Chapter CXCIII: Section II: Sigurd

_Sig_, or _siga_, means, in all Teutonic tongues, conquest; and the Victor seems to have been a very old epithet for the Divinity. St. Augustin speaks of a Gothic exclamation _Sihora armen_, which he translates as Κύριε ἐλεήσον, and the first word of which evidently answers to Ceadmon’s epithets for the Almighty, _Sigorafrea_, _Sigorugod_, _Sigoracyning_.

Odin was called Sigfadir, or conquering father, and this accounts for the later notion that the adventurer was called Sigge, and assumed the divine appellation of Odin.

Thence the victorious god, conquering the serpent, yet afterwards dying, whether he were originally meant for Odin himself, or for another form of Baldur, sank into a human serpent-slayer, bearing the name of victory—Sigward, perhaps originally, but varied into Sigufrit, Siegfried, and Sigurd.

The main points in Siegfried’s story are that he was the son of Siegmund the Volsung, and of Queen Sigelind; born, according to the _Book of Heroes_, under the same circumstances as Perdita, in the _Winter’s Tale_; put, by way of cradle, into a drinking-glass, and accidentally thrown into the river, where he was picked up by the smith Mimir, and educated by him. In the _Book of Heroes_ he is so strong that he caught the lions in the woods and hung them over his castle wall by their tails. Reginn incited him to fight with and slay the dragon, Fafner, and obtain the treasure, including the tarn-cap of invisibility. Also, on roasting and eating the heart of Fafner, he became able to understand the language of the birds. And by a bath in the blood he was made invulnerable, except where a leaf had unfortunately adhered to his skin, between his shoulders, and given him, like Achilles and Diarmaid, a mortal spot. His first discovery from the song of a bird was that Reginn meant to murder him at once; he therefore forestalled his intentions, and took possession of the fatal gift, thus incurring the curse. The _Book of Heroes_ calls him Siegfried the horny, and introduces him at the court of the German favourite, Theodoric, and the _Nibelungenlied_ separates the dragon from the treasure, and omits most of the marvellous in the obtaining it.

His next exploit was the rescue and awakening of Brynhild; but he fell into a magic state of oblivion as to all that had passed with her, when he presented himself at the court of Wurms, and became the husband of Gudrun, or Chriemhild, as a recompense for having, by means of his tarn-cap, enabled Gunnar to overcome the resistance of Brynhilda herself, and obliged her to become his submissive bride. Revelations made by the two ladies, when in a passion, led to vengeance being treacherously wreaked upon Siegfried, who was pierced in his vulnerable spot while he was lying down on his face to drink from a fountain during a hunting party in the forest. The remainder of the history is the vengeance taken for his death; and the North further holds that his child, Aslaug, was left the sole survivor of the race, and finally married Ragner Lodbrog, whence her descendants always trace their pedigree from Sigurdr Fafner’s bane.

His namesakes are well-nigh innumerable. There are nineteen in the _Landnama-bok_; and Sigurdr swarms in the earlier Scandinavian royal lines, being, perhaps, most remarkable in the person of King Sigurd the Crusader of Norway.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ German. │ Bavarian. │
│Sigefrid │Sigefroi │Sigefrid │Sigl │
│Siward │Siffroi │Siegfried │ ————————— │
│Seaward │ ————————— │Sigfrid │ Norwegian. │
│Seaforth │ Italian. │Seifrid │Sigvard │
│Seyferth │Sigefredo │Sikko │Sigurdhr │
│ │Siffredo │Sicco │Siurd │
│ │ │Sigo │Sjul │
│ │ │ ————————— │Syvert │
│ │ │ Polish. │Syver │
│ │ │Sygfryd │Siewers │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

At the instance of the king of Sweden, our Edred had sent a missionary named Sigefried, who is esteemed the apostle of Sweden, and gave a Christian sanction to the serpent-slayer’s name, whence it has continued extremely common there. The stout old Danish Earl Siward, the conqueror of Macbeth, the same who had the bear’s ears and would only die upon his feet, is an English version of the northern Sigurdr, and bore the name that is now Seaward. Indeed Sæward is found among the kings of Essex in 616, and, in fact, that line have so many prefixes of _Sige_, that it is likely that they thought themselves connected with Fafner’s bane. There is a Sigefugel, or Sigewolf, in their descent from Odin, who may be another form of Sigurd. Germany has made the feminine Sigfrida.

Some have considered the story to be chiefly Burgundian; and Sigmund, conquering protection, the name of Sigurdr’s father, was that of the first Catholic king of Burgundy, who was canonized both for the recovery of his kingdom from Arianism, and for the severity of his penance, after having killed his son, Sigeric, on a false stepdame’s calumny. His relics were carried to Prague in the fourteenth century, and the effect of the translation appeared at once in the name of the Bohemian-born Emperor Sigismund, from whom this became European, and formed the feminine Sigismunda. Gismonda is thus an old Lombardic feminine.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │ German. │
│Sigismund │Sigismond │Sigismondo │Sigmund │
│Sæmund │ ————————— │Sismondo │Sigismund │
│ │Portuguese. │ │ │
│ │Sigismundo │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Norwegian. │ Polish. │ Illyrian. │ Hungarian. │
│Sigmund │Zygmunt │Sisman │Zsigmond │
│Sæmund │ ———————— │ │Zsiga │
│ │ Bohemian. │ │ │
│ │Zikmund │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Some have imagined that the curious correspondence of names, when Sigebert, the Frank, married Brynhild, the Goth, is a sign that the _Nibelung_ referred to the Austrasian court; but the Frank Sigebert would have been a very poor serpent-slayer, and, no doubt, only bore the name as a remembrance of him, as did our East Saxon monarch Sæbert, and the Spanish bishop Siseberto. It has lasted on in Germany and Friesland, to be called Sizo, Sitto, Sibert, and Sidde, and is the English surname Sebright. Sigelind, conquering snake, now and then used by German ladies, has the Eastern-looking abbreviation Zelinde.

Sigridur, or conquering impulse, was a favourite among northern ladies. Sigrid the haughty of Sweden, was wooed by King Olaf Trygvesson, and had accepted him; but on her refusal to be baptized, he struck her on the face with his glove, and said, ‘Why should I have thee, an old faded jade, and a heathen to boot.’ She remembered his discourtesy against him, and stirred up the war, which ended in his fatal battle with Earl Sigvalddr. Sigrid is Sired in Domesday; in the North, she is shortened into Sîri, and then Latinized as Serena.

Sigvalldur, conquering power, curiously ran into Sjovald, from whence we take our surname Shovel, one of the many by which our naval commanders are traceable to the vikings.

Sigeheri, Sigehere, Sighar, conquering warrior, is what on Norman lips was Sagar, and then Saher, the hereditary name of the De Quincys, and as a surname spelt Sayers.[130]

The other forms are,

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ North. │
│ Sigbiorg } │
│ Siborg } Conquering protection Ger. Sigburg │
│ Siber } │
│ │
│ German. English. Frisian. Italian. │
│ Sigebald │ Sibbald │ Sibold │ Sibaldo } Conquering │
│ │ │ Sibel │ } prince │
│ │
│ North. Sigbiorn; Eng. Siborne—Conquering bear │
│ │
│ German. Frisian. Spanish. │
│ Sigbod │ Sibot │ Sisebuto } │
│ │ Sibo │ } Messenger of victory │
│ │ Sibbe │ } │
│ │
│ Nor. German. Frisian. │
│ Sigbrand │ Sigbrand │ Sibrant } │
│ │ │ Sibbern } Conquering sword │
│ │
│ Nor. Sigfus—Conquering impetuosity │
│ │
│ German. English. Frisian. French. │
│ Sighard │ Sigehard │ Siard │ Sicard } Conquering │
│ Siegert │ │ Siade │ } firmness │
│ │
│ Ger. Sighelm—Conquering helmet │
│ Nor. Sighvatr—Conquering swiftness │
│ Nor. Sigmar; Ger. Sigmar—Conquering greatness │
│ Nor. Signy—Conquering freshness │
│ Ger. Sigrad—Conquering advice │
│ Ger. Sigrich—Conquering ruler │
│ Sigtrud—Conquering maid │
│ Nor. Sigtrygge—Conquering security │
│ Nor. Sigulf, Siulf; Eng. Sigewolf—Conquering wolf │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Footnote 130:

_Nibelung_; Weber and Jamieson; Kemble, _Beowulf_; Michaelis; Pott;
Butler; _Heimskringla_.