A Harp in the Snake Pit

Why does Gunnar play the harp with his feet?

In *The Lay of Atli*, Gunnar is captured and put in chains. His enemies ask whether he will buy his life with gold. Gunnar demands that Hogni's heart first be placed in his hands. Hogni laughs even as his heart is cut from his living body.

Once Hogni is dead, Gunnar declares that he alone knows the treasure's secret. The gold will stay in the Rhine, he says. His enemies will never have it. Thrown into a pit of snakes, Gunnar angrily plays the harp with his hands.

In *The Greenlandic Lay of Atli*, Gunnar plays the harp with his toes. Women weep at the sound, and men mourn too.

In *Skaldskaparmal*, Gunnar's hands are tied. Someone secretly passes him a harp, and he plays it with his toes, sending the snakes to sleep. But one snake stays awake and bites his chest. It burrows its head inside his body and gnaws at his liver until he dies.

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