In ''
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 poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the st ...
'', Rerir, the son of
Sigi, succeeds his murdered father and avenges his death. He rules in
Hunaland and becomes a powerful ruler. Rerir's son is
Völsung
In Norse mythology, Völsung ( non, Vǫlsungr ) was the son of Rerir and the eponymous ancestor of the ill-fated Völsung clan (), which includes the well known Norse hero Sigurð. He was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir and later avenged b ...
.
Rerir and his wife were unable to have children until the goddess
Frigg
Frigg (; Old Norse: ) is a goddess, one of the Æsir, in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about her, she is associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood, and dwells in the wet ...
, the wife of
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...
sent them a giantess named
Hljod
Hljod or Ljod (Old Norse: ''Hljóð'' ) is a jötunn in Norse mythology. She is the spouse of Völsung, the daughter of the jötunn Hrímnir, and the mother of Sigmund and Signy.
Name
The Old Norse name ''Hljóð'' has been translated as 'h ...
in the shape of a crow to deliver an apple of fertility to the couple.
[Byock (1990:36)] Shortly after, Rerir’s wife becomes pregnant. However Rerir dies from an illness after the conception. His wife remained pregnant for six years, until she realized that she was dying and commanded that the child be delivered by
Caesarian section
Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or ...
, an operation that in those days cost the life of the mother. When the child called Völsung was delivered, he was already well grown and he “kissed his mother before she died.”
[Byock (1990:37)]
Mount Rerir is a location in the fictional world of
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the '' Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is ...
.
Notes
References
* Byock, Jesse L. (Trans.) (1990). ''The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer''.
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...
. {{ISBN, 0-520-23285-2
Heroes in Norse myths and legends