hero
Oddrún
Atli's sister and Gunnarr's secret lover, who tells her story in Oddrúnargrátr: she heard Gunnarr's harp from the snake-pit and came too late to save him.
Oddrún, sister of Atli Oddrúnargrátr 2, speaks Oddrúnargrátr ("Oddrún's lament"), usually counted among the later Eddic poems. The frame is a birth. She rides to help Borgný, a king's daughter in a long and difficult labour, and sings charms until twins are born Oddrúnargrátr 1-7. When Borgný reproaches her, Oddrún sits down and tells her own sorrows.
Her father, she says, wanted her married to Grímhildr's son, Gunnarr, and made her sister Brynhildr a "wish-maid", a valkyrie Oddrúnargrátr 13-15. After Brynhildr's death Gunnarr offered rich bride-gifts for her, but Atli refused them. The lovers met anyway and were reported to Atli Oddrúnargrátr 19-24. When Atli threw Gunnarr into the snake-pit, Oddrún heard his harp from far off and crossed the sound to save him. She came too late: Atli's mother had come crawling, evidently in serpent form, and bitten him to the heart Oddrúnargrátr 27-30. Other sources say only that an adder reached his liver Dráp Niflunga, prose 1.
Oddrún also appears in the dying Brynhildr's prophecy in the Short Lay of Sigurd Sigurðarkviða hin skamma 57, and in the prose of Dráp Niflunga, which says Gunnarr sought her as his wife but married Glaumvör instead Dráp Niflunga, prose 1. In Oddrúnargrátr Brynhildr's city is broken in war before her marriage Oddrúnargrátr 17, a detail no other source gives.
In the sources
Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.
Yet could we not our love o'ercome, And my head I laid on the hero's shoulder
Sudden I heard from Hlesey clear How in sorrow the strings of the harp resounded.
Then crawling the evil woman came, Atli's mother— may she ever rot! And hard she bit to Gunnar's heart
Oddrun as wife thou fain wouldst win, But Atli this from thee withholds
