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ODDRUN SAID: "Well I mind me yet, What thou saidst that evening, Whenas I bore forth Fair drink for Gunnar; Such a thing, saidst thou, Should fall out never, For any may Save for me alone." Mind had the damsel Of the weary day Whenas the high lords Dealt out the heritage, And she sat her down, The sorrowful woman, To tell of the bale, And the heavy trouble.
It is in the Sigurd-, Fafnir-, Brynhild-, Gudrun-, Oddrun-, Atli-, and Hamdir Lays of the Norse Scripture that the original nature of the older German songs, which must have preceded the epic, can best be guessed. Rhapsodic lays, referring to Siegfried, were, in all probability, part of the collection which Karl the Great, the Frankish Kaiser, ordered to be made.
There was a king hight Heidrik, and his daughter was called Borgny, and the name of her lover was Vilmund. Now she might nowise be made lighter of a child she travailed with, before Oddrun, Atil's sister, came to her, she who had been the love of Gunnar, Giuki's son.
No more than this They spake methinks; Kind sat she down By the damsel's knee; Mightily sand Oddrun, Sharp piercing songs By Borgny's side: Till a maid and a boy Might tread on the world's ways, Blithe babes and sweet Of Hogni's bane: Then the damsel forewearied The word took up, The first word of all That had won from her: "So may help thee All helpful things, Fey and Freyia, And all the fair Gods, As thou hast thrust This torment from me!"
Thou shalt be fain to get Oddrun, but that shall Atli forbid thee; but privily shall ye meet, and much shall she love thee.
But of their speech together has this been sung: I have hear tell In ancient tales How a may there came To Morna-land, Because no man On mould abiding For Heidrik's daughter Might win healing. All that heard Oddrun, Atil's sister, How that the damsel Had heavy sickness, So she led from stall Her bridled steed, And on the swart one Laid the saddle.
"Fain wilt thou be Oddrun to win, But thy good liking Shall Atli let; But in secret wise Shall ye win together, And she shall love thee As I had loved thee, If in such wise Fare had willed it. "But with all ill Shall Atli sting thee, Into the strait worm-close Shall he cast thee.
ODDRUN SAID: "Yet no heart had I For thy helping, Since never wert thou Worthy of helping, But my word I held to, That of old was spoken When the high lords Dealt out the heritage, That every soul I would ever help." BORGNY SAID: "Right mad art thou, Oddrun, And reft of thy wits, Whereas thou speakest Hard words to me Thy fellow ever Upon the earth As of brothers twain, We had been born."
Oddrun's Lament, in which Gunnar's death is caused by an intrigue with Atli's sister Oddrun, marks the disintegration of the Volsung legend. Gudrun's Lament and Hamthismal belong to the Ermanric cycle. Volsung Paraphrases. Nibelungenlied. Signy and Siggeir.
She made her horse wend O'er smooth ways of earth, Until to a high-built Hall she came; Then the saddle she had From the hungry horse, And her ways wended In along the wide hall, And this word first Spake forth therewith: "What is most famed, Afield in Hunland, Or what may be Blithest in Hunland?" ODDRUN SAID: "Who of the lords Hath laid this grief on her, Why is the anguish Of Borgny so weary?"
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