Helreið Brynhildar:
Brynhild's Hel Ride
from Norse Poems

Translated by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor


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After the death of Brunhild, two pyres were laid: one for Sigurd, which was ignited first; on the other, Brunhild was burnt, atop a hearse covered with a rich cloth. It is told how Brunhild rode the hearse down the Hel-way, and passed the house of a giantess. The giantess said:

1

'Depart! You shall not pass through
My tall gates of towering stone:
It befits a wife to wind yarn,
Not to know another's husband.

2

'To what end, woman from Gaul,
False of heart, would you enter my realm?
Fair woman, if you want the truth,
You have bathed your hands in the blood of men.'

3

'Bar me not, bride of stone-elves!
They think me the higher, those who know
Both our births, better than you.'

4

'You were born, Brunhild, Budli's daughter,
Of all women the worst fated,
Brought sorrow and death to the Sons of Gjuki,
Down to nothing their noble house.'

5

'I shall tell you, giantess, joyless news,
News of the worst, if you want the truth:
Gjuki's Sons by guile made me
A loveless bride, a breaker of oaths.

6

'Hild-under-helm they all called me,
All who knew me in Hlymdale,
Where, under the oak, over eight sisters
Valfather flung feathered cloaks.
Twelve winters I knew, if you want the truth,
When I plighted my troth to the peerless warnor.

7

'Hjalm-Gunnar to Hel sent
The old Goth, when I gave victory
To young Agnar, Auth as Brother:
Angry with me was Odin for that.

8

'He scarfed me in shields on Skatalund,
Red and white ones, their rims interlocked,
With a sleep-spell bound me, and bade Tree-Foe
Burn all about the bed where I lay.

9

'Then the hero, the thane who never
Had felt fear, through the flames rode
To fetch thence Fafnir's Hoard
And rouse me at last from my long sleep.

10

'On Grani he rode, the gold-sharer,
To the Hall where my foster-father ruled:
In the King's host, he was counted best,
Viking of the Danes, most valiant of all.

11

'In a single bed we slept and were happy:
As if we had been brother and sister,
Neither laid a lustful hand
Upon the other for eight nights.

12

'Then Gjuki's daughter, Gudrun, mocked me,
Said I had slept in Sigurd's arms:
I found then, what I fain would have not,
That through a trick I had taken a husband.

13

'Men and women on Middle Earth
Must contend with grief and for too long:
Never shall Sigurd be sundered from me
None shall unjoin us. Giantess, yield!'



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From Norse Poems,
Translated by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor
Faber and Faber Ltd.,
ISBN 0-571-13028-3

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Notes

6 The eight sisters are Brynhild's valkyrie sisters.

8 Tree-Foe is a kenning for fire.

9 Fafmr's Hoard is the gold hiden by the river Rhine.

 

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