EXCHANGING SHA 1 ' />'. 



431 



craft. Signy spoke to her : ' I want to exchange shapes with 

 you.' She said, ' Thou shalt have thy will ; ' so she caused by 

 her witchcraft that they exchanged appearance ; the sorceress 

 sat down on the bed of Signy, as she told her, and went to 

 bed with the king in the evening, and he did not know that 

 Signy was not with him. Of Signy it is said that she went 

 to the earth-house of her brother Sigmund, and asked him to 

 lodge her during the night, as she had gone astray in the 

 forest, and did not know where she was. He said she could 

 stay there, and lie would not refuse a lonely woman lodgings, 

 and thought she would not reward him for the good enter- 

 tainment by telling where he was. She went into his room 

 and they sat down to eat ; he often looked at her, and sho 

 seemed fair and fine to him. . . . Thereupon she went home, 

 met the sorceress, and asked to exchange shapes again, and 

 thus she did. When time passed on Signy gave birth to a 

 boy, who was called SintjotJi. When he grew up he was 

 large and strong and good-looking, and resembled much the 

 Volsunga family ; he was not quite ten winters old when she 

 sent him to Sigmund in the underground house. She had 

 tried her other sons before she sent them to Sigmund by 

 sewing gloves to their hands through flesh and skin. They 

 did not bear it well, and grumbled at it. She did the same 

 to Sinfjotli, and he did not wince; she tore the kirtle off him 

 so that his skin followed the sleeves ; J she said he must feel 

 pain. He answered, ' Little will a Volsung feel this pain. 1 

 Then he came to Sigmund, who asked him to knead their 

 meal while he fetched firewood. He handed him a bag, and 

 then went after wood. When he returned, Sinfjotli had baked 

 the bread. Sigmund asked if he had found anything in the 

 meal. He replied, ' I fancy there was something alive in the 

 meal when I began to knead it, but I have kneaded it also 

 herein.' Sigmund said, laughing : ' I guess thou wilt not eat 

 this bread to-night, for thou hast kneaded in it the most 

 poisonous worm.' Sigmund was so strong that he could eat 

 poison without being hurt ; and Sinfjotli could stand poison 

 externally, 2 but was unable to eat or drink it " 3 (Volsunga 

 Saga, c. 7). 



" King Hring, of Uppdalir, in Norway, had a son, Bjorn 

 (bear), and when his wife died he married a woman from 

 Finnmork. She changed her stepson into a bear in this way. 

 She struck him with a wolfskin glove, and said that he should 

 become a fierce and cruel lair-bear, ' and use no other food than 



1 Meaning that the skin was torn. 



2 Meaning that the skin could be 

 touched with it. 



3 There were two kinds of poison 

 used. Cf. also Volsunga, c. 5. 



