The Völsunga Saga on Signy

The Story Of The Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) > CHAPTER III. Of the Sword that Sigmund, Volsung's son, drew from the

• attestation: Signy was unwilling to marry Siggeir but deferred to her father's judgment

  "she was loth thereto, yet she bade her father rule in this as in all other things that concerned her"

The Story Of The Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) > CHAPTER IV. How King Siggeir wedded Signy, and bade King Volsung and his

• attestation: Signy warned her father that she foresaw great evil from the marriage and wished it undone

  "I have no will to go away with Seggeir; neither does my heart smile upon him, and I wot; by my fore-knowledge, and from the fetch (1) of our kin, that from this counsel will great evil fall on us if this wedding be not speedily undone."

• attestation: Signy possessed prophetic foresight connected to her family's fetch or familiar spirit

  "by my fore-knowledge, and from the fetch (1) of our kin"

The Story Of The Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) > CHAPTER IV. How King Siggeir wedded Signy, and bade King Volsung and his > Endnotes:

• attestation: A fetch is a wraith or familiar spirit in Norse belief

  "Fetch; wraith, or familiar spirit."

The Story Of The Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) > CHAPTER V. Of the Slaying of King Volsung.

• attestation: Signy warned her father and brothers that Siggeir planned treachery and urged them to return home

  "Signy and called her father and brothers to a privy talk, and told them what she deemed King Siggeir was minded to do, and how that he had drawn together an army no man may meet."

• attestation: Signy begged Siggeir to delay her brothers' execution by putting them in stocks rather than killing them immediately

  "let them be set awhile in the stocks, for home to me comes the saw that says, "Sweet to eye while seen""

• attestation: Signy saved Sigmund by sending a servant to smear honey on his face so the wolf would lick him instead of biting

  "Signy sent that trusty man to Sigmund, her brother, and gave honey into his hand, bidding him do it over Sigmund's face"

The Story Of The Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) > CHAPTER VI. Of how Signy sent the Children of her and Siggeir to

• attestation: Signy ordered Sigmund to kill both her sons by Siggeir when they proved cowardly

  "Take him and kill him then; for why should such an one live longer?"

The Story Of The Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) > CHAPTER VII. Of the Birth of Sinfjotli the Son of Sigmund.

• attestation: Signy exchanged shapes with a witch-wife so she could secretly conceive a child by her own brother Sigmund

  "Fain am I," says she, "that we should change semblances together.""

• attestation: Signy spent three nights with Sigmund in the earth-house while disguised, and he did not recognize her

  "she fared to the earth-house of her brother, and prayed him give her harbouring for the night"

• attestation: Signy tested Sinfjotli's hardiness by sewing gloves through his flesh; unlike her other sons, he did not flinch

  "she had sewed gloves on to their hands through flesh and skin, and they had borne it ill and cried out thereat; and this she now did to Sinfjotli, and he changed countenance in nowise thereat."

The Story Of The Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) > CHAPTER VIII. The Death of King Siggeir and of Signy.

• attestation: Signy's young children discovered the hiding Volsungs and reported them to Siggeir

  "the little one to search for the same, and beholds withal where two men are sitting, big and grimly to look on"

• attestation: Signy urged Sigmund and Sinfjotli to kill her children to prevent their betrayal, but Sigmund refused

  "Lo ye! These younglings have bewrayed you; come now therefore and slay them!"

Sigmund says, "Never will I slay thy children for telling of where I lay hid.""

• attestation: Signy smuggled Sigmund's sword to Sinfjotli by hiding it in straw-wrapped meat thrown into the barrow

  "thither came Signy, bearing straw with her, and cast it down to Sinfjotli, and bade the thralls hide this thing from the king"

• relationship: Signy revealed that Sinfjotli was the incestuous son of both Sigmund and herself, conceived to create a pure-blooded Volsung avenger

  "Sinfjotli is the son of thee and of me both! and therefore has he this so great hardihood and fierceness, in that he is the son both of Volsung's son and Volsung's daughter"

• attestation: Signy had her children by Siggeir killed because she deemed them unworthy for avenging Volsung

  "I let slay both my children, whom I deemed worthless for the revenging of our father"

• attestation: Signy chose to die in the fire with Siggeir, saying she would die merrily though she had married him unwillingly

  "merrily now will I die with King Siggeir, though I was naught merry to wed him."