Editing Sigmund (section)

==''Völsunga saga''==
[[Image:Sigmunds Schwert (1889) by Johannes Gehrts.jpg|thumb|right|"Sigmund's Sword" (1889) by Johannes Gehrts.]]
In the ''Völsunga saga'', Signý marries [[Siggeir]], the king of [[Gautland]] (modern [[Västergötland]]). Völsung and Sigmund are attending the wedding feast (which lasted for some time before and after the marriage), when [[Odin]], disguised as a beggar, plunges a sword ([[Gram (mythology)|Gram]]) into the living tree [[Barnstokk]] ("offspring-trunk"<ref name=ORCHARD14>Orchard (1997:14).</ref>) around which Völsung's hall is built. The disguised Odin announces that the man who can remove the sword will have it as a gift. Only Sigmund is able to free the sword from the tree.

[[Siggeir]] is smitten with envy and desire for the sword. He tries to buy it but Sigmund refuses. Siggeir invites Sigmund, his father Völsung and Sigmund's [[Numbers in Norse mythology|nine]] brothers to visit him in Gautland to see the newlyweds three months later. When the Völsung clan arrive, they are attacked by the Gauts; King Völsung is killed and his sons captured. Signý beseeches her husband to spare her brothers and to put them in [[stocks]] instead of killing them. As Siggeir thinks that the brothers deserve to be tortured before they are killed, he agrees.

He then lets his [[shapeshifting]] mother turn into a wolf and devour one of the brothers each night. During that time, Signý tries various ruses but fails every time until only Sigmund remains. On the ninth night, she has a servant smear [[honey]] on Sigmund's face and when the she-wolf arrives, she starts licking the honey off and sticks her tongue into Sigmund's mouth, whereupon Sigmund bites her tongue off, killing her. Sigmund then escapes his bonds and hides in the forest.

Signý brings Sigmund everything he needs. Bent on revenge for their father's death, she also sends her sons to him in the wilderness, one by one, to be tested. As each fails, she urges Sigmund to kill them, until one day when he refuses to continue killing innocent children. Finally, in despair, she comes to him in the guise of a [[völva]] and conceives a child by him, [[Sinfjötli]] (named ''Fitela'' in ''[[Beowulf]]''). Sinfjötli, born of their [[incest]], passes the test.

Sigmund and his son/nephew, Sinfjötli, grow wealthy as [[outlaw]]s. In their wanderings, they come upon men sleeping in cursed wolf skins. Upon killing the men and putting on the wolf skins, they are cursed with a type of [[lycanthropy]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adkins |first1=Christopher David|date=2023 |title=Carnivore Incarnate: Wicked Wolves and Noble Bears in Norse Tales of Shapeshifting|journal=Preternature |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.5325/preternature.12.1.0001|issn=2161-2196}}</ref> Eventually, they avenge the death of Völsung.

After Signý dies, Sigmund and Sinfjötli go harrying together. Sigmund marries a woman named [[Borghild]] and has two sons, one of them named [[Helgi Hundingsbane|Helgi]]. Sinfjötli slays Borghild's brother while vying for a woman they both want. Borghild avenges her brother by poisoning Sinfjötli.

Later, Sigmund marries a woman named [[Hjördís]]. After a short time of peace, Sigmund's lands are attacked by King Lyngi. In battle, Sigmund matches up against an old man who is [[Odin]] in disguise. Odin shatters Sigmund's sword, and Sigmund falls at the hands of others. Dying, he tells Hjördís that she is pregnant and that her son will one day make a great weapon out of the fragments of his sword. That son was to be [[Sigurd]], who avenged his father by carving a [[blood eagle]] on Lyngvi's back. Sigurd himself had a son named Sigmund, who was killed when he was three-years-old by a vengeful [[Brynhild]].