and strained in vain; and each was greeted with shouts and
laughter, as, ashamed and beaten, he wended to his seat
again. Then, at last, Sigmund, the youngest son, stood up,
and laid his hand upon the ruddy hilt, scarce thinking to
try what all had failed to do. When, lo! the blade came out
of the tree as if therein it had all along lain loose. And
Sigmund raised it high over his head, and shook it, and the
bright flame that leaped from its edge lit up the hall like
the lightning's gleaming; and the Volsungs and their guests
rent the air with cheers and shouts of gladness. For no one
among all the men of the mid-world was more worthy of Odin's
gift than young Sigmund the brave."

But the rest of Mimer's story would be too long to tell you
now; for he and his young apprentice sat for hours by the
dying coals, and talked of Siegfried's kinfolk, --the
Volsung kings of old. And he told how Siggeir, the Goth
king, was wedded to Signy the fair, the only daughter of
Volsung, and the pride of the old king's heart; and how he
carried her with him to his home in the land of the Goths;
and how he coveted Sigmund's sword, and plotted to gain it
by guile; and how, through presence of friendship, he
invited the Volsung kings to visit him in Gothland, as the
guests of himself and Signy; and how he betrayed and slew
them, save Sigmund alone, who escaped, and for long years
lived an outlaw in the land of his treacherous foe. And then
he told how Sigmund afterwards came back to his own country
of the Volsungs; and how his people welcomed him, and he
became a mighty king, such as the world had never known
before; and how, when he had grown old, and full of years