Volsungasaga, a compilation of legends about Sigurd the dragon slayer written in the 1200's, begins with a one page history of his great-grandfather Sigi. Little is recorded about this ancestor of the greatest family of Norse heroes, who simply is identified as a "son of Odin". Nothing in the saga explains what it means to be a son of the most powerful god in the Norse pantheon. A Telling recounts the coming-of-age of an orphan among the Norse at...