Undermining and En-Gendering Vengeance: Distancing and Anti-Feminism in the

"Poetic Edda"
Author(s): David Clark
Source: Scandinavian Studies , Summer 2005, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Summer 2005), pp. 173-200
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Society for the Advancement
of Scandinavian Study

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40920584

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 Undermining and
En- Gendering Vengeance
Distancing and Anti-Feminism
in the Poetic Edda

David Clark
Oxford University

is of central importance to the heroic poems of

Vengeance
lowing the Poetic
article focuses Edda,
on the final underpinning
four poems of the Codex the action of each one. The fol-
Regius- AtlakvidajAtlamdlj Gudrunarhvgt, zndHamdismdl-sinccthcy
constitute a manageable body of material for close analysis, unified by
the figure of Gudnin, although displaying significantly different perspec-
tives on revenge.1 It is argued that the hero (whether male or female) in
these poems is distanced and represented as belonging to the past, and
that Hamdismdl znAAtlahnda even seek to undermine the heroic ideal
of vengeance, marking them out from other works such as the so-called
Helgi-poems, which more straightforwardly validate revenge and hero-
ism. The article also addresses the question of whether the portrayal of
Gudnin is anti-feminist or in fact constitutes a portrait of an autonomous
female figure in control of her own destiny. The poems considered here
thus provide a test case for an approach to the twin themes of vengeance
and kin-slaying in the Codex Regius compilation as a whole.
Steblin-Kamenskij makes the following statement concerning the
Eddaic lays under discussion here:
To a modern man it might seem that Gudnin's vengeance is a piling up
of monstrous crimes designed to horrify the hearers. But to interpret
thus her vengeance would be, of course, to ignore the ethics of the
society where this heroic legend and the lays based on it were popular.

I would like to thank Heather O'Donoghue, Carolyne Larrington, Judy Quinn, and Carl
Phelpstead, who read this article in earlier forms.

1 For a facsimile edition of the Codex Regius with transcription, see Wimmer and Finnur
Jonsson. Poems are referred to by short title and are cited from Dronke, Heroic Poems.
Translations are my own.

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174 Scandinavian Studies

Since the greater the sacrifices a vengeance requires the more heroi
Gudnin's vengeance for her brothers no doubt seemed an unexa
heroic deed, and this is explicitly said in the hys:ferr engi svd st
and Sail er hverr stban. (86)

The critical approach exemplified in this statement is diam

opposed to that of this article. Although he claims to be inter
the lays on their own terms, Steblin-Kamenskij makes unw
generalizations about "the ethics of the society," and ignores
text of the lines he quotes, which, it will be seen below, rend
interpretation more complex than he indicates. He also ignores
emphasized below, that the heroic poems he quotes often dist
events they describe and thus the relation of these events to th
for which the poems were composed may be far from straigh
not to mention the possibility that the poems may in fact be
against a social ethic (the vengeance imperative).

The Distanced Past and the Heroic Ideal

In the Eddaic poems, the hero and the heroic are frequently observ
from a distanced perspective. This is seen most clearly in the openi
formulae:

Helgakvida Hundingsbana inn fyrsta: Ar var alda, pat er arargullo

(It was in early times, when eagles yelled)

Gudrunarkvida inn fyrsta: Ar var, patz Gubrunjjorbiz at deyia

(It was early, when Gudnin prepared to die)

Sigurdarkvida inn skamma: Ar var, patz Sijjurbr sdtti Giuca

(It was early, when Sigurdr sought Giiiki)

Oddninargrata: Heyrba ecsegia i sqgom fornom

(I heard it said in ancient stories)

Atlamal: Frett hefir gld ofo, /pa er endr umgerbo / seggir samkundo

(The world has learned of the enmity, when once warriors made a
meeting)

Hamdismdl is no exception to this tendency, recalling:

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 Vampatnu
neig&r,
pat hefir langt
liditstdan-
er fdtt fornara,
fremr varpat hdlfo -
er hvatti Guftrun (str. 2)

(It was not now nor yesterday, it has long since passed by- few things
are older; further [back] was that by half [as much again]- when
Gudnin whetted.)

The vengeance of the poem is set long in the poet's past: the cumulative
effect of the first six lines opens a chasm of time, emphasizing that the
events about to unfold are ancient. Moreover, although Gudrunarhvgt
makes no mention of the age of the events, the opening formula, ccI>a
fra ek ... er," (str. 1) [Then I heard ... when] is comparable to that in
Oddrunargrdta and Atlamdl.2
This perspective is thus not confined to any particular date of poem,
insofar as it appears both in poems generally considered old as well as
those deemed young.3 Certainly the motif is widespread in "heroic"
literature. As Gurevich states:

2 Compare also "Hattatal" verse 94: "slikt var allt fyr lidit ar," (37) [suchlike was all in
time past], which appears in the context of a corrupt verse mentioning the prowess of
heroes such as Kraki, Haki, Sigurdr, and Ragnarr.
3 There is a range of critical opinion on the dating of the Eddaic poems although the
general consensus dates Hamdismdl and Atlakviba early (late ninth to early eleventh
century) and Gudrunarhvgt and Atlamdl late (late twelfth to early or mid- thirteenth
century). See Harris, The Dictionary of the Middle Ages; and Harris, Old Norse-Icelan-
dic Literature 93. The argument by Klaus von See that Hamdismdl forms part of the
"younger" layer of poems and is thus later than Gudrunarhvgt, has not gained general
acceptance (see See "Die Sage" and "Gudrunarhvot"). It seems to me impossible at
present (and certainly within the confines of this article) to solve the problem of the
dating of these poems since linguistic tests continue to prove inconclusive for both
Old English and Old Norse poems and internal evidence is unhelpful. For instance,
one might argue that the poems quoted above, which place their events in the distant
past, do so because they were composed later than those poems which place their
events in the present. However, given the continuing debate over dating, it seems
more profitable to view this as a poetic choice and to investigate the effects of this
distancing. It might also be argued that early poems represent Gudnin as avenger and
later ones as lamenter. However, I intend to address this issue in a future article by
arguing that the Gudnin elegies, particularly Gubrunarkvida gnnor, in fact break down
this binary. In the present article, the aim is to treat the dating and audience of these
poems as unproven while nevertheless providing material that may contribute to the
continuing discussion of these issues.

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176 Scandinavian Studies

The time of the heroic lay is absolute, epic time. It is irretrie

majestic; it is "the good old days," the only time when the gran
figures the heroic lays tell about existed. Everything that happe
those former times has been completely finished. In the words
Bakhtin, an "absolute, epic distance" separates heroic time and th
when the lay is performed. (122; see also Bakhtin 13-7)

This distancing might be seen as a function of the genuine an

the poems and their subject-matter. I want to argue here, how
a perception that the "heroic ideal55 (as embodied in texts suc
Helgi-poems) belongs to the past, a perception observable in seve
poems- even in some of those ostensibly most ancient. This vi
be seen as in complete disagreement with Andersson5s charact
of the heroic poems : "they eulogize the individual who does wh
demands and despises the consequences55 ("Displacement55 593
Gudnin is exceptional and an outsider (as is Brynhildr); h
viduality-her self-assertion- is admirable in its strength, but
unambiguously eulogized, as we shall see, for it is ultimat
both for her and her family line and also for the society that
contain her. Indeed, her uniqueness may render her an "arche
it is argued below that in Hambismdl Gufiriin and her son
made representatives of the "heroic ideal55 and simultaneously
vehicles through which the poet can explore the dilemmas
society- the characteristics of a Heroic Age (as imaginatively r
by the poet) inhere in them. In conjunction with the distanci
foregrounded, it is arguable that the "heroic ideal55 is not (an
not be) applicable to the present, and the next section cont
Hamdismdl and Gudninarhvpt share a common theme in their
mining of the revenge ethic.

Hamdismal and Gudrunarhvqt: Undermining

the Ethic of Vengeance

Just as Hamdir reveals in Gudrtinarhvgt that

Urdoper
brxbra hefndir
sltdrar ok sdrary
erpu sono myrdir (str. 5)

(For you, brothers' vengeance became terrible and painful, when you
murdered your sons)

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 En-gendering Vengeance 177

so in HarnUsmdl, he reproaches his mother for lack of foresi

tinuing with what Dronke calls "cynically sententious line
Poems, 151):

Svd skyldi hverr gdrom

veria til aldrlaga
sverbi sdrbeito

at serne striddit. (str. 8)

(Each against the other should so wield unto his life-end a woun
ting sword such that one harms not oneself.)

In GudrunarhvQt, there is the explicit recognition that, ironi

Gudnin had not taken vengeance for the previous killing of h
ers, she would have made it easier to avenge Svanhildr:

Kn&ttirn [allir]
Igrmunrekki
samhyggiendr
systorhefha (str. 5)

(We could all, thinking together, have avenged our sister

upon Iormunrekkr.)

In this poem no more is seen of the two sons, as they ride to avenge
Svanhildr, and the audience is left with scant hope of their survival.
Hamdir warns,

atpu erfi
at qll oss drykkir,
at Svanhildi
oksonopina. (str. 8)

(that you might drink a funeral feast to all of us, to Svanhildr and
your sons.)

Gudnin (who had previously been described as hl&iandi (str. 7) [laugh-

ing]) is Icftjjrdtandi (str. 9) [weeping] to bemoan her fate: the poem
ends with a note of consolation (str. 22), but the only way that Gu5run
can find peace is in death:

Megi brenna bridst

bqlvafult eldr (str. 21)

(May fire burn the breast, full of evils.)

In Hambismdl, by contrast, most of the poem describes the brothers'

vengeance. Here, the responsibility for the ironic loss of a potential

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 178 Scandinavian Studies

helper in their mission is taken from Gudrun's shoulders an

their own, when they kill their half-brother, the second Erp
J^eir J>rott sinn / at J^riSiungi" (15) [they diminished the
by a third]. This is even more striking if one makes a c
with Gudninarhvgty insofar as Hamdir does exactly that fo
reproaches his mother: he acts without foresight.4 The poet f
their error, but it is not until the denouement that he allow
recognize: "Af vaeri mi h9fud, / ef Erpr lifSi" (str. 28) [The
be off now, if Erpr lived].
The three similes of strophe 5 illustrate movingly the fact
einir er / J^atta aettar minnar" (str. 4) [you [i.e. Hamdi
alone live of the strands of my race] : Gu5nin is "Einstced .
holti" [Alone ... like an aspen in the wood]; "fallin at froend
fura at kvisti55 [bereft of kinsmen as a fir-tree of branches
at vilia / sem vidr at laufi55 [destitute of pleasures as a fores
(str. 5). This imagery is picked up again at the end of the p
the satisfaction that the brothers derive from the fact that
vit vegit55 [We have fought well] and "Gods hpfom tirar fe
have gained good glory] is undercut by the reminiscence of
awful loneliness in "sem ernir a kvisti55 [as eagles on a branc
This is a verbal parallel with "sem fura at kvisti," which is in
by knstskxba (str. 5) [branch-damaging girl].5 Gufinin likew

4 This may be underlined by the use of the name "Erpr," paralleling the
one by a mother, one by a brother.
5 This image is comparable to that in "Sonatorrek" 4: "I>vit aett min / a
hraebarnir / sem hlynir marka" (Egils saga, 24.7) [For my lineage is at an
corpse-borne maples of the forest]. Compare also strophe 5, where Egill c
"or ordhofi / maerdar timbr / mali laufgat" (248) [out of the word-temp
of glory, leafed with speech]. It is interesting also that the barnstokkr [c
Vglsunga saga, according to Hill, is a symbol for the Volsung family. At t
Siggeir asks for Signy^ hand in marriage, (3dinn plunges a sword into th
as Hill points out, evidently symbolizes "violence between close kin" (
further Old Icelandic examples of a tree symbolizing a family: Att-hnsl and
both attested; Egill in "Sonatorrek" 21 speaks of £ttar ask [ash-tree of m
kynvift [family- tree], and one should not forget that the human race is said
be created from Askr and Embla, two tree-trunks (Vgluspd 17). The treatme
in Vglsunga saga is fascinating: in addition to the retellings of the poems
ering, there is also the character of Signy, who kills several of her children
incest in the pursuit of revenge, dying after it has been achieved. It would
investigation, but it is not treated here for reasons of space and the com
interrelation with the Eddaic texts.

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 En-gendering Vengeance 179

on men's corpses- those of her kinsmen- just as the brothers

are left "standing alone."
The poem is thus framed with "sorrowful tasks" and the d
the last living relatives of the woman who incited their v
Gudnin may have been left einstxd in strophe 5, but she is n
isolated with no hope of redress and, from a modern pers
seems only an empty comfort that her daughter has been av
The function of the eerie emblem of the sister's son hanged
vindkgld (str. 17) [the wind-cold wolf- tree] is surely not just to
to an impression of desolation- it also adds another kin-killin
just previously perpetrated by the brothers. Moreover, it pe
that Gudnin is ultimately responsible for the deaths of her
sons, just as she killed the offspring of her union with Atli-
the tree imagery of the poem's beginning is here picked up
and ominous way in reinforcing the argument that it is r
deliberately at the end of the poem to foreground the steril
vengeance achieved.
The only scene of apparent happiness in Hamdismdl^ th
[merriment] in I9rmunrekkr's hall, is not only tainted with
horror as he laughs about hanging the two young men (st
but also totally overshadowed by the image in the previous s
the hanged man and followed by the horrific picture of stro

t blodi bmjjnar logo,

komit or briosti Gotna

(men lay in blood come out of the breasts of the Goths.)

That this unpleasant scene is not just an ancient legend, b

relevance to the poem's audience is perhaps signified by t
timelessness described earlier in relation to strophe 2, li
"Gods h9fom tirar fengit, / J)6tt skylim mi eda 1 gaer deyia
gained good glory, though we should die now or tom

6 Indeed there is a transference of ideas between the kindling of sorg

Gudnin inciting her sons with the result of sorg.
7 1 cannot accept Jochens's view that "having privileged strong emotion
urdr, Gudnin] chooses their offspring over sons produced in a union ove
had little choice and in which she did not become emotionally involved
is no evidence whatsoever that she was not "emotionally involved" with
Sorli - if not, why should she weep? The poet makes no comment ab
relationship with their father, and the idea that she loves Svanhildr mor
is born of Sigurdr is only an interesting speculation.

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 ito

strophe 30. Th
is paralleled w
prose commen
called the anci
action and ren
the chronolog
Just as one of
avoid "the exam

semgrey norna,
pan ergrdfiug e
i aubn um alin

(like the dogs o

ness)

so it seems the poet calls for this principle to be extended outside the
immediate family-line to society at large- heroes must live not in a
"wilderness," but in a community. He does not minimize the tragedy
of Svanhildr's death- indeed the description in strophe 3 heightens the
horror- but reminds the audience that revenge is self-perpetuating and
ultimately leads to loneliness and sterility. The very last statement of
the poem proper is:

Par fell Sprit

atsalargafli,
en Hamdir hne
athusbaki (str. 31)

(Sorli fell there at the gable of the hall, but Hamdir sank down at the
back of the house.)

This separation is surely not otiose but rather intended to foreground

the loneliness of revenge once more.8 Hamdismdl ends with the image
of two young men, lying dead, alone, on a pile of bloody corpses, and
the mind inevitably returns - not least because of the verbal echoes - to

8 As See writes, "Der Gegensatz ... ist so betont, daft der Dichter sicherlich hierauf das
Gewicht legen wollte" [The opposition ... is emphasized so much that the poet surely
wanted to lay stress on it]. He continues: "Der elegische Ton aus Str. 10 fiarri munom
deyia 'fern von hier werden wir sterben' klingt hier zum Schluft noch einmal an" ("Die
Sage" 230) [The elegiac tone from strophe 10 fiarri munom deyia "far from here will we
die" here is reminiscent of the end once again].

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 En-gendering Vengeance 181

Gudrun in her splendid but barren isolation.9 It cannot

then, to see the poem as conveying a sense that the e
for kin is limited and even self-destructive.
Gudrunarhvgt shows Gudnin not only as the murde
but also as a victim of heroic society's treatment of w
only hurt grievously (svdrra sdr, str. n) when her bro
who "Einn var mer ... / cpllom betri," (Gudrunarhvgt
was ... better than all], but

meirrpottuz
mer um strida,
er mik pdlingar
Atlag&fo (str. n)

(they intended to harm me more, when those prince

Atli.)

In this context, the murder of her sons is seen in strophe 12 less as the
terrible and unnatural deed of Atlamdl than as a sad necessity imposed
by circumstances forced on her by others. Her attempted suicide here
may be seen by juxtaposition to be, at least in part, motivated by her
sorrow at killing the boys:
Gekk ek til stmndar,
grgm vark nornom (str. 13)

(I went to the shore, grim was I to the Norns.)

In this poem, Svanhildr is indeed seen as the favorite child ("er ek minna
barna / bazt fullhugdak" (str. 15) [whom of my children I fully cared for
the best]), but she is destroyed by marriage, the radiant figure clothed
in gold and costly weavings "adr ek gaefak / Gotjriodar til" (str. 16)
[before I gave her to the Gothic people] trodden in the mud beneath
horses' hooves.

9 In "Skaldskaparmal" verse 59 ("vers rapportes"; 18), the event with which Gudnin is
associated is causing the death of a son- "Var<5 sjalf sonar ... Godnin bani" [Guoriin
herself became her son's slayer] -and, if we emend sonar to sona as Faulkes suggests (166),
this can become two sons. The story referred to could be her actual slaying of her two
sons by Atli (as Faulkes reads), but, since Hamdir is also mentioned in the same verse,
it could be taken to refer to her responsibility for the slaying of Hamdir and Sorli. The
verse is certainly evidence that Gudnin was associated primarily with killing her kin for
at least one medieval audience.

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 i§2

The thought
combined with
living body (st
hallucination t

Beittu, St0ur5[r
enn blakka mar..
Minnztu, Sigur

(Bridle, Sigurd

Moreover, the o
[this series of
of a sorrow so
In this poem,
society, and S
Gudnin in man
sorg i det fbrf
Gudrun there i
future].

Atlakvida: Undermining Gudrun?

Atlakvida seems a straightforward validation of heroic behavior: the p

explicitly praises Gunnarr's actions on more than one occasion. In stro
9, Gunnarr speaks "sem konungr skyldi" [as a king should] and, althou
his people weep as they see him off, it is not like the hopeless weepi
of Gudrun in Gudrunarhvgt: there is a sense that Gunnarr and Hpgn
are doing what is fitting, and they leave an heir behind them into wh
mouth the poet puts words that imply not a sense of hubris, but rathe
glorious heroic spirit: "Heilir farid mi ok horskir, / hvars ykr hugr teygir
(12) [May you go now unharmed and wise, wherever your spirit take
you!]. Again, Hggni's conduct is explicitly praised in strophe 19:
svd skalfr&kn
fidndom veriaz,
[sem] Hqpfni vardi
hendr sinar

(so shall a brave one defend himself against foes, as Hogni defended
himself.)

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However, the sim
Gunnarr's death

Svd skcdgulli
frczkn hringdrifi
vidfira halda (str.

(Thus shall a bold

Here the gnomi

strewer" to distr
typical Germanic
he "keep[s it] fro
at all costs seems
Niflunga (str. 2
forge societal bon
terrible sway tre
in the description
[discord-metal of
flavor. Here, alth
that love for gol
marked contrast
Gulli sen
in gaglbiartdy
hringom raubom
reifbi hon huskarla

(The gosling-brig
the men-servants

Certainly, it is g
Hpgni's "acts of
authorial comm
the face of death

10 Compare the Ang

bidan ... hwonne hin
resting-place ...
until
11 Eis's view that thi
hands seems tenuou
12 One might compa
is kinsmen's discord]

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 184

There is no ex
Nevertheless, t
of this woman

ferr mgi svd std

bnidr i brynio
brcedr at hejha.
Hon hefirjrriggfia
pioftkonunga
banord borit,
bigrt, ddrsylti (str. 44)

(never afterwards will a bride in a mail coat thus go to avenge her

brothers. She was the bane of three nation-kings, bright one, before
she died.)

The final emphasis is on the deaths she has caused. Likewise, in

strophes 36 to 38, the horror of the murder is foregrounded by the
explicit physical detail of the unsuspecting cannibalism. Moreover,
although the way the boys' humanity is stressed in strophe 38 suggests
that GuSnin may feel some sorrow at their deaths, it also prevents us
from seeing them as mere elements of the plot so that we appreciate
the full enormity of the deed. We have seen Gudrunarhvgfs emphasis on
Gudnin's anger at the Fates for causing her to kill her sons, but there
is no comparable emphasis inAtlakvida. Rather there is an implication
that Gudnin is unnatural in her inability to weep:

greto bgrn Huna,

nema ein Gudrun,
er hon ova grit (str. 39)

(the Huns' children wept- except Gudnin alone, she who never
wept.)

Furthermore, the description of her murder of Atli is astonishingly

sympathetic- not to her, but to the ostensible villain of the piece:
OvarrAtla ...
modem hajdi hann sik drukkit,
vdpn hafdi hann ekki (str. 41)

(Unwary Atli ... he had drunk himself weary; weapons had he none.)

Not only does Gudnin here appear less than honorable in her killing of a
defenseless man- in just the way her beloved Sigurdr was killed in their

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 En-gendering Vengeance 185

bed in Hamdismdl and Gudninarhvgt- but the poet quashes

that he was a tyrannical or proud husband as in Atlamdl by st

opt var sd leikr betri,

pa erpau lintskyldo
optarr umfabmaz
fyroUingom (str. 41)

(often the play was better, when tenderly they would frequently em
before the noblemen.)

This perspective lends great pathos to the previous line: "varn

vid Gudnino" [he was not on guard against Gudnin], and sugge
she is a different person now that the heroic ethic has possessed h
out by the strange fey description of her in strophe 36: "Skaev
skirleita ... afkar dis" [The lambent- faced one darted then ...
dis' It also renders more brutal what Dronke calls "an iron
the connotations of [leikr] : 'love-sport' (which Gudnin sh
offered her husband), and 'cruel trick' (which she does of
(Heroic Poems 72). 13
Certainly, any criticism of the heroic ethic of vengeance is n
and, as we have seen, heroism is explicitly praised in H9gni's b
However, the poet seems to depict Gudnin as a kind of im
monster in her inhuman self-control, and perhaps the fact th
those she burns in the hall, it is the skialdmeyiar [shieldmaid
are dwelt upon, who "aldrstamar- / hnigo 1 eld heitan" (Atlak
[life-stemmed, sank down in the hot fire], hints at the irony in
the death of heroic women owing to the adherence of another
1 brynio" to the heroic ethic of vengeance.

Atlamal: Deflating the Heroic

Atlamdl, at 103 strophes to the 44 of Atlakviba, is at first glance m

a modernizing expansion of what most scholars deem to be an ear
work. However, a closer look reveals it to be a more fundam
reworking, or, as Andersson puts it, a "remodeling according

13 We may compare the other sympathetic portrayals of Adi, as for example Gudrtin
gnnor with his nightmares and the positive depiction in Das Nibelungenlied.

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186 Scandinavian Studies

consistent poetic and psychological principles" ("D

Of the changes that Andersson examines, the on
are those concerning the roles, first of Gunnarr
Gudnin and Atli.
The sympathy of the poet at first seems to be squarely with the
brothers, when he opens by describing the meeting of their enemies in
terms of treachery- the brothers wcrcsannrddnir (str. 1) [truly betrayed]
and skyldoat fcigir (str. 2) [should not have been doomed]. Andersson
would place with this the "cordial and unsuspecting reception accorded
Vingi by the Burgundians," which was elaborated in order to "set off
the baseness of [Vingi's] betrayal" or as a rationalization:

Twice the poet notes a failure to perceive deceitfiilness when it was

plain to see.... We may suppose that the poet did not appreciate the
point in Atlaqviba that one may accept one's fate with open eyes and
chose to develop the theme of unawareness instead ... [or wished] to
suppress the fear which the poet of 'Atlaqviba expressly attributes to the
Burgundians as being unworthy of them. ("Did the Poet?" 249)

However, in view of the fact that the brothers also ignore quite clear
warnings from their wives in the form of ominous dreams and reinter-
pret them quite implausibly, one has to wonder whether the poet is not
characterizing the undoubtedly heroic brothers as also obstinately short-
sighted. It is true that heroes cannot simply decide to stay at home in the
face of danger and lose face, and their unguardedness is not explicitly
criticized in strophes 5 and 7.14 However, after the misinterpretation of
the dreams and dismissal of their wives' fears in strophes 9 to 26, the
poet overtly comments on the numbers they traveled in:

Forofimm saman
-fleiri til vdro
hdlfo huskarlar-
hugat varpvi ilia (Atlamdl 27)

(They went, five together- more housemen by half [as much again]
were available- it was ill thought out.)

14 For an analysis of the psychology of honor and shame, see Miller, especially chapter 3
("Emotions, Honor, and the Affective Life of the Heroic"), part of which considers these
concepts as mediated by saga texts. Here, however, I am more narrowly concerned with
whether the brothers are portrayed critically (to some degree) in the manner they take
up Atli's challenge, not the pressure upon them to accept it.

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 This, despite the
to have doubts. N
blame to some d
the valor of their doomed defense at all:

Pigrko pargerbo,
peiri var vid brugbit -
pat bra um alt annat,
er unno bgrn Giuka (str. 49)

(A dispute they made then which was extolled- that surpassed all
others, what the children of Giiiki did.)

Moreover, the expansion of the Hialli episode seems designed to

heighten H9gni's heroism, as the Orpheus-like skill of Gunnarr's podi-
atric harp-playing lends him a certain romantic cachet. So, although
the poet may be depicting some element of hubris (or foolhardy lack
of caution), the final emphasis is on the brothers' heroic acceptance
of their fate:

Do pa dyrir,
dags var heldr snemma.
Leto peir a lesti
Ufa iprottir (str. 64)

(Then dear ones died, it was rather early in the day. At the last they
caused prowess to live.)

The rest of Atlamdl is almost wholly taken up by the marital bicker-

ing of Atli and Gudnin, and this gives the poem an entirely different
character fromAtlakvida: with the introduction of the brothers5 wives,
around 60 percent of the poem consists of marital interchanges-
generally acrimonious. Atli and Gudnin's relationship has no hint of
anything other than hostility, nor is there any indication that Gufirun
feels sorrow at killing her children (strophes 74-6), and, whereas the
brothers' behavior is partly validated by the poet, he undermines
Gudnin's role entirely.
We do not find Atlakvida's sympathy for Atli: like the brothers, he
is depicted as easily duped:
Gndtt vargrunnybgi,
ergramrpvi trubi -
syn var sveipvisi,
efhann stngadi (str. 71)

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 188

(There was an
believed this-
guard.)

However, with the exception of the personal pronoun, the last two
lines are an exact repetition of the poet's comment about the brothers
in strophe 7. The paralleling of their situation is telling, for it renders
Gudnin comparable to the treacherous Vingi, and, although she is
included in the poet's validation of the bgrn Giuka (str. 49) [children
of Giiiki], it seems that the poet feels that her revenge for their death
goes too far. He precedes her murder of the children with:

Strong var stdrhugud,

striddi hon att Budla,
vildi hon ver sinom
[vinna] ofrhefhdir (str. 73)

(The great-minded one was strong; she pained the race of Budli; she
wished to work great revenge on her husband.)

Although this can be interpreted neutrally, the last word, qfrhejhdir,

may carry the sense that the revenge is not just "great," but "too
great."15 There is an awful pathos in the fact that the children, although
afraid (glupnobo), do not cry (greto peygi) (str. 74). Despite the rather
unconvincing calm prescience of "Skc^mm mun ro reicH, / ef Jjni reynir
gerva" (str. 75) [Short will be the rest for wrath, if you do try this], this
surely necessitates a negative construction of Gudnin's action- the
boys are not designated by bestial adjectives here, as in other poems,
and she is said to have "destroyed their childhood" (brdpd barnxsko
[str. 76]).
Both she and her husband, however, are depicted utterly unsympa-
thetically in their final argument, as:

Sato samtjnis,
smduz fdrhugi,
henduz heiptyrbi-
hvdrtki ser undi (str. 85)

15 The prefix ofr- is ambiguous in a similar way to the Old English ofer- in Maldon's
notorious crux ofermod. Cleasby and Vigfusson gloss the adverb ofr as "over-greatly,"
"exceedingly" and its compounds occupy the semantic range between "excessive" and
"overwhelming." Ofrhefnd appears with reference to the Atlamdl citation being here
considered and is translated "a fearful vengeance " but it could just as easily be rendered
"excessive vengeance" (see Cleasby s.v.).

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 En-gendering Vengeance 189

(They sat in the same dwelling, sent each other hostile thoughts,
from each other words of hatred- neither was satisfied.)

They are portrayed equally fairly and equally unattractively

is dead, the narrator reminds us that he will be mourned by
too: "nidiom strid oexti" [made his kinsmen's grief grow], bu
records that "Efndi ltrborin / alt, {>atz red heita" [The noble
fulfilled all that she decided to promise] (str. 102). Neverthele
is far from being the heroine of this poem, and the poet desi
decision to attempt suicide as Fr65 (str. 102) [wise].
After such a scene, the final strophe strikes a curiously odd n
er hverr sidan, / er slfkt getr foeda" [Happy is each one after
manages to beget such a child] -which seems totally off-key a
latter part of the poem is concerned, almost as if the poet we
fortable with the negative light in which he had placed the
ofAtlakvida and wished to gloss over Gudnin's "deeds" and
her brothers' less dubious achievements.
Whether or not this is the case, AtlamdPs completely different
character has an important effect for the audience's perceptions of
its protagonists. It transposes the aristocratic world of Atlakviba to a
bourgeois setting, which recognizes more everyday concerns such as a
wife's fear for her husband (like that of Glaumvcpr and Kostbera) and
also makes Gudnin's vengeance appear the action of one inspired less
by necessity than by spite.
It has been seen above that the protagonists of the Eddaic poems
analyzed, along with their actions, are distanced from the narratorial
present while simultaneously having implications for that present.
Hamdismdl even emphasizes the destructive nature of heroic indi-
vidualism and the ethic of vengeance. However, the question might
be raised as to whether Gudnin (as the central figure of these poems)
is being criticized on the one hand for taking active vengeance even
though she is a woman, or, on the other, for inciting the revenge taken
by her male relatives- that is, becoming a scapegoat for the results of
male violence, as Jochens contends.

En-gendering Heroic Vengeance: Madness and

Anti-Feminism

Carol Clover uses Gudriin's speeches in Gudninarhvgt and Hamdismdl as

part of an extended argument about the nature and function of lamenting

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 190

and whetting;
of Alexiou on G
Hamdismdl Gu
("Hildigunnr33
Gubrunarhvgt
to a lament cou
between the tw
functions are o
revenge, and s
of vengeance t
responsible for
feminist attitu
however, assum
ered. It is possi
Alexiou, wome
ation of venge
creations, and
alibis for the r
Certainly, wom
mental instabi
renders possible
ill and/or dang
of the patholog
their gender (s
Berrington and
when it is bei
in his Christia
not prodigal or
do most deligh
vindicative 'sic
tion of reveng
in der Liebe ist
as in love, wom

16 On the links b
chapter 3.
17 Jochens states of Brynhildr and Gudnin: "Their behavior justified and explained men's
actions and ultimately the fate of tribes and nations" (89) ; similarly, concerning the deaths
of Attila, Ermanaric, and Sigurdr, she asserts "Trying to understand events that defied
normal expectations, men naturally turned their attention to women" (139)-

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 It is entirely pos
trope, as in Joch

The whetter was l

contemporary aud
misdeeds that thr

It most is
commo
inscribed by a ma
raise the interest
and audience tha
or occasioned eleg
commissioning m
be premature to
are "female-orien
a female audienc
representation of
able questions as
be authentic and
subject. Nonethel
trayal of an auto
dismissed entirel
A further attem
of the "monstrou
saw above) depict
of her deeds is fo
thy even to Atli.
precisely for ado
the display of he
is, transgres she
prescribed for w
ofHamdismdl ab
destructive, at th

18 If one takes the i

lament" as opposed t
evidence that women
Ballsta-Inscriptions,"
commisioned by Que
19 For a similar appr
esp. 251.

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 192

However, one
One might co
strosity-her d
evoked is one of awe-struck admiration. As was seen above from the end
of Atlakvida, "Never again will a bride in a mail coat go thus to avenge
her brothers." Gudnin can in this context be construed as a successful
male impersonator: she takes on the male role of active vengeance,
the male paraphernalia of armor. As in the trope of the Norse shield
maidens, who reject their gender and sexuality in favor of the pursuit
of war, so Gudnin rejects her children and husbands in favor of the
pursuit of revenge. This could be interpreted as an attempt at autonomy
in a male-dominated society, were it not for the fact that Gudnin is not
acting on her own behalf, but avenging her brothers- her actions are
with reference to men.
Similarly, it is problematic from a feminist viewpoint that the basic
motivation for the actions of both Brynhildr and Gudnin is their love
for the same man, the (idealized) Sigurdr, continually designated by
superlatives. Although this counts against the anti-feminist reading in
one sense- since from a male point of view, this perhaps excuses the
violent actions against other men because of the motivation of avenging
another (perfect) man20- nevertheless, female choices and actions in the
poems are predicated upon and motivated by the lack of a male partner,
and female lives are conceivable only with reference to men- whether
lover, husband, brothers, friend, or enemy.
It is possible, however, looking at Gudnin through the lens of
two modern concepts, to suggest that Gudnin in fact constitutes an
autonomous female figure, that is, she is engaged in shaping her own
destiny.

Female Autonomy: "Skqp let hon vaxa"

In the introduction to her recent book, Guilty Pleasures, Pamela Rob-

ertson takes a revisionist view of the concept of "camp55 and looks at
its employment in terms of gender parody, not by gay men of women,
but by women of women. She writes:

20 Indeed, it could be argued that Gudnin's commitment to revenge is exactly what a

Norse audience might want in a wife, sister, or mother. My thanks to Judy Quinn for
this point.

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 In opposition to d
masquerade cons
and the role she
perceived to be. (

Looked at in thi
as a successful m
impersonator. G
serve as a form o
strophe 34, the a

Utgekkpd Gudrun
Ada igqgn
mebgyltom kdlki
at rcifagiqld rqgni

(Gudnin went ou
the reward for the

She also bears dr

behavior expect
in Beowulf and t
However, of cour
instead of the a
termed glkrdsir
blended with hon
Again, when Gud
40, she is inhabi
queen admirably.
the treasure, not
It has already be
of happier time
the killing in the
grounds Gudnin's
is additionally a
we are told, "Ho
she gave the bed
"vapn haf3i ... e
cence of their p

21 Compare Dronke's
cuisiniere, compagne

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194 Scandinavian Studies

a symbolic castration of Atli and "endowment55 of Gud

penetrates her husband's inert and passive body, drench
in blood in a symbolic hymenal rupture and defloratio
becomes simultaneously not only a female impersonator
male impersonator, perhaps the ultimate manipulation of g
The final conflagration includes not only Atli and his warr
death-toll, but also the skialdmeyiar who, in this context, f
to Gudnin the female-male impersonator by virtue of their
impersonation.
The problem with this reading of Atlakvida in terms of t
for female autonomy in the Eddaic poems is that it is still
charge of anti-feminism- the male author here using Gufin
taneously both as a female beyond all females, and lethal and
with it, and also as a negative exemplum to all women in th
with ideas of taking active control of their destiny ("sk9p let
str. 40). Gudnin may be playing with gender roles, but her
threatening, not joyful.
Finally, though, one can see Gudnin from yet another
indeed acknowledge that she is, in this analysis as in th
object of the male gaze. Although women may well have
part of the audience of the Eddaic poems, it seems likely th
part of the audience was male. Since Gudnin is such a dynam
in these poems, it is instructive to consider the issue of aud
tification.
In her influential contribution to film studies, Carol C
the statistical predominance among audiences of horror film
adult males and argues that "male viewers are quite prepared
not just with screen females, but with screen females in the
world, screen females in fear and pain'5 (Clover,.Mm, Wom
to engage less with this aspect of Clover's thesis, than with t
she raises of male-female identification in general. There is
in the Gudnin poems for a male audience, in Laura Mulvey's
gaze with a "voyeuristic-scopophilic look" (25), since Gudnin
physical "presence"- in the poems, description is largely
and much of the narrative is carried forward by dialogue. L
introduction, however, Clover speaks of
the politics of displacement: the use of the woman as a kind of
front though which the boy can simultaneously experience fo
desires and disavow them on grounds that the visible actor is, af
a girl. {Men, Women 18)

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 En-gendering Vengeance 195

Read in this context, Gudnin might become not a transvestite

above, but rather a medium enabling (some) men to "act out"
identification their (possibly subconscious) desire to escape the
war-dominated society in which they live - GuSnin thus funct
as Jochens's "male fantasy," but rather to punish the forces of m
sion represented by Atli, J9rmunrekkr, and the others. The r
of the narratorial voice at the end of the poems allows the h
male audience member to disavow his experience and maintain
quo - distanciation from autonomous women. This shift, how
not invalidate the process of female identification. Indeed, ev
does not accept the motivation for the identification postulate
is nevertheless rewarding to consider the possibilities inherent
audience identifying with a strong female character taking rev
men who have injured her, even if, ultimately, this has its roo
depriving her of a male lover and thus rendering her existen
predicated upon maleness- whether in absence, or in oppos

Generalizing the Blame for Vengeance

It is thus inaccurate to suggest that the poet is scapegoating Gud

alone (because she is female), since this oversimplifies the poems
addition to the complexities of attitude explored above in Atlakv
an&Atlarnal, it is clear in Hamdismdl that Gudnin's sons are also hel
responsible for the results of their vengeance.
Firstly, one of the brothers himself explicitly recognizes their fa
in strophe 28: "Af vaeri mi h9fud, / ef Erpr Iif3i," but it is not just
practical consequences of their action that he bemoans - he understa
the moral transgression involved in killing one's brddir, someone w
should have remained inngunnhelgi [the battle-inviolate one]. That t
point here is primarily symbolic is evinced by the lack of realism in
scenario envisaged: there seems little reason why one of the brother
could not have cut off Jprmunrekkr's head before his arms or legs a
thus, obviate the problem. Rather the need for community transcend
the circle of the immediate kinship group is emphasized along with
need for wisdom rather than heroics.22

22 Indeed, since Hamdismdl portrays the brothers' enterprise as doomed from the start, the
introduction of Erpr works against the inevitability of their deaths and can only function
to draw attention to the point about community.

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196 Scandinavian Studies

An article by Brodeur and Brady admirably summarizes th

sion in Hamfiir and Sgrli's understanding of their kinship o
as represented by the three phrases inn sundrmzfiri (Hamdism
one born of a different mother], br&dra sammczbm (str. 24
born of the same mother], and brdbir okkarr (str. 28) [our br

The first emphasizes the hostility of the legitimate sons towa

illegitimate, and explains their violation of the obligations of k
The second crystallizes ... the expression of the brothers' exult
their double triumph: their vengeance upon Jormunrekkr, an
apparent vindication of their slaying of Erpr. The third, at the m
of their downfall, signalizes [sic] the emotional reversal by wh
last, they recognize not only that it is Erpr who is vindicated ove
but also that the blood-tie between him and themselves is real and
binding. Through this recognition, and most specifically through the
words brddir okkarr, the poet achieves, in the final moment, a genuine
catharsis. (136)

Although one would not necessarily wish to join See in his opinions
on the date of Hamdismdl, one can certainly agree that part of its over-
all message is "dafi jedermann die Folgen seines Tuns bedenken soil"
("Gudrunarhv9t" 258) [that everyone should consider the consequences
of his actions]. Beck goes further and argues that Hamdismdl "con-
tains an outspoken critique of hugr" (143), a concept he attaches to the
heroic ideal. He points out that, although Hamdir is designated inn
hugomstori (str. 6, 24) [the high-minded one], Sprli (of whom strophe
9 says, "svinna hafSi harm hyggio" [he had a wise mind] ) criticizes him
in strophe 27, saying:

Hug hefiirpu, Hamdir,

efpu hefdir hyggiandi

(You would have had a great heart, Hamdir, if you had had wisdom.)

Beck comments:

It is clear that hugr is ascribed to the heroic mentality; at the same time,
however, it is distinguished from hyggiandi and manvit. Only hugr in
combination with hyggiandi and manvit would have made possible
the killing of Jormunrekkr.... Hugr means intellect and courageous
disposition, not necessarily coupled with wisdom. (144)

One should not go along with Beck's conclusion that Hamfiismdl refl-
ects the "thymos stage of culture55 whose heroes are "not yet controlled
by the morality of higher, organized societies55 (145) since this seems

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 En-gendering Vengeance 197

to betray a false sense of societal and cultural progression fro

and primitive to later and "higher." Nevertheless, in conjunct
the other material adduced above, there is enough to suggest
characterization of Hamdismdl, at least, as purely anti-femini
goating of women in the person of Gudnin, is simply not
by the poem itself- there is no scapegoat here, unless it is the
ethic of vengeance itself.

Conclusions

It has not been possible to consider how the interpretation of the

four poems of the Codex Regius argued here affects that of the ot
heroic poems, particularly the poems concerning Gudnin wher
grief rather than her vengeance is foregrounded. It has also so
rather to raise questions about the societies of audience and or
than to answer them. However, it has been argued that herois
portrayed in some of the heroic poems, especially Hamdismd
Gudrunarhvgt, as individualistic and belonging to the past- alth
heroes (whether male or female) possess an admirable grandeur, th
can also be destructive of family and social groups in their obs
with vengeance. The analysis from various angles of gender is
in the woman-centered Gudnin-poems, in particular of the fe
roles of lamentation and whetting (both serving to incite vengean
suggests that elements of anti-feminism enter into the portra
Gudnin- she can be seen as monstrous or mad in Atlakvida, f
instance. Nonetheless, the poems do not uniformly blame wo
for the results of male violence. Indeed, far from blaming Gu
alone, it is argued the blame for the results of revenge is generalize
Hamdismdl. Gudnin's murderous actions mAtlakvida are represente
those of a woman taking control of her destiny, but to the questi
whether this is an approved course of action or rather one to be f
and stigmatized, this article found no definitive answers. Ultimate
Gudnin's portrayal is ambiguous, and this may reflect ambivalence
the part of the author. Nevertheless, this very ambiguity leaves b
attitudes available to a medieval or a modern audience- perha
have suggested, both attitudes simultaneously - and functions
only to raise the possibility of successful female autonomy, but al
via the concept of (possibly disavowed) male-female identificat
to destabilize binary notions of gender.

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 198

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