Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

, Sigmund ( non, Sigmundr , ang, Sigemund) is a hero whose story is told in the

Völsunga saga The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the stor ...

. He and his sister,

Signý Signy or Signe ( non, Signý, sometimes known as german: Sieglinde) is the name of two heroines in two connected legends from Norse mythology which were very popular in medieval Scandinavia. Both appear in the Völsunga saga, which was adapted i ...

, are the children of

Völsung In Norse mythology, Völsung ( non, Vǫlsungr ) was the son of Rerir and the eponymous ancestor of the ill-fated Völsung clan (), which includes the well known Norse hero Sigurð. He was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir and later avenged by o ...

and his wife

Hljod Hljod or Ljod (Old Norse: ''Hljóð'' ) is a jötunn in Norse mythology. She is the spouse of Völsung, the daughter of the jötunn Hrímnir, and the mother of Sigmund and Signy. Name The Old Norse name ''Hljóð'' has been translated as 'howl ...

. Sigmund is best known as the father of

Sigurð Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Meroving ...

the dragon-slayer, though Sigurð's tale has almost no connections to the Völsung cycle except that he was a

dragonslayer A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classifica ...

''Völsunga saga''

In the ''Völsunga saga'', Signý marries

Siggeir Siggeir is the king of Gautland (i.e. Götaland/Geatland, but in some translations also rendered as ''Gothland''), in the ''Völsunga saga''. In ''Skáldskaparmál'' he is given as a Sikling and a relative of Sigar who killed the hero Hagbard. ''H ...

, the king of Gautland (modern

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Väs ...

). Völsung and Sigmund are attending the wedding feast (which lasted for some time before and after the marriage), when

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

, disguised as a beggar, plunges a sword (Gram) into the living tree

Barnstokk In Norse mythology, Barnstokkr (Old Norse, literally "child-trunk"Byock (1990:113).) is a tree that stands in the center of King Völsung's hall. Barnstokkr is attested in chapters 2 and 3 of the ''Völsunga saga'', written in the 13th century fr ...

("offspring-trunk"Orchard (1997:14).) around which Völsung's hall is built. The disguised Odin announces that the man who can remove the sword will have it as a gift. Only Sigmund is able to free the sword from the tree.

is smitten with envy and desire for the sword. He tries to buy it but Sigmund refuses. Siggeir invites Sigmund, his father Völsung and Sigmund's

nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

brothers to visit him in Gautland to see the newlyweds three months later. When the Völsung clan arrive, they are attacked by the Gauts; King Völsung is killed and his sons captured. Signý beseeches her husband to spare her brothers and to put them in

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

instead of killing them. As Siggeir thinks that the brothers deserve to be tortured before they are killed, he agrees. He then lets his

shapeshifting In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, Magic (paranormal), sorcery, Incantation, ...

mother turn into a wolf and devour one of the brothers each night. During that time, Signý tries various ruses but fails every time until only Sigmund remains. On the ninth night, she has a servant smear

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

on Sigmund's face and when the she-wolf arrives, she starts licking the honey off and sticks her tongue into Sigmund's mouth, whereupon Sigmund bites her tongue off, killing her. Sigmund then escapes his bonds and hides in the forest. Signý brings Sigmund everything he needs. Bent on revenge for their father's death, she also sends her sons to him in the wilderness, one by one, to be tested. As each fails, she urges Sigmund to kill them, until one day when he refuses to continue killing innocent children. Finally, in despair, she comes to him in the guise of a

völva In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer", "wise woman" and "sorceress", and they are f ...

and conceives a child by him,

Sinfjötli Sinfjötli ( non, Sinfjǫtli ) or Fitela (in Old English) in Norse mythology was born out of the incestuous relationship between Sigmund and his sister Signy. He had the half-brothers Sigurd, Helgi Hundingsbane and Hamund. Etymology and orthogra ...

(named ''Fitela'' in ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

''). Sinfjötli, born of their

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

, passes the test. Sigmund and his son/nephew, Sinfjötli, grow wealthy as

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

s. In their wanderings, they come upon men sleeping in cursed wolf skins. Upon killing the men and putting on the wolf skins, they are cursed with a type of

lycanthropy In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

. Eventually, they avenge the death of Völsung. After Signý dies, Sigmund and Sinfjötli go harrying together. Sigmund marries a woman named

Borghild In Norse mythology, Borghild was the first wife of Sigmund. They had two sons, Hamund and Helgi. ''Völsunga saga'' Sinfjötli (Borghild's step-son) "saw a lovely woman and strongly desired to have her. The brother of Borghild, the wife of Ki ...

and has two sons, one of them named

Helgi Helge or Helgi is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch mostly male name. The name is derived from Proto-Norse ''Hailaga'' with its original meaning being ''dedicated to the gods''. For its Slavic version, see Oleg. Its feminine equivalent is Olga. ...

. Sinfjötli slays Borghild's brother while vying for a woman they both want. Borghild avenges her brother by poisoning Sinfjötli. Later, Sigmund marries a woman named

Hjördís Hjördís or Hiordis in Norse mythology is the wife of Sigmund, and the mother of Sigurd. Her father was a king named Eylimi. She is mentioned in the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. It is also a female given name in Scandinavia, as Hjördis in Swe ...

. After a short time of peace, Sigmund's lands are attacked by King Lyngi. In battle, Sigmund matches up against an old man who is

in disguise. Odin shatters Sigmund's sword, and Sigmund falls at the hands of others. Dying, he tells Hjördís that she is pregnant and that her son will one day make a great weapon out of the fragments of his sword. That son was to be

Sigurd Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Meroving ...

, who avenged his father by carving a

blood eagle The blood eagle was a method of ritually executing a chosen member as detailed in late skaldic poetry. According to the two instances mentioned in the Sagas, the victims (in both cases members of royal families) were placed in a prone position, t ...

on Lyngvi's back. Sigurd himself had a son named Sigmund, who was killed when he was three-years-old by a vengeful

Brynhild Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label=Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess Brunhilda o ...

Relation to other Germanic heroes

Sigmund/Siegmund is also the name of Sigurd/Siegfried's father in other versions of the Sigurd story, but without any of the details about his life or family that appear in Norse Völsung tales and poems. On the other hand, the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

poem ''

'' includes Sigemund the Wælsing and his nephew Fitela in a tale of dragon slaying told within the main story. Herein the story of Sigemund is told to Beowulf, a warrior also from Gautland.

Parallels

Parallels to Sigmund's pulling the sword from the tree can be found in other mythologies (notably in the

Arthurian King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a Legend, legendary king of Great Britain, Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest tradition ...

legends). Also,

and

Mordred Mordred or Modred (; Welsh: ''Medraut'' or ''Medrawt'') is a figure who is variously portrayed in the legend of King Arthur. The earliest known mention of a possibly historical Medraut is in the Welsh chronicle ''Annales Cambriae'', wherein he ...

share the characteristic of being nephew and son to the main characters. The gaining of mythical powers through a sword is also similar to the Norse god Frey.

In modern fiction

The story of Sigmund, beginning with the marriage of Signy to Siggeir and ending with Sigmund's vengeance on Siggeir, was retold in the novelette "Vengeance" by

Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (September 18, 1888 – September 9, 1971) was a scholar of early English, German, and Old Norse literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known primarily for his scholarly work on ''Beowulf'' and his ...

, which appeared in the magazine ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'', June 30, 1925. Brodeur was a professor at Berkeley and became well known for his scholarship on ''Beowulf'' and Norse sagas.

Notes

References