Vedergällningen - Garmarna

Jag blev född förr än tuppen gol

-Mina stigar de ligga så vida

Min moder blev död innan upp rann sol

-Själv maste hon sorgen förbida

Min fader drager så vitt om land

-Mina stigar de ligga så vida

Så ond en styvmoder han på fann

-Själv maste hon sorgen förbida

Först skapte hon mig i nåler

Och sade jag skulle tråna

Så skapte hon mig i kniver

Och sade jag skulle icke trivas

Så skapte hon mig i saxer

Och sade jag skulle icke växa

Så skapte hon mig i ulven grå

Och sade jag skulle åt skogen gå

Hon sade jag skulle ej få bot

Förrän jag druckit min broders blod

Så lade jag mig under lida

Där styvmodern min skulle framrida

Så lade jag mig under spånge

Där min styvmoder skulle framgånga

Där tager jag till med mäste

Min styvmoder utav häste

Så tog jag till med harme

Hennes foster ur hennes barme

När jag hade druckit min broders blod

Så blev jag en riddare bold och god

Vengeance

Before the cock crew i was born

— Far are the paths that i follow —

My mother was dead before the dawn

— Long, long she awaited her sorrow

— My father travelled the country round

An ill stepmother to me he found

Into a needle she conjured me

And said that longing would torture me

And then she turned me into a knife

And said i would suffer all my life

She turned me into a pair of shears

And said i’d be stunted all my years

A grey wolf then she made of me

And asid no good would come of me

Under this curse i was to suffer

Till i drank the blood of my own brother

So then i lay in hiding

Till my stepmother came riding

By the bridgehead i lay watching

Till i saw her horse approaching

And as she passed i caught her

And down from her horse i brought her

In vengeance cruel and bloody

I took the child from her body

And when i had drunk my brother’s blood

I became a knight, gallant and good

Translation by Alistar Cochrane

I was born before the rooster crowed

-My paths they lie so far

My mother died before the sun rose

-Self she had to ignore the grief

My father travels so far ashore

-My paths they lie so far

How evil a stepmother he found

-Self she had to ignore the grief

First, she created me in needles

And said I would cry

Then she created me in knives

And said I would not thrive

Then she created me in scissors

And said I would not grow

Then she created me in the wolf gray

And said I would go to the forest

She said I would not be cured

Before I drank my brother's blood

So I lay down to suffer

Where my stepmother would advance

Then I lay down on a stretcher

Where my stepmother would succeed

There I go with the most

My stepmother out of a horse

So I resented it

Her fetus from her bosom

When I had drunk my brother's blood

So I became a knight bold and good

Vengeance

Before the cock crew i was born

- Far are the paths that i follow -

My mother was dead before the dawn

- Long, long she awaited her sorrow

- My father traveled the country round

An ill stepmother to me he found

Into a needle she conjured me

And said that longing would torture me

And then she turned me into a knife

And said I would suffer all my life

She turned me into a pair of shears

And said i’d be stunted all my years

A gray wolf then she made of me

And asid no good would come of me

Under this curse i was to suffer

Till i drank the blood of my own brother

So then I lay in hiding

To my stepmother came riding

By the bridgehead i lay watching

Till i saw her horse approaching

And as she passed i caught her

And down from her horse i brought her

In vengeance cruel and bloody

I took the child from her body

And when I had drunk my brother's blood

I became a knight, gallant and good

Translation by Alistar Cochrane