The Third Lay of Gudrun Summary

One of Atli's maids, Herkia, tells her master that she has seen Gudrun and Thiodrek together and Atli becomes upset. Gudrun asks Atli what is wrong. He tells her that he is grieved because he has heard that Gudrun and Thiodrek slept together. Gudrun swears that she has done no such thing and would not act improperly. Only once did she embrace Thiodrek. Their conversation was not about love but about grief. Thiodrek came with thirty men but none survive now and Gudrun has been deprived of kinsmen because of Atli. She bids Saxi to be summoned along with a boiling cauldron. Seven hundred men gather around as Gudrun dips her hands into the cauldron. Gudrun announces that she will never again see her brothers and must purge herself of the accusation made by Atli...