Guðrúnarkviða III

Guðrúnarkviða III
The Third Lay of Guthrún

Translation by Lee M. Hollander of Guðrúnarkviða III
in the Poetic Edda, from which the following is taken.

Introduction

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Herkja 1 was the name of one of Atli's bondmaidens. She had been his leman. She told Atli that she had seen Thjóthrek and Guthrún together. This made Atli very downcast.

1

Then said Guthrún:
"What is it, Atli, that aileth thee?
Art sad in mind? Why smil'st thou never?
'Twould seem better to barons in hall
if thou spak'st to men and on me didst look."

2

Atli said:
"I grieve, Guthrún, Gjuki's daughter,
o'er what in hall Herkja told me:
that thou with Thjóthrek, Thjóthmar's 2 son,
hast lain in love 'neath linen cover."

3

Guthrún said:
"I swear to thee all sacred oaths
upon the white and hallowed stone: 3
that we twain never and nowise did
what for maid and man is unmeet to do.

4

"I never kissed 4 the Gothic king,
the noble warrior, one time even:
far other were our earnest words,
when full of sorrow we sate together. 5

5

"Thanes full thirty followed Thjóthrek hither:
none after liveth of all these men.
Of my brethren didst rob me, the byrnie-clad men,
didst rob me of all my next of kin.

6

6 "Gone is Gunnar, nor greet I Hogni;
I will see no more my sweet brethren twain;
with his sword would Hogni this slur avenge-
now myself I must of this sin clear me.

7

"Send for Saxi, 7 the Southron lord,
for he can bless the boiling kettle."
In hall foregathered seven hundred thanes
when Atli's queen to the kettle went.

8

To the bottom plunged she her bright forearm,
and out she fetched the flashing gems:
:behold, ye heroes, upheld my honor
by holy award, though the water boil."

9

Laughed the Hunnish king's heart in his breast,
when whole he saw the hands of Guthrún.
"Let Herkja come to the kettle now,
she who to Guthrún this grudge did bear."

10

No sadder sight was seen ever
than when Herkja's hands were wholy burnt.
To stinking moor was the maid then ta'en. 8
Thus was Guthrún all guiltless seen. 9

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The Poetic Edda
Translated by Lee M Hollander © 1962
ISBN 0-292-76499-5
LCCCN 61-10045
Fifth paperback printing 1994
University of Texas Press
Box 7819, Austin, Texas, 78713-7819

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Notes

1. Historically, Kreka. In the Nibelungenlied, Helche is the name of Atli's first wife.

2. Historically, Theodemer, who actually was in Attila's service.

3. Probably, a phallic symbol. Compare with the similar oath in "Helgakviða Hundings-bana, " II St. 30.

4. According to Sijmons' emendation.

5. See "Guðrúnarkviða," II, Introductory Prose.

6. The sequence in the original is St.7, St. 6.

7. "The Saxon," that is, German.

8. This is the Old Germanic mode of capital punishment for women.

9. Translated ad sensum.

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Introduction

The legend, fairly current in Germany, of a queen who is falsely accused of adultery, and clears herself by the ordeal is here amalgamated with the Niflung story, showing Guthrún in a role which but ill agrees with the generally accepted turn that she slays Atli immediately after the fall of her brothers. No wonder the lay is not used in the Völsunga saga.
Apparently, the poem is wholly Christian and Medieval in spirit; but only apparently: the oath "upon the white and hallowed stone" and the punishment allotted Herkja point in the very opposite direction. We know that the ordeal of boiling water was introduced from Germany into Norway at the begining of the eleventh century, during the reign of Ólaf the Saint; but in the poem it is still regarded as a new and foreign practice requiring the ministration of a "Saxon." Neither language nor versification affords a clue. However, we shall probably not err greatly in suspecting the pleasing little poem to be the work of an Icelander of say, the late twelfth century who cleverly counterfeited the earlier manner.

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