Guðrúnarkviða II, Hin Forna - A Reading

Guðrúnarkviða II (The Second Lay of Guðrún), also known as Guðrúnarkviða hin forna (The Old Lay of Guðrún) | The Poetic Edda
Translated by Henry A. Bellows | Recorded by Folkbuilder Nicholas Rice

King Þjóðrekr was staying at the court of Atli, after he had lost most of his warriors in battle. Þjóðrekr and Atli's queen Guðrún were alone together & discussed their sorrows. Guðrún told him 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 Sigurð, & his horse, Grani, ran off to find her, & she began to cry, as she understood what had happened. When she met her brothers, Gunnarr was bowing his head, but Högni told her the news that Sigurð had been slain. He further told her that she could find Sigurð on the road. Guðrún went to search for what was left by the wolves & found Sigurð. When she found him, she did not cry, although she was so sad that she did not want to live anymore. She left the mountains & travelled for five days, until she saw the hall of Halfr, in Denmark, where she stayed for three & a half years with Thora, the daughter of Hakon. Thora & Guðrún enjoyed themselves by weaving tapestries of southern halls, Danish swans, & warriors. Guðrún's mother Grimhildr asked her sons, Gunnarr & Högni, what kind of wergild they would like to give their sister for the killing of her husband & son, & they were both ready to compensate their sister. Guðrún met her mother, brothers, & Valdar, the king of Denmark. They wanted to give her gifts to console her, but she did not trust them. Then, her mother gave her something to drink, a potion of forgetfulness. The poem relates that Guðrún forgot & the three kings kneeled before her & Grimhildr began to speak. Her mother told her that she gave her all her father's wealth, & that she would also have Buðli's wealth because she was to become Atli's wife. Guðrún answered that she did not wish to marry Atli, but her mother responded that with Atli she would be as happy as if both Sigurð & her son Sigmund were still alive. She responded that her mother should not be so eager to giver her away to the Huns, & she prophesied that Atli would kill Gunnarr & tear out the heart of Högni. Grímhildr began to weep when she heard the prophecy & told her that she was forced to give her away to Atli. She was never happy with him & she lost her sons when her brothers died, & she would kill Atli. She travelled to Atli first a week through cold lands, then a week on water, & lastly a week through land that lacked water. The laments continues with Atli told Guðrún that he had had foreboding dreams of being killed by her. 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 cryptic lines where Guðrún says that people will talk of a sacrifice.

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