The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson
them; but that they were still sufficiently legible to enable Kostbera
to ascertain the real purport of the communication.]
[Footnote 111: Ham (hamr. _fem._ hamingia) a guardian angel, an
attendant spirit.]
[Footnote 112: Here a gallows in our sense of the word, but usually a
stake on a scaffold, to which the condemned to a death of torture was
bound hand and foot.]
[Footnote 113: So great was their haste to land.]
[Footnote 114: She played a double game.]
[Footnote 115: Sigurd.]
[Footnote 116: The ancient usage of laying the body in a ship and
sending it adrift, seems inconsistent with the later custom of
depositing it in a cist or coffin.]
GUDRUN'S INCITEMENT.
Having slain Atli, Gudrun went to the sea-shore. She went out into the
sea, and would destroy herself, but could not sink. She was borne
across the firth to the land of King Jonakr, who married her. Their
sons were Sorli, Erp, and Hamdir. There was reared up Svanhild, the
daughter of Sigurd. She was given in marriage to Jormunrek the
Powerful. With him lived Bikki, who counselled Randver, the king's
son, to take her. Bikki told that to the king, who caused Randver to
be hanged, and Svanhild trodden under horses' feet. When Gudrun heard
of this she said to her sons:--
1. Then heard I tell of quarrels dire, hard sayings uttered from
great affliction, when her sons the fierce-hearted Gudrun, in deadly
words, to slaughter instigated.
2. "Why sit ye here? why sleep life away? why does it pain you not
joyous words to speak, now Jormunrek your sister young in years has
with horses trodden, white and black, in the public way, with grey and
way-wont Gothic steeds?
3. Ye are not like to Gunnar and the others, nor of soul so valiant
as Hogni was. Her ye should seek to avenge, if ye had the courage of
my brothers, or the fierce spirit of the Hunnish kings."
4. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "Little didst thou care
Hogni's deed to praise, when Sigurd he from sleep awaked. Thy
blue-white bed-clothes were red with thy husband's gore, with
death-blood covered.
5. "For thy brothers thou didst o'er-hasty vengeance take, dire and
bitter, when thou thy sons didst murder. We young ones[117] could on
Jormunrek, acting all together, have avenged our sister.
6. "Bring forth the arms of the Hunnish kings: thou hast us
stimulated to a sword-mote."
7. Laughing Gudrun to the storehouse turned, the kings' crested
helms from the coffers drew, their ample corslets, and to her sons
them bore. The young heroes loaded their horses' shoulders.
8. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "So will no more come his
mother to see, the warrior felled in the Gothic land, so that thou the
funeral-beer after us all may drink, after Svanhild and thy sons."
9. Weeping Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, sorrowing went, to sit in the
fore-court, and to recount, with tear-worn cheeks, sad of soul, her
calamities, in many ways.
10. "Three fires I have known, three hearths I have known, of three
consorts I have been borne to the house. Sigurd alone to me was better
than all, of whom my brothers were the murderers.
11. "Of my painful wounds I might not complain; yet they even more
seemed to afflict me, when those chieftains to Atli gave me.
12. "My bright boys I called to speak with me; for my injuries I
could not get revenge, ere I had severed the Hniflungs' heads.
13. "To the sea-shore I went, against the Norns I was embittered; I
would cast off their persecution; bore, and submerged me not the
towering billows; up on land I rose, because I was to live.
14. "To the nuptial couch I went--as I thought better for me,--for
the third time, with a mighty king. I brought forth offspring,
guardians of the heritage, guardians of the heritage, Jonakr's sons.
15. "But around Svanhild bond-maidens sat; of all my children her I
loved the best. Svanhild was, in my hall, as was the sun-beam, fair to
behold.
16. "I with gold adorned her, and with fine raiment, before I gave
her to the Gothic people. That is to me the hardest of all my woes,
that Svanhild's beauteous locks should in the mire be trodden under
horses' feet.
17. "But that was yet more painful, when my Sigurd they ingloriously
slew in his bed; though of all most cruel, when of Gunnar the
glistening serpents to the vitals crawled; but the most agonizing,
which to my heart flew, when the brave king's heart they while quick
cut out.
18. "Many griefs I call to memory, many ills I call to memory.
Guide, Sigurd! thy black steed, thy swift courser, hither let it run.
Here sits no son's wife, no daughter, who to Gudrun precious things
may give.
19. "Remember, Sigurd! what we together said, when on our bed we
both were sitting, that thou, brave one, wouldst come to me from Hel's
abode, but I from the world to thee.
20. "Raise, ye Jarls! an oaken pile; let it under heaven the highest
be. May it burn a breast full of woes! the fire round my heart its
sorrows melt!"
21. May all men's lot be bettered, all women's sorrow lessened, to
whom this tale of woes shall be recounted.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 117: Themselves and the two sons of Atli.]
THE LAY OF HAMDIR.
1. In that court[118] arose woeful deeds, at the Alfar's doleful
lament;[119] at early morn, men's afflictions, troubles of various
kinds; sorrows were quickened.
2. It was not now, nor yesterday, a long time since has passed
away,--few things are more ancient, it was by much earlier--when
Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, her young sons instigated Svanhild to
avenge.
3. "She was your sister, her name Svanhild, she whom Jormunrek with
horses trod to death, white and black, on the public way, with grey
and way-wont Gothic steeds.
4. "Thenceforth all is sad to you, kings of people! Ye alone
survive,
5. "Branches of my race. Lonely I am become, as the asp-tree in the
forest, of kindred bereft, as the fir of branches; of joy deprived, as
is the tree of foliage, when the branch-spoiler comes in the warm
day."
6. Then spake Hamdir, the great of soul, "Little, Gudrun! didst thou
care Hogni's deed to praise, when Sigurd they from sleep awaked on the
bed thou satst, and the murderers laughed.
7. "Thy bed-clothes, blue and white, woven by cunning hands, swam in
thy husband's gore. When Sigurd perished, o'er the dead thou satst,
caredst not for mirth--so Gunnar willed it.
8. "Atli thou wouldst afflict by Erp's murder, and by Eitil's life's
destruction: that proved for thyself the worse: therefore should every
one so against others use, for life's destruction, a sharp-biting
sword, that he harm not himself."
9. Then said Sorli--he had a prudent mind--"I with my mother will
not speeches exchange: though words to each of you to me seem wanting.
What, Gudrun! dost thou desire, which for tears thou canst not utter?
10. "For thy brothers weep, and thy dear sons, thy nearest kin,
drawn to the strife: for us both shalt thou, Gudrun! also have to
weep, who here sit fated on our steeds, far away to die."
11. From the court they went, for conflict ready. The young men
journeyed over humid fells, on Hunnish steeds, murder to avenge.
12. Then said Erp, all at once--the noble youth was joking on his
horse's back--"Ill 'tis to a timid man to point out the ways." They
said the bastard[120] was over bold.
13. On their way they had found the wily jester. "How will the
swarthy dwarf afford us aid?"
14. He of another mother answered: so he said aid he would to his
kin afford, as one foot to the other[121] [or, grown to the body, one
hand the other].
15. "What can a foot to a foot give; or, grown to the body, one hand
the other?"
16. From the sheath they drew the iron blade, the falchion's edges,
for Hel's delight. They their strength diminished by a third part,
they their young kinsman caused to earth to sink.
17. Their mantles then they shook, their weapons grasped; the
high-born were clad in sumptuous raiment.
18. Forward lay the ways, a woeful path they found, and their
sister's son wounded on a gibbet, wind-cold outlaw-trees,[122] on the
town's west. Ever vibrated the ravens' whet: there to tarry was not
good.
19. Uproar was in the hall, men were with drink excited, so that the
horses' tramp no one heard, until a mindful man winded his horn.
20. To announce they went to Jormunrek that were seen helm-decked
warriors. "Take ye counsel, potent ones are come; before mighty men ye
have on a damsel trampled."
21. Then laughed Jormunrek, with his hand stroked his beard, asked
not for his corslet; with wine he struggled, shook his dark locks, on
his white shield looked, and in his hand swung the golden cup.
22. "Happy should I seem, if I could see Hamdir and Sorli within my
hall. I would them then with bowstrings bind, the good sons of Giuki
on the gallows hang."
23. Then said Hrodrglod, on the high steps standing; "Prince" said
she to her son--for that was threatened which ought not to
happen--"shall two men alone bind or slay ten hundred Goths in this
lofty burgh?"
24. Tumult was in the mansion, the beer-cups flew in shivers, men
lay in blood from the Goths' breasts flowing.
25. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "Jormunrek! thou didst
desire our coming, brothers of one mother, into thy burgh:[123] now
seest thou thy feet, seest thy hands Jormunrek! cast into the glowing
fire."
26. Then roared forth a godlike[124] mail-clad warrior, as a bear
roars: "On the men hurl stones, since spears bite not, nor edge of
sword, nor point, the sons of Jonakr."
27. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "Harm didst thou, brother!
when thou that mouth didst ope. Oft from that mouth bad counsel
comes."
28. "Courage hast thou, Hamdir! if only thou hadst sense: that man
lacks much who wisdom lacks.
29. "Off would the head now be, had but Erp lived, our brother bold
in fight, whom on the way we slew, that warrior brave--me the Disir
instigated--that man sacred to us, whom we resolved to slay.
30. "I ween not that ours should be the wolves' example, that with
ourselves we should contend, like the Norns' dogs, that voracious are
in the desert nurtured."
31. "Well have we fought, on slaughtered Goths we stand, on those
fallen by the sword, like eagles on a branch. Great glory we have
gained, though now or to-morrow we shall die. No one lives till eve
against the Norns' decree."
33. There fell Sorli, at the mansion's front; but Hamdir sank at the
house's back.
This is called the Old Lay of Hamdir.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 118: See Str. 10, and Ghv. 9, and. Luning, Glossar.]
[Footnote 119: "The Alfar's Lament" is the early dawn, and is in
apposition to "early morn," in the following line. The swart Alfar are
meant, who were turned to stone if they did not flee from the light of
day. This is the best interpretation I can offer of this obscure
strophe.]
[Footnote 120: In this and the four following strophes the person
alluded to is their half-brother Erp, of whose story nothing more is
known. He, it appears, had preceded or outridden the others.]
[Footnote 121: Malmesbury relates a similar story of King Æthelstan
and his cupbearer.]
[Footnote 122: Lit. wolf-trees; a fugitive criminal being called vargr
_wolf_.]
[Footnote 123: According to the Skalda it would appear that they cut
off his hands and feet while he was asleep. Erp, had they not murdered
him, was to have cut off his head.]
[Footnote 124: Odin, as in the battle of Bravalla.]
THE YOUNGER EDDAS OF STURLESON.
THE DELUDING OF GYLFI.
GEFJON'S PLOUGHING.[125]
1. King Gylfi ruled over the land which is now called Svithiod
(Sweden). It is related of him that he once gave a wayfaring woman, as
a recompense for her having diverted him, as much land in his realm as