With your given structure, try something like:
var element = xdoc.Elements("volume").Single(v => v.Attributes("name").Any(a => a.Value == "vol2"));
This probably is not particularly efficient!!!
BTW: if there is no element with
name == "vol2"
the
.Single
will throw an exception!
[Edit: MTH]
"Borrowing" from Maciej's solution:
var element = xdoc.Descendents("volume").Single(v => (string)v.Attribute("name") == "vol2");