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.