‘The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs’ is a translation of The Völsunga saga (often referred to in English as the Volsunga Saga or Saga of the Völsungs). This legendary saga is a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan. It was translated for the first time into English by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson in 1870. Morris wrote: “This is the great story of the North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the Greeks”.
Eirikr Magnusson was born in Iceland, he came to England in 1862 and went on to work at the library of the Univerity of Cambridge, as well as lecturing on the Icelandic language. He met Morris in the summer of 1868 and taught him Old Norse. The pair became good friends, and shortly after Morris suggested they translate the sagas together.
This first edition of the Crown octavo book has green cloth binding with stamped gold pattern designed by Philip Webb. Rossetti wrote on 7 May 1870 “His binding for the Volsungs is most lovely- quite perfect”. 750 copies of the book were printed.
