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Atlamol

  Guthrun spake:53.[1] "Hear me now, Atli!  the first evil was thine;My mother didst thou take,  and for gold didst murder her,My sister's daughter  thou didst starve in a prison.A jest does it seem  that thy sorrow thou tellest,And good do I find it  that grief to thee comes."
  Atli spake:54.[2] "Go now, ye warriors,  and make greater the griefOf the woman so fair,  for fain would I see it;So fierce be thy warring  that Guthrun shall weep,I would gladly behold  her happiness lost.
55. "Seize ye now Hogni,  and with knives shall ye hew him,His heart shall ye cut out,  this haste ye to do;And grim-hearted Gunnar  shall ye bind on the gallows,
  1. ↑ The manuscript does not name the speaker. The Volsungasaga gives the speech, in somewhat altered form, to Hogni: "Why speakest thou so? Thou wast the first to break peace; thou didst take my kinswoman and starved her in a prison, and murdered her and took her wealth; that was not kinglike; and laughable does it seem to me that thou talkest of thy sorrow, and good shall I find it that all goes ill with thee." This presumably represents the correct form of the stanza, for nowhere else is it intimated that Atli killed Guthrun's mother, Grimhild, nor is the niece elsewhere mentioned. Some editions make a separate stanza of lines 4-5, Grundtvig adding a line after line 3 and two more after line 5. Other editors are doubtful about the authenticity of either line 3 or line 5.
  2. ↑ The manuscript does not indicate the speaker.

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