Mar. 22nd, 2014

darchildre: the master reading war of the worlds (reading)
Okay, a couple people have expressed interest in hearing me read sagas, so here is the first installment!

The Saga of the Volsungs, chapters 1 through 8. This installment is approximately 30 minutes long.

It occurs to me that now would probably be a good time to describe the Volsungasaga a little. It's what called a legendary saga, which means that it takes place before the colonization of Iceland, though it was written in Iceland, some time in the 13th century. It concerns, as the title implies, the Volsung family, who are descended from Odin and are, essentially, a family of enormous badasses. The most famous of the Volsungs is Sigurd the Dragon Slayer and his story takes up the majority of the saga. The saga is one of the sources for Wagner's Ring Cycle and a major influence on the Lord of the Rings.

In this installment, we don't meet Sigurd yet, but we do get the origin of his family line, Valkyries with apples, the twin badasses Sigmund and Signy, mysterious one-eyed strangers (who could it be?), magic swords, weddings, betrayals, battles, witches, infanticide, incest, weasels with magic plants, two different kinds of werewolves, an enormous housefire, and a guy named "Sinfjotli", which is super fun to say. Have fun checking it out.

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Renfield

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