sword in hand than is this.”

There­with out went the old man from the hall, and none knew who he was or whith­er he went.

Now men stand up, and none would fain be the last to lay hand to the sword, for they deemed that he would have the best of it who might first touch it; so all the no­blest went there­to first, and then the oth­ers, one af­ter oth­er; but none who came there­to might avail to pull it out, for in no­wise would it come away how­so­ev­er they tugged at it; but now up comes Sig­mund, King Vol­sung’s son, and sets hand to the sword, and pulls it from the stock, even as if it lay loose be­fore him; so good that weapon seemed to all, that none thought he had seen such a sword be­fore, and Siggeir would fain buy it of him at thrice its weight of gold, but Sig­mund said –

“Thou might­est have tak­en the sword no less than I from there where­as it stood, if it had been thy lot to bear it; but now, since it has first of all fall­en in­to my hand, nev­er shalt thou have it, though thou bid­dest there­for all the gold thou hast.”

King Siggeir grew wroth at these words, and deemed Sig­mund had an­swered him scorn­ful­ly, but where­as was a wary man and a dou­ble- deal­ing, he made as if he heed­ed this mat­ter in no­wise, yet that same evening he thought how he might re­ward it, as was well seen af­ter­wards.

END­NOTES: (1) Rede (A.S. raed), coun­sel, ad­vice, a tale or prophe­cy. (2) The man is Odin, who is al­ways so rep­re­sent­ed, be­cause he gave his eye as a pledge for a draught from the foun­tain of Mimir, the source of all wis­dom.