y by anything in the prose except that the Sagaman has supplied
from it a link or two wanting in the "Lay of Sigrdrifa"; it will be
found translated in our second part.

The betrayal and slaughter of the Giukings or Niblungs, and the fearful
end of Atli and his sons, and court, are recounted in two lays, called
the "Lays of Atli"; the longest of these, the "Greenland Lay of Atli",
is followed closely by the Sagaman; the Shorter one we have translated.

The end of Gudrun, of her daughter by Sigurd and of her sons by her last
husband Jonakr, treated of in the last four chapters of the Saga, are
very grandly and poetically given in the songs called the "Whetting of
Gudrun", and the "Lay of Hamdir", which are also among our translations.

These are all the songs of the Edda which the Sagaman has dealt with;
but one other, the "Lament of Oddrun", we have translated on account of
its intrinsic merit.

As to the literary quality of this work we in say much, but we think we
may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever
entanglement of strange manners or unused element may at first trouble
him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we
cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding,
amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such a startling realism,
such subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move
himself to-day.

In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this
Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before
been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the
North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the
Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the
world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been--a
story too--then should it be to those that come after us no less than
the Tale of Troy has been to us.

WILLIAM MORRIS and EIRIKR MAGNUSSON.

ENDNOTES:
(1) Chapter viii.--DBK.

THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS AND NIBLUNGS.

CHAPTER I. Of Sigi, the Son of Odin.

Here begins the tale, and tells of a man who was named Sigi, and called
of men the son of Odin; another man withal is told of in the tale, hight
Skadi, a great man and mighty of his hands; yet was Sigi the mightier
and the higher of kin, according to the speech of men of that time.
Now Skadi had a thrall with whom the story must deal somewhat,