Frá dauða Sinfjötla, a reading
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Summary
Sigurd, the son of Sigmund Wolfsungsund, is one of the most famous sons in the history of the sagas. He is a hero, a villain, and a hero's son. But who is Sigurd's father? And how did he become a hero?
Transcript
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It has been pointed out that the Helgi tradition, coming originally from Denmark, was early
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associated with that of the Wolfsungs, which was of German, or rather of Frankish, origin.
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Cease introductory note to Helge Kvita Hjörwärtssoner.
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The connecting links between these two sets of stories were few in number, the main point
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being the identification of Helgi as the son of Sigmund Wolfsungsson.
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The first son of Sigmund, however, appears in the Helgi poems, though not in any of the
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This is Sint-Fjotli, whose sole function in the extent Helgi lays is to have a worthy
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Sint-Fjotli's history is told in detail in the early chapters of the Volsing saga.
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The twin sisters of Sigmund Wollsungsund, Signy, had married Sigir, who hated his brother-in-law
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by reason of his desire to possess a sword which had belonged to Odin and had been won
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Having treacherously invited Wollsungsund and his ten sons to visit him, Sigir slew Wollsungsund
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and captured his sons, who were set in the stocks.
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Each night a wolf, some men say that she was Sigur's mother, came out of the woods and ate up one of the brothers.
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Till on the tenth night, Sigmund alone was left.
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Then, however, Signi aided him to escape, and incidentally, to kill the wolf.
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He got vengeance on Sigur and Signi, who hated her husband, which determined to help him.
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Convinced that Sigmund must have a helper of his own race, Sigmund changed forms with
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the witch and in disguise sought out Sigmund, who, not knowing who she was, spent three
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Thereafter she gave birth to a boy, who she named Sinchotli, the Yellow Spotted, whom she
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For a time they lived in the woods, occasionally turning in the woods, when perhaps Sinchotli's
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When Sinxotli was full grown, he and his father came to Sigurd's house, but were seen and
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betrayed by the two sons of Signy and Sigurd, whereupon Sinxotli slew them. Sigurd promptly
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had Sigmund and Sinxotli buried alive, but Signy managed to smuggle Sigmund's famous
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sword into the grave, and with this the father and son dug themselves out. The next night
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they buttoned Signe at his house, their enemy dying in the flames, and Signe, who had at
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last refused to leave her husband, from a sense of somewhat belated loyalty, perishing
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with him. Was this story, which the Volsing Saga relates in considerable detail, the basis
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of an old poem which has been lost? Almost certainly it was, although, as I have pointed
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out, many if not most of the old stories appear to have been handed down rather in prose
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than in verse, for the Volsunga Saga quotes two lines of verse regarding the escape from
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At any rate, Sinfjotli early became a part of the Volsung tradition, which in turn formed
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the basis for no less than 15 poems generally included in the Etika collection.
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Of this tradition, we may recognize three distinct paths, the Volsung Sigmund Sinfjotli
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the last of these three being by far the most extensive
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and suggesting an almost limitless amount of further subdivision.
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the Sigurds legend is connected only by the fact that Sigurds appears as Sigmund's son
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where the Helgi legend is not connected directly at all.
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Aside from the fact that Helgi appears as Sigmund's son by his first wife, Borukild,
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The only link between the Volsing story proper and that of the Helgi is the appearance of
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Originally, it is altogether probable that the three stories, or sets of stories, were
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entirely distinct, and that Sigurd, the familiar Sigrid, had little or nothing to do with
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the Volsings and northern mythological heroic tradition than he had to do with Helgi.
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The annotator, or compiler, of the collection of poems preserved in the Codex Regius, having
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finished with the Herrigiles, had before him the task of setting down the fifteen complete
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or fragmentary poems dealing with the Sigurd story.
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But before doing this, however, he felt it incumbent on him to dispose of both Sigmund
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and Scintioli, the sole links of the two other sets of stories.
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He apparently knew of no poem or poems concerning the deaths of these two.
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Perhaps there were none, though this is unlikely.
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Certainly the story of how Sinfiotli and Sigmund died was current in oral Poe's condition,
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and the story the compiler set forth in the prose passage entitled Of Sinfiotli's Death,
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which in Regius immediately follows the second lay of Helgi Hunding's bane.
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The relation of this passage to the prose of the Regensmur is discussed in an introductory
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Sigmund, the son of Volsing, was a king in the land of Thranx.
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Sinshotli was his oldest son, the second was Helgi, and the third Hamund.
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Bordekild, Sigmund's wife, had a brother whose name was unknown.
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St. Shortley, her stepson, and Borekild's brother, both wooed the same woman.
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And when he came home, Borekild bade him depart.
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She took poison, a great hornful, and brought it to St. Shortley.
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But when he looked into the horn, he saw that it was poison and said to Sigmund,
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muddy is the drink father Sigmund took the horn and drank there from it is said
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that Sigmund was so hardy the poison might not harm him either outside or in
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and all his sons could withstand poison only without on their skin Borgill bore
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another horn to Sinfioli and bade him drink and all happened as before and yet
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a third time she brought him a horn, and spoke therewith scornful words of him, if he should
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not drink from it. He spoke as before with Sigmund, though later said, Let it trinkle
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through your beard, son. Sigmund shortly drank, and straightway was dead. Sigmund bore him
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a long way in his arms, and came to a narrow and long fjord, and there was a little boat,
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and a man in it. He offered to take Sigmund across the fjord, but when Sigmund had borne the corpse
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out into the boat, then the craft was full. The man told Sigmund to go round the inner end of the
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fjord, then the man pushed the boat off and disappeared. King Sigmund dwelt long in Denmark
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in Borkild's kingdom after he had married her. Thereafter Sigmund went south into the land of
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France, to the kingdom which he had there. There he married Hjörðs, the daughter of
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King Alemi. Their son was Sigrð. King Sigmund fell in battle, and the sons of Hunding, and
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Hjörðs then remarried Alf, the son of King Hjallperk. There Sigrð grew up in his boyhood.
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Sigmund and all his sons were far above all other men, in might and stature and courage
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and every kind of ability. Sigurd Thalver was the foremost of all, and all men call him
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in the old tales the nobles to mankind and the mightiest leader.