All lines are taken from Carolyne Larrington's 1996 translation of the Poetic Edda, with some minor alterations.

The cast is made up of Scandinavian actors where possible, especially diaspora, multiethnic, and nonwhite Scandinavians. 

Actors wear their own clothes when playing human characters. They speak in their natural accents throughout.

The set design draws heavily on Ikea showrooms and prominently features Ikea products.

The play is punctuated with long silences. Several emotional beats can and should play out when characters are alone with their thoughts.

The pre-show playlist’s musical center of gravity is “Hurrikan,” by Electric Callboy. Sonically, it incorporates Eurovision-style Eurodance, northern European heavy metal, and schlager music. Lyrically, it emphasizes love, ambition, and admiration for powerful women.

The script is written for an ensemble of six actors.

SVAVA, SIGRUN, NUTHATCH 3, SIGRDRIFA, ATLI BUDLI'S SON, and SORLI are all played by the same actor.

HELGI HIORVARDSSON, HELDI HUNDINGSBANI, SIGURD, VINGI, and HAMDIR are played by the same actor.

HEDIN, DAG, NUTHATCH 2, and GUDRUN are played by the same actor.

HRIMGERD, GUDMUND, FAFNIR, GUNNAR, and EITIL are played by the same actor.

ATLI IDMUND'S SON, SINFIOTLI, REGIN, HOGNI, HEBORG, and ERP are played by the same actor.

FETCH, SIGAR, MAID, LOKI, NUTHATCH 1, GIANTESS, GUNLODD, GRIMHILD, KOSTBERA, and BEITI are played by the same actor.

Scene 1

HELGI HIORVARDSSON is sitting on a burial mound.

SVAVA enters.

SVAVA It’ll be a long time, Helgi, before you can distribute rings,

Apple-tree of strife, or rule over Rodulsvoll

—early shrieked the eagle—if you are always silent,

Even if, prince, you have a stern temperament.

HELGI What will you give me with the name Helgi,

Bright-faced lady, since you have bestowed it?

Consider well before you answer!
I won’t accept it unless I can have you also.

SVAVA I know of swords lying on Sigarsholm,

Four less than fifty;

One of them is better than all the rest,

The evil one among battle-needles, its hilt inlaid with gold.

There’s a ring on the hilt, there’s courage in the middle,

And terror in its point, for him who manages to own it;

A blood-dyed snake lies along the edge

And on the boss a serpent chases its tail.

Scene 2

ATLI IDMUND’S SON guards Helgi’s ship, moored at Hatafjord.

HRIMGERD rises out of the water.

HRIMGERD Who are those men in Hatafjord?

Shields are hanging outside your ships;

You’re acting rather boldly, I don’t think you’re afraid of much;

Tell me the name of the king!

ATLI Helgi is his name, and you can never

Bring harm to the prince;

There are iron plates on the prince’s ships,

No troll-women can attack us.

HRIMGERD What is your name, mighty warrior,

What do men call you?

The prince trusts you, since he lets you watch

In the pleasant prow of the ship.

ATLI Atli I’m called, atrocious I shall be to you,

I am most hostile to ogresses;

I’ve often stayed at the dew-washed prow

And tormented night-riding witches.

What is your name, corpse-greedy hag?

Troll woman, name your father!

You ought to be nine leagues underground

With fir-trees growing from your breast!

HRIMGERD Hrimgerd I’m called, Hati is my father,

The most terrible giant I know of;

Many brides he’s taken from their dwellings,

Until Helgi hacked him down.

ATLI Ogress, you stood before the prince’s ships

And blocked the fjord mouth;

The king’s men you were going to give to Ran,

If a spear hadn’t lodged in your flesh.

HRIMGERD Deluded you are now, Atli, I reckon you must be dreaming,

You’re scowling with drooping brow;

It was my mother who lay in front of the prince’s ships,

I drowned Hlovard’s sons in the ocean.

You’d neigh, Atli, if you hadn’t been gelded,

Hrimgerd’s raising up her tail;

I think your heart, Atli, is in your hindquarters,

Though you have a stallion’s voice.

ATLI I’d seem like a stallion to you if you wanted to try it,

If I came on land from this ship;

I’d lame every part of you if I were in earnest,

You’d drop your tail, Hrimgerd!

HRIMGERD Atli, come on land, if you trust in your strength,

And let’s meet at Varins-bay!

Warrior, you’d get your ribs straightened out,

If you got into my clutches.

ATLI I can’t come before the warriors awake

And they keep watch for the king;

Nor should I be surprised if, you witch, you came close,

And bobbed up from under the ship.

HRIMGERD Wake up, Helgi, and give Hrimgerd compensation,

Since you struck down Hati;

If for one night she can sleep with the prince,

Then she’ll have redress for her wrongs.

HELGI enters.

HELGI Shaggy is the name of the one who’ll have you, you’re hideous to humankind,

That monster lives on Tholley;

A very wise giant, but the worst of the lava-dwelling ogres,

He’s a fitting mate for you.

HRIMGERD You’d rather have her, Helgi, the one who was spying out the harbours

The other night with the men;

The sea-golden girl surpassed me in strength

Here she landed from the ship

And moored your vessel so.

She alone is preventing me from destroying

The prince’s men.

HELGI Listen now, Hrimgerd, if I give redress for your grief,

Answer the prince directly:

Was it just one creature who protected the lord’s fleet,

Or many journeying together?

HRIMGERD Three times nine girls, but one girl rode ahead,

White-skinned under her helmet;

The horses were trembling, from their manes

Dew fell into the deep valleys,

Hail in the high woods;

Good fortune comes to men from there;

All that I saw was hateful to me.

HELGI Look east now, Hrimgerd! Since Helgi has struck you with fatal runes,

Both on land and sea the prince’s ships are safe

And so are the prince’s men.

It’s day now, Hrimgerd, Atli has kept you talking

Until you laid down your life;

As a harbour-mark you look ridiculous,

There transformed into stone.

Scene 3

HEDIN and FETCH are in a southern forest.

FETCH offers HEDIN her company. He refuses. FETCH withdraws, but remains onstage.

HELGI enters. Neither he nor HEDIN can see the FETCH.

HELGI Welcome, Hedin! What news

Do you bring from Norway?

Why, prince, have you left your country

And come alone to meet us?

HEDIN A terrible crime has come upon me:

I have chosen that royally born

Bride of yours with the pledging-cup.

HELGI Do not reproach yourself! For both of us, Hedin,

What’s said over ale must come true;

The prince has challenged me to an island duel,

In three nights’ time, I shall go there;

I have my doubts as to whether I’ll return;

It may turn out well if I don’t.

HEDIN You’re saying, Helgi, that Hedin deserves from you

Good will and the greatest of gifts;

It would be more fitting to bloody your sword on me

Than to grant peace to your enemies.

FETCH exits.

HELGI recognizes her as she leaves.

HELGI She rode on a wolf, as it grew dark,

That lady who offered you company;

She knew that Sigrlinn’s son

Would be killed at Sigarvoll.

Scene 4

SVAVA is at home.

SIGAR enters.

SIGAR Helgi has sent me here to you, Svava,

To speak to you in person;

The lord says he wants to see you

Before the splendidly born man draws his last breath.

SVAVA What has happened to Helgi, Hiorvard’s son?

A terrible fate has been sought out for me;

If the sea has washed over him, or the sword has bitten into him,

I shall wreak vengeance on men.

SIGAR He fell here in the morning at Frekastein,

The prince who was best under the sun;

Alf has achieved total victory,

Though there was no need for it to have happened.

Scene 5

HELGI and HEDIN are on the battlefield. HELGI is dying.

SVAVA enters.

HELGI Greetings, Svava! You must steady your feelings,

This will be our last meeting in the world;

The prince has been made to bleed below,

A sword has pierced close to my heart.

I beg you, Svava—bride, do not weep!—

That you will listen to what I say,

That you will share a bed with Hedin

And live in love with the young prince.

SVAVA I said in my dear homeland,

When Helgi chose me, gave me rings,

That I would not willingly, if my lord were gone,

Hold a prince of no reputation in my arms.

HEDIN Kiss me, Svava! Never will I come

To see Rogheim or Rodulsfiall

Until I’ve avenged the son of Hiorvard,

He was best of princes under the sun.

Scene 1

HELGI has beached his ships.

SIGRUN enters.

SIGRUN Who has brought these ships to anchor by the steep shore,

Where, warriors, do you come from?

What are you waiting for in Bruna-bay,

Which way do you set your course?

HELGI Hamal has brought these ships to anchor by the steep shore,

We come from Hlesey,

We’re waiting for a breeze in Bruna-bay,

To the east we wish to set our course.

SIGRUN Where have you, prince, stirred up war

Or fed the goslings of Gunn’s sisters?

Why is your corslet spattered with blood,

Why are you eating raw meat, still wearing your helmets?

HELGI The descendant of the Ylfings fought most recently

West of the sea, if you wish to know,

Where I was hunting bears in Bragalund

And gave food with sword-points to the eagle’s race.

Now I’ve told you, girl, why the battle came about;

And so on the ship we were eating meat scarcely roasted.

SIGRUN War you’re describing; King Hunding

Fell on the field, before Helgi;

It came to battle, in revenge for kinsmen,

Blood streamed along the edges of the swords.

HELGI How did you know, wise lady,

That we are those avengers?

There are many keen prince’s sons,

Who look like us kinsmen.

SIGRUN I was not far away, leader of the battle,

Yesterday morning, when the prince lost his life;

Though I see that the clever son of Sigmund

Is giving news of the battle in secret slaughter-runes.

I glimpsed you once before on the longships,

When you fought in the bloody bow of the ship

And cold and wet the waves were playing.

Now the prince wants to conceal himself from me

But Hogni’s girl recognizes Helgi.

I have been betrothed to Hodbrodd among the fighters,

But, Helgi Hundingsbani, I call Hodbrodd

A king as bold as the kitten of a cat.

The prince will come in a few nights

Unless you challenge him to battle

Or seize the girl from the warrior.

Though, lord, I fear the anger of kinsmen,

I have broken my father’s lovingly given word.

HELGI Don’t worry about Hogni’s anger, 

Nor the wrath of your kinsmen.

Young girl, you will live with me;

I’ve no fear, good lady, of your family.

Don’t be afraid of the slayer of Isung!

There’ll be noise of battle unless I am dead.

Scene 2

SINFIOTLI and GUDMUND have beached their ships.

GUDMUND Who is the prince who steers the ships,

And has the golden war banners at his prow?

Peace, it seems to me, is not at the forefront of your vessels;

A red battle-glow hangs over the vikings.

SINFIOTLI Say this evening, when you’re giving

Pigs and bitches their feed to chew,

That these are the Ylfings come from the east,

Eager for fighting to Gnipalund.

Hodbrodd will find Helgi Hundingsbani there,

The prince who never flees, aboard his ship,

A man who’s often given food to the eagles,

While you were kissing slave-women at the grindstone.

GUDMUND Little must you recall, lord, the old stories,

When you taunt the princes with untruths;

You have eaten the leavings of wolves

And been the slayer of your brother,

Often you’ve sucked wounds with a cold snout;

Hated everywhere, you’ve crept into a stone-tip.

SINFIOTLI You were a sorceress on Varin-island,

A deceitful woman, you made up slander;

You said that you did not want to have

Any warrior in his armour except Sinfiotli.

You were, you harmful creature,

a witch, horrible, unnatural,

Among Odin’s valkyries,

All the einheriar had to fight,

Headstrong woman, on your account.

Nine wolves on Saga’s headland

We engendered;

I alone was their father.

GUDMUND You were not the father of any ferocious wolf,

Though you were older than them all, as far as I remember,

After the giant girls castrated you

On Thorsness by Gnipalund.

You were Siggeir’s stepson, you lay under the home haystacks,

Used to wolves’ howling, out in the woods;

Every kind of shameful thing has happened to you,

When the breast of your brother you tore.

You made yourself infamous for abominable deeds.

You were a mare for Grani on Bravoll plain,

A gold bit in your mouth, you were ready to leap;

I’ve ridden you to exhaustion over many a stretch of road,

Under my saddle, a jaded hack, down the mountain path.

SINFIOTLI You seemed to be a youth devoid of morals,

When you milked Gullnir’s goats,

And another time as Imd’s daughter

In tattered clothes. Do you want to keep talking?

GUDMUND Rather I should like to make ravens sate themselves

On your corpse, at Frekastein,

Than give your bitches dog-food to devour

Or be feeding your pigs; may ill-luck befall you!

SINFIOTLI Rather, Gudmund, you’ll be herding goats

And clambering down the rocky clefts,

In your hand you’ll have a hazel switch;

You prefer that to the judgement of swords.

HELGI enters.

HELGI For you, Sinfiotli, it would be more fitting

To draw up for battle and make the eagles glad,

Than to be bandying useless words.

Let the bridled horses gallop to the battle,

Spurwolf ride to Sparins-heath,

Melnir and Mylnir to Mirkwood,

Let no man linger behind,

Those who know how to brandish wound-flames.

Scene 3

SIGRUN finds Hodbrodd dying on the battlefield.

SIGRUN Sigrun from Sefafell

Will not sink into your arms, King Hodbrodd;

Ebbing is the life—often the grey stud-horse of the troll-woman

Gets the corpses—of Granmar’s sons.

HELGI enters.

SIGRUN Unscathed, prince, you’ll rule over men,

Upholder of Yngvi’s line, and enjoy your life,

Since you have brought low the king who scorns flight,

The one who dealt death to the sea-king.

And it’s fitting, lord, that you should have

Both red-gold rings and the powerful girl;

Unscathed, lord, you’ll enjoy both

Hogni’s daughter and Hringstadir,

Lands and victory now the battle is over.

HELGI It was not all good fortune for you, foreign woman,

Though I think the norns had some part in it;

This morning at Frekastein,

Bragi and Hogni were killed, I was their slayer.

And at Styr-cleft King Starkad,

And at Hlebiorg the sons of Hrollaug;

I saw that fiercest-minded of kings

Defending his trunk—his head was gone.

All the rest of your kinsmen

Were lying on the ground, corpses they’d become;

You could not stop the battle, it was fated for you

That you’d be cause of strife among powerful men.

Be comforted, Sigrun! You’ve been our battle-goddess;

The princes could not struggle against fate.

SIGRUN I’d choose now that those who are gone might live again

And that I could still hold you in my arms.

Scene 4

HELGI and DAG are in the forest.

DAG kills HELGI with a spear, sacrificing him to Odin.

Scene 5

SIGRUN is at home.

DAG enters.

DAG Sister, I am reluctant to tell you of grief,

For I have been forced to make my sister weep:

There fell this morning below Fetter-grove

The lord who was the best in the world,

And who stood on the necks of chieftains.

SIGRUN May all the oaths which you swore

To Helgi rebound upon you,

By the bright water of Leift

And the cool and watery stone of Unn

May the ship you sail on not go forward,

Though the wind you need has sprung up behind;

May the horse you ride on not go forward,

Though your enemies are about to catch you.

May the sword that you wield never bite for you,

Unless it’s whistling above your own head.

The death of Helgi would be avenged on you,

If you were a wolf out in the forest

With nothing of your own and deprived of happiness,

If you had no food except when you glutted yourself on corpses.

DAG Sister, you are mad, you are out of your wits,

That you should wish this evil on your brother;

Odin alone caused all the misfortune,

For he cast hostile runes between the kinsmen.

Your brother offers you red-gold rings,

All Vandilsve and Vigdal;

Take half of our homeland to pay for your loss,

Ring-adorned woman and your sons.

SIGRUN I shall not sit so happily at Sefafell,

Neither early nor at night-time will I desire to live,

Unless light should shine on the company of the prince,

Unless Vigblaer were to gallop here under the prince,

Tamed to his gold bridle, and I could welcome the warrior.

Helgi so terrified

All his enemies and their kin,

Just as panicking goats run before the wolf

Down from the mountain filled with fear.

So was Helgi beside the chieftains

Like the bright-growing ash beside the thorn-bush

And the young stag, drenched in dew,

Who surpasses all other animals

And whose horns glow against the sky itself.

Scene 6

SIGRUN is at home.

MAID enters.

MAID Go outside, Sigrun, out from Sefafell,

If you want to meet the leader of the army;

The mound has opened up, Helgi has come;

His wounds are bleeding, the prince asks you

to staunch his injuries.

Scene 7

HELGI is inside his burial mound.

SIGRUN enters.

SIGRUN Is this some kind of delusion, that I think I can see

Dead men riding, or is it Ragnarok?

Are you spurring your horses onward,

Or have the fighters been allowed to come home?

HELGI It is not a delusion that you think you see,

Nor the end of mankind, though you gaze upon us,

Though we spur our horses onwards,

Nor are the fighters allowed to come home.

SIGRUN Now I am so glad, at our meeting,

As are the greedy hawks of Odin

When they know of slaughter, steaming food,

Or, dew-drenched, they see the dawn.

First I want to kiss the lifeless king,

Before you throw off your bloody mail-coat;

Your hair, Helgi, is thick with hoar-frost,

The prince is all soaked in slaughter-dew,

Hogni’s son-in-law has clammy hands.

How, lord, can I find a remedy for this?

HELGI You alone, Sigrun, from Sefafell,

Cause Helgi to be soaked in sorrow-dew;

You weep, gold-adorned lady, bitter tears,

Sun-bright southern girl, before you go to sleep;

Each falls bloody on the breast of the prince,

Cold as dew, burning hot, thick with grief.

We ought to drink this precious liquid,

Though we have lost our love and our lands;

No man should sing a lament for me,

Though on my breast wounds can be seen

Now the lady is enclosed in the mound,

A human woman with us, the departed.

SIGRUN Here I’ve made you, Helgi, a bed all ready;

Descendent of the Ylfings, now free from care

In your arms, lord, I’ll sleep,

As I would with the prince, when he was living.

HELGI I say that nothing could be less expected,

Neither early nor late at Sefafell,

That you should sleep in the arms of a dead man,

White lady, in the tomb, Hogni’s daughter,

And you alive, and royally born.

It is time for me to ride along the blood-red roads,

To see the pale horse to tread the path in the sky;

I must cross the bridge in the sky-vault,

Before Salgofnir awakens the victorious people.

HELGI exits.

Scene 8

The following night, SIGRUN and MAID are waiting for Helgi outside the burial mound.

SIGRUN He would have come by now, if he meant to come,

The son of Sigmund, from Odin’s falls;

Hopes of seeing the prince come here are fading,

Now the eagles roost on the ash-branches

And all the household head for the dream-assembly.

MAID Do not be so mad as to go alone,

High-born lady, into the home of ghosts;

They are all much more powerful at night, lady,

The dead creatures, than when day dawns.

Scene 1

LOKI is fishing. He catches ANDVARI, in the form of a pike, and his ring in a fishing net.

LOKI What is that fish which courses through the water,

Which doesn’t know how to avoid danger?

Your head you can save from hell;

Find the serpent’s flame for Loki!

ANDVARI Andvari is my name, Oin is my father’s name,

I have spent much time in the falls;

A norn of misfortune shaped my fate in the early days,

So that I have to spend my time in the water.

LOKI Tell me, Andvari, if you want to retain

Your life in the halls of men:

What requital, do they get, the sons of men, 

If they wound each other with words?

ANDVARI A terrible requital the sons of men get,

They have to wade in Vadgelmir;

For untrue words, when one man lies about another,

For a long time he’ll suffer the consequences.

LOKI takes Andvari’s ring.

ANDVARI goes into a rock.

ANDVARI That gold, which Gust owned,

Will be the death of two brothers,

And cause of strife between eight princes;

My treasure will be no use to anyone.

LOKI It is worse still—or so I think—

The strife of doomed kinsmen,

The princes are not yet born for whom I believe

This hatefulness is intended.

Scene 2

SIGURD buries himself in a pit.

FAFNIR enters with Andvari’s ring. When he crawls over the pit, SIGURD fatally stabs him.

FAFNIR A boy! Just a boy! Of whom were you born, boy?

Whose son are you

That you should redden your shining sword on Fafnir?

The blade stands in my heart.

SIGURD “Pre-eminent beast” I’m called, and I go about

As a motherless boy;

I have no father, as the sons of men do,

I always go alone.

FAFNIR Do you know, if you had no father, as the sons of men do,

Of what wonder you were born?

SIGURD My lineage, I think, will be unknown to you,

As am I myself;

Sigurd I am called — Sigmund was my father —

I who’ve killed you with my weapons.

FAFNIR Who egged you on, why were you urged

To attack my life?

Shining-eyed boy, you had a fierce father.

SIGURD My courage whetted me, my hands assisted me

And my sharp sword;

Few are brave when they become old,

If they are cowardly in childhood.

FAFNIR I know, if you did succeed in growing up in the bosom of your friends,

You would be seen to fight furious;

But now you are captive, a prisoner of war;

They say the bound man is always trembling!

SIGURD You taunt me now, Fafnir, because I’m far away

From my father’s inheritance;

But I’m not captive, though I was taken prisoner;

You’ve found that I’m a free agent!

FAFNIR Spiteful words you think you hear in everything,

But I’ll tell you one thing true:

The resounding gold and the glowing red treasure,

Those rings will be your death!

SIGURD Power over his property every man shall have

Always until his last day comes,

For on one day only shall every man

Depart from here to hell.

FAFNIR The judgement of the norns you’ll get in sight of land,

And the fate of a fool;

You’ll drown in the water even if you row in a breeze;

All fate is dangerous for the doomed man.

SIGURD Tell me, Fafnir, you are said to be wise

And to know a great deal;

Which are those norns who go to those in need

And choose mothers over children in childbirth?

FAFNIR From very different tribes I think the norns come,

They are not of the same kin;

Some are of the Æsir, some are of the elves,

Some are daughters of Dvalin.

SIGURD Tell me, Fafnir, you are said to be wise

And to know a great deal,

What that island is called where Surt and the Æsir together

Will mingle sword-liquid together?

FAFNIR Mismade it’s called, and there all the gods

Shall sport with their spears;

Bilrost will break as they journey away,

And their horses will flounder in the great river.

The helm of terror I wore among the sons of me,

While I lay upon the necklaces;

More powerful than all I thought myself to be,

I didn’t encounter many foes.

SIGURD The helm of terror protects no one,

Where angry men have to fight;

A man finds that out where he comes among the multitude;

That no one is bravest of all.

FAFNIR Poison I snorted, when I lay upon

The mighty inheritance of my father.

SIGURD Mighty dragon, you snorted great blasts

And you hardened your heart;

Men are the more ferocious

When they have that helmet.

FAFNIR Now I advise you Sigurd, and you take that advice

And ride home from here!

The resounding gold and the glowing red treasure —

Those rings will be your death!

SIGURD You’ve given your advice, but I shall ride

To where the gold lies in the heather,

And you, Fafnir, lie in mortal fragments,

There where Hel can take you!

FAFNIR Regin betrayed me, he’ll betray you,

He’ll be the death of us both;

I think Fafnir must give up his life;

You had the greater strength.

FAFNIR dies.

REGIN enters.

REGIN Hail to you, Sigurd, now you’ve won the victory

And have brought down Fafnir;

Of those men who tread upon the earth

I say you’ve been raised the least cowardly.

SIGURD There’s no knowing for certain when all are come together,

All the sons of the glorious gods,

Who has been brought up the least cowardly;

Many a man is bold when he does not redden his sword

In another’s breast.

REGIN You’re cheerful, Sigurd, and pleased with your winnings,

As you dry Gram on the grass;

My brother you’ve wounded,

Yet in part I myself brought it about.

SIGURD You arranged that I had to ride here

Over the sacred mountains;

His treasure and his life the shining dragon would still possess,

If you hadn’t challenged my courage.

REGIN cuts out FAFNIR’s heart and drinks his blood.

REGIN Sit down now, Sigurd, and I’ll go to sleep,

Roast Fafnir’s heart in the flam;

That heart I’ll have to eat after the drink of blood.

SIGURD You went far off while in Fafnir I was reddening

My sharp sword;

My strength I needed against the dragon’s might,

While you lurked in the heather.

REGIN Long you’d have left the old giant

Lurking in the heather

If you’d not used the sword which I myself made

And that sharp blade of yours.

SIGURD Courage is better than the power of a sword,

Where angry men have to fight;

For I’ve seen a brave man fighting strongly

Conquer with a blunt sword.

Bravery is better than cowardice

To have in battle-sport;

Cheerfulness is better than snivelling,

Whatever may be at hand.

SIGURD roasts Fafnir’s heart while REGIN sleeps.

NUTHATCH 1 enters.

NUTHATCH 1 There sits Sigurd, splattered with blood,

Roasting Fafnir’s heart on a spit;

The destroyer of rings would seem wise to me

If he were to eat the shining life-muscle.

NUTHATCH 2 enters.

NUTHATCH 2 There lies Regin plotting to himself,

He wants to betray the boy, the one who trusts him,

In anger sharp words he’s uttered,

That smith of evil wants to avenge his brother.

NUTHATCH 3 enters.

NUTHATCH 3 Shorter by a head he should send the old sage

Off to hell from here!

Then all the gold he alone would possess,

That heap which lay under Fafnir.

NUTHATCH 1 Wise he’d seem to me if he knew how to get

The friendly advice of you sisters;

If he thought about himself and made the raven happy;

I expect a wolf to be around when I see his ears.

NUTHATCH 2 The warrior isn’t so wise

As I thought a war-leader ought to be,

If he lets one brother get away,

When he’s snatched the life of the other.

NUTHATCH 3 He’ll be extremely foolish if he still spares

The murderous enemy,

There Regin is lying and plotting against him;

He doesn’t know how to guard against such a thing.

NUTHATCH 1 Shorter by a head he should leave the frost-cold giant

And make him lose the rings;

Then the treasure which Fafnir owned

Would be in one man’s control.

SIGURD Fate doesn’t make Regin so powerful that he’s going

To bear a fatal point against me,

Since those two brothers are going, very quickly,

To set off for hell from here.

SIGURD cuts off REGIN’s head. He eats Fafnir’s heart and drinks his and Regin’s blood.

NUTHATCH 2 Gather up, Sigurd, the red rings;

It would not be kingly to be afraid of anything!

I know a girl, the fairest by far,

Endowed with gold, yet you could win her.

NUTHATCH 3 Green ways lie straight towards Giuki,

Fate points forward for a wide-travelling man.

There the lavish king has raised up a daughter.

There, Sigurd, you may obtain a wedding settlement.

NUTHATCH 1 There is a hall on high Hindarfell,

Outside it is all surrounded with flame;

Wise men have made it

Out of radiant river-light.

NUTHATCH 2 I know on the mountain the valkyrie sleeps,

And the terror of the linden plays about her;

Odin stabbed her with a thorn;

The goddess of flax had brought down

A different fighter from the one he wanted.

NUTHATCH 3 Young man, you shall see the girl under the helmet,

Who rode away from battle on Vingskornir.

Sigrdrifa’s sleep may not be broken

By a princely youth, except by the norns’ decree.

SIGURD exits with Andvari’s ring.

Scene 3

SIGRDRIFA is asleep, imprisoned by her cursed armor.

SIGURD enters. He cuts SIGRDRIFA’s armor open, and she wakes up.

SIGRDRIFA What bit into my corslet? Why was my sleep disturbed?

Who has taken from me my pallid coercion?

SIGURD Sigmund’s son—the sword of Sigurd,

Which a short time ago was cutting the raven’s corpse-plain.

SIGRDRIFA Long I slept, long was Sigrdrifa sleeping,

Long are the woes of men;

Odin brought it about that I could not break

The spell of drowsiness.

Hail to the day! Hail to the sons of day!

Hail to night and her kin!

With gracious eyes may you look upon us,

And give victory to those sitting here!

Hail to the Æsir! Hail to the goddesses!

Hail to the mighty, fecund earth!

Eloquence and native wit may you give to us two famous ones

And healing hands while we live!

Now you must choose, since choice is offered to you,

Maple of sharp weapons,

Speech or silence—you can make up your own mind,

All harms are measured out.

SIGURD I may not avoid it, even if I knew myself doomed,

I am not born a coward;

Your loving advice I want in its entirety,

As long as I live.

SIGRDRIFA That I advise you firstly, that towards your kin

You should be blameless;

Be slow to avenge although they do harm,

Though that is said to benefit the dead.

That I advise you secondly, that you do not swear an oath

Unless it is truly kept;

Terrible fate-bonds attach to the oath-tearer;

Wretched is the pledge-criminal.

That I advise you thirdly, that you bury corpses

Where you find them on the ground

Whether they are dead of sickness or else drowned,

Or men killed by weapons.

A warm bath shall be made for those who are departed;

Hands and head be washed,

Combed and dried before they go in the coffin,

And bid them sleep blessedly.

That I advise you fourthly, that you never trust

The oaths of a wrongdoer’s brat,

Whether you are his brother’s slayer

Or you felled the father;

The wolf is in the young son,

Though he seems to be gladdened by gold.

Quarrels and enmity are not, I think, asleep,

Any more than grief;

Common sense and weapons are necessary for the prince to acquire,

For him who shall be foremost among men.

That I advise you fifthly, that you beware

In every direction your friends;

A long life I think the prince will not have;

Powerful quarrels have sprung up.

Scene 4

SIGRDRIFA approaches GIANTESS’S homestead.

GIANTESS You shall not journey through

My homestead set with stone;

It would befit you better to be at your weaving

Than to be going to visit another woman’s man.

What are you coming to see, from the southern land,

With your giddy mind, in my houses?

Goddess of gold, if you wish to know,

You, gentle lady, have washed your hands in a man’s blood.

SIGRDRIFA Don’t reproach me, lady who lives in the rock,

even though I’ve often been on viking expeditions;

I shall be accepted as of better ancestry than you

Wherever people compare our lineage.

GIANTESS Sigrdrifa, you were Budli’s daughter,

Born to the worst luck in the world;

You have deceived the children of Giuki

And destroyed their good dwelling-places.

SIGRDRIFA I must tell you, I, the wise lady in the wagon,

You very stupid woman, if you wish to know,

How the heirs of Giuki treated me,

Deprived me of love, and violated their oaths.

The wise king had our magic garments—

Eight sisters we were together—put under an oak;

I was twelve years old, if you want to know,

When I gave my promise to the young prince.

They all called me in Hlymdale,

Anyone who knew me, War-lady in the helmet.

Then I let the old man of the Gothic nation,

Helmet-Gunnar, quickly go off to hell;

I gave the young man victory, the brother of Auda;

Odin was very angry with me for that.

With shields he enclosed me in Skata-grove,

With red ones and white ones, shields overlapping;

That man he ordered to break my sleep

Who in every land knew no fear.

Around my hall to the south,

The destroyer of all wood he set blazing up high;

There he told one warrior to ride over it,

He who brought me the gold which lay under Fafnir.

The good man rode on Grani, saddled with gold,

where my foster-father commanded his halls;

He alone seemed better than all men,

The Danish viking among the retinue.

We slept and we were enclosed in one bed together

As if he were my brother born;

Nor we did lay one arm over each other

For the eight nights of our lying together.

And yet Gudrun accused me, Giuki’s daughter,

That I had slept in Sigurd’s arms;

Then I discovered what I wish I’d never known,

That they’d betrayed me in my taking a husband.

Men and women, those who are living,

Must spend all too long in terrible sorrow

But we shall never ever part,

Sigurd and I will be together—now, ogress, sink!

GIANTESS exits.

SIGRDRIFA I shall have Sigurd—or I shall die—

That young man I’ll have in my arms.

The words I’m speaking now I’ll be sorry for later,

Gudrun is his wife, and I am Gunnar’s;

The hateful norns decreed this long torment for us.

I am deprived of both happiness and husband,

I’ll pleasure myself with my savage thoughts.

Scene 5

GUNNAR, HOGNI, and SIGRDRIFA.

GUNNAR What harm can Sigurd have done

That you want to deprive the brave one of life?

SIGRDRIFA To me Sigurd gave oaths,

Oaths he gave, and all were false;

Thus he deceived me when he should have been

Completely trustworthy in every oath.

HOGNI Sigrdrifa is stirring up disaster for you,

She’s urging hatred, that wrong be done;

She begrudges Gudrun her good marriage match,

And also that she has to take her pleasure with you.

SIGRDRIFA Gunnar, you will altogether lose

My lands and lose me myself;

I shall never be satisfied with you, prince.

I shall go back to where I was before,

Among my close relatives, my near-born kin;

There I shall sit and sleep away my life,

Unless you manage to kill Sigurd

And become superior to other lords.

Let the son go the same way as the father!

Don’t nurture for long the young wolf;

For to which man would revenge come easier— 

Afterwards in recompense—than if the son were still alive?

GUNNAR Sigrdrifa I like better than all other women,

Budli’s girl is a prize among ladies;

Rather would I lose my life,

Than lose the treasure of that girl.

(To HOGNI) Will you, for our sake, betray the prince for money?

It’s good to have hold of the metal of the Rhine

And pleasantly to enjoy wealth

And, sitting comfortably, to revel in the hall.

HOGNI It is not fitting for us to do this,

Cutting asunder with a sword

The oaths we’ve sworn, the pledges made.

We don’t know of happier men anywhere on earth

While we four rule the people

And the southern leader is alive,

Nor of a mightier clan in the world

If we should in time bring up five sons

Of good family to augment our kin.

I know quite well how things stand:

Sigrdrifa’s passions are far too great.

SIGRDRIFA Urge me on or hinder me—the harm is done now—

Sorrow to be told of or else let be!

GUNNAR We should prepare Guthorm for the killing,

Our younger brother, not so experienced;

He was away when the oaths were sworn,

When the oaths were sworn and the pledges made.

SIGRDRIFA Now you’ll enjoy the use of weapons and lands;

Sigurd alone would have held it all,

If a little longer he’d kept his life.

It wouldn’t have been fitting that he should have ruled

Over the inheritance of Giuki and all the hosts of Goths,

When he had fathered five sons,

Eager in battle, to rule the people.

Long may you enjoy your lands and your followers,

When you’ve brought the wise prince to his death.

Scene 6

GUDRUN and SIGURD are in bed.

GUDRUN wakes up to find SIGURD fatally injured.

SIGURD Do not weep, Gudrun, so fiercely,

Young bride, you have brothers still alive.

I have an heir, too young,

He doesn’t know how to get away from this hostile place;

They have thought up, fatefully and sinisterly,

The new plan which they’ve carried out.

No sister’s son, though seven should be nurtured,

Like him would ride afterwards to the Assembly;

I know well why this is happening:

Sigrdrifa alone has caused all this misery.

The girl loves me before all other men,

But to Gunnar I did no harm;

I did not violate the kinship or the oaths,

So I ought not to be called his wife’s lover.

SIGURD dies.

SIGRDRIFA laughs.

Scene 7

SIGRDRIFA is in her bedroom.

GUNNAR enters.

GUNNAR You’re not laughing, you evil woman,

Merrily in the bedchamber, because you have any good in mind.

Why have you lost your pallor,

Nourisher of evil? I think you must be doomed.

You deserve more than all women

That we should strike down Atli before your eyes,

So you should see on your brother bloody wounds,

Flowing gashes, that you might bind up.

SIGRDRIFA No man’ll taunt you, Gunnar, you struck home all right,

Atli won’t care about your enmity;

Of the two of you he’ll breathe the longer,

He’ll always have the greater strength.

I must tell you, Gunnar, though you know it already,

How you so quickly fell into guilt;

I was not too young, nor was I constrained at all,

I had great supplies of gold in my brother’s hall.

Nor did I wish that I should have a husband,

Before you Giukungs rode into the courtyard,

Three sovereign kings on horseback —

A journey that should never have happened.

To him I’d betrothed myself

When he sat on Grani’s back with his gold;

His eyes were not like those of you brothers,

Nor was he like you in any respect;

Though you thought yourselves sovereign kings.

And then Atli said to me in private

That he would never share out the property,

Neither gold nor land, unless I let myself be betrothed,

Nor any portion of my goods and wealth,

Which had been given to me so very young,

The wealth counted out for me, so very young.

Then my mind was in doubt about this,

Whether I should fight or kill in battle,

A brave woman in a corslet, against my brother.

That might become well known among the nations,

And make strife the lot of many a man.

We reconciled our disagreement;

I had a greater desire to accept treasure,

Red-gold rings for the son of Sigmund,

Nor did I wish for any man’s wealth.

I loved only one, I did not love any others,

The valkyrie of necklaces was never fickle;

All that will Atli discover,

when he asks about the journey of death I’ll achieve

—that no light-minded woman should ever

Keep company with another woman’s man;

Then there’ll be vengeance for all my sorrows.

Scene 8

GUDRUN, who has not spoken or cried since Sigurd’s murder, is with SIGURD’s covered body.

GIAFLAUG, HEBORG, and GULLROND enter.

GIAFLAUG I know that in the world, I’m most deprived of joy,

The heavy loss of five husbands has come upon me;

Of three daughters, three sisters,

of eight brothers, I alone am living.

HEBORG I have a heavier grief to speak of,

My seven sons, in the lands of the south,

My husband, as the eighth, all fell in slaughter;

Father and mother, four brothers,

The wind played too much with them on the waves,

The waves beat against the gunwale.

I myself had to honour, I myself had to bury,

I myself had to arrange their journey into Hel;

That I endured in one half-year,

So that no man could ever give me any joy.

Then I was taken captive, war-prisoner,

That same half-year it befell me;

I had to adorn her, and tie on the shoes

Of the war-leader’s wife every morning.

She raged at me in her jealousy

And struck me with savage blows;

Nowhere have I found a better husband,

Nowhere have I found a worse wife.

GULLROND You don’t really know, foster-mother, though you are wise,

How to reply to a young wife.

GULLROND uncovers SIGURD’s body.

GULLROND Look at your beloved, put your mouth to his moustache,

As you used to embrace the prince when he was alive.

GUDRUN breaks down crying.

GULLROND Yours I know was your greatest love

Of all people across the earth;

Inside or outside, you were never happy

To be with anyone, my sister, but Sigurd.

GUDRUN So was my Sigurd, beside the sons of Giuki,

As if a leek were grown up out of the grass,

Or a bright stone were threaded onto a string,

A precious gem, among the nobles.

I thought myself also, among the prince’s warriors,

To be higher than all Odin’s ladies;

Now I am little as a leaf

Among the bay-willows at the death of the prince.

I miss in his seat and in my bed

My friend to talk to, the kin of Giuki caused it;

The kin of Giuki caused my grief

And agonizing weeping of their sister.

So may the people and land be laid waste on your account,

As you have caused it, with the oaths you swore;

You, Gunnar, shall never make use of the gold,

The rings will be the death of you,

Since you swore oaths to Sigurd.

In the meadow there was more merriment,

Before my Sigurd saddled Grani,

And they went off to woo Sigrdrifa,

That wicked creature, in an ill-fated hour.

SIGRDRIFA enters.

SIGRDRIFA Lacking may that woman be in husband and children,

Who got you, Gudrun, to weep

And in the morning gave you the runes of speaking!

GULLROND Be silent, you monstrous woman, stop these words!

The nemesis of princes you have always been;

Every wave of ill fate drives you along,

You wounding sorrow of seven kings,

Woman who’s been the greatest ruination to women’s friendship.

SIGRDRIFA Atli alone caused all the evil,

Born of Budli, brother of mine,

When in the hall of the Hunnish people

He saw the fire of the serpent’s bed shine on the prince;

I have paid for this journey since then,

Those sights are always before my eyes.

GUDRUN Many abominable words you’ve said;

Thoughts bent on wickedness shall be revenged.

Scene 9

GUNNAR and HOGNI.

SIGRDRIFA enters.

SIGRDRIFA I thought, Gunnar, that I was having a bad dream,

It was chilly in the hall, and my bed was cold;

And you, lord, were riding, bereft of happiness,

With chains you were fettered among a troop of foes.

So from all of you of the Niflung line

Your strength will pass away: you are oath-breakers.

You clearly did not remember, Gunnar,

That you both let your blood run into a trench;

Now you have repaid him badly for that

When he wanted to make himself the most pre-eminent of men.

Then that was proved when the brave man

Came riding to ask for my hand,

How the destroyer of armies had previously

Kept his oaths to the young prince.

A wound-wand, braided round with gold,

The splendid king laid between us,

The outer edges were forged in fire,

And the inner ones patterned with acid-marks.

SIGRDRIFA exits.

GUNNAR I want all the men to go into the hall,

Yours and mine together—for now there’s great need—

To see if we can stop the woman’s death-journey,

Else more harm will come of it;

So let us then do what’s necessary, devise some plan.

HOGNI Let no man hinder her from the long journey,

Let her never be born again!

From her mother’s womb she was born awkward,

She was ever born to misery

And to cause grief of heart to many a man.

SIGRDRIFA enters and fatally wounds herself.

SIGRDRIFA Sit down, Gunnar! Now I shall tell you,

Your radiant bride has no hope of life;

Your vessel is not safe in harbour

Even if I’ve breathed my last.

You and Gudrun will be reconciled sooner than you think;

The wise woman will have, beside the king,

Sad memories of her dead husband.

A girl will be born, her mother will raise her;

She’ll be more radiant than the bride day,

Svanhild, brighter than a ray of the sun.

You must give Gudrun, destroyer of many men,

To some good man, to a marksman;

She will not be happily married, married against her wishes;

Atli will wish to wed her,

Born of Budli, my brother.

Much I remember: how they acted against me,

Those who betrayed me, caused me pain;

Deprived of joy was I while I lived.

You’ll want to marry Oddrun,

But Atli won’t permit it;

You’ll have secret embraces,

She’ll love you as I ought to have done,

If a good fate had been granted to us.

Atli will persecute you, he’ll prepare wickedness,

You’ll be lodged in a narrow snake-pit.

Not much later this will happen,

That Atli will breathe his last,

Lose his happiness and the lives of his sons.

For Gudrun will smear their bed with blood,

With sharp edges, from her wounded heart.

It would be fitting for our sister Gudrun

To follow her first husband in death,

If she were given good advice

Or if she had a spirit like mine.

Slowly I speak now, but she will never

Give up her life on my advice;

Her the high waves will carry

Over to Ionakr’s ancestral land.

Carefully she’ll rear up Ionakr’s sons;

She’ll send Svanhild from that land,

Her daughter and Sigurd’s.

Bikki’s counsel will bitterly grieve her,

For Iormunrekk lives to wreak havoc;

Then all the line of Sigurd will have passed away,

Gudrun will have more to weep for.

I must ask you for one thing only,

This will be my last request in this world:

Let a pyre be built on the meadow

With enough space for all of us,

Those who died with Sigurd.

Cover the pyre with shields and hangings,

Skillfully patterned foreign weaving, and many foreign slaves;

Burn the southern man beside me.

On the southern man’s other side

Burn my maids adorned with jewellery,

Two by his head and two hawks,

Then everything will be orderly.

Lay between us the ring-hilted sword,

The sharp-edged iron, as it lay before,

When we two together lay in one bed,

When we had the name of being man and wife.

The door of the hall, decorated with a ring,

Must not jangle at his heels,

If my travelling from here is to accompany him;

Our journey must not be wretched.

So five serving-girls accompany him,

Eight servants of good family,

The slave who grew up with me, my patrimony,

Which Budli gave to his child.

Much I have said, I would say more,

If more time for speech were granted to me;

But my voice fails, my wounds are throbbing,

I said what was true and now I must depart.

SIGRDRIFA dies.

Scene 1

GRIMHILD and GUDRUN, with Andvari’s ring, are in Grimhild’s palace.

GRIMHILD Gold I will give you, Gudrun,

A great deal of treasure from your dead father,

Red-gold rings, all the precious bed-hangings

Of Hlodver’s hall, for the fallen prince;

Hunnish girls to do your delicate weaving,

To work in gold for your pleasure;

You alone shall control the wealth of Budli,

Be endowed with gold, and given to Atli.

GUDRUN I do not want to go to another man

Nor to marry Sigrdrifa’s brother;

It is not fitting for me to have children

Nor to live happily with the son of Budli.

GRIMHILD Don’t try to repay the men’s wickedness,

Though what we brought about before was evil;

You’ll feel as if they were still alive,

Sigurd and Sigmund, if you have sons.

GUDRUN I may not, Grimhild, fling myself into happiness,

Nor comply with the hopes of that man brave in battle,

Since the corpse-greedy wolf and raven bitterly drank

The heart-blood of Sigurd.

GRIMHILD I have found the most highly-born

Prince of all, the most prominent of all;

Him you’ll be married to, or else till your life’s end,

You’ll be without a man if you won’t take this one.

GUDRUN Stop offering me this unholy

Kinship so insistently!

He will prepare a trap for Gunnar,

Tear out the heart from Hogni.

Then I won’t delay until I take 

The life of the vigorous man,

Of the sword-warrior.

GRIMHILD Lands I’ll give you, troops of men,

Vinbiorg, Valbiorg, if you’ll take them;

Possess them all your days, and be content, daughter!

GUDRUN I’ll choose him from among the kings

Coerced into this by my kin;

He won’t be a husband whom I can love

Nor will the fate of my brothers protect my sons.

Scene 2

GUNNAR and HOGNI are at home.

VINGI enters. He gives HOGNI Andvari’s ring, wrapped in a wolf’s hair.

VINGI Atli has sent me here, riding with a message,

On a horse gnashing at its bit, through Mirkwood the unknown,

To invite you, Gunnar, you two, to come to our benches,

With helmets grouped about the heart, to visit Atli at home.

There you may both choose shields and smooth-planed ash spears,

Golden helmets and a host of the Huns,

Silver-gilt saddle-cloths, scarlet tunics,

Lances with pennants, coursers gnashing at their bits.

He said too that he would give you the plain of wide Gnita-heath,

Whistling spears and gilded prows,

Great treasurers, farms on the Dneiper,

That famous forest which men call Mirkwood.

GUNNAR What do you advise, young man, when we hear of such things?

I didn’t know of any gold on Gnita-heath

That we did not own just as much.

We have seven store-buildings full of swords,

Each of them has a golden hilt;

I know my horse is the best, my blade the sharpest,

My bow graces the benches, and my corslets are of gold,

The brightest shield and helmet come from the emperor’s hall;

One of mine is better than all of the Huns’ might be.

HOGNI What do you think the lady meant when she sent us a ring,

Wrapped in the coat of the heath-wanderer? I think she was giving us a warning.

I found a hair of the heath-wanderer twisted round the red-gold ring:

Our way is wolf-beset if we go on this errand.

VINGI May the giants seize this man if he lies to you,

May the gallows be ready for him if he should plot against your safety.

GUNNAR Rise up now, Fiornir, send the golden goblets of the warriors

Passing around the hall from hand to hand!

The wolf will have control over the Niflungs’ inheritance,

The old grey guardians, if Gunnar is going to be lost,

Dull-coated bears will bite with vicious fangs,

Make the bitch-pack rejoice if Gunnar does not return.

Scene 3

KOSTBERA and HOGNI are in bed.

KOSTBERA wakes up from a dream.

KOSTBERA You intend to leave home, Hogni, listen to advice!

Few are very learned in runes—go some other time!

I interpreted the runes which your sister cut:

The radiant lady hasn’t summoned you this time.

I’m greatly surprised by one thing—I still can’t make it out —

Why the clever woman should carve so awry;

For they seemed to indicate an underlying meaning:

It would be the death of both of you if you hastened there now;

The lady’s missed out a letter or else others have caused this.

HOGNI All women think the worst, I am not so inclined,

I shan’t go looking for trouble unless there’s something we have to pay them back for;

The prince will shower us with glowing red-gold arm-rings,

I am never afraid, though we hear dire things portended.

KOSTBERA You’ll meet your downfall if you set off there,

There’s no loving welcome waiting for you this time.

I had a dream, Hogni, it’s not concealed from me:

An evil fate will come upon you — or else I am simply too afraid.

I dreamt your bedclothes were burning up in fire,

High flames were raging all through my buildings.

HOGNI Here are linen garments lying, which have no value,

They’ll soon be burnt up, as you saw the bedclothes burn.

KOSTBERA I thought I saw a bear come in here, smash up the panelling,

Swing with his paws so that we were afraid;

Many of us he held in his mouth so that we were helpless;

His lumbering made no small amount of noise.

HOGNI That must mean a storm coming, it’ll soon be dawn;

Thinking of a white bear, that’s a blizzard from the east.

KOSTBERA I thought I saw an eagle fly in here, all along the house,

Something terrible will happen to us, he sprinkled us all with blood;

I thought from its threatening noise that it was the spirit of Atli.

HOGNI We’ll soon be slaughtering, then we’ll see blood;

Often it means oxen—dreaming of eagles;

Atli is well intentioned, whatever you dream.

Scene 4

GUNNAR is in bed.

KOSTBERA enters.

KOSTBERA I thought I saw a gallows ready for you, you were to be hanged,

Serpents gnawed at you, I lost you while you were still alive,

The doom of the gods came about; tell me what that meant!

I thought a bloody sword was pulled out of your shirt,

It’s painful to have to tell such a dream to a man so close to one;

I thought I saw a spear pierce right through you,

Wolves were howling at both its ends.

GUNNAR That will be dogs running, barking a great deal,

The noise of dogs often stands for spears flying about.

KOSTBERA I saw a river flowing through here, all along the house,

It roared in its course and crashed over the benches;

It broke the legs of both you brothers here,

Nothing could stop the water—that must mean something.

I thought that dead women came here tonight,

They were not badly decked out, they wanted to choose you,

Invite you very soon to their benches;

I declare that your disir are powerless to help you.

GUNNAR It’s too late to speak thus, all is now arranged;

I cannot escape this fate, since we intend to go;

Everything seems to show that we haven’t long to live.

Scene 5

ATLI BUDLI’S SON and GUDRUN are in bed.

ATLI wakes up from a dream.

ATLI I thought that you, Gudrun, daughter of Giuki,

Ran me through with a poisoned sword.

GUDRUN Dreaming of iron represents fire,

Of the anger of a woman, deception and delusion;

I shall have to cauterize your injuries,

For comfort and for healing, though it pains me to do it.

ATLI I thought that in the meadow the saplings had fallen,

Those which I’d wanted to let grow tall,

Were torn up by the roots, reddened with blood,

Carried to the bench and offered to me to eat.

I thought that my hawks fell from my hand,

Without their prey to a hall of evil;

Their hearts I ate mixed with honey,

Sorry in my heart, gorged on blood.

I thought that I loosed my pups from my grasp,

Deprived of joy, both of them howled;

I thought their flesh became carrion,

Disgusting corpses which I was meant to enjoy.

GUDRUN That means men will discuss sacrifice

And cut the heads off white sacrificial beasts;

Doomed, they will, in a few days,

Be consumed by the retinue.

Scene 6

VINGI, HOGNI, and GUNNAR are approaching Atli’s house.

VINGI Go away from the house! It is dangerous to go near it,

Soon I’ll have destroyed you, shortly they’ll hack you down;

I invited you here warmly but treachery lurked underneath,

Or else you can wait here while I build you your gallows!

HOGNI Don’t try to frighten us, don’t bother to keep talking!

If you drag out your words it will lengthen your miseries.

HOGNI and GUNNAR kill VINGI.

GUDRUN enters.

GUDRUN I tried to give you protection by keeping you at home,

No one can defeat fate, and so you still came here.

Betrayed you are now, Gunnar; what, mighty lord, will help you

Against the evil tricks of the Huns? Quickly, leave the hall!

It would have been better, brother, if you’d come in a corslet,

With those helmets still grouped round the hearth, to see the home of Atli;

If you’d sat in the saddle all through the sun-bright days,

Made the norns weep at the pale, domed corpses,

Taught Hun shield-maidens how to pull a plough,

And Atli himself you could have put in the snake-pit,

Now that snake-pit is ready for you.

GUNNAR Too late now, sister, to collect the Niflungs,

A long time to wait for the arrival of the troop

Of uncowardly men from the russet mountains of the Rhine.

ATLI and BEITI enter.

ATLI For a long time we’ve intended to take away your lives.

HOGNI It doesn’t really look as if you had decided any such thing;

You aren’t even ready while we have struck down one,

Smashed him to hell, one of your number.

HOGNI, GUNNAR, and GUDRUN fight together against ATLI and BEITI. 

ATLI and BEITI win.

ATLI Drive out the chariot! Now the captive is in chains.

(To Gudrun) Terrible it is to look around us, you are to blame for this,

There were thirty formidable lighters,

Now eleven remain alive, our men are decimated.

There were four of us brothers when we lost Budli,

Now Hel has half of us, two lie cut down here.

Alliance with splendid men I made—I can’t deny it—

I got a monstrous wife, I’ve had no benefit from it.

We’ve scarcely had any peace since you came among us,

You’ve deprived me of kinsmen, swindled me of property,

You’ve sent my sister off to hell, that is what matters most to me.

GUDRUN Can you speak of such things, Atli, given what you’ve already done:

You seized my mother and killed her, to have her treasure,

My wise cousin you starved to death in a cave;

It seems to me cause for laughter when you recount your injuries,

I thank the gods for it when things go badly for you.

ATLI I urge you, warriors, to greatly increase the grief

Of this redoubtable woman; that I want to see;

Do all you can to make Gudrun sob!

So that I might see her without a vestige of joy.

Take Hogni and butcher him with a knife,

Cut out his heart, be ready to do this;

Gunnar the fierce-spirited, string up on the gallows,

Hurry up with this—invite the snakes to come to him!

HOGNI Do as you wish, I’ll cheerfully withstand it,

My courage you can test, I’ve borne sharper trials before;

You met some resistance when we were unwounded,

Now we are injured you may do as you please.

BEITI Let’s take Hialli and spare Hogni,

Let’s carry out a deed half done; he’s fated for death,

However long he lives, he’ll always be called useless.

ATLI and BEITI try to kill their slave Hialli, but HOGNI intervenes and lets him escape.

HOGNI I declare that for me it is a small matter to play this game with you,

Why would anyone here want to listen to his screeching?

ATLI cuts out HOGNI’S heart. HOGNI dies laughing.

ATLI gives the heart to GUNNAR.

GUNNAR Atli, now you’ll be as far from my eyes

As my jewels are going to be.

Now in me alone it is all concealed,

The hoard of the Niflungs, now Hogni is not alive.

I was always in doubt while we were both alive,

Now I am not, now I alone am living;

The Rhine shall rule over the strife-bringing metal,

The Æsir-given inheritance of the Niflungs,

The splendid rings will gleam on the running water,

Rather than the foreign rings shine on the hands of the Huns.

ATLI kills GUNNAR.

GUDRUN May it so befall you, Atli, as you gave in oath to Gunnar,

Oaths you often swore and pledged early

By the sun curving to the south and the mountains of War-god,

By the marital bed and by Ull’s ring.

ATLI Now it’s morning, Gudrun, and you’ve lost those faithful men,

You in part are to blame that this should be the result.

GUDRUN You’re exultant now, Atli, you proclaim your murders,

Regret will overcome you when you’ve lived to the end of it all;

There will be a legacy—I can tell you truly of it:

Evil will always befall you unless I die too.

ATLI I can’t deny what you say: but I see another alternative,

Twice as fitting—often we scorn what benefits us:

I’ll comfort you with splendid treasure, with slave-girls,

Snow-gleaming silver, just as you yourself desire.

GUDRUN There is no hope of this—I shall refuse these things,

I have broken agreements before for lesser reasons;

A demon I seemed before, I shall now improve on that,

I could endure everything while Hogni was still alive.

We were brought up together in the same house,

We used to play games and we grew up in the grove;

Grimhild enriched us with gold and with neck-rings;

You can never compensate me for killing my brothers

Nor ever bring me to be content with this.

Women's lot is crushed by the dominion of men—

The trunk collapses when shorn of its branches,

A tree begins to topple if the root is cut from under it;

Now you alone, Atli, wield all the power here.

Scene 7

GUDRUN has called ERP and EITIL into her room.

GUDRUN Don’t ask any more! I’m going to destroy you both,

I’ve long wanted to cure you of old age.

ERP Sacrifice, if you wish, your children, no one will prevent you.

Your anger will not be slaked for long if you carry this out.

GUDRUN kills ERP and EITIL.

Scene 8

ATLI is eating dinner.

GUDRUN enters.

GUDRUN Grimhild’s daughter will not conceal it from you;

It won’t gladden you in the slightest, Atli, when you find out all.

A great disaster you stirred up when you killed my brothers.

I’ve hardly slept since they died,

I promised you a grim reward, now I’m reminding you of it;

You said it was morning to me—I remember it so clearly—

And now it’s evening, you must hear similar news.

Your boys you have lost, as you ought never to have done.

You know, their skulls you had for ale-goblets.

I augmented your drink by mixing it with their blood.

I took their hearts and roasted them on a spit,

Gave them to you—told you they were calf-meat;

Your own sons’—sharer-out of swords—

Hearts, corpse-bloody, you are chewing up with honey;

You are savouring, proud lord, human flesh,

Eating it as ale-appetizers and sending it to the high seat.

You made all this happen, you wouldn’t leave any scraps,

Chewed it up greedily, relying on your back teeth.

You’ll never again call to your knee

Erp or Eitil, two boys made merry with ale;

You’ll not see them again amidst the seats,

Generous with their gold, putting shafts on their spears,

Trimming the manes or driving their horses.

Now you know about your children—few could ask to hear worse—

I have chosen my course, this is no empty boasting.

ATLI You were savage, Gudrun, to be able to do such a thing,

To mix the blood of your children for me to drink;

You have wiped out your kindred, the last thing you should have done,

You give me little rest between the horrors.

GUDRUN You’ve already committed, in a way that’s unexampled,

Foolishness and cruelty in this world;

Now you’ve added to what we’d heard before,

Seized this great crime, prepared your own funeral feast.

ATLI You should be burned on a pyre, and before that be stoned to death,

Then you’ll get what you’ve been begging for.

GUDRUN Recount such sorrows to yourself!

Early tomorrow morning, I’ll be journeying to a better place with a more splendid death.

GUDRUN fatally injures ATLI.

ATLI You have waded deep into killing, though it was not right;

It is wrong to betray a friend who trusted you well.

I left home, persuaded to woo you, Gudrun;

You were a highly esteemed widow, they said you were capable of great deeds,

There was no hope of a lie in that—as we discovered.

You came home here, an army of men came with us,

All our customs here were glorious.

All the honour was here that distinguished men should have,

We had plenty of cattle, made great use of them;

We had great wealth, which we gave out to many.

I paid a dowry for a famous bride to get a great deal of treasure,

Thirty slaves and seven good slave-women

—it was honourable to do such—there was even more silver.

You said that all this seemed as nothing to you,

While those lands lay unclaimed, my inheritance from Budli;

You undermined us so, you managed to get your share;

Your mother-in-law you often made sit and weep,

No good-heartedness did I ever find in our household again.

GUDRUN You are lying now, Atli, though I don’t really care;

I was hardly ever docile but you lorded it greatly.

You young brothers fought each other, sent strife round amongst yourself,

Half your line were sent off to Hel.

Everything which we should have enjoyed collapsed and disappeared.

We were three brothers and a sister, we seemed to be unconquerable.

We left our country and went with Sigurd;

We hastened our ships onwards, each of us captained one,

We roamed where our fate led us, until we came to the east.

First we killed a king there, chose land in that place;

Earls submitted to us—this demonstrated their fear;

By fighting we brought from outlawry those we wished to rescue,

We gave any man a fortune who had no wealth of his own.

The southern prince died, my luck was speedily destroyed;

Bitter torment it was for a young girl to be given the name of widow;

It seemed anguish for a survivor to come to Atli’s house;

I had been married to a hero before—that was a cruel loss.

You never came back from the Assembly—or so we heard—

Having prosecuted a case or crushed an adversary’s;

You always wanted to yield, you’d never stand firm in any matter,

You’d quietly let things be.

ATLI Now you’re lying, Gudrun: that won’t much improve

The fate of either of us—we have all suffered injury.

Now, Gudrun, out of kindness,

Act in keeping with our honour when they carry me out.

GUDRUN I will buy a ship and a painted coffin,

I shall wax the shroud well to enclose your corpse,

I’ll consider all that’s needful as if we were united.

ATLI dies.

Scene 1

HAMDIR and SORLI.

GUDRUN enters.

GUDRUN Why do you sit, why do you sleep away your life?

Why aren’t you unhappy when you speak of cheerful things?

Your sister—Svanhild was her name—

She whom Iormunrekk trampled with horses,

White and black, on the paved road,

With the grey horses, trained to pace slowly, of the Goths.

You are thrust back, you great kings,

The last living strand of my lineage.

I have come to stand alone like an aspen in the forest,

My kinsmen cut away as a fir’s branches,

Bereft of happiness, as a wood of its leaves

When a girl cutting branches comes on a warm day.

You haven’t become like Gunnar and his brother,

Nor any the more been brave as Hogni was—

You would have tried to avenge her,

If you had the temperaments of my brothers

Or the fierce spirits of the kings of the Huns.

HAMDIR Little did you praise the achievement of Hogni,

When they awakened Sigurd from sleep,

You sat in the bed and the killers laughed.

Your embroidered coverlets, the blue and white ones,

Woven by craftsmen, were red with your husband’s blood.

There Sigurd died, you sat over the dead man,

Gave no thought to happiness. That’s what Gunnar thought up for you.

Vengeance for your brothers was wounding and painful

To you when you murdered your sons.

Atli you intended to hurt by Erp’s death

And by the loss of Eitil, but it was even worse for you;

Every man should bring about death for others,

With a sword that bites into wounds, so that he does not hurt himself.

We could all have avenged on Iormunrekk

Our sister, all of the same mind.

Bring out the treasures of the kings of the Huns.

You have stirred us up to a meeting of swords.

GUDRUN laughs.

HAMDIR So will the spear-warrior come home to visit his mother,

Brought low in the land of the Goths,

So that you may drink the funeral ale for us all,

For Svanhild and for your sons.

SORLI I do not want to bandy words with Mother;

Each of you two thinks there’s more to be said:

What are you asking for now, Gudrun, the lack of which makes you weep?

Weep for your brothers and your dear sons,

Close-born kinsmen, brought to strife;

For us both, Gudrun, you shall weep too,

We who sit here, doomed men on our horses; far from here we’ll die.

HAMDIR and SORLI exit.

Scene 2

GUDRUN enters.

GUDRUN Three fires have I known, three hearths have I known,

To three husbands’ houses I was brought.

Sigurd alone for me was better than all others,

Whom my brothers did to death.

A heavier, more painful wound I have not seen nor felt—

Yet they intended to hurt me more

When the princes gave me to Atli.

My sharp young boys I called to secret council.

I could not get remedy for my wrongs,

Before I lopped off the heads of the Hniflungs.

I went to the sea-strand, I was enraged with the norns;

I wanted to rush from their violent storms.

Great waves lifted me, did not drown me—

So I came to the land, I had to go on living.

I entered the bed—I’d hoped for something better for myself—

For the third time of a nation’s king.

I had children, legal heirs,

Legal heirs in Ionakr’s sons.

Then still with Svanhild sat her maids,

The one of my children whom I loved best with all my heart,

Svanhild in my hall

Was like an illustrious ray of the sun.

I dressed in her in gold and splendid garments

Before I gave her to the people of the Goths.

That was the cruellest of all my injuries,

When the white-blonde hair of Svanhild

In the mud they trod under the horses’ hooves.

And the most agonizing when they killed my Sigurd,

Robbed him of victory, in our bed;

And the most terrible when the gleaming snakes

Crept towards Gunnar’s life;

And the sharpest when they cut to the heart

Of the king, unafraid, they sliced into the living man.

I remember many wrongs…

Bridle, Sigurd, the dark-colored, shining horse,

The swift-footed charger— let it gallop here.

Here there does not sit a daughter-in-law or daughter

Who might give treasure to Gudrun.

Do you recall, Sigurd, what we promised,

When we two lay in bed together,

That, brave warrior, you would visit me from hell,

And I would come to you from the world.

Nobles, build high the oak-wood pyre!

Let it be the highest under the heaven.

May fire burn up the breast so full of wrongs,

May sorrows melt, heavy above the heart.

To all warriors—may your lot be made better;

To all ladies—may your sorrows grow less,

Now this chain of griefs has been recounted.

Fin.