e two sons. But,
when the effect of the potion wore off, she loathed this second
marriage and dreamed only of avenging Sigurd's death and of getting
rid of her second spouse.

As in the Nibelungenlied, Atli invited her kin to Hungary, where they
arrived after burying the golden hoard in a secret spot in the Rhine,
a spot they pledged themselves never to reveal. Once more we have a
ride to Hungary, but Gudrun, seeing her husband means treachery,
fights by her brother's side. Throughout this battle Gunnar sustains
the courage of the Niblungs by playing on his harp, but, when only he
and Hoegni are left, they are overpowered and flung into prison. There
Atli vainly tries to make them confess the hiding-place of the hoard,
and, hearing Gunnar will not speak as long as Hoegni lives, finally
orders this warrior slain and his heart brought into Gunnar's
presence.

Convinced at last that the momentous secret now lies with him alone,
Gunnar flatly refuses to reveal it.

Then was Gunnar silent a little, and the shout in the hall had died,
And he spoke as a man awakening, and turned on Atli's pride.
"Thou all-rich King of the Eastlands, e'en such a man might I be
That I might utter a word, and the heart should be glad in thee,
And I should live and be sorry: for I, I only am left
To tell of the ransom of Odin, and the wealth from the toiler reft.
Lo, once it lay in the water, hid deep adown it lay,
Till the gods were grieved and lacking, and men saw it and the day:
Let it lie in the water once more, let the gods be rich and in peace!
But I at least in the world from the words and the babble shall cease."

In his rage Atli orders the bound prisoner cast into a pit full of
venomous serpents, where, his harp being flung after him in derision,
Gunnar twangs its strings with his toes until he dies. To celebrate
this victory, Atli orders a magnificent banquet, where he is so
overcome by his many potations that Gudrun either stabs him to death
with Sigurd's sword, or sets fire to the palace and perishes with the
Huns, according to different versions of the story.

A third version claims that, either cast into the sea or set adrift in
a vessel in punishment for murdering Atli, Gudrun landed in Denmark,
where she married the king and bore him three sons. These youths, in
an attempt to avenge the death of their fair step-sister Swanhild,
were stoned to death. As for Gudrun, overwhelmed by the calamities
which had