The Story of Sigurd the Volsung by William Morris (best electronic book reader TXT) 📖
- Author: William Morris
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Ye have hung the shields about it, and the Southland hangings spread,
There lay me adown by Sigurd and my head beside his head."
And out through the gate of the Niblungs the holy corpse they bore,
And thence forth to the mead of the people, and the high-built shielded bale;
Then afresh in the open meadows breaks forth the women's wail
When they see the bed of Sigurd and the glittering of his gear;
And fresh is the wail of the people as Brynhild draweth anear,
And the tidings go before her that for twain the bale is built,
That for twain is the oak-wood shielded and the pleasant odours spilt.
And they see the lids of the Volsung close shut against the sky,
As he lies with his shield beside him in the Hauberk all of gold,
That has not its like in the heavens, nor has earth of its fellow told;
And forth from the Helm of Aweing are the sunbeams flashing wide,
And the sheathed Wrath of Sigurd lies still by his mighty side.
Then cometh an elder of days, a man of the ancient times,
Who is long past sorrow and joy, and the steep of the bale he climbs;
And he kneeleth down by Sigurd, and bareth the Wrath to the sun
That the beams are gathered about it, and from hilt to blood-point run,
And wide o'er the plain of the Niblungs doth the Light of the Branstock glare,
Till the wondering mountain-shepherds on that star of noontide stare,
And fear for many an evil; but the ancient man stands still
With the war-flame on his shoulder, nor thinks of good or of ill,
Till the feet of Brynhild's bearers on the topmost bale are laid,
And her bed is dight by Sigurd's; then he sinks the pale white blade
And lays it 'twixt the sleepers, and leaves them there alone—
He, the last that shall ever behold them,—and his days are well nigh done.
As the best of the Niblung Earl-folk bear fire to the builded bale:
Then a wind in the west ariseth, and the white flames leap on high,
And with one voice crieth the people a great and mighty cry,
And men cast up hands to the Heavens, and pray without a word,
As they that have seen God's visage, and the voice of the Father have heard.
It shall labour and bear the burden as before that day of their birth.
How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of the Waters he drew;
How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the Bright,
And dwelt upon Earth for a season and shone in all men's sight.
Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
And the latter world's confusion, and Sigurd gone away.
THE END
GLOSSARYABBREVIATIONS:—n., noun; v., verb; cf., compare; e.g., for example; p.t., past tense; p.p. past participle.
Abasement, casting down, defeat.
Acre-biders, peaceful workers in the fields as distinguished from warriors who left their homes to go to war.
Amber, a yellow substance found on the shores of the Baltic Sea and used from very early days as an ornament. The "southern men," or traders from the shores of the Mediterranean, came north to buy it.
Ark, a box for treasures.
Atwain, in two pieces, e.g. "The sword ... had smitten his body atwain."
Avail, n. power; v. to have power, to succeed.
Bale, disaster, destruction, death; a great pile of wood for burning.
Balks, pieces of timber used to make a bridge.
Bane, destruction or a cause of destruction; often used to mean an enemy or slayer, e.g. Sigurd's sword is called "Fafnir's bane," and in the old saga Sigurd himself had the title Fafnir's-Bane.
Barter, to give in exchange for something else.
Bast, wrappings made of the soft inner bark of trees.
Bath of the swan, the sea.
Battle-acre, field of battle.
Beaker, a drinking cup.
Befall, happen.
Begrudge, to feel unwillingness in giving, to be displeased at another's success. Loki is called the World's Begrudger, because he liked to cause failure and unhappiness, and hated success in others.
Bench-cloths, coverings for seats.
Bent, a piece of high ground.
Betide, p.t. betided; p.p. betid; to happen, come to pass, e.g. "What hath betid?"
Bickering, stormy, struggling.
Bide or abide, p.t. abode; p.p. abode; to remain, dwell
Bight, a bend or curve in a coast or river bank.
Bill, an axe with a long handle.
Blazoning, painting, especially the painting of coats of arms or of records of valiant deeds.
Boar of Sôn. It was customary when making any solemn vows to lay the hand or sword on a sacred boar called the Boar of Sôn or the Boar of Atonement. The ceremony seems to have been also accompanied by drinking a draught, called in this poem the Cup of Daring Promise, in honour of one of the gods.
Boding, a misgiving, a feeling that evil is to come.
Bole, a tree-trunk.
Bows the acre's face, bends the growing grain in a harvest-field.
Brand, a sword.
Bucklers, shields.
Burg, a town, a fortress.
Byrny, a coat of armour for back and breast, made of linked iron rings.
Carles, peasants; a contemptuous word used for a man who is not a warrior.
Change his life, die and pass from the life on earth to that in Valhalla or Niflheim.
Chooser. One of the titles of Brynhild, as she was one of the Valkyries or maidens whom Odin sent into battles to single out for death the men he had chosen to be slain. Victory-Wafter is another title of Brynhild, since she brought victory to those for whom it was appointed and death to others.
Churl, a grudging, ungracious man.
Clave, p.p. of cleave, to pierce, hew, cut through.
Cloisters, a roofed passage running round a court-yard and open on the side towards the court-yard.
Close, a field.
Cloud-wreath, the cloud that often gathers about the top of a high mountain.
Compass, to contrive, accomplish.
Constrain, to force, to control and guide.
Coping, the topmost row of bricks in a wall, the top of a wall.
Craft, skill, knowledge of some particular art, a trade or occupation, e.g. song-craft.
Cull, to choose, pick out.
Cup of Daring Promise, see Boar of Sôn.
Daïs, a raised part of the floor at one end of a banquet hall, where the principal persons sat.
Dastard, a coward.
Dawn-dusk, the twilight at dawn before the sun is fully risen.
Day of the Battle, Ragnarok, when the spirits of dead warriors should join in the battle of the gods. "Day of Doom" has the same meaning.
Dearth, want, famine, scarcity.
Deft, skilful, e.g. deft in every cunning.
Dight, made ready, prepared, e.g. war-dight, prepared for war.
Dole, n. a gift dealt out as charity; v. to measure out in small portions, e.g. I doled out wisdom to thee.
Doom, n. a sentence, verdict, e.g. give righteous doom; v. to condemn, to sentence. Doom-ring, a circle of stones or hazel poles where kings heard complaints from their people and gave judgment.
Do on, put on; often shortened into "don"; cf. doff, which is shortened from do off.
Door-wards, porters, door-keepers.
Dragons, the war-ships of the northern nations, which often had their prows carved into a dragon's head.
Dwindle, to grow less.
Edges of bale, the sword edges, which bring bale or destruction.
Egg, to urge on, to persuade to some deed, e.g. "Too much thou eggest me."
Eld, old age.
Endlong, length-ways, along. Endlong and athwart, along and across.
Erewhile, some time ago, formerly.
Erne, an eagle.
Eyen, eyes; old plural of eye.
Fain, glad, willing, full of desire. Sometimes used as an adverb meaning "willingly," e.g. "They fain would go aland."
Fair-speech-masters, men skilled in poetry. There were professional singers and poets called skalds among the northern people, and the power to make verses and to sing was cultivated among the mass of the people and was fairly common.
Fallow, lying quiet, inactive, not bearing crops. The expression, "fallow bondage," means a bondage of sleep and idleness.
Fare, to travel. Sometimes when joined to adverbs it means to prosper, e.g. to fare ill, to fare well, how does he fare?
Fashion, to make, to arrange. Regin hoped to be the world's "fashioning lord," that is, the supreme king and orderer of all things.
Fell-abiding folk, men who worked at home instead of going out to battle.
Flame-blink, the flash of light from the fire round Brynhild's home.
Flaw, defect, fault, e.g. "the hauberk ... clean wrought without a flaw;" "the ring ... that hath ... no flaw for God to mend." If used of rain, it means a slight shower, e.g. "a flaw of summer rain,"
Fleck, spot, mark.
Foam-bow, the small rainbow seen in the spray from a waterfall.
Foil, n. defeat, failure; v. to defeat, to baffle.
Fold, a place for shutting up sheep. It is often used meaning any dwelling-place, e.g. Fafnir's abode is called "the lone destroyer's fold."
Folk, people. It is often joined with other words, e.g. man-folk, Goth-folk. Folk of the-war-wands forgers, are the race of dwarfs who had great skill in the making of weapons.
Fond, used in Old English to mean "foolish," or sometimes only to give emphasis, as in the expression "thy fondest need," meaning "thy greatest need."
Foot-hills, the lower hills round the base of a very high mountain.
Fore-ordained, settled by the will of the gods in early times.
Foster, to rear, to bring up a child, to care for, to shelter, e.g. "Now would I foster Sigurd;" "the house that fostered me."
Franklin, a well-to-do farmer, one who is not merely a hired servant.
Freyia, the wife of Odin and chief of the goddesses.
Gainsay, to resist, to refuse a request.
Gaping Gap, a name given to the state of things that existed before the world was made. There was supposed to have been an empty space till Odin created the world of gods and men.
Garner, to gather up, to store up; sometimes, to reap.
Garth, an enclosure, a place from which things may be garnered, e.g. "within the garth that it (the wall) girdeth."
Gear, a word used with many meanings, as, dress, arms, possessions, anything that a person has or uses, e.g. war-gear, all a man's armour and weapons; mail-gear, a man's armour.
Gird, to tie round, to be all round, e.g. "The Wrath to his side is girded;" "a wall doth he behold ... but within the garth that it girdeth no work of man is set."
Glaive, a sword.
God-home, Asgard.
Gold-bestrider, the name given to Sigurd by Giuki because he rode with the treasure of gold upon his saddle. To bestride is to stand over anything with one foot on each side.
Good-heart, kindly strength.
Goodlihead, a word of praise which is generally used to mean bodily beauty, but sometimes to mean beauty of character.
Grovel, to crouch low on the ground.
Guest-fain, hospitable, ready to welcome guests.
Guile, cunning, cleverness used for an evil purpose.
Guise, appearance, kind, dress, e.g. "such was the guise of his raiment;" "fair-clad in hunter's guise."
Halers of the hawsers, pullers of the ropes, i.e. seamen.
Hallow, to set apart for a solemn purpose, to make holy, e.g. I hallow me to Odin for a leader of his host.
Hangings, tapestry, woven stuff on which pictures or figures of gods and heroes were embroidered, used to decorate the walls of houses, e.g. "The walls were strange and wondrous with noble stories told;" "the gods on the hangings stirred."
Harness, armour.
Hauberk, a breast-plate.
Heave, to rise and fall, sometimes merely to rise, e.g. "The doom ... heaves up dim through the gloom."
High-seat, the daïs or chief seat where the master of a house and his principal guests sat.
High-tide, time of festival.
Hindfell, the word means "deer-mountain," since "fell" means any hill, and "hind" is the word we still use for a deer.
Hireling, a servant.
Hist, to give attention, to listen.
Hithermost, nearest.
Hoard, a store. Generally used of a treasure which the owner keeps selfishly, e.g. Fafnir's wisdom is called "grudged and hoarded wisdom," and his gold the "heavy hoard."
Hœnir, one of Odin's sons; a wise and blameless god who, the others believed, would return to reign over a new heaven and a new earth when Ragnarok was past.
Holt, a woodland.
Hoppled, fettered.
Horse-fed, cropped by
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