Cut Through Stone and Iron

Now King Siggeir pondered what kind of death he could give them
that would be slowest. And when morning came, the king had a big
burial mound made of stone and turf, and when this mound was ready,
he had a large flat stone set in the middle in such a way that one end
of the stone stood up, and the other down. This stone was so large that
it could barely be circled by the arms of two men standing on either
end. Now he had Sigmund and Sinfjotli set into the mound on either
side of this stone, because he thought it would be worse for them to be
separated even though they could hear one another.

And when the workers began to fill the mound back in, Signý came
with a bundle of straw in her hands and threw it into the mound with
Sinfjotli, and she ordered the slaves not to tell King Siggeir about this.
They obeyed her, and finished closing the mound.

And when night fell, Sinfjotli said to Sigmund, “I don’t expect we’ll
lack food for a while. Queen Signý has thrown a side of bacon into the
mound for us, and wrapped it up in straw.” And then he felt the meat
more closely and found that Sigmund’s sword was sheathed inside it,
and he found the hilt, and told Sigmund. Both of them celebrated. Now
Sinfjotli stabbed up through the earth above the stone and cut hard. The
sword bit into the stone. Then Sigmund took the point of the blade in
hand and the two of them together sawed through the stone until it was
split in half, as the poem tells:

They cut that great stone
with their strength.
Sigmund wielded the sword,
and Sinfjotli did as well.

And now they were both free to move around in the burial mound,
and they cut through stone and iron and escaped.

Now they walked to King Siggeir’s hall, where everyone was asleep.
They stacked up wood by the hall and set fire to it, and the people inside
woke up to the smoke inside and the hall burning over them. King
Siggeir asked who had set the fire.


- Volsunga Saga, Chapter 8