Runes and magic in Beowulf and the Volsung Saga In the Old English poem Beowulf and the Icelandic The Volsung Saga, a saga representing oral traditions dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries, we see mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or spells. An unknown author wrote The Volsung Saga in the 13th century, basing his story on much older Norse poetry. Iceland was colonized by the Vikings around 870-930, who brought the famous laymen of Sigurd and the Volsung there. The native Icelandic poets loved the story of Sigurd and the Huns, Goths and Burgundians, with whom he interacted. This prose story is based on traditional Norse verse called Eddic poetry, a form of mythical or heroic poetry that developed before the year 1000 in the oral folk culture of ancient Scandinavia. In the Volsung Saga the hero Sigurd is the one who best corresponds to the hero Beowulf in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. George Clark in “The Hero and Theme” mentions: “The form of Beowulf taken as a whole suggests both the 'Bear of the Bear' type of folk tale (especially as we find it in Scandinavia) and the 'fighting myth' . . . .” (286). The “myth of combat” is what this saga is. When Sigurd was born, he was the nephew of King Eylimi; when Beowulf was born, he was the nephew of King Hrethel. The king said of Sigurd that "no one would be his like or equal" (55), and this proved to be true; Beowulf as a young man was so strong that "he was the strongest of all living men" (196). The similarities between Sigurd and Beowulf continue in both works. The Icelandic skald is the equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon scop. He was a storyteller. The Icelandic material is based on a long oral tradition just like the Anglo-Saxon one, dating back in their histories to the 4th and 5th centuries (Byock 2). The Skaldi remained in the royal courts of Scandinavia like their southern counterparts. Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon narrative poem whose oral traditions date back to the 6th century. We see the first mention of runes in this poem in relation to the magic sword. When the hero is in mortal combat with Grendel's mother in the lagoon, he is on the verge of being killed by the monster when suddenly God shows him the presence of a special sword near the wall..