Tag Archives: Norse sagas

Sigurd and the dwarf Regin forge a sword, from the portal of the stave church of Hylestad, Setesdal, Norway c. 1200.

3,469 words

Part I here, Part XI here

In our last installment, we saw how Queen Hjordis, pregnant with Sigurd, is taken in by King Alf, son of King Hjalprek of Denmark. Before his death, Sigmund had prophesied that his son “will become the greatest and most famous of our family.” Sigmund also entrusts to Hjordis the fragments of his sword, broken by Odin. “Take good care also of my sword’s fragments,” Sigmund tells her. “A good sword can be made from them, which will be called Gram, and our son will carry that sword and do many great things with it which will never be forgotten. Read more …

Published: November 18, 2019 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, class, Collin Cleary, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, North American New Right, originals, Poetic Edda, Richard Wagner, runes, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga | 1 Response

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part XI:
Concerning Queen Hjordis and King Alf

Collin Cleary

Johannes Gehrts, Sigmund’s Sword (1889)

2,334 words

Part I here, Part X here, Part XII here

After many twists and turns in the story of the Volsungs, Sigurd, the greatest of them all, is about to burst onto the scene.

In our last installment, we saw Sigmund taking a second wife, the beautiful Hjordis, daughter of King Eylimi. But another man desires her, and is enraged when her marriage to Sigmund takes place. Read more …

Published: October 25, 2019 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, North American New Right, originals, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga | 1 Response

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part X:
The Deaths of Sinfjotli & Sigmund

Collin Cleary

2,519 words

Part I here, Part IX here, Part XI here

Chapter 10. The Death of Sinfjotli

In our last two installments, we explored the fascinating digression – the “saga within the saga” – that is the story of Helgi. Read more …

Published: July 25, 2019 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Collin Cleary, death, fylgja, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, Helgi, Hunding, Norse mythology, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, Sigmund, Sinfjotli, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, werewolves, Wotan | Leave a comment

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Helgi: The Return of the Dead
An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part IX

Collin Cleary

Ernest Wallcousins, Helgi Returns to Valhalla

5,344 words

Part I here, Part VIII here, Part X here

In our last installment, we explored the career of the legendary Norse hero Helgi. Chapter Nine of the Volsung Saga is devoted to Helgi, and it constitutes a rich and entertaining digression from the main story. At one time, Helgi must have been a very important hero. The anonymous author of the Volsung Saga draws on two poems concerning Helgi compiled in the Poetic Edda: Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I (The First Poem of Helgi, Killer of Hunding; henceforth HH I), and Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II (or HH II). Read more …

Published: May 27, 2019 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Beowulf, Collin Cleary, death, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, Helgi, Hunding, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, Poetic Edda, reincarnation, Sigmund, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, werewolves, Wotan | Leave a comment

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Helgi: The Saga Within the Saga
An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part VIII

Collin Cleary

Arthur Rackham, The Valkyrie

3,502 words

Part I here, Part VII here, Part IX here

In our last installment, we saw Sigmund and Sinfjotli (the product of Sigmund’s incestuous union with his sister, Signy) return to the ancestral lands of the Volsungs. Many years have passed since the entire clan left there, and, in the meantime, a pretender has claimed the Volsung kingdom. But Sigmund and Sinfjotli drive him out, and Sigmund becomes a great and powerful king, “both wise and well-advised.”[1] He decides to marry a woman named Borghild, and they have two sons together, Helgi and Hamund.

An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part VII

Collin Cleary

2,900 words

Part I here, Part VIII here

Chapter 8. The Vengeance of the Volsungs, Continued

In the last installment of this series, we learned of the life Sigmund leads in the forest with his son Sinfjotli – the product of Sigmund’s incestuous union with his sister, Signy. Read more …

Published: February 8, 2019 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Beowulf, Collin Cleary, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, incest, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, shapeshifting, Sigmund, Signy, Sinfjotli, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, werewolves, Wotan | 5 Responses

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part VI

Collin Cleary

2,829 words

Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VII here

Chapter 8. The Vengeance of the Volsungs

In the last installment of this series, we told of the birth of the hero Sinfjotli, product of the incest of the twins Sigmund and Signy. Read more …

Published: December 10, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, shapeshifting, Sigmund, Signy, Sinfjotli, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, werewolves, Wotan | 3 Responses

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part V

Collin Cleary

Sigmund & the wolf.

2,559 words

Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part VI here

In our last installment, we saw that after Sigmund pulls the sword from the tree Barnstokk, Siggeir (who has just married Sigmund’s sister, Signy) offers to buy it from him. When Sigmund refuses, Siggeir immediately begins plotting revenge. On a pretext, he takes Signy and leaves the wedding feast early, inviting Volsung and his ten sons to visit him in Götaland. Read more …

Published: November 5, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, incest, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, Sigmund, Signy, Sinfjotli, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, Wotan | 8 Responses

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part IV

Collin Cleary

Willy Pogany, Sigmund & the Wolf (1920)

3,220 words

Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part V here

In our last installment, we saw how King Volsung marries his daughter Signy off to the loathsome King Siggeir of Götaland, a man she “was not eager to marry.” Read more …

Published: October 9, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Friedrich Nietzsche, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, Sigmund, Signy, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, Wotan | 5 Responses

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Longfellow’s Scandinavian Influences

Alex Graham

2,289 words

For a long time, the tales of Norse voyages to North America described in the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders were thought to be legends. It was not until the nineteenth century that historians and archaeologists began to investigate the subject of Pre-Columbian Norse exploration in earnest. The first to do so was the Danish historian Carl Christian Rafn, whose Antiquitates Americanæ (published in 1837) sought to ascertain the location of Vinland. Read more …

Published: September 20, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged A. Graham, articles, Norse mythology, North American New Right, originals, poetry, Vikings | 1 Response

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part III

Collin Cleary

Siegmund the Walsung, Arthur Rackham, 1910.

1,890 words

Part I here, Part II here, Part IV here

Chapter 3. The Marriage of Siggeir to Signy, Volsung’s Daughter

In our last installment, we met Volsung (“stallion phallus”), who becomes a great King and sires eleven children: the twin brother and sister Sigmund and Signy, and nine brothers (who go unnamed). Volsung builds a “magnificent hall” around an immense apple tree whose branches weave about the beams of the roof. Read more …

Published: September 14, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, Sigmund, Signy, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, Wotan | 2 Responses

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part II

Collin Cleary

Arthur Rackham, Siegfried’s Death (1924), from his illustrations for Wagner’s Ring

3,283 words

Part I here, Part III here

Chapter 2. Concerning Rerir and His Son Volsung

In the previous chapter, we saw that Sigi, the son of Odin, is the first step in the god’s master plan: the creation of a new race of super-warriors, who will come to be known as the clan of the Volsungs. In order to become a truly great warrior, Sigi must transgress man’s laws and remove himself from society – entering the wilderness where he will live as his own master and create a world of his own. Read more …

Published: August 13, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, North American New Right, Odin, originals, paganism, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, Wotan | 2 Responses

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part I

Collin Cleary

A carving depicting Sigurd sucking the dragon’s blood off his thumb, from a stave church in Setesdal, Norway.

4,517 words

Part II here

The purpose of this essay is to offer an account of the hidden meaning of the Volsung Saga (Völsunga saga). In drawing out this meaning, I will approach the saga from a Traditionalist standpoint, broadly speaking; i.e., from the standpoint of Guénon and Evola. I will touch on some details concerning the relation of the saga to other sources, but I do not aim to provide anything like the sort of account a historian or philologist might give. Read more …

Published: August 7, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, Julius Evola, North American New Right, originals, paganism, Rene Guénon, Richard Wagner, Volsung Saga, Volsunga Saga, Wotan | 8 Responses

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The Struggle for Life in the Prose Edda

Guillaume Durocher

Friedrich Wilhelm Heine, The Ash Yggdrasil, 1886

1,480 words

Snorri Sturluson
Translated by Jesse L. Byock
The Prose Edda
London: Penguin, 2005

There is always an air of mystery surrounding the most ancient religious texts. The great bulk were gradually developed through oral traditions, passed down, and then evolved from generation to generation. We typically know little or nothing about their authors, whether the Brahmins who composed the Upanishads or the Greeks’ notoriously elusive “Homer.” Read more …

Published: March 29, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Germanic tradition, Guillaume Durocher, Norse mythology, North American New Right, Odin, Odinism, originals, paganism, Vikings, Yggdrasil | 7 Responses

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Ancestral Being, Part Four

Collin Cleary

Siegfried & Mime, Arthur Rackham, 1911

2,325 words

Part 4 of 4 (Part 1 here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here)

7. Concluding Reflections

I turn now to some thoughts on how the foregoing treatment of the influence of the past on the present ought to affect our own present, when we finish this essay and return to the real world.

It is a well-known fact that our ancestors acted with awareness of membership in the clan: trying to be worthy of their own ancestors, and not to disgrace them. Read more …