Völsunga saga

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The Völsunga saga is an Icelandic saga from the second half of the 13th century and is one of the prehistoric sagas. It is a prose paraphrase of the heroic songs contained in the song Edda , beginning with the Helgi songs and ending with the Hamðismál, supplemented with material from the Thidreks saga and the Snorra Edda . The Völsunga saga knows the contents of the so-called “songs of the gap” according to the Sigrdrífumál of the Edda of Songs, which allow these lost poems to be reconstructed.

The main characters in the Völsunga saga include Sigurd and Brynhild , Gunnarr, Gudrun and Atli.

The Völsunga Saga also contains elements of the German Nibelungenlied , but some of them are brought into different contexts: Sigurd corresponds to Siegfried the dragon slayer from the Nibelungenlied, Gunnar to Gunther, Atli dem Etzel, Gudrun der Kriemhild.

Origin and tradition

The saga is in the parchment manuscript Ny kgl. Saml. 1824 b 4to from the time around 1400, which is in the Royal Library in Copenhagen . Since the manuscript is followed by the saga of Ragnar Lodbrok , who is considered an ancestor of the Norwegian unifier Harald Hårfagre , Norway is discussed as a possible place of origin of the Völsunga saga . Håkon IV. (1204–1263) was able to commission the work. A lack of evidence for this commission and the style of the saga suggest Iceland as the place of origin.

reception

The Völsunga saga was one of the most important sources of inspiration for Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen . Thomas Mann , who satirized Wagner's adaptation in his novella Wälsungenblut , and JRR Tolkien ( The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún ) are among the poets who have taken up the subject of the saga.

expenditure

  • Paul Herrmann, Ulf Diedrichs (Ed.): Nordic Nibelungs: the sagas of the Völsungen, by Ragnar Lodbrok and Hrolf Kraki . Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Cologne 1993.
  • The saga of the Völsungen , in: Thule - Old Norse Seals and Prose , Volume 21 - Icelandic heroic novels.
  • Hagen Ernst: Volsunga-Saga and other heroes paperback , Romowe 2015, ISBN 978-1517618674 .
  • Vǫlsunga saga. The saga of the Volsungs. The Icelandic Text According to MS Nks 1824 b, 4 ° With an English Translation, Introduction and Notes by Kaaren Grimstad. 2nd ed.AQ-Verlag , Saarbrücken 2005.
  • William Morris, Eirikr Magnússon: Völsunga Saga: the story of the Volsungs & Niblungs, with certain songs from the Elder Edda . Ellis, London, 1870 ( online copy )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ilse Bauer / Klaus Böldl: Völsunga saga . In: Kindlers Literatur Lexikon (online).
  2. ^ Rudolf Simek : Middle Earth: Tolkien and Germanic mythology . CH Beck, 2016, ISBN 9783406693335 , chapter 1