manuscript. Most of them, however, belong to the Viking period,
when Christianity was already beginning to influence the
Norwegians, that is, between the years 800 and 1000. They are
partly heroic, partly mythological in character, and are written
in alliterative strophes interspersed with prose, and have the
form of dialogues. Though the legends on which these songs are
based were brought from Norway, most of them were 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