The Story of the Volsungs

CHAPTER XXXIV. Atli bids the Giukings to him.

Now tells the tale that on a night King Atli woke from sleep and spake to Gu­drun –

“Medreamed,” said he, “that thou didst thrust me through with a sword.”

Then Gu­drun ared­ed the dream, and said that it be­to­kened fire, whenas folk dreamed of iron. “It be­falls of thy pride be­like, in that thou deemest thy­self the first of men,”

Atli said, “More­over I dreamed that here waxed two sorb-​tree (1) saplings, and fain I was that they should have no scathe of me; then these were riv­en up by the roots and red­dened with blood, and borne to the bench, and I was bid­den eat there­of.

“Yea, yet again I dreamed that two hawks flew from my hand hun­gry and un­fed, and fared to hell, and meseemed their hearts were min­gled with hon­ey, and that I ate there­of.

“And then again I dreamed that two fair whelps lay be­fore me yelling aloud, and that the flesh of them I ate, though my will went not with the eat­ing.”

Gu­drun says, “No­wise good are these dreams, yet shall they come to pass; sure­ly thy sons are nigh to death, and many heavy things shall fall up­on us.”

“Yet again I dreamed,” said he, “and methought I lay in a bath, and folk took coun­sel to slay me.”

Now these things wear away with time, but in no­wise was their life to­geth­er fond.

Now falls Atli to think­ing of where may be got­ten that plen­teous gold which Sig­urd had owned, but King Gun­nar and his brethren were lords there­of now.

Atli was a great king and mighty, wise, and a lord of many men; and now he falls to coun­sel with his folk as to the ways of them. He wot­ted well that Gun­nar and his brethren had more wealth than any oth­ers might have, and so he falls to the rede of send­ing men to them, and bid­ding them to a great feast, and hon­our­ing them in di­verse wise, and the chief of those mes­sen­gers was hight Vin­gi.

Now the queen wots of their con­spir­ing, and mis­doubts her that this would mean some be­guil­ing of her brethren: so she cut runes, and took a gold ring, and knit there­in a wolf’s hair, and gave it in­to the hands of the king’s mes­sen­gers.

There­after they go their ways ac­cord­ing to the king’s bid­ding: and or ev­er they came aland Vin­gi be­held the runes, and turned them about in such wise as if Gu­drun prayed her brethren in her runes to go meet King Atli.

There­after they came to the hall of King Gun­nar, and had good wel­come at his hands, and great fires were made for them, and in great joy­ance they drank of the best of drink.

Then spake Vin­gi, “King Atli sends me hith­er, and is fain that ye go to his house and home in all glo­ry, and take of him ex­ceed­ing hon­ours, helms and shields, swords and byrnies, gold and good­ly rai­ment, hors­es, hosts of war, and great and wide lands, for, saith he, he is fainest of all things to be­stow his realm and lord­ship up­on you.”

Then Gun­nar turned his head aside, and spoke to Hog­ni –

“In what wise shall we take this bid­ding? Might and wealth he bids us take; but no kings know I who have so much gold as we have, where­as we have all the hoard which lay once on Gni­ta­heath; and great are our cham­bers, and full of gold, and weapons for smit­ing, and all kinds of rai­ment of war, and well I wot that amidst all men my horse is the best, and my sword the sharpest and my gold the most glo­ri­ous.”

Hog­ni an­swers, “A mar­vel is it to me of his bid­ding, for sel­dom hath he done in such a wise, and ill coun­selled will it be to wend to him; lo now, when I saw those dear-​bought things the king sends us I won­dered to be­hold a wolfs hair knit to a cer­tain gold ring; be­like Gu­drun deems him to be mind­ed as a wolf to­wards us, and will have naught of our far­ing.”

But with­al Vin­gi shows him the runes which he said Gu­drun had sent.

Now the most of folk go to bed, but these drank on still with cer­tain oth­ers; and Kost­bera, the wife of Hog­ni, the fairest of wom­en, came to them, and looked on the runes.

But the wife of Gun­nar was Glaumvor, a great heart­ed wife.

So these twain poured out, and the kings drank and were ex­ceed­ing drunk­en, and Vin­gi notes it, and says –

“Naught may I hide that King Atli is heavy of foot and over-​old for the ward­ing of his realm; but his sons are young and of no ac­count: now will he give you rule over his realms while they are yet thus young, and most fain will he be that ye have the joy there­of be­fore all oth­ers.”

Now so it be­fell both that Gun­nar was drunk, and that do­min­ion was held out to him, nor might he work against the fate shapen for him; so he gave his word to go, and tells Hog­ni his broth­er there­of.

But he an­swered, “Thy word giv­en must even stand now, nor will I fail to fol­low thee, but most loth am I to jour­ney.”

END­NOTES: (1) Ser­vice-​tree; “pyrus sor­bus do­mes­ti­ca”, or “p. s. tor­men­tal­is.