Guðrúnarkviða II

"Guðrúnarkviða II", "The Second Lay of Gudrún", or "Guðrúnarkviða hin forna", "The Old Lay of Gudrún" is probably the oldest poem of the Sigurd cycle, according to Henry Adams Bellows.

The poem was composed before the year 1000 and Bellows considered to be in a "rather bad shape", but it was in that shape that it provided material for the "Völsunga saga", where it was faithfully paraphrased. He states, however, that it is the only Old Norse poem from an earlier period than the year 1000 in the Sigurd tradition that has come down to modern times in a roughly complete form. The other older poems, "Reginsmál", "Fáfnismál" and "Sigrdrifumál", are collections of fragments and only the last part of "Brot af Sigurðarkviðu" remains. The remaining poems in the cycle are generally dated to the 11th century and the 12th century.

Bellows states that another reason for assuming that the poem derives from a lament originating in Germany is the fact that Sigurd's death takes place in the forest, as in the "Nibelungenlied", and not in his bed. Other elements relating closely to the German tradition are her mother and her brother insisting that she marry Atli, the slaying of the Gjukungs and her future revenge on Atli.

ynopsis

King Þjóðrekr was staying at the court of Atli , and Þjóðrekr had just lost most of his warriors in battle. [Bellows comments that Þjóðrekr is the famous Theodoric the Great, the king of the Ostrogoths who would become famous in German legends as Dietrich von Bern. In German heroic legends, it was early accepted to bring together Attila (Etzel, Atli), who died in 453 with Theodoric who was born c. 455, and in addition make them the contemporaries with Ermanaric who died c. 376. In German legends, Ermanaric took the place of Theodoric's actual enemy Odovakar. It is in battle with Ermanaric/Odovakar that Þjóðrekr has lost most of his men in this poem.]

Þjóðrekr and Atli's queen Guðrún were alone together and discussed their sorrows. [Compare with "Guðrúnarkviða III", where Guðrún is accused of having been unfaithful with Þjóðrekr during this meeting.] Guðrún told Þjóðrekr that she was a young maiden when her father Gjúki gave her away to Sigurd with a dowry of gold. Then her brothers murdered her hero Sigurd:

Her mother Grimhild [Grimhild is called the queen of the Goths. Similarly, her son Gunnar is called "lord of the Goths" in "Grípisspá". Bellows notes that "Goth" could be used to refer to any south Germanic people.] asked her sons Gunnarr and Högni what kind of wergild they would like to give their sister for the killing of her husband Sigurd and her son Sigmund, and they were both ready to compensate their sister. [Bellows comments here that Atli threatens to declare war on the Burgundians, if they don't give him Guðrún as wife.] Guðrún met her mother, brothers and Valdar, the king of Denmark, and three men named Jarizleif, Eymoth and Jarizskar. [Bellows comments that the names Jarizleif, Eymoth and Jarizskar, two of which are apparently Slavic, appear to be added as the names of Atli's messengers. They are described by the poem either as "long-beards" or Lombards, but their names fit neither Huns nor Lombards. According to Bellows, the "Völsunga saga" and some commentators interpret this meeting as taking place in Denmark, but Bellows finds it more likely that a line had dropped out and that she met the messengers at her brothers' place.]

They wanted to give her gifts to console her but she did not trust them. Then, her mother gave her a something to drink, a potion of forgetfulness: [In one version of the story, she also gave this potion to Sigurd. Bellows comments that the potion does not seem to have worked.]

Without understanding the meaning of the dream, Atli describes his future eating of his own sons, served to him by their own mother Guðrún, in revenge for Atli's killing her brothers.

There the poem ends in a few crypic lines where Guðrún says that people will talk of a sacrifice.

Notes

References

* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe31.htm The Second, or Old, Lay of Guthrun] Henry Adams Bellows' translation and commentary
* [http://www.northvegr.org/lore/poetic2/034_01.php The Second Lay of Gudrún] Benjamin Thorpe's translation
* [http://home.earthlink.net/~wodensharrow/gudhrunarkvidha2.html The Second (or Old) Lay of Guðrún] Translated by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson
* [http://etext.old.no/Bugge/gudrun2.html Guðrúnarkviða hin forna] Sophus Bugge's edition of the manuscript text
* [http://www.heimskringla.no/original/edda/gudrunarkvidainforna.php Guðrúnarkviða in forna] Guðni Jónsson's edition with normalized spelling