23. Then Gollrond, daughter | of Gjuki, spake: “Speak not such words, | thou hated woman; Bane of the noble | thou e’er hast been, (Borne thou art | on an evil wave, Sorrow hast brought | to seven kings,) And many a woman | hast loveless made.”
24. Then Brynhild, daughter | of Buthli, spake: “Atli is guilty | of all the sorrow, (Son of Buthli | and brother of mine,) When we saw in the hall | of the Hunnish race The flame of the snake’s bed | flash round the hero; (For the journey since | full sore have I paid, And ever I seek | the sight to forget.)”
25. By the pillars she stood, | and gathered her strength, From the eyes of Brynhild, | Buthli’s daughter, Fire there burned, | and venom she breathed, When the wounds she saw | on Sigurth then.
Guthrun went thence away to a forest in the waste, and journeyed all the way to Denmark, and was there seven half-years with Thora, daughter of Hokon. Brynhild would not live after Sigurth. She had eight of her thralls slain and five serving-women. Then she killed herself with a sword, as is told in the Short Lay of Sigurth.
NOTES NOTES Prose. The prose follows the concluding prose of the Brot without indication of a break, the heading standing immediately before stanza 1. Fafnir’s heart: this bit of information is here quite without point, and it is nowhere else stated that Guthrun understood the speech of birds. In the Volsungasaga it is stated that Sigurth gave Guthrun some of Fafnir’s heart to eat, “and thereafter she was much grimmer than before, and wiser.”
1. This stanza seems to be based on Guthrunarkvitha II, 11–12.
4. Gjaflaug: nothing further is known of this aunt of Guthrun, or of the many relatives whom she has lost. Very likely she is an invention of the poet’s, for it seems improbable that otherwise all further trace of her should have been lost. Line 4 has been marked by many editors as spurious.
5. Some editors assume the loss of a line, after either line 1 or line 3. I prefer to believe that here and in stanza 10 the poet knew exactly what he was doing, and that both stanzas are correct.
6. Herborg: neither she nor her sorrows are elsewhere mentioned, nor is it clear what a “queen of the Huns” is doing in Gunnar’s home, but the word “Hun” has little definiteness of meaning in the poems, and is frequently applied to Sigurth himself (cf. note on stanza 24). Herborg appears from stanza 11 to have been the foster-mother of Gollrond, Guthrun’s sister. Lines 5–7 may be interpolations, or may form a separate stanza.
7. Lines 1 and 2 stand in reversed order in the manuscript; I have followed Gering’s conjectural transposition.
9. Herborg implies that the queen’s jealousy was not altogether misplaced.
10. Cf. stanza 5 and note. The manuscript abbreviates to first letters.
11. Gollrond: not elsewhere mentioned. Line 4 looks like an interpolation replacing a line previously lost.
12. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza, and some editors have attempted to follow this arrangement.
14. Many editors assume the loss of a line from this stanza.
15. The word here translated “tresses” is sheer guesswork. The detail of the geese is taken from Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 29, line 3 here being identical with line 4 of that stanza.
16. Line 1, abbreviated in the manuscript, very likely should be simply “Gollrond spake.”
17. Cf. Guthrunarkvitha II, 2. The manuscript does not name the speaker, and some editions have a first line, “Then Guthrun spake, | the daughter of Gjuki.”
18. Herjan: Othin; his maids are the Valkyries; cf. Voluspo, 31, where the same phrase is used.
20. Line 4 looks like an interpolation (cf. Fafnismol, 9, line 4), but some editors instead have queried line 5. How Guthrun’s curse is fulfilled is told in the subsequent poems. That desire for Sigurth’s treasure (the gold cursed by Andvari and Loki) was one of the motives for his murder is indicated in Sigurtharkvitha en skamma (stanza 16), and was clearly a part of the German tradition, as it appears in the Nibelungenlied.
21. Cf. Gripisspo, 35 and note.
22. Line 1 is abbreviated in the manuscript.
23. Editors are agreed that this stanza shows interpolations, but differ as to the lines to reject. Line 4 (literally “every wave of ill-doing drives thee”) is substantially a proverb, and line 5, with its apparently meaningless reference to “seven” kings, may easily have come from some other source.
24. The stanza is obviously in bad shape; perhaps it represents two separate stanzas, or perhaps three of the lines are later additions. Atli: Brynhild here blames her brother, following the frequent custom of transferring the responsibility for a murder (cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II, 33), because he compelled her to marry Gunnar against her will, an idea which the poet seems to have gained from Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 32–39. These stanzas represent an entirely different version of the story, wherein Atli, attacked by Gunnar and Sigurth, buys them off by giving Gunnar his sister, Brynhild, as wife. He seems to have induced the latter to marry Gunnar by falsely telling her that Gunnar was Sigurth (a rationalistic explanation of the interchange of forms described in the Volsungasaga and Gripisspo, 37–39). In the present stanza Atli is made to do this out of desire for Sigurth’s treasure. Hunnish race: this may be merely an error (neither Gunnar nor Sigurth could properly have been connected in any way with Atli and his Huns), based on Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, wherein Sigurth appears more than once as the “Hunnish king.” The North was very much in the dark as to the differences between Germans, Burgundians, Franks, Goths, and Huns, and used the words without much discrimination. On the other hand, it may refer to Sigurth’s appearance when, adorned with gold, he came with Gunnar to besiege Atli, in the alternative version of the story just cited (cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 36). Flame of the snake’s bed: gold, so called because serpents and dragons were the traditional guardians of treasure, on which they lay.
Prose. The manuscript has “Gunnar” in place of “Guthrun,” but this is an obvious mistake; the entire prose passage is based on Guthrunarkvitha II, 14. The Volsungasaga likewise merely paraphrases Guthrunarkvitha II, and nothing further is known of Thora or her father, Hokon, though many inconclusive attempts have been made to identify the latter. Brynhild: the story of her death is told in great detail in the latter part of Sigurtharkvitha en skamma.
SIGURTHARKVITHA EN SKAMMA THE SHORT LAY OF SIGURTH INTRODUCTORY NOTE Guthrunarkvitha I is immediately followed in the Codex Regius by a long poem which in the manuscript bears the heading “Sigurtharkvitha,” but which is clearly referred to in the prose link between it and Guthrunarkvitha I as the “short” Lay of Sigurth. The discrepancy between this reference and the obvious length of the poem has led to many conjectures, but the explanation seems to be that the “long” Sigurth lay, of which the Brot is presumably a part, was materially longer even than this poem. The efforts to reduce the “short” Sigurth lay to dimensions which would justify the appellation in comparison with other poems in the collection, either by separating it into two poems or by the rejection of many stanzas as interpolations, have been utterly inconclusive.
Although there are probably several interpolated passages, and indications of omissions are not lacking, the poem as we now have it seems to be a distinct and coherent unit. From the narrative point of view it leaves a good deal to be desired, for the reason that the poet’s object was by no means to tell a story, with which his hearers were quite familiar, but to use the narrative simply as the background for vivid and powerful characterization. The lyric element, as Mogk points out, overshadows the epic throughout, and the fact that there are frequent confusions of narrative tradition does not trouble the poet at all.
The material on which the poem was based seems to have existed in both prose and verse form; the poet was almost certainly familiar with some of the other poems in the Eddic collection, with poems which have since been lost, and with the narrative prose traditions which never fully assumed verse form. The fact that he seems to have known and used the Oddrunargratr, which can hardly have been composed before 1050, and that in any case he introduces the figure of Oddrun, a relatively late addition to the story, dates the poem as late as the end of the eleventh century, or even the first half of the twelfth. There has been much discussion as to where it was composed, the debate centering chiefly on the reference to glaciers (stanza 8). There is something to be said in favor of Greenland as the original home of the poem (cf. introductory note to Atlakvitha), but the arguments for Iceland are even stronger; Norway in this case is practically out of the question.
The narrative features of the poem are based on the German rather than the Norse elements of the story (cf. introductory note to Gripisspo), but the poet has taken whatever material he wanted without much discrimination as to its source. By the year 1100 the story of Sigurth, with its allied legends, existed throughout the North in many and varied forms, and the poem shows traces of variants of the main story which do not appear elsewhere.
1. Of old did Sigurth | Gjuki seek, The Volsung young, | in battles victor; Well he trusted | the brothers twain, With mighty oaths | among them sworn.
2. A maid they gave him, | and jewels many, Guthrun the young, | the daughter of Gjuki; They drank and spake | full many a day, Sigurth the young | and Gjuki’s sons.
3. Thereafter went they | Brynhild to woo, And so with them | did Sigurth ride, The Volsung young, | in battle valiant,— Himself would have had her | if all he had seen.
4. The southern hero | his naked sword, Fair-flashing, let | between them lie; (Nor would he come | the maid to kiss;) The Hunnish king | in his arms ne’er held The maiden he gave | to Gjuki’s sons.
5. Ill she had known not | in all her life, And nought of the sorrows | of men she knew; Blame she had not, | nor dreamed she should bear it, But cruel the fates | that among them came.
6. By herself at the end | of day she sat, And in open words | her heart she uttered: “I shall Sigurth have, | the hero young, E’en though within | my arms he die.
7. “The word I have spoken; | soon shall I rue it, His wife is Guthrun, | and Gunnar’s am I; Ill Norns set for me | long desire.”
8. Oft did she go | with grieving heart On the glacier’s ice | at even-tide, When Guthrun then | to her bed was gone, And the bedclothes Sigurth | about her laid.
9. “(Now Gjuki’s child | to her lover goes,) And the Hunnish king | with his wife is happy; Joyless I am | and mateless ever, Till cries from my heavy | heart burst forth.”
10. In her wrath to battle | she roused herself: “Gunnar, now | thou needs must lose Lands of mine | and me myself, No joy shall I have | with the hero ever.
11. “Back shall I fare | where first I dwelt, Among the kin | that come of my race, To wait there, sleeping | my life away, If Sigurth’s death | thou shalt not dare, (And best of heroes | thou shalt not be.)
12. “The son shall fare | with his father hence, And let not long | the wolf-cub live; Lighter to pay | is the vengeance-price After the deed | if the son is dead.”
13. Sad was Gunnar, | and bowed with grief, Deep in thought | the whole day through; Yet from his heart | it was ever hid What deed most fitting | he should find, (Or what thing best | for him should be, Or if he should seek | the Volsung to slay, For with mighty longing | Sigurth he loved.)
14. Much he pondered | for many an hour; Never before | was the wonder known That a queen should thus | her kingdom leave; In counsel then | did he Hogni call, (For him in truest | trust he held.)
15. “More than all | to me is Brynhild, Buthli’s child, | the best of women; My very life | would I sooner lose Than yield the love | of yonder maid.
16. “Wilt thou the hero | for wealth betray? ’Twere good to have | the gold of the Rhine, And all the hoard | in peace to hold, And waiting fortune | thus to win.”
17. Few the words | of Hogni were: “Us it beseems not | so to do, To cleave with swords | the oaths we swore, The oaths we swore | and all our vows.
18. “We know no mightier | men on earth The while we four | o’er the folk hold sway, And while the Hunnish | hero lives, Nor higher kinship | the world doth hold.
19. “If sons we five | shall soon beget, Great, methinks, | our race shall grow; Well I see | whence lead the ways; Too bitter far | is Brynhild’s hate.”
Gunnar spake: 20. “Gotthorm to wrath | we needs must rouse, Our younger brother, | in rashness blind; He entered not | in the oaths we swore, The oaths we swore | and all our vows.”
21. It was easy to rouse | the reckless one...|...The sword in the heart | of Sigurth stood.
22. In vengeance the hero | rose in the hall, And hurled his sword | at the slayer bold; At Gotthorm flew | the glittering steel Of Gram full hard | from the hand of the king.
23. The foeman cleft | asunder fell, Forward hands | and head did sink, And legs and feet | did backward fall.
24. Guthrun soft | in her bed had slept, Safe from care | at Sigurth’s side; She woke to find | her joy had fled, In the blood of the friend | of Freyr she lay.
25. So hard she smote | her hands together That the hero rose up, | iron-hearted: “Weep not, Guthrun, | grievous tears, Bride so young, | for thy brothers live.
26. “Too young, methinks, | is my son as yet, He cannot flee | from the home of his foes; Fearful and deadly | the plan they found, The counsel new | that now they have heeded.
27. “No son will ride, | though seven thou hast, To the Thing as the son | of their sister rides; Well I see | who the ill has worked, On Brynhild alone | lies the blame for all.
28. “Above all men | the maiden loved me, Yet false to Gunnar | I ne’er was found; I kept the oaths | and the kinship I swore; Of his queen the lover | none may call me.”
29. In a swoon she sank | when Sigurth died; So hard she smote | her hands together That all the cups | in the cupboard rang, And loud in the courtyard | cried the geese.
30. Then Brynhild, daughter | of Buthli, laughed, Only once, | with all her heart, When as she lay | full loud she heard The grievous wail | of Gjuki’s daughter.
31. Then Gunnar, monarch | of men, spake forth: “Thou dost not laugh, | thou lover of hate, In gladness there, | or for aught of good; Why has thy face | so white a hue, Mother of ill? | Foredoomed thou art.
32. “A worthier woman | wouldst thou have been If before thine eyes | we had Atli slain; If thy brother’s bleeding | body hadst seen And the bloody wounds | that thou shouldst bind.”
Brynhild spake: 33. “None mock thee, Gunnar! | thou hast mightily fought, But thy hatred little | doth Atli heed; Longer than thou, | methinks, shall he live, And greater in might | shall he ever remain.
34. “To thee I say, | and thyself thou knowest, That all these ills | thou didst early shape; No bonds I knew, | nor sorrow bore, And wealth I had | in my brother’s home.
35. “Never a husband | sought I to have, Before the Gjukungs | fared to our land; Three were the kings | on steeds that came,— Need of their journey | never there was.
36. “To the hero great | my troth I gave Who gold-decked sat | on Grani’s back; Not like to thine | was the light of his eyes, (Nor like in form | and face are ye,) Though kingly both | ye seemed to be.
37. “And so to me | did Atli say That share in our wealth | I should not have, Of gold or lands, | if my hand I gave not; (More evil yet, | the wealth I should yield,) The gold that he | in my childhood gave me, (The wealth from him | in my youth I had.)
38. “Oft in my mind | I pondered much If still I should fight, | and warriors fell, Brave in my byrnie, | my brother defying; That would wide | in the world be known, And sorrow for many | a man would make.
39. “But the bond at last | I let be made, For more the hoard | I longed to have, The rings that the son | of Sigmund won; No other’s treasure | e’er I sought.
40. “One alone | of all I loved, Nor changing heart | I ever had; All in the end | shall Atli know, When he hears I have gone | on the death-road hence.”
* * * * * * 41. “Never a wife | of fickle will Yet to another | man should yield...|...So vengeance for all | my ills shall come.”
42. Up rose Gunnar, | the people’s ruler, And flung his arms | round her neck so fair; And all who came, | of every kind, Sought to hold her | with all their hearts.
43. But back she cast | all those who came, Nor from the long road | let them hold her; In counsel then | did he Hogni call: “Of wisdom now | full great is our need.
44. “Let the warriors here | in the hall come forth, Thine and mine, | for the need is mighty, If haply the queen | from death they may hold, Till her fearful thoughts | with time shall fade.”
45. (Few the words | of Hogni were:) “From the long road now | shall ye hold her not, That born again | she may never be! Foul she came | from her mother forth, And born she was | for wicked deeds, (Sorrow to many | a man to bring.)”
46. From the speaker gloomily | Gunnar turned, For the jewel-bearer | her gems was dividing; On all her wealth | her eyes were gazing, On the bond-women slain | and the slaughtered slaves.
47. Her byrnie of gold | she donned, and grim Was her heart ere the point | of her sword had pierced it; On the pillow at last | her head she laid, And, wounded, her plan | she pondered o’er.
48. “Hither I will | that my women come Who gold are fain | from me to get; Necklaces fashioned | fair to each Shall I give, and cloth, | and garments bright.”
49. Silent were all | as so she spake, And all together | answer made: “Slain are enough; | we seek to live, Not thus thy women | shall honor win.”
50. Long the woman, | linen-decked, pondered,— —Young she was,— | and weighed her words: “For my sake now | shall none unwilling Or loath to die | her life lay down.
51. “But little of gems | to gleam on your limbs Ye then shall find | when forth ye fare To follow me, | or of Menja’s wealth...|...
52. “Sit now, Gunnar! | for I shall speak Of thy bride so fair | and so fain to die; Thy ship in harbor | home thou hast not, Although my life | I now have lost.
53. “Thou shalt Guthrun requite | more quick than thou thinkest,...|...Though sadly mourns | the maiden wise Who dwells with the king, | o’er her husband dead.
54. “A maid shall then | the mother bear; Brighter far | than the fairest day Svanhild shall be, | or the beams of the sun.
55. “Guthrun a noble | husband thou givest, Yet to many a warrior | woe will she bring, Not happily wedded | she holds herself; Her shall Atli | hither seek, (Buthli’s son, | and brother of mine.)
56. “Well I remember | how me ye treated When ye betrayed me | with treacherous wiles;...|...Lost was my joy | as long as I lived.
57. “Oddrun as wife | thou fain wouldst win, But Atli this | from thee withholds; Yet in secret tryst | ye twain shall love; She shall hold thee dear, | as I had done If kindly fate | to us had fallen.
58. “Ill to thee | shall Atli bring, When he casts thee down | in the den of snakes.
59. “But soon thereafter | Atli too His life, methinks, | as thou shalt lose, (His fortune lose | and the lives of his sons;) Him shall Guthrun, | grim of heart, With the biting blade | in his bed destroy.
60. “It would better beseem | thy sister fair To follow her husband | first in death, If counsel good | to her were given, Or a heart akin | to mine she had.
61. “Slowly I speak,— | but for my sake Her life, methinks, | she shall not lose; She shall wander over | the tossing waves, To where Jonak rules | his father’s realm.
62. “Sons to him | she soon shall bear, Heirs therewith | of Jonak’s wealth; But Svanhild far | away is sent, The child she bore | to Sigurth brave.
63. “Bikki’s word | her death shall be, For dreadful the wrath | of Jormunrek; So slain is all | of Sigurth’s race, And greater the woe | of Guthrun grows.
64. “Yet one boon | I beg of thee, The last of boons | in my life it is: Let the pyre be built | so broad in the field That room for us all | will ample be, (For us who slain | with Sigurth are.)
65. “With shields and carpets | cover the pyre,...|...Shrouds full fair, | and fallen slaves, And besides the Hunnish | hero burn me.
66. “Besides the Hunnish | hero there Slaves shall burn, | full bravely decked, Two at his head | and two at his feet, A brace of hounds | and a pair of hawks, For so shall all | be seemly done.
67. “Let between us | lie once more The steel so keen, | as so it lay When both within | one bed we were, And wedded mates | by men were called.
68. “The door of the hall | shall strike not the heel Of the hero fair | with flashing rings, If hence my following | goes with him; Not mean our faring | forth shall be.
69. “Bond-women five | shall follow him, And eight of my thralls, | well-born are they, Children with me, | and mine they were As gifts that Buthli | his daughter gave.
70. “Much have I told thee, | and more would say If fate more space | for speech had given; My voice grows weak, | my wounds are swelling; Truth I have said, | and so I die.”
NOTES 1. Gjuki: father of the brothers twain, Gunnar and Hogni, and of Guthrun. In this version of the story Sigurth goes straight to the home of the Gjukungs after his victory over the dragon Fafnir, without meeting Brynhild on the way (cf. Gripisspo, 13 and note). Volsung: Sigurth’s grandfather was Volsung; cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla and note. Oaths: regarding the blood-brotherhood sworn by Sigurth, Gunnar, and Hogni cf. Brot, 18 and note.
3. Brynhild: on the winning of Brynhild by Sigurth in Gunnar’s shape cf. Gripisspo, 37 and note. The poet here omits details, and in stanzas 32–39 appears a quite different tradition regarding the winning of Brynhild, which I suspect he had in mind throughout the poem.
4. Southern hero: Sigurth, whose Frankish origin is seldom wholly lost sight of in the Norse versions of the story. On the episode of the sword cf. Gripisspo, 41 and note. Line 3 may well be an interpolation; both lines 4 and 5 have also been questioned, and some editions combine line 5 with lines 1–3 of stanza 5. Hunnish king: Sigurth, who was, of course, not a king of the Huns, but was occasionally so called in the later poems owing to the lack of ethnological distinction made by the Norse poets (cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 24 and note).
5. This stanza may refer, as Gering thinks, merely to the fact that Brynhild lived happy and unsuspecting as Gunnar’s wife until the fatal quarrel with Guthrun (cf. Gripisspo, 45 and note) revealed to her the deceit whereby she had been won, or it may refer to the version of the story which appears in stanzas 32–39, wherein Brynhild lived happily with Atli, her brother, until he was attacked by Gunnar and Sigurth, and was compelled to give his sister to Gunnar, winning her consent thereto by representing Gunnar as Sigurth, her chosen hero (cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 24 and note). The manuscript marks line 4 as the beginning of a new stanza, and many editors combine it with stanza 6.
6. Brynhild has now discovered the deceit that has been practised on her. That she had loved Sigurth from the outset (cf. stanza 40) fits well with the version of the story wherein Sigurth meets her before he comes to Gunnar’s home (the version not used in this poem), or the one outlined in the note on stanza 5, but does not accord with the story of Sigurth’s first meeting Brynhild in Gunnar’s form—an added reason for believing that the poet in stanzas 5–6 had in mind the story represented by stanzas 32–39. The hero: the manuscript originally had the phrase thus, then corrected it to “though I die,” and finally crossed out the correction. Many editions have “I.”
7. Perhaps a line is missing after line 3.
8. Glacier: a bit of Icelandic (or Greenland) local color.
9. Line 1 does not appear in the manuscript, and is based on a conjecture by Bugge. Some editions add line 2 to stanza 8. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza, and some editors assume a gap of two lines after line 4. Hunnish king: cf. stanza 4.
10. Lands: Brynhild’s wealth again points to the story represented by stanzas 32–39; elsewhere she is not spoken of as bringing wealth to Gunnar.
11. Line 5, or perhaps line 3, may be interpolated.
12. The son: the three-year-old son of Sigurth and Guthrun, Sigmund, who was killed at Brynhild’s behest.
13. This stanza has been the subject of many conjectural emendations. Some editions assume a gap after line 2, and make a separate stanza of lines 3–7; others mark lines 5–7 as spurious. The stanza seems to have been expanded by repetition. Grief (line 1): the manuscript has “wrath,” involving a metrical error.
14. Bugge and Gering transfer lines 4–5 to the beginning of stanza 16, on the basis of the Volsungasaga paraphrase, and assume a gap of one line after line 3. Line 5, which is in the nature of a stereotyped clause, may well be interpolated.
15. After “Buthli” in line 2 the manuscript has “my brother,” apparently a scribal error. In line 4 the manuscript has “wealth” instead of “love,” apparently with stanza 10 in mind, but the Volsungasaga paraphrase has “love,” and many editors have suspected an error.
16. Cf. note on stanza 14. After thus adding lines 4–5 of stanza 14 at the beginning of stanza 16, Gering marks line 4 as probably spurious; others reject both lines 3 and 4 as mere repetitions. Rhine: the Rhine, the sands of which traditionally contained gold, was apparently the original home of the treasure of the Nibelungs, converted in the North to Andvari’s treasure (cf. Reginsmol, 1–9). That greed for Sigurth’s wealth was one of the motives for his slaying is indicated likewise in Guthrunarkvitha I, 20, and in the German versions of the story.
18. We four: if line 1 of stanza 19 is spurious, or the reference therein to “five” is a blunder, as may well be the case, then the “four” are Sigurth and the three brothers, Gunnar, Hogni, and Gotthorm. But it may be that the poet had in mind a tradition which, as in the Thithrekssaga, gave Gjuki a fourth son, in which case the “four” refers only to the four Gjukungs. Hunnish hero: Sigurth; cf. stanza 4 and note. Some editions put line 4 between lines 1 and 2. Some add lines 1–2 of stanza 19 to stanza 18, marking them as spurious.
19. We five: see note on preceding stanza. Some editors mark lines 1–2 as spurious, and either assume a gap of two lines after line 4 or combine lines 3–4 with stanza 20. Whence lead the ways: a proverbial expression signifying “whence the trouble comes.”
20. The manuscript does not name the speaker. Gotthorm (the name is variously spelt): half-brother of Gunnar and Hogni (cf. Hyndluljoth, 27 and note, and Brot, 4 and note). The name is the northern form of Gundomar; a prince of this name is mentioned in the Lex Burgundionum, apparently as a brother of Gundahari (Gundicarius). In the Nibelungenlied the third brother is called Gernot.
21. No gap is indicated in the manuscript, and many editors combine stanza 21 with stanza 22, but it seems likely that not only two lines, but one or more stanzas in addition, have been lost; cf. Brot, 4, and also the detailed account of the slaying of Sigurth in the Volsungasaga, wherein, as here, Sigurth is killed in his bed (cf. stanza 24) and not in the forest.
22. Some editions combine lines 3–4 with stanza 23. Gram: Sigurth’s sword (cf. Reginsmol, prose after stanza 14); the word here, however, may not be a proper name, but may mean “the hero.”
23. A line may well have been lost from this stanza.
24. Freyr: if the phrase “the friend of Freyr” means anything more than “king” (cf. Rigsthula, 46 etc.), which I doubt, it has reference to the late tradition that Freyr, and not Othin, was the ancestor of the Volsungs (cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 57 and note).
25. Müllenhoff thinks this stanza, or at any rate lines 1–2, a later addition based on stanza 29.
26. My son: Sigmund; cf. stanza 12 and note, and also Brot, 9 and note.
27. Sigurth means that although Guthrun may have seven sons by a later marriage, none of them will equal Sigmund, “son of their (i.e., Gunnar’s and Hogni’s) sister.” Thing: council.
28. Sigurth’s protestation of guiltlessness fits perfectly with the story of his relations with Brynhild used in this poem, but not, of course, with the alternative version, used in the Gripisspo and elsewhere, wherein Sigurth meets Brynhild before he woos her for Gunnar, and they have a daughter, Aslaug.
30. Cf. Brot, 10.
31. Line 1 may well be a mere expansion of “Gunnar spake.” The manuscript marks line 4 as the beginning of a new stanza, and some editions combine lines 4–5 with stanza 32.
32. This stanza, which all editors have accepted as an integral part of the poem, apparently refers to the same story represented by stanzas 37–39, which most editors have (I believe mistakenly) marked as interpolated. As is pointed out in the notes on stanzas 3, 5, 6 and 10, the poet throughout seems to have accepted the version of the story wherein Gunnar and Sigurth besiege Atli, and are bought off by the gift of Atli’s sister, Brynhild, to Gunnar as wife, her consent being won by Atli’s representation that Gunnar is Sigurth (cf. also Guthrunarkvitha I, 24 and note).
33. The manuscript does not name the speaker, and some editions add a first line: “Then Brynhild, daughter | of Buthli, spake.”
34. Cf. stanza 5.
35. Three kings: Gunnar, Hogni, and Sigurth.
36. Some editions place this stanza after stanza 39, on the theory that stanzas 37–39 are interpolated. Line 4, as virtually a repetition of line 3, has generally been marked as spurious. In this version of the winning of Brynhild it appears that Atli pointed out Sigurth as Gunnar, and Brynhild promptly fell in love with the hero whom, as he rode on Grani and was decked with some of the spoils taken from Fafnir, she recognized as the dragon’s slayer. Thus no change of form between Sigurth and Gunnar was necessary. The oath to marry Gunnar had to be carried out even after Brynhild had discovered the deception.
37. Most editors mark stanzas 37–39 as interpolated, but cf. note on stanza 32. Stanza 37 has been variously emended. Lines 4 and 6 look like interpolated repetitions, but many editors make two stanzas, following the manuscript in beginning a new stanza with line 4. After line 1 Grundtvig adds: “Son of Buthli, | and brother of mine.” After line 6 Bugge adds: “Not thou was it, Gunnar, | who Grani rode, / Though thou my brother | with rings didst buy.” Regarding Brynhild’s wealth cf. stanza 10 and note.
38. Brynhild here again appears as a Valkyrie. The manuscript marks line 4 as the beginning of a new stanza. Any one of the last three lines may be spurious.