SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

340 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Sigurd implies by saying that every valiant man desires to
have wealth until 'the one day'. One possible addition
of an interpretative nature is the first reference to
Brynhild's betrothal to Sigurd, VS 40/22-23. It might
perhaps be an attempt to explain (probably wrongly) the
dstrdo of VS 39/22 (st. 21=Sd. 21/4).1 5
The reason for Gunnar's confused emotions after
Brynhild had demanded Sigurd's death is made clearer by
a mention of the shame he would feel if his wife left him,
a detail absent in the source Sg. 13-14 (VS 57/14-16).
Hogni's somewhat oblique statement that Brynhild is
behind Gunnar's plan to slay Sigurd in Sg. 19 is rendered
in the directest of terms: ok se ek hversu beua stenzk af.
Pat hefir Brynhildr vakit (VS 57/26-27) - and this is
followed by a further addition, reasonable in the
circumstances, to the effect that her advice will be ruinous.
Here may also be noted the compiler's Ldt par tjalda yftr
af rauo« mannabl60i (VS 61/2), a vivid interpretation,
albeit erroneous, of oalaript vel fdo of the source, Sg. 66/1-4.
When Grimhild asks her sons to compensate Gudnin,
she does so prdgiarnliga in the source (Gor. II 17/17).
The compiler substitutes for this idea of defiant
determination a phrase which seems to explain the
reasons behind it, viz. kvao peim pat skylt (VS
62/12). The words pvi at vera md at sjd se vdr in
siaarsta veizla (VS 67/28-29) give a reason for Gunnar's
demanding 'great goblets of good wine to drink' (Akv.l0).
The words ok d ek ekki skap til pess at fara illu i mot vio
menn, nema pat se makligt (VS 66/25-26) give a reasonable
interpretation of the rather opaque vilka ek pess leita, /
nema launa eigim (Am. 13/3-4). Per brugouo fyrri frioi
(VS 70/1) is an explanation of goroir svdfyrri (Am. 57/2).
15 Although completing ch, 22, probably a later interpolation, the passage in
question need not itself be the work of an interpolator (see Wieselgren, op, cit.,
III 249, n. 4). There is certainly no such reference in Sd, (admittedly the
passage may have been lost, d. A. Hensler in Germanistische A bhandlungen
Hermann Paul . . . dargebracht (1902), 4).