The Story of the Volsungs

CHAPTER XXXVIII. Of the slaying of the Giukings.

Now King Atli eggs on his folk to set on fierce­ly, and ea­ger­ly they fight; but the Giuk­ings fell on so hard that King Atli gave back in­to the hall, and with­in doors was the fight, and fierce be­yond all fights.

That bat­tle was the death of many a man, but such was the end­ing there­of, that there fell all the folk of those brethren, and they twain alone stood up on their feet, and yet many more must fare to hell first be­fore their weapons.

And now they fell on Gun­nar the king, and be­cause of the host of men that set on him was hand laid on him, and he was cast in­to fet­ters; af­ter­wards fought Hog­ni, with the stoutest heart and the great­est man­li­hood; and he felled to earth twen­ty of the stoutest of the cham­pi­ons of King Atli, and many he thrust in­to the fire that burnt amidst the hall, and all were of one ac­cord that such a man might scarce be seen; yet in the end was he borne down by many and tak­en.

Then said King Atli, “A mar­vel­lous thing how many men have gone their ways be­fore him! Cut the heart from out of him, and let that be his bane!”

Hog­ni said, “Do ac­cord­ing to thy will; mer­ri­ly will I abide what­so thou writ do against me; and thou shalt see that my heart is not adrad, for hard mat­ters have I made tri­al of ere now, and all things that may try a man was I fain to bear, whiles yet I was un­hurt; but now sore­ly am I hurt, and thou alone hence­forth will bear mas­tery in our deal­ings to­geth­er.”

Then spake a coun­sel­lor of King Atli, “Bet­ter rede I see there­to; take we the thrall Hjal­li, and give respite to Hog­ni; for this thrall is made to die, since the longer he lives the less worth shall he be.”

The thrall hear­kened, and cried out aloft, and fled away any­whith­er where he might hope for shel­ter, cry­ing out that a hard por­tion was his be­cause of their strife and wild do­ings, and an ill day for him where­on he must be dragged to death from his sweet life and his swine-​keep­ing. But they caught him, and turned a knife against him, and he yelled and screamed or ev­er he felt the point there­of.

Then in such wise spake Hog­ni as a man sel­dom speaketh who is fall­en in­to hard need, for he prayed for the thrall’s life, and said that these shrieks he could not away with, and that it were a less­er mat­ter to him to play out the play to the end; and there­with­al the thrall gat his life as for that time: but Gun­nar and Hog­ni are both laid in fet­ters.

Then spake King Atli with Gun­nar the king, and bade him tell out con­cern­ing the gold, and where it was, if he would have his life.

But he an­swered, “Nay, first will I be­hold the bloody heart of Hog­ni, my broth­er.”

So now they caught hold of the thrall again, and cut the heart from out of him, and bore it un­to King Gun­nar, but he said –

“The faint heart of Hjal­li may ye here be­hold, lit­tle like the proud heart of Hog­ni, for as much as it trem­bleth now more by the half it trem­bled whenas it lay in the breast of him.”

So now they fell on Hog­ni even as Atli urged them, and cut the heart from out of him, but such was the might of his man­hood, that he laughed while he abode that tor­ment, and all won­dered at his worth, and in per­pet­ual mem­ory is it held sithence. (1)

Then they showed it to Gun­nar, and he said –

“The mighty heart of Hog­ni, lit­tle like the faint heart of Hjal­li, for lit­tle as it trem­bleth now, less it trem­bled whenas in his breast it lay! But now, O Atli, even as we die so shalt thou die; and lo, I alone wot where the gold is, nor shall Hog­ni be to tell there­of now; to and fro played the mat­ter in my mind whiles we both lived, but now have I my­self de­ter­mined for my­self, and the Rhine riv­er shall rule over the gold, rather than that the Huns shall bear it on the hands of them.”

Then said King Atli, “Have away the bonds­man;” and so they did.

But Gu­drun called to her men, and came to Atli, and said –

“May it fare ill with thee now and from hence­forth, even as thou hast ill held to thy word with me!”

So Gun­nar was cast in­to a worm-​close, and many worms abode him there, and his hands were fast bound; but Gu­drun sent him a harp, and in such wise did he set forth his craft, that wise­ly he smote the harp, smit­ing it with his foes, and so ex­cel­lent­ly well he played, that few deemed they had heard such play­ing, even when the hand had done it. And with such might and pow­er he played, that all worms fell asleep in the end, save one adder on­ly, great and evil of as­pect, that crept un­to him and thrust its sting in­to him un­til it smote his heart; and in such wise with great hardi­hood he end­ed his life days.

END­NOTES: (1) Since (”sidh”, af­ter, and “dham”, that.).