Grimhild gives her a potion which causes her to forget Sigurd and the
past, and then she becomes the wife of Atli. After Sigurd's death Gunnar
had taken possession of the Niflungen hoard, and this Atli now covets. He
treacherously invites Gunnar and the others to visit him, which they do
in spite of Gudrun's warnings, first of all, however, sinking the hoard
in the Rhine. On their arrival Atli demands of them the hoard, which, he
says, belongs of right to Gudrun. On their refusal he attacks them. Hosts
of fighters on both sides fall and in the end Gunnar and Hogni, the only
two of their number remaining, are bound in fetters. Gunnar refuses
Atli's command to reveal the hiding-place of the hoard, bidding them
bring to him the heart of Hogni. They kill a servant and bring his heart
to Gunnar; but Gunnar sees how it still quivers with fear, and knows it
is not the heart of the fearless Hogni. Then the latter is really killed,
and his heart is brought to Gunnar, who cries exultingly that now only
the Rhine knows where the hoard lies hidden. In spite of Gudrun Atli
orders that Gunnar be thrown into a den of serpents. With a harp
communicated to him by Gudrun he pacifies them all but one, which stings
him to the heart, and thus Gunnar dies. Gudrun is nominally reconciled
with Atli, but in secret plans revenge for the death of her brothers. She
kills Atli's two sons, gives him at a banquet their blood to drink and
their hearts to eat. In the night she plunges a sword into his own heart,
confesses herself to him as his murderer, and sets fire to the castle, in
which Atli and all his remaining men are consumed.

[1] That is, Attila; the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied.


3. The Saga as preserved in the Nibelungenlied

The saga as we find it in the German Nibelungenlied differs very widely