Guðrúnarkviða I

Guðrúnarkviða I or the First Lay of Guðrún is simply called Guðrúnarkviða in Codex Regius, where it is found together with the other heroic poems of the Poetic Edda. Henry Adams Bellows considered it to be one of the finest of the eddic poems with an "extraordinary emotional intensity and dramatic force". It is only in this poem that Gjúki's sister Gjaflaug and daughter Gollrönd are mentioned, and the only source where Herborg, the queen of the Huns, appears. The Guðrún lays show that the hard-boiled heroic poetry of the Poetic Edda also had a place for the hardships of women.

Bellows considers it to be one of the oldest heroic lays and with very few Scandinavian additions. Brynhild's only role is the cause of Sigurd's death and Guðrún's enemy.

Alfred Tennyson's poem was inspired by Benjamin Thorpe's translation of the lay.

Guðrún sat beside her dead husband, Sigurð, but she did not weep with tears like other women, although her heart was bursting with grief.

1. Ár var, þats Guðrún
gerðisk at deyja,
er hon sat sorgfull
yfir Sigurði;
gerði-t hon hjúfra
né höndum slá,
né kveina um
sem konur aðrar.

1. Then did Guthrun
think to die,
When she by Sigurth
sorrowing sat;
Tears she had not,
nor wrung her hands,
Nor ever wailed,
as other women.

A prose section informs that Guðrún had had a taste of Fafnir's heart from Sigurð and could understand the song of birds. Bellows notes that this information serves no purpose in the poem, but that the Völsunga saga also mentions that she had eaten some of Fafnir's heart, after which she was both wiser and grimmer.

In order to show sympathy and to console her, both jarls and their spouses came to Guðrún to tell her that they too carried great sorrow in their lives.

2. Gengu jarlar
alsnotrir fram,
þeir er harðs hugar
hana löttu;
þeygi Guðrún
gráta mátti,
svá var hon móðug,
mundi hon springa.

3. Sátu ítrar
jarla brúðir,
gulli búnar,
fyr Guðrúnu;
hvar sagði þeira
sinn oftrega,
þann er bitrastan
of beðit hafði.

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Wikipedia