SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

The Lay of Attila II
"You believed you would bring Atli pain
by Erpr's murder
and Eitill's death -
it was even worse for yourself.
One should bring
others to their death
with wounding sword
without hurting oneself."
If there were not this humanity of sorrow, the story of
Atlakoiaa would be nauseous in its cruelty, as that of
Atlamdl is nauseous. The horror becomes tragic only
through its grief.
In attempting to trace the imagination of a single poet
in the narrative structure of Atlahoioa, I have not
commented upon the variety of metre and diction that
I am, in consequence, attributing to him. Becker declared
it improbable that a poet would introduce whole stanzas
in fornyroislag when he was composing a poem mainly in
mdlahdttrY\ But it has yet to be proved that mdlahditr
and [ornyroislag were in early Norse rigidly distinguished
metres. The four-syllabled line alternated freely with
five- or more-syllabled lines in Old English, Old Saxon
and Old High German verse, and it may be that in
Old Norse the maintenance of a consistent distinction
between the two types of line developed only under the
influence of sealdie verse with its syllabic regularity.
An early poet might within a single poem choose to vary
his metre for stylistic effect, as, in the first stanza of
Atlakoioa, the extreme simplicity of statement - Atli
sendi dr til Gwnnars-" - falls properly into two
[ornyroislag lines, and the fuller development of the
statement, describing first the messenger, then Gunnarr's
hall, expands into a mdlahdtir of six- or seven-syllabled
15 Becker, op, cit. 195.
18 I interpret dr as 'messenger'; this gives a progression of ideas from the
general term, dr, to the quality of the man, kunnr, to his name. Ar adv. 'in
ancient days' would stand first in the sentence (d. Guorunarkvioa I, III;
Siguroarkvioa in scamma III; Hymiskuioa III; Rigs!,ula III).