Guthrunarkvitha I

Poetic Edda · chapter 26 of 37 · ▶ Speed Read

Western European stream·The Eddas·Poetic Edda·Guthrunarkvitha I

Guðrúnarkviða I — Guðrún's lament

The first of three poems on Guðrún (Sigurðr's wife). The famous lament — Guðrún unable to weep until the women around her tell their own losses to free her tears. One of the most moving passages of female grief in any tradition; the Eddic counterpart of Greek tragic threnos.

Source context

Theme: grief, lamentation, and the feminine soul's encounter with death through Gudrun's mourning over Sigurd
Soul-faculty: Sentient Soul

Steiner

not engaged in the GA corpus

Cross-tradition

Greek tragedy (Sophoclean lamentation)Cross-tradition congruence exists between Gudrun's ritualized keening over Sigurd's corpse and the formal lamentation scenes in Greek tragedy (e.g., Antigone, Electra), where the female mourner enacts the community's confrontation with irreversible fate.
Old Norse wyrd-cosmologyGudrun's inability to weep until moved by others who display their own grief reflects the Norse understanding of fate (wyrd/örlög) as a burden borne in stoic silence, with communal mourning serving as the threshold for emotional release and soul-integration.
Vedic tradition (Rig-Veda funeral hymns)Cross-tradition congruence appears between Gudrun's lament cycle and Rig-Vedic widow-lament hymns (RV X.18), in which the surviving woman addresses the dead and the community simultaneously, marking the boundary between the living and the departed.

The First Lay of Guthrun

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The First Lay of Guthrun, entitled in the Codex Regius simply Guthrunarkvitha, immediately follows the remaining fragment of the "long" Sigurth lay in that manuscript. Unlike the poems dealing with the earlier part of the Sigurth cycle, the so-called Reginsmol, Fafnismol, and Sigrdrifumol, it is a clear and distinct unit, apparently complete and with few and minor interpolations. It is also one of the finest poems in the entire collection, with an extraordinary emotional intensity and dramatic force. None of its stanzas are quoted elsewhere, and it is altogether probable that the compilers of the Volsungasaga were unfamiliar with it, for they do not mention the sister and daughter of Gjuki who appear in this poem, or Herborg, "queen of the Huns" (stanza 6).

The lament of Guthrun (Kriemhild) is almost certainly among the oldest parts of the story. The lament was one of the earliest forms of poetry to develop among the Germanic peoples, and I suspect, though the matter is not susceptible of proof, that the lament of Sigurth's wife had assumed lyric form as early as the seventh century, and reached the North in that shape rather than in prose tradition (cf. Guthrunarkvitha II, introductory note). We find traces of it in the seventeenth Aventiure of the Nibelungenlied, and in the poems of the Edda it dominates every appearance of Guthrun. The two first Guthrun lays (I and II) are both laments, one for Sigurth's death and the other including both that and the lament over the slaying of her brothers; the lament theme is apparent in the third Guthrun lay and in the Guthrunarhvot.

In their present forms the second Guthrun lay is undoubtedly older than he first; in the prose following the Brot the annotator refers to the "old" Guthrun lay in terms which can apply only to the second one in the collection. The shorter and "first" lay, therefore, can scarcely have been composed much before the year 1000, and may be somewhat later. The poet appears to have known and made use of the older lament; stanza 17, for example, is a close parallel to stanza 2 of the earlier poem; but whatever material he used he fitted into a definite poetic scheme of his

own. And while this particular poem is, as critics have generally agreed, one of the latest of the collection, it probably represents one of the earliest parts of the entire Sigurth cycle to take on verse form. *

Guthrunarkvitha I, so far as the narrative underlying it is concerned, shows very little northern addition to the basic German tradition. Brynhild appears only as Guthrun's enemy and the cause of Sigurth's death; the three women who attempt to comfort Guthrun, though unknown to the southern stories, seem to have been rather distinct creations of the poet's than traditional additions to the legend. Regarding the relations of the various elements in the Sigurth cycle, cf. introductory note to Gripisspo*.

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 under stood the speech of birds. This is a poem about Guthrun.

1Then 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. [*Prose*. The prose follows the concluding prose of the *Brot* without indication of a break, the heading standing immediately before stanza 1. *Fafnir's heart*: this bit of information is here quite without point, and it is nowhere else stated that Guthrun understood the speech of birds. In the *Volsungasaga* it is stated that Sigurth gave Guthrun some of Fafnir's heart to eat, "and thereafter she was much grimmer than before, and wiser."

1This stanza seems to be based on Guthrunarkvitha II, 11-12.]

2To 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.

3Then 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.

5Grieving could not | Guthrun weep,
Such grief she had | for her husband dead, And so grim her heart | by the hero's body.

6Then Herborg spake, | the queen of the Huns:
[4. *Gjaflaug*: nothing further is known of this aunt of Guthrun, or of the many relatives whom she has lost. Very likely she is an invention of the poet's, for it seems improbable that other wise all further trace of her should have been lost. Line 4 has been marked by many editors as spurious.

5Some editors assume the loss of a line, after either line 1 or line 3. I prefer to believe that here and in stanza 10 the poet knew exactly what he was doing, and that both stanzas are correct.

6*Herborg*: neither she nor her sorrows are elsewhere mentioned, [fp. 415] nor is it clear what a "queen of the Huns" is doing in Gunnar's home, but the word "Hun" has little definiteness of meaning in the poems, and is frequently applied to Sigurth himself (cf. note on stanza 24). Herborg appears from stanza 11 to have been the foster-mother of Gollrond, Guthrun's sister. Lines 5-7 may be interpolations, or may form a separate stanza.]
"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.)

7"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.

8"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.

9"In jealous rage | her wrath she spake,
And beat me oft | with heavy blows; [7. Lines 1 and 2 stand in reversed order in the manuscript; I have followed Gering's conjectural transposition.

9Herborg implies that the queen's jealousy was not altogether misplaced.]
Never a better | lord I knew, And never a woman | worse I found."

10Grieving could not | Guthrun weep,
Such grief she had | for her husband dead, And so grim her heart | by the hero's body.

11Then 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.

12The 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."

13Once 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.

14Then Guthrun bent, | on her pillow bowed,
[10. Cf. stanza 5 and note. The manuscript abbreviates to first letters.

11*Gollrond*: not elsewhere mentioned. Line 4 looks like an interpolation replacing a line previously lost.

12The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza. and some editors have attempted to follow this arrangement. Many editors assume the loss of a line from this stanza.]
Her hair was loosened, | her cheek was hot, And the tears like raindrops | downward ran.

15Then 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.

17"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.

18"To the leader of men | I loftier seemed
And higher than all | of Herjan's maids; [15. The word here translated "tresses" is sheer guesswork. The detail of the geese is taken from *Sigurtharkvitha en skamma*, 29, line 3 here being identical with line 4 of that stanza.

16Line 1, abbreviated in the manuscript, very likely should be simply "Gollrond spake."

17Cf. *Guthrunarkvitha II*, 2. The manuscript does not name the speaker, and some editions have a first line, "Then Guthrun spake, the daughter of Gjuki."

18*Herjan*: Othin; his maids are the Valkyries; cf. *Voluspo*, 31, where the same phrase is used.]
As little now | as the leaf I am On the willow hanging; | my hero is dead.

19"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.

21"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."

22Then Brynhild spake, | the daughter of Buthli:
"May the witch now husband | and children want Who, Guthrun, loosed | thy tears at last, And with magic today | hath made thee speak." [20. Line 4 looks like an interpolation (cf. *Fafnismol*, 9, line 4), but some editors instead have queried line 5. How Guthrun's curse is fulfilled is told in the subsequent poems. That desire for Sigurth's treasure (the gold cursed by Andvari and Loki) was one of the motives for his murder is indicated in *Sigurtharkvitha en skamma* (stanza 16), and was clearly a part of the German tradition, as it appears in the *Nibelungenlied*.

21Cf. *Gripisspo*, 35 and note.

22Line 1 is abbreviated in the manuscript.]

24Then Brynhild, daughter | of Buthli, spake:
"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.)" [23. Editors are agreed that this stanza shows interpolations, but differ as to the lines to reject. Line 4 (literally "every wave of ill-doing drives thee") is substantially a proverb, and line 5, with its apparently meaningless reference to "seven" kings, may easily have come from some other source.

24The stanza is obviously in bad shape; perhaps it represents two separate stanzas, or perhaps three of the lines are later additions. *Atli*: Brynhild here blames her brother, following the frequent custom of transferring the responsibility for a murder (cf. *Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II*, 33), because he compelled her to marry Gunnar against her will, an idea which the poet seems to have gained from *Sigurtharkvitha en skamma*, 32-39. These stanzas represent an entirely different version of the story, wherein Atli, attacked by Gunnar and Sigurth, buys them off by giving Gunnar his sister, Brynhild, as wife. He seems to have induced the latter to marry Gunnar by falsely telling her that Gunnar was Sigurth (a rationalistic explanation of the interchange of forms described in the *Volsungasaga* and *Gripisspo*, 37-39). In the present stanza Atli is made to do this out of desire for Sigurth's treasure. *Hunnish race*: this may be [fp. 419] merely an error (neither Gunnar nor Sigurth could properly have been connected in any way with Atli and his Huns), based on *Sigurtharkvitha en skamma*, wherein Sigurth appears more than once as the "Hunnish king." The North was very much in the dark as to the differences between Germans, Burgundians, Franks, Goths, and Huns, and used the words without much discrimination. On the other hand, it may refer to Sigurth's appearance when, adorned with gold, he came with Gunnar to besiege Atli, in the alternative version of the story just cited (cf. *Sigurtharkvitha en skamma*, 36). *Flame of the snake's bed*: gold, so called because serpents and dragons were the' traditional guardians of treasure, on which they lay.]

25By 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 Hokon. Brynhild would not live after Sigurth. She had eight of her thralls slain and five serving-women. Then she killed her self with a sword, as is told in the Short Lay of Sigurth. [*Prose*. The manuscript has "Gunnar" in place of "Guthrun," but this is an obvious mistake; the entire prose passage is based on *Guthrunarkvitha II*, 14. The *Volsungasaga* likewise merely paraphrases *Guthrunarkvitha II*, and nothing further is known of Thora or her father, Hokon, though many inconclusive attempts have been made to identify the latter. *Brynhild*: the story of her death is told in great detail in the latter part of *Sigurtharkvitha en skamma*.]

← Brot Af Sigurtharkvithu

Poetic Edda

Sigurtharkvitha En Skamma →

JSON: /api/sources/edda/poetic-edda/28-guthrunarkvitha-i.json