Great Lacuna

{{Short description|Significant missing section in the Codex Regius}}

{{Other uses of|Lacuna}}

Image:Ring52.jpg and Brynhildr. Illustration by Arthur Rackham.]]

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 Völsunga saga in prose form with four stanzas of poetry. The first two stanzas that are preserved through the saga deal with how Sigurd returns to Brynhildr leaping through the flames on Grani after Gunnar had failed:

{{Verse translation|lang=non|

Eldr nam at æsast,

en jörð 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 öðlingi,

logi allr lægðist

fyr lofgjörnum.

Bliku reiði,

er Reginn átti.[http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20070508165634/http://www.heimskringla.no/original/fornaldersagaene/volsungasaga.php Völsunga saga at Norrøne Tekster og Kvad, Norway.]

|

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.[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe26.htm Translation by Bellows.]}}

Sigurd 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 Gunnar, and so Brynhildr was married to Gunnar instead. After the wedding, Brynhildr argues with her sister-in-law Gudrun, who is Sigurd's spouse, and Gudrun reveals to Brynhildr that it was Sigurd who saved her from her prison. Brynhildr who grasps the extent of the treachery of her in-laws (the Gjukungs) against her and Sigurd, speaks out her heart about Gunnar, in the third preserved stanza:

{{Verse translation|

{{lang|non|Sigurðr vá at ormi,

en þat síðan mun

engum fyrnast,

meðal öld 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 Gunnar and Sigurd talk to her trying to calm her down. Sigurd and Brynhildr have a conversation about the treachery of their mutual in-laws, and understanding how deceived he has been, Sigurd leaves Brynhildr with a heavy heart:

{{Verse translation|

{{lang|non|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.}}

Brynhild's fury would soon lead to the death of both her and Sigurd and to the end of the Gjukung clan.

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.[http://www.nordals.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?detail=1004508&name=nordals_en_greinar_og_erindi Tolkien, Laxness, Undset. Tom Shippey: TOLKIEN AND ICELAND: THE PHILOLOGY OF ENVY (13.09.2002)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301010645/http://www.nordals.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?detail=1004508&name=nordals_en_greinar_og_erindi |date=2007-03-01 }}.