Volsunga saga
Sigurd's legendary chronicle
The Volsunga saga is a 13th-century Icelandic prose epic recounting the legends of the Volsung clan—a dynasty of heroes including Sigmund and his son Sigurd, who slays the dragon Fafnir.
The saga draws on older Germanic heroic poetry and shares material with the Nibelungenlied.
It influenced Wagner's Ring cycle and Tolkien's works.
- SigurdLegendary Norse dragon-killer
- Icelandic sagasMedieval Norse prose narratives
- ringClosed curve shape
- heroismExceptional courage under duress
- goldElement seventy-nine
Ragnarok · Brynhildr · cursed · tragic love · oral tradition · fate · Germanic tribes · Skaldic poetry · blood · prophecy · vengeance · Valkyrie · battle · Burgundians · slaying · Norse · kinship · Odin
- Icelandic Sagassagas, Icelandic sagas, family sagas, legendary sagas, Snorri Sturluson
- NibelungenSiegfried, Gunther, Burgundians, dragon slayer, cursed treasure
- Norse literaturesagas, Icelandic sagas, Norse sagas, kennings, Old Norse
- Norse textssagas, Icelandic sagas, family sagas, legendary sagas, Snorri Sturluson
- epic cycles
- Norse poetrykennings, kenning, skald, Snorri Sturluson, court poetry
Volsunga sagaAnglo-Saxon Chronicle
Medieval English historical annals
annals · realist fiction · journalism · encyclopedia · court records
Volsunga sagaIliad
Ancient Greek war epic
Odyssey · Aeneid · Mahabharata · Ramayana · Epic of Gilgamesh
Volsunga sagaDivine Comedy
Italian allegorical verse trilogy
Paradiso · redemption narrative · comedy · romance · hagiography