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Poetic Edda

[1]Gunnar and Hogni then took all the gold that Fafnir had had. There was strife between the Gjukungs and Atli, for he held the Gjukungs guilty of Brynhild's death. It was agreed that they should give him Guthrun as wife, and they gave her a draught of forgetfulness[2] to drink before she would consent to be wedded to Atli. The sons of Atli were Erp and Eitil[3], and Svanhild[4] was the daughter of Sigurth and Guthrun. King Atli invited Gunnar and Hogni to come to him, and sent as messenger Vingi or Knefröth[5]. Guthrun was aware of treachery, and sent with him a message in runes that they should not come, and as a token she sent to Hogni the ring Andvaranaut[6] and tied a wolf's hair in it. Gunnar had sought Oddrun[7], Atli's sister, for his wife, but had her not; then he married Glaumvor[8], and Hogni's wife was

  1. ↑ Prose. Niflungs: regarding the mistaken application of this name to the sons of Gjuki, who were Burgundians, cf. Brot, 17 and note.
  2. ↑ Draught of forgetfulness: according to the Volsungasaga Grimhild, Guthrun's mother, administered this, just as she did the similar draught which made Sigurth forget Brynhild.
  3. ↑ Erp and Eitil: Guthrun kills her two sons by Atli as part of her revenge; the annotator here explains her act further by saying that Guthrun asked her sons to intercede with their father in favor of Guthrun's brothers, but that they refused, a detail which he appears to have invented, as it is found nowhere else.
  4. ↑ Svanhild: cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 54 and note.
  5. ↑ Vingi or Knefröth: Atlakvitha (stanza 1) calls the messenger Knefröth; Atlamol (stanza 4) speaks of two messengers, but names only one of them, Vingi. The annotator has here tried, unsuccessfully, to combine the two accounts.
  6. ↑ Andvaranaut: regarding the origin of Andvari's ring cf. Reginsmol, prose after stanzas 4 and 5 and notes; Sigurth gave the ring to Guthrun. Here again the annotator is combining two stories; in Atlakvitha (stanza 8) Guthrun sends a ring (not Andvaranaut) with a wolf's hair; in Atlamol (stanza 4) she sends a message written
  7. ↑
  8. ↑

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