Note 57 — The Greenland Ballad of Atli

Beiti: not elsewhere mentioned. The Atlakvitha version of this episode (stanzas 23–25) does not mention Beiti, and in the Volsungasaga the advice to cut out Hjalli’s heart instead of Hogni’s is given by an unnamed “counsellor of Atli.” In the Atlakvitha Hjalli is actually killed; the Volsungasaga combines the two versions by having Hjalli first let off at Hogni’s intercession and then seized a second time and killed, thus introducing the Atlakvitha episode of the quaking heart (stanza 24). The text of the first half of line 3 is obscure, and there are many and widely varying suggestions as to the word here rendered “sluggard.”