Guðrúnarkviða I, II and III are three different heroic poems in the Poetic Edda

Poetic Edda

The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...

with the same protagonist, Gudrun

Gudrun

Gudrun is a major figure in the early Germanic literature centered on the hero Sigurd, son of Sigmund. She appears as Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied and as Gutrune in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.-Norse mythology:...

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In Guðrúnarkviða I

Guðrúnarkviða I

Guðrúnarkviða I or the First Lay of Guðrún is simply called Guðrúnarkviða in Codex Regius where it was found together with the other heroic poems of the Poetic Edda. Henry Adams Bellows considered it to be one of the finest of the eddic poems with an "extraordinary emotional intensity and dramatic...

, Gudrun finds her dead husband Sigurd

Sigurd

Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...

. She cries and laments her husband with beautiful imagery.

In Guðrúnarkviða II

Guðrúnarkviða II

Guðrúnarkviða II, The Second Lay of Gudrún, or Guðrúnarkviða hin forna, The Old Lay of Gudrún is probably the oldest poem of the Sigurd cycle, according to Henry Adams Bellows....

, she recapitulates her life in a monologue

Monologue

In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...

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In Guðrúnarkviða III

Guðrúnarkviða III

Guðrúnarkviða III, The Third Lay of Gudrun, is a short Old Norse poem that is part of the Poetic Edda. It has not left any traces in Völsunga saga and was probably not known by its compilers....

, one of Attila's (Atli) bondmaids accuses her of infidelity with king Theodoric (Þjóðrekr) of the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

. Gudrun proves her innocence by picking up gems from the bottom of a boiling cauldron with her bare white hands.

External links

• The Poetic Edda in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.
• The first lay with translation
• The second lay with translation
• The third lay with translation
• Guðrúnarkviða I (Old Norse)
• Guðrúnarkviða I (English)
• Guðrúnarkviða II (Old Norse)
• Guðrúnarkviða II (English)
• Guðrúnarkviða III (Old Norse)
• Guðrúnarkviða III (English)