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. I have heard it told | in olden tales
How a maiden came | to Morningland;
No one of all | on earth above
To 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. 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. "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. 'Who worked this woe | for the woman thus,
Or why so sudden | is Borgny sick?"
[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.
1. 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 n, is probably spurious.
*Note*: From Stanza 5 to 32 in the Bellows original translation the numbering has been reordered to confrom the stanzas to the ON.]
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Heiðrekr hét konungr. Dóttir hans hét Borgný. Vilmundr hét sá, er var friðill hennar. Hon mátti eigi fæða börn, áðr til
kom Oddrún Atlasystir. Hon hafði verit unnusta Gunnars Gjúkasonar. Um þessa sögu er hér kveðit:
1. Heyrða ek segja í sögum fornum,
hvé mær of kom til Mornalands;
engi mátti fyr jörð ofan
Heiðreks dóttur hjalpir vinna.
2. Þat frá Oddrún Atla systir,
at sú mær hafði miklar sóttir;
brá hon af stalli stjórnbitluðum
ok á svartan söðul of lagði.
3. Lét hon mar fara moldveg sléttan,
unz at hári kom höll standandi;
svipti hon söðli af svöngum jó,
ok hon inn of gekk endlangan sal,
ok hon þat orða alls fyrst of kvað:
4. "Hvat er frægst hér á foldu,
eða hvat er hlézt Húnalands?"
Ambótt kvað:
"Hér liggr Borgný of borin verkjum,
vina þín, Oddrún, vittu, ef þú hjalpir."
Oddrún kvað:
5. "Hverr hefir vísir vamms of leitat?
Hví eru Borgnýjar bráðar sóttir?"
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