I’m making progress, having read sections 1 and 2. I didn’t really enjoy section 1, "Andvara-Gull" (Andvari’s Gold); I read it through and didn’t find it as musical as the introductory section, and I really couldn’t even figure out the story. Even after I read the notes and understood the story, when I re-read the section, I didn’t find it as engaging as the "Beginning." Several of the 8-line stanzas had alliteration that was too monotonous; six of the fifteen stanzas have at least four lines alliterating on the same sound. It seems heavy handed at times. And the story is so truncated that it hardly flows.
Thankfully section 2, "Signy" was a much more pleasant read—-though the story is pretty gruesome. Volsung has 11 children: twins Sigmund and his sister Signy, and 9 other sons. Signy is given in marriage, as a peace-bride, to Siggeir, king of Gautland (the land of the Geats in Beowulf), but she doesn’t love him—and he is power-hungry. So all ends badly: the 9 brothers are killed, Signy orchestrates the deaths of her children by Siggeir, and she bears a child of her brother Sigmund. She visits him in disguise in his hidden cave; the narrator asks:
Answer, earth-dweller [Sigmund],
In thy arms who lies,
Chill, enchanted,
Changed, elfshapen? (83)
What will become of this unnatural child, Sinfjotli? We’ll have to wait and see if he appears in later sections.
This section seems to be more well-crafted; it reads much more effortlessly than section 1. So I’m looking forward to more like this. It is dramatic and easy on the ear. While “Advari’s Gold” showed the Norse and Anglo-Saxon concept of “were-geld,” gold given in recompense for a person’s death, the “person” who died was the son of a god, and the story was riddled with lacunae. In “Signy” the concept of the Peace-Bride is explored in a story that leads to tragedy and the death of the groom, his children, and, finally, the bride herself. The element of “Doom” is clearly depicted here, but I’m not sure if balance has been reestablished.
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