the saga of the volsangs Norse mythology much like many other mythologies is filled with gods and heroes magical artifacts and ferocious monsters death and tragedy likely no story within the mythology better showcases these concepts than the saga of the volsangs the story is certainly an old one and was clearly an important tail for the Norse people while this video intends to provide a succinct summary of the events of the story and of course won't be a complete substitute for reading the saga yourself the story begins with a man named siggy said to be a son of Odin who is known to be powerful and come from a great family one day siggy went hunting and took his neighbor's slave with him they hunted all day and into the evening and when they gathered their kills siggy discovered that the slave had outperformed him siggy strongly disapproved of this and killed the slave he returned to his neighbor claiming that the slave ran off but the man doubted the story and sent a search party to look for him they discovered his body clearly murdered and siggy was exiled from the land he traveled with Odin and eventually reached a land with many warships where Odin provided him an army siggy became a successful ruler in this land claiming a kingdom for himself and fathered a son named rare siggy eventually grew old and was finally betrayed by his wife's brothers who murdered him rare reare claimed his father's kingdom for himself and also went on to avenge his father by killing his uncles and taking their lands as well he went on to take a wife but many years went by without her bearing him a child and so they prayed to the gods for assistance Frigg Odin's wife heard the prayers and so rares wife became pregnant the pregnancy lasted an unusually long time during which rare went off to war and died of illness six years after becoming pregnant rare rears wife finally gave birth to a large boy who is said to have kissed his mother before she died the boy was given the name vole sung he became king of his father's lands he proved to be a great warrior bold in every kind of deed and went on to marry a Valkyrie together they had ten sons and one daughter the eldest son be named Sigmund and the daughter named signe all of volsangs children were great with many stories being told of all their deeds in time a foreign King sig heir came to volsang to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage although Sidney did not wish to marry the king volsang was in favor of the agreement and so promised the king his daughter at their wedding feast a man came into the hall that no one recognized elderly and with one eye wearing a wide brimmed hat the man walked to the large tree that grew in the center of the Great Hall and stabbed a sword into the trunk of it saying that whoever draws this sword from the tree will receive it as a gift from me after the man left men flocked to pull the sword but in the end only Sigmund was capable of doing so King Sagara offered three times the swords weight in gold for it but Sigmund refused angering the King Sagara left the wedding the next day was signe against custom and told King volson to come visit him with his sons in three months time three months later Bowl sung and his ten sons visited cigar but it was indeed a trap which left volsung dead and his sons taken prisoner rather than killing them immediately signe convinced cigar to keep them in stocks instead meaning their suffering would be drawn out but signe hope to rescue them they were imprisoned in the nearby woods and each night a huge she-wolf would come by and devour one of them nine nights later only Sigmund remained alive signe learned of her brothers fate she sent a servant with honey to Sigmund telling him to smear it on his face and in his mouth that night when the wolf approached she began to lick the honey from his face and her tongue went into his mouth Sigmund bit down on her tongue not letting go until the tongue was ripped out killing the wolf Sigmund escaped and with the help of his sister built a home in the forest where he remained for the next 10 years signe went on to have two children with King cigar and when her oldest was 10 years old she sent him to Sigmund hoping that together they could avenge her father and brothers to test the boy Sigmund told him to take a bag of flour and make some bread but the boy refused saying that there was something alive in the bag when signe heard this she told Sigmund that the boy lacked courage and he should kill him and so Sigmund did so a year later she sent her other son to Sigmund but the same events occurred and Sigmund killed him as well signe then consorted with a powerful yet beautiful witch asking her to swap bodies for a time they did so with the witch insignias body spending the night with King cigar and signe in the witch's body going to Sigmund Sigmund gave the beautiful woman shelter and the two spent three nights together before signe returned and swapped bodies again with the witch some time passed and signe gave birth to another child named Finn Yoli the son of two volsangs when he was not quite ten years old signe sent him to Sigmund just as she had sent the first two butts pignoli passed the test to harden the boy for the coming acts of revenge the two wandered the forest acting as bandits killing men for money by the time they went to kill King cigar signe had had two more children with him but they were killed by svenne Yoli though they fought valiantly they were eventually captured before they could kill King cigar they were placed in a burial mound with a massive stone but signe slipped them Sigmund's magical sword which he used to cut through the stone and escape they burned the Kings Hall killing him and his men as well as signe who chose to die with the king now that her father's and brothers deaths have been avenged sigmund returns to his home country with spin Yoli and reclaims his father's kingdom Sigmund married and when his wife was pregnant he was caught in a grand battle where Odin himself made an appearance when Sigmund swung his sword at Odin it's shattered and he ended up becoming mortally wounded in the battle when his wife came for him he said that Odin no longer wishes for him to draw his sword but she should take the fragments and have it reforged because his son will do many great things with it not long after she gave birth to Sigurd who was said to have had no match anywhere in both achievements and size when Sigurd was older he went into the forest and met an old one-eyed man who gave him a horse descended from sleep near and this horse was said to be the best of all horses Sigurd is told by his foster father Reagan that he should go out and claim some treasure specifically by hunting down the dragon Fafnir both near had a massive treasure hoard and is said to be an evil dragon Sigmund sword was reforged and when Sigurd swung it at an anvil to test it it cut the anvil in two before going after full fear however he seeks to avenge his father and so Sigurd took an army and went to war emerging victorious Sigurd then goes into the territory of full gear and digs a ditch to wait in until phonier passes over it when full fear slithered over it Sigurd stabbed him in the heart as full fear lay dying he asked cigarette about his family and told them that both his treasure as well as regen will be the death of him part of full fierce treasure includes a cursed ring that would be passed on bringing death to its owner Breggin then appears congratulating Sigurd for the victory and then proceeds to drink some of Fuller's blood he asks Sigurd to remove wolf nears heart and roast it so that he may consume it Sigurd did so and while the heart was cooking he tasted some of the juices running out of it and suddenly he could understand the language of birds some nearby Birds said that Sigrid should eat the heart himself becoming the wisest of men and kill Regan before he can betray him Sigrid proceeded to do so beheading Regan and ate part of Fuller's heart he then took Fuller's treasure and rode to find a woman named Bryn Hilde mentioned by the birds he rode until he found a fortress in the mountains and inside was a sleeping woman dressed in chainmail so tight that it seemed to have grown into her skin he used his sword to cut the chainmail off waking up the woman who seemed to know who he was she told him that Odin had put her in this predicament for killing a king that Odin had promised victory to brynhilda shared much of her wisdom was Sigurd and the two agreed to marry one another Sigurd became known as the greatest of men master of all combat skills but also excelled in courtly matters as well his name became the most famous in the northern lands and news of his deed of killing full fear spread far Sigurd continued travelling eventually coming to the land of another king who had heard of him and offered him anything he wanted while he was there the King's wife a witch wanted sigur to marry her daughter so that they could have his treasure for themselves and so she brewed a special ale that caused sigur to forget about brynhilda Sigurd ended up stayin in the kingdom for two and a half years and married the king's daughter one of the king's sons however went to court Bryn hilt and eventually married her one day the two wives were talking and comparing their husbands when Sigrid's wife revealed the deception that had been played on brynhilda brynhilda was enraged and fell into a deep depression Sigrid went to her to console her but it only served to make her angrier she told her husband to go and kill Sigurd and his young son her husband not wanting to break the blood bond he had sworn with Sigurd sent his younger brother to kill him who murdered Sigrid in his sleep although Sigrid managed to kill him in his death throes when Sigurd died his wife screamed in agony and brynhilda laughed when she heard it Sigurd 'he's three-year-old son is also killed and brynn held stabs a sword threw herself before throwing herself on to Sigrid's funeral pyre as mentioned this was only a short summary of the entire saga of the volsangs and there was quite a bit left out this should give you a good idea however the overall nature of the saga and the recurring themes of murder betrayal revenge and greed the story has inspired plenty of other tales from Richard Wagner's Ring cycle to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings well much of this may break away from the other videos in this series discussing concepts such as Asgard and the gods the saga of the volsangs is another important part of Norse mythology and culture you