SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Treatment of Sources in the Volsunga saga 349
Sigurd. Since in the Saga she already knows, her
question becomes a statement of her knowledge (VS
59/2 2 ) .
The sense of Brynhild's last dying utterance (Sg. 71/5-8)
is not fully rendered in the paraphrase (VS 61/9-10).
Her words in PE contain a reference to her lack of breath
and to her imminent death. These two references could
hardly be retained with any consistency by the compiler
who goes on in a passage not in the poetic source (and this
could well be derived from Siguroar saga) to describe how
Brynhild makes further dispositions before she finally
mounts Sigurd's pyre.
In VS Sigurd is murdered indoors, and consequently the
compiler entirely passes over the references in Gar. II
II-12 to Sigurd's body lying out in the forest (VS 62/1-2).
In the conversation between Gunnar and Atli's emissary
there are references to Gnitaheid (Akv. 5-6) which clearly
imply that there is gold there, and that this belongs to
Atli. The compiler knows full well that Gnitaheid is the
scene of Sigurd's fight with Fafnir, and that any gold there
was part of Fafnir's hoard which was taken by Sigurd and
after his murder passed into the possession of Gunnar
himself. In the interests of consistency and logic the
compiler suppresses these references (VS 65/20-21).
Hogni in Am. 57/3-4 charges Atli with having slain his
mother, and the context clearly implies that Atli did so
before Brynhild's death. Since the Saga has already
shown his mother to be very much alive after Brynhild's
death, the compiler very logically changes the moour of
the original into jrandkonu (VS 70/2).
Am. is rather confused as to who had the greater share
in the actual slaying of Atli. Am. 89/7-8 lays the emphasis
more on Hogni's son, and Am. 91 more on Gudnin. The
compiler does not hesitate to indicate clearly that it was
Gudnin who struck the fatal blow (VS 73/14-15).
It is strange that Wieselgren, who notes in one connection
or another many of the points discussed above, should