Odin fathered Sigi and at times bestowed favors on Sigi's descendants. When Sigi's son, Rerir, proved childless, Odin gave Rerir's wife an apple and in a short time she gave birth to Volsung, who became a powerful warrior. Among Volsung's children were Signy and Sigmund. Signy married a foreigner, Hunding, a treacherous man with no love for his in-laws.
One day the Volsungs were holding a banquet in their hall when a stranger appeared in a wide-brimmed hat and a large cloak. A gleaming sword was in his hand, and the stranger plunged it into the large tree that supported the rafters. He announced that the person to pull it out should own it, and then he vanished. It was Odin in disguise. Everyone tried to extract it and failed until Sigmund tried and wrenched it free.
Somehow Hunding managed to make captives of all the Volsungs, including Sigmund. Night after night he chained them outside, where they were devoured by wolves. At last only Sigmund was left. His desperate sister Signy, torn between her family and conjugal loyalties, freed Sigmund and brought him the wondrous sword he had won. She also slept with Sigmund to give him a son necessary to avenge the murder of their kin. When the son was an infant she secretly gave him to her brother Sigmund to raise. This was Sigurd, born to be as fine a hero as his father. When Sigurd was grown he and Sigmund returned to avenge Hunding's bloody deeds. After imprisoning Hunding in his hall, they set fire to it. Signy watched enraptured now that her kin had destroyed the evildoer, but Hunding was still her husband, and she rushed into the burning hall to perish with him.
