Sagas and Myths of the Northmen Read online

  I

  THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

  II

  ODYSSEUS RETURNS HOME HOMER

  III

  XERXES INVADES GREECE HERODOTUS

  IV

  ‘THE SEA, THE SEA’ XENOPHON

  V

  THE ABDUCTION OF SITA

  VI

  JASON AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE APOLLONIUS

  VII

  EXODUS

  VIII

  THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY VIRGIL

  IX

  THE SERPENT’S TEETH OVID

  X

  THE FALL OF JERUSALEM JOSEPHUS

  XI

  THE MADNESS OF NERO TACITUS

  XII

  CUPID AND PSYCHE APULEIUS

  XIII

  THE LEGENDARY ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

  XIV

  BEOWULF

  XV

  SIEGFRIED’S MURDER

  XVI

  SAGAS AND MYTHS OF THE NORTHMEN

  XVII

  THE SUNJATA STORY

  XVIII

  THE DESCENT INTO HELL DANTE

  XIX

  KING ARTHUR’S LAST BATTLE MALORY

  XX

  THE VOYAGES OF SINDBAD

  Sagas and Myths of the Northmen

  TRANSLATED BY JESSE BYOCK

  PENGUIN EPICS

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Penguin Books Ltd. Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

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  The Saga of the Volsungs first published in Penguin Classics 1999

  The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki first published in Penguin Classics 1998

  The Prose Edda first published in Penguin Classics 2005

  These extracts published in Penguin Books 2006

  Translation, Introduction and map copyright © Jesse Byock, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the translator has been asserted

  Taken from the Penguin Classics editions of The Saga of the Volsungs, The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki and The Prose Edda, translated by Jesse Byock

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  ISBN: 978-0-14-196835-3

  Contents

  Map: The World of the Vikings

  1. The Saga of the Volsungs

  2. The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki

  3. The Prose Edda

  Note

  The Viking Age (c. AD 790 to 1100) was a time when Scandinavians sailed from their homelands exploring, conquering, trading and settling. They attacked the British Isles, terrified Europe and reached destinations as far away as Iceland, Greenland, North America, Constantinople and the Caliphate of Baghdad. Wherever the Northmen went, they brought with them their legends and myths, some older than the Viking Age itself. Among these were stories of the Norse gods, including Odin and Thor, as well as two great legendary cycles of tales about ancient heroes.

  One of these cycles recounted the deeds of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, the ancestor of the Norwegian royal house who acquired the magical ring of the dwarves and the cursed golden treasure lost under the waters of the Rhine. Sigurd’s family, like that of his counterpart Siegfried in the German epic The Nibelungenlied, battled with King Atli, the historical Attila the Hun. The other legendary cycle was about Denmark’s warrior king Hrolf Kraki, who like King Arthur in the Celtic lands, gathered around him champions. Hrolf ’s famous heroes fought berserkers and contested with Hrolf ’s half sister Skuld, the daughter of an elven woman. Foremost of Hrolf ’s champions was Bodvar Bjarki, the bear-warrior who resembles Beowulf and whose father Bjorn was cursed by a witch to live as a bear by day but a man by night.

  These legacies of ancient storytelling were brought to Iceland in the Viking era and preserved through oral memory until penned on vellum in the thirteenth century as The Saga of the Volsungs, The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki and The Prose Edda. Among the best-known tales during Viking times, these sagas and myths have also played a significant role in the evolution of Western literature and culture, influencing modern popular fiction, historical, social and mythological understanding, as well as specific works of modern epic such as Richard Wagner’s Ring and J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

  The selections in this current book are translated directly from the Old Norse and serve as an initiation to the sagas and myths of the Northmen. They are drawn from the following Penguin Classics:

  The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer

  The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki

  The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology

  Map 1: The World of the Vikings From their Scandinavian homelands, Northmen journeyed in all directions. Some sailed to the far Arctic regions, hunting for walrus ivory, sealskins and furs. Others voyaged west across the North Atlantic seeking lands to settle as farmers and fishermen. They discovered and colonized the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland and unsuccessfully tried to settle North America (Vinland) shortly after the year 1000. Vikings plundered and conquered large parts of the British Isles and attacked the Frankish Empire, twice besieging Paris and acquiring Normandy (named for the Norsemen). To the east, they sailed across the Baltic Sea, and then rowed down the rivers of Russia. Some went as far as the Caliphate of Baghdad, opening a major trade route between Northern Europe and the Middle East. Others sailed southwards across the Black Sea to Byzantium or Constantinople, the capital of the Greek speaking Byzantine Empire. From there, as merchants, raiders, and bodyguards to the Greek Emperors, they journeyed throughout the Near East and Mediterranean.

  The Saga of the Volsungs

  Sigmund Draws the Sword from Barnstock

  There was a king called Siggeir who ruled over Gautland. He was a powerful king and had many followers. He paid a visit to King Volsung and asked for Signy’s hand in marriage. The king took the proposal well, as did his sons, but Signy for her part was unwilling. Even so, she asked her father to make the decision, as he did in other matters that concerned her. It seemed advisable to the king to betroth her, and she was promised to King Siggeir. When the banquet and the marriage were to take place, King Siggeir was to feast at King Volsung’s.

  Using the best provisions, the king made ready for the feast. When the banquet was fully prepared the guests of King Volsung and King Siggeir came on the appointed day, and King Siggeir had many worthy men with him. It is said that large fires were kindled in the long hearths running the length of the hall, but in the middle of the hall stood the grea
t tree that earlier was mentioned.

  It is now told that when people were sitting by the fires in the evening a man came into the hall. He was not known to the men by sight. He was dressed in this way: he wore a mottled cape that was hooded; he was barefoot and had linen breeches tied around his legs. As he walked up to Barnstock he held a sword in his hand while over his head was a low-hanging hood. He was very tall and gray with age, and he had only one eye. He brandished the sword and thrust it into the trunk so that it sank up to the hilt. Words of welcome failed everyone. Then the man began to speak: ‘He who draws this sword out of the trunk shall receive it from me as a gift, and he himself shall prove that he has never carried a better sword than this one.’

  Then this old man walked out of the hall, and nobody knew who he was or where he was going. They stood up now, and no one disputed whether or not to grasp the sword; each thought the one who reached it first would be best off. The noblest men went up to it first, and then each of the others. No one who came forward succeeded in moving it, no matter which way he tried. Now Sigmund, the son of King Volsung, came forward. He grasped the sword, and drew it from the trunk. It was as if the sword lay loose for him. The weapon seemed so good to everyone that no one recalled ever seeing so fine a sword. Siggeir offered to weigh Sigmund out triple the sword’s weight in gold, to which Sigmund answered: ‘You could have taken this sword from where it stood, no less than I did, if it were meant for you to carry it; but now that it has come first into my hands, you will never obtain it, even should you offer me all the gold you own.’ King Siggeir became angry at these words and thought the answer scornful. But since he was a very underhanded and deceitful man, he pretended not to care about this matter. That same evening, however, he thought of a means of paying Sigmund back. And, this is what later came about.

  Siggeir Plots Revenge

  Now there is this to be said: Siggeir went to bed with Signy that evening. The next day the weather was good. King Siggeir said that he wanted to return home rather than to wait until the wind rose or the sea became impassable. It is not told that King Volsung or his sons held King Siggeir back, especially when King Volsung saw that Siggeir wanted nothing other than to leave the feast.

  Then Signy spoke to her father: ‘I do not wish to go away with Siggeir, nor do my thoughts laugh with him. I know through my foresight and that special ability found in our family that if the marriage contract is not quickly dissolved, this union will bring us much misery.’ ‘You should not say such things, daughter,’ he replied, ‘for it would be shameful both for him and for us to break our agreement without cause. And if it is broken we could neither have his trust nor bind him in a friendly alliance. He would repay us with as much ill as he could. The one honorable thing is to hold to our side of the bargain.’

  King Siggeir prepared for the homeward voyage. Before he and his followers departed from the feast he invited King Volsung, his kinsman by marriage, to pay him a visit in Gautland in three months’ time. King Volsung was invited with all his sons, and all the men that he wanted and thought befitting his dignity. By doing this King Siggeir wished to make up for his shortcomings in not staying more than one night during the wedding celebration, for it was not the custom of men to behave that way. King Volsung promised to make the journey and to come on the appointed day. The in-laws parted and King Siggeir traveled home with his wife.

  The Fall of Volsung

  Now is the time to tell that King Volsung and his sons journeyed to Gautland at the appointed time, according to the invitation of their in-law, King Siggeir. They set off in three ships, all well manned, and the voyage went well. When they arrived off Gautland in their ships it was already late evening.

  That same evening Signy, the daughter of King Volsung, came and called her father and brothers together for a private talk. She told them of King Siggeir’s plans: that Siggeir had gathered an unbeatable army, ‘and he plans to betray you. Now I ask you,’ she said, ‘to return at once to your own kingdom and gather the largest force you can; then come back here and avenge yourselves. But, do not put yourselves in this trap, for you will not escape his treachery if you do not do as I advise.’

  King Volsung then spoke: ‘All peoples will bear witness that unborn I spoke one word and made the vow that I would flee neither fire nor iron from fear, and so I have done until now. Why should I not fulfill that vow in my old age? Maidens will not taunt my sons during games by saying that they feared their deaths, for each man must at one time die. No one may escape dying that once, and it is my counsel that we not flee, but for our own part act the bravest. I have fought a hundred times, sometimes with a larger army and sometimes with a lesser one. Both ways I have had the victory, and it will not be reported that I either fled or asked for peace.’

  Then Signy cried bitterly and asked that she might not be made to return to King Siggeir. King Volsung answered: ‘You must certainly go home to your husband and be together with him, however it goes with us.’ Then Signy went home, and Volsung and his men remained there during the night. In the morning, as soon as dawn came, King Volsung ordered all his men to get up and go ashore, and to prepare for battle. They now all went on land fully armed, and they did not have long to wait before King Siggeir arrived with all his army. The hardest of battles took place between them; the king urged his men forward as fiercely as possible. It is said that King Volsung and his sons went through King Siggeir’s ranks eight times that day, hewing on both sides. And when they intended to do so yet again, King Volsung fell in the middle of his ranks with all his men except for his ten sons. Because the force against them was overwhelming, they were forced to give way. His sons were seized and bound and taken away.

  Signy learned that her father had been killed and her brothers taken prisoner and destined for death. She now asked King Siggeir to speak with her in private. Signy spoke: ‘I want to ask that you not have my brothers killed so quickly, but rather that you have them put in stocks. For it is with me as in the saying, “the eye takes pleasure while it yet beholds.” I do not ask anything further for them, for I do not think it would be of any use.’ Then Siggeir answered her: ‘You are mad and out of your senses to plead for a worse misfortune for your brothers than that they be hewed down. But I will grant your request because I think it better that they suffer more and are tortured longer before they die.’

  Siggeir had Signy’s wish carried out. A great trunk was brought and fitted as stocks on the feet of the ten brothers somewhere in the woods. They sat there all that day until night. But at midnight an old she-wolf came to them out of the woods as they sat in the stocks. She was both large and grim-looking. She bit one of the brothers to death and then ate him all up. After that she went away.

  In the morning Signy sent her most trustworthy man to her brothers to learn what had occurred. And when he returned, he told her that one of them was dead. She thought it would be grievous if they all shared the same fate, but she could not help them. What happened can be quickly told; for nine nights in a row that same she-wolf came at midnight and each time killed and ate one of the brothers until all but Sigmund were dead. And now before the tenth night Signy sent her trusted man to her brother Sigmund. She gave him some honey and instructed him to smear it on Sigmund’s face and to put some in his mouth. Her man went to Sigmund, did as he had been instructed, and then returned home.

  As usual the same she-wolf came in the night, meaning to bite Sigmund to death as she had his brothers. But then she caught the scent of the honey that had been rubbed on him. She licked his face all over with her tongue and then reached her tongue into his mouth. He did not lose his composure and bit into the wolf’s tongue. She jerked and pulled back hard, thrusting her feet against the trunk so that it split apart. But Sigmund held on so tightly that the wolf’s tongue was torn out by the roots, and that was her death. And some men say that the she-wolf was Siggeir’s mother, who had assumed this shape through witchcraft and sorcery.

  Signy Plots Revenge

&n
bsp; Now Sigmund is free, and the stocks are broken. He stayed there in the forest. Once again Signy sent men to find out what had taken place and if Sigmund was alive. And when they came, Sigmund told them all that had occurred between him and the she-wolf. Then they went home and told Signy of the events. She went and met with her brother and they decided that he should make an underground dwelling in the woods. Things went on for a while with Signy hiding him there and bringing him what he needed. King Siggeir, however, believed that all the Volsungs were dead.

  King Siggeir had two sons by his wife. It is said that Signy sent the elder, when he was ten years old, to meet with Sigmund so that the boy could help if Sigmund wanted to try to avenge his father. The boy now went to the woods and late in the evening arrived at Sigmund’s underground dwelling. He was received well enough and told that he should make bread for them ‘and I will look for firewood.’ Sigmund handed him a sack of flour and went himself to look for wood. But when he returned the boy had done nothing about making the bread. Now Sigmund asked if the bread was ready and the boy answered: ‘I did not dare touch the flour sack because there is something alive in the meal.’ Sigmund now realized that this boy was not so stouthearted that he would want the lad with him.

  When brother and sister next met, Sigmund said that he thought himself no closer to having a companion, even though the boy was there with him. Signy answered: ‘Then take the boy and kill him. He need not live any longer.’ And so he did.

  The winter passed, and the next winter Signy sent her younger son to meet with Sigmund. This story, however, does not need to be recounted at length, for things happened in much the same way, with Sigmund killing the boy at Signy’s bidding.

  Signy Gives Birth to Sinfjotli

  It is now told that once while Signy was sitting in her chamber, a sorceress, exceedingly skilled in the magic arts, came to her. Signy said to her: ‘I want the two of us to exchange shapes.’ The sorceress answered: ‘It shall be as you wish.’ And she used her craft so that they changed shapes. The sorceress now took Signy’s place as Signy wished. She slept with the king that night, and he did not notice that it was not Signy beside him.