called me by the name
‘Hild in the Helmet’
at home in Hlymdalir.
A man was named Agnar,
brother of Autha;
no one would ever
help him in any way.
[7] “A brave king
ordered the feather-cloaks
of us eight Valkyries
to be carried beneath an oak.
I was twelve years old,
if you want to know,
when I gave
a young prince my oath.
{291} [8] “Then I let an old warrior,
Hjalmgunnar
of the Gothic lands,
go to Hel.
I gave victory to Agnar,
Autha’s young brother,
and Odin was intolerably
angry at me for this.
[9] “He closed me up
behind red and white shields,
set them in a circle around me
in Skatalund.
He said only a man
who could never
know fear
could break my sleep.
[10] “And around my
south-facing hall,
he kindled
high-flaming fires;
only one man
could ride over the flames—
the one who brought me the gold
that had lain beneath Fafnir.
[11] “Then that good man,
that sharer of rings,
came riding on Grani
to my foster-father’s hall.
He alone, the Viking Sigurth,
seemed better to me
than every other man
at that Danish court.
[12] “The two of us
slept together in one bed,
not as lovers, but as if
he were my brother—
for eight nights
{292} neither of us
laid so much as a hand
upon the other.
[13] “Guthrun, daughter
of Gjuki, mocked me,
she said I had slept
in the arms of Sigurth.
And when she said it,
I realized the horrible truth
of how they wooed me—
they had tricked me.
[14] “Men and women
will go on living
for far too many days,
for far too little joy.
But as for me and Sigurth,
we will never be parted,
never again after death!
Now sink back down, giant.”
{293} Drap Niflunga (The Death of the Niflungs)
Drap Niflunga (literally “The Killing of the Niflungs”) is not a poem but a brief prose note that summarizes the death of Gunnar and Hogni, an event that precedes the action of the next poems, and which is related in detail in the poem Atlakvitha.
Drap Niflunga
Then Gunnar and Hogni took all the gold that had been Fafnir’s. They were not at peace with Attila, because he blamed them for his sister Brynhild’s death. But they made peace by giving Attila their sister Guthrun in marriage. They gave Guthrun a magical potion of forgetfulness before she consented to marry Attila. Attila’s sons with Guthrun were Erp and Eitil, and Guthrun had her daughter Svanhild by Sigurth.
King Attila later invited Gunnar and Hogni to visit him, and sent his messenger named Vingi or Knefroth. Guthrun suspected Attila meant to harm her brothers, so she sent a message in runes that said they should not come, and as a sign she sent Hogni the ring Andvaranaut with a wolf’s hair tied to it.
Gunnar had wooed Oddrun, Attila’s sister, but Attila had not given her to him in marriage. So Gunnar had married Glaumvor, and Hogni had married Kostbera, and their sons were Solar and Snaevar and Gjuki.
When Gunnar and Hogni came to Attila, Guthrun asked her sons to beg for her brothers’ lives, but they refused. Hogni’s heart was cut out, and Gunnar was placed in a pit of snakes. He played a harp and lulled the snakes to sleep, but one of them bit him down to the liver.
{294} Atlakvitha (The Fall of the House of Attila)
Atlakvitha (literally “Poem of Attila”) is probably the oldest poem in the Poetic Edda and one of the most memorable and poignant of the heroic poems. It tells of the visit of Gunnar and Hogni to Attila, of their murder by Attila, and finally of Guthrun’s vengeance on Attila when she kills her sons by him. Sigurth is never mentioned, though Gunnar and Hogni do own a great treasure, which the author of Volsunga saga understood as Fafnir’s. Read in isolation, the poem seems to imply that Guthrun dies as well as Attila at the end, though the following poems (as well as Volsunga saga) tell that she lived.
In the manuscript, Atlakvitha is placed after three poems with stories that take place after that of Atlakvitha: the poems Guthrunarkvitha II, Guthrunarkvitha III, and Oddrunargratr. In this translation, I have moved Atlakvitha before these three, to make the story more chronologically cohesive for those who wish to read the Edda from start to finish. As mentioned in the Introduction, the Codex Regius also includes one poem after Atlakvitha, called Atlamal, which is much longer and much later, and which tells substantially the same story but with many later additions. Atlamal is thus excluded from this translation because of its redundancy with Atlakvitha.
Atlakvitha
[1] ATTILA SENT A MESSAGE TO GUNNAR,
son of Gjuki;
he picked Knefroth,
a good man, to take it.
At the end he came
to Gunnar’s hall,
where there were warm seats
by the fire, and good beer.
[2] Gjuki’s sons were drinking
when the silent Huns came in;
the Huns and Goths
exchanged angry glances.
{295} But Knefroth the Hun
sat down on a bench,
and in a cold voice
he said to them:
[3] “Attila sent me here
on an errand;
I have ridden here
on a fast mare through Mirkwood.
Attila told me to invite you,
Gunnar and Hogni,
to visit his own hall,
and leave your helmets at home.
[4] “Attila will give you shields
and well-crafted spears;
he will give you golden helmets
of the Hunnish style.
You’ll be given silver saddles,
fine red cloaks,
spearpoints, javelins,
and fast horses.
[5] “He will let you have the wide,
fine valley Gnitaheith,
and steel weapons,
and golden ships.
He will let you have great treasures,
lands by the Dnieper,
and the famous forest
that men call Mirkwood.”
[6] Gunnar turned his head to Hogni,
his brother, and said:
“What do you advise,
little brother, when we hear such?
I don’t think there’s any
gold in Gnitaheith
that we don’t have
the equal of right here.”
{296} [7] Hogni said: “We have seven halls,
each full of swords;
the hilt of each sword
is made of gold.
I ride the best horse,
carry the sharpest sword,
have the best-made bow,
and wear a golden suit of armor,
I wear a Caesar’s
bright helmet and shield—
any one of these is better
than everything the Huns own.
[8] “And what could Guthrun mean,
when she sends a ring
with a wolf’s hair tied to it?
I think she is warning us:
A wolf’s hair breaks the circle
of this fine golden ring,
and a wolf awaits u
s
on our journey, if we take it.”
[9] It was not the advice of his brother,
nor of his kinsmen,
nor of his wizards,
nor of his counselors nor his top men;
but Gunnar alone decided,
like a famous king should,
and he spoke in his meadhall
with swelling courage:
[10] “Get up, servant,
send around the golden cups!
Let the boys
have a drink of mead.
[11] “A wolf, a predator
from the forest,
will have my
inheritance if I die.
{297} Pale-pelted bears
will eat our food
and fight our dogs,
if I don’t come back.”
[12] Bold fighters,
Gunnar’s warriors,
escorted the Huns
out of Gunnar’s hall.
Hogni’s young son
said to his father:
“Stay well and wise,
wherever your courage takes you!”
[13] Those brave men
rushed across the mountains
on swift, eager horses,
through unmapped Mirkwood.
Hunland trembled
where those bold men rode;
they drove their well-trained horses
on the green plains.
[14] They saw the hall of Attila,
where Huns stood guard;
men patrolled
outside that high hall.
That Hunnish hall
was full of seats for drinking,
of iron-bound shields
and yellow shields,
of spearpoints and javelins,
and there sat Attila
drinking wine;
his best guards sat outside
to ensure Gunnar and Hogni
would not come in
with flashing spears,
meaning to start a fight.
{298} [15] Guthrun went to meet
her brothers when they came in;
she greeted them both,
she was gloomy, and drank little.
She said: “You’re unwise.
What can you get from fighting
the Huns, when you’re already
so rich? Run for your life!
[16] “Brothers, it would have been
better if you had come in armor,
in the helmets you left at home,
if you had sat in your saddles
on a warm bright day,
taken the land of Attila,
if you had let their Norns weep,
and given the Valkyries
a hard day’s work,
had finished off Attila himself
in a snake-pit.
But now the snake-pit
waits for you.”
[17] Gunnar said: “It’s too late now,
sister, to gather an army.
It’s a long way back
to our brave army,
over the mountains
and the river Rhine.”
[18] The Huns seized Gunnar
and put him in chains—
they’d invited him in friendship,
but they tied him up.
[19] Hogni didn’t wait;
he killed seven with his sword,
and shoved an eighth
into the fire.
{299} That is how a bold man
should treat his enemies—
the way Hogni did,
before he was chained like Gunnar.
[20] They asked King Gunnar
if he wanted to live,
if he would buy his life
by telling where his gold was.
[21] Gunnar said: “First,
I must see Hogni’s bloody heart
torn out of his living chest
and placed in my hand.
Go, take a sword or knife,
and cut it out of him.”
[22] But they cut out the heart
of Hjalli the slave,
and put it on a platter,
and took that to Gunnar.
[23] Gunnar, that lord of men,
was not fooled. He said:
“Here I have the heart
of the coward Hjalli!
It is nothing like
my brave brother Hogni’s heart.
This one trembles
where it lies on the plate—
and it trembled twice as much
in the coward’s chest.”
[24] Hogni laughed
when they cut out his heart.
He was a killer;
he would never weep.
They put his heart on a plate
and took it to Gunnar.
{300} [25] Then Gunnar,
famous leader of spearmen, said:
“Here I have the heart
of my bold brother Hogni!
It is nothing
like the coward Hjalli’s heart.
This one barely trembles
where it lies on the plate—
and it never trembled at all
when it was in his chest.
[26] “Very well, Attila,
now your eyes shall never see
where I have hidden
the treasure of Fafnir.
[27] “I, the King of the Goths,
am the only one who knows
its hiding place,
now that bold Hogni lies dead.
I was always in doubt
while the two of us lived,
but now I know the secret’s safe
since I alone live.
[28] “Now no one will take
that treasure from its hiding place,
and it will lie forever
beneath the famous river Rhine,
where the cursed rings
will shine beneath the current
rather than on the hands
of the Huns’ children!”
[29] Attila said: “Put him in the wagon.
The prisoner can’t move from his chains.”
[30] King Attila,
Gunnar’s brother-in-law,
rode his horse Glaum,
a sword at his side.
{301} Noble-born Guthrun
spoke to him, stricken,
weeping in his hall:
[31] “You deserve what’s coming to you,
Attila, for breaking
the oaths you and Gunnar
swore to each other long ago;
you swore by the sun to be faithful,
and by Odin’s hill,
you swore by the ring of Ull,
on the day we were wed.”
[32] Nevertheless the horse
brought Gunnar on the wagon
to the place prepared
for his punishment.
[33] They placed Gunnar,
many of the Huns
were there to watch.
But Gunnar sat in that pit,
surrounded by vipers
and, still feeling bold,
he played the harp.
He plucked the strings,
that brave man—
that is how to protect
a treasure from one’s enemies.
[34] Then Attila,
on a wild horse,
rode back to his land
after the murder.
There was a great noise
of many men on horses,
his men sang battle-songs
as they came back home.
{302} [35] Guthrun approached Attila
at the feast,
with a gilded cup in hand,
and she presented it to her husband:
“Accept this drink, husband,
here in your hall,
in glad memory of yo
ur wife’s
departed kinsmen.”
[36] Attila’s halls echoed
as toasts were drunk;
all the Huns
were gathered there in his hall,
long-bearded fighters,
they all came in for the feast.
[37] Then lovely Guthrun was hostess,
she brought everyone a drink,
the hard-minded lady
made her guests drunk;
and then she spoke
hateful words to Attila:
[38] “Warrior—
you have chewed
your own sons’
raw, bloody hearts,
mixed with a little honey—
you have eaten murdered
humans as little treats,
and sent the plate around your hall.
[39] “Our little boys,
Erp and Eitil,
will never again
run up, drunk,
and embrace your knees.
You will never
see them
make a spear,
{303} or comb a mane,
or sit atop a war-horse.”
[40] The people in the hall
screamed, made a frightful noise,
their happiness turned to misery,
and all the Huns wept.
All of them except Guthrun,
for she never wept,
neither when her brothers
died fighting like bears,
nor when she gave death
to the boys she’d given life.
[41] The beautiful wife of Attila
now started giving gifts,
she bestowed golden rings
on Attila’s warriors.
She went blithely on,
distributing shining gold,
and burdened the Huns
with more riches.
[42] Meanwhile Attila,
the taste of his sons’ flesh still fresh,
sat, no weapon in hand—
he’d never suspected Guthrun.
He thought of how happy they’d been,
back when they had been
accustomed to embrace
in front of everyone.
[43] Later she reddened
their sheets with his blood,
held a sword in her murderous hand
and let the dogs go free.
Then she barricaded the doors
and set the hall on fire—
the Huns died in the flames,
and her brothers were avenged.
{304} [44] She gave all the Huns
to the burning flames
for the murder of Gunnar
and Hogni in Mirkwood.
The old timbers cracked and fell,
their temples fell down,
all the homes of the Huns burned,
and their wives inside burned,
all of them fell, suffocating,
and succumbed to the hot flames.
[45] The story is now fully told,
and no woman in armor
has avenged her brothers
in a like manner since.