, in the
autumn of 1896.

INTRODUCTION TO SIGURD

By The Editors

The story of Sigurd is important to English people not only for its
wondrous beauty, but also on account of its great age, and of what it
tells us about our own Viking ancestors, who first knew the story.

The tale was known all over the north of Europe, in Denmark, in
Germany, in Norway and Sweden, and in Iceland, hundreds of years
before it was written down. Sometimes different names were given to
the characters, sometimes the events of the story were slightly
altered, but in the main points it was one and the same tale.

If we look at a map of Europe showing the nations as they were rather
more than a thousand years ago, we see the names of Saxons, Goths,
Danes, and Frisians marked on the lands around the Baltic Sea. Those
who bore these names were the makers of the tale of Sigurd. The name
of the Saxons is, of course, the best known to us, and next in
importance come the people we call Danes, or Northmen, or Vikings, who
attacked the coasts of the Saxon kingdoms in England. The Saxons came
from part of the land that is now known as Germany, and the Vikings
from Denmark and from Scandinavia.

A third important tribe was that of the Goths, who dwelt first in
South Sweden, and then in Germany.

All these people resembled one another in their way of life, in their
religion, and in their ideas of what deeds were good and what were
evil. Their lands were barren--too mountainous or too cold to bring
forth fruitful crops, and their homes were not such as would tempt men
never to leave them. So, though they built their little groups of
wooden houses in the valleys of their lands, and made fields and
pastures about them, these were often left to the care of the women
and the feeble men, while the strong men made raids over the sea to
other countries, where they engaged in the fighting which they loved,
and whence they brought back plunder to their homes. North, South,
East, and West they went, till few parts of Europe had not learnt to
know and fear them.

Their ships were long and narrow, driven often by oars as well as
sails, and outside them, along the bulwarks, the crew hung their round
shields made of yellow wood from the lime-tree. The men wore byrnies
or breast-plates, and helmets, and they were armed with swords, long
spears, or heavy battle-axes. They were enemies none could afford to
despise, for they had great stature and strength