''Oddrúnargrátr'' (''Oddrún's

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

'') or ''Oddrúnarkviða'' (''Oddrún's poem'') is an

Eddic poem The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

, found in the

Codex Regius Codex Regius ( la, Cōdex Rēgius, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; is, Konungsbók) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it ...

manuscript where it follows ''

Guðrúnarkviða III ''Guðrúnarkviða III'', ''The Third Lay of Gudrun'', is a short Old Norse poem that is part of the ''Poetic Edda''. It has not left any traces in ''Völsunga saga'' and was probably not known by its compilers. It is dated to the early 11th centu ...

'' and precedes ''

Atlakviða ''Atlakviða'' (''The Lay of Atli'') is one of the heroic poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. One of the main characters is Atli who originates from Attila the Hun. It is one of the most archaic Eddic poems, possibly dating to as early as the 9th centu ...

''. The main content of the poem is the lament of Oddrún, sister of Atli, for

Gunnarr Gunnar is a male first name of Nordic origin (''Gunnarr'' in Old Norse). The name Gunnar means fighter, soldier, and attacker, but mostly is referred to by the Viking saying which means Brave and Bold warrior (''gunnr'' "war" and ''arr'' "warrior ...

, her lost and forbidden love. The poem is well preserved and thought to be a relatively late composition, perhaps from the 11th century. The metre is ''

fornyrðislag In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...

''.

External links

Oddrunargratr
Translation and commentary by Henry A. Bellows
Oddrún’s Lament
Translation by

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis. A ...

Oddrúnargrátr
Translation by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

and Eirikr Magnusson
Oddrúnargrátr

Sophus Bugge Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic ...

's edition of the manuscript text
Oddrúnarkviða
Guðni Jónsson's edition of the text with normalized spelling {{DEFAULTSORT:Oddrunargratr 11th-century poems Eddic poetry Sources of Norse mythology Nibelung tradition