The Völsungasaga (often referred to in English as the Volsunga
Saga or Saga of the Völsungs) is a legendary saga, a late 13th
century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of
the Völsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and
destruction of the Burgundians). It is largely based on epic
poetry. The earliest known pictorial representation of this
tradition is the Ramsund carving, Sweden, which was created c.
1000 AD. The origins of the material are considerably older,
however, and it echoes real events in Central Europe during the
Migration Period. On the other hand, the only manuscript of the
saga, Ny kgl. Saml. 1824 b 4to, which is held by the Royal
Library of Denmark, dates to about 1400. In this manuscript, the
saga leads straight in to Ragnars saga loðbrókar. The Middle
High German epic poem Nibelungenlied is based largely on the old
stories, which were commonly known in all of the Germanic lands
from the early Middle Ages on, but reworks the material into a
courtly medieval set