To Don the Wolf’s Skin in the “The Saga of the Volsungs”

When I was just a young boy, I dreamt about wolves almost every night. One dream, in particular, reminded me of the scene in “The Saga of the Volsungs” where King Volsung’s sons were killed one by one by a she-wolf. In my dream, I found myself held captive in a hole in the ground and a wolf kept guard so that I could not escape. This dream had different versions, some ending where the wolf devoured me while my family watched paralyzed with fear. Yet somehow, I became fascinated with wolves for a great part of my life. Somewhere, however, I was falsley taught at an early age, wolves are fowl evil creatures. One at a time, King Volsung’s sons were bitten to death, and Sigmund, the remaining son, with a mouth laced with honey, killed the she-wolf by grabbing hold of her tongue until she died. This wolf, thought to be King Siggeir’s mother in disguise, seems to play a significant part in the moral decay (possibly a motif) that exists in this saga. The heroes in these stories, mostly descendants of Volsungs, seem to be just as murderous as the outlaws they call “Vargr (wolf or monster)” (112). Signy, King Volsung’s daughter, had her own brothers sentenced to a horrible death, and asked the surviving brother to kill her own sons. This brother, Sigmund, becomes a hero in the book, a hero that “surpassed most other men,” a typical description for heroes in this saga that gain valor through bloodshed. Perhaps the she-wolf is no different than characters in this story that kill children and murder kingdoms for glory. “Sigmund asked his sister to come out and receive from him esteem and great honor,” despite the fact she had her own children killed when they were “too slow in avenging” the death of King Volsung, their grandfather. She, like the wolf, held no qualms when it came to killing the sons of a king. Why is it then, the wolf earned such a bad reputation in this blood filled story? Sinfjotli, Sigmund’s nephew, the surviving son of his sister who had her own son’s murdered, was insulted by King Granmar for his murderous ways: “more likely it is you who nourished yourself in the blood of wolves out in the forest and killed your own brothers.” “I sired nine wolves on you at Laganess, and I was the father of them all,” Sinfjotli returned. “You are the stepson of King Siggeir,” Granmar said, “and you lie in the woods with wolves… You killed your brothers and made for an evil reputation” (9). For a moment, in this murderous saga, the heroes and the monsters share the same skin. Sigmund and Sinfjotli are cursed to wear wolf skins and hunted men as “they howled like wolves” (8). Sigurd, son of Sigmund, who slayed Fafnir the Dragon and ate his heart, was likened to a wolf by a bird that spoke to him after he gained magical powers from eating the heart: “I suspect a wolf where I see a wolf’s ears” (20) the bird said. The wolf presence in the saga continued as Sigurd’s wife, Gudrun, herself dreamt of wolves: “Then you gave me a wolf’s cub. It spattered me with the blood of my brothers” (27). The roles of man and the she-wolf reversed as Sigurd is later fed “wolf’s carrion” and the wolf’s “flesh mixed with ale” (32). After Sigurd’s death, Gudrun flees to the forest: “All about her she heard the cry of wolves, and she thought it would be more agreeable to die than to live” (34). The story becomes more gruesome as Gudrun avenges the death of her brothers, as foretold in her dream, by killing “the sons she had by King Atli, her second husband. The murderous rampage continues, and the wolf bares the brunt of ancient legends. This beautiful creature becomes a specter who haunts us in our dreams, and men become heroes—though only one gains glory for his murderous ways. The other walks in the forest, falsely adorned with mankind’s sin. This seems to be a pattern for medieval literature; mankind’s fails to take responsibility and their guilt escapes on the pages of literature.  The wolf still runs in the forests of our nightmares.