Note 6 — The First Lay of Guthrun

Herborg: neither she nor her sorrows are elsewhere mentioned, nor is it clear what a “queen of the Huns” is doing in Gunnar’s home, but the word “Hun” has little definiteness of meaning in the poems, and is frequently applied to Sigurth himself (cf. note on stanza 24). Herborg appears from stanza 11 to have been the foster-mother of Gollrond, Guthrun’s sister. Lines 5–7 may be interpolations, or may form a separate stanza.