As previously stated, the guardian of the treasure may typically be thought as a dragon, as it is in The Hobbit, or in Beowulf, or in the
Volsunga Saga, but it could also be a different sort of uncanny or malevolent creature, from the genie of the Chinese legend of the cave Kwang-sio-foo to the Devil himself in some Abruzzo stories.
Smaug is inspired by the dragons of Beowulf and
Volsunga Saga, scions of Frye's romantic mode and sources of literary effects that would be spoiled by the sight and smell of animal droppings.
"Variations on
Volsunga Saga" ("Tilbrygoi vio Volsungasogu") is a diary entry Johannessen wrote after hearing the news of Borges's death.
Here again, Icelandic sagas offer illuminating parallels; in
Volsunga saga, Sigmund is hiding from King Siggeir, and meets Signy:
Likewise, her analysis of the character of Sigurd in the Icelandic
Volsunga Saga is frustrating, with both excellent points and needless repetition.
Saxo's Gesta Danorum, Sir Tristrem, Lagamon's Brut, Floamanna saga, the Annals of Ulster,
Volsunga saga, Hrolfs saga kraka, Gongu-Hrolfs saga, Landnamabok, Gwenlendinga pattr, and Reykdoela saga cannot fill in the narrative gaps which lend the Wife's Lament its enigmatic aspect.
Although Wagner's principal source was not the Nibelungenlied but the
Volsunga Saga, the Nibelungenlied, the Elder and Younger Eddas, and the Eckelied were also drawn upon for material.
I will also be looking at medieval and renaissance parallels in Beowulf and the
Volsunga Saga and Book I of Spenser's Fairie Queene, as possible sources for the largely comic treatment of dragons in the works I am considering.
The most important of these is the
Volsunga saga. CompareIcelanders' sagas.
The
Volsunga Saga is the main source of Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, although names and plot details vary.
Edda;
Volsunga Saga are the sources throughout this section.
The most familiar image of the Valkyrie is the Brunhild of the
Volsunga Saga and Wagner 's Ring des Nibelungen; they no longer are the bloodthirsty creatures of Old Norse legend but rather lusty Amazonian virgins reputed to be the wisest of women.