The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs (Paperback)

Excerpt: ...have I lived, but sons from my loins have sprung, Whose deeds with the rhyme are mingled, and their names with the people's tongue." Then he took his hand in his hand, and into the hall they passed, And great shouts of salutation to the cloudy roof were cast; And they rang from the glassy pillars, and the Gods on the hangings stirred, And afar the clustering eagles on the golden roof-ridge heard, And cried out on the Sword of the Branstock as they cried in the other days: Then the harps rang out in the hall, and men sang in Sigurd's praise; And a flood of great remembrance, and the tales of the years gone by Swept over the soul of Sigurd, and his fathers seemed anigh; And he looked to the cloudy hall-roof, and anigh seemed Odin the Goth, And the Valkyrs holding the garland, and the crown of love and of troth; And his soul swells up exalted, and he deems that high above, In the glorious house of the heavens, are the outstretched hands of his love; And she stoops to the cloudy feast-hall, and the wavering wind is her voice, And her odorous breath floats round him, as she bids her King rejoice. But now on the da