The Story of the Volsungs

CHAPTER V. Of the Slaying of King Volsung.

Now tells the tale of King Vol­sung and his sons that they go at the time ap­point­ed to Goth­land at the bid­ding of King Siggeir, and put off from the land in three ships, all well manned, and have a fair voy­age, and made Goth­land late of an evening tide.

But that same night came Signy and called her fa­ther and broth­ers to a privy talk, and told them what she deemed King Siggeir was mind­ed to do, and how that he had drawn to­geth­er an army no man may meet. “And,” says she, “he is mind­ed to do guile­ful­ly by you; where­fore I bid you get ye gone back again to your own land, and gath­er to­geth­er the might­iest pow­er ye may, and then come back hith­er and avenge you; nei­ther go ye now to your un­do­ing, for ye shall sure­ly fail not to fall by his wiles if ye turn not on him even as I bid you.”

Then spake Vol­sung the king, “All peo­ple and na­tions shall tell of the word I spake, yet be­ing un­born, where­in I vowed a vow that I would flee in fear from nei­ther fire nor the sword; even so have I done hith­er­to, and shall I de­part there­from now I am old? Yea with­al nev­er shall the maid­ens mock these my sons at the games, and cry out at them that they fear death; once alone must all men need die, and from that sea­son shall none es­cape; so my rede is that we flee nowhith­er, but do the work of our hands in as man­ly wise as we may; a hun­dred fights have I fought and whiles I had more, and whiles I had less, and yet even had I the vic­to­ry, nor shall it ev­er be heard tell of me that I fled away or prayed for peace.”

Then Signy wept right sore, and prayed that she might not go back to King Siggeir, but King Vol­sung an­swered –

“Thou shalt sure­ly go back to thine hus­band, and abide with him, how­so­ev­er it fares with us.”

So Signy went home, and they abode there that night but in the morn­ing, as soon as it was day, Vol­sung bade his men arise and go aland and make them ready for bat­tle; so they went aland, all of them all-​armed, and had not long to wait be­fore Siggeir fell on them with all his army, and the fiercest fight there was be­twixt them; and Siggeir cried on his men to the on­set all he might; and so the tale tells that King Vol­sung and his sons went eight times right through Siggeir’s folk that day, smit­ing and hew­ing on ei­ther hand, but when they would do so even once again, King Vol­sung fell amidst his folk and all his men with­al, sav­ing his ten sons, for might­ier was the pow­er against them than they might with­stand.

But now are all his sons tak­en, and laid in bonds and led away; and Signy was ware with­al that her fa­ther was slain, and her broth­ers tak­en and doomed to death, that she called King Siggeir apart to talk with her, and said –

“This will I pray of thee, that thou let not slay my broth­ers hasti­ly, but let them be set awhile in the stocks, for home to me comes the saw that says, “Sweet to eye while seen”: but longer life I pray not for them, be­cause I wot well that my prayer will not avail me.”

Then an­swered Siggeir

“Sure­ly thou art mad and wit­less, pray­ing thus for more bale for thy broth­ers than their present slay­ing; yet this will I grant thee, for the bet­ter it likes me the more they must bear, and the longer their pain is or ev­er death come to them.”

Now he let it be done even as she prayed, and a mighty beam was brought and set on the feet of those ten brethren in a cer­tain place of the wild-​wood, and there they sit day-​long un­til night; but at mid­night, as they sat in the stocks, there came on them a she-​wolf from out the wood; old she was, and both great and evil of as­pect; and the first thing she did was to bite one of those brethren till he died, and then she ate him up with­al, and went on her way.

But the next morn­ing Signy sent a man to the brethren, even one whom she most trust­ed, to wot of the tid­ings; and when he came back he told her that one of them was dead, and great and grievous she deemed it, if they should all fare in like wise, and yet naught might she avail them.

Soon is the tale told there­of: nine nights to­geth­er came the she- wolf at mid­night, and each night slew and ate up one of the brethren, un­til all were dead, save Sig­mund on­ly; so now, be­fore the tenth night came, Signy sent that trusty man to Sig­mund, her broth­er, and gave hon­ey in­to his hand, bid­ding him do it over Sig­mund’s face, and set a lit­tle deal of it in his mouth; so he went to Sig­mund and did as he was bid­den, and then came home again; and so the next night came the she-​wolf ac­cord­ing to her wont, and would slay him and eat him even as his broth­ers; but now she sniffs the breeze from him, where­as he was anoint­ed with the hon­ey, and licks his face all over with her tongue, and then thrusts her tongue in­to the mouth of him. No fear he had there­of, but caught the she-​wolf’s tongue be­twixt his teeth, and so hard she start­ed back there­at, and pulled her­self away so might­ily, set­ting her feet against the stock that all was riv­en asun­der; but he ev­er held so fast that the tongue came away by the roots, and there­of she had her bane.

But some men say that this same she-​wolf was the moth­er of King Siggeir, who had turned her­self in­to this like­ness by troll’s lore and witchcraft.