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IHTEODUOTION. 61
twenty cantos, containing the tragic story of. the
Volslinga and Nifliinga races. The first three form
a distinct group—the Songs of Helgi, the great hero
of the Yolslinga race who is peculiar to the North-
ern Saga and unknown to the German. In true
Homeric power these lays stand before all other
poetry of the Edda, and in the love between Helgi
and Sigrun there breathes an enduring mildness and
depth of feeling that is scarcely equalled by any.
Helgi brings us to the Yolsungar, whose history
re-appears, although in a much-altered form, in the
German Heroic Songs. The poems in which it ap-
pears in connection with the history of the Nifllin-
gar occupy nearly half the Edda. Three heroic
races figure in these poems :—1. The Volslingar
— :
the most celebrated, are the descendants of Yolsung.
His son is Sigmund, and Sigmund's sons are the
famous heroes Sinfjotli, Helgi, Hamdir, and Sigurd
(the Germ. Siegfried). 2. The Niflangar (Nibelun-
gen) or Gjdkungar, whose ancestor is.Gjuki (the
Germ. Gibich). By his consort Grimhild he has
three sons, Gunnar (Gunther), Hogni (Hagen), and
Guttorm (Gemot), and tlie daughter GuSrun
(Chrymhild). 3. The Bu51ungar, children of BnSli
Atli (Etzel, Attila), Brynhild and Oddrlin; and
from a branch of these three families appear new
mythic forms, not of the heroic class: Hrei8mar
and his sons Fafnir and Eeginn.
Sigurd, the hero of the legend, before entering on
his heroic career, rides to his magic-skilled uncle
Gripir and learns from him all his future destiny
until his death by the Niflungar, Afterward Re-