The legend, fairly current in Germany, of a queen who is falsely accused of adultry, and clears herself by the ordeal is here amalgamated with the Niflung story, showing Guthrun in a role which but ill agrees with the generally accepted turn that she slays Atli immediately after the fall of her brothers. No wonder the lay is not used in the Volsunga saga.

Apparently, the poem is wholly Christian and Medieval in spirit-----but only apparently: the oath "upon the white and hallowed stone" and the punishment allotted Herkja point in the very opposite direction. We know that the ordeal of boiling water was introduced from Germany into Norway at the beginning of the eleventh century, during the reign of Olaf the Saint; but in the poem it is still regarded as a new and foreign practice requiring the ministration of a "Saxon." Neither language nor versification affords a clue. However, we shall probably not err greatly in suspecting the pleasing little poem to be the work of an Icelander of, say, the late twelfth century who cleverly counterfeited the earlier manner.

Herkja (1) was the name of one of Atli's bondmaidens. She had been his leman. She told Atli that she had seen Thjothrek and Guthrun together. This made Atli very downcast.

1. Historically, Kreka. In the Nibelungenlied, Helche is the name of Atli's first wife.

(Then said Guthrun:)

1. "What is it, Atli, that aileth thee?

Art sad in mind? Why smil'st thou never?

'Twould seem better to barons in hall

if thou spak'st to men and on me didst look."

(Atli said:)

2. "I grieve, Guthrun, Gjuki's daughter,

o'er what in hall Herkja told me:

that thou with Thjothrek, Thjothmar's (2) son,

hast lain in love 'neath linen cover."

2. Historically, Theodemer, who actually was in Attila's service.

(Guthrun said:)

3. "I swear to thee all sacred oaths

upon the white and hallowed stones: (3)

that we twain never and nowise did

what for maid and man is unmeet to do.

3. Probably, a phallic symbol. Compare with the similar oath in "Helgakvidha Hundingsbana," II, St. 30.

4. "I never kissed (4) the Gothic king,

the noble warrior, one time even:

far other were our earnest words,

when full of sorrow we sate together. (5)

4. According to Sijmons' emendation

5. See "Guthrunarkvidha," II, Introductory Prose.

5. "Thanes full thirty followed Thjothrek hither:

none after liveth of all these men.

of my brethen didst rob me, the byrnie-clad men,

didst rob me of all my next of kin.

6. (6) "Gone is Gunnar, nor greet I Hogne;

I will see no more my sweet brethren twain;

with his sword would Hogni this slur avenge-----

now myself I must of this sin clear me.

6. The sequence in the original is St. 7, St. 6.

7. "Send for Saxi, (7) the Southron lord,

for he can bless the boiling kettle."

In hall foregathered seven hundred thanes

when Atli's queen to the kettle went.

7. "The Saxon," that is, German.

8. To the bottom plunged she her bright forearm,

and out she fetched the flashing gems:

"Behold, ye heroes, upheld my honor

by holy award, though the water boil."

9. Laughed the Hunnish king's heart in his breast,

when whole he saw the hands of Guthrun.

"Let Herkja come to the kettle now,

she who to Guthrun this grudge did bear."

10. No sadder sight was seen ever

than when Herkja's hands were wholly burnt.

To stinking moor was the maid then ta'en. (8)

Thus was Guthrun all guiltless seen. (9)

8. This is the Old Germanic mode of capital punishment for women.

9. Translated ad sensum.

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