The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

“Tolkien is mainly known for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and so on, but he was a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and wrote a fair number of scholarly works and articles. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún is a creative work, consisting of two long poems written in Modern English but mainly in epic metre. Now, the main manuscript in which the eddic poems are preserved is called the Codex Regius, and the unfortunate thing is that some eight leaves of this manuscript are missing…This is essentially the story of how Sigurd and Brynhild get together and are betrothed, but in various ways are tricked, so that Sigurd marries Gudrún instead. Brynhild in revenge arranges for Sigurd to be killed and then she commits suicide. We know the details of the story from various sources, but the sources conflict with each other, and Tolkien does his best to give them coherent form.” Read more...

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