The extant heroic literary core of all things Nordic.

It catalysed Wagner’s Gesamtkunst - which may however have failed the test of modernity - & Tolkien’s ultimately equivalent, but freer, notion of “sub-creation” (=worldbuilding), which today is exploding beyond his wildest dreams.

NB: The Penguin Classics edition features excellent intro, notes, & glossary by the (younger back then) grand old man of Icelandic & Norse studies, Jesse Byock. ( )

Spoiler! Everybody dies.

This is a fine saga, as sagas go, certainly less focussed on number-of-cattle-owned than Njal's Saga.

Very clearly the product of multiple retellings: events such as the Sigurd/Brynhild meeting are retold a few times, with some hasty back-filling to call one or the other a dream (no doubt in response to some plaintive "Grandpa, you told us they got married last week!" cries), and there is quite a bit of "stay tuned for next week's campfire" prophecy going on. ( )

The more I read of the Scandinavian/Norse mythologies, the more it is obvious there is no definitive text. The tales have been repeated, retold, and reformed. Neil Gaiman and Joanne Harris did a good job in their books...This version was portrayed as one long family saga. I loved the story of the sword in the tree, with the tree's name appearing very similar to "Bram Stoker". Even the churches have scenes depicting a Nordic king killing a dragon taken from these tales. Just like biblical stories, these stories began with "the word" as it was in the beginning, then everything eventually written down, stories travelled across the continents with the migrations of the people, adapted, enhanced, made to fit in with current thought, used to strengthen opinions towards political arguments. Once written down it became much more difficult to adapt the tales, but you can still extract the elements...the king who had two sons who competed...the wife who could not conceive a child...the brother and sister in love...adding the fanciful elements of magic: apple, sword, transformative beings (shapeshifters)...and romancing the locations so that the listeners/readers can emphatically understand the characters' journeys. I can see a parallel in these tales with todays modern soap operas. Stories of families' betrayal, bitterness, feuds, love, murder, deceit (but no magic). I had to listen to Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.
The Senna (contest of insults, making use of the worst possible affronts in the culture - effeminacy, passive homosexuality, offences punishable by outlawry) reminded me of a computer game I played in the 1990s "Monkey Island", where you had to play a contest of insults to progress. (Are your haemorrhoids flaring up again?). ( )

This is really quite good epic norse poetry, it does go on a bit too long towards the end but overall better than Beowulf and a real treat for any Lord of the Rings fans. You can see the origin of Aragorn and Arwen as well as Eowyn, Gandalf, the ring and Isildur's sword.
Of course the vast differences in where the stories go is also part of the fun. Speaking of fun, you might find it lacking in the latter parts as it turns into a real tragedy, still compelling though. Torn between a 3 or 4 score for this one but a i said a little long winded.
I read the full version (i think) by William Morris 1876. ( )

Considering that the culture which recorded this saga of the Volsung kits was so different rom thos who wrote the King Arthur legends it is surprising how many abject similarities there are between the two. Who knows which was actually recorded or told first (oral traditions being what they are), but there was clearly some cross-cultural influence occurring. The recurring motifs of kinsman betrayal are more prevalent for the Volsungs than for Arthur, but it is clear that families brought together for diplomacy or through betrayal for love/sex will always result in chaos and death. It makes me wonder how drunk these people were if there's so much wife-swapping goping on - since obviously being magically disguised can't be a reality. Maybe they were so completely callous when it came to sex and offspring that such practises were commonplace. ( )