1. There are many who know | how of old did men
In counsel gather; | little good did they get;
In secret they plotted, | it was sore for them later,
And for Gjuki's sons, | whose trust they deceived.
2. Fate grew for the princes, | to death they were given;
Ill counsel was Atli's, | though keenness he had;
He felled his staunch bulwark, | his own sorrow fashioned,
Soon a message he sent | that his kinsmen should seek him.
3. Wise was the woman, | she fain would use wisdom,
She saw well what meant | all they said in secret;
From her heart it was hid | how help she might render,
The sea they should sail, | while herself she should go not.
4. Runes did she fashion, | but false Vingi made them,
The speeder of hatred, | ere to give them he sought;
Then soon fared the warriors | whom Atli had sent,
And to Limafjord came, | to the home of the kings.
5. They were kindly with ale, | and fires they kindled,
They thought not of craft | from the guests who had come;
The gifts did they take | that the noble one gave them,
On the pillars they hung them, | no fear did they harbor.
[1. Men: Atli and his advisers, with whom he planned the death of the sons of Gjuki, Gunnar and Hogni. The poet's reference to the story as
well known explains the abruptness of his introduction, without the mention of Atli's name, and his reference to Guthrun in stanza 3 simply as
"the woman" ("husfreyja," goddess of the house).
2. Princes: Atli, Gunnar, and Hogni. Bulwark: Atli's slaying [fp. 501] of his wife's brothers, who were ready to support and defend him in his
greatness, was the cause of his own death.
3. The woman: Guthrun, concerning whose marriage to Atli cf. Guthrunarkvitha II. The sea: a late and essentially Greenland variation of the geography
of the Atli story. Even the Atlakvitha, perhaps half a century earlier, separates Atli's land from that of the Gjukungs only by a forest.
4. Runes: on the two versions of Guthrun's warning, and also on the name of the messenger (here Vingi), cf. Drap Niflunga and note. Limafjord:
probably the Limfjord of northern Jutland, an important point in the wars of the eleventh century. The name was derived from "Eylimafjorþ," i.e.,
Eylimi's fjord. The poet may really have thought that the kingdom of the Burgundians was in Jutland, or he may simply have taken a well-known name
for the sake of vividness.
5. Some editors assume a gap after this stanza.]
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1. Frétt hefir öld óvu, þá er endr of gerðu
seggir samkundu, sú var nýt fæstum,
æxtu einmæli, yggr var þeim síðan
ok it sama sonum Gjúka, er váru sannráðnir.
2. Sköp æxtu skjöldunga, - skyldu-at feigir, -
illa réðsk Atla, átti hann þó hyggju;
felldi stoð stóra, stríddi sér harðla,
af bragði boð sendi, at kvæmi brátt mágar.
3. Horsk var húsfreyja, hugði at mannviti;
lag heyrði hon orða, hvat þeir á laun mæltu;
þá var vant vitri, vildi hon þeim hjalpa,
skyldi of sæ sigla, en sjalf né komsk-at.
4. Rúnar nam at rísta, rengdi þær Vingi
- fárs var hann flýtandi -, áðr hann fram seldi;
fóru þá síðan sendimenn Atla
um fjörð Lima, þar er fræknir bjuggu.
5. Ölværir urðu ok elda kyndu,
hugðu vætr véla, er þeir váru komnir;
tóku þeir fórnir, er þeim fríðr sendi,
hengðu á súlu, hugðu-t þat varða.
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