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 adventures of
the famous legendary hero, Dietrich of Berne, the historical
Theodorich of Ravenna. In as far as it contains the adventures
of the Nibelungs, it is also called the "Niflungasaga". The
"Thidreksaga" was written about 1250 by a Norwegian who, as he
himself tells us, heard the story from Germans in the
neighborhood of Bremen and Munster. Since it is thus based on
Saxon traditions, it can be considered an independent source of
the legend, and, in fact, differs from the earlier Norse versions
in many important details. The author was acquainted, however,
with the older versions, and sought to compromise between them,