Sacred Texts: Legends and Sagas

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XXXI. Gudrun's Vengeance

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This is a chapter from Donald A. Mackenzie's 1912 retelling of Germanic/Norse heroic legend, drawn from the Volsung cycle and Eddic tradition, recounting the fate of Gudrun after Sigurd's death. The narrative follows Gudrun as she is manipulated by her mother Grimhild into marrying Atle (Attila), the brother of Brynhild, despite her prophetic warnings that this match will destroy her family. The central conflict turns on Atle's greed for the cursed Fafner hoard, which he uses as a pretext to lure Gudrun's brothers Gunnar and Hogne to their deaths through treachery — a journey they undertake knowingly, fatalism overriding their wives' dire dream-warnings. The account is notable for its sustained focus on doom-consciousness: nearly every character foresees disaster and proceeds anyway, treating fate as something to meet with dignity rather than evade. Hogne in particular is portrayed with striking heroic defiance, laughing at his killers and refusing to reveal the treasure's location even under torture — his beating heart serving as proof of his courage. The text presents Germanic heroic values — oath-keeping, stoic courage, and the acceptance of wyrd — as superior to survival instinct, while the treasure curse ties individual tragedy to a larger mythic pattern of inherited doom.

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XXXI. Gudrun's Vengeance

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