THE HIES OPEN LIBRARY
Eiríkr Magnússon & William Morris, trans. • 1888
Category: PRIMARY SOURCE
The Story of the Volsungs is an English translation of Völsunga saga, a medieval Icelandic legendary saga preserving traditions concerning the Völsung family and the hero Sigurd. Drawing upon a wider body of Germanic heroic tradition, the saga tells of kinship, inheritance, vengeance, heroic deeds, supernatural encounters, tragic conflict, and the consequences of fate.
Among its best-known episodes are Sigurd's slaying of the dragon Fáfnir, the acquisition of the dragon's treasure, his encounters with Brynhild, and the conflicts that ultimately bring destruction to members of the Völsung and related families.
This Open Library entry uses the English translation by Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris. The Project Gutenberg text is based on the 1888 Walter Scott Press edition and also includes excerpts from the Poetic Edda.
Magnússon and Morris produced a deliberately literary English rendering of the saga. As with other historical translations and scholarship in the HIES Open Library, this edition should be read critically and in conversation with later scholarship and additional translations.
Legendary Saga
Heroic Tradition
Kinship & Loyalty
Fate & Mortality
Honor & Vengeance
Sigurd & the Völsungs
Germanic Heroic Legend
Cultural Memory
The Story of the Volsungs is an important source for the study of legendary saga, heroic tradition, kinship, fate, cultural memory, and the relationship between Eddic poetry and later narrative literature at Hákonarætt Institute of Eddic Studies.
It is especially relevant to courses addressing saga literature, Eddic and heroic traditions, Old Norse worldview, literary interpretation, honor and social responsibility, cultural memory, and the transmission of inherited narratives.
Inclusion in the Open Library does not mean that every chapter or section is assigned in every HIES course. Specific required readings are identified within individual courses on the HIES Learning Platform.
Title: The Story of the Volsungs
Original Work: Völsunga saga
Translators: Eiríkr Magnússon & William Morris
Edition Used: Walter Scott Press edition
Publication Year: 1888
Resource Type: Primary Source / Translation
Language: English