Guðrúnarkviða II

Guðrúnarkviða II, The Second Lay of Gudrún, or Guðrúnarkviða hin forna, The Old Lay of Gudrún is probably the oldest poem of the Sigurd cycle, according to Henry Adams Bellows.

The poem was composed before the year 1000 and Bellows considered it to be in a "rather bad shape", but it was in that shape that it provided material for the Völsunga saga, where it was faithfully paraphrased. He states, however, that it is the only Old Norse poem from an earlier period than the year 1000 in the Sigurd tradition that has come down to modern times in a roughly complete form. The other older poems, Reginsmál, Fáfnismál and Sigrdrifumál, are collections of fragments and only the last part of Brot af Sigurðarkviðu remains. The remaining poems in the cycle are generally dated to the 11th century and the 12th century.

Bellows states that another reason for assuming that the poem derives from a lament originating in Germany is the fact that Sigurd's death takes place in the forest, as in the Nibelungenlied, and not in his bed. Other elements relating closely to the German tradition are her mother and her brother insisting that she marry Atli, the slaying of the Gjukungs and her future revenge on Atli.