Synopsis of the backstory (Sigi to Sigurd):
1) Sigi slays the ‘thrall’ of Skadi, and conceals the crime; the body is found and Sigi is declared an outlaw (‘wolf in hallowed places’). Odin leads him (in exile) to build his power and seize a kingdom. Sigi ultimately betrayed and killed by his ‘wife’s brothers’.
2) Sigi’s
son Rerir gathers a force and avenges his father (kills all his in-laws). But
then finds himself unable to father an heir.
Odin sends a ‘wish-maiden’ in form of a raven (=valkyrie)
with fertile apple (of Idun?). The mother pregnant 6 years; at last the child
is cut from her body = Volsung. He was ‘grown when born … and kissed his mother
before her death’
3) Volsung marries Hljod (daughter of giant
Hrimnir, the ‘wish maiden’ who brought the apple of his conception): she bears
him twins Sigmund and Signy. He builds
his palace around the tree Barnstock.
4)
Volsung plans marriage for Signy to Siggeir. At the party Odin fixes his sword
(‘Gram’) in the tree. Only Sigmund is able to draw it out (refuses to sell it
to Siggeir, even for thrice its weight in gold).
5) Signy
distraught at her first wedding night, urges Volsung to annul the marriage, but
he will not break his word. Siggeir, in
anger, takes Signy away after only one day, urges Volsung to come visit in
three months. At which time, Siggeir
attacks and kills Volsung, captures his ten sons and (at Signy’s urging) puts them all in stocks.
One night after the next one of the ten is killed and eaten by a wolf-demon;
until Signy smears honey on Sigmund to save him….
6)
Sigmund in hiding lives in a howe; when her eldest is 10, Signy sends the boy
to him, as helper. But Sigmund finds him lacking and kills him (with mother’s
blessing); the same fate awaits the 2nd
son. Then Signy exchanges semblances with a witch and comes to visit her
brother; she gives birth to Sinfjotli.
7) When
Sinfjotli is 10, she sends him to Sigmund, and they become a pair of ‘wolves’,
shape-shifting marauders, plundering the realm of Siggeir. When Sinfjotli is grown,
they sneak into the palace, Sinfjotli kills his young half-siblings, but the
two are captured and buried alive. Luckily Signy provides them with rations and
the magic sword; they saw through the stone and escape, and set fire to the
palace; Signy consigns herself to the flames.
8)
Sigmund and (son) Sinfjotli return to Volsung’s kingdom; Sigmund marries
Borghild, begets Helgi (and Hamund).
Helgi defeats Hunding and sons, meets Sigrun and wins her by defeating
Hodbrodd and co. (notice Sinfjotli’s nifty trash-talk with father Granmar (ch.
9, pp. 49-50)).
9)
Sinfjotli fights and slays Borghild’s brother; Borghild devises poisoning of
Sinfjotli (Sigmund is immune).
10-12)
Sigmund marries Hjordis, but is soon slain in battle with Lyngvi—struck down by
Odin, his sword broken. Gathering the pieces, Hjordis is rescued by Alf, son of
Hjalprek; changing places with servant, she betrays/proves herself with the
dawn test. She is wed to Alf but gives birth to Sigmund’s son, Sigurd.
__________________________________
Chh.13-14)
Sigurd grows up at the court of Hjalprek (Alf’s father), tutored by Regin, son
of Hreidmar. Regin teases Sigurd with his status as underling, so Sigurd goes
to the kings and asks for a horse (to show his status), and they agree to give
him any horse he wants. Odin guides him
to test them in the river, and S chooses the one that swims freely =
Grani. Regin teases Sigurd with his
wealth, and explains his own backround: Otter’s Ransom.
15) So
they make a deal for Regin fashion a sword and Sigurd to slay Fafnir. The first
two blades break on the anvil; Sigurd gets the fragments of Gram from Hjordis
and has Regin reforge the sword. S agrees to slay Fafnir, but only after he has
avenged his father Sigmund against Lyngvi and the sons of Hunding.
17)
Which he does, again guided by Odin.(disguised). When he returns, Regin claims
his boon.
18)
Regin advises Sigurd to wait in ambush on the cliff, where the Dragon comes to drink: there he should dig a pit and
hide there where he can stab the beast to death. While Sigurd is digging, Odin
advises him to dig channels, to drain off the blood. …(read from p. 63f.)
19-20)
Regin asks for the Dragon’s heart but Sigurd tastes the blood and hears the
birds: he cuts off Regin’s head and eats
part of the heart; then he rides to Fafnir’s hoard and loads the wealth on
Grani; and then he rides for Brynhild’s bed, at Hindarfell.
21-2)
Brynhild’s wise counsel (read from p. 71)
23-4) 2nd meeting: Consider the first 2 meetings of Brynhild and Sigurd: (note traces of recognition; 26, p.75, now it has happened as you promised (?) In the first meeting they pledged vows ~ marriage. And at the 2nd meeting he gives the RING (only later revealed as Andvari’s loom).
family trees:
Budli ---------- Gjuki + Grimhild
/ \ \ / \ \ \
Brynhild Bekkhild Atli Gudrun Gunnar Hogni Guttorm
(m. Heimir)