The Saga of the Volsungs is rooted in dark myths and thoughts. It is more fun than the _Niebulunglied_ which is a courtly epic with all its conventions where as, the Volsung Saga is the heart of the matter -- Filled with violence, blood and terror.For fans of the Icelandic epics the Volsung may prove disappointing because it does not have the wealth of detail nor dialogue that Njals or Egils Sagas contain. What the Volsung does have is a primal force of events that seem at times puzzling to the more modern reader who is used to internal dialogue and much exposition.
Take into account that the Volsung is a compiled mythic saga as opposed to societal saga of Iceland then you start getting a feel for things. The Volsung is inhabited by the Norse gods, magic is common and so is a level of violence that one does not usually see in literature today e.g., a mother who for the sake of vengeance kills her two children -- more coldly than Medea.
The Volsung is short and an easy read. You, the reader, need to provide the more developed framework of the society for which the Volsung sings to -- there are no extended descriptions or long, lyriical passages. Because of this the introduction is handy to have and so is a working knowledge of Norse myth and symbolic signifiers from that mythology.
One of the faults of this volume is that index of characters is not as clear as could be -- confusing when characters can share very similiar names. Also, clearer explanantion about the discontinuities in the narrative might have been more helpful for the beginning reader to work out the complexities.
Overall, not as fun as some of the Icelandic sagas with their more coherent narrative and dialogue structure but the Volsung has a visceral charm that reminds one of dark woods and dark gods. A must have for the mythology and saga junkie. If you are a Wagner fan the deep moments of the Ring Cycle will find you in familiar territory.
If you are looking for a plot synopsis, you wont find it in this review. Im going to sing the praises of the translation instead and suggest why it might be worth your while to read this short but powerful work. First off, Jesse Byock has done amazing work with his translation as well as introduction and notes. Altogether it sounds like a lot of hyperbole but he has truly made this saga accessible. So yes, if you want to know where Tolkien and Wagner got some of their inspiration, reading this saga will be a painless way to find out. At the same time, it isnt necessary to have any earlier knowledge of Old Norse society; Byock lays it all out in his introduction, and copious endnotes will help you catch parallels and allusions in the text itself.
For those who are interested in the Icelandic sagas, but who are wary of starting with the epic family sagas (Njala, Egil, and Laxdaela for example), Volsunga is a good place to start. While names may be elusive - and there is, as always, a profusion of characters, many of them minor - Volsunga is much shorter than any of the family sagas. This translation is also lively and active, and not as dry as some of the other saga translations put out by Penguin. Im not going to say that Norse writing style wasnt terse and rarely descriptive - because thats just a fact of their prose - but Byock has rendered it in such a way that its hardly problematic.
This is the saga that decided my college major for me - medieval history. Its that powerful!!! :-)
Visceral...
Excellent