Great Lacuna

This poem dealt extensively with the relationship of Sigurd and Brynhildr. Illustration by Arthur Rackham.

The Great Lacuna is a lacuna of eight leaves where there was heroic Old Norse poetry in the Codex Regius. The gap would have contained the last part of Sigrdrífumál and most of Sigurðarkviða. What remains of the last poem consists of 22 stanzas called Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, but according to Henry Adams Bellows, the original size of Sigurðarkviða should have been more than 250 stanzas.

The missing original narrative is preserved in the Völsunga saga in prose form with four stanzas of poetry. The first two stanzas that are preserved through the saga deal with how Sigurd returns to Brynhildr leaping through the flames on Grani after Gunnar had failed:

"Eldr nam at æsast, en jörð at skjálfa ok hár logi við himni gnæfa. Fár treystist þar fylkis rekka eld at ríða né yfir stíga. - Sigurðr Grana sverði keyrði. Eldr slokknaði fyr öðlingi, logi allr lægðist fyr lofgjörnum. Bliku reiði, er Reginn átti."[1]

The fire raged, the earth was rocked, The flames leaped high to heaven itself; Few were the hardy heroes would dare To ride or leap the raging flames. - Sigurth urged Grani then with his sword, The fire slackened before the hero, The flames sank low for the greedy of fame, The armor flashed that Regin had fashioned.[2]

Sigurd had, however, been given a potion of forgetfulness and so he had forgotten all about Brynhildr before returning to her. Moreover, he arrived to her disguised as Gunnar, and so Brynhildr was married to Gunnar instead. After the wedding, Brynhildr argues with her sister-in-law Gudrun, who is Sigurd's spouse, and Gudrun reveals to Brynhildr that it was Sigurd who saved her from her prison. Brynhildr who grasps the extent of the treachery of her in-laws (the Gjukungs) against her and Sigurd, speaks out her heart about Gunnar, in the third preserved stanza:

"Sigurðr vá at ormi, en þat síðan mun engum fyrnast, meðal öld lifir. En hlýri þinn hvárki þorði eld at ríða né yfir stíga."[1]

Sigurth the dragon slew, and that Will men recall while the world remains; But little boldness thy brother had To ride or leap the raging flames.[2]

Brynhildr is furious and so Gunnar and Sigurd talk to her trying to calm her down. Sigurd and Brynhildr have a conversation about the treachery of their mutual in-laws, and understanding how deceived he has been, Sigurd leaves Brynhildr with a heavy heart:

"Út gekk Sigurðr andspjalli frá, hollvinr lofða ok hnipnaði, svá at ganga nam gunnarfúsum sundr of síður serkr járnofinn."[1]

Forth went Sigurth, and speech he sought not, The friend of heroes, his head bowed down; Such was his grief that asunder burst His mail-coat all of iron wrought.[2]

Brynhild's fury would soon lead to the death of both her and Sigurd and to the end of the Gjukung clan.

J. R. R. Tolkien produced the poems Sigurðarkvida en nyja and Guðrunarkviða en nyja, now published as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún based on the content found in the saga.^[3]

Notes

1. Völsunga saga at Norrøne Tekster og Kvad, Norway.
2. Translation by Bellows.
3. Tolkien, Laxness, Undset. Tom Shippey: TOLKIEN AND ICELAND: THE PHILOLOGY OF ENVY (13.09.2002).

References

• The Great Lacuna Stanzas from Völsunga saga believed to be from the lacuna, translated by Lee M. Hollander
• Fragment of a Sigurth Lay Henry Adams Bellows' translation and commentary
• Fragments of the Lay of Sigurd and Brynhild Benjamin Thorpe's translation