[5]. The manuscript does not indicate the speakers. For the woman: conjectural; the manuscript has instead: “What warrior now | hath worked this woe?” The manuscript indicates line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Line 5, apparently modeled on line 4 of stanza 13, is probably spurious. [[472]]
[6]. Charms: cf. Sigrdrifumol, 8.
[7]. Hogni’s slayer: obviously Vilmund, but unless he was the one of Atli’s followers who actually cut out Hogni’s heart (cf. Drap Niflunga), there is nothing else to connect him with Hogni’s death. Sijmons emends the line to read “Born of the sister | of Hogni’s slayer.”
[8]. Regarding Frigg as a goddess of healing cf. Svipdagsmol, 52, note. Regarding Freyja as the friend of lovers cf. Grimnismol, 14, note. A line is very possibly missing from this stanza.
[9]. The manuscript does not name the speaker. In line 2 the word rendered “earn” is omitted in the manuscript, but nearly all editions have supplied it. Line 5 is clearly either interpolated or out of place. It may be all that is left of a stanza which stood between stanzas 15 and 16, or it may belong in stanza 12. [[473]]
[10–20]. In the manuscript the order is as follows: 12; 13; 14; 15, 3–4; 10; 11; 16; 17; 18; 19, 1–2; 15, 1–2; 19, 3–4; 20. The changes made here, following several of the editions, are: (a) the transposition of stanzas 10–11, which are clearly dialogue, out of the body of the lament to a position just before it; (b) the transposition of lines 1–2 of stanza 15 to their present position from the middle of stanza 19.
[10]. The manuscript does not name the speaker; cf. note on stanzas 10–20.
[11]. The manuscript does not name the speaker; cf. note on stanzas 10–20. The word rendered “evil” in line 1 is a conjectural addition. Apparently Borgny was present at Atli’s court while the love affair between Oddrun and Gunnar was in progress, and criticised Oddrun for her part in it. A draught, etc.: apparently in reference to a secret meeting of the lovers.
[12]. In the manuscript this stanza follows stanza 9; cf. note on stanzas 10–20. No gap is indicated, but something has presumably been lost. Grundtvig supplies as a first line: “The maid her evil | days remembered,” and inserts as a second line line 5 of stanza 9. [[474]]
[13]. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza; many editions combine lines 1–2 with stanza 12 and lines 3–4 with lines 1–2 of stanza 14. The hero: Buthli, father of Oddrun, Atli, and Brynhild.