Great Lacuna

The Great Lacuna is a lacuna of eight leaves where there was heroic Old Norse poetry in the Codex Regius. The gap would have contained the last part of Sigrdrífumál and most of Sigurðarkviða. What remains of the last poem consists of 22 stanzas called Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, but according to Henry Adams Bellows, the original size of Sigurðarkviða should have been more than 250 stanzas.

The missing original narrative is preserved in the Vǫlsunga saga in prose form with four stanzas of poetry. The first two stanzas that are preserved through the saga deal with how Sigurðr returns to Brynhildr leaping through the flames on Grani after Gunnarr had failed:

Eldr nam at æsast, en jǫrð at skjálfa ok hár logi við himni gnæfa. Fár treystist þar fylkis rekka eld at ríða né yfir stíga. Sigurðr Grana sverði keyrði. Eldr slokknaði fyr ǫðlingi, logi allr lægðist fyr lofgjǫrnum. Bliku reiði, er Reginn átti.

The fire raged, the earth was rocked, The flames leaped high to heaven itself; Few were the hardy heroes would dare To ride or leap the raging flames. Sigurth urged Grani then with his sword, The fire slackened before the hero, The flames sank low for the greedy of fame, The armor flashed that Regin had fashioned.

Sigurðr had, however, been given a potion of forgetfulness and so he had forgotten all about Brynhildr before returning to her. Moreover, he arrived to her disguised as Gunnarr, and so Brynhildr was married to Gunnarr instead. After the wedding, Brynhildr argues with her sister-in-law Guðrún, who is Sigurðr's spouse, and Guðrún reveals to Brynhildr that it was Sigurðr who saved her from her prison. Brynhildr who grasps the extent of the treachery of her in-laws (the Gjúkungar) against her and Sigurðr, speaks out her heart about Gunnarr, in the third preserved stanza:

Sigurðr vá at ormi, en þat síðan mun engum fyrnast, meðal ǫld lifir. En hlýri þinn hvárki þorði eld at ríða né yfir stíga.

Sigurth the dragon slew, and that Will men recall while the world remains; But little boldness thy brother had To ride or leap the raging flames.

Brynhildr is furious and so Gunnarr and Sigurðr talk to her trying to calm her down. Sigurðr and Brynhildr have a conversation about the treachery of their mutual in-laws, and understanding how deceived he has been, Sigurðr leaves Brynhildr with a heavy heart:

Út gekk Sigurðr andspjalli frá, hollvinr lofða ok hnipnaði, svá at ganga nam gunnarfúsum sundr of síður serkr járnofinn.

Forth went Sigurth, and speech he sought not, The friend of heroes, his head bowed down; Such was his grief that asunder burst His mail-coat all of iron wrought.

Brynhildr's fury would soon lead to the death of both her and Sigurðr and to the end of the Gjúkungar.

J. R. R. Tolkien produced the poems Sigurðarkvida en nyja and Guðrunarkviða en nyja, now published as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, based on the content found in the saga.

References

• The Great Lacuna Stanzas from Völsunga saga believed to be from the lacuna, translated by Lee M. Hollander
• Fragment of a Sigurth Lay Henry Adams Bellows' translation and commentary
• Fragments of the Lay of Sigurd and Brynhild Benjamin Thorpe's translation

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