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Poetic Edda

But to nought would they hearken,  and "No" said they all.
46.[1] Then the high-born one saw  that hard was their battle,In fierceness of heart  she flung off her mantle;Her naked sword grasped she  her kin's lives to guard,Not gentle her hands  in the hewing of battle.
47.[2] Then the daughter of Gjuki  two warriors smote down,Atli's brother she slew,  and forth then they bore him;(So fiercely she fought  that his feet she clove off;)Another she smote  so that never he stood,To hell did she send him,—  her hands trembled never.
  1. ↑ The warlike deeds of Guthrun represent an odd transformation of the German tradition. Kriemhild, although she did no actual fighting in the Nibelungenlied, was famed from early times for her cruelty and fierceness of heart, and this seems to have inspired the poet of the Atlamol to make his Guthrun into a warrior outdoing Brynhild herself. Kriemhield's ferocity, of course, was directed against Gunther and especially Hagene, for whose slaying she rather than Etzel was responsible; here, on the other hand, Guthrun's is devoted to the defense of her brothers.
  2. ↑ Line 3 is very likely an interpolation. The manuscript marks line 4 as the beginning of a new stanza, and some editions make a separate stanza of lines 4-5. Atli's brother: doubtless a reminiscence of the early tradition represented in the Nibelungenlied by the slaying of Etzel's brother, Blœdelin (the historical Bleda), by Dancwart.

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