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Guthrunarkvitha I

2. To her the warriors  wise there came,Longing her heavy  woe to lighten;Grieving could not  Guthrun weep,So sad her heart,  it seemed, would break.
3. Then the wives  of the warriors came,Gold-adorned,  and Guthrun sought;Each one then  of her own grief spoke,The bitterest pain  she had ever borne.
4.[1] Then spake Gjaflaug,  Gjuki's sister:"Most joyless of all  on earth am I;Husbands five  were from me taken,(Two daughters then,  and sisters three,)Brothers eight,  yet I have lived."
5.[2] Grieving could not  Guthrun weep,Such grief she had  for her husband dead,And so grim her heart  by the hero's body.
6.[3] Then Herborg spake,  the queen of the Huns:
  1. ↑ Gjaflaug: nothing further is known of this aunt of Guthrun, or of the many relatives whom she has lost. Very likely she is an invention of the poet's, for it seems improbable that otherwise all further trace of her should have been lost. Line 4 has been marked by many editors as spurious.
  2. ↑ Some editors assume the loss of a line, after either line 1 or line 3. I prefer to believe that here and in stanza 10 the poet knew exactly what he was doing, and that both stanzas are correct.
  3. ↑ Herborg: neither she nor her sorrows are elsewhere men-

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