Anon (Vǫls) 4^VIII (Vǫls 24)

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Vǫlsunga saga 24 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Vǫlsunga saga 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 795.

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A quarrel between Brynhildr and Guðrún breaks out when they go to bathe in the Rhine and Brynhildr recognises the ring on Guðrún’s hand that Sigurðr had given her upon their betrothal. Immediately before the citation of the stanza the prose summarises the content of the stanza thus (Vǫls 1965, 52): Brynhildr svarar, ‘Sigurðr vá at Fáfni, ok er þat meira vert en allt ríki Gunnars konungs ‘Brynhildr replies, “Sigurðr struck at Fáfnir, and that is worth more than all King Gunnarr’s power”’.

Guðrún reveals the deception that has been practised upon Brynhildr by Sigurðr wooing her in Gunnarr’s shape, after Grani has refused to penetrate the flame barrier surrounding her hall with Gunnarr on his back. Vǫls 4 is the only passage of verse cited within this prose dialogue, and is presumably based on a poem that has not survived, possibly the same poem that provided the previous two stanzas (see Note to ll. 7-8 below). Vǫls ch. 30 comes within the section of the saga corresponding to the lacuna in the Codex Regius. Although the prose text of Vǫls does not present this stanza as direct speech, its content indicates that it must have been spoken by Brynhildr, addressing herself to Guðrún. — [7-8]: These two lines are exactly the same as ll. 7-8 of Vǫls 2 and refer to the same incident, perhaps indicating that they may be from the same poem, or at least composed in the knowledge of the body of verse referring to Gunnarr’s and Sigurðr’s wooing of Brynhildr.