Oddrunargratr: The Lament of Oddrun

Henry Adams Bellows's notes to his translation (1923; Project Gutenberg #73533).

1. Stanza 1 I have heard it told | in olden tales How a maiden came | to Morningland; No one of all | on earth above To Heithrek’s daughter | help could give.
2. Stanza 1 Olden tales: this may be merely a stock phrase, or it may really mean that the poet found his story in oral prose tradition. Morningland: the poem’s geography is utterly obscure. “Morningland” is apparently identical with “Hunland” (stanza 4), and yet Oddrun is herself sister of the king of the Huns. Vigfusson tries to make “Mornaland” into “Morva land” and explain it as Moravia. Probably it means little more than a country lying vaguely in the East. With stanza 28 the confusion grows worse.
3. Stanza 2 This Oddrun learned, | the sister of Atli, That sore the maiden’s | sickness was; The bit-bearer forth | from his stall she brought, And the saddle laid | on the steed so black.
4. Stanza 3 She let the horse go | o’er the level ground, Till she reached the hall | that loftily rose, (And in she went | from the end of the hall;) From the weary steed | the saddle she took; Hear now the speech | that first she spake:
5. Stanza 3 Line 3 (cf. Völundarkvitha, 17) or line 5 (cf. Thrymskvitha, 2), both quoted from older poems, is probably spurious; the manuscript marks line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza.
6. Stanza 4 “What news on earth, | . . . . . . . . Or what has happened | in Hunland now?” A serving-maid spake: “Here Borgny lies | in bitter pain, Thy friend, and, Oddrun, | thy help would find.” Oddrun spake:
7. Stanza 4 Line 1 in the original appears to have lost its second half. In line 2 the word rendered “has happened” is doubtful. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker of lines 3–4, and a few editors assign them to Borgny herself.
8. Stanza 5 “Who worked this woe | for the woman thus, Or why so sudden | is Borgny sick?” The serving-maid spake: “Vilmund is he, | the heroes’ friend, Who wrapped the woman | in bedclothes warm, (For winters five, | yet her father knew not).”
9. Stanza 5 The manuscript does not indicate the speakers. For the woman: conjectural; the manuscript has instead: “What warrior now | hath worked this woe?” The manuscript indicates line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Line 5, apparently modeled on line 4 of stanza 13, is probably spurious.
10. Stanza 6 Then no more | they spake, methinks; She went at the knees | of the woman to sit; With magic Oddrun | and mightily Oddrun Chanted for Borgny | potent charms.
11. Stanza 6 Charms: cf. Sigrdrifumol, 8.
12. Stanza 7 At last were born | a boy and girl, Son and daughter | of Hogni’s slayer; Then speech the woman | so weak began, Nor said she aught | ere this she spake:
13. Stanza 7 Hogni’s slayer: obviously Vilmund, but unless he was the one of Atli’s followers who actually cut out Hogni’s heart (cf. Drap Niflunga), there is nothing else to connect him with Hogni’s death. Sijmons emends the line to read “Born of the sister | of Hogni’s slayer.”
14. Stanza 8 “So may the holy | ones thee help, Frigg and Freyja | and favoring gods, As thou hast saved me | from sorrow now.” Oddrun spake:
15. Stanza 8 Regarding Frigg as a goddess of healing cf. Svipdagsmol, 52, note. Regarding Freyja as the friend of lovers cf. Grimnismol, 14, note. A line is very possibly missing from this stanza.
16. Stanza 9 “I came not hither | to help thee thus Because thou ever | my aid didst earn; I fulfilled the oath | that of old I swore, That aid to all | I should ever bring, (When they shared the wealth | the warriors had).” Borgny spake:
17. Stanza 9 The manuscript does not name the speaker. In line 2 the word rendered “earn” is omitted in the manuscript, but nearly all editions have supplied it. Line 5 is clearly either interpolated or out of place. It may be all that is left of a stanza which stood between stanzas 15 and 16, or it may belong in stanza 12. 10–20. In the manuscript the order is as follows: 12; 13; 14; 15, 3–4; 10; 11; 16; 17; 18; 19, 1–2; 15, 1–2; 19, 3–4; 20. The changes made here, following several of the editions, are: (a) the transposition of stanzas 10–11, which are clearly dialogue, out of the body of the lament to a position just before it; (b) the transposition of lines 1–2 of stanza 15 to their present position from the middle of stanza 19.
18. Stanza 10 “Wild art thou, Oddrun, | and witless now, That so in hatred | to me thou speakest; I followed thee | where thou didst fare, As we had been born | of brothers twain.” Oddrun spake:
19. Stanza 10 The manuscript does not name the speaker; cf. note on stanzas 10–20.
20. Stanza 11 “I remember the evil | one eve thou spakest, When a draught I gave | to Gunnar then; Thou didst say that never | such a deed By maid was done | save by me alone.”
21. Stanza 11 The manuscript does not name the speaker; cf. note on stanzas 10–20. The word rendered “evil” in line 1 is a conjectural addition. Apparently Borgny was present at Atli’s court while the love affair between Oddrun and Gunnar was in progress, and criticised Oddrun for her part in it. A draught, etc.: apparently in reference to a secret meeting of the lovers.
22. Stanza 12 Then the sorrowing woman | sat her down To tell the grief | of her troubles great.
23. Stanza 12 In the manuscript this stanza follows stanza 9; cf. note on stanzas 10–20. No gap is indicated, but something has presumably been lost. Grundtvig supplies as a first line: “The maid her evil | days remembered,” and inserts as a second line line 5 of stanza 9.
24. Stanza 13 “Happy I grew | in the hero’s hall As the warriors wished, | and they loved me well; Glad I was | of my father’s gifts, For winters five, | while my father lived.
25. Stanza 13 The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza; many editions combine lines 1–2 with stanza 12 and lines 3–4 with lines 1–2 of stanza 14. The hero: Buthli, father of Oddrun, Atli, and Brynhild.
26. Stanza 14 “These were the words | the weary king, Ere he died, | spake last of all: He bade me with red gold | dowered to be, And to Grimhild’s son | in the South be wedded.
27. Stanza 14 The manuscript indicates line 3, but not line 1, as the beginning of a new stanza; some editions combine lines 3–4 with lines 3–4 of stanza 15. Making Buthli plan the marriage of Oddrun and Gunnar may be a sheer invention of the poet, or may point to an otherwise lost version of the legend.
28. Stanza 15 “But Brynhild the helm | he bade to wear, A wish-maid bright | he said she should be; For a nobler maid | would never be born On earth, he said, | if death should spare her.
29. Stanza 15 Lines 1–2 have here been transposed from the middle of stanza 19; cf. note on stanzas 10–20. Wish-maid: a Valkyrie, so called because the Valkyries fullfilled Othin’s wish in choosing the slain heroes for Valhall. The reference to Brynhild as a Valkyrie by no means fits with the version of the story used in stanzas 16–17, and the poet seems to have attempted to combine the two contradictory traditions; cf. Fafnismol, note on stanza 44. In the manuscript stanzas 10–11 follow line 4 of stanza 15.
30. Stanza 16 “At her weaving Brynhild | sat in her bower, Lands and folk | alike she had; The earth and heaven | high resounded When Fafnir’s slayer | the city saw.
31. Stanza 16 In stanzas 16–17 the underlying story seems to be the one used in Sigurtharkvitha en skamma (particularly stanzas 32–39), and referred to in Guthrunarkvitha I, 24, wherein Gunnar and Sigurth lay siege to Atli’s city (it here appears as Brynhild’s) and are bought off only by Atli’s giving Brynhild to Gunnar as wife, winning her consent thereto by falsely representing to her that Gunnar is Sigurth. This version is, of course, utterly at variance with the one in which Sigurth wins Brynhild for Gunnar by riding through the ring of flames, and is probably more closely akin to the early German traditions. In the Nibelungenlied Brynhild appears as a queen ruling over lands and peoples. Fafnir’s slayer: Sigurth.
32. Stanza 17 “Then battle was fought | with the foreign swords, And the city was broken | that Brynhild had; Not long thereafter, | but all too soon, Their evil wiles | full well she knew.
33. Stanza 17 Cf. note on preceding stanza.
34. Stanza 18 “Woeful for this | her vengeance was, As so we learned | to our sorrow all; In every land | shall all men hear How herself at Sigurth’s | side she slew.
35. Stanza 18 Cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, stanzas 64–70.
36. Stanza 19 “Love to Gunnar | then I gave, To the breaker of rings, | as Brynhild might; To Atli rings | so red they offered, And mighty gifts | to my brother would give.
37. Stanza 19 In the manuscript lines 1–2 of stanza 15 follow line 2, resulting in various conjectural combinations. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Rings, etc.: possibly, as Gering maintains, payment offered by Gunnar and Hogni for Brynhild’s death, but more probably, as in stanza 20, Gunnar’s proffered “marriage gold” for the hand of Oddrun.
38. Stanza 20 “Fifteen dwellings | fain would he give For me, and the burden | that Grani bore; But Atli said | he would never receive Marriage gold | from Gjuki’s son.
39. Stanza 20 Grani’s burden: the treasure won by Sigurth from Fafnir; cf. Fafnismol, concluding prose. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza, as also in stanzas 21 and 22.
40. Stanza 21 “Yet could we not | our love o’ercome, And my head I laid | on the hero’s shoulder; Many there were | of kinsmen mine Who said that together | us they had seen.
41. Stanza 22 “Atli said | that never I Would evil plan, | or ill deed do; But none may this | of another think, Or surely speak, | when love is shared.
42. Stanza 23 “Soon his men | did Atli send, In the murky wood | on me to spy; Thither they came | where they should not come, Where beneath one cover | close we lay.
43. Stanza 23 Murky wood: the forest which divided Atli’s realm from that of the Gjukungs is in Atlakvitha, 3, called Myrkwood. This hardly accords with the extraordinary geography of stanzas 28–29, or with the journey described in Guthrunarkvitha II, 36.
44. Stanza 24 “To the warriors ruddy | rings we offered, That nought to Atli | e’er they should say; But swiftly home | they hastened thence, And eager all | to Atli told.
45. Stanza 24 In the manuscript lines 3 and 4 stand in reversed order.
46. Stanza 25 “But close from Guthrun | kept they hid What first of all | she ought to have known. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
47. Stanza 25 No gap is indicated in the manuscript; some editors assume the loss not only of two lines, but of an additional stanza. Evidently Guthrun has already become Atli’s wife.
48. Stanza 26 “Great was the clatter | of gilded hoofs When Gjuki’s sons | through the gateway rode; The heart they hewed | from Hogni then, And the other they cast | in the serpents’ cave.
49. Stanza 26 If a stanza has been lost after stanza 25, it may well have told of Atli’s treacherous invitation to the Gjukungs to visit him; cf. Drap Niflunga, which likewise tells of the slaying of Hogni and Gunnar (the other).
50. Stanza 27 “The hero wise | on his harp then smote, . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . For help from me | in his heart yet hoped The high-born king, | might come to him.
51. Stanza 27 In the manuscript these three lines follow line 2 of stanza 28. No gap is indicated in the manuscript. In the Volsungasaga Guthrun gives her brother the harp, with which he puts the serpents to sleep. The episode is undoubtedly related to the famous thirtieth Aventiure of the Nibelungenlied, in which Volker plays the followers of Gunther to sleep before the final battle.
52. Stanza 28 “Alone was I gone | to Geirmund then, The draught to mix | and ready to make; Sudden I heard | from Hlesey clear How in sorrow the strings | of the harp resounded.
53. Stanza 28 In the manuscript the three lines of stanza 27 follow line 2, and line 3 is marked as beginning a new stanza. Geirmund: nothing further is known of him, but he seems to be an ally or retainer of Atli, or possibly his brother. Hlesey: the poet’s geography is here in very bad shape. Hlesey is (or may be) the Danish island of Läsö, in the Kattegat (cf. Harbarthsljoth, 37 and note), and thither he has suddenly transported not only Gunnar’s death-place but Atli’s whole dwelling (cf. stanza 29), despite his previous references to the ride to Hunland (stanzas 3–4) and the “murky wood” (stanza 23). Geirmund’s home, where Oddrun has gone, is separated from Hlesey and Atli’s dwelling by a sound (stanza 29). However, geographical accuracy is seldom to be looked for in heroic epic poetry.
54. Stanza 29 “I bade the serving-maids | ready to be, For I longed the hero’s | life to save; Across the sound | the boats we sailed, Till we saw the whole | of Atli’s home.
55. Stanza 29 Many editions combine this stanza with lines 3–4 of stanza 28. The sound: cf. note on stanza 28.
56. Stanza 30 “Then crawling the evil | woman came, Atli’s mother— | may she ever rot! And hard she bit | to Gunnar’s heart, So I could not help | the hero brave.
57. Stanza 30 The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Atli’s mother: the Volsungasaga does not follow this version; Gunnar puts all the serpents but one to sleep with his harp playing, “but a mighty and evil adder crawled to him and drove his fangs into him till they reached his heart, and so he died.” It is possible that “Atli” is a scribal error for a word meaning “of serpents.”
58. Stanza 31 “Oft have I wondered | how after this, Serpents’-bed goddess! | I still might live, For well I loved | the warrior brave, The giver of swords, | as my very self.
59. Stanza 31 Serpents’-bed goddess: woman (i.e., Borgny); “goddess of gold” was a frequent term for a woman, and gold was often called the “serpents’ bed” (cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 24 and note).