Guðrúnarkviða I

"Guðrúnarkviða I" or "the First Lay of Guðrún" is simply called "Guðrúnarkviða" in Codex Regius where it was found together with the other heroic poems of the "Poetic Edda". Henry Adams Bellows considered it to be one of the finest of the eddic poems with an "extraordinary emotional intensity and dramatic force". It is only in this poem that Gjúki's sister Gjaflaug and daughter Gollrönd are mentioned, and the only source where Herborg, the queen of the Huns, appears. The Guðrún lays show that the hard-boiled heroic poetry of the "Poetic Edda" also had place for the hardships of women. [The article "Gudrunarkvida" in "Nationalencyklopedin".]

Bellows considers it to be one of the oldest heroic lays and with very few Scandinavian additions. Brynhild's only role is the cause of Sigurd's death and Guðrún's enemy.

Alfred Tennyson's poem "" was inspired by Benjamin Thorpe's translation of the lay.

ynopsis

Guðrún sat beside her dead husband, Sigurd, but she did not weep with tears like other women, although her heart was bursting with grief.

She then turned towards her brothers talking of their crime, and she cursed her brothers that their greed for Fafnir's gold would be their undoing. [This curse would be fulfilled in the following poems. Like "Sigurðarkviða hin skamma", stanza 16, this poem shows that one of the motives for killing Sigurd was Fafnir's gold. This motive was also part of the German tradition appearing in the "Nibelungenlied".] She then directed her words against Brynhildr and said that their home was happier before she appeared.

Brynhildr, who was present, responded that Guðrún's sister Gollrönd was a witch who had made Guðrún's tears flow and used magic to make her speak. Gullrönd retorted that Brynhildr was a hated woman who had brought sorrow to seven kings and made many women lose their love. Brynhildr then answered by putting the blame on her brother Atli (Attila the Hun), because he had forced her to marry Gunnar against her will. [Bellows suggests that the poet derived this version from "Sigurðarkviða hin skamma", stanzas 32-39. These stanzas represent a different version of the story, where Atli was attacked by Gunnar and Sigurd and bought them off by giving them his sister Brynhildr. In this version Atli would have lied to Brynhildr that Gunnar was Sigurd, and according to Bellows this version is supported by the interchange of forms that is described in the "Völsunga saga" and in "Grípisspá" (stanzas 37-39). In this poem, Atli forced her to marry Gunnar out of desire for Sigurd's treasure.] The last stanza dwells on Brynhild's anger:

The lay ends with a prose section which tells that Guðrún went into the wilderness and travelled to Denmark where she stayed for three years and a half with Thora, the daughter of Hakon. [According to Bellows, Thora and Hakon have never been conclusively identified with other characters in Scandinavian legend.] Referring to "Sigurðarkviða hin skamma", the prose section ends by telling that Brynhildr would soon take her own life with a sword after having killed eight of her thralls and five of her maids in order to take them with her.

Notes

References

* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe27.htm The First Lay of Guthrun] Henry Adams Bellows' translation and commentary
* [http://www.northvegr.org/lore/poetic2/031.php The First Lay of Gudrún] Benjamin Thorpe's translation
* [http://www.angelfire.com/on/Wodensharrow/gudhrunarkvidha1.html The First Lay of Guthrún] Translated by Lee M. Hollander
* [http://etext.old.no/Bugge/gudrun1.html Guðrúnarkviða hin fyrsta] Sophus Bugge's edition of the manuscript text
* [http://www.heimskringla.no/original/edda/gudrunarkvidainfyrsta.php Guðrúnarkviða in fyrsta] Guðni Jónsson's edition with normalized spelling