Sleep Thorn Helreið Brynhildar

5 ‘I must tell you, I, the clever woman in the wagon,
you very stupid woman, if you wish to know,
how the heirs of Giuki made me love-bereft,
and made me an oath-breaker.

6 ‘The courageous king had our magic garments—
those of us eight sisters—put under an oak;
I was twelve years old, if you wish to know,
when I gave my promise to the young prince.

7 ‘They all called me in Hlymdale,
anyone who knew me, War-lady in the helmet.

8 ‘Then I let the old man of the Gothic people,
Helmet-Gunnar, quickly go off to hell;
I gave the young man victory, Auda’s brother;
Odin was very angry with me for that.*

9 ‘With shields he enclosed me in Skata-grove,
red ones and white ones, shields overlapping;
he ordered that man to break my sleep
who in the land knew no fear.

10 ‘Around my hall with southern aspect,
the destroyer of all wood he set blazing up high;*
he decreed only one warrior could ride over it there,
he who brought me the gold which lay under Fafnir.

11 ‘The good man rode on Grani, generous gold-giver,
where my foster-father ruled over his halls;
he alone seemed better than all men,
the Danish viking among the retinue.

12 ‘We slept and were satisfied in one bed,
as if he were my brother born;
nor did we lay one arm over another
for the eight nights of our lying together.

13 ‘And yet Gudrun accused me, Giuki’s daughter,
that I had slept in Sigurd’s arms;
then I discovered what I wish I’d never known,
that they’d betrayed me in my taking a husband.

14 ‘Men and women, those who are living,
must spend all too long in terrible sorrow
but we shall live fully all our time together,
Sigurd and I—now, ogress, sink!’


- Poetic Edda, Helreið Brynhildar


("Odin was very angry: Brynhild’s story is identical with that of Sigrdrifa in the Lay of Sigrdrifa, showing that the two figures have coalesced." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)

("destroyer of all wood: i.e. fire." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)