Sigmund (page 65) is the father and uncle of Fitela. He is stated
in Beowulf to have killed a serpent who kept guard over a hoard of
treasure. In the Icelandic saga known as the Völsunga Saga, Sigmund is
represented as the father of Sigurd, and 'it is Sigurd who rifles the
treasure of the Niblungs and kills the serpent (Fafnir), its guardian'
(Arnold, p. 69), and he carries it away on the back of his horse
Grani. Sigmund is represented as the son of a Völsung; that is, as
Beowulf has it, 'the heir of Waels.' Waels was afterwards forgotten,
however, and Waelsing was regarded as a proper name instead of a
patronymic denoting descent from Waels. In a similar way, as Arnold
points out, Sigmund is pushed into the background to make room for
his son Sigurd (Siegfried). 'And so in the German Nibelungen Lay it
is Sigurd (Siegfried) who wins the hoard, but does so by defeating
and killing its former possessors Schilbung and Nibelung' (Arnold,
p. 70). Attempts have been made to claim a German origin for this saga,
but in face of the evidence of Beowulf and the Völsunga Saga and the
Edda there is, I think with Arnold, little doubt but that its origin
was Scandinavian. Possibly and probably we owe the later elaboration
of the saga in the Nibelungen Lay to German influence. For discussion
of the whole question see Arnold's Notes on Beowulf, pp. 67-75,
Edit. 1898, cap. v.