ere probably composed in Iceland. Among these songs, now, we find
a number which deal with the adventures of Siegfried and his tragic end.

The second source of the Siegfried story is the so-called
"Volsungasaga", a prose paraphrase of the "Edda" songs. The MS. dates
from the beginning of the thirteenth century, but the account was
probably written a century earlier. The adventures of Siegfried and his
ancestors are here related in great detail and his ancestry traced back
to Wodan. Although a secondary source, as it is based on the "Edda", the
"Volsungasaga" is nevertheless of great importance, since it supplies a
portion of the "Codex Regius" which has been lost, and thus furnishes us
with the contents of the missing songs.

The third source is the prose "Edda", sometimes called the "Snorra
Edda", after the famous Icelander Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241),to whom
it was ascribed. The author was acquainted with both the poetic "Edda"
and the "Volsungasaga", and follows these accounts closely. The younger
"Edda" is not really a tale, but a book of poetics; it relates, however,
the Siegfried saga briefly. It is considered an original source, since
it evidently made use of songs that have not come down to us, especially
in the account of the origin of the treasure, which is here told more
in detail and with considerable differences. The "Nornagestsaga" or
"Nornageststhattr", the story of "Nornagest", forms the fourth source of
the Siegfried story. It is really a part of the Olaf saga, but contains
the story of Sigurd and Gunnar (the Norse forms of Siegfried and
Gunther), which an old man Nornagest relates to King Olaf Tryggvason,
who converted the Norwegians to Christianity. The story was written
about 1250 to illustrate the transition from heathendom to the Christian
faith. It is based on the "Edda" and the "Volsungasaga", and is
therefore of minor importance as a source.

These four sources represent the early introduction of the Siegfried
legend into Skandinavia. A second introduction took place about the
middle of the thirteenth century, at the time of the flourishing of
the Hanseatic League, when the story was introduced together with other
popular German epics. These poems are products of the age of chivalry,
and are characterized by the romantic and courtly features of this
movement. The one which concerns us here, as the fifth source of the
Siegfried story, is the so-called "Thidreksaga", which celebrates
the adven