Summary: Introduction
The only two original sources of Norse mythology are two
Icelandic texts, the Elder Edda (first written
around a.d. 1300 but containing earlier tales)
and the Younger Edda (written by Snori Sturluson
at the end of the 1100s). The Norse myths
are bleaker than the Greek and Roman tales. Norse gods live in a
high plane called Asgard, where they await the inevitable doom that
faces them in the battle that will end the world—a reflection of
the pessimistic Norse belief that good will eventually lose to evil.
Heroism exists, defined by fighting for good in the face of certain
defeat and dying in the attempt. Dead heroes are honored in Valhalla,
the afterlife for good warriors, where they sit with gods in Asgard
who, like them, face defeat in the end.
Summary: Chapter I — The Stories of Signy and Sigurd
The Volsung dynasty’s story is told in the Volsungasaga as
well as in the Elder Edda. Signy, a daughter of
Volsung, marries an evil man who kills her father, then imprisons
and kills all her brothers except Sigmund, whom she is able to rescue.
To procure Sigmund a comrade for the vengeance they are planning,
Signy disguises herself and spends three nights with her brother
and conceives a child. While the boy, Sinfiotli, grows up, Signy
keeps quiet and pretends to love her husband. When Sinfiotli comes
of age, he and Sigmund kill Signy’s husband and all his children
by burning them in a locked house. Seeing her wish done, Signy herself
walks into the burning building to die with the family she has killed.
Sigmund later has a son named Sigurd, who braves a ring
of fire to free the imprisoned maiden Brynhild, a Valkyrie who has
disobeyed Odin, the lord of the gods. Sigurd and Brynhild pledge
their love for each other. He leaves her in the same ring of fire,
intending to return, and visits his best friend, the king Gunnar.
Gunnar’s mother, who wants Sigurd to marry her own daughter, Gudrun, gives
Sigurd a potion that makes him forget Brynhild.
Gunnar decides he wants Brynhild for a wife, but he is
unable to pass the marriage-test of the ring of fire. Sigurd rides
through the flames again disguised as Gunnar and wins Brynhild for
his friend. Brynhild marries Gunnar, thinking he legitimately passed
the test and assuming Sigurd abandoned her. When she learns the
truth, she falls into a rage of vengeance and falsely convinces
Gunnar that Sigurd slept with her when he rescued her from the ring
of fire. Gunnar persuades his younger brother to kill Sigurd. After
Sigurd’s death, Brynhild kills herself, asking to be placed on the
funeral pyre next to him.
Summary: Chapter II —The Norse Gods
Odin, the chief Norse gods, rules Asgard from Gladsheim,
his palace, attended by the Valkyries and leading the gods in their
constant battle against the Giants of Jotunheim. A strange, taciturn
god, Odin eats nothing himself but gives his food to his two pet
wolves under the banquet table. His two ravens, Thought and Memory, scour
the world for news, on which he meditates while the other gods feast.
Concerned with wisdom, Odin once gave up one of his own eyes and
hung for nine days and nights from a tree in order to gain it. Odin
gives this wisdom, along with the Runes—the old Norse written alphabet
that has magical powers—and the special liquor that transforms its
drinker into a poet, to the race of men.
There are five other great gods besides Odin: Balder,
Thor, Freyr, Heimdall, and Tyr. Thor is the thunder-bearer and strongest
of the gods; Freyr is the god of the crops; Heimdall is the guardian
of the rainbow-bridge between Asgard and the world of men; and Tyr
is the god of war. There are three major goddesses—Frigga (Odin’s wife),
Freya, and Hela—but they are not important to Norse myth. Frigga
is an indistinct figure, a spinner of secret thread; Freya, like Aphrodite,
is a goddess of love; and Hela is queen of the underworld.
