 in norse mythology, vÃ¶lsung () was the son of rerir and the eponymous ancestor of the ill-fortuned vÃ¶lsung clan (), which includes the well known norse hero sigurÃ°. he was murdered by the geatish king siggeir and later avenged by one of his sons, sigmund, and his daughter signy, who was married to siggeir. vÃ¶lsung's story is recorded in the vÃ¶lsung cycle, a series of legends about the clan. the earliest extant versions of the cycle were recorded in medieval iceland; the tales of the cycle were expanded with local scandinavian folklore, including that of helgi hundingsbane (which appears to originally have been part of the separate tradition of the ylfings), and form the material of the epic poems in the elder edda and of , which preserves material from lost poems. vÃ¶lsung is also the subject matter of the middle high german epic poem  and is mentioned as  in the old english epic beowulf. ==synopsis== vÃ¶lsung was the great-grandson of odin himself, and it was odin's consort frigg who made sure that vÃ¶lsung would be born. vÃ¶lsung's parents, who were the king and queen of hunaland, could not have any children until the goddess sent them an apple of fertility carried by the giantess hljod. vÃ¶lsung's father, rerir died shortly after this, but his wife was pregnant for six years, until she had had enough. she commanded that the child be delivered by caesarean section, an operation that in those days cost the life of the mother. vÃ¶lsung was a strong child and he kissed his mother before she died. he was immediately proclaimed king of hunaland and when he had grown up he married the same giantess hljod. together they had ten sons and one daughter, including the twins signy, their daughter, and sigmund, the most courageous and beautiful of their sons. vÃ¶lsung built himself a great hall in the centre of which stood a large oak tree called the barnstokkr. siggeir, the king of the geats, soon arrived and proposed to signy. both vÃ¶lsung and his sons approved, but signy was less enthusiastic. a great wedding was held in the hall, when suddenly a stranger appeared. he was a tall old man with only one eye and could not be anyone but odin. he went to the oak tree, took his sword and stuck it deep into the trunk. odin told everyone that the sword was meant for the man who could pull the sword from the oak tree. then he vanished. everyone at the wedding tried to pull the sword but only sigmund succeeded, and he did so effortlessly. siggeir, his brother-in-law, offered thrice its weight in gold for the sword, but sigmund scornfully said no. this greatly angered siggeir, and he swore that one day the sword would be his and he would
Ancient_Germanic_families Heroes_in_Norse_myths_and_legends Medieval_legends Norse_clans Norse_mythology Norwegian_legends VAPlsung_cycle