Runes 102 - Book Reviews - The Saga of the Volsungs

If you type "Saga of the Volsungs" into your search engine (aka - google it), there will be no shortage of links to this famous and important saga.  Not only did the Vikings carve this story into the Ramsund Runestone in Sweden, but it inspired the likes of Richard Wagner, William Morris, and JRR Tolkein.

While all three of these artists were inspired more broadly by Norse mythology and history, this book in particular influenced Wagner's opera Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Morris' epic poem The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, and Tolkein's narrative poem The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun.

Moreover, this story has been translated into multiple languages over the years and retold in different versions, including edited summaries.

What is it that is so inspiring about this saga?  It could be any number of things from the more obvious dragon slaying to the more subtle influence of women interpreting dreams and carving Runes.  Maybe it's the relationships. Volsunga Saga is a true-to-form saga, detailing multiple generations of Volsungs and explaining the relationships of their allies and enemies alike.  It is loaded with Viking battles and victories and wealthy kings and fair women.  It even has magic potions and shape shifting. So, what's not to love?  The story is quite fascinating.

Of course, as I said, if you do an online search for it, numerous versions of it will come up.  I chose the version I read for one main reason.  It was translated by my former Old Norse Professor from UCLA, Dr. Jesse Byock and I trust him.  That, I'm sure makes me biased, but I enjoyed The Saga of the Volsungs nonetheless.  Naturally, I liked the story.  However,  the introduction was really helpful in laying the foundation, providing context in the larger back drop of Norse/European society at the time, and noting the story's more recent influence on music, literature, and art.  There were also some useful notes and other sections at the end of the book.

As for the translation itself, Byock does an excellent job of painting a clear story while maintaining the historical presentation.  In other words, he didn't turn it into a contemporary interpretation, rather maintained the original voice in a way that makes it easy to read and follow.  This is a tough spot to find.  I have read versions of other historical writings that have stuck so close to the original version that I could not relate to the story and found myself researching ancient words just to make sense of it.  In other instances stories have been so modernized as to lose any sense of their historical significance.  That is not the case here.

It's harder to review the translation of a story that already exists than it is to talk (or write) about original works, but this is one story that has been handled well by the translating author.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects of the story are the Runes, a topic I will discuss more soon, so stay tuned for that.  For now, if you want an easy and enjoyable book to read while learning about about historical Norse culture, I recommend putting The Saga of the Volsungs (aka - Volsunga Saga) on the list.

Runes 101 - Runes in Mythology 9 - Ramsund Runestone

When we think of Runestones, we envision large, erect boulders, etched with runic inscriptions and generally also ornately decorated.  However, there is one Runestone that does not quite fit this image.  It has a runic inscription and is quite ornately carved, but it is not carved into a large boulder, rather into a slab of rock, an outcrop, if you will, in Sweden.  I refer, of course, to the Ramsund stone.

While there are no shortages of Runestones about which I could write, more than 1,700 in Sweden alone, there are at least three aspects of this stone that are of particular interest.  First is the fact that it is carved into a rock outcrop rather than on a standing stone.  For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the Ramsund carving, instead of stone.  Looking at the image to the left, all that is visible on the rock are the glacial striations (scratch lines in the rock) from the Fennoscandia ice sheet that covered the region during the last ice age.

Upon closer look, we see reason number two why this Runestone is so interesting - the runic carving itself.  A woman named Sigurd Ormsdottir (daughter of Orm), had the "bridge" made for her husband Holmgeirr's soul.  It is likely that the bridge relates to Christian influence and the idea of a bridge to heaven or to the next life.  Vikings believed in a next life as evidenced by many Viking ship burials that include all of the things that the person buried would need in his or her next life.  Therefore, they may have found the idea of being able to build a bridge to it quite satisfying.

However, the third reason for writing about this Runestone may be the most intriguing - the imagery that accompanies the inscription.  It shows scenes from the story of Sigurd the dragon slayer.  I won't tell you the details of the story, rather I will point out what each image depicts, and you can consider it enticement for reading the Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer.  The translation this link takes you to was done by my former Old Norse professor at UCLA, Jesse Byock.

Although the scenes from Sigrud's story do not appear in order on the carving, I will go through them from left to right.  The first image shows Reginn, Sigurd's foster father, decapitated among his smithing tools. Above that image and looking a bit like a dog, is Otr, Reginn's brother; he is a shape shifter.  In the third scene, Sigurd is roasting the dragon's heart over a spit.  The horse in the next image belongs to Reginn and it is carrying treasure.  In the tree in the next scene, two birds warn Sigurd that Reginn will betray their reconciliation.  Finally, there is an image, under the runic inscription, actually stabbing it from below.  That is Sigurd killing Fafnir, Reginn and Otr's brother.

The Ramsund stone (or carving) is one of the coolest Runestones I've come across so far.  Which one is your favorite?  If there is one you'd like me to write about, let me know.