[39]. It is probable that a considerable passage has been lost between stanzas 39 and 40, for the Volsungasaga paraphrase includes a dialogue at this point. The manuscript indicates no gap, and most editions combine stanzas 39 and 40 as a single stanza. The prose passage, indicating the substance of what, if anything, is lost, runs as follows: “ ‘Be welcome among us, and give me that store of gold which is ours by right, the gold that Sigurth had, and that now belongs to Guthrun.’ Gunnar said: ‘Never shalt thou get that gold, and men of might shalt thou find here, ere we give up our lives, if it is battle thou dost offer us; in truth it seems that thou hast prepared this feast in kingly fashion, [[514]]and with little grudging toward eagle and wolf.’ ” The demand for the treasure likewise appears in the Nibelungenlied.
[40]. These two lines, which most editions combine with stanza 39, may be the first or last two of a four-line stanza. The Volsungasaga gives Atli’s speech very much as it appears here.
[41]. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker; Grundtvig adds as a first line: “Then Hogni laughed loud | where the slain Vingi lay.” Many editors assume the loss of a line somewhere in the stanza. Unarmed: Hogni does not see Atli’s armed followers, who are on the other side of the courtyard (stanza 39). One: Vingi.
[42]. Most editors assume the loss of one line, after either line 1 or line 3.
[43]. The manuscript reading of lines 1–2, involving a metrical error, is: “In the house came the word | of the warring without, / Loud in front of the hall | they heard a thrall shouting.” Some editors assume a gap of two lines after line [[515]]2, the missing passage giving the words of the thrall. The manuscript marks line 3 as the beginning of a stanza, and many editions make a separate stanza of lines 3–5, some of them assuming the loss of a line after line 3. With the stanza as here given, line 5 may well be spurious.
[44]. Niflungs: regarding the application of this term to the Burgundians cf. Atlakvitha, 11, and Brot, 17, and notes. The manuscript here spells the name with an initial N, as elsewhere, but in stanza 83 the son of Hogni appears with the name “Hniflung.” In consequence, some editors change the form in this stanza to “Hniflungs,” while others omit the initial H in both cases. I have followed the manuscript, though admittedly its spelling is illogical. [[516]]
[46]. The warlike deeds of Guthrun represent an odd transformation of the German tradition. Kriemhild, although she did no actual fighting in the Nibelungenlied, was famed from early times for her cruelty and fierceness of heart, and this seems to have inspired the poet of the Atlamol to make his Guthrun into a warrior outdoing Brynhild herself. Kriemhild’s ferocity, of course, was directed against Gunther and especially Hagene, for whose slaying she rather than Etzel was responsible; here, on the other hand, Guthrun’s is devoted to the defense of her brothers.
[47]. Line 3 is very likely an interpolation. The manuscript marks line 4 as the beginning of a new stanza, and some editions make a separate stanza of lines 4–5. Atli’s brother: doubtless a reminiscence of the early tradition represented in the Nibelungenlied by the slaying of Etzel’s brother, Blœdelin (the historical Bleda), by Dancwart. [[517]]
[48]. Line 3 may well be spurious, for it implies that Gunnar and Hogni were killed in battle, whereas they were taken prisoners. Some editors, in an effort to smooth out the inconsistency, change “themselves” in this line to “sound.” Line 5 has also been questioned as possibly interpolated. Niflungs: on the spelling of this name in the manuscript and the various editions cf. note on stanza 44.
[49]. Line 2 is probably an interpolation, and the original apparently lacks a word. There is some obscurity as to the exact meaning of lines 4–5. The two sons of Bera: Snævar and Solar; her brother is Orkning; cf. stanza 28.