From the Poetic Edda, translated by Henry Adams Bellows

The Oddrunargrátr (Old Norse: "The Lament of Oddrun") is one of the most intimate poems in the Poetic Edda — thirty-two stanzas in which a woman tells the whole arc of her life to another woman in the dark. Oddrun, sister of Atli (Attila) and Brynhild, has come to aid Borgny, daughter of King Heithrek, who cannot give birth. When the child is safely delivered, old bitterness surfaces between the two women, and Oddrun pours out her story: her father Buthli's plans for her marriage, Brynhild's rise and fall, her own secret love for Gunnar — discovered, forbidden, and finally destroyed when Atli cast Gunnar into the serpent-pit and Oddrun arrived too late to save him. The poem is a lament in the fullest sense: not rage, not revenge, but the steady telling of grief to someone who will hear it.

The poem appears only in the Codex Regius and is not quoted or mentioned elsewhere, though the composer of the "short" Sigurth lay seems to have known it. Oddrun herself appears nowhere in the German versions of the legend and is generally considered a Northern creation, perhaps drawn into the Sigurth-Atli cycle in the eleventh century. The geography is chaotic — Morningland, Hunland, the Danish island of Hlésey — suggesting that by this time the original South Germanic localization had lost all meaning. What remains is not a map but a voice: a woman who loved unwisely and arrived one hour too late, telling her story because telling is all that is left.

This is Henry Adams Bellows' translation from The Poetic Edda (New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923). The translation was verified against the sacred-texts.com digitised edition, transcribed from the original 1923 printed text.

Introductory Note

The Oddrunargratr follows Guthrunarkvitha III in the Codex Regius; it is not quoted or mentioned elsewhere, except that the composer of the "short" Sigurth lay seems to have been familiar with it. The Volsungasaga says nothing of the story on which it is based, and mentions Oddrun only once, in the course of its paraphrase of Brynhild's prophecy from the "short" Sigurth lay. That the poem comes from the eleventh century is generally agreed; prior to the year 1000 there is no trace of the figure of Oddrun, Atli's sister, and yet the Oddrunargratr is almost certainly older than the "short" Sigurth lay, so that the last half of the eleventh century seems to be a fairly safe guess.

Where or how the figure of Oddrun entered the Sigurth-Atli cycle is uncertain. She does not appear in any of the extant German versions, and it is generally assumed that she was a creation of the North, though the poet refers to "old tales" concerning her. She does not directly affect the course of the story at all, though the poet has used effectively the episode of Gunnar's death, with the implication that Atli's vengeance on Gunnar and Hogni was due, at least in part, to his discovery of Gunnar's love affair with Oddrun. The material which forms the background of Oddrun's story belongs wholly to the German part of the legend, and is paralleled with considerable closeness in the Nibelungenlied; only Oddrun herself and the subsidiary figures of Borgny and Vilmund are Northern additions. The geography, on the other hand, is so utterly chaotic as to indicate that the original localization of the Atli story had lost all trace of significance by the time this poem was composed.

In the manuscript the poem, or rather the brief introductory prose note, bears the heading "Of Borgny and Oddrun," but nearly all editions, following late paper manuscripts, have given the poem the title it bears here. Outside of a few apparently defective stanzas, and some confusing transpositions, the poem has clearly been preserved in good condition, and the beginning and end are definitely marked.

The Lament of Oddrun

Heithrek was the name of a king, whose daughter was called Borgny. Vilmund was the name of the man who was her lover. She could not give birth to a child until Oddrun, Atli's sister, had come to her; Oddrun had been beloved of Gunnar, son of Gjuki. About this story is the following poem.

I have heard it told | in olden tales
How a maiden came | to Morningland;
No one of all | on earth above
To Heithrek's daughter | help could give.

This Oddrun learned, | the sister of Atli,
That sore the maiden's | sickness was;
The bit-bearer forth | from his stall she brought,
And the saddle laid | on the steed so black.

She let the horse go | o'er the level ground,
Till she reached the hall | that loftily rose,
(And in she went | from the end of the hall;)
From the weary steed | the saddle she took;
Hear now the speech | that first she spake:

"What news on earth, | . . . . .
Or what has happened | in Hunland now?"

A serving-maid spake:

"Here Borgny lies | in bitter pain,
Thy friend, and, Oddrun, | thy help would find."

Oddrun spake:

"Who worked this woe | for the woman thus,
Or why so sudden | is Borgny sick?"

The serving-maid spake:

"Vilmund is he, | the heroes' friend,
Who wrapped the woman | in bedclothes warm,
(For winters five, | yet her father knew not)."

Then no more | they spake, methinks;
She went at the knees | of the woman to sit;
With magic Oddrun | and mightily Oddrun
Chanted for Borgny | potent charms.

At last were born | a boy and girl,
Son and daughter | of Hogni's slayer;
Then speech the woman | so weak began,
Nor said she aught | ere this she spake:

"So may the holy | ones thee help,
Frigg and Freyja | and favoring gods,
As thou hast saved me | from sorrow now."

Oddrun spake:

"I came not hither | to help thee thus
Because thou ever | my aid didst earn;
I fulfilled the oath | that of old I swore,
That aid to all | I should ever bring,
(When they shared the wealth | the warriors had)."

Borgny spake:

"Wild art thou, Oddrun, | and witless now,
That so in hatred | to me thou speakest;
I followed thee | where thou didst fare,
As we had been born | of brothers twain."

Oddrun spake:

"I remember the evil | one eve thou spakest,
When a draught I gave | to Gunnar then;
Thou didst say that never | such a deed
By maid was done | save by me alone."

Then the sorrowing woman | sat her down
To tell the grief | of her troubles great.

"Happy I grew | in the hero's hall
As the warriors wished, | and they loved me well;
Glad I was | of my father's gifts,
For winters five, | while my father lived.

"These were the words | the weary king,
Ere he died, | spake last of all:
He bade me with red gold | dowered to be,
And to Grimhild's son | in the South be wedded.

"But Brynhild the helm | he bade to wear,
A wish-maid bright | he said she should be;
For a nobler maid | would never be born
On earth, he said, | if death should spare her.

"At her weaving Brynhild | sat in her bower,
Lands and folk | alike she had;
The earth and heaven | high resounded
When Fafnir's slayer | the city saw.

"Then battle was fought | with the foreign swords,
And the city was broken | that Brynhild had;
Not long thereafter, | but all too soon,
Their evil wiles | full well she knew.

"Woeful for this | her vengeance was,
As so we learned | to our sorrow all;
In every land | shall all men hear
How herself at Sigurth's | side she slew.

"Love to Gunnar | then I gave,
To the breaker of rings, | as Brynhild might;
To Atli rings | so red they offered,
And mighty gifts | to my brother would give.

"Fifteen dwellings | fain would he give
For me, and the burden | that Grani bore;
But Atli said | he would never receive
Marriage gold | from Gjuki's son.

"Yet could we not | our love o'ercome,
And my head I laid | on the hero's shoulder;
Many there were | of kinsmen mine
Who said that together | us they had seen.

"Atli said | that never I
Would evil plan, | or ill deed do;
But none may this | of another think,
Or surely speak, | when love is shared.

"Soon his men | did Atli send,
In the murky wood | on me to spy;
Thither they came | where they should not come,
Where beneath one cover | close we lay.

"To the warriors ruddy | rings we offered,
That nought to Atli | e'er they should say;
But swiftly home | they hastened thence,
And eager all | to Atli told.

"But close from Guthrun | kept they hid
What first of all | she ought to have known.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Great was the clatter | of gilded hoofs
When Gjuki's sons | through the gateway rode;
The heart they hewed | from Hogni then,
And the other they cast | in the serpents' cave.

"The hero wise | on his harp then smote,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
For help from me | in his heart yet hoped
The high-born king, | might come to him.

"Alone was I gone | to Geirmund then,
The draught to mix | and ready to make;
Sudden I heard | from Hlesey clear
How in sorrow the strings | of the harp resounded.

"I bade the serving-maids | ready to be,
For I longed the hero's | life to save;
Across the sound | the boats we sailed,
Till we saw the whole | of Atli's home.

"Then crawling the evil | woman came,
Atli's mother — may she ever rot!
And hard she bit | to Gunnar's heart,
So I could not help | the hero brave.

"Oft have I wondered | how after this,
Serpents'-bed goddess! | I still might live,
For well I loved | the warrior brave,
The giver of swords, | as my very self.

"Thou didst see and listen, | the while I said
The mighty grief | that was mine and theirs;
Each man lives | as his longing wills, —
Oddrun's lament | is ended now."

Colophon

The Oddrunargrátr ("The Lament of Oddrun") is unique among the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda — a woman's confession spoken not in fury or vengeance but in grief, to another woman who has just been saved by the speaker's hands. The poem stands between the three Guthrun lays and the two Atli poems in the Codex Regius, and its intimate register — a love story told after the fact, when all the principals are dead — offers a perspective found nowhere else in the cycle. Oddrun is not an actor in the great events; she is someone who loved one of the actors and arrived too late. The poem's final line — "Each man lives as his longing wills" — is among the most quietly devastating sentences in Old Norse literature.

Translated by Henry Adams Bellows, The Poetic Edda (New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923). Digitised text from sacred-texts.com.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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