and the Vistula valley, and at length settled in the plains to the north of the Black Sea. But in Widsith ‘the Vistula forest’ is thought of as the primeval forest separating the territories of the Goths and the Huns, and is to be equated with Myrkvier (see the commentary on the Lay of the V?lsungs, VII.14 (pp.227–28): in Atlakviea Knefr?er says that he had ridden through Myrkvie inn ókunna, Mirkwood unexplored.
20 ?tla’s offer (following Atlakviea) of ‘Gnitanheath’, where Fáfnir had his lair, as if it were a part of his dominion constitutes a problem to which a number of solutions have been proposed. My father thought it probable that there was an ancient association of Gnitaheier with a gold hoard, of which we know nothing, and that this caused it to be attracted to Fáfnir, that is, became later the name of the region where he had his lair and his treasure. I cannot account for the form Gnitanheath.
27 The word runbora seems not to be recorded in Old English, but I take it to mean ‘one who bears run’ in the sense of ‘(secret) counsel’, hence ‘counsellor’, equivalent to the recorded word r?dbora of the same meaning.
36 Hagena: H?gni.
37 weargloccum ‘wolf’s hair’: in Old English the word wearg was used exclusively of an outlaw or hunted criminal but Norse vargr retained in addition the sense ‘wolf’. From this was derived the name of the Wargs of Middle-earth.
39 The word h?estapa ‘heath-roamer’ occurs in Beowulf, where it is used of a stag. In Atlakviea the word used is heieingi, of similar meaning: see the commentary on the Lay of Gudrún, stanzas 37–48, where the verse in the Norse poem is cited.
II
This second text corresponds to verses much further on in Atlakviea, beginning at stanza 24, Hló tá H?gni... ‘Then H?gni laughed...’ The passage in the Lay of Gudrún is stanzas 127–130.
After line 19 my father evidently rejected a passage from his poem, since it is not repeated in the finished copy. The Old English poem takes up again, and concludes, with Atlakviea stanza 32, Lifanda gram..., ‘the living prince...’
Ta hlog Hagena te man heortan scear
of cwican cumbolwigan – cwanode lyt;
blodge on beode to his breeer g?f.
Ta se gar-niflung Guehere spr?c:
‘Her is me heorte Hagenan frecnan, 5
ungelic heortan eargan Hellan;
bifat heo lythwon nu on beode lit,
efne swa lyt bifode ta on breoste l?g.
Swa scealtu, ?tla, ealdum maemum,
leohte life samod beloren weorean! ;
Her ?t anum me is eal gelang
hord Niflunga, nu Hagena ne leofae:
a me twegra w?s tweo on mode;
untweo is me, nu ic ana beom.
Rin sceal r?dan readum golde 15
wrohtweccendum, wealcende flod
entiscum yrfe Ealdniflunga;
blican on burnan beagas wundene,
nealles on handum Huna bearna!’
*
Leod lifigendne on locan setton 20
Huna m?nigo. Hringbogan snicon,
wyrmas gewrieene wagum on innan.
Slog ta Guehere gramhycgende
hearpan on heolstre. Hringde, dynede,
streng wie fingre. Stefn ut becwom 25
heaeotorht hlynnan turh harne stan
feondum on andan. Swa sceal folccyning
gold guefrea wie gramum healdan.
Then Hagena laughed when they cut out the heart
from the living warrior – little did he wail;
on a dish, bleeding, to his brother they gave it.
Then spoke Guehere, the spear-Niflung:
‘Here I have the heart of Hagena the brave, 5
unlike the heart of the craven Hella;
little does it quake now it lies on the dish,
even so little did it quake when it lay in the breast.
So shall you, ?tla, be deprived
of the old treasures, of light and life together; 10
to me alone belongs
all the hoard of the Niflungs, now Hagena lives not.
One of twain, ever was there doubt in my mind;
no doubt have I, now I am alone.
The Rhine shall rule the red gold 15
that stirs men to strife, the rolling flood [shall rule]
the heritage of the old Niflungs, come from giants.
The twisted rings shall gleam in the river
and by no means adorn the hands of the
children of the Huns.’
*
The living king they set in a fenced place, 20
the host of the Huns. Serpents were creeping,
coiled snakes within the walls,
but Guehere wrathful-hearted struck
the harp in his hiding-place. Rang, resounded,
string against finger. His voice came 25
clear as a war-cry through the grey rock
in rage against his enemies. So shall a king of the people,
a warlike lord, guard his gold against foes.
Notes
2 The element cumbol in the compound word cumbolwiga meant an ensign, a banner.
4 gar-niflung. In earlier forms of this passage my father wrote gimneoflung here, at line 12 hord Neoflunga, and at line 17 Ealdneoflunga. I cannot account for these forms of the name, but in any case in the final text he returned to Niflung, Niflunga. In the earlier forms (only) he wrote the word gar ‘spear’ against gim ‘jewel’ in gimneoflung; but since the verse in Atlakviea has M?rr kvae tat Gunnarr, geir-Niflungr (‘Glorious Gunnar spoke, the spear-Niflung’) I have adopted this.
6 Hella: in Atlakviea and in the Lay of Gudrún the name of the thrall is Hjalli.
17 entiscum yrfe. This puzzling line depends on a very debatable verse in Atlakviea, in which the word áskunna ‘of divine race’ precedes arfi Niflunga ‘the heritage of the Niflungs’. In his comments on this my father seems to have favoured áskunna Niflunga ‘the Niflungs of divine race’, while admitting that it is not clear what was meant by this, rather than taking it with arfi, saying that ‘it is very dubious if one can speak of a hoard as being “of divine race”.’
In his Old English version he wrote first here óscund yrfe (where óscund means ‘of divine race, divine’, the word ós being the etymological equivalent of Norse áss, plural ?sir), then changed it to the adjective entisc (and subsequently entiscum) ‘giant, of giants’ from the noun ent (from which was derived the name of the Ents of Middle-earth). In a subsequent copy he wrote óscund in the margin against entisc, as if still uncertain.
25–26 It is notable that almost exactly the same words
stefn in becom
heaeotorht hlynnan under harne stan
appear in Beowulf lines 2552–3, where they are used of Beowulf’s great cry of challenge at the approach of the dragon.