The Saga of the Volsungs

by Jackson Crawford

  Brynhild and Gunnar sat and were entertained, and drank good wine.

  Chapter 28. A Conversation between Guðrún and Brynhild

  One day when the women went to the Rhine to bathe, Brynhild waded further upstream from Guðrún. Guðrún asked why she acted this way.

  Brynhild said, "Why would I act like your equal in this or anything else? I think that my father is more powerful than yours, and my husband has done many magnificent things and he rode through the burning ring of fire, while your husband was the slave of King Hjálprek."

  Guðrún answered angrily, "You would be wiser to keep your mouth shut than to mock my husband. Everyone says that no better man, in any respect, has ever come into the world, and it’s not proper for you to mock him when he was your first lover, and it was he who killed Fáfnir and who rode through your fire when you thought it was King Gunnar. And he lay in bed next to you and took the ring Andvaranaut from your finger, and here it is for you to see."

  Brynhild saw the ring and recognized it, and turned as pale as if she had died. Then she went home and said nothing the whole evening.

  And when Sigurð came to bed, Guðrún asked, "Why is Brynhild so unhappy?"

  {53} Sigurð said, "I do not know for sure, but I suspect that we will soon know very clearly why."

  Guðrún said, "Why can’t she enjoy her wealth and happy company and the praise of everyone, when she married the man she wanted?"

  Sigurð said, "Where was she when she said she was married to the best man, or the one she most wanted?"

  Guðrún said, "I’ll ask her in the morning what man she would most want to marry."

  Sigurð said, "I don’t recommend you do that. You’ll regret it if you do."

  But in the morning Guðrún and Brynhild sat in her room and Brynhild was silent. Guðrún said, "Be cheerful, Brynhild. Are you upset about what we said to each other? Or what keeps you from being happy?"

  Brynhild said, "Nothing but malice makes you ask that. You have a cruel heart."

  "Don’t think that," said Guðrún. "Tell me."

  Brynhild said, "You should only ask questions that you’ll be better knowing the answers to. That’s proper for high-ranking women. And it’s good to be happy about good things, when everything is going as you like."

  Guðrún said, "It’s still too early to say if that’s true, but there’s something foresighted in what you say. What makes you angry at me? I did nothing to harm you."

  Brynhild said, "You must pay for being married to Sigurð. I don’t accept that you have a right to enjoy him or his great treasure."

  Guðrún said, "I didn’t know what you had said to him, and it was within my father’s rights to arrange my marriage without your approval or presence."

  Brynhild said, "What Sigurð and I said to one another was no secret, nor were our sworn oaths. You all knew that you were deceiving me, and you will pay for it."

  Guðrún said, "You have a better husband than you deserve, but your jealousy will keep simmering, and many are going to pay for it."

  "I could be content," said Brynhild, "if only you weren’t married to the better man."

  Guðrún said, "You have such a noble husband that I don’t even know who a better king would be, and you have plenty of wealth and power."

  {54} Brynhild said, "Sigurð killed Fáfnir, and that is worth more than the whole kingdom of King Gunnar," or as the poem has it:

  "Sigurð killed the serpent,

  and that will not soon

  be forgotten by anyone

  while the world endures.

  But your brother

  dared neither

  to ride the fire

  nor to cross it."

  Guðrún said, "Grani wouldn’t cross the fire with Gunnar on his back, but Gunnar did dare to ride it, and there’s no need to insult his courage."

  Brynhild said, "I won’t conceal that I have no love for Grímhild."

  Guðrún said, "Don’t insult her. She treats you like her own daughter."

  Brynhild said, "She is the cause of all the evil that bites me. She gave the cursed beer to Sigurð so that he would forget even my name."

  Guðrún said, "You are saying many untrue things, and that’s a terrible lie."

  Brynhild said, "Then enjoy Sigurð as if you hadn’t deceived me. Your marriage is a mismatch, and the future will go with you as I foresee it will."

  Guðrún said, "I’ll enjoy him better than you wish, and no one thinks that Sigurð’s too good for me, not in any way."

  Brynhild said, "You speak callously, and you’ll regret the words running out of your mouth. Let’s not curse each other."

  Guðrún said, "You spat all your curses out on me first and now you act like you want to make it better, but there’s evil intent underneath."

  "Let’s stop this useless talk," said Brynhild. "I kept my mouth shut for a long time about the sorrow that lived in my heart, but I love only your brother. Let’s talk about something else."

  Guðrún said, "Your thoughts are hatching plans a long way in the future."

  Terrible grief came from when those two women went to the river and Brynhild recognized Guðrún’s ring, and from the conversation that ensued.

  {55} Chapter 29. Concerning Brynhild’s Agony

  After this talk Brynhild stayed in bed, and news came to King Gunnar that she was sick. He went to her and asked what was wrong, but she didn’t answer and she lay as if she were dead. When he pressed her, she said, "What did you do with that ring I gave you, the one my father King Buðli gave me the last time I saw him, when you and Gjúki came to him and promised to raid and burn unless he married me to you? Afterwards he came to talk to me and asked which man I would choose out of the ones who had come, and I said I would rather lead a third of the army and fight. I had two choices then, either to be married as he wanted, or to be without money and my father’s good will, and my father said that his good will would be better for me than his anger. Then I thought about whether I ought to obey him or kill many men.

  "But I thought it was unlikely that I could defeat him, and so I promised myself to the man who rode the horse Grani and had Fáfnir’s treasure, the one who had ridden through my burning ring of fire and killed the men I asked him to. And no one had the courage to ride that fire except Sigurð alone. He rode the fire, he didn’t lack the courage to do that. He killed the dragon and Regin and five kings—not you, Gunnar! You turned pale like a corpse, and you’re no king and no champion. And I swore an oath, when I was at home with my father, that I would love only the best man ever born—and that is Sigurð! And now I am an oathbreaker because I’m not married to him, and for that I will cause your death. And I have evil to repay to Grímhild as well. There is no woman worse or more cowardly than she is."

  Gunnar answered so that few could overhear, "You’ve said enough slander, and you’re an evil woman for insulting a lady who’s higher-ranked than you are, a woman who doesn’t resent her lot in life like you do, or torment dead men or murder anyone, and she lives with praise."

  Brynhild said, "I have done nothing secret and nothing wrong. My nature is otherwise. I would rather kill you." Then she tried to kill King Gunnar, but Hogni restrained her and put her in chains.

  Gunnar said, "I don’t want her to live in chains."

  {56} She said, "Don’t worry about that. You’ll never see me being cheerful in your hall again, nor playing games nor speaking happily, nor working good tapestries with gold nor dispensing good advice." And she said that her greatest grief was that she was not married to Sigurð. She stood up and struck her tapestry so that it broke apart, and then she ordered the doors to her room opened so that her miserable wailing could be heard a long way away. Her awful grieving could soon be heard all over town.

  ***

  Guðrún asked her serving-women why they were so uncheerful and sad. "What is wrong with you? Why do you walk around like crazy people? What panic has come over you?"

  Then one of them, a girl named S
vafrloð, said, "It is an unlucky day, and our whole hall is filled with grief."

  Guðrún said to her, "Stand up, we’ve slept long enough. And wake up Brynhild. Let’s go back to our weaving and be cheerful."

  "I can’t do it," said Svafrloð. "I can’t wake her up or even speak to her. She’s drunk neither mead nor wine for many days. I think she’s angered the gods."

  And then Guðrún said to Gunnar, "Go and get Brynhild, and tell her I feel pity for her in her grief."

  Gunnar said, "She has forbidden me from talking to her, or from touching her property." But then Gunnar went to see her and tried in many ways to get her to speak, without getting any response. He then went and found Hogni and asked him to see Brynhild. Hogni said he was not eager to do so, but he went, and he also got no answer from her. Then they met Sigurð and asked him to talk to her. He said nothing, and it stayed this way through the evening.

  The day after, when Sigurð came home from hunting, he went to Guðrún and said, "I have a bad feeling that this grief is going to turn into something bigger, and that Brynhild is going to die."

  Guðrún said, "My lord, many strange things happen where she is concerned. And she’s slept for seven days and no one has dared to wake her up."

  Sigurð said, "She isn’t sleeping. She is preparing plots against us."

  {57} Then Guðrún wept and said, "It’s a terrible feeling for me to know who your killer will be, Sigurð. But go and meet her and see if her pride is still swelling. Give her gold and see if that softens her anger."

  Sigurð went out and found the door to Brynhild’s room open. He thought she was sleeping, and he tore the sheets off her and said, "Wake up, Brynhild, the sun is shining in town and you’ve slept enough. Stop this gloominess and be cheerful."

  Brynhild said, "What makes you so bold as to come see me? No one betrayed me worse than you did."

  Sigurð said, "Why won’t you speak to anyone? What’s wrong with you?"

  Brynhild said, "I will tell you the cause of my anger."

  Sigurð said, "You’ve had your wits enchanted away if you think that I mean you harm. And you’re married to the man you chose."

  "No," she said. "It wasn’t Gunnar who rode through the fire to me, and it wasn’t Gunnar who came to me with a wedding gift of slaughtered enemies. I was perplexed by the man who came to my hall, I thought he had your eyes. But I could not see the truth because of the curse on my luck."

  Sigurð said, "I am no better man than the sons of King Gjúki. It was they who killed the king of the Danes and King Buðli’s brother, a great chieftain."

  Brynhild said, "I have so much evil to repay to them. Don’t remind me of my sorrows. It was you, Sigurð, who killed the dragon and rode over the fire for my sake, and there were no sons of King Gjúki there."

  Sigurð said, "I never became your husband nor were you my wife, and a good king bought the right to call you his bride."

  Brynhild said, "The sight of Gunnar has never made my heart smile. I hate him, though I hide it for others’ sake."

  "It’s monstrous not to love a king like him," said Sigurð. "What is it that bothers you the most? I would think his love would seem better to you than gold."

  Brynhild said, "The worst of my miseries is that I can’t think of a way to redden a bitter sharp sword in your blood."

  Sigurð said, "Don’t worry about that. It won’t be long before some bitter sword does pierce my heart, and you won’t have anything else to {58} expect for yourself because you won’t survive longer than I do. And I don’t have many days left to live."

  Brynhild said, "You talk like that because you hate me, and not just a little bit. But then you’ve cheated me out of all joy, and I care nothing for life anymore."

  Sigurð said, "Live, and love King Gunnar and me. I’ll give you everything I own if it will keep you from choosing death."

  Brynhild said, "You hardly know my nature. You are better than all other men, and yet no woman seems more loathsome to you than I am."

  Sigurð said, "It would be truer to say that I love you more than I love myself. But I was tricked too, and now that can’t be changed, even though I regretted that you weren’t my wife when I regained my memory. But I put up with what I had to when I was in this royal hall, and I was happy in spite of everything because we were all together. It may also be that things will go as the prophecies told, and if so I will not be worried."

  Brynhild said, "You’re telling me too late that you regret my misery. Now there is no repayment I will accept."

  Sigurð said, "I wish that we could go into the same bed and you could be my wife."

  Brynhild said, "Don’t talk like that. I won’t have two husbands under one roof, and I would rather die than betray King Gunnar." But then she remembered when she and Sigurð had met on the mountain, and the oaths they had sworn, and she said, "Now it’s all ruined, and I don’t want to live."

  "I didn’t remember your name," said Sigurð, "and I didn’t recognize you until you had already been married to him, and that is my greatest misery."

  Brynhild said, "I swore an oath to marry the man who would ride through my burning ring of fire, and I will either keep my oath or die otherwise."

  "I would rather leave Guðrún and marry you, than see you die," said Sigurð. And his chest swelled with so much agony that his chainmail burst.

  "I don’t want you," said Brynhild. "And I don’t want anyone else."

  And then Sigurð went away. As it says in the poem about Sigurð:

  {59} Sigurð left

  after they talked,

  that resolute

  companion in battle,

  his head drooped

  and the sides

  of his chainmail shirt

  split open.

  And when Sigurð came back to the hall, Gunnar asked if Sigurð had found out what the problem was with Brynhild, or whether she was speaking again. Sigurð said she could speak. And now Gunnar went to see her once again, and he asked what the point of all her unhappiness was, or if there might be some cure for it.

  "I don’t want to live," said Brynhild, "because Sigurð betrayed me, and he betrayed you no less when you let him sleep in my bed. I will not have two husbands at one time under one roof, and this will be the death of Sigurð or me or you, because he has told Guðrún everything, and she ridicules me."

  Chapter 30. The Murder of Sigurð

  [compare Sigurðarkviða (Sigurtharkvitha) en skamma, st. 1–41, in the Poetic Edda]

  After this Brynhild went outside and sat beneath the wall of her room and went over her misery again and again. She said that she hated everything, land and power alike, because she could not have Sigurð.

  Gunnar continued to come to her. Brynhild told him, "You will lose everything you rule and everything you own, and you’ll lose your life and you’ll lose me, and I will go home downcast to my own kinsmen and remain there, unless you kill Sigurð and his son. Don’t raise his wolf-pup."

  Gunnar became despondent and was uncertain what he should do, since he had sworn oaths to Sigurð. But he thought often about what an unparalleled shame it would be if his wife divorced him.

  {60} Gunnar said, "I think Brynhild is better than all other women. She is the most famous of all women, and I would rather lose my own life than lose her love." He called then for his brother Hogni and said, "I am in a terrible dilemma."

  He then told Hogni how he wanted to kill Sigurð, and how he thought Sigurð had betrayed his trust. "And we would have all his gold and the whole kingdom to ourselves," he added.

  But Hogni replied, "It would be shameful to break our oaths with violence. He has been a tremendous support to us, and there is no set of kings anywhere who can equal us as long as the Hunnish king Sigurð lives. We’ll never again have such a man for our brother-in-law. I think it’s a very good thing to have such a brother-in-law, and his son, for an ally. But I know what started this. It is Brynhild who made you think murderous thoughts, and her advice will lead us t
o terrible humiliation and harm."

  Gunnar said, "It will happen as I say, and I have a plan. Let’s convince our brother Guttorm to do it. He is young and ignorant, and was too young to swear a pledge to Sigurð."

  Hogni said, "This is an evil plan in my opinion. And if we go through with it, we will pay a high price for betraying a man like him."

  But Gunnar said that Sigurð had to die, "or else I will." He then told Brynhild to stand up and be cheerful. She stood, but she said Gunnar would not come into the same bed with her until the murder was done.

  Now the brothers made their plan. Gunnar said that Sigurð deserved death for being the man who had taken Brynhild’s virginity. "And let’s convince Guttorm to kill him," he added.

  Gunnar and Hogni called Guttorm and offered him gold and vast lands if he would do it. They took a snake and some wolf-flesh and they cooked these and gave them to Guttorm to eat, as the poet says,

  They took snake-meat

  and wolf-meat

  and gave it to Guttorm,

  blended with beer

  and many other things

  in the enchanted drink.

  {61} And once this was done with the witchery of Grímhild, Guttorm became wild and aggressive and he swore to commit the murder, and his brothers vowed to give him great honor in reward.

  Sigurð was unaware of this treacherous plan and knew no reason why he deserved such evil treatment, but he could not fight what fate had in store for him.

  Guttorm went into Sigurð’s room that morning and found him resting in his bed. But when he looked at him, he could not find the courage to attack him, and he ran back out, and then this happened a second time. Sigurð’s eyes had such a serpent-like brightness that very few dared to look him in the eye. But when Guttorm came back in the third time, he found Sigurð asleep and Guttorm drew his sword and stabbed him and the point of the sword pierced the mattress beneath him.

  Sigurð woke up when he was stabbed, and Guttorm started for the door. But Sigurð took up the sword Gram and threw it after him, and it struck him in the back and cut him in half at the waist. His hips and legs fell forward, and his head and arms fell backwards into the room.