Libro: The Saga of the Volsungs: and the Yarn of Norna-Gest (Viking Legendary Sagas)

The Saga of the Volsungs was written in thirteenth century Iceland, part of a vast collection of prose stories known as the sagas. In itself, it is the product of hundreds of years of oral storytelling, and the same stories appear in the poems of the Elder Edda, another work of medieval Iceland, and also in the medieval Austrian epic poem, the Nibelungenlied, where the central character is known as Sifrid rather than Sigurd. Characters in the saga are also alluded to in the Old English poem Beowulf and they appear in Viking Age sculpture both in Scandinavia itself and also the British Isles.

The saga tells the story of a legendary family known as Volsungs, descended from the Norse god Odin, covering several generations, up until Sigurd, who slew Fafnir the Dragon and took the creature’s cursed treasure, resulting not only in his death but that of everyone who owns it after him. The story, in its various versions, became popular once more in the nineteenth century. It has inspired, directly or indirectly, writers such as William Morris and JRR Tolkien, filmmakers Fritz Lang and George Lucas, and composers and musicians from Richard Wagner, (whose Ring Cycle is the best known modern adaptation of the story), to Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction.