The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Saemund Sigfusson and Snorre Sturleson

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45. Then she went out, not gently moved the doors; went forth, void
of fear, and the comers hailed, turned to the Niflungs: that was her
last greeting, truth attended it; more words she said:

46. "I sought by symbols to prevent your leaving home,--fate may no
one resist--and yet must you come hither." Wisely she asked: might
they not be appeased? No one consented, all answered no.

47. Saw then the high-born lady that a hard game they played; a
deadly deed she meditated, and her robe dashed aside, a naked falchion
seized, and her kinsmen's lives defended: skilful she was in warfare,
where her hand she applied.

48. Giuki's daughter caused two warriors to fall; Atli's brother she
struck down,--he must henceforth be borne--so she the conflict
managed, that she his foot struck off. Another too she smote, so that
he never rose, to Hel she sent him: her hand trembled not.

49. A conflict then ensued, which was widely famed, but that
excelled all else which Giuki's sons performed. So 'tis said the
Niflungs, while yet they lived, with swords maintained the fight,
corslets rent, helmets hewed, as their hearts prompted.

50. At morning most they fought, until mid-day had passed; all early
morn, and the forenoon, ere the fight was ended, the field flowed with
blood, until eighteen had fallen: Bera's two sons, and her brother,
had them overcome.

51. Then the fierce Atli spoke, wroth though he was: "'Tis ill to
look around; this is long of you. We were thirty warlike thanes,
eleven survive: the chasm is too great. We were five brothers, when
Budli died; now has Hel the half, two lie slain.

52. "A great affinity I obtained, that I cannot deny, pernicious
woman! of which I have no benefit: peace we have seldom had, since
thou among us camest. Of kinsmen ye have bereft me, of riches often
wronged. To Hel my sister ye have sent; that is to me most bitter."

_Gudrun_.

53. "This thou callest to mind, Atli! but thou so first didst act:
my mother thou didst take, and for her treasures murder; my gifted
niece with hunger thou didst cause to perish. Laughable to me it
seems, when thou sorrows dost recount. The gods are to be thanked,
that it goes ill with thee."

_Atli_.

54. Jarls! I exhort you the sorrow to augment of that presumptuous
woman: I would fain see it. Strive so to do, that Gudrun may lament.
Might I but see that in her lot she joys not!

55. Take ye Hogni, and with a knife hack him: cut out his heart:
this ye shall do. Gunnar the fierce of soul to a gallows fasten; do
the work thoroughly, lure up the serpents.

_Hogni_.

56. Do as thou listest, glad I will await it; stout I shall prove
myself: I have ere now things much harder proved. Ye had a hindrance
while unscathed we were: now are we so wounded that our fate thou
mayest command.

57. Beiti spake,--he was Atli's steward--Take we Hialli, but Hogni
let us save. Let us do half the work; he is death-worthy. As long as
he lives a slug he will ever be.

58. Terrified was the kettle-watcher, the place no longer held him:
he could be a whiner, he clomb into every nook: their conflict was his
bane, as he the penalty must pay; and the day sad, when he must from
the swine die, from all good things, which he had enjoyed.

59. Budli's cook they took, and the knife brought towards him.
Howled the wretched thrall, ere the point he felt; declared that he
had time the gardens to manure, the vilest offices to do, if from
death he might escape. Joyful indeed was Hialli, could he but save his
life.

60. Hogni all this observed--few so act, as for a slave to
intercede, that he may escape!--"Less 'tis, I say, for me to play this
game myself. Why shall we here desire to listen to that screaming?"

61. Hands on the good prince they laid. Then was no option for the
bold warriors, the sentence longer to delay. Then laughed Hogni;
heard the sons of day how he could hold out: torment he well endured!

62. A harp Gunnar took, with his foot-branches touched it. He could
so strike it, that women wept, and the men sobbed, who best could hear
it. He the noble queen counselled: the rafters burst asunder.

63. There died the noble, as the dawn of day; at the last they
caused their deeds to live.

64. Atli thought himself great: over them both he strode, to the
sagacious woman told the evil, and bitterly reproached her. "It is now
morning, Gudrun! thy loved ones thou hast lost; partly thou art the
cause that it has so befallen."

_Gudrun_.

65. Joyful art thou, Atli! slaughter to announce: repentance shall
await thee, when thou hast all proved. That heritage shall be left
thee--that I can tell thee--that ill shall never from thee go, unless
I also die.

_Atli_.

66. That I can prevent; another course I see, easier by half: the
good we oft reject. With slaves I will console thee, with things most
precious, with snow-white silver, as thou thyself mayest desire.

_Gudrun_.

67. Of that there is _no_ hope; I will all reject; atonement I have
spurned for smaller injuries. Hard I was ever thought, now will that
be aggravated. I every grudge concealed, while Hogni lived.

68. We were both nurtured in one house; many a play we played, and
in the wood grew up; Grimhild us adorned with gold and necklaces; for
my brothers' death never wilt thou indemnify me, nor ever do what
shall to me seem good.

69. Mens' too great power women's lot oppresses; on the knee the
hand sinks, if the arms wither; the tree inclines, if its root-fibres
are severed. Now, Atli! thou mayest alone over all here command.

70. Most unwise it was, when to this the prince gave credit: the
guile was manifest, had he been on his guard. Dissembling then was
Gudrun, against her heart she could speak, made herself gay appear,
with two shields she played.[114]

71. A banquet she would prepare, her brothers' funeral feast; the
same would Atli also for his own do.

72. With this they ended; the banquet was prepared; the feasting was
too luxurious. The woman great of heart was stern, she warred on
Budli's race; on her spouse she would cruel vengeance wreak.

73. The young ones she enticed, and on a block laid them, the fierce
babes were terrified, and wept not, to their mother's bosom crept,
asked what she was going to do.

74. "Ask no questions, both I intend to kill; long have I desired to
cut short your days."

75. "Slay as thou wilt thy children, no one hinders it; thy rage
will have short peace, if thou destroyest us in our blooming years,
thou desperate woman!" It fell out accordingly: she cut the throats of
both.

76. Atli oft inquired whither his boys were gone to play, as he
nowhere saw them?

_Gudrun._

77. Over I am resolved to go, and to Atli tell it. Grimhild's
daughter will not conceal it from thee. Little glad, Atli! wilt thou
be, when all thou learnest; great woe didst thou raise up, when thou
my brother slewest.

78. Very seldom have I slept since they fell. Bitterly I threatened
thee: now I have reminded thee. "It is now morning," saidst thou: I
yet it well remember; and it now is eve, when thou the like shalt
learn.

79. Thou thy sons hast lost, as thou least shouldest; know that
their skulls thou hast had for beer-cups; thy drink I prepared, I
their red blood have shed.

80. I their hearts took, and on a spit staked them, then to thee
gave them. I said they were of calves,--it was long of thee
alone--thou didst leave none, voraciously didst devour, well didst ply
thy teeth.

81. Thy children's fate thou knowest, few a worse awaits. I have my
part performed, though in it glory not.

_Atli._

82. Cruel wast thou, Gudrun! who couldst so act, with thy children's
blood my drink to mingle. Thou hast destroyed thy offspring, as thou
least shouldest; and to myself thou leavest a short interval from ill.

_Gudrun._

83. I could still desire thyself to slay; rarely too ill it fares
with such a prince. Thou hast already perpetrated crimes unexampled
among men of frantic cruelty, in this world: now thou hast added what
we have just witnessed. A great misdeed hast thou committed, thy
death-feast thou hast prepared.

_Atli._

84. On the pile thou shalt be burnt, but first be stoned; then wilt
thou have earned what thou hast ever sought.

_Gudrun._

85. Tell to thyself such griefs early to-morrow: by a fairer death I
will pass to another light.

86. In the same hall they sat, exchanged hostile thoughts, bandied
words of hate: each was ill at ease.

87. Hate waxed in a Hniflung, a great deed he meditated; to Gudrun
he declared that he was Atli's deadly foe.

88. Into her mind came Hogni's treatment; happy she him accounted,
if he vengeance wreaked. Then was Atli slain, within a little space;
Hogni's son him slew, and Gudrun herself.

89. The bold king spake, roused up from sleep; quickly he felt the
wounds, said he no binding needed. "Tell me most truly who has slain
Budli's son. I am hardly treated: of life I have no hope."

_Gudrun._

90. I, Grimhild's daughter, will not from thee hide, that I am the
cause that thy life passes away; but partly Hogni's son, that thy
wounds make thee faint.

_Atli._

91. To the slaughter thou hast rushed, although it ill beseemed
thee; 'tis bad to circumvent a friend, who well confided in thee.
Besought I went from home, to woo thee, Gudrun!

92. A widow thou was left, fierce thou wast accounted, which was no
falsehood, as we have proved. Hither home thou earnest, us a host of
men attended; all was splendid on our journey.

93. Pomp of all kinds was there, of illustrious men, beeves in
abundance: largely we enjoyed them. Of all things there was plenty
partaken of by many.

94. A marriage gift to my bride I gave, treasures for her
acceptance, thralls thrice ten, seven fair female slaves: in such
things was honour; silver there was yet more.

95. All seemed to thee as it were naught, while the lands untouched
lay, which Budli had left me. So didst thou undermine, dist allow me
nothing to receive. Thou didst my mother let often sit weeping: with
heart content I found not one of my household after.

_Gudrun._

96. Now, Atli! thou liest, though of that I little reck. Gentle I
seldom was, yet didst thou greatly aggravate it. Young brothers ye
fought together, among yourselves contended; to Hel went the half from
thy house: all went to ruin that should be for benefit.

97. Brothers and sisters we were three, we thought ourselves
invincible: from the land we departed, we followed Sigurd. We roved
about, each steered a ship; seeking luck we went, till to the east we
came.

98. The chief king we slew, there a land obtained, the "hersar"
yielded to us; that manifested fear. We from the forest freed him whom
we wished harmless, raised him to prosperity who nothing had
possessed.

99. The Hun king[115] died, then suddenly my fortune changed: great
was the young wife's grief, the widow's lot was hers. A torment to me
it seemed to come living to the house of Atli. A hero had possessed
me: sad was that loss!

100. Thou didst never from a contest come, as we had heard, where
thou didst gain thy cause, or others overcome; ever wouldst thou give
way, and never stand, lettest all pass off quietly, as ill beseemed a
king.

_Atli._

101. Gudrun! now thou liest. Little will be bettered the lot of
either: we have all suffered. Now act thou, Gudrun! of thy goodness,
and for our honour, when I forth am borne.

_Gudrun._

102. I a ship will buy, and a painted cist;[116] will the
winding-sheet well wax, to enwrap thy corpse; will think of every
requisite, as if we had each other loved.

103. Atli was now a corpse, lament from his kin arose: the
illustrious woman did all she had promised. The wise woman would go to
destroy herself; her days were lengthened: she died another time.

104. Happy is every one hereafter who shall give birth to such a
daughter famed for deeds, as Giuki begat: ever will live, in every
land, their oft-told tale, wherever people shall give ear.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 109: The messengers.]

[Footnote 110: It would seem that the original runes, as graved by
Gudrun, had not been so completely erased as to leave no traces of
them; but that they were still sufficiently legible to enable Kostbera
to ascertain the real purport of the communication.]

[Footnote 111: Ham (hamr. _fem._ hamingia) a guardian angel, an
attendant spirit.]

[Footnote 112: Here a gallows in our sense of the word, but usually a
stake on a scaffold, to which the condemned to a death of torture was
bound hand and foot.]

[Footnote 113: So great was their haste to land.]

[Footnote 114: She played a double game.]

[Footnote 115: Sigurd.]

[Footnote 116: The ancient usage of laying the body in a ship and
sending it adrift, seems inconsistent with the later custom of
depositing it in a cist or coffin.]

GUDRUN'S INCITEMENT.

Having slain Atli, Gudrun went to the sea-shore. She went out into the
sea, and would destroy herself, but could not sink. She was borne
across the firth to the land of King Jonakr, who married her. Their
sons were Sorii, Erp, and Hamdir. There was reared up Svanhild, the
daughter of Sigurd. She was given in marriage to Jormunrek the
Powerful. With him lived Bikki, who counselled Randver, the king's
son, to take her. Bikki told that to the king, who caused Randver to
be hanged, and Svanhild trodden under horses' feet. When Gudrun heard
of this she said to her sons:--

1. Then heard I tell of quarrels dire, hard sayings uttered from
great affliction, when her sons the fierce-hearted Gudrun, in deadly
words, to slaughter instigated.

2. "Why sit ye here? why sleep life away? why does it pain you not
joyous words to speak, now Jormunrek your sister young in years has
with horses trodden, white and black, in the public way, with grey and
way-wont Gothic steeds?

3. Ye are not like to Gunnar and the others, nor of soul so valiant
as Hogni was. Her ye should seek to avenge, if ye had the courage of
my brothers, or the fierce spirit of the Hunnish kings."

4. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "Little didst thou care
Hogni's deed to praise, when Sigurd he from sleep awaked. Thy
blue-white bed-clothes were red with thy husband's gore, with
death-blood covered.

5. "For thy brothers thou didst o'er-hasty vengeance take, dire and
bitter, when thou thy sons didst murder. We young ones[117] could on
Jormunrek, acting all together, have avenged our sister.

6. "Bring forth the arms of the Hunnish kings: thou hast us
stimulated to a sword-mote."

7. Laughing Gudrun to the storehouse turned, the kings' crested
helms from the coffers drew, their ample corslets, and to her sons
them bore. The young heroes loaded their horses' shoulders.

8. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "So will no more come his
mother to see, the warrior felled in the Gothic land, so that thou the
funeral-beer after us all may drink, after Svanhild and thy sons."

9. Weeping Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, sorrowing went, to sit in the
fore-court, and to recount, with tear-worn cheeks, sad of soul, her
calamities, in many ways.

10. "Three fires I have known, three hearths I have known, of three
consorts I have been borne to the house. Sigurd alone to me was better
than all, of whom my brothers were the murderers.

11. "Of my painful wounds I might not complain; yet they even more
seemed to afflict me, when those chieftains to Atli gave me.

12. "My bright boys I called to speak with me; for my injuries I
could not get revenge, ere I had severed the Hniflungs' heads.

13. "To the sea-shore I went, against the Norns I was embittered; I
would cast off their persecution; bore, and submerged me not the
towering billows; up on land I rose, because I was to live.

14. "To the nuptial couch I went--as I thought better for me,--for
the third time, with a mighty king. I brought forth offspring,
guardians of the heritage, guardians of the heritage, Jonakr's sons.

15. "But around Svanhild bond-maidens sat; of all my children her I
loved the best. Svanhild was, in my hall, as was the sun-beam, fair to
behold.

16. "I with gold adorned her, and with fine raiment, before I gave
her to the Gothic people. That is to me the hardest of all my woes,
that Svanhild's beauteous locks should in the mire be trodden under
horses' feet.

17. "But that was yet more painful, when my Sigurd they ingloriously
slew in his bed; though of all most cruel, when of Gunnar the
glistening serpents to the vitals crawled; but the most agonizing,
which to my heart flew, when the brave king's heart they while quick
cut out.

18. "Many griefs I call to memory, many ills I call to memory.
Guide, Sigurd! thy black steed, thy swift courser, hither let it run.
Here sits no son's wife, no daughter, who to Gudrun precious things
may give.

19. "Remember, Sigurd! what we together said, when on our bed we
both were sitting, that thou, brave one, wouldst come to me from Hel's
abode, but I from the world to thee.

20. "Raise, ye Jarls! an oaken pile; let it under heaven the highest
be. May it burn a breast full of woes! the fire round my heart its
sorrows melt!"

21. May all men's lot be bettered, all women's sorrow lessened, to
whom this tale of woes shall be recounted.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 117: Themselves and the two sons of Atli.]

THE LAY OF HAMDIR.

1. In that court[118] arose woeful deeds, at the Alfar's doleful
lament;[119] at early morn, men's afflictions, troubles of various
kinds; sorrows were quickened.

2. It was not now, nor yesterday, a long time since has passed
away,--few things are more ancient, it was by much earlier--when
Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, her young sons instigated Svanhild to
avenge.

3. "She was your sister, her name Svanhild, she whom Jormunrek with
horses trod to death, white and black, on the public way, with grey
and way-wont Gothic steeds.

4. "Thenceforth all is sad to you, kings of people! Ye alone
survive,

5. "Branches of my race. Lonely I am become, as the asp-tree in the
forest, of kindred bereft, as the fir of branches; of joy deprived, as
is the tree of foliage, when the branch-spoiler comes in the warm
day."

6. Then spake Hamdir, the great of soul, "Little, Gudrun! didst thou
care Hogni's deed to praise, when Sigurd they from sleep awaked On the
bed thou satst, and the murderers laughed.

7. "Thy bed-clothes, blue and white, woven by cunning hands, swam in
thy husband's gore. When Sigurd perished, o'er the dead thou satst,
caredst not for mirth--so Gunnar willed it.

8. "Atli thou wouldst afflict by Erp's murder, and by Eitil's life's
destruction: that proved for thyself the worse: therefore should every
one so against others use, for life's destruction, a sharp-biting
sword, that he harm not himself."

9. Then said Sorli--he had a prudent mind--"I with my mother will
not speeches exchange: though words to each of you to me seem wanting.
What, Gudrun! dost thou desire, which for tears thou canst not utter?

10. "For thy brothers weep, and thy dear sons, thy nearest kin,
drawn to the strife: for us both shalt thou, Gudrun! also have to
weep, who here sit fated on our steeds, far away to die."

11. From the court they went, for conflict ready. The young men
journeyed over humid fells, on Hunnish steeds, murder to avenge.

12. Then said Erp, all at once--the noble youth was joking on his
horse's back--"Ill 'tis to a timid man to point out the ways." They
said the bastard[120] was over bold.

13. On their way they had found the wily jester. "How will the
swarthy dwarf afford us aid?"

14. He of another mother answered: so he said aid he would to his
kin afford, as one foot to the other[121] [or, grown to the body, one
hand the other].

15. "What can a foot to a foot give; or, grown to the body, one hand
the other?"

16. From the sheath they drew the iron blade, the falchion's edges,
for Hel's delight. They their strength diminished by a third part,
they their young kinsman caused to earth to sink.

17. Their mantles then they shook, their weapons grasped; the
high-born were clad in sumptuous raiment.

18. Forward lay the ways, a woeful path they found, and their
sister's son wounded on a gibbet, wind-cold outlaw-trees,[122] on the
town's west. Ever vibrated the ravens' whet: there to tarry was not
good.

19. Uproar was in the hall, men were with drink excited, so that the
horses' tramp no one heard, until a mindful man winded his horn.

20. To announce they went to Jormunrek that were seen helm-decked
warriors. "Take ye counsel, potent ones are come; before mighty men ye
have on a damsel trampled."

21. Then laughed Jormunrek, with his hand stroked his beard, asked
not for his corslet; with wine he struggled, shook his dark locks, on
his white shield looked, and in his hand swung the golden cup.

22. "Happy should I seem, if I could see Hamdir and Sorli within my
hall. I would them then with bowstrings bind, the good sons of Giuki
on the gallows hang."

23. Then said Hrodrglod, on the high steps standing; "Prince" said
she to her son--for that was threatened which ought not to
happen--"shall two men alone bind or slay ten hundred Goths in this
lofty burgh?"

24. Tumult was in the mansion, the beer-cups flew in shivers, men
lay in blood from the Goths' breasts flowing.

25. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "Jormunrek! thou didst
desire our coming, brothers of one mother, into thy burgh:[123] now
seest thou thy feet, seest thy hands Jormunrek! cast into the glowing
fire."

26. Then roared forth a godlike[124] mail-clad warrior, as a bear
roars: "On the men hurl stones, since spears bite not, nor edge of
sword, nor point, the sons of Jonakr."

27. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "Harm didst thou, brother!
when thou that mouth didst ope. Oft from that mouth bad counsel
comes."

28. "Courage hast thou, Hamdir! if only thou hadst sense: that man
lacks much who wisdom lacks.

29. "Off would the head now be, had but Erp lived, our brother bold
in fight, whom on the way we slew, that warrior brave--me the Disir
instigated--that man sacred to us, whom we resolved to slay.

30. "I ween not that ours should be the wolves' example, that with
ourselves we should contend, like the Norns' dogs, that voracious are
in the desert nurtured."

31. "Well have we fought, on slaughtered Goths we stand, on those
fallen by the sword, like eagles on a branch. Great glory we have
gained, though now or to-morrow we shall die. No one lives till eve
against the Norns' decree."

33. There fell Sorli, at the mansion's front; but Hamdir sank at the
house's back.

This is called the Old Lay of Hamdir.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 118: See Str. 10, and Ghv. 9, and. Luning, Glossar.]

[Footnote 119: "The Alfar's Lament" is the early dawn, and is in
apposition to "early morn," in the following line. The swart Alfar are
meant, who were turned to stone if they did not flee from the light of
day. This is the best interpretation I can offer of this obscure
strophe.]

[Footnote 120: In this and the four following strophes the person
alluded to is their half-brother Erp, of whose story nothing more is
known. He, it appears, had preceded or outridden the others.]

[Footnote 121: Malmesbury relates a similar story of King AEthelstan
and his cupbearer.]

[Footnote 122: Lit. wolf-trees; a fugitive criminal being called vargr
_wolf_.]

[Footnote 123: According to the Skalda It would appear that they cut
off his hands and feet while he was asleep. Erp, had they not murdered
him, was to have cut off his head.]

[Footnote 124: Odin, as in the battle of Bravalla.]

THE YOUNGER EDDAS OF STURLESON.

THE DELUDING OF GYLFI.

GEFJON'S PLOUGHING.[125]

1. King Gylfi ruled over the land which is now called Svithiod
(Sweden). It is related of him that he once gave a wayfaring woman, as
a recompense for her having diverted him, as much land in his realm as
she could plough with four oxen in a day and a night. This woman was,
however, of the race of the AEsir, and was called Gefjon. She took four
oxen from the north, out of Jotunheim (but they were the sons she had
had with a giant), and set them before a plough. Now the plough made
such deep furrows that it tore up the land, which the oxen drew
westward out to sea until they came to a sound. There Gefjon fixed the
land, and called it Saelund. And the place where the land had stood
became water, and formed a lake which is now called "The Water"
(Laugur), and the inlets of this lake correspond exactly with the
headlands of Sealund. As Skald Bragi the Old saith:--

"Gefjon drew from Gylfi,
Rich in stored up treasure,
The land she joined to Denmark.
Four heads and eight eyes bearing,
While hot sweat trickled down them,
The oxen dragged the reft mass
That formed this winsome island."

GYLFI'S JOURNEY TO ASGARD.

2. King Gylfi was renowned for his wisdom and skill in magic. He
beheld with astonishment that whatever the AEsir willed took place; and
was at a loss whether to attribute their success to the superiority of
their natural abilities, or to a power imparted to them by the mighty
gods whom they worshipped. To be satisfied in this particular, he
resolved to go to Asgard, and, taking upon himself the likeness of an
old man, set out on his journey. But th AEsir, being too well skilled
in divination not to foresee his design, prepared to receive him with
various illusions. On entering the city Gylfi saw a very lofty
mansion, the roof of which, as far as his eye could reach, was covered
with golden shields. Thiodolf of Hvina thus alludes to Valhalla being
roofed with shields.

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