Herkja hight a bondsmaid of Atli; she had been his lover. She said to Atli that she had seen Thioğrekr and Guğrun both together. Atli was greatly uncheerful. Then said Guğrun:
1.
"What is always with you, Atli,
Buğli's son,
you are sad in soul -
why do you never laugh?
The jarls would think it better
if you spoke to men
and looked at me!"
Atli said:
2.
"That saddens me, Guğrun,
Gjuki's daughter,
which Herkja said
to me in the hall,
that you and Thioğrekr
slept under a blanket
and were lightly
(under) linen!"
Guğrun said:
3.
"I shall swear
all oaths to you,
at the white
holy stone,
that I never did
with Thioğmar's son
what man nor maid
should not do!4.
"Except that I embraced
the arranger of armies,
the unshamed boar,
a single time.
Our speeches
were otherwise,
when we troubled two
inclined to secret speech!5.
"Thioğrekr came here
with three tens -
not one of them lives -
of thirty men!
you robbed me of brothers,
and the byrnied ones,
robbed me of all
my nearest kin!6.
"Send you the Saxon,
southern leader:
he knows how to hallow
a boiling kettle!"7.
Seven hundred men
went into the hall,
before the king's wife
went to the kettle.
Guğrun said:
8.
"Gunnarr comes not,
I do not call Hogni,
I see not my
beloved brothers afterwards -
Hogni would avenge
such sorrow with sword:
now I must clear
myself of sin."9.
She plunged bright hands
to the bottom -
and she took up
the arkenstone:
"See the warriors now:
I have become cleared,
in holy fashion,
as kettle boils!"10.
Atli's soul
laughed in breast,
when he saw
Guğrun's hands whole:
"Now shall Herkja
go to the kettle,
she who expected
ill for Guğrun!"11.
No one saw (anything) more pitiful,
everyone who saw that,
how there the hands
were burnt from Herkja!
Then the maid was taken
to the foul bog -
this Guğrun got
for her sorrows.
Note: This translation and others in this collection are the sole work of Stephan Grundy and are here with his permission. They are under his copyright. They are freely reproducible and quotable as long as this notice is attached if these are being reproduced or due credit is given to him for his translation if they are being quoted in another work.