The Story of the Volsungs

CHAPTER IX. How Helgi, the son of Sigmund, won King Hodbrod...

Now the tale tells that Hel­gi in his war­ring met a king hight Hund­ing, a mighty king, and lord of many men and many lands; they fell to bat­tle to­geth­er, and Hel­gi went forth might­ily, and such was the end of that fight that Hel­gi had the vic­to­ry, but King Hund­ing fell and many of his men with him; but Hel­gi is deemed to have grown great­ly in fame be­cause he had slain so mighty a king.

Then the sons of Hund­ing draw to­geth­er a great army to avenge their fa­ther. Hard was the fight be­twixt them; but Hel­gi goes through the folk of those broth­ers un­to their ban­ner, and there slays these sons of Hund­ing, Alf and Ey­olf, Her­ward and Hag­bard, and wins there a great vic­to­ry.

Now as Hel­gi fared from the fight he met a many wom­en right fair and wor­thy to look on, who rode in ex­ceed­ing no­ble ar­ray; but one far ex­celled them all; then Hel­gi asked them the name of that their la­dy and queen, and she named her­self Sigrun, and said she was daugh­ter of King Hog­ni.

Then said Hel­gi, “Fare home with us: good wel­come shall ye have!”

Then said the king’s daugh­ter, “Oth­er work lies be­fore us than to drink with thee.”

“Yea, and what work, king’s daugh­ter?” said Hel­gi.

She an­swers, “King Hog­ni has promised me to Hod­brod, the son of King Gran­mar, but I have vowed a vow that I will have him to my hus­band no more than if he were a crow’s son and not a king’s; and yet will the thing come to pass, but and if thou stand­est in the way there­of and goest against him with an army, and tak­est me away with­al; for ver­ily with no king would I rather bide on bol­ster than with thee.”

“Be of good cheer, king’s daugh­ter,” says he, “for certes he and I shall try the mat­ter, or ev­er thou be giv­en to him; yea, we shall be­hold which may pre­vail against the oth­er; and here­to I pledge my life.”

There­after, Hel­gi sent men with mon­ey in their hand to sum­mon his folk to him, and all his pow­er is called to­geth­er to Red-​Berg: and there Hel­gi abode till such time as a great com­pa­ny came to him from Hedin­sey; and there­with­al came mighty pow­er from Norvi Sound aboard great and fair ships. Then King Hel­gi called to him the cap­tain of his ships, who was hight Leif, and asked him if he had told over the tale of his army.

“A thing not easy to tell, lord,” says he, “on the ships that came out of Norvi Sound are twelve thou­sand men, and oth­er­where are half as many again.”

Then bade King Hel­gi turn in­to the firth, called Varin’s firth, and they did so: but now there fell on them so fierce a storm and so huge a sea, that the beat of the waves on board and bow was to hear­ken to like as the clash­ing to­geth­er of high hills bro­ken.

But Hel­gi bade men fear naught, nor take in any sail, but rather hoist ev­ery rag high­er than hereto­fore; but lit­tle did they miss of founder­ing or ev­er they made land; then came Sigrun, daugh­ter of King Hog­ni, down on to the beach with a great army, and turned them away thence to a good haven called Gni­palund; but the lands­men see what has be­fall­en and come down to the sea-​shore. The broth­er of King Hod­brod, lord of a land called Swarin’s Cairn, cried out to them, and asked them who was cap­tain over that mighty army. Then up stands Sin­fjotli, with a helm on his head, bright shin­ing as glass, and a byrny as white as snow; a spear in his hand, and there­on a ban­ner of renown, and a gold- rimmed shield hang­ing be­fore him; and well he knew with what words to speak to kings –

“Go thou and say, when thou hast made an end of feed­ing thy swine and thy dogs, and when thou be­hold­est thy wife again, that here are come the Vol­sungs, and in this com­pa­ny may King Hel­gi be found, if Hod­brod be fain of find­ing him, for his game and his joy it is to fight and win fame, while thou art kiss­ing the hand­maids by the fire-​side.”

Then an­swered Gran­mar, “In no­wise know­est thou how to speak seem­ly things, and to tell of mat­ters re­mem­bered from of old, where­as thou layest lies on chiefs and lords; most like it is that thou must have long been nour­ished with wolf-​meat abroad in the wild-​woods, and has slain thy brethren; and a mar­vel it is to be­hold that thou darest to join thy­self to the com­pa­ny of good men and true, thou, who hast sucked the blood of many a cold corpse.”

Sin­fjotli an­swered, “Dim be­like is grown thy mem­ory now, of how thou wert a witch-​wife on Varin­sey, and wouldst fain have a man to thee, and chose me to that same of­fice of all the world; and how there­after thou wert a Valkyr­ia (1) in As­garth, and it well- nigh came to this, that for thy sweet sake should all men fight; and nine wolf whelps I be­gat on thy body in Low­ness, and was the fa­ther to them all.”

Gran­mar an­swers, “Great skill of ly­ing hast thou; yet be­like the fa­ther of naught at all mayst thou be, since thou wert geld­ed by the gi­ant’s daugh­ters of Thras­ness; and lo thou art the step­son of King Siggeir, and were wont to lie abroad in wilds and woods with the kin of wolves; and un­lucky was the hand where­with thou slewest thy brethren mak­ing for thy­self an ex­ceed­ing evil name.”

Said Sin­fjotli, “Min­dest thou not then, when thou were stal­lion Grani’s mare, and how I rode thee an am­ble on Bravoli, and that af­ter­wards thou wert gi­ant Gol­nir’s goat herd?”

Gran­mar says, “Rather would I feed fowls with the flesh of thee than wran­gle any longer with thee.”

Then spake King Hel­gi, “Bet­ter were it for ye, and a more man­ly deed, to fight, rather than to speak such things as it is a shame even to hear­ken to; Gran­mar’s sons are no friends of me and of mine, yet are they hardy men none the less.”

So Gran­mar rode away to meet King Hod­brod, at a stead called Sun­fells, and the hors­es of the twain were named Sveipud and Sveg­gjud. The broth­ers met in the cas­tle-​porch, and Gran­mar told Hod­brod of the war-​news. King Hod­brod was clad in a byrny, and had his helm on his head; he asked –

“What men are anigh, why look ye so wrath­ful?”

Gran­mar says, “Here are come the Vol­sungs, and twelve thou­sand men of them are afloat off the coast, and sev­en thou­sand are at the is­land called Sok, but at the stead called Grindur is the great­est com­pa­ny of all, and now I deem with­al that Hel­gi and his fel­low­ship have good will to give bat­tle.”

Then said the king, “Let us send a mes­sage through all our realm, and go against them, nei­ther let any who is fain of fight sit idle at home; let us send word to the sons of Ring, and to King Hog­ni, and to Alf the Old, for they are mighty war­riors.”

So the hosts met at Wolf­stone, and fierce fight be­fell there; Hel­gi rushed forth through the host of his foes, and many a man fell there; at last folk saw a great com­pa­ny of shield-​maid­ens, like burn­ing flames to look on, and there was come Sigrun, the king’s daugh­ter. Then King Hel­gi fell on King Hod­brod, and smote him, and slew him even un­der his very ban­ner; and Sigrun cried out –

“Have thou thanks for thy so man­ly deed! Now shall we share the land be­tween us, and a day of great good hap this is to me, and for this deed shalt thou get hon­our and renown, in that thou hast felled to earth so mighty a king.”

So Hel­gi took to him that realm and dwelt there long, when he had wed­ded Sigrun, and be­came a king of great hon­our and renown, though he has naught more to do with this sto­ry.

END­NOTES: (1) Valkyr­ja, “Choos­er of the elect­ed.” The wom­en were so called whom Odin sent to choose those for death in bat­tle who were to join the “Ein­her­jar” in the hall of the elect­ed, “Val-​holl.”