Sigmundr

Sigmund is the great hero of the first half of the Völsung legend — Sigurd's father, and the Völsung who alone could draw Odin's sword from the tree. When a one-eyed stranger (Odin in disguise) drives a sword to the hilt into the Branstock tree at a wedding-feast and declares it belongs to whoever can pull it free, it is Sigmund alone, of all the warriors there, who draws it out — marking him and his line as Odin's chosen. His life is a saga of survival and vengeance: the sole survivor of his family's massacre, hiding for years in the forest, taking a terrible revenge, and fathering heroes. At the last, old and still mighty, he goes into his final battle — and there the same Odin who gave him the sword appears and shatters it with his spear, and Sigmund falls, his time run out. He gives the broken sword to his unborn son: it is reforged as Gram for Sigurd. Sigmund is the heroic line at its source — Odin's man, raised up and struck down by the same god.