[35]. In the manuscript this stanza follows stanza 32. The loss of two lines, to the effect that “Ill was that marriage for my brothers, and ill for Atli himself,” and the transposition of the remaining two lines to this point, are indicated in a number of editions. The warrior, etc.: Atli, whom Guthrun kills. [[462]]
[36]. The stanza describes the journey to Atli’s home, and sundry unsuccessful efforts have been made to follow the travellers through Germany and down the Danube. Foreign women: slaves. Line 5, which the manuscript marks as beginning a stanza, is probably spurious.
[37]. After these two lines there appears to be a considerable gap, the lost stanzas giving Guthrun’s story of the slaying of her brothers. It is possible that stanzas 38–45 came originally from another poem, dealing with Atli’s dream, and were here substituted for the original conclusion of Guthrun’s lament. Many editions combine stanzas 37 and 38, or combine stanza 38 (the manuscript marks line 1 as beginning a stanza) with lines 1–2 of stanza 39.
[39]. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza. The manuscript and most editions do not indicate the speakers in this and the following stanzas. [[463]]
[40]. Guthrun, somewhat obscurely, interprets Atli’s first dream (stanza 39) to mean that she will cure him of an abscess by cauterizing it. Her interpretation is, of course, intended merely to blind him to her purpose.
[41]. In stanzas 41–43 Atli’s dreams forecast the death of his two sons, whose flesh Guthrun gives him to eat (cf. Atlakvitha, 39, and Atlamol, 78).
[44]. This stanza is evidently Guthrun’s intentionally cryptic [[464]]interpretation of Atli’s dreams, but the meaning of the original is more than doubtful. The word here rendered “sacrifice” may mean “sea-catch,” and the one rendered “beasts” may mean “whales.” None of the attempted emendations have rendered the stanza really intelligible, but it appears to mean that Atli will soon make a sacrifice of beasts at night, and give their bodies to the people. Guthrun of course has in mind the slaying of his two sons.
[45]. With these two lines the poem abruptly ends; some editors assign the speech to Atli (I think rightly), others to Guthrun. Ettmüller combines the lines with stanza 38. Whether stanzas 38–45 originally belonged to Guthrun’s lament, or were interpolated here in place of the lost conclusion of that poem from another one dealing with Atli’s dreams (cf. note on stanza 37), it is clear that the end has been lost. [[465]]