1. Herkja was the name of a serving-woman of Atli's; she had been his concubine. She told Atli that she had seen Thjothrek and Guthrun both together. Atli was greatly angered thereby. Then Guthrun said:

2. "What thy sorrow, Atli, Buthli's son? Is thy heart heavy-laden? Why laughest thou never? It would better befit the warrior far To speak with men, and me to look on."

3. Atli: "It troubles me, Guthrun, Gjuki's daughter, What Herkja here in the hall hath told me, That thou in the bed with Thjothrek liest, Beneath the linen in lovers' guise."

4. Guthrun: "This shall I with oaths now swear, Swear by the sacred stone so white, That nought was there with Thjothmar's son That man or woman may not know.

5. "Nor ever once did my arms embrace The hero brave, the leader of hosts; In another manner our meeting was, When our sorrows we in secret told.

6. "With thirty warriors Thjothrek came, Nor of all his men doth one remain; Thou hast murdered my brothers and mail-clad men, Thou hast murdered all the men of my race.

7. "Gunnar comes not, Hogni I greet not, No longer I see my brothers loved; My sorrow would Hogni avenge with the sword, Now myself for my woes I shall payment win.

8. "Summon Saxi, the southrons' king, For be the boiling kettle can hallow."

9. Seven hundred there were in the hall, Ere the queen her hand in the kettle thrust.

10. To the bottom she reached with hand so bright, And forth she brought the flashing stones: "Behold, ye warriors, well am I cleared Of sin by the kettle's sacred boiling."

11. Then Atli's heart in happiness laughed, When Guthrun's hand unhurt he saw; "Now Herkja shall come the kettle to try, She who grief for Guthrun planned."

12. Ne'er saw man sight more sad than this, How burned were the hands of Herkja then; In a bog so foul the maid they flung, And so was Guthrun's grief requited.

About this reader

What is Scripture?

Scripture is a browser-based reader for sixteen sacred texts spanning multiple religious and literary traditions. It provides chapter-by-chapter navigation, full-text search across all works, word concordance with frequency analysis, verse-linked notes, text-to-speech, and deep linking to any chapter or verse.

Traditions Represented

The collection spans Abrahamic, East Asian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Nordic traditions. Christian texts include the King James Version Old and New Testaments (1611) and Apocrypha. The Quran uses Marmaduke Pickthall's 1930 English translation. Latter-day Saint scripture includes the Book of Mormon (1830), Doctrine and Covenants (1835), and Pearl of Great Price (1851).

Confucian works include James Legge's translations of The Four Books (1893) and the Book of Poetry (1876). The Tao Te Ching uses Legge's 1891 translation. The Kojiki uses Basil Hall Chamberlain's 1919 English translation. Zoroastrian texts include the Bundahishn (E. W. West, 1880) and the Arda Viraf (Haug & West, 1872). The Lotus Sutra uses Hendrik Kern's 1884 translation. The Finnish Kalevala uses John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation, and the Norse Poetic Edda uses Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation.

Public Domain Translations

Every translation in this collection is in the public domain. The most recent translation dates to 1930 (Pickthall's Quran). All texts are freely available for reading, study, quotation, and redistribution with no copyright restrictions.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance indexes every word across all sixteen works, showing frequency and distribution. TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) scoring identifies passages with similar vocabulary across different traditions, enabling comparative study without requiring prior knowledge of each text's structure. TF-IDF weights words that are frequent in one chapter but rare across the corpus, surfacing meaningful thematic connections rather than common function words.

Deep Linking

Every chapter and verse has a permanent URL. Chapter links follow the pattern /scripture/{work}/{book}-{chapter} (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1 for Genesis 1). Verse links append the verse number (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1:26 for Genesis 1:26). These URLs can be shared, bookmarked, or cited directly.

Accessibility

Scripture supports keyboard navigation throughout: Tab moves between controls, Enter activates verse actions, and arrow keys navigate chapters. The reading pane has a skip-to-content link. All overlays (search, concordance) are focus-trapped ARIA dialogs. Dynamic content regions use aria-live for screen reader announcements. High-contrast mode is available via the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

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