NOTES
[[451]]
[Prose]. Thjothrek: the famous Theoderich, king of the Ostrogoths, who became renowned in German story as Dietrich von Bern. The German tradition early accepted the anachronism of bringing together Attila (Etzel, Atli), who died in 453, and Theoderich, who was born about 455, and adding thereto Ermanarich (Jormunrek), king of the Goths, who died about 376. Ermanarich, in German tradition, replaced Theoderich’s actual enemy, Odovakar, and it was in battle with Jormunrek (i.e., Odovakar) that Thjothrek is here said to have lost most of his men. The annotator found the material for this note in Guthrunarkvitha III, in which Guthrun is accused of having Thjothrek as her lover. At the time when Guthrunarkvitha II [[452]]was composed (early tenth century) it is probable that the story of Theoderich had not reached the North at all, and the annotator is consequently wrong in giving the poem its setting.
[2]. Cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 17.
[4]. Regarding the varying accounts of the manner of Sigurth’s death cf. Brot, concluding prose and note. Grani: cf. Brot, 7.
[6]. No gap indicated in the manuscript. Some editions combine these two lines with either stanza 5 or stanza 7. [[453]]
[7]. Gotthorm: from this it appears that in both versions of the death of Sigurth the mortally wounded hero killed his murderer, the younger brother of Gunnar and Hogni. The story of how Gotthorm was slain after killing Sigurth in his bed is told in Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 22–23, and in the Volsungasaga.
[11]. On lines 3–4 cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 1. Line 5 is probably spurious. [[454]]
[12]. Many editions make one stanza of stanzas 12 and 13, reconstructing line 3; the manuscript shows no gap. Bugge fills out the stanza thus: “The wolves were howling | on all the ways, / The eagles cried | as their food they craved.”
[13]. Cf. note on preceding stanza. Grundtvig suggests as a first line: “Long did I bide, | my brothers awaiting.” Many editors reject line 4.