Atli

“ Atli thought himself great: over them both he strode, to the sagacious woman told the evil, and bitterly reproached her. "It is now morning, Gudrun! thy loved ones thou hast lost; partly thou art the cause that it has so befallen."
Gudrun.
65. Joyful art thou, Atli! slaughter to announce: repentance shall await thee, when thou hast all proved. That heritage shall be left thee—that I can tell thee—that ill shall never from thee go, unless I also die.
Atli.
66. That I can prevent; another course I see, easier by half: the good we oft reject. ”

“ Atli said, "Ill it beseemed to thee to do this, though somewhat of wrong was between us; for thou wert wedded to me by the rede of thy kin, and dower paid I for thee; yea, thirty goodly knights, and seemly maidens, and many men besides; and yet wert thou not content, but if thou should rule over the lands King Budli owned: and thy mother-in-law full oft thou lettest sit a-weeping." ”

“ Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, avenger her brethren, as is told far and wide; first she slew the sons of Atli, and then Atli himself; and she burned the hall thereafter, and all the household with it: and about these matters is this song made:—
In days long gone
Sent Atli to Gunnar
A crafty one riding,
Knefrud men called him ”

“ Attila, called Etzel in the Lied. The Atli of the Volsunga-saga much more nearly resembles the Attila of the historians of Rome and Constantinople than does Etzel. He here appears as a just and generous king, whose court is a rendezvous of foreign knights from every land, proud to enlist in his service. Not only is he no party to the treacherous entrapping of the Nibelungs, but he is utterly ignorant of it; and is only driven to countenance hostilities against them by their slaughter of his child and the intolerable insults they hurl at himself. ”

“ Atli said that he would not refuse this to do battle with Egil. 'For,' said he, 'you propose what I ought to have proposed, seeing that I have enough loss to avenge on you. You have done to death my two brothers, and far shall I be from upholding the right if I yield to you mine own possessions unlawfully rather than fight with you when you offer me this choice.'
So then Atli and Egil joined hands and pledged them to do battle, the victor to own the lands for which they had been disputing. ”

“ The historical Attila is really said to have had a German wife named Kremheilch. The Gudrun of the North is a far more amiable personage. She forgives her brother, and is with difficulty persuaded to marry Atli, who is, in this version, Brynhild’s brother, and lays the plot against Gunther, in order to avenge his sister’s death. She does all in her power to warn them, but in vain; and when all had been slain, her senses failed her, and in her frenzy she slew her two children by Atli, and made him drink their blood ”

“ Atli was a great, powerful, and wise king; he had many men with him, and took counsel with them how he should get the gold; he knew that Gunnar and Högni were owners of so much property [147] that no man had the like of it; he sent men to the brothers and invited them to a feast in order to give them many gifts; Vingi was the leader of the messengers. The queen knew of their secret talk, and suspected treachery against her brothers. She cut runes, took a gold ring, and tied on it a wolf’s hair; she gave this to the king’s messengers. ”

“ Atli had a serving-woman named Herkia, [90] who had been his concubine. She informed Atli that she had seen Thiodrek and Gudrun together; whereat Atli was much afflicted. Then Gudrun said:
1. What ails thee ever, Atli! Budli's son! Hast thou sorrow in thy heart? Why never laughest thou? To thy jarls it would seem more desirable, that thou with men wouldst talk, and on me wouldst look.
Atli.
2. It grieves me, Gudrun! Giuki's daughter! that in my palace here, Herkia has said, that thou and Thiodrek have under one covering slept, and wantonly been in the linen wrapt. ”

“ His occurrence in that favourite poem, sung alike by all the Teutonic race, has rendered Atli very common from early times in the North as well as Etzel in Germany. The Lombards took it to Italy, where it turned into Eccelino, and in the person of the fierce mountain-lord, Eccelino di Romagna, became as fearful as Attila had ever been to the Romans.
The verb to fight or to rule furnished both the names of the wife of Abraham ”

“ Some one apparently attempted to [457] supply the names of Atli’s messengers, the “long-beard men” of line 4, who have come to ask for Guthrun’s hand. Some commentators assume, as the Volsungasaga does, that these messengers went with the Gjukungs to Denmark in search of Guthrun, but it seems more likely that a transitional stanza has dropped out after stanza 19, and that Guthrun received Atli’s emissaries in her brothers’ home. Long-beards: the word may actually mean Langobards or Lombards, but, if it does, it is presumably without any specific significance here. ”

“ May sit in the throne of Atli and the place where he wont to be."
In the tuneful hall of the Niblungs that Eastland liar spake,
And he heard the song of the mighty o'er Gunnar's musing break,
And his cold heart gladdened within him as man cried out to man,
And fair 'twixt horn and beaker the red wine bubbled and ran.
At last spake Gunnar the Niblung as his hand on the cup he laid:
"A great king craveth our coming, and no more shall he be gainsayed:
We will go to look on Atli, though the Gods and the Goths forbid ”

“ Prose. On the marriage of Guthrun to Atli at the instigation of her brothers, Gunnar and Hogni, and on the slaying of Atli and his two sons, Erp and Eitil, cf. Drap Niflunga and note.
1. Line 1 apparently is in Fornyrthislag. Knefröth (the name is spelt in various ways, and its meaning is uncertain) : in the Atlamol (stanza 4) there are two messengers, one named Vingi and the other unnamed; the annotator combines the two versions in the Drap Niflunga. ”

“ But she stood before King Atli, and the cup was in her hand.
Then she spake: "Take, King, and drink it! for earth's mightiest men prevail,
And to thee is the praise and the glory, and the ending of the tale:
There are men to the dead land faring, but the dark o'er their heads is deep,
They cry not, they return not, and no more renown they reap;
But we do our will without them, nor fear their speech or frown;
And glad shall be our uprising, and light our lying-down."
She said: "A maid of maidens my mother reared me erst;
By the side of the glorious Gunnar my early days were nursed ”

“ In the tales of the Nibelungen, the great Hun, whom Kriemhild marries after the death of Siegfried, and at whose court the general slaughter takes place, is called Etzel in the German poem, Atli in the Northern saga, and this has generally been regarded as identifying him with Attila and fixing the date of the poem; but the monarch of the Huns is hospitable and civilized, with few features in common with the savage of Roman history; and if Attalik were a permanent regal title among the Huns, the chieftain may have been any other of the royal dynasty. ”

“ Then the fierce Atli spoke, wroth though he was: "'Tis ill to look around; this is long of you. We were thirty warlike thanes, eleven survive: the chasm is too great. We were five brothers, when Budli died; now has Hel the half, two lie slain.
52. "A great affinity I obtained, that I cannot deny, pernicious woman! of which I have no benefit: peace we have seldom had, since thou among us earnest. Of kinsmen ye have bereft me, of riches often wronged. To Hel my sister ye have sent; that is to me most bitter."
Gudrun.
53. "This thou callest to mind, Atli! ”

“ Many editions combine this stanza with lines 3–4 of stanza 28. The sound: cf. note on stanza 28.
30. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Atli’s mother: the Volsungasaga does not follow this version; Gunnar puts all the serpents but one to sleep with his harp playing, “but a mighty and evil adder crawled to him and drove his fangs into him till they reached his heart, and so he died.” It is possible that “Atli” is a scribal error for a word meaning “of serpents.” [479]
31. Serpents’-bed goddess: woman (i.e., Borgny) ”

“ Thus affected, she departs in order to marry Atli, king of the Huns; and yet she goes against her will, with gloomy forebodings: for murder begets murder; and her brothers, the murderers of Sigurd, [Pg 44] having been drawn to Atli's court, fall in their turn into a snare like that which they had themselves laid. Then Gunnar was bound, and they tried to make him deliver up the treasure. He answers with a barbarian's laugh:
"'Högni's heart in my hand shall lie, cut bloody from the breast of the valiant chief, the king's son, with a dull-edged knife.' They the heart cut out from Hialli's breast ”

“ The demand for the treasure likewise appears in the Nibelungenlied.
40. These two lines, which most editions combine with stanza 39, may be the first or last two of a four-line stanza. The Volsungasaga gives Atli’s speech very much as it appears here.
41. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker; Grundtvig adds as a first line: “Then Hogni laughed loud | where the slain Vingi lay.” Many editors assume the loss of a line somewhere in the stanza. Unarmed: Hogni does not see Atli’s armed followers, who are on the other side of the courtyard (stanza 39) . One: Vingi. ”

“ Gunnar answered, "Never gettest thou that wealth; and men of might must thou meet here, or ever we lay by life if thou wilt deal with us in battle; ah, belike thou settest forth this feast like a great man, and wouldst not hold thine hand from erne and wolf!"
"Long ago I had it in my mind," said Atli, "to take the lives of you, and be lord of the gold, and reward you for that deed of shame, wherein ye beguiled the best of all your affinity ”

“ That men may know them naked from the hearts of bond and thrall?
Nor go we empty-handed to King Atli in his hall."
So the sword-carles spake to each other, and they looked and a man they saw,
[Pg 330] Who should hew the wood if he lived, and for thralls the water should draw,
A thrall-born servant of servants, begetter of thralls on the earth:
And they said: "If this one were away, scarce greater were waxen the dearth
That this morning hath wrought on the Eastland; for the years shall eke out his woe,
And no day his toil shall lessen, and worse and worse shall he grow." ”

“ Vingi said: ‘King Atli sent me hither and wanted you to visit him to get honour and large gifts, helmets and shields, swords and coats-of-mail, gold and good clothes, warriors and horses and large estates, and he says he would rather let you than any others have his realm.’ Then Gunnar turned his head and said to Högni: ‘What shall we accept of this offer? He offers us a large realm, but I know no kings owning as much gold as we, for we own all the gold which lay on Gnitaheath, and large skemmas (rooms) filled with gold and the best cutting weapons and all kinds of war-clothes ”

“ Men: Atli and his advisers, with whom he planned the death of the sons of Gjuki, Gunnar and Hogni. The poet’s reference to the story as well known explains the abruptness of his introduction, without the mention of Atli’s name, and his reference to Guthrun in stanza 3 simply as “the woman” (“husfreyja,” goddess of the house) .
2. Princes: Atli, Gunnar, and Hogni. Bulwark: Atli’s slaying [501] of his wife’s brothers, who were ready to support and defend him in his greatness, was the cause of his own death.
3. The woman: Guthrun, concerning whose marriage to Atli cf. ”

“ Grimhild us adorned with gold and necklaces; for my brothers' death never wilt thou indemnify me, nor ever do what shall to me seem good.
69. Mens' too great power women's lot oppresses; on the knee the hand sinks, if the arms wither; the tree inclines, if its root-fibres are severed. Now, Atli! thou mayest alone over all here command.
70. Most unwise it was, when to this the prince gave credit: the guile was manifest, had he been on his guard. Dissembling then was Gudrun, against her heart she could speak, made herself gay appear, with two shields she played. ”

“ After this they arrayed them for combat. Egil came forward with helm on head, and shield before him, and halberd in hand, but his sword Dragvandill he suspended from his right arm. It was the custom with those who fought in single combats so to arrange that the sword should need no drawing during the fight, but be attached to the arm, to be ready at once when the combatant willed. Atli had the same arming as Egil. He was experienced in single combats, was a strong man, and of a good courage. ”

“ The North was very much in the dark as to the differences between Germans, Burgundians, Franks, Goths, and Huns, and used the words without much discrimination. On the other hand, it may refer to Sigurth’s appearance when, adorned with gold, he came with Gunnar to besiege Atli, in the alternative version of the story just cited (cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 36) . Flame of the snake’s bed: gold, so called because serpents and dragons were the traditional guardians of treasure, on which they lay.
Prose. The manuscript has “Gunnar” in place of “Guthrun,” but this is an obvious mistake ”

“ Woman, I spared him so long as his deeds affected but myself; but when he forgot all law and justice to my people, when he made ready the spear and sword to raise up contention in the land, when he slew the innocent and the noble, Attila forgot he had a brother. Neither bondage nor death await thee and thy children; thy husband's crimes have not affected thee; honour, and wealth, and peaceful possession of all that he possessed shall be thine; thy children shall be as my children, and I will defend them against their enemies. ”

“ The great, the generous, and the lofty minded should ever love each other; and I say to thee, fair maiden, that thy noble and thy daring mind has this day commanded the esteem of Attila more fully than even thy radiant, thine unequalled beauty has called forth the admiration of his eyes."
"Esteem, oh Attila!" replied Ildica, in a calm, solemn tone, "must ever create esteem; for it is founded on virtue, and ever springs from it. Those we esteem we would never debase, and dare not injure ”