[gothic-l] Re: The Lament of Gudrun and the sayings of Hamdir in the Poetic Edda

[M. Carver]

Before I had benefit of a MnE-Go lexicon, I wrote the following translation
of
a piece of Hamdismal, which seems to be a fragmented, corrupted version of
these oral traditions.
I had forgotten about it until now, but it would be interesting to continue
the venture, 
using a more coherent story-form perhaps. In any event the lexicon would
help to find
better-suited words for such translation, and of course this one may be
greatly improved.

Matþaius

Gafrahn ik sakjon sleidabaitrosta
maþliþ modawaurd af mikilsaurgai
þan harduhugda hvatida weiga
grimmam waurdam Gunþiruna sununs.
hve sitits? hve slepits liba?
hve bairits jut bleiþiwaurdjan? . . . .
swistar was inqis Swanahilds haitana
þoei Airmanareiks aihvam uftrad
hveitaim jah swartaim hauhwiga ana
grawaim gaggitamaim Gutane haursam.
Leitilo warþuts leikai Gunþiharja
nih haldis in hugdeis ei Hagunin was.
izos fraweitan jut wiljan skuleits
mod aihtedeits meinaize broþre
aiþ hug hardjana Huniþiudane.

I heard a most bitter quarrel,
angry words spoken from great sorrow
when hard-hearted Gudrun with fierce words
whetted her sons to strife.
³How sit ye? How sleep away life?
How bear ye to speak words of cheer? . . . .
Ye had a sister, Swanhild hight,
whom Ermonreck trod down with horses
white and black, upon the highway,
with the well-tamed gray horses of the Goths.
Ye are little the like of Gunther,
nor have ye the heart that was in Hogni.
Ye would wish to avenge your sister
if ye had the courage of my brothers
or the stern heart of the Hun-rulers.
[english from Corpus Poeticum Boreale]

From: "Francisc Czobor" <czobor at cantacuzino.ro>
Reply-To: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 07:30:51 -0000
To: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [gothic-l] Re: The Lament of Gudrun and the sayings of Hamdir in
the Poetic Edda


Hails Alberto,

as far as I know, there was no Gothic written version regarding
Hermanaricus' vengeance on Sunilda. The fragment in Jordanes' Getica
is based on the Gothic oral tradition. The Gothic alphabet and
literary language were created by Wulfila for religious purpose, and
the writing in the Gothic language was used mainly for this religious
scope (Silver Bible, Skeireins, Gothic Calendar), with very few
exceptions (the deeds of Naples and Arezzo). The same Gothic oral
tradition that was recorded by Jordanes was passed orally to the High
German epic, where it was re-elaborated, and from here passed further
(through Francoon/Saxon intermediate?), also orally, to the
Scandinavic tradition, together with other elements of the Gothic oral
tradition (Theodoric/Dietrich, Attila/Etzel/Atli etc.). In the
Scandinavic milieu the legend was re-elaborated once again, whence the
discrepancies between Jordames' version and that of the Edda. The epic
themes of Gothic origin circulated orally many centuries in the
Germanic world, before they were written down (Edda in Scandinavia, or
the Niebelungenlied, Hildebrandslied and others in the Middle High
German epic).

Francisc

--- In gothic-l at y..., kaoru666 at h... wrote:
> Hails.
> As you know the Gu<eth>rúnarhvöt and the Ham<eth>ismal, the final chants in
> the Elder Edda belongs to an epic cicle of gothic origin. The Lament
> of Gudrun or Gu<eth>rúnarhvöt does not seem to apport anything new, as
it 
> is simply a reelaboration of the fragment of the Getica concerning
> king Hermanaricus' vengeance on Sunilda, dismembered by  four wild
> horses. But the sayings of Hámdir still can relate that King
> Jormunrekk ordered dead to Svánhild, smashing her under the legs of
> gothic horses. Now the dead of Svánhild, this time daughter of
Sigurd 
> and Gudrun, has passed to explain itself by a personal motivation -
> Jormunrekk's Jealousy- and not, of course by a politic reason, as we
> can still see Jordanes' chronicle. And there are many other
> discrepancies.   
> There are hypothesis that there were gothic written versions (as
most 
> of the content on the Eddas were preserved by oral tradition) and
> also Frankish and Burgundian (Sígurd history) of those chants, but I
> don't know how probable is that possibility, of course not
> impossible. 
>  Please tell me your opinion on Ham<eth>ismal and the hypothesis of the
> written documents.
> 
> Thanks for taking the time,
> Alberto


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