The name Sigar can refer to four people in

Scandinavian mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

, surrounding the legends of

Sigurd Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...

the dragon slayer. One of them only appears as the friend of Helgi Hjörvarðsson in the eddic lay ''

Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar "Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar" ("Lay of Helgi Hjörvarðsson") is a poem collected in the ''Poetic Edda'', found in the Codex Regius manuscript where it follows '' Helgakviða Hundingsbana I'' and precedes '' Helgakviða Hundingsbana II''. The por ...

''. The other two appear as the villainous members of the same

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

in several sources.

Icelandic sources

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

writes in the ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'Poetic Diction' or 'The Language of Poetry'; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda'', compiled by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bra ...

'' that two Sigars belong to the same

, the Siklings, and that they are the relatives of

Siggeir Siggeir is the king of Gautland (i.e. Götaland/Geatland, but in some translations also rendered as ''Gothland''), in the ''Völsunga saga''. In ''Skáldskaparmál'' he is given as a Sikling and a relative of Sigar who killed the hero Hagbard. '' ...

, the villainous Geatish king in the ''

Völsunga saga The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century prose rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story ...

''. In '' Hversu Noregr byggðist'', it is given in more detail that Sigar the elder had two sons, Sigmund and Siggeir who killed

Völsung Völsung ( , ) is a figure in Germanic mythology, where he is the eponymous ancestor of the Völsung family (, ), which includes the hero Sigurð. In Nordic mythology, he is the son of Rerir and was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir. He was ...

. Sigmund had the son Sigar the younger, who killed Hagbard. It is told in the ''

'' that Sigar the younger was in a feud with Hagbard and Haki and his sons. He had kidnapped one of Haki's daughters and murdered a second: Sigar the younger is also mentioned in '' Háleygjatal'' (as quoted in ''

Ynglinga saga ''Ynglinga saga'' ( ) is a Kings' sagas, Kings' saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelanders, Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his ''Heimskringla''. It was first translated into Engl ...

''), where a gallows is referred to as "Sigar's steed" (''Sigars jó''):

''Gesta Danorum''

In ''

Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essentia ...

'' (book 7), Saxo tells that Sigar had a daughter named

Signy Signy or Signe (, sometimes known as ) is the name of two heroines in two connected legends from Norse mythology which were very popular in medieval Scandinavia. Both appear in the Völsunga saga, which was adapted into other works such as Wagne ...

. Sigar was in a feud with Haki's brother Hagbard, but was informed by Signy's handmaid, that Hagbard had a secret love affair with Signy. Sigar decided to hang Hagbard, who, however, managed to inform Signy of this. Signy set her house on fire and succumbed in the flames while Hagbard executed himself in the gallows. Sigar tried in vain to save both Hagbard and Signy but failed. His only consolation was to bury the treacherous maid alive. ''Gesta Danorum'' disagrees with the other sources by presenting Sigar as the son of Sywaldus, who was the son of Yngwin, a Geatish king who became the king of Denmark.

References

{{s-end Legendary Norsemen