The Poetic Edda (tr. Bellows)/Oddrunargratr

by Anonymous

ODDRUNARGRATR

The Lament of Oddrun

Introductory Note

The Oddrunargratr follows Guthrunarkvitha III in the Codex Regius; it is not quoted or mentioned elsewhere, except that the composer of the "short" Sigurth lay seems to have been familiar with it. The Volsungasaga says nothing of the story on which it is based, and mentions Oddrun only once, in the course of its paraphrase of Brynhild's prophecy from the "short" Sigurth lay. That the poem comes from the eleventh century is generally agreed; prior to the year 1000 there is no trace of the figure of Oddrun, Atli's sister, and yet the Oddrunargratr is almost certainly older than the "short" Sigurth lay, so that the last half of the eleventh century seems to be a fairly safe guess.

Where or how the figure of Oddrun entered the Sigurth-Atli cycle is uncertain. She does not appear in any of the extant German versions, and it is generally assumed that she was a creation of the North, though the poet refers to "old tales" concerning her. She does not directly affect the course of the story at all, though the poet has used effectively the episode of Gunnar's death, with the implication that Atli's vengeance on Gunnar and Hogni was due, at least in part, to his discovery of Gunnar's love affair with Oddrun. The material which forms the background of Oddrun's story belongs wholly to the German part of the legend (cf. introductory note to Gripisspo), and is paralleled with considerable closeness in the Nibelungenlied; only Oddrun herself and the subsidiary figures of Borgny and Vilmund are Northern additions. The geography, on the other hand, is so utterly chaotic as to indicate that the original localization of the Atli story had lost all trace of significance by the time this poem was composed.

In the manuscript the poem, or rather the brief introductory prose note, bears the heading "Of Borgny and Oddrun," but nearly all editions, following late paper manuscripts, have given the poem the title it bears here. Outside of a few apparently defective stanzas, and some confusing transpositions, the poem has clearly been preserved in good condition, and the beginning and end are definitely marked.

 

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Heithrek was the name of a king, whose daughter was called Borgny. Vilmund was the name of the man who was her lover. She could not give birth to a child until Oddrun, Atli's sister, had come to her; Oddrun had been beloved of Gunnar, son of Gjuki. About this story is the following poem.^[1]

1.^[2] I have heard it told  in olden talesHow a maiden came  to Morningland;No one of all  on earth aboveTo Heithrek's daughter  help could give.

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.

3.^[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:

4.^[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:5.^[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)."

6.^[6] Then no more  they spake, methinks;She went at the knees  of the woman to sit; With magic Oddrun  and mightily OddrunChanted for Borgny  potent charms.

7.^[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:

8.^[8] "So may the holy  ones thee help,Frigg and Freyja  and favoring gods,As thou hast saved me  from sorrow now."

  Oddrun spake:9.^[9] "I came not hither  to help thee thusBecause 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:10.^[10][11] "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:11.^[10][12] "I remember the evil  one eve thou spakest,When a draught I gave  to Gunnar then;Thou didst say that never  such a deedBy maid was done  save by me alone."

12.^[10][13] Then the sorrowing woman  sat her downTo tell the grief  of her troubles great.

13.^[10][14] "Happy I grew  in the hero's hallAs the warriors wished,  and they loved me well;Glad I was  of my father's gifts,For winters five,  while my father lived.

14.^[10][15] "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.

15.^[10][16] "But Brynhild the helm  he bade to wear,A wish-maid bright  he said she should be;For a nobler maid  would never be bornOn earth, he said,  if death should spare her.

16.^[10][17] "At her weaving Brynhild  sat in her bower,Lands and folk  alike she had; The earth and heaven  high resoundedWhen Fafnir's slayer  the city saw.

17.^[10][18] "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.

18.^[10][19] "Woeful for this  her vengeance was,As so we learned  to our sorrow all;In every land  shall all men hearHow herself at Sigurth's  side she slew.

19.^[10][20] "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.

20.^[10][21] "Fifteen dwellings  fain would he giveFor me, and the burden  that Grani bore;But Atli said  he would never receiveMarriage gold  from Gjuki's son.

21. "Yet could we not  our love o'ercome,And my head I laid  on the hero's shoulder;Many there were  of kinsmen mineWho said that together  us they had seen.

22. "Atli said  that never IWould evil plan,  or ill deed do;But none may this  of another think,Or surely speak,  when love is shared.

23.^[22] "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.

24.^[23] "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.

25.^[24] "But close from Guthrun  kept they hidWhat first of all  she ought to have known.....................................

26.^[25] "Great was the clatter  of gilded hoofsWhen Gjuki's sons  through the gateway rode;The heart they hewed  from Hogni then,And the other they cast  in the serpents' cave.

27.^[26] "The hero wise  on his harp then smote,..............For help from me  in his heart yet hopedThe high-born king,  might come to him.

28.^[27] "Alone was I gone  to Geirmund then,The draught to mix  and ready to make;Sudden I heard  from Hlesey clearHow in sorrow the strings  of the harp resounded.

29.^[28] "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.

30.^[29] "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.

31.^[30] "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.

32.^[31] "Thou didst see and listen,  the while I saidThe mighty grief  that was mine and theirs;Each man lives  as his longing wills,—Oddrun's lament  is ended now."

1. Prose. Nothing further is known of Heithrek, Borgny or Vilmund. The annotator has added the name of Borgny's father, but otherwise his material comes from the poem itself. Oddrun, sister of Atli and Brynhild, here appears as proficient in birth-runes (cf. Sigrdrifumol, 8). Regarding her love for Gunnar, Guthrun's brother, and husband of her sister, Brynhild, cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 57 and note.
2. 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. 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.
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.
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.
6. Charms: cf. Sigrdrifumol, 8.
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."
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.
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. 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.
11. The manuscript does not name the speaker; cf. note on stanzas 10-20.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza; many editions combine lines 1-2 with stanzas 12 and lines 3-4 with lines 1-2 of stanza 14. The hero: Buthli, father of Oddrun, Atli, and Brynhild.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. Cf. note on preceding stanza.
19. Cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, stanzas 64-70.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. In the manuscript lines 3 and 4 stand in reversed order.
24. 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.
25. 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).
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. Many editions combine this stanza with lines 3-4 of stanza 28. The sound: cf. note on stanza 28.
29. 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."
30. 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).
31. Some editions make line 4 a statement of the poet's, and not part of Oddrun's speech.