The Saga of the Volsungs

Anonymous · c. 1270 CE · Myth / Legend · Norse / Germanic · Medieval

Five generations descended from Odin carry the curse on a hoard of otter-gold: a sword driven into a hall's roof-tree that only one man can draw, a brother who takes dragon shape to guard the treasure, and the boy Sigurd, set to kill him. What Sigurd wins, and the valkyrie he wakes inside a ring of fire, follow him into a Burgundian court. An Icelandic prose telling of the legend the Nibelungenlied gives in German verse.

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Lineage

• shares sources with ↑ The Poetic Edda
  Anonymous · c. 1270 CE · Poem
• shares sources with ↑ The Nibelungenlied
  Anonymous · c. 1200 CE · Poem
• ↓ The Lord of the Rings
  J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954 CE · Novel — influenced by this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• The Nibelungenlied
  Anonymous · c. 1200 CE · Poem

  64% · 19 shared
  EpicTragedyJustice & RevengeWealth & GreedBetrayalMedievalHeroAvengerRevenge CycleTragic ReversalGold / TreasureBloodThe Beastvs Personvs Fate / GodsMythicEpicTragicNorse / Germanic
• The Poetic Edda
  Anonymous · c. 1270 CE · Poem

  50% · 16 shared
  EpicTragedyWealth & GreedFreedom vs FateMedievalHeroAvengerRevenge CycleGold / TreasureThe Swordvs Personvs Fate / Godsvs SupernaturalMythicEpicNorse / Germanic
• Njal's Saga
  Anonymous · c. 1280 CE · Novel

  50% · 14 shared
  TragedyJustice & RevengeBetrayalDuty & HonorMedievalHeroAvengerRevenge CycleTragic ReversalThe SwordBloodvs PersonTragicNorse / Germanic
• Laxdaela Saga
  Anonymous · c. 1250 CE · Novel

  50% · 14 shared
  TragedyJustice & RevengeWealth & GreedBetrayalMedievalAvengerGenerational SagaRevenge CycleTragic ReversalGold / TreasureThe Swordvs PersonTragicNorse / Germanic
• The Saga of Gisli
  Anonymous · c. 1250 CE · Novel

  47% · 13 shared
  TragedyJustice & RevengeBetrayalDuty & HonorMedievalAvengerRevenge CycleTragic ReversalThe SwordBloodvs PersonTragicNorse / Germanic
• The Faerie Queene
  Edmund Spenser · 1590 CE · Poem

  44% · 13 shared
  EpicFantasyDuty & HonorHeroSorceressShapeshifterOvercoming the MonsterThe SwordThe Beastvs Personvs SupernaturalMythicEpic