ni: I shall not see again my
loved brothers: with his sword would Hogni such wrong avenge: now I
must myself purify from crime."

9. She to the bottom, plunged her snow-white hand, and up she drew
the precious stones.[91] "See now, ye men! I am proved guiltless in
holy wise, boil the vessel as it may."

10. Laughed then Atli's heart within his breast, when he unscathed
beheld the hand of Gudrun. "Now must Herkia to the cauldron go, she
who Gudrun had hoped to injure." No one has misery seen who saw not
that, how the hand there of Herkia was burnt. They then the woman led
to a foul slough.[92] So were Gudrun's wrongs avenged.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 90: Herkia, the Erka or Helche of the German tradition, who
here appears as a slave or servant, is, according to that tradition,
the queen of Etzel or Atli, who did not marry Kreimhilt (Gudrun) until
after her death. The falsification of the story, the pitiful
subordinate part acted by Thiodrek, the perfect silence of all the
other poems on this event, and the ordeal of the cauldron,
sufficiently show that the poem is a later composition. P.E. Muller
(II., p. 319) ascribes it to Saemund himself.]

[Footnote 91: The iarknastein of the original was a milk-white opal.]

[Footnote 92: This punishment was known to the old Germans.]

ODDRUN'S LAMENT.

There was a king named Heidrek, who had a daughter named Borgny. Her
lover was named Vilmund. She could not give birth to a child until
Oddrun, Atli's sister, came. She had been the beloved of Gunnar,
Giuki's son. Of this story it is here sung:

1. I have heard tell, in ancient stories how a damsel came to the
eastern land: no one was able, on the face of earth, help to afford to
Heidrek's daughter.

2. When Oddrun, Atli's sister, heard that the damsel had great
pains, from the stall she led her well-bridled steed, and on the swart
one the saddle laid.

3. She the horse made run on the smooth, dusty way, until she came
to where a high hall stood. She the saddle snatched from the hungry
steed, and in she went along the court, and these words first of all
uttered:

4. "What is most noteworthy in this country? or what most desirable
in the Hunnish land?"

_Borgny_.

5. Here lies Borgny with pains overwhelmed, thy friend, Oddrun! See
if thou canst help her.

_Oddrun_.

6. What chieftain has on thee brought this dishonour? Why so acute
are Borgny's pains?

_Borgny_.

7. Vilmund is named the falcon-bearer's f