[62]. Regarding Gunnar’s harp-playing, and his death, cf. Oddrunargratr, 27–30 and notes, and Atlakvitha, 34. Toes (literally “sole-twigs”): the Volsungasaga explains that Gunnar’s hands were bound. Rafters: thus literally, and probably correctly; Gering has an ingenious but unlikely theory that the word means “harp.”
[63]. There is some doubt as to the exact meaning of line 2. After this line two lines may have been lost; Grundtvig adds: “Few braver shall ever | be found on the earth, / Or loftier men | in the world ever live.”
[64]. Wise one: Guthrun. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza. [[523]]
[65]. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker.
[66]. The manuscript does not name the speaker. The negative in the first half of line 1 is uncertain, and most editions make the clause read “Of this guilt I can free myself.” The fairest, etc.: i.e., I have often failed to do the wise thing.
[67]. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker. Requital, etc.: it is not clear just to what Guthrun refers; perhaps she is thinking of Sigurth’s death, or possibly the poet had in mind his reference to the slaying of her mother in stanza 53. [[524]]
[68]. Line 5 is very probably a later addition, though some editors question line 3 instead.
[69]. Guthrun suddenly changes her tone in order to make Atli believe that she is submissive to his will, and thus to gain time for her vengeance. Line 2 in the original is thoroughly obscure; it runs literally: “On the knee goes the fist | if the twigs are taken off.” Perhaps the word meaning “fist” may also have meant “tree-top,” as Gering suggests, or perhaps the line is an illogical blending of the ideas contained in lines 1 and 3.
[70]. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza. Two shields, etc.: i.e., Guthrun concealed her hostility (symbolized by a red shield, cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 34) by a show of friendliness (a white shield). [[525]]
[71]. Many editions make a separate stanza of lines 1–2, some of them suggesting the loss of two lines, and combine lines 3–4 with lines 1–2 of stanza 72. The manuscript marks both lines 1 and 3 as beginning stanzas.