be the lighter of her child, and six winters wore away with the
sickness still heavy on her; so that at the last she feels that she may
not live long; wherefore now she bade cut the child from out of her; and
it was done even as she bade; a man-child was it, and great of growth
from his birth, as might well be; and they say that the youngling kissed
his mother or ever she died; but to him is a name given, and he is
called Volsung; and he was king over Hunland in the room of his father.
From his early years he was big and strong, and full of daring in all
manly deeds and trials, and he became the greatest of warriors, and of
good hap in all the battles of his warfaring.

Now when he was fully come to man's estate, Hrimnir the giant sends to
him Ljod his daughter; she of whom the tale told, that she brought the
apple to Rerir, Volsung's father. So Volsung weds her withal; and long
they abode together with good hap and great love. They had ten sons and
one daughter, and their eldest son was hight Sigmund, and their daughter
Signy; and these two were twins, and in all wise the foremost and the
fairest of the children of Volsung the king, and mighty, as all his seed
was; even as has been long told from ancient days, and in tales of long
ago, with the greatest fame of all men, how that the Volsungs have been
great men and high-minded and far above the most of men both in cunning
and in prowess and all things high and mighty.

So says the story that king Volsung let build a noble hall in such a
wise, that a big oak-tree stood therein, and that the limbs of the tree
blossomed fair out over the roof of the hall, while below stood the
trunk within it, and the said trunk did men call Branstock.

ENDNOTES:
(1) May (A.S. "maeg"), a maid.

CHAPTER III. Of the Sword that Sigmund, Volsung's son, drew from the
Branstock.

There was a king called Siggeir, who ruled over Gothland, a mighty king
and of many folk; he went to meet Volsung, the king, and prayed him for
Signy his daughter to wife; and the king took his talk well, and his
sons withal, but she was loth thereto, yet she bade her father rule in
this as in all other things that concerned her; so the king took such
rede (1) that he gave her to him, and she was betrothed to King Siggeir;
and for the fulfilling of the feast and the wedding, was King Siggeir
to come to the house of King Volsung. The king got ready the feast
according to his best might, and when all thi