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Chapter VIII
Chapter VIII
The Death Of King Siggeir And Of Signy
The tale tells that Sigmund thought Sinfjotli over young to help him to
his revenge, and will first of all harden him with manly deeds; so in summer -
tide they fare wide through the woods and slay men for their wealth; Sigmund
deems him to take much after the kin of the Volsungs, though he thinks that he
is Siggeir`s son, and deems him to have the evil heart of his father, with the
might and daring of the Volsungs; withal he must needs think him in nowise a
kinsome man, for full oft would he bring Sigmund`s wrongs to his memory, and
prick him on to slay King Siggeir.
Now on a time as they fare abroad in the woods for the getting of wealth,
they find a certain house, and two men with great gold rings asleep therein:
now these twain were spell - bound skin - changers,^1 and wolf - skins were
hanging up over them in the house; and every tenth day might they come out of
those skins; and they were kings` sons: so Sigmund and Sinfjotli do the wolf -
skins on them, and then might they nowise come out of them, though forsooth
the same nature went with them as heretofore; they howled as wolves howl, but
both knew the meaning of that howling; they lay out in the wild - wood, and
each went his way; and a word they made betwixt them, that they should risk
the onset of seven men, but no more, and that he who was first to be set on
should howl in wolfish wise: "Let us not depart from this," says Sigmund, "for
thou art young and over - bold, and men will deem the quarry good, when they
take thee."
[Footnote 1: "Skin-changers" were universally believed in once, in Iceland no
less than elsewhere, as see Ari in several places of his history, especially
the episode of Dufthach and Storwolf o` Whale. Men possessing the power of
becoming wolves at intervals, in the present case compelled to so become,
wer-wolves or loupsgarou, find large place in medieval story, but were equally
well-known in classic times. Belief in them still lingers in parts of Europe
where wolves are to be found. Herodotus tells of the Neuri, who assumed once a
year the shape of wolves; Pliny says that one of the family of Antaeus, chosen
by lot annually, became a wolf, and so remained for nine years; Giraldus
Cambrensis will have it that Irishmen may become wolves; and Nennius asserts
point - blank that "the descendants of wolves are still in Ossory;" they
retransform themselves into wolves when they bite. Apuleius, Petronius, and
Lucian have similar stories. The Emperor Sigismund convoked a council of
theologians in the fifteenth century, who decided that wer-wolves did exist.]
Now each goes his way, and when they were parted, Sigmund meets certain
men, and gives forth a wolf`s howl; and when Sinfjotli heard it, he went
straightway thereto, and slew them all, and once more they parted. But ere
Sinfjotli has fared long through the woods, eleven men meet him, and he
wrought in such wise that he slew them all, and was awearied therewith, and
crawls under an oak, and there takes his rest. Then came Sigmund thither, and
said -
"Why didst thou not call on me?"
Sinfjotli said, "I was loth to call for thy help for the slaying of
eleven men."
Then Sigmund rushed at him so hard that he staggered and fell, and
Sigmund bit him in the throat. Now that day they might not come out of their
wolf - skins: but Sigmund lay the other on his back, and bears him home to the
house, and cursed the wolf - gears and gave them to the trolls. Now on a day
he saw where two weasels went, and how that one bit the other in the throat,
and then ran straightway into the thicket, and took up a leaf and laid it on
the wound, and thereon his fellow sprang up quite and clean whole; so Sigmund
went out and saw a raven flying with a blade of that same herb to him; so he
took it and drew it over Sinfjotli`s hurt, and he straightway sprang up as
whole as though he had never been hurt. Thereafter they went home to their
earth - house, and abode there till the time came for them to put off the wolf
- shapes; then they burnt them up with fire, and prayed that no more hurt
might come to any one from them; but in that uncouth guise they wrought many
famous deeds in the kingdom and lordship of King Siggeir.
Now when Sinfjotli was come to man`s estate, Sigmund deemed he had tried
him fully, and or ever a long time has gone by he turns his mind to the
avenging of his father, if so it may be brought about; so on a certain day the
twain get them gone from their earth - house, and come to the abode of King
Siggeir late in the evening, and go into the porch before the hall, wherein
were tuns of ale, and there they lie hid: now the queen is ware of them, where
they are, and is fain to meet them; and when they met they took counsel and
were of one mind that Volsung should be revenged that same night.
Now Signy and the king had two children of tender age, who played with a
golden toy on the floor, and bowled it along the pavement of the hall, running
along with it; but therewith a golden ring from off it trundles away into the
place where Sigmund and Sinfjotli lay, and off runs the little one to search
for the same, and beholds withal where two men are sitting, big and grimly to
look on, with overhanging helms and bright white byrnies;^2 so he runs up the
hall to his father, and tells him of the sight he has seen, and thereat the
king misdoubts of some guile abiding him; but Signy heard their speech, and
arose and took both the children, and went out into the porch to them and
said -
[Footnote 2: Corslet, cuirass.]
"Lo ye! these younglings have bewrayed you; come now therefore and slay
them!"
Sigmund says, "Never will I slay thy children for telling of where I lay
hid."
But Sinfjotli made little enow of it, but drew his sword and slew them
both, and cast them in to the hall at King Siggeir`s feet.
Then up stood the king and cried on his men to take those who had lain
privily in the porch through the night. So they ran thither and would lay
hands on them, but they stood on their defense well and manly, and long he
remembered it who was the nighest to them; but in the end they were borne down
by many men and taken, and bonds were set upon them, and they were cast into
fetters wherein they sit night long.
Then the king ponders what longest and worst of deaths he shall mete out
to them; and when morning came he let make a great barrow of stones and turf;
and when it was done, let set a great flat stone midmost inside thereof, so
that one edge was aloft, the other alow; and so great it was that it went from
wall to wall, so that none might pass it.
Now he bids folk take Sigmund and Sinfjotli and set them in the barrow,
on either side of the stone, for the worse for them he deemed it, that they
might hear each the other`s speech, and yet that neither might pass one to the
other. But now, while they were covering in the barrow with the turf - slips,
thither came Signy, bearing straw with her, and cast it down to Sinfjotli, and
bade the thralls hide this thing from the king; they said yea thereto, and
therewithal was the barrow closed in.
But when night fell, Sinfjotli said to Sigmund, "Belike we shall scarce
need meat for a while, for here has the queen cast swine`s flesh into the
barrow, and wrapped it round about on the outer side with straw."
Therewith he handles the flesh and finds that therein was thrust
Sigmund`s sword; and he knew it by the hilts, as mirk as it might be in the
barrow, and tells Sigmund thereof, and of that were they both fain enow.
Now Sinfjotli drave the point of the sword up into the big stone, and
drew it hard along, and the sword bit on the stone. With that Sigmund caught
the sword by the point, and in this wise they sawed the stone between them,
and let not or all the sawing was done that need be done, even as the song
sings:
"Sinfjotli sawed
And Sigmund sawed,
Atwain with main
The stone was done."
Now are they both together loose in the barrow, and soon they cut both
through stone and through iron, and bring themselves out thereof. Then they go
home to the hall, whenas all men slept there, and bear wood to the hall, and
lay fire therein; and withal the folk therein are waked by the smoke, and by
the hall burning over their heads.
Then the king cries out, "Who kindled this fire, I burn withal?"
"Here am I," says Sigmund, "with Sinfjotli, my sister`s son; and we are
minded that thou shalt wot well that all the Volsungs are not yet dead."
Then he bade his sister come out, and take all good things at his hands,
and great honour, and fair atonement in that wise, for all her griefs.
But she answered, "Take heed now, and consider, if I have kept King
Siggeir in memory, and his slaying of Volsung the king! I let slay both my
children, whom I deemed worthless for the revenging of our father, and I went
into the wood to thee in a witch - wife`s shape; and now behold, Sinfjotli is
the son of thee and of me both! and therefore has he this so great hardihood
and fierceness, in that he is the son both of Volsung`s son and Volsung`s
daughter; and for this, and for naught else, have I so wrought, that Siggeir
might get his bane at last; and all these things have I done that vengeance
might fall on him, and that I too might not live long; and merrily now will I
die with King Siggeir, though I was naught merry to wed him."
Therewith she kissed Sigmund her brother, and Sinfjotli, and went back
again into the fire, and there she died with King Siggeir and all his good
men.
But the two kinsmen gathered together folk and ships, and Sigmund went
back to his father`s land, and drave away thence the king, who had set himself
down there in the room of king Volsung.
So Sigmund became a mighty King and far-famed, wise and high-minded:
he had to wife one named Borghild, and two sons they had between them, one
named Helgi and the other Hamund; and when Helgi was born, Norns came to
him,^3 and spake over him, and said that he should be in time to come the most
renowned of all kings. Even therewith was Sigmund come home from the wars, and
so therewith he gives him the name of Helgi, and these matters as tokens
thereof, Land of Rings, Sun-litten Hill, and Sharpshearing Sword, and withal
prayed that he might grow of great fame, and like unto the kin of the
Volsungs.
[Footnote 3: "Norns came to him." Nornir are the fates of the northern
mythology. They are three - Urd, the past; Verdandi, the present; and Skuld,
the future. They sit beside the fountain of Urd (Urdarbrunur), which is below
one of the roots of Yggdrasil, the world-tree, which tree their office it is
to nourish by sprinkling it with the waters of the fountain.]
And so it was that he grew up high-minded, and well-beloved, and
above all other men in all prowess; and the story tells that he went to the
wars when he was fifteen winters old. Helgi was lord and ruler over the army,
but Sinfjotli was gotten to be his fellow herein; and so the twain bare sway
thereover.
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