Atli- Norse FigureMortal"King of the Huns"

The Marriage

Atli is the Norse tradition's version of the historical Attila the Hun, though centuries of oral retelling transformed him into a figure consumed by one thing: cursed gold. After Sigurðr's death and Brynhildr's suicide, the Nibelung treasure passed to the Gjúkung brothers Gunnarr and Högni. Atli, king of the Huns and Brynhildr's brother, wanted it. Grímhildr arranged a marriage between Atli and Guðrún, Sigurðr's widow, and gave Guðrún a potion of forgetfulness to erase her grief. Guðrún foretold that the marriage would destroy both families, but sorcery and political necessity overruled her. She bore Atli two sons, Erpr and Eitill, but never loved him.

The Invitation

Atli sent messengers to invite Gunnarr and Högni to his court, promising friendship and rich gifts. The invitation was a trap. Guðrún sent a warning: she carved runes on a ring and twisted wolf's hair around it. But the brothers refused to hide from a kinsman's invitation, even knowing the risk. Before they rode east, they sank the Nibelung gold in the Rhine. The treasure Atli sought was already at the bottom of the river when they entered his hall.

The Battle

Atli's warriors attacked the moment the brothers arrived. The Eddic poetry describes Gunnarr and Högni cutting down Huns in waves, the floor running with blood. Guðrún took up weapons alongside her brothers against her own husband's men. They fought through the day against overwhelming numbers. At last the Gjúkungs were captured alive. Dead men cannot tell where gold is hidden.

The Hearts

Atli demanded that Gunnarr reveal the hiding place of the gold. Gunnarr set a condition: he wanted to see Högni's heart cut from his chest first, to be certain his brother could never betray the secret under torture. Atli's men brought the heart of a thrall named Hjalli, thinking to deceive him. Gunnarr recognized the fraud at once. The heart trembled on the plate, as it had trembled in the coward's breast.

When they brought Högni's true heart, cut from his living body, it lay still. Gunnarr laughed. Now he alone knew where the gold lay beneath the Rhine, and the secret would die with him. Atli had him thrown into a pit of serpents. Gunnarr played a harp with his toes, charming all the snakes but one, an adder that struck him in the heart.

The Vengeance

Guðrún killed her two sons by Atli. She served their flesh to their father at a feast, their skulls fashioned into drinking cups, their blood mixed into the wine. When Atli asked where his sons were, she told him what he had eaten and what he had drunk.

In the Atlakviða, she burned him and all his retainers alive. In the Völsunga saga, she stabbed him in his bed first, with Högni's surviving son, then lit the flames. Atli died for a treasure already beyond anyone's reach, the last major victim of Andvari's curse.

Afterward Guðrún walked to the sea and tried to drown herself. The waves carried her to another shore and another king.