Works by Other Poets

On this page, I'll be hosting epic poetry and dramatic poetry by other poets. I'm updating weekly with new parts of of the poems.

Now adding:

William Morris — Sigurd the Volsung

A long poem, in hexameter and heroic couplets, retelling the famous Norse myth of Sigurð, or Siegfried. The Scandinavian version of the story is called the Volsunga Saga, while the German version is the Nibelungenlied — the same story that inspired Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung, and, less exactly, Tolkien. Morris uses elements of both the Scandinavian and German branches to construct his version.

Morris called his version Sigurd the Volsung. But I say he might well have called it Signy, Brynhild, and Gudrun, for the strong female characters drive this story.