Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/525

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Atlakvitha

And to sit in the saddle  all day 'neath the sun,(That the sword-norns might weep  for the death-pale warriors,And the Hunnish shield-maids  might shun not the sword,)And send Atli himself  to the den of the snakes;(Now the den of the snakes  for thee is destined.)"
  Gunnar spake:18.[1] .............."Too late is it, sister,  to summon the Niflungs,Long is it to come  to the throng of our comrades,The heroes gallant,  from the hills of the Rhine."
******
19.[2] Then Gunnar they seized,  and they set him in chains,

    numerous and varied. Household: the phrase is the same "helms round the hearth" commented on in stanza 3. Some editions insert a conjectural line after line 3. Sword-norns, etc.: the line is exceedingly obscure, and the phrase rendered "sword-norns" may mean "corpse-norns." Apparently it refers to the warrior-women of the Huns, the "shield-maids" of line 5 and of stanza 45. Roman writers refer to the warrior-women among the early Germanic tribes, and the tradition, closely allied to that of the Valkyries, attached itself readily to the ferocious Huns. Den of snakes: concerning the manner of Gunnar's death cf. Drap Niflunga.

  1. ↑ The manuscript indicates no lacuna and does not name the speaker; perhaps a line similar to line 1 of stanza 24 (or 26) should be inserted here. Rhine: Gunnar's Burgundian home is here clearly localized. After this stanza it is probable that a passage describing the battle has been lost.
  2. ↑ These two lines, apparently the remains of a full stanza,

[489]

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.