Guthrunarkvitha I

      Guthrun sat by the dead Sigurth; she did not weep as other women, but her
heart was near to bursting with grief. The men and women came to her to console
her, but that was not easy to do. It is told of men that Guthrun had eaten of
Fafnir’s heart, and that she understood the speech of birds. This is a poem
about Guthrun.

  1. Then did Guthrun	think to die,
  When she by Sigurth 	sorrowing sat;
  Tears she had not,	nor wrung her hands,
  Nor ever wailed,	as other women.

  To her the warriors	wise there came,
  Longing her heavy	woe to lighten;
  Grieving could not	Guthrun weep,
  So sad her heart,	it seemed, would break.

  Then the wives	of the warriors came,
  Gold-adorned,	and Guthrun sought;
  Each one then		of her own grief spoke,
  The bitterest pain	she had ever borne.

  Then spake Gjaflaug,	Gjuki’s sister:
  “Most joyless of all	on earth am I;
  Husbands five		were from me taken,
  (Two daughters then,	and sisters three,)
  Brothers eight,	yet I have lived.

  2. Grieving could not	Guthrun weep,
  Such grief she had	for her husband dead,
  And so grim her heart		by the hero’s body.

  3. Then Herborg spake, 		the queen of the Huns:
  “I have a greater	grief to tell;
  My seven sons	in the southern land,
  And my husband, fell	in fight all eight.
  (Father and mother	and brothers four
  Amid the waves	the wind once smote,
  And the seas crashed through		the sides of the ship.)

  4. “The bodies all	with my own hands then
  I decked for the grave,	and the dead I buried;
  A half-year brought me	this to bear;
  And no one came	to comfort me.

  5. “Then bound I was,	and taken in war,
  A sorrow yet	in the same half-year;
  They bade me deck	and bind the shoes
  Of the wife of the monarch	every morn.

  6. “In jealous rage	her wrath she spake,
  And beat me oft	with heavy blows;
  Never a better		lord I knew,
  And never a woman	worse I found.”

  7. Grieving could not	Guthrun weep,
  Such grief she had	for her husband dead,
  And so grim her heart		by the hero’s body.

  8. Then spake Gollrond,		Gjuki’s daughter:
  “Thy wisdom finds not,	my foster-mother,
  The way to comfort	the wife so young.”
  She bade them uncover	the warrior’s corpse.

  9. The shroud she lifted		from Sigurth, laying
  His well-loved head	on the knees of his wife:
  “Look on thy loved one,	and lay thy lips
  To his as if yet	the hero lived.”

  10. Once alone 	did Guthrun look;
  His hair all clotted	with blood beheld,
  The blinded eyes	that once shone bright,
  The hero’s breast 	that the blade had pierced.

  11. Then Guthrun bent,	on her pillow bowed,
  Her hair was loosened,	her cheek was hot,
  And the tears like raindrops	downward ran.

  12. Then Guthrun, daughter 	of Gjuki, wept,
  And through her tresses	flowed the tears;
  And from the court	came the cry of geese,
  The birds so fair	of the hero’s bride.

  Then Gollrond spake,		the daughter of Gjuki:
  13. “Never a greater	love I knew
  Than yours among	all men on earth;
  Nowhere wast happy,		at home or abroad,
  Sister mine,	with Sigurth away.”

  Guthrun spake:
  14. “So was my Sigurth	o’er Gjuki’s sons
  As the spear-leek grown	above the grass,
  Or the jewel bright	borne on the band,
  The precious stone	that princes wear.

  15. “To the leader of men		I loftier seemed
  And higher than all	of Herjan’s maids;
  As little now	as the leaf I am
  On the willow hanging; 	my hero is dead.
  (Ed. Herjan’s maids are Othinn’s valkyries.)

  16. “In his seat, in his bed,	I see no more
  My heart’s true friend;	the fault is theirs,
  The sons of Gjuki,	for all my grief,
  That so their sister	sorely weeps.

  17. “So shall your land	its people lose
  As ye have kept 	your oaths of yore;
  Gunnar, no joy	the gold shall give thee,
  (The rings shall soon	thy slayers be,)
  Who swarest oaths	with Sigurth once.

  18. “In the court was greater	gladness then
  The day my Sigurth	Grani saddled,
  And went forth Brynhild’s 	hand to win,
  That woman ill,	in an evil hour.”

  Then Brynhild spake,		the daughter of Buthli:
  19. “May the witch now husband		and children want
  Who, Guthrun, loosed 	thy tears at last,
  And with magic today	hath made thee speak.”

  Then Gollrond, daughter	of Gjuki, spake:
  20. “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.”

  Then Brynhild, daughter	of Buthli, spake:
  21. “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.”)

  22. 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 Hakon.
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.



                      <<_Previous_Page       Next_Page_>>