BOOK II.
REGIN.
Now this is the first book of the life and death of sigurd the volsung, and therein is told of the birth of him, and of his dealings with regin the master of masters, and of his deeds in the waste places of the earth.
Of the birth of Sigurd the son of Sigmund.
Peace lay on the land of the Helper and the house of Elf his son;
There merry men went bedward when their tide of toil was done,
And glad was the dawn’s awakening, and the noon-tide fair and glad:
There no great store had the franklin, and enough the hireling had;
And a child might go unguarded the length and breadth of the land
With a purse of gold at his girdle and gold rings on his hand.
‘Twas a country of cunning craftsmen, and many a thing they wrought,
That the lands of storm desired, and the homes of
