William Morris’s epic poem The Story of Sigurd the Volsung was first published in 1876.
The poem retells the Völsung legends drawn from medieval Scandinavian sources, especially the Völsunga saga and the Poetic Edda. Morris wrote it with his collaborator Eiríkr Magnússon, who helped him engage with Icelandic literature and Old Norse tradition.
The work is divided into sections covering Sigmund, Sigurd, Brynhild, Gudrun, and the destruction of the Niflungs. Its title reflects the poem’s two connected narrative strands: the Völsung family and the fall of the Niblungs.
A common mix-up is to date the poem to Morris’s earlier romances or to Wagner’s Ring cycle. Morris’s poem appeared after several Wagnerian operas had already been performed, but it is a separate English-language literary retelling rather than a translation of Wagner.