Note 41 — Gripir’s Prophecy

Something is clearly wrong with stanzas 41–43. In the manuscript the order is 41, 43, 42, which brings two of Gripir’s answers together, followed by two of Sigurth’s questions. Some editors have arranged the stanzas as in this translation, while others have interchanged 41 and 43. In any case, Sigurth in stanza 42 asks about the “three nights” which Gripir has never mentioned. I suspect that lines 3–4 of stanza 41, which are practically identical with lines 3–4 of stanza 23, got in here by mistake, replacing two lines which may have run thus: “With thy sword between, | three nights thou sleepest / With her thou winnest | for Gunnar’s wife.” The subsequent poems tell how Sigurth laid his sword Gram between himself and Brynhild.