William Morris Adds Victorian Luminescence to The Medieval Saga of the Volsungs

In 1876, William Morris published a poetic retelling of the medieval Saga of the Volsungs, the old Norse legend about the struggles of family Volsung, a long line of warriors descended from Odin. The medieval account contains many harsh and horrific deeds, and lacks much psychological explanation or visual description of the setting. William Morris’ Victorian edition fills this void by adding dimension and luminescence to the description of the setting and characters. However, the way he does so preserves and enhances the existing aesthetic of the Saga. To ground my analysis, I will examine one moment only, the feast in King Volsung’s hall during which Odin places the sword Gram in the tree Branstock.

The only description of the setting of this moment in the medieval saga, is that the hall

This description alerts us to the raw natural beauty and majesty in the world of the Volsungs, but William Morris, develops that existing setting so that it becomes at once more human and more transcendent. He infuses these qualities by adding details such as the nobles who contributed to the construction of the hall, and the description of the surrounding nature. These kind of additions lend a humanizing force to the narrative, because the audience is able to picture such specific elements as “the Earls who wrought the gold thatched roof” and “the grassy fruit-grown land” (Morris 1,3). Morris provides descriptive scaffolding to support the plot, yet he preserves the ancient and mysterious character of the original saga by keeping these images markedly transcendent. Morris adorns the story with a kind of beauty that is more than natural in its purity and brightness—“the white hand Signy” and “the shadowless moon” (Morris 3-4). The images are at once readily conceivable, and yet embellished and rarefied beyond the common things of life.