The medieval Icelandic Völsunga saga tells the story of Sigurd the dragon slayer and the Völsung family. It is a legendary saga, not a contemporary historical biography, and was written in Iceland in the later thirteenth century.
The saga follows generations of the Völsung lineage. Its best-known episodes include Sigurd’s upbringing, his killing of Fafnir, the acquisition of the cursed gold, and his relationships with Brynhild and Gudrun. Later sections connect the story with the downfall of the Burgundians and the wider Niflung tradition.
The narrative draws on older heroic poems and traditions preserved in the Poetic Edda. It also belongs to the same broad legend complex that influenced the Middle High German Nibelungenlied and Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
The saga should not be confused with the Icelanders’ sagas, such as Njáls saga, which focus more directly on family conflicts in medieval Iceland. Völsunga saga is primarily a legendary heroic narrative.