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Poetic Edda

So valiant he was  that well he could suffer.
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62.[1] A harp Gunnar seized,  with his toes he smote it;So well did he strike  that the women all wept,And the men, when clear  they heard it, lamented;Full noble was his song,  the rafters burst asunder.
63.[2] Then the heroes died  ere the day was yet come;Their fame did they leave  ever lofty to live...............
64.[3] Full mighty seemed Atli  as o'er them he stood,The wise one he blamed,  and his words reproached her:"It is morning, Guthrun;  now thy dear ones dost miss,But the blame is part thine  that thus it has chanced."
  1. ↑ Regarding Gunnar's harp-playing, and his death, cf. Oddrunargratr, 27-30 and notes, and Atlakvitha, 34. Toes (literally "sole-twigs"): the Volsungasaga explains that Gunnar's hands were bound. Rafters: thus literally, and probably correctly; Gering has an ingenious but unlikely theory that the word means "harp."
  2. ↑ There is some doubt as to the exact meaning of line 2. After this line two lines may have been lost; Grundtvig adds: "Few braver shall ever  be found on the earth, / Or loftier men  in the world ever live."
  3. ↑ Wise one: Guthrun. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza.

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