Sword, and withal prayed that he might grow of great fame, and
like unto the kin of the Volsungs.

And so it was that he grew up high-minded, and well beloved, and
above all other men in all prowess; and the story tells that he
went to the wars when he was fifteen winters old. Helgi was lord
and ruler over the army, but Sinfjotli was gotten to be his
fellow herein; the twain bare sway thereover.


ENDNOTES:
(1) "Skin-changers" were universally believed in once, in
Iceland no less than elsewhere, as see Ari in several places
of his history, especially the episode of Dufthach and
Storwolf o' Whale. Men possessing the power of becoming
wolves at intervals, in the present case compelled so to
become, wer-wolves or "loupsgarou", find large place in
medieval story, but were equally well-known in classic
times. Belief in them still lingers in parts of Europe
where wolves are to be found. Herodotus tells of the Neuri,
who assumed once a year the shape of wolves; Pliny says that
one of the family of Antaeus, chosen by lot annually, became
a wolf, and so remained for nine years; Giraldus Cambrensis
will have it that Irishmen may become wolves; and Nennius
asserts point-blank that "the descendants of wolves are
still in Ossory;" they retransform themselves into wolves
when they bite. Apuleius, Petronius, and Lucian have
similar stories. The Emperor Sigismund convoked a council
of theologians in the fifteenth century who decided that
wer-wolves did exist.