Introduction
Volsung was the son of Rerir, born under extraordinary circumstances after a long-delayed pregnancy, and became the eponymous founder of the Volsung dynasty proper.
Family
Father of the Twins
Volsung fathered numerous sons and one daughter, Signy, whose ill-fated marriage to King Siggeir of Gautland forms the saga's next major episode. Volsung himself was killed by Siggeir's treachery after traveling to his daughter's wedding-feast kingdom in good faith; his sons were captured, and only Sigmund would survive to eventually avenge the family.
The Volsunga Saga and the Poetic Edda preserve the Norse-Icelandic form of this legend; the German Nibelungenlied recounts substantially the same events under different names (Sigurd as Siegfried, Brynhild as Brünnhilde, Atli as Etzel/Attila), reflecting a shared Germanic legendary tradition rather than a single fixed text.