The Story of the Volsungs

CHAPTER IV. How King Siggeir wedded Signy, and bade King...

Now it is to be told that Siggeir goes to bed by Signy that night, and the next morn­ing the weath­er was fair; then says King Siggeir that he will not bide, lest the wind should wax, or the sea grow im­pass­able; nor is it said that Vol­sung or his sons let­ted him here­in, and that the less, be­cause they saw that he was fain to get him gone from the feast. But now says Signy to her fa­ther –

“I have no will to go away with Seggeir, nei­ther does my heart smile up­on him, and I wot, by my fore-​knowl­edge, and from the fetch (1) of our kin, that from this coun­sel will great evil fall on us if this wed­ding be not speed­ily un­done.”

“Speak in no such wise, daugh­ter!” said he, “for great shame will it be to him, yea, and to us al­so, to break troth with him, he be­ing sack­less; (2) and in naught may we trust him, and no friend­ship shall we have of him, if these mat­ters are bro­ken off; but he will pay us back in as evil wise as he may; for that alone is seem­ly, to hold tru­ly to troth giv­en.”

So King Siggeir got ready for home, and be­fore he went from the feast he bade King Vol­sung, his fa­ther-​in-​las, come see him in Goth­land, and all his sons with him whenas three months should be over­past, and to bring such fol­low­ing with him, as he would have, and as he deemed meet for his hon­our; and there­by will Siggeir the king pay back for the short­com­ings of the wed­ding-​feast, in that he would abide there­at but one night on­ly, a thing not ac­cord­ing to the wont of men. So King Vol­sung gave word to come on the day named, and the kins­men-​in-​law part­ed, and Siggeir went home with his wife.

END­NOTES: (1) Fetch; wraith, or fa­mil­iar spir­it. (2) Sack­less (A.S. “sacu”, Icel. “sok”.) blame­less.