First published in 1876, "The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs" is an epic poem by William Morris that tells the tragic story, drawn from the Volsunga Saga and the Elder Edda, of the Norse hero Sigmund, his son Sigurd and Sigurd's wife Gudrun.
"The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs" sprang from a fascination with the Volsung legend that extended back twenty years to the author's youth, and had already resulted in several other literary and scholarly treatments of the story.
This work was Morris's own favourite of his poems, and was enthusiastically praised both by contemporary critics and by such figures as T. E. Lawrence and George Bernard Shaw.
(Source: wikipedia.org)
