The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson Part 46

24. Many things said my relations; declared they had surprised us both together; but Atli said, that I would not crime commit, nor scandal perpetrate. But such should no one for another ever deny, when love has part.

25. Atli sent his emissaries about the Murkwood, that he might prove me; and they came to where they ought not to have come, to where we had one couch prepared.

26. To the men we offered red-gold rings, that they it might not to Atli tell; but they forthwith hastened home, and it quickly to Atli told.

27. But they from Gudrun carefully concealed it, yet rather by half she should have known it.[95]

28. A sound was heard of gold-shod hoofs, when into the court rode Giuki's heirs. * * * Of Hogni they the heart cut out, and into a serpent-pen the other cast.

29. I had gone yet once again to Geirmund, to prepare a banquet. * *

* The brave king[96] began the harp to sound; for the prince of n.o.ble race hoped that I to his aid might come.

30. I it heard from Hlesey, how of trouble there the harp-strings sang.

31. I my thralls bade all be ready: I the prince's life would save.

The vessel we let float past the forest,[97] until I saw all Atli's courts.

32. Then came Atli's miserable mother crawling forth:--may she peris.h.!.+--she Gunnar pierced to the heart; so that the hero I could not save.

33. Oftentimes I wonder, woman gold-adorned![98] how I after can life retain; for I seemed the formidable sword-dispenser as myself to love:

34. Thou sitst and listenest, while I recount to thee many an evil fate, my own and theirs." Each one lives as he best may. Now is ended _Oddrun's lament_.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 93: For Brynhild's death.]

[Footnote 94: Gunnar.]

[Footnote 95: From here the narrative appears to be very fragmentary.]

[Footnote 96: Gunnar while in the serpent-pen.]

[Footnote 97: For "lund" (_forest, wood_), which is the reading of the MSS., the Copenhagen editor favors the correction to sund (a _sound_ or _strait, the Sound_)?]

[Footnote 98: Borgny.]

THE LAY OF ATLI.

Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, avenged her brothers, as is well known. She first killed Atli's sons, and afterwards Atli himself, and burnt the palace with all the household. On these events was this lay composed.

1. Atli sent riding a messenger to Gunnar, a crafty man, Knefrud was his name. To Giuki's courts he came, and to Gunnar's hall, to the seats of state,[99] and the glad potation:

2. There drank the courtiers wine in their Valhall--but the guileful ones[100] silence kept--the Huns' wrath they[101] feared. Then said Knefrud, with chilling voice:--the southern warrior on a high bench sat--

3. "Atli has sent me hither on his errand riding on a bit-griping steed, through the unknown Murkwood, to pray you, Gunnar! that to his bench ye come, with helms of state, Atli's home to visit.

4. "s.h.i.+elds ye there can choose, and smooth-shaven spears, gold-red helms, and of Huns a mult.i.tude, silver-gilt saddle-cloths, sarks gory-red, the dart's obstruction, and bit-griping steeds.

5. "The plain he will also give you, the broad Gnitaheid, whistling javelins, and gilded prows, vast treasures, and Danp's towns, with that famed forest, which men the Murkwood call."

6. Gunnar his head then turned, and to Hogni said: "What counselest thou, bold warrior? now suchlike we hear? Of no gold I knew on Gnita's heath, to which we possess not other equal.

7. "Seven halls have we filled with swords, of each of which the hilt is gold. My horse I know the best, and my sword the keenest; my bow adorns my seat, my corslets are of gold, my helm and s.h.i.+eld the brightest, brought from the hall of Kiar: mine alone are better than all the Hunnish ones.

8. "What thinkest thou the woman[102] means, by sending us a ring in a wolf's clothing wrapt? I think that she caution enjoins. Wolf's hair I found twined in the red-gold ring: wolfish is the way we on our errand ride."

9. No sons pursuaded Gunnar, nor other kinsman, interpreters nor counsellors, nor those who potent were. Then spake Gunnar, as beseemed a king, great in his mead-hall, from his large soul:

10. "Rise now up, Fiornir! let along the benches pa.s.s the golden cups of heroes, from the attendants' hands.

11. "The wolf shall rule the Niflungs' heritage, O bearded sages! if Gunnar perish; black-coated bears earth's fruit tear with their teeth, to the dogs' delight, if Gunnar come not back."

12. Honoured men, weeping led the land's ruler from the Huns'

court. Then said Hogni's youthful heir: "Go now, prudent and prosperous, whither your wishes lead."

13. The warriors made their bit-griping steeds over the mountains fly, through the unknown Murkwood. The whole Hunnish forest trembled where'er the warriors rode; over the shrubless, all-green plains they sped.

14. Atli's land they saw, and the high watch-towers; Bikki's people stood on that lofty fortress; the south people's hall was round with benches set, with well-bound bucklers, and white s.h.i.+elds, the javelin's obstruction. There Atli drank wine in his Valhall: his guards sat without, Gunnar and his men to watch, lest they there should come with yelling dart, to excite their prince to conflict.

15. Their sister forthwith saw, when the hall they had entered, her brothers both--beer had she little drunken--"Betrayed art thou now, Gunnar! though strong, how wilt thou contend with the Huns' deadly wiles? Go quickly from this hall!

16. "Better hadst thou, Gunnar! in corslet come, than with helm of state, to see the home of Atli; thou in the saddle wouldst have sat whole sun-bright days, and o'er the pallid dead let the Norns weep, the Hunnish s.h.i.+eld-maids misery suffer; but Atli himself thou shouldst into the serpent-pen have cast; but now the serpent-pen is for you two reserved."

17. "Sister! 'tis now too late the Niflungs to a.s.semble, long 'tis to seek the aid of men, of valiant heroes, over the rugged fells of Rhine."

18. Then the Burgundians' friends[103] Gunnar seized, in fetters laid, and him fast bound.

19. Hogni hewed down seven, with the keen sword, but the eighth he thrust into the raging fire. So should a valiant man defend himself from foes.

20. Hogni had Gunnar's hands[104] protected. The bold chief they asked, if the Goths' lord would with gold his life redeem?

21. "Hogni's heart in my hand shall lie, cut b.l.o.o.d.y from the breast of the valiant chief, the king's son, with a dull-edged knife." * * *

They the heart cut out from Hialli's breast; on a dish bleeding laid it, and it to Gunnar bare.

23. Then said Gunnar, lord of men: "Here have I the heart of the timid Hialli, unlike the heart of the bold Hogni; for much it trembles as in the dish it lies: it trembled more by half, while in his breast it lay."

24. Hogni laughed, when to his heart they cut the living crest-crasher; no lament uttered he. All bleeding on a dish they laid it, and it to Gunnar bare.

25. Calmly said Gunnar, the warrior Niflung: "Here have I the heart of the bold Hogni, unlike the heart of the timid Hialli; for it little trembles, as in the dish it lies: it trembled less, while in his breast it lay.

26. "So far shalt thou, Atli! be from the eyes of men as thou wilt from the treasures be. In my power alone is all the hidden Niflungs'

gold, now that Hogni lives not.

27. "Ever was I wavering, while we both lived; now am I so no longer, as I alone survive. Rhine shall possess men's baleful metal, the mighty stream, the As-known Niflungs' heritage. In the rolling water the choice rings shall glitter, rather than on the hands of the Huns' children s.h.i.+ne.