The Ring of the Dark Elves

     In the savage, beautiful land of the Volsungs, inhabited by dwarves, sea nymphs, shape-changing giants and mortal men, ruled by the immortal Aesir, unfolds a tale of valor and avarice, love and vengeance, and the uncanny curse of the sea nymphs' golden ring.  This is the tale from which Richard Wagner created his magnificent operatic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, and  from which J.R.R. Tolkien derived many of his plot elements, including the enchanted ring that enthralls whoever sees it and destroys its owners.  But it is a tale of courage and endurance and enchantment in its own right, worthy of retelling.
     The end of days draws near, the final cataclysm in which both Asgard and Middle-earth will be destroyed.  Odin, chief of the Aesir, seeks to change his destiny, but he needs the gold stolen by Albric the dwarf from the sea nymphs and forged into a ring of magical potency in the caverns of the dark elves.  Odin has lost the ring to Fafnir the giant, now become dragon, and only a man who has no respect for laws of gods or men can regain the ring.  Odin rearranges events to create such a hero, Sigmund, only to have him commit so outrageous a crime that by Odin's own law he must die at his enemy's hand.
     But Brynhild, Odin's Valkyrie daughter, rebels against his law and rescues Sigmund's sister/wife and unborn son.  In punishment she is condemned to sleep within a ring of fire until a man without fear can ride through the fire to win her.  The orphaned Sigurd, Sigmund's son, is raised in Mirkwood by Mimir the mastersmith, who seeks the death of Fafnir and to recover the ring for himself.  Sigurd at last is able to reforge his father's broken blade, once a gift from Odin himself, and go in search of Fafnir.  He slays the dragon and recovers the ring, but then finds himself a target of greed and revenge.
     William Morris, the great fantasy writer who first translated the Volsunga Saga, said of the tale of Sigurd, This is the great story of the North, which should be to all our race what the tale of Troy was to the Greeks.