7. Seven hundred | there were in the hall,
Ere the queen her hand | in the kettle thrust.
Guthrun spake:
8. "Gunnar comes not, | Hogni I greet not,
No longer I see | my brothers loved;
My sorrow would Hogni | avenge with the sword,
Now myself for my woes | I shall payment win.
9. To the bottom she reached | with hand so bright,
And forth she brought | the flashing stones:
"Behold, ye warriors, | well am I cleared
Of sin by the kettle's | sacred boiling."
10. Then Atli's heart | in happiness laughed,
When Guthrun's hand | unhurt he saw;
"Now Herkja shall come | the kettle to try,
She who grief | for Guthrun planned."
11. Ne'er saw man sight | more sad than this,
How burned were the hands | of Herkja then;
In a bog so foul | the maid they flung,
And so was Guthrun's | grief requited.
[6. *Note*: Stanzas 6 - 11 are reordered to conform to the ON.
6. Who Saxi may be is not clear, but the stanza clearly points to the time when the ordeal by boiling water was still regarded
as a foreign institution, and when a southern king (i. e., a Christian from some earlier-converted region) was necessary to consecrate
the kettle used in the test.
7. The ordeal by boiling water followed closely the introduction of Christianity, which took place around the year 1000. Some editions make two
stanzas out of Bellows original stanza 7:
7. "Summon Saxi, | the southrons' king,
For be the boiling | kettle can hallow."
Seven hundred | there were in the hall,
Ere the queen her hand | in the kettle thrust.
and Müllenhoff contends that lines 1-2 do not constitute part of Guthrun's speech.
11. The word "requited" in line 4 is omitted in the manuscript, but it is clear that some such word was intended. The punishment of casting a
culprit into a bog to be drowned was particularly reserved for women, and is not infrequently mentioned in the sagas.]
