Andrew Lang edited, translated, had translated or wrote, depending on exactly which tale and how you want to look at things, a rainbow of fairytale books that remain in print to this day and are available online: Andrew Lang Anthologies. "The Story of Sigurd" is the last in the second collection, The Red Fairy Book, published in 1890, two years before Tolkien was born in South Africa. This story was possibly Tolkien's first exposure to the northern folklore that would come to mean so much to him.
I note in passing that, although historic references have been offered to explain Tolkien's choice, I myself think that Andrew Lang's work may have left its impression on a young mind, and that wittingly or unwittingly, Tolkien named The Red Book of Westmarch after a childhood favorite. That book, which began as Bilbo's account of his adventures, passed to Frodo for his account of his adventures, and then to Sam to finish, is the supposed source for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
"The Story of Sigurd" contains may of the elements that went into Wagner's Ring Cycle, and it ends tragically, something the editor warns the young reader of before the tale begins. It also contains an excellent dragon, who can probably stand forth as the sire of Smaug, whose gold Bilbo set out to steal—at Gandalf's urging—and the light-hearted beginning of what would become the Tolkien's epic.
Tolkien is not alone in having started a serious fantasy epic as a children's work. In due course, I hope to come to T. H. White's Arthurian epic, which begins with the charming The Sword in the Stone, which is not much like the Disney version. Indeed, the version we can buy today is not the original, for White, in revision, made major and minor changes to make it lead into the darker atmosphere of the Matter of Britain. Tolkien, faced with similar problems, has Bilbo apologize for having lied, something both wizard and reader accept as the evil influence of the One Ring.
But let us turn to the "Story of Sigurd."
(to be continued)