Völsung

In Norse mythology, Völsung (Old Norse: Vǫlsungr) was the son of Rerir and the eponymous ancestor of the ill-fortuned Völsung clan (Vǫlsungar), which includes the well known Norse hero Sigurð. 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.

Völsung's story is recorded in the Völsung 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 Völsunga saga, which preserves material from lost poems. Völsung is also the subject matter of the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied and is mentioned as Wæls in the Old English epic Beowulf.

Völsung was the great-grandson of Odin himself, and it was Odin's consort Frigg who made sure that Völsung would be born. Völsung'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. Völsung'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. Völsung was a strong child and he kissed his mother before she died.

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