Sinfjötli ( ) or Fitela (in

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

) in

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 as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

was born out of the incestuous relationship between Sigmund and his sister Signy. He had the half-brothers

Sigurd Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...

, Helgi Hundingsbane and Hamund.

Etymology and orthography

''Sinfjǫtli'' is formed from two parts, ''sin-'', and ''fjǫtli''. The latter is

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

with the Old English ''Fitela''. In the standardized

Old Norse orthography The orthography of the Old Norse language was diverse, being written in both Runes, Runic and Latin alphabet, Latin alphabets, with many spelling conventions, variant letterforms, and unique letters and signs. In modern times, scholars established ...

, the name is spelled ''Sinfjǫtli'', but the letter ' ǫ' is frequently replaced with the Modern Icelandic ö for reasons of familiarity or technical expediency.

Life

In ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'', Fitela is the nephew of Sigmund, whereas 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 prose rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story ...

'' describes him as both Sigmund's son and nephew due to incest. In the ''

'', Sinfjǫtli is the grandson of King

Völsung Völsung ( , ) is a figure in Germanic mythology, where he is the eponymous ancestor of the Völsung family (, ), which includes the hero Sigurð. In Nordic mythology, he is the son of Rerir and was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir. He was ...

. Signý, King Völsung's daughter, despises her husband King Siggeir, and begs "that she may not be made to return to King Siggeir." Völsung denies her request to leave, reminding her of the commitment their family must maintain. Despite a warning from Signý, King Völsung and his 10 sons engage in a battle as King Siggeir's unbeatable army treacherously murders King Völsung. Signý pleads with her husband not to dispose of her 10 brothers, but rather Siggeir grants her request "because e thinksit better that they suffer more and are tortured longer before they die." Through 9 long nights, a returning she-wolf (thought to be King Siggeir's mother) kills 9 of Signý's brothers in turn. A message is passed to the last brother remaining, Sigmund, to smear honey on his face and bite the tongue out of the she-wolf's mouth, thus killing her and saving himself. Since Sigmund has lost his father and brothers, Signý wishes to support him in avenging their family by sending her son to be his companion in his hideout in the forest. However, each of her sons by King Siggeir proves cowardly: they cannot withstand the pain of having the cuffs of their kirtles sewn to their skin. So Signý has Sigmund kill them as they are no longer of any use. Sigmund being of the Völsung line, Signý believes her brother will produce a son worthy of claiming a place in that line, and one night she "exchange shape" with 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" and "sorceress", and they are frequently calle ...

, goes to Sigmund in his underground dwelling, and spends three nights in his bed with Sigmund unaware that she is his sister in another form. Very unlike her previous sons born of the devious and unpleasant King Siggeir, Signý then bears a son who is no less strong, handsome, and fearless than Völsung himself. This is Sinfjǫtli, who together with Sigmund will avenge their clan by killing Siggeir. Sinfjǫtli ignores the pain, saying that "such pain would seem trifling to Völsung." The incestuous product of the coalesced Völsung line, he is capable of the great deeds Signý requires. In their wanderings, before killing Siggeir, he and Sigmund come across men sleeping in cursed wolves' skins. By killing the men and donning the wolf skins, they are cursed with a type of lycanthropy. Sigmund and Sinfjǫtli go to Hunaland where Sigmund is proclaimed king of the Huns. He marries Borghild and has the sons Helgi Hundingsbane and Hámundr. Sinfjötli slays Borghild's brother while vying for a woman both the brother and Sinfjǫtli want. Borghild avenges her brother by poisoning Sinfjötli. In order to dispose of him, Borghild gives Sigmund three cups of wine, of which the last contains poison. Sigmund, suspecting Borghild, drinks two of the cups, but inebriated, encourages Sinfjǫtli to drink the third, which he does, and subsequently dies. Sigmund brings his son's corpse to the

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

s, where he meets

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

disguised as a ferryman. The ferryman says that he can only take one passenger at a time and takes Sinfjǫtli's body first. Out on the water, he and Sinfjǫtli disappear. Sigmund goes home and banishes Borghild. This is roughly the tale told in J.R.R. Tolkien's '' The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún''. In the First Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane, from the

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

, Gudmund accuses Sinfjǫtli of being a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

Etymology and orthography

Life

References

Further reading