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+Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga), by Anonymous
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Story of the Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga)
+       With Excerpts from the Poetic Edda
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+Release Date: December, 1997 [EBook #1152]
+Posting Date: August 7, 2008
+Last Updated: October 25, 2008 
+
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Douglas B. Killings
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS, (VOLSUNGA SAGA)
+
+WITH EXCERPTS FROM THE POETIC EDDA
+
+By Anonymous
+
+
+
+Originally written in Icelandic (Old Norse) in the thirteenth century
+A.D., by an unknown hand. However, most of the material is based
+substantially on previous works, some centuries older. A few of these
+works have been preserved in the collection of Norse poetry known as the
+"Poetic Edda".
+
+The text of this edition is based on that published as "The Story of
+the Volsungs", translated by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson (Walter
+Scott Press, London, 1888).
+
+Douglas B. Killings
+
+
+SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
+
+RECOMMENDED READING--
+
+Anonymous: "Kudrun", Translated by Marion E. Gibbs & Sidney Johnson
+(Garland Pub., New York, 1992).
+
+Anonymous: "Nibelungenlied", Translated by A.T. Hatto (Penguin Classics,
+London, 1962).
+
+Saxo Grammaticus: "The First Nine Books of the Danish History",
+Translated by Oliver Elton (London, 1894; Reissued by the Online
+Medieval and Classical Library as E-Text OMACL #28, 1997).
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+It would seem fitting for a Northern folk, deriving the greater and
+better part of their speech, laws, and customs from a Northern root,
+that the North should be to them, if not a holy land, yet at least
+a place more to be regarded than any part of the world beside; that
+howsoever their knowledge widened of other men, the faith and deeds of
+their forefathers would never lack interest for them, but would always
+be kept in remembrance. One cause after another has, however, aided
+in turning attention to classic men and lands at the cost of our own
+history. Among battles, "every schoolboy" knows the story of Marathon
+or Salamis, while it would be hard indeed to find one who did more than
+recognise the name, if even that, of the great fights of Hafrsfirth or
+Sticklestead. The language and history of Greece and Rome, their laws
+and religions, have been always held part of the learning needful to an
+educated man, but no trouble has been taken to make him familiar with
+his own people or their tongue. Even that Englishman who knew Alfred,
+Bede, Caedmon, as well as he knew Plato, Caesar, Cicero, or Pericles,
+would be hard bestead were he asked about the great peoples from whom
+we sprang; the warring of Harold Fairhair or Saint Olaf; the Viking
+(1) kingdoms in these (the British) Western Isles; the settlement of
+Iceland, or even of Normandy. The knowledge of all these things would
+now be even smaller than it is among us were it not that there was one
+land left where the olden learning found refuge and was kept in being.
+In England, Germany, and the rest of Europe, what is left of the
+traditions of pagan times has been altered in a thousand ways by foreign
+influence, even as the peoples and their speech have been by the influx
+of foreign blood; but Iceland held to the old tongue that was once the
+universal speech of northern folk, and held also the great stores of
+tale and poem that are slowly becoming once more the common heritage of
+their descendants. The truth, care, and literary beauty of its records;
+the varied and strong life shown alike in tale and history; and the
+preservation of the old speech, character, and tradition--a people
+placed apart as the Icelanders have been--combine to make valuable what
+Iceland holds for us. Not before 1770, when Bishop Percy translated
+Mallet's "Northern Antiquities", was anything known here of Icelandic,
+or its literature. Only within the latter part of this century has it
+been studied, and in the brief book-list at the end of this volume may
+be seen the little that has been done as yet. It is, however, becoming
+ever clearer, and to an increasing number, how supremely important is
+Icelandic as a word-hoard to the English-speaking peoples, and that in
+its legend, song, and story there is a very mine of noble and pleasant
+beauty and high manhood. That which has been done, one may hope, is but
+the beginning of a great new birth, that shall give back to our language
+and literature all that heedlessness and ignorance bid fair for awhile
+to destroy.
+
+The Scando-Gothic peoples who poured southward and westward over
+Europe, to shake empires and found kingdoms, to meet Greek and Roman
+in conflict, and levy tribute everywhere, had kept up their
+constantly-recruited waves of incursion, until they had raised a barrier
+of their own blood. It was their own kin, the sons of earlier
+invaders, who stayed the landward march of the Northmen in the time of
+Charlemagne. To the Southlands their road by land was henceforth closed.
+Then begins the day of the Vikings, who, for two hundred years and more,
+"held the world at ransom." Under many and brave leaders they first
+of all came round the "Western Isles" (2) toward the end of the eighth
+century; soon after they invaded Normandy, and harried the coasts of
+France; gradually they lengthened their voyages until there was no shore
+of the then known world upon which they were unseen or unfelt. A glance
+at English history will show the large part of it they fill, and how
+they took tribute from the Anglo-Saxons, who, by the way, were far
+nearer kin to them than is usually thought. In Ireland, where the old
+civilisation was falling to pieces, they founded kingdoms at Limerick
+and Dublin among other places; (3) the last named, of which the first
+king, Olaf the White, was traditionally descended of Sigurd the Volsung,
+(4) endured even to the English invasion, when it was taken by men of
+the same Viking blood a little altered. What effect they produced
+upon the natives may be seen from the description given by the unknown
+historian of the "Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill": "In a word,
+although there were an hundred hard-steeled iron heads on one neck,
+and an hundred sharp, ready, cool, never-rusting brazen tongues in each
+head, and an hundred garrulous, loud, unceasing voices from each tongue,
+they could not recount, or narrate, or enumerate, or tell what all the
+Gaedhil suffered in common--both men and women, laity and clergy,
+old and young, noble and ignoble--of hardship, and of injury, and of
+oppression, in every house, from these valiant, wrathful, purely pagan
+people. Even though great were this cruelty, oppression, and tyranny,
+though numerous were the oft-victorious clans of the many-familied
+Erinn; though numerous their kings, and their royal chiefs, and their
+princes; though numerous their heroes and champions, and their brave
+soldiers, their chiefs of valour and renown and deeds of arms; yet not
+one of them was able to give relief, alleviation, or deliverance from
+that oppression and tyranny, from the numbers and multitudes, and
+the cruelty and the wrath of the brutal, ferocious, furious, untamed,
+implacable hordes by whom that oppression was inflicted, because of the
+excellence of their polished, ample, treble, heavy, trusty, glittering
+corslets; and their hard, strong, valiant swords; and their well-riveted
+long spears, and their ready, brilliant arms of valour besides; and
+because of the greatness of their achievements and of their deeds, their
+bravery, and their valour, their strength, and their venom, and their
+ferocity, and because of the excess of their thirst and their hunger for
+the brave, fruitful, nobly-inhabited, full of cataracts, rivers, bays,
+pure, smooth-plained, sweet grassy land of Erinn"--(pp. 52-53). Some
+part of this, however, must be abated, because the chronicler is
+exalting the terror-striking enemy that he may still further exalt his
+own people, the Dal Cais, who did so much under Brian Boroimhe to check
+the inroads of the Northmen. When a book does (5) appear, which has
+been announced these ten years past, we shall have more material for
+the reconstruction of the life of those times than is now anywhere
+accessible. Viking earldoms also were the Orkneys, Faroes, and
+Shetlands. So late as 1171, in the reign of Henry II., the year after
+Beckett's murder, Earl Sweyn Asleifsson of Orkney, who had long been the
+terror of the western seas, "fared a sea-roving" and scoured the western
+coast of England, Man, and the east of Ireland, but was killed in an
+attack on his kinsmen of Dublin. He had used to go upon a regular plan
+that may be taken as typical of the homely manner of most of his like
+in their cruising: "Sweyn had in the spring hard work, and made them
+lay down very much seed, and looked much after it himself. But when
+that toil was ended, he fared away every spring on a viking-voyage, and
+harried about among the southern isles and Ireland, and came home after
+midsummer. That he called spring-viking. Then he was at home until the
+corn-fields were reaped down, and the grain seen to and stored. Then
+he fared away on a viking-voyage, and then he did not come home till the
+winter was one month off, and that he called his autumn-viking." (6)
+
+Toward the end of the ninth century Harold Fairhair, either spurred
+by the example of Charlemagne, or really prompted, as Snorri Sturluson
+tells us, resolved to bring all Norway under him. As Snorri has it in
+"Heimskringla": "King Harold sent his men to a girl hight Gyda.... The
+king wanted her for his leman; for she was wondrous beautiful but of
+high mood withal. Now when the messengers came there and gave their
+message to her, she made answer that she would not throw herself away
+even to take a king for her husband, who swayed no greater kingdom than
+a few districts; 'And methinks,' said she, 'it is a marvel that no king
+here in Norway will put all the land under him, after the fashion that
+Gorm the Old did in Denmark, or Eric at Upsala.' The messengers deemed
+this a dreadfully proud-spoken answer, and asked her what she thought
+would come of such an one, for Harold was so mighty a man that his
+asking was good enough for her. But although she had replied to their
+saying otherwise than they would, they saw no likelihood, for this
+while, of bearing her along with them against her will, so they made
+ready to fare back again. When they were ready and the folk followed
+them out, Gyda said to the messengers--'Now tell to King Harold these my
+words:--I will only agree to be his lawful wife upon the condition that
+he shall first, for sake of me, put under him the whole of Norway, so
+that he may bear sway over that kingdom as freely and fully as King
+Eric over the realm of Sweden, or King Gorm over Denmark; for only then,
+methinks, can he be called king of a people.' Now his men came back to
+King Harold, bringing him the words of the girl, and saying she was so
+bold and heedless that she well deserved the king should send a greater
+troop of people for her, and put her to some disgrace. Then answered the
+king. 'This maid has not spoken or done so much amiss that she should
+be punished, but the rather should she be thanked for her words. She has
+reminded me,' said he, 'of somewhat that it seems wonderful I did not
+think of before. And now,' added he, 'I make the solemn vow, and take
+who made me and rules over all things, to witness that never shall I
+clip or comb my hair until I have subdued all Norway with scatt, and
+duties, and lordships; or, if not, have died in the seeking.' Guttorm
+gave great thanks to the king for his oath, saying it was "royal work
+fulfilling royal rede." The new and strange government that Harold tried
+to enforce--nothing less than the feudal system in a rough guise --which
+made those who had hitherto been their own men save at special times,
+the king's men at all times, and laid freemen under tax, was withstood
+as long as might be by the sturdy Norsemen. It was only by dint of hard
+fighting that he slowly won his way, until at Hafrsfirth he finally
+crushed all effective opposition. But the discontented, "and they were a
+great multitude," fled oversea to the outlands, Iceland, the Faroes, the
+Orkneys, and Ireland. The whole coast of Europe, even to Greece and the
+shores of the Black Sea, the northern shores of Africa, and the western
+part of Asia, felt the effects also. Rolf Pad-th'-hoof, son of Harold's
+dear friend Rognvald, made an outlaw for a cattle-raid within the bounds
+of the kingdom, betook himself to France, and, with his men, founded a
+new people and a dynasty.
+
+Iceland had been known for a good many years, but its only dwellers had
+been Irish Culdees, who sought that lonely land to pray in peace. Now,
+however, both from Norway and the Western Isles settlers began to come
+in. Aud, widow of Olaf the White, King of Dublin, came, bringing with
+her many of mixed blood, for the Gaedhil (pronounced "Gael", Irish) and
+the Gaill (pronounced "Gaul", strangers) not only fought furiously, but
+made friends firmly, and often intermarried. Indeed, the Westmen were
+among the first arrivals, and took the best parts of the island--on its
+western shore, appropriately enough. After a time the Vikings who had
+settled in the Isles so worried Harold and his kingdom, upon which they
+swooped every other while, that he drew together a mighty force, and
+fell upon them wheresoever he could find them, and followed them up with
+fire and sword; and this he did twice, so that in those lands none could
+abide but folk who were content to be his men, however lightly they
+might hold their allegiance. Hence it was to Iceland that all turned
+who held to the old ways, and for over sixty years from the first comer
+there was a stream of hardy men pouring in, with their families and
+their belongings, simple yeomen, great and warwise chieftains, rich
+landowners, who had left their land "for the overbearing of King
+Harold," as the "Landnamabok" (7) has it. "There also we shall escape
+the troubling of kings and scoundrels", says the "Vatsdaelasaga". So
+much of the best blood left Norway that the king tried to stay the leak
+by fines and punishments, but in vain.
+
+As his ship neared the shore, the new-coming chief would leave it to
+the gods as to where he settled. The hallowed pillars of the high seat,
+which were carried away from his old abode, were thrown overboard, with
+certain rites, and were let drive with wind and wave until they came
+ashore. The piece of land which lay next the beach they were flung upon
+was then viewed from the nearest hill-summit, and place of the homestead
+picked out. Then the land was hallowed by being encircled with fire,
+parcelled among the band, and marked out with boundary-signs; the houses
+were built, the "town" or home-field walled in, a temple put up, and the
+settlement soon assumed shape. In 1100 there were 4500 franklins, making
+a population of about 50,000, fully three-fourths of whom had a strong
+infusion of Celtic blood in them. The mode of life was, and is, rather
+pastoral than aught else. In the 39,200 square miles of the island's
+area there are now about 250 acres of cultivated land, and although
+there has been much more in times past, the Icelanders have always been
+forced to reckon upon flocks and herds as their chief resources, grain
+of all kinds, even rye, only growing in a few favoured places, and very
+rarely there; the hay, self-sown, being the only certain harvest. On
+the coast fishing and fowling were of help, but nine-tenths of the folk
+lived by their sheep and cattle. Potatoes, carrots, turnips, and several
+kinds of cabbage have, however, been lately grown with success. They
+produced their own food and clothing, and could export enough wool,
+cloth, horn, dried fish, etc., as enabled them to obtain wood for
+building, iron for tools, honey, wine, grain, etc, to the extent of
+their simple needs. Life and work was lotted by the seasons and
+their changes; outdoor work--fishing, herding, hay-making, and
+fuel-getting--filling the long days of summer, while the long, dark
+winter was used in weaving and a hundred indoor crafts. The climate is
+not so bad as might be expected, seeing that the island touches the
+polar circle, the mean temperature at Reykjavik being 39 degrees.
+
+The religion which the settlers took with them into Iceland--the
+ethnic religion of the Norsefolk, which fought its last great fight at
+Sticklestead, where Olaf Haraldsson lost his life and won the name of
+Saint--was, like all religions, a compound of myths, those which had
+survived from savage days, and those which expressed the various degrees
+of a growing knowledge of life and better understanding of nature. Some
+historians and commentators are still fond of the unscientific method of
+taking a later religion, in this case christianity, and writing down all
+apparently coincident parts of belief, as having been borrowed from the
+christian teachings by the Norsefolk, while all that remain they lump
+under some slighting head. Every folk has from the beginning of time
+sought to explain the wonders of nature, and has, after its own fashion,
+set forth the mysteries of life. The lowest savage, no less than his
+more advanced brother, has a philosophy of the universe by which he
+solves the world-problem to his own satisfaction, and seeks to reconcile
+his conduct with his conception of the nature of things. Now, it is not
+to be thought, save by "a priori" reasoners, that such a folk as the
+Northmen--a mighty folk, far advanced in the arts of life, imaginative,
+literary--should have had no further creed than the totemistic myths
+of their primitive state; a state they have wholly left ere they enter
+history. Judging from universal analogy, the religion of which record
+remains to us was just what might be looked for at the particular stage
+of advancement the Northmen had reached. Of course something may have
+been gained from contact with other peoples--from the Greeks during the
+long years in which the northern races pressed upon their frontier; from
+the Irish during the existence of the western viking-kingdoms; but what
+I particularly warn young students against is the constant effort of
+a certain order of minds to wrest facts into agreement with their pet
+theories of religion or what not. The whole tendency of the more modern
+investigation shows that the period of myth-transmission is long over
+ere history begins. The same confusion of different stages of
+myth-making is to be found in the Greek religion, and indeed in those of
+all peoples; similar conditions of mind produce similar practices, apart
+from all borrowing of ideas and manners; in Greece we find snake-dances,
+bear-dances, swimming with sacred pigs, leaping about in imitation of
+wolves, dog-feasts, and offering of dogs' flesh to the gods--all of them
+practices dating from crude savagery, mingled with ideas of exalted and
+noble beauty, but none now, save a bigot, would think of accusing the
+Greeks of having stolen all their higher beliefs. Even were some part of
+the matter of their myths taken from others, yet the Norsemen have given
+their gods a noble, upright, great spirit, and placed them upon a high
+level that is all their own. (8) From the prose Edda the following
+all too brief statement of the salient points of Norse belief is made
+up:--"The first and eldest of gods is hight Allfather; he lives from
+all ages, and rules over all his realm, and sways all things great and
+small; he smithied heaven and earth, and the lift, and all that belongs
+to them; what is most, he made man, and gave him a soul that shall live
+and never perish; and all men that are right-minded shall live and be
+with himself in Vingolf; but wicked men fare to Hell, and thence into
+Niithell, that is beneath in the ninth world. Before the earth ''twas
+the morning of time, when yet naught was, nor sand nor sea was
+there, nor cooling streams. Earth was not found, nor Heaven above; a
+Yawning-gap there was, but grass nowhere.' Many ages ere the earth was
+shapen was Niflheim made, but first was that land in the southern sphere
+hight Muspell, that burns and blazes, and may not be trodden by those
+who are outlandish and have no heritage there. Surtr sits on the border
+to guard the land; at the end of the world he will fare forth, and harry
+and overcome all the gods and burn the world with fire. Ere the races
+were yet mingled, or the folk of men grew, Yawning-gap, which looked
+towards the north parts, was filled with thick and heavy ice and
+rime, and everywhere within were fog and gusts; but the south side
+of Yawning-gap lightened by the sparks and gledes that flew out of
+Muspell-heim; as cold arose out of Niflheim and all things grim, so was
+that part that looked towards Muspell hot and bright; but Yawning-gap
+was as light as windless air, and when the blast of heat met the rime,
+so that it melted and dropped and quickened; from those life-drops
+there was shaped the likeness of a man, and he was named Ymir; he was
+bad, and all his kind; and so it is said, when he slept he fell into a
+sweat; then waxed under his left hand a man and a woman, and one of his
+feet got a son with the other, and thence cometh the Hrimthursar. The
+next thing when the rime dropped was that the cow hight Audhumla was
+made of it; but four milk-rivers ran out of her teats, and she fed Ymir;
+she licked rime-stones that were salt, and the first day there came at
+even, out of the stones, a man's hair, the second day a man's head, the
+third day all the man was there. He is named Turi; he was fair of
+face, great and mighty; he gat a son named Bor, who took to him Besla,
+daughter of Bolthorn, the giant, and they had three sons, Odin, Vili,
+and Ve. Bor's sons slew Ymir the giant, but when he fell there ran so
+much blood out of his wounds that all the kin of the Hrimthursar were
+drowned, save Hvergelmir and his household, who got away in a boat. Then
+Bor's sons took Ymir and bore him into the midst of Yawning-gap, and
+made of him the earth; of his blood seas and waters, of his flesh earth
+was made; they set the earth fast, and laid the sea round about it in
+a ring without; of his bones were made rocks; stones and pebbles of his
+teeth and jaws and the bones that were broken; they took his skull and
+made the lift thereof, and set it up over the earth with four sides, and
+under each corner they set dwarfs, and they took his brain and cast it
+aloft, and made clouds. They took the sparks and gledes that went loose,
+and had been cast out of Muspellheim, and set them in the lift to give
+light; they gave resting-places to all fires, and set some in the lift;
+some fared free under it, and they gave them a place and shaped their
+goings. A wondrous great smithying, and deftly done. The earth is
+fashioned round without, and there beyond, round about it lies the deep
+sea; and on that sea-strand the gods gave land for an abode to the giant
+kind, but within on the earth made they a burg round the world against
+restless giants, and for this burg reared they the brows of Ymir, and
+called the burg Midgard. The gods went along the sea-strand and found
+two stocks, and shaped out of them men; the first gave soul and life,
+the second wit and will to move, the third face, hearing, speech, and
+eyesight. They gave them clothing and names; the man Ask and the woman
+Embla; thence was mankind begotten, to whom an abode was given under
+Midgard. Then next Bor's sons made them a burg in the midst of the
+world, that is called Asgard; there abode the gods and their kind, and
+wrought thence many tidings and feats, both on earth and in the Sky.
+Odin, who is hight Allfather, for that he is the father of all men and
+sat there in his high seat, seeing over the whole world and each man's
+doings, and knew all things that he saw. His wife was called Frigg, and
+their offspring is the Asa-stock, who dwell in Asgard and the realms
+about it, and all that stock are known to be gods. The daughter and wife
+of Odin was Earth, and of her he got Thor, him followed strength and
+sturdiness, thereby quells he all things quick; the strongest of all
+gods and men, he has also three things of great price, the hammer
+Miolnir, the best of strength belts, and when he girds that about him
+waxes his god strength one-half, and his iron gloves that he may not
+miss for holding his hammer's haft. Balidr is Odin's second son, and
+of him it is good to say, he is fair and: bright in face, and hair, and
+body, and him all praise; he is wise and fair-spoken and mild, and that
+nature is in him none may withstand his doom. Tyr is daring and best of
+mood; there is a saw that he is tyrstrong who is before other men and
+never yields; he is also so wise that it is said he is tyrlearned who
+is wise. Bragi is famous for wisdom, and best in tongue-wit, and cunning
+speech, and song-craft. 'And many other are there, good and great; and
+one, Loki, fair of face, ill in temper and fickle of mood, is called the
+backbiter of the Asa, and speaker of evil redes and shame of all gods
+and men; he has above all that craft called sleight, and cheats all
+in all things. Among the children of Loki are Fenris-wolf and
+Midgards-worm; the second lies about all the world in the deep sea,
+holding his tail in his teeth, though some say Thor has slain him; but
+Fenris-wolf is bound until the doom of the gods, when gods and men shall
+come to an end, and earth and heaven be burnt, when he shall slay Odin.
+After this the earth shoots up from the sea, and it is green and fair,
+and the fields bear unsown, and gods and men shall be alive again, and
+sit in fair halls, and talk of old tales and the tidings that
+happened aforetime. The head-seat, or holiest-stead, of the gods is at
+Yggdrasil's ash, which is of all trees best and biggest; its boughs are
+spread over the whole world and stand above heaven; one root of the ash
+is in heaven, and under the root is the right holy spring; there hold
+the gods doom every day; the second root is with the Hrimthursar,
+where before was Yawning-gap; under that root is Mimir's spring, where
+knowledge and wit lie hidden; thither came Allfather and begged a drink,
+but got it not before he left his eye in pledge; the third root is
+over Niflheim, and the worm Nidhogg gnaws the root beneath. A fair hall
+stands under the ash by the spring, and out of it come three maidens,
+Norns, named Has-been, Being, Will-be, who shape the lives of men; there
+are beside other Norns, who come to every man that is born to shape his
+life, and some of these are good and some evil. In the boughs of the
+ash sits an eagle, wise in much, and between his eyes sits the hawk
+Vedrfalnir; the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down along the ash,
+bearing words of hate betwixt the eagle and the worm. Those Norns who
+abide by the holy spring draw from it every day water, and take the clay
+that lies around the well, and sprinkle them up over the ash for that
+its boughs should not wither or rot. All those men that have fallen in
+the fight, and borne wounds and toil unto death, from the beginning of
+the world, are come to Odin in Valhall; a very great throng is there,
+and many more shall yet come; the flesh of the boar Soerfmnir is sodden
+for them every day, and he is whole again at even; and the mead they
+drink that flows from the teats of the she-goat Heidhrun. The meat Odin
+has on his board he gives to his two wolves, Geri and Freki, and he
+needs no meat, wine is to him both meat and drink; ravens twain sit on
+his shoulders, and say into his ear all tidings that they see and hear;
+they are called Huginn and Muninn (mind and memory); them sends he at
+dawn to fly over the whole world, and they come back at breakfast-tide,
+thereby becomes he wise in many tidings, and for this men call him
+Raven's-god. Every day, when they have clothed them, the heroes put on
+their arms and go out into the yard and fight and fell each other; that
+is their play, and when it looks toward mealtime, then ride they home to
+Valhall and sit down to drink. For murderers and men forsworn is a great
+hall, and a bad, and the doors look northward; it is altogether wrought
+of adder-backs like a wattled house, but the worms' heads turn into the
+house, and blow venom, so that rivers of venom run along the hall, and
+in those rivers must such men wade forever." There was no priest-class;
+every chief was priest for his own folk, offered sacrifice, performed
+ceremonies, and so on.
+
+In politics the homestead, with its franklin-owner, was the unit; the
+"thing", or hundred-moot, the primal organisation, and the "godord",
+or chieftainship, its tie. The chief who had led a band of kinsmen and
+followers to the new country, taken possession of land, and shared it
+among them, became their head-ruler and priest at home, speaker and
+president of their Thing, and their representative in any dealings with
+neighbouring chiefs and their clients. He was not a feudal lord, for
+any franklin could change his "godord" as he liked, and the right
+of "judgment by peers" was in full use. At first there was no higher
+organisation than the local thing. A central thing, and a speaker to
+speak a single "law" for the whole island, was instituted in 929, and
+afterwards the island was divided in four quarters, each with a court,
+under the Al-thing. Society was divided only into two classes of men,
+the free and unfree, though political power was in the hands of the
+franklins alone; "godi" and thrall ate the same food, spoke the same
+tongue, wore much the same clothes, and were nearly alike in life and
+habits. Among the free men there was equality in all but wealth and the
+social standing that cannot be separated therefrom. The thrall was a
+serf rather than a slave, and could own a house, etc., of his own. In a
+generation or so the freeman or landless retainer, if he got a homestead
+of his own, was the peer of the highest in the land. During the tenth
+century Greenland was colonised from Iceland, and by end of the same
+century christianity was introduced into Iceland, but made at first
+little difference in arrangements of society. In the thirteenth century
+disputes over the power and jurisdiction of the clergy led, with other
+matters, to civil war, ending in submission to Norway, and the breaking
+down of all native great houses. Although life under the commonwealth
+had been rough and irregular, it had been free and varied, breeding
+heroes and men of mark; but the "law and order" now brought in left
+all on a dead level of peasant proprietorship, without room for hope
+or opening for ambition. An alien governor ruled the island, which
+was divided under him into local counties, administered by sheriffs
+appointed by the king of Norway. The Al-thing was replaced by a royal
+court, the local work of the local things was taken by a subordinate
+of the sheriff, and things, quarter-courts, trial by jury, and all the
+rest, were swept away to make room for these "improvements", which have
+lasted with few changes into this century. In 1380 the island passed
+under the rule of Denmark, and so continues. (9) During the fifteenth
+century the English trade was the only link between Iceland and the
+outer world; the Danish government weakened that link as much as it
+could, and sought to shut in and monopolise everything Icelandic; under
+the deadening effect of such rule it is no marvel that everything found
+a lower level, and many things went out of existence for lack of use.
+In the sixteenth century there is little to record but the Reformation,
+which did little good, if any, and the ravages of English, Gascon, and
+Algerine pirates who made havoc on the coast; (10) they appear toward
+the close of the century and disappear early in the seventeenth. In the
+eighteenth century small-pox, sheep disease, famine, and the terrible
+eruptions of 1765 and 1783, follow one another swiftly and with terrible
+effect. At the beginning of the present century Iceland, however,
+began to shake off the stupor her ill-hap had brought upon her, and
+as European attention had been drawn to her, she was listened to.
+Newspapers, periodicals, and a Useful Knowledge Society were started;
+then came free trade, and the "home-rule" struggle, which met with
+partial success in 1874, and is still being carried on. A colony, Gimli,
+in far-off Canada, has been formed of Icelandic emigrants, and large
+numbers have left their mother-land; but there are many co-operative
+societies organised now, which it is hoped will be able to so revive the
+old resources of the island as to make provision for the old population
+and ways of life. There is now again a representative central council,
+but very many of the old rights and powers have not been yet restored.
+The condition of society is peculiar absence of towns, social equality,
+no abject poverty or great wealth, rarity of crime, making it easy for
+the whole country to be administered as a co-operative commonwealth
+without the great and striking changes rendered necessary by more
+complicated systems.
+
+Iceland has always borne a high name for learning and literature; on
+both sides of their descent people inherited special poetic power. Some
+of older Eddaic fragments attest the great reach and deep overpowering
+strength of imagination possessed by their Norse ancestors; and
+they themselves had been quickened by a new leaven. During the first
+generations of the "land-taking" a great school of poetry which had
+arisen among the Norsemen of the Western Isles was brought by them to
+Iceland. (11) The poems then produced are quite beyond parallel with
+those of any Teutonic language for centuries after their date, which lay
+between the beginning of the ninth and the end of the tenth centuries.
+Through the Greenland colony also came two, or perhaps more, great poems
+of this western school. This school grew out of the stress and storm of
+the viking life, with its wild adventure and varied commerce, and the
+close contact with an artistic and inventive folk, possessed of high
+culture and great learning. The infusion of Celtic blood, however
+slight it may have been, had also something to do with the swift intense
+feeling and rapidity of passion of the earlier Icelandic poets. They
+are hot-headed and hot-hearted, warm, impulsive, quick to quarrel or
+to love, faithful, brave; ready with sword or song to battle with all
+comers, or to seek adventure wheresoever it might be found. They leave
+Iceland young, and wander at their will to different courts of northern
+Europe, where they are always held in high honour. Gunnlaug Worm-tongue
+(12) in 1004 came to England, after being in Norway, as the saga
+says:--"Now sail Gunnlaug and his fellows into the English main, and
+come at autumntide south to London Bridge, where they hauled ashore
+their ship. Now, at that time King Ethelred, the son of Edgar, ruled
+over England, and was a good lord; the winter he sat in London. But
+in those days there was the same tongue in England as in Norway and
+Denmark; but the tongues changed when William the Bastard won England,
+for thenceforward French went current there, for he was of French kin.
+Gunnlaug went presently to the king, and greeted him well and worthily.
+The king asked him from what land he came, and Gunnlaug told him all as
+it was. 'But,' said he, 'I have come to meet thee, lord, for that I have
+made a song on thee, and I would that it might please thee to hearken to
+that song.' The king said it should be so, and Gunnlaug gave forth the
+song well and proudly, and this is the burden thereof--
+
+     "'As God are all folk fearing
+     The fire lord King of England,
+     Kin of all kings and all folk,
+     To Ethelred the head bow.'
+
+The king thanked him for the song, and gave him as song-reward a scarlet
+cloak lined with the costliest of furs, and golden-broidered down to
+the hem; and made him his man; and Gunnlaug was with him all the winter,
+and was well accounted of.
+
+The poems in this volume are part of the wonderful fragments which
+are all that remain of ancient Scandinavian poetry. Every piece which
+survives has been garnered by Vigfusson and Powell in the volumes of
+their "Corpus", where those who seek may find. A long and illustrious
+line of poets kept the old traditions, down even to within a couple
+centuries, but the earlier great harvest of song was never again
+equalled. After christianity had entered Iceland, and that, with other
+causes, had quieted men's lives, although the poetry which stood to the
+folk in lieu of music did not die away, it lost the exclusive hold it
+had upon men's minds. In a time not so stirring, when emotion was not so
+fervent or so swift, when there was less to quicken the blood, the story
+that had before found no fit expression but in verse, could stretch its
+limbs, as it were, and be told in prose. Something of Irish influence
+is again felt in this new departure and that marvellous new growth, the
+saga, that came from it, but is little more than an influence. Every
+people find some one means of expression which more than all else suits
+their mood or their powers, and this the Icelanders found in the saga.
+This was the life of a hero told in prose, but in set form, after a
+regular fashion that unconsciously complied with all epical requirements
+but that of verse--simple plot, events in order of time, set phrases for
+even the shifting emotion or changeful fortune of a fight or storm,
+and careful avoidance of digression, comment, or putting forward by
+the narrator of ought but the theme he has in hand; he himself is never
+seen. Something in the perfection of the saga is to be traced to the
+long winter's evenings, when the whole household, gathered together at
+their spinning, weaving, and so on, would listen to one of their number
+who told anew some old story of adventure or achievement. In very truth
+the saga is a prose epic, and marked by every quality an epic should
+possess. Growing up while the deeds of dead heroes were fresh in memory,
+most often recited before the sharers in such deeds, the saga, in its
+pure form, never goes from what is truth to its teller. Where the saga,
+as this one of the Volsungs is founded upon the debris of songs and
+poems, even then very old, tales of mythological heroes, of men quite
+removed from the personal knowledge of the narrator, yet the story is
+so inwound with the tradition of his race, is so much a part of his
+thought-life, that every actor in it has for him a real existence. At
+the feast or gathering, or by the fireside, as men made nets and women
+spun, these tales were told over; in their frequent repetition by men
+who believed them, though incident or sequence underwent no change,
+they would become closer knit, more coherent, and each an organic whole.
+Gradually they would take a regular and accepted form, which would ease
+the strain upon the reciter's memory and leave his mind free to adorn
+the story with fair devices, that again gave help in the making it
+easier to remember, and thus aided in its preservation. After a couple
+of generations had rounded and polished the sagas by their telling and
+retelling, they were written down for the most part between 1141 and
+1220, and so much was their form impressed upon the mind of the folk,
+that when learned and literary works appeared, they were written in the
+same style; hence we have histories alike of kingdoms, or families, or
+miracles, lives of saints, kings, or bishops in saga-form, as well as
+subjects that seem at first sight even less hopeful. All sagas that have
+yet appeared in English may be found in the book-list at end of this
+volume, but they are not a tithe of those that remain.
+
+Of all the stories kept in being by the saga-tellers and left for our
+delight, there is none that so epitomises human experience; has within
+the same space so much of nature and of life; so fully the temper and
+genius of the Northern folk, as that of the Volsungs and Niblungs, which
+has in varied shapes entered into the literature of many lands. In
+the beginning there is no doubt that the story belonged to the common
+ancestral folk of all the Teutonic of Scando-Gothic peoples in the
+earliest days of their wanderings. Whether they came from the Hindu
+Kush, or originated in Northern Europe, brought it with them from Asia,
+or evolved it among the mountains and rivers it has taken for scenery,
+none know nor can; but each branch of their descendants has it in one
+form or another, and as the Icelanders were the very crown and flower of
+the northern folk, so also the story which is the peculiar heritage of
+that folk received in their hands its highest expression and most noble
+form. The oldest shape in which we have it is in the Eddaic poems, some
+of which date from unnumbered generations before the time to which most
+of them are usually ascribed, the time of the viking-kingdoms in the
+Western Isles. In these poems the only historical name is that of
+Attila, the great Hun leader, who filled so large a part of the
+imagination of the people whose power he had broken. There is no doubt
+that, in the days when the kingdoms of the Scando-Goths reached from the
+North Cape to the Caspian, that some earlier great king performed his
+part; but, after the striking career of Attila, he became the recognised
+type of a powerful foreign potentate. All the other actors are
+mythic-heroic. Of the Eddaic songs only fragments now remain, but
+ere they perished there arose from them a saga, that now given to the
+readers of this. The so-called Anglo-Saxons brought part of the story to
+England in "Beowulf"; in which also appear some incidents that are again
+given in the Icelandic saga of "Grettir the Strong". Most widely known
+is the form taken by the story in the hands of an unknown medieval
+German poet, who, from the broken ballads then surviving wrote the
+"Nibelungenlied" or more properly "Nibelungen Not" ("The Need of the
+Niblungs"). In this the characters are all renamed, some being more
+or less historical actors in mid-European history, as Theodoric of the
+East-Goths, for instance. The whole of the earlier part of the story has
+disappeared, and though Siegfried (Sigurd) has slain a dragon, there is
+nothing to connect it with the fate that follows the treasure; Andvari,
+the Volsungs, Fafnir, and Regin are all forgotten; the mythological
+features have become faint, and the general air of the whole is that of
+medieval romance. The swoard Gram is replaced by Balmung, and the Helm
+of Awing by the Tarn-cap--the former with no gain, the latter with great
+loss. The curse of Andvari, which in the saga is grimly real, working
+itself out with slow, sure steps that no power of god or man can turn
+aside, in the medieval poem is but a mere scenic effect, a strain of
+mystery and magic, that runs through the changes of the story with
+much added picturesqueness, but that has no obvious relation to the
+working-out of the plot, or fulfilment of their destiny by the different
+characters. Brynhild loses a great deal, and is a poor creature when
+compared with herself in the saga; Grimhild and her fateful drink have
+gone; Gudrun (Chriemhild) is much more complex, but not more tragic;
+one new character, Rudiger, appears as the type of chivalry; but Sigurd
+(Siegfred) the central figure, though he has lost by the omission of so
+much of his life, is, as before, the embodiment of all the virtues that
+were dear to northern hearts. Brave, strong, generous, dignified, and
+utterly truthful, he moves amid a tangle of tragic events, overmastered
+by a mighty fate, and in life or death is still a hero without stain or
+flaw. It is no wonder that he survives to this day in the national songs
+of the Faroe Islands and in the folk-ballads of Denmark; that his legend
+should have been mingled with northern history through Ragnar Lodbrog,
+or southern through Attila and Theodoric; that it should have inspired
+William Morris in producing the one great English epic of the century;
+(13) and Richard Wagner in the mightiest among his music-dramas. Of the
+story as told in the saga there is no need here to speak, for to read
+it, as may be done a few pages farther on, is that not better than to
+read about it? But it may be urged upon those that are pleased and moved
+by the passion and power, the strength and deep truth of it, to find out
+more than they now know of the folk among whom it grew, and the land in
+which they dwelt. In so doing they will come to see how needful are
+a few lessons from the healthy life and speech of those days, to be
+applied in the bettering of our own.
+
+H. HALLIDAY SPARLING.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Viking (Ice. "Vikingr"; "vik", a bay or creek, "ingr",
+       belonging to, (or men of) freebooters.
+  (2)  "West over the Sea" is the word for the British Isles.
+  (3)  See Todd (J. H.). "War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill".
+  (4)  He was son of Ingiald, son of Thora, daughter of Sigurd
+       Snake-I'-th'-eye, son of Ragnar Lodbrok by Aslaug, daughter
+       of Sigurd by Brynhild.  The genealogy is, doubtless, quite
+       mythical.
+  (5)  A Collection of Sagas and other Historical Documents
+       relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on
+       the British Isles. Ed., G. W. Dasent, D.C.L, and Gudbrand
+       Vigfusson, M.A. "In the Press. Longmans, London. 8vo.
+  (6)  "Orkneyinga Saga".
+  (7)  Landtaking-book--"landnam", landtaking, from "at nema
+       land", hence also the early settlers were called
+       "landnamsmenn".
+  (8)  To all interested in the subject of comparative mythology,
+       Andrew Lang's two admirable books, "Custom and Myth" (1884,
+       8vo) and "Myth, Ritual, and Religion" (2 vols., crown 8vo,
+       1887), both published by Longmans, London, may be warmly
+       recommended.
+  (9)  Iceland was granted full independence from Denmark in 1944.
+       --DBK.
+  (10) These pirates are always appearing about the same time in
+       English State papers as plundering along the coasts of the
+       British Isles, especially Ireland.
+  (11) For all the old Scandinavian poetry extant in Icelandic, see
+       "Corpus Poeticum Borealis" of Vigfusson and Powell.
+  (12) Snake-tongue--so called from his biting satire.
+  (13) "Sigurd the Volsung", which seems to have become all but
+       forgotten in this century.--DBK.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATORS' PREFACE.
+
+In offering to the reader this translation of the most complete and
+dramatic form of the great Epic of the North, we lay no claim to special
+critical insight, nor do we care to deal at all with vexed questions,
+but are content to abide by existing authorities, doing our utmost to
+make our rendering close and accurate, and, if it might be so, at the
+same time, not over prosaic: it is to the lover of poetry and nature,
+rather than to the student, that we appeal to enjoy and wonder at this
+great work, now for the first time, strange to say, translated into
+English: this must be our excuse for speaking here, as briefly as may
+be, of things that will seem to the student over well known to be worth
+mentioning, but which may give some ease to the general reader who comes
+across our book.
+
+The prose of the "Volsunga Saga" was composed probably some time in the
+twelfth century, from floating traditions no doubt; from songs which,
+now lost, were then known, at least in fragments, to the Sagaman;
+and finally from songs, which, written down about his time, are still
+existing: the greater part of these last the reader will find in this
+book, some inserted amongst the prose text by the original story-teller,
+and some by the present translators, and the remainder in the latter
+part of the book, put together as nearly as may be in the order of the
+story, and forming a metrical version of the greater portion of it.
+
+These Songs from the Elder Edda we will now briefly compare with the
+prose of the Volsung Story, premising that these are the only metrical
+sources existing of those from which the Sagaman told his tale.
+
+Except for the short snatch on p. 24 (1) of our translation, nothing is
+now left of these till we come to the episode of Helgi Hundings-bane,
+Sigurd's half-brother; there are two songs left relating to this, from
+which the prose is put together; to a certain extent they cover the same
+ground; but the latter half of the second is, wisely as we think, left
+untouched by the Sagaman, as its interest is of itself too great not to
+encumber the progress of the main story; for the sake of its wonderful
+beauty, however, we could not refrain from rendering it, and it will be
+found first among the metrical translations that form the second part of
+this book.
+
+Of the next part of the Saga, the deaths of Sinfjotli and Sigmund, and
+the journey of Queen Hjordis to the court of King Alf, there is no trace
+left of any metrical origin; but we meet the Edda once more where Regin
+tells the tale of his kin to Sigurd, and where Sigurd defeats and slays
+the sons of Hunding: this lay is known as the "Lay of Regin".
+
+The short chap. xvi. is abbreviated from a long poem called the
+"Prophecy of Gripir" (the Grifir of the Saga), where the whole story
+to come is told with some detail, and which certainly, if drawn out at
+length into the prose, would have forestalled the interest of the tale.
+
+In the slaying of the Dragon the Saga adheres very closely to the "Lay
+of Fafnir"; for the insertion of the song of the birds to Sigurd the
+present translators are responsible.
+
+Then comes the waking of Brynhild, and her wise redes to Sigurd, taken
+from the Lay of Sigrdrifa, the greater part of which, in its metrical
+form, is inserted by the Sagaman into his prose; but the stanza relating
+Brynhild's awaking we have inserted into the text; the latter part,
+omitted in the prose, we have translated for the second part of our
+book.
+
+Of Sigurd at Hlymdale, of Gudrun's dream, the magic potion of Grimhild,
+the wedding of Sigurd consequent on that potion; of the wooing of
+Brynhild for Gunnar, her marriage to him, of the quarrel of the Queens,
+the brooding grief and wrath of Brynhild, and the interview of Sigurd
+with her--of all this, the most dramatic and best-considered parts of
+the tale, there is now no more left that retains its metrical form than
+the few snatches preserved by the Sagaman, though many of the incidents
+are alluded to in other poems.
+
+Chap. xxx. is met by the poem called the "Short Lay of Sigurd",
+which, fragmentary apparently at the beginning, gives us something of
+Brynhild's awakening wrath and jealousy, the slaying of Sigurd, and the
+death of Brynhild herself; this poem we have translated entire.
+
+The Fragments of the "Lay of Brynhild" are what is left of a poem partly
+covering the same ground as this last, but giving a different account
+of Sigurd's slaying; it is very incomplete, though the Sagaman has drawn
+some incidents from it; the reader will find it translated in our second
+part.
+
+But before the death of the heroine we have inserted entire into the
+text as chap. xxxi. the "First Lay of Gudrun", the most lyrical, the
+most complete, and the most beautiful of all the Eddaic poems; a
+poem that any age or language might count among its most precious
+possessions.
+
+From this point to the end of the Saga it keeps closely to the Songs of
+Edda; in chap. xxxii. the Sagaman has rendered into prose the "Ancient
+Lay of Gudrun", except for the beginning, which gives again another
+account of the death of Sigurd: this lay also we have translated.
+
+The grand poem, called the "Hell-ride of Brynhild", is not represented
+directly by anything in the prose except that the Sagaman has supplied
+from it a link or two wanting in the "Lay of Sigrdrifa"; it will be
+found translated in our second part.
+
+The betrayal and slaughter of the Giukings or Niblungs, and the fearful
+end of Atli and his sons, and court, are recounted in two lays, called
+the "Lays of Atli"; the longest of these, the "Greenland Lay of Atli",
+is followed closely by the Sagaman; the Shorter one we have translated.
+
+The end of Gudrun, of her daughter by Sigurd and of her sons by her last
+husband Jonakr, treated of in the last four chapters of the Saga, are
+very grandly and poetically given in the songs called the "Whetting of
+Gudrun", and the "Lay of Hamdir", which are also among our translations.
+
+These are all the songs of the Edda which the Sagaman has dealt with;
+but one other, the "Lament of Oddrun", we have translated on account of
+its intrinsic merit.
+
+As to the literary quality of this work we in say much, but we think we
+may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever
+entanglement of strange manners or unused element may at first trouble
+him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we
+cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding,
+amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such a startling realism,
+such subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move
+himself to-day.
+
+In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this
+Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before
+been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the
+North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the
+Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the
+world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been--a
+story too--then should it be to those that come after us no less than
+the Tale of Troy has been to us.
+
+WILLIAM MORRIS and EIRIKR MAGNUSSON.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Chapter viii.--DBK.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS AND NIBLUNGS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. Of Sigi, the Son of Odin.
+
+Here begins the tale, and tells of a man who was named Sigi, and called
+of men the son of Odin; another man withal is told of in the tale, hight
+Skadi, a great man and mighty of his hands; yet was Sigi the mightier
+and the higher of kin, according to the speech of men of that time.
+Now Skadi had a thrall with whom the story must deal somewhat, Bredi by
+name, who was called after that work which he had to do; in prowess and
+might of hand he was equal to men who were held more worthy, yea, and
+better than some thereof.
+
+Now it is to be told that, on a time, Sigi fared to the hunting of the
+deer, and the thrall with him; and they hunted deer day-long till the
+evening; and when they gathered together their prey in the evening, lo,
+greater and more by far was that which Bredi had slain than Sigi's prey;
+and this thing he much misliked, and he said that great wonder it was
+that a very thrall should out-do him in the hunting of deer: so he
+fell on him and slew him, and buried the body of him thereafter in a
+snow-drift.
+
+Then he went home at evening tide and says that Bredi had ridden away
+from him into the wild-wood. "Soon was he out of my sight," he says,
+"and naught more I wot of him."
+
+Skadi misdoubted the tale of Sigi, and deemed that this was a guile of
+his, and that he would have slain Bredi. So he sent men to seek for him,
+and to such an end came their seeking, that they found him in a certain
+snow-drift; then said Skadi, that men should call that snow-drift
+Bredi's Drift from henceforth; and thereafter have folk followed, so
+that in such wise they call every drift that is right great.
+
+Thus it is well seen that Sigi has slain the thrall and murdered him; so
+he is given forth to be a wolf in holy places, (1) and may no more abide
+in the land with his father; therewith Odin bare him fellowship from the
+land, so long a way, that right long it was, and made no stay till he
+brought him to certain war-ships. So Sigi falls to lying out a-warring
+with the strength that his father gave him or ever they parted; and
+happy was he in his warring, and ever prevailed, till he brought
+it about that he won by his wars land and lordship at the last; and
+thereupon he took to him a noble wife, and became a great and mighty
+king, and ruled over the land of the Huns, and was the greatest of
+warriors. He had a son by his wife, who was called Refir, who grew up in
+his father's house, and soon became great of growth, and shapely.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  "Wolf in holy places," a man put out of the pale of society
+       for crimes, an outlaw.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. Of the Birth of Volsung, the Son of Rerir, who was the Son
+of Sigi.
+
+Now Sigi grew old, and had many to envy him, so that at last those
+turned against him whom he trusted most; yea, even the brothers of his
+wife; for these fell on him at his unwariest, when there were few
+with him to withstand them, and brought so many against him, that they
+prevailed against him, and there fell Sigi and all his folk with him.
+But Rerir, his son, was not in this trouble, and he brought together so
+mighty a strength of his friends and the great men of the land, that
+he got to himself both the lands and kingdom of Sigi his father; and so
+now, when he deems that the feet under him stand firm in his rule, then
+he calls to mind that which he had against his mother's brothers, who
+had slain his father. So the king gathers together a mighty army, and
+therewith falls on his kinsmen, deeming that if he made their kinship
+of small account, yet none the less they had first wrought evil against
+him. So he wrought his will herein, in that he departed not from strife
+before he had slain all his father's banesmen, though dreadful the deed
+seemed in every wise. So now he gets land, lordship, and fee, and is
+become a mightier man than his father before him.
+
+Much wealth won in war gat Rerir to himself, and wedded a wife withal,
+such as he deemed meet for him, and long they lived together, but had
+no child to take the heritage after them; and ill-content they both were
+with that, and prayed the Gods with heart and soul that they might get
+them a child. And so it is said that Odin hears their prayer, and Freyia
+no less hearkens wherewith they prayed unto her: so she, never lacking
+for all good counsel, calls to her her casket-bearing may, (1) the
+daughter of Hrimnir the giant, and sets an apple in her hand, and bids
+her bring it to the king. She took the apple, and did on her the gear of
+a crow, and went flying till she came whereas the king sat on a mound,
+and there she let the apple fall into the lap of the king; but he took
+the apple, and deemed he knew whereto it would avail; so he goes home
+from the mound to his own folk, and came to the queen, and some deal of
+that apple she ate.
+
+So, as the tale tells, the queen soon knew that she big with child, but
+a long time wore or ever she might give birth to the child: so it befell
+that the king must needs go to the wars, after the custom of kings, that
+he may keep his own land in peace: and in this journey it came to pass
+that Rerir fell sick and got his death, being minded to go home to Odin,
+a thing much desired of many folk in those days.
+
+Now no otherwise it goes with the queen's sickness than heretofore, nor
+may she be the lighter of her child, and six winters wore away with the
+sickness still heavy on her; so that at the last she feels that she may
+not live long; wherefore now she bade cut the child from out of her; and
+it was done even as she bade; a man-child was it, and great of growth
+from his birth, as might well be; and they say that the youngling kissed
+his mother or ever she died; but to him is a name given, and he is
+called Volsung; and he was king over Hunland in the room of his father.
+From his early years he was big and strong, and full of daring in all
+manly deeds and trials, and he became the greatest of warriors, and of
+good hap in all the battles of his warfaring.
+
+Now when he was fully come to man's estate, Hrimnir the giant sends to
+him Ljod his daughter; she of whom the tale told, that she brought the
+apple to Rerir, Volsung's father. So Volsung weds her withal; and long
+they abode together with good hap and great love. They had ten sons and
+one daughter, and their eldest son was hight Sigmund, and their daughter
+Signy; and these two were twins, and in all wise the foremost and the
+fairest of the children of Volsung the king, and mighty, as all his seed
+was; even as has been long told from ancient days, and in tales of long
+ago, with the greatest fame of all men, how that the Volsungs have been
+great men and high-minded and far above the most of men both in cunning
+and in prowess and all things high and mighty.
+
+So says the story that king Volsung let build a noble hall in such a
+wise, that a big oak-tree stood therein, and that the limbs of the tree
+blossomed fair out over the roof of the hall, while below stood the
+trunk within it, and the said trunk did men call Branstock.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  May (A.S. "maeg"), a maid.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. Of the Sword that Sigmund, Volsung's son, drew from the
+Branstock.
+
+There was a king called Siggeir, who ruled over Gothland, a mighty king
+and of many folk; he went to meet Volsung, the king, and prayed him for
+Signy his daughter to wife; and the king took his talk well, and his
+sons withal, but she was loth thereto, yet she bade her father rule in
+this as in all other things that concerned her; so the king took such
+rede (1) that he gave her to him, and she was betrothed to King Siggeir;
+and for the fulfilling of the feast and the wedding, was King Siggeir
+to come to the house of King Volsung. The king got ready the feast
+according to his best might, and when all things were ready, came the
+king's guests and King Siggeir withal at the day appointed, and many a
+man of great account had Siggeir with him.
+
+The tale tells that great fires were made endlong the hall, and the
+great tree aforesaid stood midmost thereof; withal folk say that, whenas
+men sat by the fires in the evening, a certain man came into the hall
+unknown of aspect to all men; and suchlike array he had, that over him
+was a spotted cloak, and he was bare-foot, and had linen-breeches knit
+tight even unto the bone, and he had a sword in his hand as he went up
+to the Branstock, and a slouched hat upon his head: huge he was, and
+seeming-ancient, and one-eyed. (2) So he drew his sword and smote it
+into the tree-trunk so that it sank in up to the hilts; and all held
+back from greeting the man. Then he took up the word, and said--
+
+"Whoso draweth this sword from this stock, shall have the same as a gift
+from me, and shall find in good sooth that never bare he better sword in
+hand than is this."
+
+Therewith out went the old man from the hall, and none knew who he was
+or whither he went.
+
+Now men stand up, and none would fain be the last to lay hand to the
+sword, for they deemed that he would have the best of it who might first
+touch it; so all the noblest went thereto first, and then the others,
+one after other; but none who came thereto might avail to pull it out,
+for in nowise would it come away howsoever they tugged at it; but now up
+comes Sigmund, King Volsung's son, and sets hand to the sword, and pulls
+it from the stock, even as if it lay loose before him; so good that
+weapon seemed to all, that none thought he had seen such a sword before,
+and Siggeir would fain buy it of him at thrice its weight of gold, but
+Sigmund said--
+
+"Thou mightest have taken the sword no less than I from there whereas it
+stood, if it had been thy lot to bear it; but now, since it has first of
+all fallen into my hand, never shalt thou have it, though thou biddest
+therefor all the gold thou hast."
+
+King Siggeir grew wroth at these words, and deemed Sigmund had answered
+him scornfully, but whereas was a wary man and a double-dealing, he
+made as if he heeded this matter in nowise, yet that same evening he
+thought how he might reward it, as was well seen afterwards.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Rede (A.S. raed), counsel, advice, a tale or prophecy.
+  (2)  The man is Odin, who is always so represented, because he
+       gave his eye as a pledge for a draught from the fountain of
+       Mimir, the source of all wisdom.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. How King Siggeir wedded Signy, and bade King Volsung and his
+son to Gothland.
+
+Now it is to be told that Siggeir goes to bed by Signy that night, and
+the next morning the weather was fair; then says King Siggeir that he
+will not bide, lest the wind should wax, or the sea grow impassable;
+nor is it said that Volsung or his sons letted him herein, and that the
+less, because they saw that he was fain to get him gone from the feast.
+But now says Signy to her father--
+
+"I have no will to go away with Seggeir; neither does my heart smile
+upon him, and I wot; by my fore-knowledge, and from the fetch (1) of our
+kin, that from this counsel will great evil fall on us if this wedding
+be not speedily undone."
+
+"Speak in no such wise, daughter!" said he, "for great shame will it be
+to him, yea, and to us also, to break troth with him, he being sackless;
+(2) and in naught may we trust him, and no friendship shall we have of
+him, if these matters are broken off; but he will pay us back in as evil
+wise as he may; for that alone is seemly, to hold truly to troth given."
+
+So King Siggeir got ready for home, and before he went from the feast he
+bade King Volsung, his father-in-law, come see him in Gothland, and all
+his sons with him, whenas three months should be overpast, and to bring
+such following with him, as he would have; and as he deemed meet for his
+honour; and thereby will Siggeir the king pay back for the shortcomings
+of the wedding-feast, in that he would abide thereat but one night only,
+a thing not according to the wont of men. So King Volsung gave word to
+come on the day named, and the kinsmen-in-law parted, and Siggeir went
+home with his wife.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Fetch; wraith, or familiar spirit.
+  (2)  Sackless (A.S. "sacu", Icel. "sok".) blameless.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. Of the Slaying of King Volsung.
+
+Now tells the tale of King Volsung and his sons that they go at the time
+appointed to Gothland at the bidding of King Siggeir, and put off from
+the land in three ships, all well manned, and have a fair voyage, and
+made Gothland late of an evening tide.
+
+But that same night came Signy and called her father and brothers to a
+privy talk, and told them what she deemed King Siggeir was minded to do,
+and how that he had drawn together an army no man may meet. "And," says
+she, "he is minded to do guilefully by you; wherefore I bid you get
+ye gone back again to your own land, and gather together the mightiest
+power ye may, and then come back hither and avenge you; neither go ye
+now to your undoing, for ye shall surely fail not to fall by his wiles
+if ye turn not on him even as I bid you."
+
+Then spake Volsung the king, "All people and nations shall tell of the
+word I spake, yet being unborn, wherein I vowed a vow that I would flee
+in fear from neither fire nor the sword; even so have I done hitherto,
+and shall I depart therefrom now I am old? Yea withal never shall the
+maidens mock these my sons at the games, and cry out at them that they
+fear death; once alone must all men need die, and from that season shall
+none escape; so my rede is that we flee nowhither, but do the work of
+our hands in as manly wise as we may; a hundred fights have I fought,
+and whiles I had more, and whiles I had less, and yet ever had I the
+victory, nor shall it ever be heard tell of me that I fled away or
+prayed for peace."
+
+Then Signy wept right sore, and prayed that she might not go back to
+King Siggeir, but King Volsung answered--
+
+"Thou shalt surely go back to thine husband, and abide with him,
+howsoever it fares with us."
+
+So Signy went home, and they abode there that night; but in the morning,
+as soon as it was day, Volsung bade his men arise and go aland and make
+them ready for battle; so they went aland, all of them all-armed, and
+had not long to wait before Siggeir fell on them with all his army, and
+the fiercest fight there was betwixt them; and Siggeir cried on his men
+to the onset all he might; and so the tale tells that King Volsung and
+his sons went eight times right through Siggeir's folk that day, smiting
+and hewing on either hand, but when they would do so even once again,
+King Volsung fell amidst his folk and all his men withal, saving his ten
+sons, for mightier was the power against them than they might withstand.
+
+But now are all his sons taken, and laid in bonds and led away; and
+Signy was ware withal that her father was slain, and her brothers taken
+and doomed to death; that she called King Siggeir apart to talk with
+her, and said--
+
+"This will I pray of thee, that thou let not slay my brothers hastily,
+but let them be set awhile in the stocks, for home to me comes the saw
+that says, "Sweet to eye while seen": but longer life I pray not for
+them, because I wot well that my prayer will not avail me."
+
+Then answered Siggeir:
+
+"Surely thou art mad and witless, praying thus for more bale for thy
+brothers than their present slaying; yet this will I grant thee, for the
+better it likes me the more they must bear, and the longer their pain is
+or ever death come to them."
+
+Now he let it be done even as she prayed, and a mighty beam was brought
+and set on the feet of those ten brethren in a certain place of the
+wild-wood, and there they sit day-long until night; but at midnight, as
+they sat in the stocks, there came on them a she-wolf from out the wood;
+old she was, and both great and evil of aspect; and the first thing she
+did was to bite one of those brethren till he died, and then she ate him
+up withal, and went on her way.
+
+But the next morning Signy sent a man to the brethren, even one whom she
+most trusted, to wot of the tidings; and when he came back he told her
+that one of them was dead, and great and grievous she deemed it, if they
+should all fare in like wise, and yet naught might she avail them.
+
+Soon is the tale told thereof: nine nights together came the she-wolf
+at midnight, and each night slew and ate up one of the brethren, until
+all were dead, save Sigmund only; so now, before the tenth night came,
+Signy sent that trusty man to Sigmund, her brother, and gave honey into
+his hand, bidding him do it over Sigmund's face, and set a little deal
+of it in his mouth; so he went to Sigmund and did as he was bidden, and
+then came home again; and so the next night came the she-wolf according
+to her wont, and would slay him and eat him even as his brothers; but
+now she sniffs the breeze from him, whereas he was anointed with the
+honey, and licks his face all over with her tongue, and then thrusts
+her tongue into the mouth of him. No fear he had thereof, but caught
+the she-wolf's tongue betwixt his teeth, and so hard she started back
+thereat, and pulled herself away so mightily, setting her feet against
+the stocks, that all was riven asunder; but he ever held so fast that the
+tongue came away by the roots, and thereof she had her bane.
+
+But some men say that this same she-wolf was the mother of King
+Siggeir, who had turned herself into this likeness by troll's lore and
+witchcraft.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. Of how Signy sent the Children of her and Siggeir to
+Sigmund.
+
+Now whenas Sigmund is loosed and the stocks are broken, he dwells in the
+woods and holds himself there; but Signy sends yet again to wot of the
+tidings, whether Sigmund were alive or no; but when those who were sent
+came to him, he told them all as it had betid, and how things had gone
+betwixt him and the wolf; so they went home and tell Signy the tidings;
+but she goes and finds her brother, and they take counsel in such wise
+as to make a house underground in the wild-wood; and so things go on a
+while, Signy hiding him there, and sending him such things as he needed;
+but King Siggeir deemed that all the Volsungs were dead.
+
+Now Siggeir had two sons by his wife, whereof it is told that when the
+eldest was ten winters old, Signy sends him to Sigmund, so that he might
+give him help, if he would in any wise strive to avenge his father;
+so the youngling goes to the wood, and comes late in evening-tide to
+Sigmund's earth-house; and Sigmund welcomed him in seemly fashion, and
+said that he should make ready their bread; "But I," said he, "will go
+seek firewood."
+
+Therewith he gives the meal-bag into his hands while he himself went to
+fetch firing; but when he came back the youngling had done naught at the
+bread-making. Then asks Sigmund if the bread be ready--
+
+Says the youngling, "I durst not set hand to the meal sack, because
+somewhat quick lay in the meal."
+
+Now Sigmund deemed he wotted that the lad was of no such heart as that
+he would be fain to have him for his fellow; and when he met his sister,
+Sigmund said that he had come no nigher to the aid of a man though the
+youngling were with him.
+
+Then said Signy, "Take him and kill him then; for why should such an one
+live longer?" and even so he did.
+
+So this winter wears, and the next winter Signy sent her next son to
+Sigmund; and there is no need to make a long tale thereof, for in like
+wise went all things, and he slew the child by the counsel of Signy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. Of the Birth of Sinfjotli the Son of Sigmund.
+
+So on a tide it befell as Signy sat in her bower, that there came to her
+a witch-wife exceeding cunning, and Signy talked with her in such wise,
+"Fain am I," says she, "that we should change semblances together."
+
+She says, "Even as thou wilt then."
+
+And so by her wiles she brought it about that they changed semblances,
+and now the witch-wife sits in Signy's place according to her rede, and
+goes to bed by the king that night, and he knows not that he has other
+than Signy beside him.
+
+But the tale tells of Signy, that she fared to the earth-house of her
+brother, and prayed him give her harbouring for the night; "For I have
+gone astray abroad in the woods, and know not whither I am going."
+
+So he said she might abide, and that he would not refuse harbour to one
+lone woman, deeming that she would scarce pay back his good cheer by
+tale-bearing: so she came into the house, and they sat down to meat,
+and his eyes were often on her, and a goodly and fair woman she seemed
+to him; but when they are full, then he says to her, that he is right
+fain that they should have but one bed that night; she nowise turned
+away therefrom, and so for three nights together he laid her in bed by
+him.
+
+Thereafter she fared home, and found the witch-wife and bade her change
+semblances again, and she did so.
+
+Now as time wears, Signy brings forth a man-child, who was named
+Sinfjotli, and when he grew up he was both big and strong, and fair of
+face, and much like unto the kin of the Volsungs, and he was hardly yet
+ten winters old when she sent him to Sigmund's earth-house; but this
+trial she had made of her other sons or ever she had sent them to
+Sigmund, that she had sewed gloves on to their hands through flesh and
+skin, and they had borne it ill and cried out thereat; and this she now
+did to Sinfjotli, and he changed countenance in nowise thereat. Then she
+flayed off the kirtle so that the skin came off with the sleeves, and
+said that this would be torment enough for him; but he said--
+
+"Full little would Volsung have felt such a smart this."
+
+So the lad came to Sigmund, and Sigmund bade him knead their meal up,
+while he goes to fetch firing; so he gave him the meal-sack, and then
+went after the wood, and by then he came back had Sinfjotli made an end
+of his baking. Then asked Sigmund if he had found nothing in the meal.
+
+"I misdoubted me that there was something quick in the meal when I first
+fell to kneading of it, but I have kneaded it all up together, both the
+meal and that which was therein, whatsoever it was."
+
+Then Sigmund laughed out, he said--
+
+"Naught wilt thou eat of this bread to-night, for the most deadly of
+worms (1) hast thou kneaded up therewith."
+
+Now Sigmund was so mighty a man that he might eat venom and have no hurt
+therefrom; but Sinfjotli might abide whatso venom came on the outside of
+him, but might neither eat nor drink thereof.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Serpents.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. The Death of King Siggeir and of Signy.
+
+The tale tells that Sigmund thought Sinfjotli over young to help him to
+his revenge, and will first of all harden him with manly deeds; so in
+summer-tide they fare wide through the woods and slay men for their
+wealth; Sigmund deems him to take much after the kin of the Volsungs,
+though he thinks that he is Siggeir's son, and deems him to have the
+evil heart of his father, with the might and daring of the Volsungs;
+withal he must needs think him in no wise a kinsome man, for full oft
+would he bring Sigmund's wrongs to his memory, and prick him on to slay
+King Siggeir.
+
+Now on a time as they fare abroad in the wood for the getting of wealth,
+they find a certain house, and two men with great gold rings asleep
+therein: now these twain were spell-bound skin-changers, (1) and
+wolf-skins were hanging up over them in the house; and every tenth
+day might they come out of those skins; and they were kings' sons: so
+Sigmund and Sinfjofli do the wolf-skins on them, and then might they
+nowise come out of them, though forsooth the same nature went with them
+as heretofore; they howled as wolves howl, but both knew the meaning of
+that howling; they lay out in the wild-wood, and each went his way; and
+a word they made betwixt them, that they should risk the onset of seven
+men, but no more, and that he who was first to be set on should howl in
+wolfish wise: "Let us not depart from this," says Sigmund, "for thou art
+young and over-bold, and men will deem the quarry good, when they take
+thee."
+
+Now each goes his way, and when they were parted, Sigmund meets certain
+men, and gives forth a wolf's howl; and when Sinfjotli heard it, he went
+straightway thereto, and slew them all, and once more they parted. But
+ere Sinfjotli has fared long through the woods, eleven men meet him,
+and he wrought in such wise that he slew them all, and was awearied
+therewith, and crawls under an oak, and there takes his rest. Then came
+Sigmund thither, and said--
+
+"Why didst thou not call on me?"
+
+Sinfjotli said, "I was loth to call for thy help for the slaying of
+eleven men."
+
+Then Sigmund rushed at him so hard that he staggered and fell, and
+Sigmund bit him in the throat. Now that day they might not come out of
+their wolf-skins: but Sigmund lays the other on his back, and bears
+him home to the house, and cursed the wolf-gears and gave them to the
+trolls. Now on a day he saw where two weasels went, and how that one bit
+the other in the throat, and then ran straightway into the thicket, and
+took up a leaf and laid it on the wound, and thereon his fellow sprang
+up quite and clean whole; so Sigmund went out and saw a raven flying
+with a blade of that same herb to him; so he took it and drew it over
+Sinfjotli's hurt, and he straightway sprang up as whole as though he had
+never been hurt. Thereafter they went home to their earth-house, and
+abode there till the time came for them to put off the wolf-shapes; then
+they burnt them up with fire, and prayed that no more hurt might come
+to any one from them; but in that uncouth guise they wrought many famous
+deeds in the kingdom and lordship of King Siggeir.
+
+Now when Sinfjotli was come to man's estate, Sigmund deemed he had tried
+him fully, and or ever a long time has gone by he turns his mind to the
+avenging of his father, if so it may be brought about; so on a certain
+day the twain get them gone from their earth-house, and come to the
+abode of King Siggeir late in the evening, and go into the porch before
+the hall, wherein were tuns of ale, and there they lie hid: now the
+queen is ware of them, where they are, and is fain to meet them; and
+when they met they took counsel, and were of one mind that Volsung should
+be revenged that same night.
+
+Now Signy and the king had two children of tender age, who played with
+a golden toy on the floor, and bowled it along the pavement of the hall,
+running along with it; but therewith a golden ring from off it trundles
+away into the place where Sigmund and Sinfjotli lay, and off runs the
+little one to search for the same, and beholds withal where two men are
+sitting, big and grimly to look on, with overhanging helms and bright
+white byrnies; (2) so he runs up the hall to his father, and tells him
+of the sight he has seen, and thereat the king misdoubts of some guile
+abiding him; but Signy heard their speech, and arose and took both the
+children, and went out into the porch to them and said--
+
+"Lo ye! These younglings have bewrayed you; come now therefore and slay
+them!"
+
+Sigmund says, "Never will I slay thy children for telling of where I lay
+hid."
+
+But Sinfjotli made little enow of it, but drew his sword and slew them
+both, and cast them into the hall at King Siggeir's feet.
+
+Then up stood the king and cried on his men to take those who had lain
+privily in the porch through the night. So they ran thither and would
+lay hands on them, but they stood on their defence well and manly, and
+long he remembered it who was the nighest to them; but in the end they
+were borne down by many men and taken, and bonds were set upon them, and
+they were cast into fetters wherein they sit night long.
+
+Then the king ponders what longest and worst of deaths he shall mete out
+to them; and when morning came he let make a great barrow of stones and
+turf; and when it was done, let set a great flat stone midmost inside
+thereof, so that one edge was aloft, the other alow; and so great it was
+that it went from wall to wall, so that none might pass it.
+
+Now he bids folk take Sigmund and Sinfjotli and set them in the barrow,
+on either side of the stone, for the worse for them he deemed it, that
+they might hear each the other's speech, and yet that neither might pass
+one to the other. But now, while they were covering in the barrow with
+the turf-slips, thither came Signy, bearing straw with her, and cast it
+down to Sinfjotli, and bade the thralls hide this thing from the king;
+they said yea thereto, and therewithal was the barrow closed in.
+
+But when night fell, Sinfjotli said to Sigmund, "Belike we shall scarce
+need meat for a while, for here has the queen cast swine's flesh into
+the barrow, and wrapped it round about on the outer side with straw."
+
+Therewith he handles the flesh and finds that therein was thrust
+Sigmund's sword; and he knew it by the hilts, as mirk as it might be in
+the barrow, and tells Sigmund thereof, and of that were they both fain
+enow.
+
+Now Sinfjotli drave the point of the sword up into the big stone, and
+drew it hard along, and the sword bit on the stone. With that Sigmund
+caught the sword by the point, and in this wise they sawed the stone
+between them, and let not or all the sawing was done that need be done,
+even as the song sings:
+
+     "Sinfjotli sawed
+     And Sigmund sawed,
+     Atwain with main
+     The stone was done."
+
+Now are they both together loose in the barrow, and soon they cut both
+through stone and through iron, and bring themselves out thereof. Then
+they go home to the hall, whenas all men slept there, and bear wood to
+the hall, and lay fire therein; and withal the folk therein are waked by
+the smoke, and by the hall burning over their heads.
+
+Then the king cries out, "Who kindled this fire, I burn withal?"
+
+"Here am I," says Sigmund, "with Sinfjotli, my sister's son; and we are
+minded that thou shalt wot well that all the Volsungs are not yet dead."
+
+Then he bade his sister come out, and take all good things at his hands,
+and great honour, and fair atonement in that wise, for all her griefs.
+
+But she answered, "Take heed now, and consider, if I have kept King
+Siggeir in memory, and his slaying of Volsung the king! I let slay both
+my children, whom I deemed worthless for the revenging of our father,
+and I went into the wood to thee in a witch-wife's shape; and now
+behold, Sinfjotli is the son of thee and of me both! and therefore has
+he this so great hardihood and fierceness, in that he is the son both of
+Volsung's son and Volsung's daughter; and for this, and for naught else,
+have I so wrought, that Siggeir might get his bane at last; and all
+these things have I done that vengeance might fall on him, and that I
+too might not live long; and merrily now will I die with King Siggeir,
+though I was naught merry to wed him."
+
+Therewith she kissed Sigmund her brother, and Sinfjotli, and went back
+again into the fire, and there she died with King Siggeir and all his
+good men.
+
+But the two kinsmen gathered together folk and ships, and Sigmund went
+back to his father's land, and drave away thence the king, who had set
+himself down there in the room of king Volsung.
+
+So Sigmund became a mighty King and far-famed, wise and high-minded: he
+had to wife one named Borghild, and two sons they had between them, one
+named Helgi and the other Hamund; and when Helgi was born, Norns came to
+him, (3) and spake over him, and said that he should be in time to come
+the most renowned of all kings. Even therewith was Sigmund come home
+from the wars, and so therewith he gives him the name of Helgi, and
+these matters as tokens thereof, Land of Rings, Sun-litten Hill, and
+Sharp-shearing Sword, and withal prayed that he might grow of great
+fame, and like unto the kin of the Volsungs.
+
+And so it was that he grew up high-minded, and well-beloved, and above
+all other men in all prowess; and the story tells that he went to the
+wars when he was fifteen winters old. Helgi was lord and ruler over the
+army, but Sinfjotli was gotten to be his fellow herein; and so the twain
+bare sway thereover.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  "Skin-changers" were universally believed in once, in
+       Iceland no less than elsewhere, as see Ari in several places
+       of his history, especially the episode of Dufthach and
+       Storwolf o' Whale.  Men possessing the power of becoming
+       wolves at intervals, in the present case compelled so to
+       become, wer-wolves or "loupsgarou", find large place in
+       medieval story, but were equally well-known in classic
+       times.  Belief in them still lingers in parts of Europe
+       where wolves are to be found.  Herodotus tells of the Neuri,
+       who assumed once a year the shape of wolves; Pliny says that
+       one of the family of Antaeus, chosen by lot annually, became
+       a wolf, and so remained for nine years; Giraldus Cambrensis
+       will have it that Irishmen may become wolves; and Nennius
+       asserts point-blank that "the descendants of wolves are
+       still in Ossory;" they retransform themselves into wolves
+       when they bite.  Apuleius, Petronius, and Lucian have
+       similar stories.  The Emperor Sigismund convoked a council
+       of theologians in the fifteenth century who decided that
+       wer-wolves did exist.
+  (2)  Byrny (A.S. "byrne"), corslet, cuirass.
+  (3)  "Norns came to him."  Nornir are the fates of the northern
+       mythology.  They are three--"Urd", the past; "Verdandi",
+       the present; and "Skuld", the future.  They sit beside the
+       fountain of Urd ("Urdarbrunur"), which is below one of the
+       roots of "Yggdrasil", the world-tree, which tree their
+       office it is to nourish by sprinkling it with the waters of
+       the fountain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. How Helgi, the son of Sigmund, won King Hodbrod and his
+Realm, and wedded Sigrun.
+
+Now the tale tells that Helgi in his warring met a king hight Hunding,
+a mighty king, and lord of many men and many lands; they fell to battle
+together, and Helgi went forth mightily, and such was the end of that
+fight that Helgi had the victory, but King Hunding fell and many of his
+men with him; but Helgi is deemed to have grown greatly in fame because
+he had slain so mighty a king.
+
+Then the sons of Hunding draw together a great army to avenge their
+father. Hard was the fight betwixt them; but Helgi goes through the
+folk of those brothers unto their banner, and there slays these sons
+of Hunding, Alf and Eyolf, Herward and Hagbard, and wins there a great
+victory.
+
+Now as Helgi fared from the fight, he met a many women right fair and
+worthy to look on, who rode in exceeding noble array; but one far
+excelled them all; then Helgi asked them the name of that their lady and
+queen, and she named herself Sigrun, and said she was daughter of King
+Hogni.
+
+Then said Helgi, "Fare home with us: good welcome shall ye have!"
+
+Then said the king's daughter, "Other work lies before us than to drink
+with thee."
+
+"Yea, and what work, king's daughter?" said Helgi.
+
+She answers, "King Hogni has promised me to Hodbrod, the son of King
+Granmar, but I have vowed a vow that I will have him to my husband no
+more than if he were a crow's son and not a king's; and yet will the
+thing come to pass, but and if thou standest in the way thereof, and
+goest against him with an army, and takest me away withal; for verily
+with no king would I rather bide on bolster than with thee."
+
+"Be of good cheer, king's daughter," says he, "for certes he and I shall
+try the matter, or ever thou be given to him; yea, we shall behold which
+may prevail against the other; and hereto I pledge my life."
+
+Thereafter, Helgi sent men with money in their hands to summon his folk
+to him, and all his power is called together to Red-Berg: and there
+Helgi abode till such time as a great company came to him from Hedinsey;
+and therewithal came mighty power from Norvi Sound aboard great and fair
+ships. Then King Helgi called to him the captain of his ships, who was
+hight Leif, and asked him if he had told over the tale of his army.
+
+"A thing not easy to tell, lord," says he, "on the ships that came out
+of Norvi Sound are twelve thousand men, and otherwhere are half as many
+again."
+
+Then bade King Helgi turn into the firth, called Varin's firth, and they
+did so: but now there fell on them so fierce a storm and so huge a sea,
+that the beat of the waves on board and bow was to hearken to like as
+the clashing together of high hills broken.
+
+But Helgi bade men fear naught, nor take in any sail, but rather hoist
+every rag higher than heretofore; but little did they miss of foundering
+or ever they made land; then came Sigrun, daughter of King Hogni, down
+on to the beach with a great army, and turned them away thence to a good
+haven called Gnipalund; but the landsmen see what has befallen and
+come down to the sea-shore. The brother of King Hodbrod, lord of a land
+called Swarin's Cairn, cried out to them, and asked them who was captain
+over that mighty army. Then up stands Sinfjotli, with a helm on his
+head, bright shining as glass, and a byrny as white as snow; a spear
+in his hand, and thereon a banner of renown, and a gold-rimmed shield
+hanging before him; and well he knew with what words to speak to kings--
+
+"Go thou and say, when thou hast made an end of feeding thy swine and
+thy dogs, and when thou beholdest thy wife again, that here are come
+the Volsungs, and in this company may King Helgi be found, if Hodbrod
+be fain of finding him, for his game and his joy it is to fight and win
+fame, while thou art kissing the handmaids by the fire-side."
+
+Then answered Granmar, "In nowise knowest thou how to speak seemly
+things, and to tell of matters remembered from of old, whereas thou
+layest lies on chiefs and lords; most like it is that thou must have
+long been nourished with wolf-meat abroad in the wild-woods, and has
+slain thy brethren; and a marvel it is to behold that thou darest to
+join thyself to the company of good men and true, thou, who hast sucked
+the blood of many a cold corpse."
+
+Sinfjotli answered, "Dim belike is grown thy memory now, of how thou
+wert a witch-wife on Varinsey, and wouldst fain have a man to thee, and
+chose me to that same office of all the world; and how thereafter thou
+wert a Valkyria (1) in Asgarth, and it well-nigh came to this, that for
+thy sweet sake should all men fight; and nine wolf whelps I begat on thy
+body in Lowness, and was the father to them all."
+
+Granmar answers, "Great skill of lying hast thou; yet belike the father
+of naught at all mayst thou be, since thou wert gelded by the giant's
+daughters of Thrasness; and lo thou art the stepson of King Siggeir, and
+were wont to lie abroad in wilds and woods with the kin of wolves; and
+unlucky was the hand wherewith thou slewest thy brethren, making for
+thyself an exceeding evil name."
+
+Said Sinfjotli, "Mindest thou not then, when thou were stallion Grani's
+mare, and how I rode thee an amble on Bravoll, and that afterwards thou
+wert giant Golnir's goat-herd?"
+
+Granmar says, "Rather would I feed fowls with the flesh of thee than
+wrangle any longer with thee."
+
+Then spake King Helgi, "Better were it for ye, and a more manly deed, to
+fight, rather than to speak such things as it is a shame even to hearken
+to; Granmar's sons are no friends of me and of mine, yet are they hardy
+men none the less."
+
+So Granmar rode away to meet King Hodbrod, at a stead called Sunfells,
+and the horses of the twain were named Sveipud and Sveggjud. The
+brothers met in the castle-porch, and Granmar told Hodbrod of the
+war-news. King Hodbrod was clad in a byrny, and had his helm on his
+head; he asked--
+
+"What men are anigh, why look ye so wrathful?"
+
+Granmar says, "Here are come the Volsungs, and twelve thousand men of
+them are afloat off the coast, and seven thousand are at the island
+called Sok, but at the stead called Grindur is the greatest company of
+all, and now I deem withal that Helgi and his fellowship have good will
+to give battle."
+
+Then said the king, "Let us send a message through all our realm, and go
+against them, neither let any who is fain of fight sit idle at home; let
+us send word to the sons of Ring, and to King Hogni, and to Alf the Old,
+for they are mighty warriors."
+
+So the hosts met at Wolfstone, and fierce fight befell there; Helgi
+rushed forth through the host of his foes, and many a man fell there; at
+last folk saw a great company of shield-maidens, like burning flames to
+look on, and there was come Sigrun, the king's daughter. Then King Helgi
+fell on King Hodbrod, and smote him, and slew him even under his very
+banner; and Sigrun cried out--
+
+"Have thou thanks for thy so manly deed! now shall we share the land
+between us, and a day of great good hap this is to me, and for this deed
+shalt thou get honour and renown, in that thou hast felled to earth so
+mighty a king."
+
+So Helgi took to him that realm and dwelt there long, when he had wedded
+Sigrun, and became a king of great honour and renown, though he has
+naught more to do with this story.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Valkyrja, "Chooser of the elected."  The women were so
+       called whom Odin sent to choose those for death in battle
+       who were to join the "Einherjar" in the hall of the elected,
+       "Val-holl."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. The ending of Sinfjotli, Sigmund's Son.
+
+Now the Volsungs fare back home, and have gained great renown by these
+deeds. But Sinfjotli betook himself to warfare anew; and therewith he
+had sight of an exceeding fair woman, and yearned above all things for
+her; but that same woman was wooed also of the brother of Borghild, the
+king's wife: and this matter they fought out betwixt them, and Sinfjotli
+slew that king; and thereafter he harried far and wide, and had many
+a battle and even gained the day; and he became hereby honoured and
+renowned above all men; but in autumn tide he came home with many ships
+and abundant wealth.
+
+Then he told his tidings to the king his father, and he again to the
+queen, and she for her part bids him get him gone from the realm, and
+made as if she would in nowise see him. But Sigmund said he would not
+drive him away, and offered her atonement of gold and great wealth for
+her brother's life, albeit he said he had never erst given weregild
+(1) to any for the slaying of a man, but no fame it was to uphold wrong
+against a woman.
+
+So seeing she might not get her own way herein, she said, "Have thy will
+in this matter, O my lord, for it is seemly so to be."
+
+And now she holds the funeral feast for her brother by the aid and
+counsel of the king, and makes ready all things therefor or in the best of
+wise, and bade thither many great men.
+
+At that feast, Borghild the queen bare the drink to folk, and she came
+over against Sinfjofli with a great horn, and said--
+
+"Fall to now and drink, fair stepson!"
+
+Then he took the horn to him, and looked therein, and said--
+
+"Nay, for the drink is charmed drink"
+
+Then said Sigmund, "Give it unto me then;" and therewith he took the
+horn and drank it off.
+
+But the queen said to Sinfjotli, "Why must other men needs drink thine
+ale for thee?" And she came again the second time with the horn, and
+said, "Come now and drink!" and goaded him with many words.
+
+And he took the horn, and said--
+
+"Guile is in the drink."
+
+And thereon, Sigmund cried out--
+
+"Give it then unto me!"
+
+Again, the third time, she came to him, and bade him drink off his
+drink, if he had the heart of a Volsung; then he laid hand on the horn,
+but said--
+
+"Venom is therein."
+
+"Nay, let the lip strain it out then, O son," quoth Sigmund; and by then
+was he exceeding drunk with drink, and therefore spake he in that wise.
+
+So Sinfjotli drank, and straightway fell down dead to the ground.
+
+Sigmund rose up, and sorrowed nigh to death over him; then he took the
+corpse in his arms and fared away to the wood, and went till he came to
+a certain firth; and there he saw a man in a little boat; and that man
+asked if he would be wafted by him over the firth, and he said yea
+thereto; but so little was the boat, that they might not all go in it
+at once, so the corpse was first laid therein, while Sigmund went by
+the firth-side. But therewith the boat and the man therein vanished away
+from before Sigmund's eyes. (2)
+
+So thereafter Sigmund turned back home, and drave away the queen, and a
+little after she died. But Sigmund the king yet ruled his realm, and is
+deemed ever the greatest champion and king of the old law.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Weregild, fine for man-slaying ("wer", man, and "gild", a
+       payment).
+  (2)  The man in the boat is Odin, doubtless.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. Of King Sigmund's last Battle, and of how he must yield up his
+Sword again.
+
+There was a king called Eylimi, mighty and of great fame, and his
+daughter was called Hjordis, the fairest and wisest of womankind; and
+Sigmund hears it told of her that she was meet to be his wife, yea if
+none else were. So he goes to the house of King Eylimi, who would make
+a great feast for him, if so be he comes not thither in the guise of
+a foe. So messages were sent from one to the other that this present
+journey was a peaceful one, and not for war; so the feast was held in
+the best of wise and with many a man thereat; fairs were in every place
+established for King Sigmund, and all things else were done to the aid
+and comfort of his journey: so he came to the feast, and both kings hold
+their state in one hall; thither also was come King Lyngi, son of King
+Hunding, and he also is a-wooing the daughter of King Eylimi.
+
+Now the king deemed he knew that the twain had come thither but for one
+errand, and thought withal that war and trouble might be looked for
+from the hands of him who brought not his end about; so he spake to his
+daughter, and said--
+
+"Thou art a wise woman, and I have spoken it, that thou alone shalt
+choose a husband for thyself; choose therefore between these two kings,
+and my rede shall be even as thine."
+
+"A hard and troublous matter," says she; "yet will I choose him who is
+of greatest fame, King Sigmund to wife, albeit he is well stricken in
+years."
+
+So to him was she betrothed, and King Lyngi gat him gone. Then was
+Sigmund wedded to Hjordis, and now each day was the feast better and
+more glorious than on the day before it. But thereafter Sigmund went
+back home to Hunland, and King Eylimi, his father-in-law, with him, and
+King Sigmund betakes himself to the due ruling of his realm.
+
+But King Lyngi and his brethren gather an army together to fall on
+Sigmund, for as in all matters they were wont to have the worser lot,
+so did this bite the sorest of all; and they would fain prevail over the
+might and pride of the Volsungs. So they came to Hunland, and sent King
+Sigmund word how that they would not steal upon him, and that they deemed
+he would scarce slink away from them. So Sigmund said he would come and
+meet them in battle, and drew his power together; but Hjordis was borne
+into the wood with a certain bondmaid, and mighty wealth went with them;
+and there she abode the while they fought.
+
+Now the vikings rushed from their ships in numbers not to be borne up
+against, but Sigmund the King, and Eylimi, set up their banners, and the
+horns blew up to battle; but King Sigmund let blow the horn his father
+erst had had, and cheered on his men to the fight, but his army was far
+the fewest.
+
+Now was that battle fierce and fell, and though Sigmund were old, yet
+most hardily he fought, and was ever the foremost of his men; no shield
+or byrny might hold against him, and he went ever through the ranks
+of his foemen on that day, and no man might see how things would fare
+between them; many an arrow and many a spear was aloft in air that day,
+and so his spae-wrights wrought for him that he got no wound, and none
+can tell over the tale of those who fell before him, and both his arms
+were red with blood, even to the shoulders.
+
+But now whenas the battle had dured a while, there came a man into
+the fight clad in a blue cloak, and with a slouched hat on his head,
+one-eyed he was, (1) and bare a bill in his hand; and he came against
+Sigmund the King, and have up his bill against him, and as Sigmund smote
+fiercely with the sword it fell upon the bill and burst asunder in the
+midst: thenceforth the slaughter and dismay turned to his side, for the
+good-hap of King Sigmund had departed from him, and his men fell fast
+about him; naught did the king spare himself, but the rather cheered on
+his men; but even as the saw says, "No might 'gainst many", so was it
+now proven; and in this fight fell Sigmund the King, and King Eylimi,
+his father-in-law, in the fore-front of their battle, and therewith the
+more part of their folk.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Odin coming to change the ownership of the sword he had
+       given Sigmund. See Chapter 3.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. Of the Shards of the Sword Gram, and how Hjordis went to
+King Alf.
+
+Now King Lyngi made for the king's abode, and was minded to take the
+king's daughter there, but failed herein, for there he found neither
+wife nor wealth: so he fared through all the realm, and gave his men
+rule thereover, and now deemed that he had slain all the kin of the
+Volsungs, and that he need dread them no more from henceforth.
+
+Now Hjordis went amidst the slain that night of the battle, and came
+whereas lay King Sigmund, and asked if he might be healed; but he
+answered--
+
+"Many a man lives after hope has grown little; but my good-hap has
+departed from me, nor will I suffer myself to be healed, nor wills Odin
+that I should ever draw sword again, since this my sword and his is
+broken; lo now, I have waged war while it was his will."
+
+"Naught ill would I deem matters," said she, "if thou mightest be healed
+and avenge my father."
+
+The king said, "That is fated for another man; behold now, thou art
+great with a man-child; nourish him well and with good heed, and the
+child shall be the noblest and most famed of all our kin: and keep well
+withal the shards of the sword: thereof shall a goodly sword be made,
+and it shall be called Gram, and our son shall bear it, and shall work
+many a great work therewith, even such as eld shall never minish; for
+his name shall abide and flourish as long as the world shall endure: and
+let this be enow for thee. But now I grow weary with my wounds, and I
+will go see our kin that have gone before me."
+
+So Hjordis sat over him till he died at the day-dawning; and then she
+looked, and behold, there came many ships sailing to the land: then she
+spake to the handmaid--
+
+"Let us now change raiment, and be thou called by my name, and say that
+thou art the king's daughter."
+
+And thus they did; but now the vikings behold the great slaughter of men
+there, and see where two women fare away thence into the wood; and they
+deem that some great tidings must have befallen, and they leaped ashore
+from out their ships. Now the captain of these folks was Alf, son of
+Hjalprek, king of Denmark, who was sailing with his power along the
+land. So they came into the field among the slain, and saw how many men
+lay dead there; then the king bade go seek for the women and bring
+them thither, and they did so. He asked them what women they were; and,
+little as the thing seems like to be, the bondmaid answered for the
+twain, telling of the fall of King Sigmund and King Eylimi, and many
+another great man, and who they were withal who had wrought the deed.
+Then the king asks if they wotted where the wealth of the king was
+bestowed; and then says the bondmaid--
+
+"It may well be deemed that we know full surely thereof."
+
+And therewith she guides them to the place where the treasure lay: and
+there they found exceeding great wealth; so that men deem they have
+never seen so many things of price heaped up together in one place. All
+this they bore to the ships of King Alf, and Hjordis and the bondmaid
+went with them. Therewith these sail away to their own realm, and talk
+how that surely on that field had fallen the most renowned of kings.
+
+So the king sits by the tiller, but the women abide in the forecastle;
+but talk he had with the women and held their counsels of much account.
+
+In such wise the king came home to his realm with great wealth, and he
+himself was a man exceeding goodly to look on. But when he had been but
+a little while at home, the queen, his mother, asked him why the fairest
+of the two women had the fewer rings and the less worthy attire.
+
+"I deem," she said, "that she whom ye have held of least account is the
+noblest of the twain."
+
+He answered: "I too have misdoubted me, that she is little like a
+bondwoman, and when we first met, in seemly wise she greeted noble men.
+Lo now, we will make a trial of the thing."
+
+So on a time as men sat at the drink, the king sat down to talk with the
+women, and said:--
+
+"In what wise do ye note the wearing of the hours, whenas night grows
+old, if ye may not see the lights of heaven?"
+
+Then says the bondwoman, "This sign have I, that whenas in my youth I
+was wont to drink much in the dawn, so now when I no longer use that
+manner, I am yet wont to wake up at that very same tide, and by that
+token do I know thereof."
+
+Then the king laughed and said, "Ill manners for a king's daughter!" And
+therewith he turned to Hjordis, and asked her even the same question;
+but she answered--
+
+"My father erst gave me a little gold ring of such nature, that it
+groweth cold on my finger in the day-dawning; and that is the sign that
+I have to know thereof."
+
+The king answered: "Enow of gold there, where a very bondmaid bore it!
+But come now, thou hast been long enow hid from me; yet if thou hadst
+told me all from the beginning, I would have done to thee as though we
+had both been one king's children: but better than thy deeds will I deal
+with thee, for thou shalt be my wife, and due jointure will I pay thee
+whenas thou hast borne me a child."
+
+She spake therewith and told out the whole truth about herself: so there
+was she held in great honour, and deemed the worthiest of women.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. Of the Birth and Waxing of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane.
+
+The tale tells that Hjordis brought forth a man-child, who was
+straightly borne before King Hjalprek, and then was the king glad
+thereof, when he saw the keen eyes in the head of him, and he said that
+few men would be equal to him or like unto him in any wise. So he was
+sprinkled with water, and had to name Sigurd, of whom all men speak
+with one speech and say that none was ever his like for growth and
+goodliness. He was brought up in the house of King Hjalprek in great
+love and honour; and so it is, that whenso all the noblest men and
+greatest kings are named in the olden tales, Sigurd is ever put before
+them all, for might and prowess, for high mind and stout heart, wherewith
+he was far more abundantly gifted than any man of the northern parts of
+the wide world.
+
+So Sigurd waxed in King Hjalprek's house, and there was no child but
+loved him; through him was Hjordis betrothed to King Alf, and jointure
+meted to her.
+
+Now Sigurd's foster-father was hight Regin, the son of Hreidmar; he
+taught him all manner of arts, the chess play, and the lore of runes,
+and the talking of many tongues, even as the wont was with kings' sons
+in those days. But on a day when they were together, Regin asked Sigurd,
+if he knew how much wealth his father had owned, and who had the ward
+thereof; Sigurd answered, and said that the kings kept the ward thereof.
+
+Said Regin, "Dost thou trust them all utterly?"
+
+Sigurd said, "It is seemly that they keep it till I may do somewhat
+therewith, for better they wot how to guard it than I do."
+
+Another time came Regin to talk to Sigurd, and said--
+
+"A marvellous thing truly that thou must needs be a horse-boy to the
+kings, and go about like a running knave."
+
+"Nay," said Sigurd, "it is not so, for in all things I have my will, and
+whatso thing I desire is granted me with good will."
+
+"Well, then," said Regin, "ask for a horse of them."
+
+"Yea," quoth Sigurd, "and that shall I have, whenso I have need
+thereof."
+
+Thereafter Sigurd went to the king, and the king said--
+
+"What wilt thou have of us?"
+
+Then said Sigurd, "I would even a horse of thee for my disport."
+
+Then said the king, "Choose for thyself a horse, and whatso thing else
+thou desirest among my matters."
+
+So the next day went Sigurd to the wood, and met on the way an old man,
+long-bearded, that he knew not, who asked him whither away.
+
+Sigurd said, "I am minded to choose me a horse; come thou, and counsel
+me thereon."
+
+"Well then," said he, "go we and drive them to the river which is called
+Busil-tarn."
+
+They did so, and drave the horses down into the deeps of the river, and
+all swam back to land but one horse; and that horse Sigurd chose for
+himself; grey he was of hue, and young of years, great of growth, and
+fair to look on, nor had any man yet crossed his back.
+
+Then spake the grey-beard, "From Sleipnir's kin is this horse come, and
+he must be nourished heedfully, for it will be the best of all horses;"
+and therewithal he vanished away.
+
+So Sigurd called the horse Grani, the best of all the horses of the
+world; nor was the man he met other than Odin himself.
+
+Now yet again spake Regin to Sigurd, and said--
+
+"Not enough is thy wealth, and I grieve right sore that thou must needs
+run here and there like a churl's son; but I can tell thee where there
+is much wealth for the winning, and great name and honour to be won in
+the getting of it."
+
+Sigurd asked where that might be, and who had watch and ward over it.
+
+Regin answered, "Fafnir is his name, and but a little way hence he lies,
+on the waste of Gnita-heath; and when thou comest there thou mayst well
+say that thou hast never seen more gold heaped together in one place,
+and that none might desire more treasure, though he were the most
+ancient and famed of all kings."
+
+"Young am I," says Sigurd, "yet know I the fashion of this worm, and how
+that none durst go against him, so huge and evil is he."
+
+Regin said, "Nay it is not so, the fashion and the growth of him is even
+as of other lingworms, (1) and an over great tale men make of it; and
+even so would thy forefathers have deemed; but thou, though thou be of
+the kin of the Volsungs, shalt scarce have the heart and mind of those,
+who are told of as the first in all deeds of fame."
+
+Sigurd said, "Yea, belike I have little of their hardihood and prowess,
+but thou hast naught to do, to lay a coward's name upon me, when I
+am scarce out of my childish years. Why dost thou egg me on hereto so
+busily?"
+
+Regin said, "Therein lies a tale which I must needs tell thee."
+
+"Let me hear the same," said Sigurd.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Lingworm--longworm, dragon.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. Regin's tale of his Brothers, and of the Gold called
+Andvari's Hoard.
+
+"The tale begins," said Regin. "Hreidmar was my father's name, a mighty
+man and a wealthy: and his first son was named Fafnir, his second Otter,
+and I was the third, and the least of them all both for prowess and good
+conditions, but I was cunning to work in iron, and silver, and gold,
+whereof I could make matters that availed somewhat. Other skill my
+brother Otter followed, and had another nature withal, for he was a
+great fisher, and above other men herein; in that he had the likeness of
+an otter by day, and dwelt ever in the river, and bare fish to bank
+in his mouth, and his prey would he ever bring to our father, and that
+availed him much: for the most part he kept him in his otter-gear, and
+then he would come home, and eat alone, and slumbering, for on the
+dry land he might see naught. But Fafnir was by far the greatest and
+grimmest, and would have all things about called his.
+
+"Now," says Regin, "there was a dwarf called Andvari, who ever abode in
+that force, (1) which was called Andvari's force, in the likeness of a
+pike, and got meat for himself, for many fish there were in the force;
+now Otter, my brother, was ever wont to enter into the force, and bring
+fish aland, and lay them one by one on the bank. And so it befell that
+Odin, Loki, and Hoenir, as they went their ways, came to Andvari's
+force, and Otter had taken a salmon, and ate it slumbering upon the
+river bank; then Loki took a stone and cast it at Otter, so that he gat
+his death thereby; the gods were well content with their prey, and
+fell to flaying off the otter's skin; and in the evening they came to
+Hreidmar's house, and showed him what they had taken: thereon he laid
+hands on them, and doomed them to such ransom, as that they should fill
+the otter skin with gold, and cover it over without with red gold; so
+they sent Loki to gather gold together for them; he came to Ran, (2)
+and got her net, and went therewith to Andvari's force, and cast the net
+before the pike, and the pike ran into the net and was taken. Then said
+Loki--
+
+       "'What fish of all fishes,
+       Swims strong in the flood,
+     But hath learnt little wit to beware?
+       Thine head must thou buy,
+       From abiding in hell,
+     And find me the wan waters flame.'
+
+He answered--
+
+       "'Andvari folk call me,
+       Call Oinn my father,
+     Over many a force have I fared;
+       For a Norn of ill-luck,
+       This life on me lay
+     Through wet ways ever to wade.'
+
+"So Loki beheld the gold of Andvari, and when he had given up the gold,
+he had but one ring left, and that also Loki took from him; then
+the dwarf went into a hollow of the rocks, and cried out, that that
+gold-ring, yea and all the gold withal, should be the bane of every man
+who should own it thereafter.
+
+"Now the gods rode with the treasure to Hreidmar, and fulfilled the
+otter-skin, and set it on its feet, and they must cover it over utterly
+with gold: but when this was done then Hreidmar came forth, and beheld
+yet one of the muzzle hairs, and bade them cover that withal; then Odin
+drew the ring, Andvari's loom, from his hand, and covered up the hair
+therewith; then sang Loki--
+
+       "'Gold enow, gold enow,
+       A great weregild, thou hast,
+     That my head in good hap I may hold;
+       But thou and thy son
+       Are naught fated to thrive,
+     The bane shall it be of you both.'
+
+"Thereafter," says Regin, "Fafnir slew his father and murdered him, nor
+got I aught of the treasure, and so evil he grew, that he fell to lying
+abroad, and begrudged any share in the wealth to any man, and so became
+the worst of all worms, and ever now lies brooding upon that treasure:
+but for me, I went to the king and became his master-smith; and thus is
+the tale told of how I lost the heritage of my father, and the weregild
+for my brother."
+
+So spake Regin; but since that time gold is called Ottergild, and for no
+other cause than this.
+
+But Sigurd answered, "Much hast thou lost, and exceeding evil have thy
+kinsmen been! But now, make a sword by thy craft, such a sword as that
+none can be made like unto it; so that I may do great deeds therewith,
+if my heart avail thereto, and thou wouldst have me slay this mighty
+dragon."
+
+Regin says, "Trust me well herein; and with that same sword shalt thou
+slay Fafnir."
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Waterfall (Ice. "foss", "fors").
+  (2)  Ran is the goddess of the sea, wife of Aegir.  The otter was
+       held sacred by Norsefolk and figures in the myth and legend
+       of most races besides; to this day its killing is held a
+       great crime by the Parsees (Haug. "Religion of the Parsees",
+       page 212).  Compare penalty above with that for killing the
+       Welsh king's cat ("Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales".
+       Ed., Aneurin Owen. Longman, London, 1841, 2 vols. 8vo).
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. Of the Welding together of the Shards of the Sword Gram.
+
+So Regin makes a sword, and gives it into Sigurd's hands. He took the
+sword, and said--
+
+"Behold thy smithying, Regin!" and therewith smote it into the anvil,
+and the sword brake; so he cast down the brand, and bade him forge a
+better.
+
+Then Regin forged another sword, and brought it to Sigurd, who looked
+thereon.
+
+Then said Regin, "Belike thou art well content therewith, hard master
+though thou be in smithying."
+
+So Sigurd proved the sword, and brake it even as the first; then he said
+to Regin--
+
+"Ah, art thou, mayhappen, a traitor and a liar like to those former kin
+of thine?"
+
+Therewith he went to his mother, and she welcomed him in seemly wise,
+and they talked and drank together.
+
+Then spake Sigurd, "Have I heard aright, that King Sigmund gave thee the
+good sword Gram in two pieces?"
+
+"True enough," she said.
+
+So Sigurd said, "Deliver them into my hands, for I would have them."
+
+She said he looked like to win great fame, and gave him the sword.
+Therewith went Sigurd to Regin, and bade him make a good sword thereof
+as he best might; Regin grew wroth thereat, but went into the smithy
+with the pieces of the sword, thinking well meanwhile that Sigurd pushed
+his head far enow into the matter of smithying. So he made a sword, and
+as he bore it forth from the forge, it seemed to the smiths as though
+fire burned along the edges thereof. Now he bade Sigurd take the sword,
+and said he knew not how to make a sword if this one failed. Then Sigurd
+smote it into the anvil, and cleft it down to the stock thereof, and
+neither burst the sword nor brake it. Then he praised the sword much,
+and thereafter went to the river with a lock of wool, and threw it up
+against the stream, and it fell asunder when it met the sword. Then was
+Sigurd glad, and went home.
+
+But Regin said, "Now whereas I have made the sword for thee, belike thou
+wilt hold to thy troth given, and wilt go meet Fafnir?"
+
+"Surely will I hold thereto," said Sigurd, "yet first must I avenge my
+father."
+
+Now Sigurd the older he grew, the more he grew in the love of all men,
+so that every child loved him well.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. The prophecy of Grifir.
+
+There was a man hight Grifir,(1) who was Sigurd's mother's brother, and
+a little after the forging of the sword Sigurd went to Grifir, because
+he was a man who knew things to come, and what was fated to men: of him
+Sigurd asked diligently how his life should go; but Grifir was long
+or he spake, yet at the last, by reason of Sigurd's exceeding great
+prayers, he told him all his life and the fate thereof, even as
+afterwards came to pass. So when Grifir had told him all even as he
+would, he went back home; and a little after he and Regin met.
+
+Then said Regin, "Go thou and slay Fafnir, even as thou hast given thy
+word."
+
+Sigurd said, "That work shall be wrought; but another is first to be
+done, the avenging of Sigmund the king and the other of my kinsmen who
+fell in that their last fight."
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Called "Gripir" in the Edda.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. Of Sigurd's Avenging of Sigmund his Father.
+
+Now Sigurd went to the kings, and spake thus--
+
+"Here have I abode a space with you, and I owe you thanks and reward,
+for great love and many gifts and all due honour; but now will I away
+from the land and go meet the sons of Hunding, and do them to wit that
+the Volsungs are not all dead; and your might would I have to strengthen
+me therein."
+
+So the kings said that they would give him all things soever that
+he desired, and therewith was a great army got ready, and all things
+wrought in the most heedful wise, ships and all war-gear, so that his
+journey might be of the stateliest: but Sigurd himself steered the
+dragon-keel which was the greatest and noblest; richly wrought were
+their sails, and glorious to look on.
+
+So they sail and have wind at will; but when a few days were overpast,
+there arose a great storm on the sea, and the waves were to behold even
+as the foam of men's blood; but Sigurd bade take in no sail, howsoever
+they might be riven, but rather to lay on higher than heretofore. But
+as they sailed past the rocks of a ness, a certain man hailed the ships,
+and asked who was captain over that navy; then was it told him that the
+chief and lord was Sigurd, the son of Sigmund, the most famed of all the
+young men who now are.
+
+Then said the man, "Naught but one thing, certes, do all say of him, that
+none among the sons of kings may be likened unto him; now fain were I
+that ye would shorten sail on some of the ships, and take me aboard."
+
+Then they asked him of his name, and he sang--
+
+     "Hnikar I hight,
+     When I gladdened Huginn,
+     And went to battle,
+     Bright son of Volsung;
+     Now may ye call
+     The carl on the cliff top,
+     Feng or Fjolnir:
+     Fain would I with you."
+
+They made for land therewith, and took that man aboard.
+
+Then quoth Sigurd,(1) as the song says--
+
+       "Tell me this, O Hnikar,
+       Since full well thou knowest
+     Fate of Gods, good and ill of mankind,
+       What best our hap foresheweth,
+       When amid the battle
+     About us sweeps the sword edge."
+
+Quoth Hnikar--
+
+       "Good are many tokens
+       If thereof men wotted
+     When the swords are sweeping:
+       Fair fellow deem I
+       The dark-winged raven,
+     In war, to weapon-wielder.
+
+       "The second good thing:
+       When abroad thou goest
+     For the long road well arrayed,
+       Good if thou seest
+       Two men standing,
+     Fain of fame within the forecourt.
+
+       "A third thing:
+       Good hearing,
+       The wolf a howling
+     Abroad under ash boughs;
+       Good hap shalt thou have
+       Dealing with helm-staves,
+     If thou seest these fare before thee.
+
+       "No man in fight
+       His face shall turn
+       Against the moon's sister
+       Low, late-shining,
+       For he winneth battle
+       Who best beholdeth
+       Through the midmost sword-play,
+       And the sloping ranks best shapeth.
+
+       "Great is the trouble
+       Of foot ill-tripping,
+     When arrayed for fight thou farest,
+       For on both sides about
+       Are the D?sir (2) by thee,
+     Guileful, wishful of thy wounding.
+
+       "Fair-combed, well washen
+       Let each warrior be,
+     Nor lack meat in the morning,
+       For who can rule
+       The eve's returning,
+     And base to fall before fate grovelling."
+
+Then the storm abated, and on they fared till they came aland in the
+realm of Hunding's sons, and then Fjolnir vanished away.
+
+Then they let loose fire and sword, and slew men and burnt their abodes,
+and did waste all before them: a great company of folk fled before the
+face of them to Lyngi the King, and tell him that men of war are in the
+land, and are faring with such rage and fury that the like has never
+been heard of; and that the sons of King Hunding had no great forecast
+in that they said they would never fear the Volsungs more, for here was
+come Sigurd, the son of Sigmund, as captain over this army.
+
+So King Lyngi let send the war-message all throughout his realm, and has
+no will to flee, but summons to him all such as would give him aid. So
+he came against Sigurd with a great army, he and his brothers with him,
+and an exceeding fierce fight befell; many a spear and many an arrow
+might men see there raised aloft, axes hard driven, shields cleft and
+byrnies torn, helmets were shivered, skulls split atwain, and many a man
+felled to the cold earth.
+
+And now when the fight has long dured in such wise, Sigurd goes forth
+before the banners, and has the good sword Gram in his hand, and smites
+down both men and horses, and goes through the thickest of the throng
+with both arms red with blood to the shoulder; and folk shrank aback
+before him wheresoever he went, nor would either helm or byrny hold
+before him, and no man deemed he had ever seen his like. So a long while
+the battle lasted, and many a man was slain, and furious was the onset;
+till at last it befell, even as seldom comes to hand, when a land army
+falls on, that, do whatso they might, naught was brought about; but so
+many men fell of the sons of Hunding that the tale of them may not be
+told; and now whenas Sigurd was among the foremost, came the sons of
+Hunding against him, and Sigurd smote therewith at Lyngi the king, and
+clave him down, both helm and head, and mail-clad body, and thereafter
+he smote Hjorward his brother atwain, and then slew all the other sons
+of Hunding who were yet alive, and the more part of their folk withal.
+
+Now home goes Sigurd with fair victory won, and plenteous wealth and
+great honour, which he had gotten to him in this journey, and feasts
+were made for him against he came back to the realm.
+
+But when Sigurd had been at home but a little, came Regin to talk with
+him, and said--
+
+"Belike thou wilt now have good will to bow down Fafnir's crest
+according to thy word plighted, since thou hast thus revenged thy father
+and the others of thy kin."
+
+Sigurd answered, "That will we hold to, even as we have promised, nor
+did it ever fall from our memory."
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  This and verses following were inserted from the "Reginsmal"
+       by the translators.
+  (2)  "D?sir", sing. "D?s".  These are the guardian beings who
+       follow a man from his birth to his death.  The word
+       originally means sister, and is used throughout the Eddaic
+       poems as a dignified synonym for woman, lady.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. Of the Slaying of the Worm Fafnir.
+
+Now Sigurd and Regin ride up the heath along that same way wherein
+Fafnir was wont to creep when he fared to the water; and folk say that
+thirty fathoms was the height of that cliff along which he lay when he
+drank of the water below. Then Sigurd spake:
+
+"How sayedst thou, Regin, that this drake (1) was no greater than other
+lingworms; methinks the track of him is marvellous great?"
+
+Then said Regin, "Make thee a hole, and sit down therein, and whenas
+the worm comes to the water, smite him into the heart, and so do him to
+death, and win thee great fame thereby."
+
+But Sigurd said, "What will betide me if I be before the blood of the
+worm?"
+
+Says Regin, "Of what avail to counsel thee if thou art still afeard of
+everything? Little art thou like thy kin in stoutness of heart."
+
+Then Sigurd rides right over the heath; but Regin gets him gone, sore
+afeard.
+
+But Sigurd fell to digging him a pit, and whiles he was at that work,
+there came to him an old man with a long beard, and asked what he
+wrought there, and he told him.
+
+Then answered the old man and said, "Thou doest after sorry counsel:
+rather dig thee many pits, and let the blood run therein; but sit thee
+down in one thereof, and so thrust the worm's heart through."
+
+And therewithal he vanished away; but Sigurd made the pits even as it
+was shown to him.
+
+Now crept the worm down to his place of watering, and the earth shook
+all about him, and he snorted forth venom on all the way before him as
+he went; but Sigurd neither trembled nor was adrad at the roaring of
+him. So whenas the worm crept over the pits, Sigurd thrust his sword
+under his left shoulder, so that it sank in up to the hilts; then up
+leapt Sigurd from the pit and drew the sword back again unto him, and
+therewith was his arm all bloody, up to the very shoulder.
+
+Now when that mighty worm was ware that he had his death-wound, then he
+lashed out head and tail, so that all things soever that were before him
+were broken to pieces.
+
+So whenas Fafnir had his death-wound, he asked "Who art thou? And who is
+thy father? And what thy kin, that thou wert so hardy as to bear weapons
+against me?"
+
+Sigurd answered, "Unknown to men is my kin. I am called a noble beast:
+(2) neither father have I nor mother, and all alone have I fared
+hither."
+
+Said Fafnir, "Whereas thou hast neither father nor mother, of what
+wonder wert thou born then? But now, though thou tellest me not thy name
+on this my death-day, yet thou knowest verily that thou liest unto me."
+
+He answered, "Sigurd am I called, and my father was Sigmund."
+
+Says Fafnir, "Who egged thee on to this deed, and why wouldst thou be
+driven to it? Hadst thou never heard how that all folk were adrad of
+me, and of the awe of my countenance? But an eager father thou hadst, O
+bright eyed swain!"
+
+Sigurd answered, "A hardy heart urged me on hereto; and a strong hand
+and this sharp sword, which well thou knowest now, stood me in stead in
+the doing of the deed; 'Seldom hath hardy eld a faint-heart youth.'"
+
+Fafnir said, "Well, I wot that hadst thou waxed amid thy kin, thou
+mightest have good skill to slay folk in thine anger; but more of a
+marvel is it, that thou, a bondsman taken in war, shouldst have the
+heart to set on me, 'for few among bondsmen have heart for the fight.'"
+
+Said Sigurd, "Wilt thou then cast it in my teeth that I am far away from
+my kin? Albeit I was a bondsman, yet was I never shackled. God wot thou
+hast found me free enow."
+
+Fafnir answered, "In angry wise dost thou take my speech; but hearken,
+for that same gold which I have owned shall be thy bane too."
+
+Quoth Sigurd, "Fain would we keep all our wealth til that day of days;
+yet shall each man die once for all."
+
+Said Fafnir, "Few things wilt thou do after my counsel; but take heed
+that thou shalt be drowned if thou farest unwarily over the sea; so bide
+thou rather on the dry land, for the coming of the calm tide."
+
+Then said Sigurd, "Speak, Fafnir, and say, if thou art so exceeding
+wise, who are the Norns who rule the lot of all mothers' sons."
+
+Fafnir answers, "Many there be and wide apart; for some are of the kin
+of the Aesir, and some are of Elfin kin, and some there are who are
+daughters of Dvalin."
+
+Said Sigurd, "How namest thou the holm whereon Surt (3) and the Aesir
+mix and mingle the water of the sword?"
+
+"Unshapen is that holm hight," said Fafnir.
+
+And yet again he said, "Regin, my brother, has brought about my end,
+and it gladdens my heart that thine too he bringeth about; for thus will
+things be according to his will."
+
+And once again he spake, "A countenance of terror I bore up before all
+folk, after that I brooded over the heritage of my brother, and on every
+side did I spout out poison, so that none durst come anigh me, and of
+no weapon was I adrad, nor ever had I so many men before me, as that
+I deemed myself not stronger than all; for all men were sore afeard of
+me."
+
+Sigurd answered and said, "Few may have victory by means of that same
+countenance of terror, for whoso comes amongst many shall one day find
+that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all."
+
+Then says Fafnir, "Such counsel I give thee, that thou take thy horse
+and ride away at thy speediest, for ofttimes it falls out so, that he
+who gets a death-wound avenges himself none the less."
+
+Sigurd answered, "Such as thy redes are I will nowise do after them;
+nay, I will ride now to thy lair and take to me that great treasure of
+thy kin."
+
+"Ride there then," said Fafnir, "and thou shalt find gold enow to
+suffice thee for all thy life-days; yet shall that gold be thy bane, and
+the bane of every one soever who owns it."
+
+Then up stood Sigurd, and said, "Home would I ride and lose all that
+wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; but
+every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that
+last day; but thou, Fafnir, wallow in the death-pain till Death and Hell
+have thee."
+
+And therewithal Fafnir died.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Lat. "draco", a dragon.
+  (2)  "Unknown to men is my kin."  Sigurd refusing to tell his
+       name is to be referred to the superstition that a dying man
+       could throw a curse on his enemy.
+  (3)  Surt; a fire-giant, who will destroy the world at the
+       Ragnarok, or destruction of all things.  Aesir; the gods.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. Of the Slaying of Regin, Son of Hreidmar.
+
+Thereafter came Regin to Sigurd, and said, "Hail, lord and master, a
+noble victory hast thou won in the slaying of Fafnir, whereas none durst
+heretofore abide in the path of him; and now shall this deed of fame be
+of renown while the world stands fast."
+
+Then stood Regin staring on the earth a long while, and presently
+thereafter spake from heavy mood: "Mine own brother hast thou slain, and
+scarce may I be called sackless of the deed."
+
+Then Sigurd took his sword Gram and dried it on the earth, and spake to
+Regin--
+
+"Afar thou faredst when I wrought this deed and tried this sharp sword
+with the hand and the might of me; with all the might and main of a
+dragon must I strive, while thou wert laid alow in the heather-bush,
+wotting not if it were earth or heaven."
+
+Said Regin, "Long might this worm have lain in his lair, if the sharp
+sword I forged with my hand had not been good at need to thee; had that
+not been, neither thou nor any man would have prevailed against him as
+at this time."
+
+Sigurd answers, "Whenas men meet foes in fight, better is stout heart
+than sharp sword."
+
+Then said Regin, exceeding heavily, "Thou hast slain my brother, and
+scarce may I be sackless of the deed."
+
+Therewith Sigurd cut out the heart of the worm with the sword called
+Ridil; but Regin drank of Fafnir's blood, and spake, "Grant me a boon,
+and do a thing little for thee to do. Bear the heart to the fire, and
+roast it, and give me thereof to eat."
+
+Then Sigurd went his ways and roasted it on a rod; and when the blood
+bubbled out he laid his finger thereon to essay it, if it were fully
+done; and then he set his finger in his mouth, and lo, when the
+heart-blood of the worm touched his tongue, straightway he knew the
+voice of all fowls, and heard withal how the wood-peckers chattered in
+the brake beside him--
+
+"There sittest thou, Sigurd, roasting Fafnir's heart for another, that
+thou shouldest eat thine ownself, and then thou shouldest become the
+wisest of all men."
+
+And another spake: "There lies Regin, minded to beguile the man who
+trusts in him."
+
+But yet again said the third, "Let him smite the head from off him then,
+and be only lord of all that gold."
+
+And once more the fourth spake and said, "Ah, the wiser were he if he
+followed after that good counsel, and rode thereafter to Fafnir's lair,
+and took to him that mighty treasure that lieth there, and then rode
+over Hindfell, whereas sleeps Brynhild; for there would he get great
+wisdom. Ah, wise he were, if he did after your redes, and bethought him
+of his own weal; 'for where wolf's ears are, wolf's teeth are near.'"
+
+Then cried the fifth: "Yea, yea, not so wise is he as I deem him, if he
+spareth him, whose brother he hath slain already."
+
+At last spake the sixth: "Handy and good rede to slay him, and be lord
+of the treasure!"
+
+Then said Sigurd, "The time is unborn wherein Regin shall be my bane;
+nay, rather one road shall both these brothers fare."
+
+And therewith he drew his sword Gram and struck off Regin's head.
+
+Then heard Sigurd the wood-peckers a-singing, even as the song says. (1)
+
+For the first sang:
+
+     "Bind thou, Sigurd,
+     The bright red rings!
+     Not meet it is
+     Many things to fear.
+     A fair may know I,
+     Fair of all the fairest
+     Girt about with gold,
+     Good for thy getting."
+
+And the second:
+
+     "Green go the ways
+     Toward the hall of Giuki
+     That the fates show forth
+     To those who fare thither;
+     There the rich king
+     Reareth a daughter;
+     Thou shalt deal, Sigurd,
+     With gold for thy sweetling."
+
+And the third:
+
+     "A high hall is there
+     Reared upon Hindfell,
+     Without all around it
+     Sweeps the red flame aloft.
+     Wise men wrought
+     That wonder of halls
+     With the unhidden gleam
+     Of the glory of gold."
+
+Then the fourth sang:
+
+     "Soft on the fell
+     A shield-may sleepeth
+     The lime-trees' red plague
+     Playing about her:
+     The sleep-thorn set Odin
+     Into that maiden
+     For her choosing in war
+     The one he willed not.
+
+     "Go, son, behold
+     That may under helm
+     Whom from battle
+     Vinskornir bore,
+     From her may not turn
+     The torment of sleep.
+     Dear offspring of kings
+     In the dread Norns' despite."
+
+Then Sigurd ate some deal of Fafnir's heart, and the remnant he kept.
+Then he leapt on his horse and rode along the trail of the worm Fafnir,
+and so right unto his abiding-place; and he found it open, and beheld
+all the doors and the gear of them that they were wrought of iron: yea,
+and all the beams of the house; and it was dug down deep into the earth:
+there found Sigurd gold exceeding plenteous, and the sword Rotti; and
+thence he took the Helm of Awe, and the Gold Byrny, and many things
+fair and good. So much gold he found there, that he thought verily that
+scarce might two horses, or three belike, bear it thence. So he took
+all the gold and laid it in two great chests, and set them on the horse
+Grani, and took the reins of him, but nowise will he stir, neither will
+he abide smiting. Then Sigurd knows the mind of the horse, and leaps on
+the back of him, and smites and spurs into him, and off the horse goes
+even as if he were unladen.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  The Songs of the Birds were inserted from "Reginsmal" by the
+       translators.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. Of Sigurd's Meeting with Brynhild on the Mountain.
+
+By long roads rides Sigurd, till he comes at the last up on to Hindfell,
+and wends his way south to the land of the Franks; and he sees before
+him on the fell a great light, as of fire burning, and flaming up even
+unto the heavens; and when he came thereto, lo, a shield-hung castle
+before him, and a banner on the topmost thereof: into the castle went
+Sigurd, and saw one lying there asleep, and all-armed. Therewith he
+takes the helm from off the head of him, and sees that it is no man, but
+a woman; and she was clad in a byrny as closely set on her as though it
+had grown to her flesh; so he rent it from the collar downwards; and then
+the sleeves thereof, and ever the sword bit on it as if it were cloth.
+Then said Sigurd that over-long had she lain asleep; but she asked--
+
+"What thing of great might is it that has prevailed to rend my byrny,
+and draw me from my sleep?"
+
+Even as sings the song: (1)
+
+     "What bit on the byrny,
+     Why breaks my sleep away,
+     Who has turned from me
+     My wan tormenting?"
+
+"Ah, is it so, that here is come Sigurd Sigmundson, bearing Fafnir's
+helm on his head and Fafnir's bane in his hand?"
+
+Then answered Sigurd--
+
+     "Sigmund's son
+     With Sigurd's sword
+     E'en now rent down
+     The raven's wall."
+
+"Of the Volsung's kin is he who has done the deed; but now I have heard
+that thou art daughter of a mighty king, and folk have told us that thou
+wert lovely and full of lore, and now I will try the same."
+
+Then Brynhild sang--
+
+     "Long have I slept
+     And slumbered long,
+     Many and long are the woes of mankind,
+     By the might of Odin
+     Must I bide helpless
+     To shake from off me the spells of slumber.
+
+     "Hail to the day come back!
+     Hail, sons of the daylight!
+     Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter!
+     Look with kind eyes a-down,
+     On us sitting here lonely,
+     And give unto us the gain that we long for.
+
+     "Hail to the Aesir,
+     And the sweet Asyniur! (2)
+     Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty!
+     Fair words, wise hearts,
+     Would we win from you,
+     And healing hands while life we hold."
+
+Then Brynhild speaks again and says, "Two kings fought, one hight Helm
+Gunnar, an old man, and the greatest of warriors, and Odin had promised
+the victory unto him; but his foe was Agnar, or Audi's brother: and so
+I smote down Helm Gunnar in the fight; and Odin, in vengeance for that
+deed, stuck the sleep-thorn into me, and said that I should never
+again have the victory, but should be given away in marriage; but
+thereagainst I vowed a vow, that never would I wed one who knew the
+name of fear."
+
+Then said Sigurd, "Teach us the lore of mighty matters!"
+
+She said, "Belike thou cannest more skill in all than I; yet will I
+teach thee; yea, and with thanks, if there be aught of my cunning that
+will in anywise pleasure thee, either of runes or of other matters that
+are the root of things; but now let us drink together, and may the Gods
+give to us twain a good day, that thou mayst win good help and fame
+from my wisdom, and that thou mayst hereafter mind thee of that which we
+twain speak together."
+
+Then Brynhild filled a beaker and bore it to Sigurd, and gave him the
+drink of love, and spake--
+
+       "Beer bring I to thee,
+       Fair fruit of the byrnies' clash,
+       Mixed is it mightily,
+       Mingled with fame,
+       Brimming with bright lays
+       And pitiful runes,
+       Wise words, sweet words,
+       Speech of great game.
+
+       "Runes of war know thou,
+       If great thou wilt be!
+     Cut them on hilt of hardened sword,
+       Some on the brand's back,
+       Some on its shining side,
+     Twice name Tyr therein.
+
+       "Sea-runes good at need,
+       Learnt for ship's saving,
+     For the good health of the swimming horse;
+       On the stern cut them,
+       Cut them on the rudder-blade
+     And set flame to shaven oar:
+       Howso big be the sea-hills,
+       Howso blue beneath,
+     Hail from the main then comest thou home.
+
+       "Word-runes learn well
+       If thou wilt that no man
+     Pay back grief for the grief thou gavest;
+       Wind thou these,
+       Weave thou these,
+     Cast thou these all about thee,
+       At the Thing,
+       Where folk throng,
+     Unto the full doom faring.
+
+       "Of ale-runes know the wisdom
+       If thou wilt that another's wife
+     Should not bewray thine heart that trusteth:
+       Cut them on the mead-horn,
+       On the back of each hand,
+     And nick an N upon thy nail.
+
+       "Ale have thou heed
+       To sign from all harm
+     Leek lay thou in the liquor,
+       Then I know for sure
+       Never cometh to thee,
+     Mead with hurtful matters mingled.
+
+       "Help-runes shalt thou gather
+       If skill thou wouldst gain
+     To loosen child from low-laid mother;
+       Cut be they in hands hollow,
+       Wrapped the joints round about;
+     Call for the Good-folks' gainsome helping.
+
+       "Learn the bough-runes wisdom
+       If leech-lore thou lovest;
+     And wilt wot about wounds' searching
+       On the bark be they scored;
+       On the buds of trees
+     Whose boughs look eastward ever.
+
+       "Thought-runes shalt thou deal with
+       If thou wilt be of all men
+     Fairest-souled wight, and wisest,
+       These areded
+       These first cut
+     These first took to heart high Hropt.
+
+     "On the shield were they scored
+     That stands before the shining God,
+     On Early-waking's ear,
+     On All-knowing's hoof,
+     On the wheel which runneth
+     Under Rognir's chariot;
+     On Sleipnir's jaw-teeth,
+     On the sleigh's traces.
+
+     "On the rough bear's paws,
+     And on Bragi's tongue,
+     On the wolf's claws,
+     And on eagle's bill,
+     On bloody wings,
+     And bridge's end;
+     On loosing palms,
+     And pity's path:
+
+     "On glass, and on gold,
+     And on goodly silver,
+     In wine and in wort,
+     And the seat of the witch-wife;
+     On Gungnir's point,
+     And Grani's bosom;
+     On the Norn's nail,
+     And the neb of the night-owl.
+
+       "All these so cut,
+       Were shaven and sheared,
+     And mingled in with holy mead,
+     And sent upon wide ways enow;
+       Some abide with the Elves,
+       Some abide with the Aesir,
+     Or with the wise Vanir,
+     Some still hold the sons of mankind.
+
+       "These be the book-runes,
+       And the runes of good help,
+     And all the ale-runes,
+     And the runes of much might;
+       To whomso they may avail,
+       Unbewildered unspoilt;
+     They are wholesome to have:
+     Thrive thou with these then.
+     When thou hast learnt their lore,
+     Till the Gods end thy life-days.
+
+       "Now shalt thou choose thee
+       E'en as choice is bidden,
+     Sharp steel's root and stem,
+       Choose song or silence;
+       See to each in thy heart,
+     All hurt has been heeded."
+
+Then answered Sigurd--
+
+     "Ne'er shall I flee,
+     Though thou wottest me fey;
+     Never was I born for blenching,
+     Thy loved rede will I
+       Hold aright in my heart
+     Even as long as I may live."
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  The stanzas on the two following pages were inserted here
+       from "Sigrdrifasmal" by the translators.
+  (2)  Goddesses.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. More Wise Words of Brynhild.
+
+Sigurd spake now, "Sure no wiser woman than thou art one may be found in
+the wide world; yea, yea, teach me more yet of thy wisdom!"
+
+She answers, "Seemly is it that I do according to thy will, and show
+thee forth more redes of great avail, for thy prayer's sake and thy
+wisdom;" and she spake withal--
+
+"Be kindly to friend and kin, and reward not their trespasses against
+thee; bear and forbear, and win for thee thereby long enduring praise of
+men.
+
+"Take good heed of evil things: a may's love, and a man's wife; full oft
+thereof doth ill befall!
+
+"Let not thy mind be overmuch crossed by unwise men at thronged meetings
+of folk; for oft these speak worse than they wot of; lest thou be called
+a dastard, and art minded to think that thou art even as is said; slay
+such an one on another day, and so reward his ugly talk.
+
+"If thou farest by the way whereas bide evil things, be well ware of
+thyself; take not harbour near the highway, though thou be benighted,
+for oft abide there ill wights for men's bewilderment.
+
+"Let not fair women beguile thee, such as thou mayst meet at the feast,
+so that the thought thereof stand thee in stead of sleep, and a quiet
+mind; yea, draw them not to thee with kisses or other sweet things of
+love.
+
+"If thou hearest the fool's word of a drunken man, strive not with him
+being drunk with drink and witless; many a grief, yea, and the very
+death, groweth from out such things.
+
+"Fight thy foes in the field, nor be burnt in thine house.
+
+'Never swear thou wrongsome oath; great and grim is the reward for the
+breaking of plighted troth.
+
+"Give kind heed to dead men,--sick-dead, Sea-dead; deal heedfully with
+their dead corpses.
+
+"Trow never in him for whom thou hast slain father, brother, or whatso
+near kin, yea, though young he be; 'for oft waxes wolf in youngling'.
+
+"Look thou with good heed to the wiles of thy friends; but little skill
+is given to me, that I should foresee the ways of thy life; yet good it
+were that hate fell not on thee from those of thy wife's house."
+
+Sigurd spake, "None among the sons of men can be found wiser than thou;
+and thereby swear I, that thee will I have as my own, for near to my
+heart thou liest."
+
+She answers, "Thee would I fainest choose, though I had all men's sons
+to choose from."
+
+And thereto they plighted troth both of them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. Of the Semblance and Array of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane. (1)
+
+Now Sigurd rides away; many-folded is his shield, and blazing with red
+gold, and the image of a dragon is drawn thereon; and this same was dark
+brown above, and bright red below; and with even such-like image was
+adorned helm, and saddle, and coat-armour; and he was clad in the golden
+byrny, and all his weapons were gold wrought.
+
+Now for this cause was the drake drawn on all his weapons, that when he
+was seen of men, all folk might know who went there; yea, all those who
+had heard of his slaying of that great dragon, that the Voerings call
+Fafnir; and for that cause are his weapons gold-wrought, and brown
+of hue, and that he was by far above other men in courtesy and goodly
+manners, and well-nigh in all things else; and whenas folk tell of all
+the mightiest champions, and the noblest chiefs, then ever is he named
+the foremost, and his name goes wide about on all tongues north of the
+sea of the Greek-lands, and even so shall it be while the world endures.
+
+Now the hair of this Sigurd was golden-red of hue, fair of fashion, and
+falling down in great locks; thick and short was his beard, and of no
+other colour, high-nosed he was, broad and high-boned of face; so
+keen were his eyes, that few durst gaze up under the brows of him; his
+shoulders were as broad to look on as the shoulders of two; most duly
+was his body fashioned betwixt height and breadth, and in such wise as
+was seemliest; and this is the sign told of his height, that when he was
+girt with his sword Gram, which same was seven spans long, as he went
+through the full-grown rye-fields, the dew-shoe of the said sword smote
+the ears of the standing corn; and, for all that, greater was his
+strength than his growth: well could he wield sword, and cast forth
+spear, shoot shaft, and hold shield, bend bow, back horse, and do all
+the goodly deeds that he learned in his youth's days.
+
+Wise he was to know things yet undone; and the voice of all fowls he
+knew, wherefore few things fell on him unawares.
+
+Of many words he was, and so fair of speech withal, that whensoever he
+made it his business to speak, he never left speaking before that to all
+men it seemed full sure, that no otherwise must the matter be than as he
+said.
+
+His sport and pleasure it was to give aid to his own folk, and to prove
+himself in mighty matters, to take wealth from his unfriends, and give
+the same to his friends.
+
+Never did he lose heart, and of naught was he adrad.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  This chapter is nearly literally the same as chapter 166 of
+       the "Wilkinasaga"; Ed.: Perinskiold, Stockholm, 1715.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. Sigurd comes to Hlymdale.
+
+Forth Sigurd rides till he comes to a great and goodly dwelling, the
+lord whereof was a mighty chief called Heimir; he had to wife a sister
+of Brynhild, who was hight Bekkhild, because she had bidden at home, and
+learned handicraft, whereas Brynhild fared with helm and byrny unto the
+wars, wherefore was she called Brynhild.
+
+Heimir and Bekkhild had a son called Alswid, the most courteous of men.
+
+Now at this stead were men disporting them abroad, but when they see
+the man riding thereto, they leave their play to wonder at him, for none
+such had they ever seen erst; so they went to meet him, and gave him
+good welcome; Alswid bade him abide and have such things at his hands as
+he would; and he takes his bidding blithesomely; due service withal was
+established for him; four men bore the treasure of gold from off the
+horse, and the fifth took it to him to guard the same; therein were many
+things to behold, things of great price, and seldom seen; and great
+game and joy men had to look on byrnies and helms, and mighty rings, and
+wondrous great golden stoups, and all kinds of war weapons.
+
+So there dwelt Sigurd long in great honour holden; and tidings of that
+deed of fame spread wide through all lands, of how he had slain that
+hideous and fearful dragon. So good joyance had they there together,
+and each was leal to other; and their sport was in the arraying of
+their weapons, and the shafting of their arrows, and the flying of their
+falcons.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. Sigurd sees Brynhild at Hlymdale.
+
+In those days came home to Heimir, Brynhild, his foster-daughter,
+and she sat in her bower with her maidens, and could more skill in
+handycraft than other women; she sat, overlaying cloth with gold, and
+sewing therein the great deeds which Sigurd had wrought, the slaying of
+the Worm, and the taking of the wealth of him, and the death of Regin
+withal.
+
+Now tells the tale, that on a day Sigurd rode into the wood with hawk,
+and hound, and men thronging; and whenas he came home his hawk flew up
+to a high tower, and sat him down on a certain window. Then fared Sigurd
+after his hawk, and he saw where sat a fair woman, and knew that it was
+Brynhild, and he deems all things he sees there to be worthy together,
+both her fairness, and the fair things she wrought: and therewith he
+goes into the hall, but has no more joyance in the games of the men
+folk.
+
+Then spake Alswid, "Why art thou so bare of bliss? this manner of thine
+grieveth us thy friends; why then wilt thou not hold to thy gleesome
+ways? Lo, thy hawks pine now, and thy horse Grani droops; and long will
+it be ere we are booted thereof?"
+
+Sigurd answered, "Good friend, hearken to what lies on my mind; for my
+hawk flew up into a certain tower; and when I came thereto and took him,
+lo there I saw a fair woman, and she sat by a needlework of gold, and
+did thereon my deeds that are passed, and my deeds that are to come."
+
+Then said Alswid, "Thou has seen Brynhild, Budli's daughter, the
+greatest of great women."
+
+"Yea, verily," said Sigurd; "but how came she hither?"
+
+Aswid answered, "Short space there was betwixt the coming hither of the
+twain of you."
+
+Says Sigurd, "Yea, but a few days agone I knew her for the best of the
+world's women."
+
+Alswid said, "Give not all thine heed to one woman, being such a man as
+thou art; ill life to sit lamenting for what we may not have."
+
+"I shall go meet her," says Sigurd, "and get from her love like my love,
+and give her a gold ring in token thereof."
+
+Alswid answered, "None has ever yet been known whom she would let sit
+beside her, or to whom she would give drink; for ever will she hold to
+warfare and to the winning of all kinds of fame."
+
+Sigurd said, "We know not for sure whether she will give us answer or
+not, or grant us a seat beside her."
+
+So the next day after, Sigurd went to the bower, but Alswid stood
+outside the bower door, fitting shafts to his arrows.
+
+Now Sigurd spake, "Abide, fair and hale lady,--how farest thou?"
+
+She answered, "Well it fares; my kin and my friends live yet: but who
+shall say what goodhap folk may bear to their life's end?"
+
+He sat him down by her, and there came in four damsels with great golden
+beakers, and the best of wine therein; and these stood before the twain.
+
+Then said Brynhild, "This seat is for few, but and if my father come."
+
+He answered, "Yet is it granted to one that likes me well."
+
+Now that chamber was hung with the best and fairest of hangings, and the
+floor thereof was all covered with cloth.
+
+Sigurd spake, "Now has it come to pass even as thou didst promise."
+
+"O be thou welcome here!" said she, and arose therewith, and the four
+damsels with her, and bore the golden beaker to him, and bade him drink;
+he stretched out his hand to the beaker, and took it, and her hand
+withal, and drew her down beside him; and cast his arms round about her
+neck and kissed her, and said--
+
+"Thou art the fairest that was ever born!"
+
+But Brynhild said, "Ah, wiser is it not to cast faith and troth into a
+woman's power, for ever shall they break that they have promised."
+
+He said, "That day would dawn the best of days over our heads whereon
+each of each should be made happy."
+
+Brynhild answered, "It is not fated that we should abide together; I am
+a shield-may, and wear helm on head even as the kings of war, and them
+full oft I help, neither is the battle become loathsome to me."
+
+Sigurd answered, "What fruit shall be of our life, if we live not
+together: harder to bear this pain that lies hereunder, than the stroke
+of sharp sword."
+
+Brynhild answers, "I shall gaze on the hosts of the war-kings, but thou
+shalt wed Gudrun, the daughter of Giuki."
+
+Sigurd answered, "What king's daughter lives to beguile me? neither am
+I double-hearted herein; and now I swear by the Gods that thee shall I
+have for mine own, or no woman else."
+
+And even suchlike wise spake she.
+
+Sigurd thanked her for her speech, and gave her a gold ring, and now
+they swore oath anew, and so he went his ways to his men, and is with
+them awhile in great bliss.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. Of the Dream of Gudrun, Giuki's daughter.
+
+There was a king hight Giuki, who ruled a realm south of the Rhine;
+three sons he had, thus named: Gunnar, Hogni, and Guttorm, and Gudrun
+was the name of his daughter, the fairest of maidens; and all these
+children were far before all other king's children in all prowess, and
+in goodliness and growth withal; ever were his sons at the wars
+and wrought many a deed of fame. But Giuki had wedded Grimhild the
+Wise-wife.
+
+Now Budli was the name of a king mightier than Giuki, mighty though they
+both were: and Atli was the brother of Brynhild: Atli was a fierce man
+and a grim, great and black to look on, yet noble of mien withal, and
+the greatest of warriors. Grimhild was a fierce-hearted woman.
+
+Now the days of the Giukings bloomed fair, and chiefly because of those
+children, so far before the sons of men.
+
+On a day Gudrun says to her mays that she may have no joy of heart; then
+a certain woman asked her wherefore her joy was departed.
+
+She answered, "Grief came to me in my dreams, therefore is there sorrow
+in my heart, since thou must needs ask thereof."
+
+"Tell it me, then, thy dream," said the woman, "for dreams oft forecast
+but the weather."
+
+Gudrun answers, "Nay, nay, no weather is this; I dreamed that I had a
+fair hawk on my wrist, feathered with feathers of gold."
+
+Says the woman, "Many have heard tell of thy beauty, thy wisdom, and thy
+courtesy; some king's son abides thee, then."
+
+Gudrun answers, "I dreamed that naught was so dear to me as this hawk,
+and all my wealth had I cast aside rather than him."
+
+The woman said, "Well, then, the man thou shalt have will be of the
+goodliest, and well shalt thou love him."
+
+Gudrun answered, "It grieves me that I know not who he shall be; let us
+go seek Brynhild, for she belike will wot thereof."
+
+So they arrayed them in gold and many a fair thing, and she went with
+her damsels till they came to the hall of Brynhild, and that hall was
+dight with gold, and stood on a high hill; and whenas their goings were
+seen, it was told Brynhild, that a company of women drove toward the
+burg in gilded waggons.
+
+"That shall be Gudrun, Giuki's daughter," says she: "I dreamed of her
+last night; let us go meet her! No fairer woman may come to our house."
+
+So they went abroad to meet them, and gave them good greeting, and they
+went into the goodly hall together; fairly painted it was within, and
+well adorned with silver vessel; cloths were spread under the feet of
+them, and all folk served them, and in many wise they sported.
+
+But Gudrun was somewhat silent.
+
+Then said Brynhild, "Ill to abash folk of their mirth; prithee do not
+so; let us talk together for our disport of mighty kings and their great
+deeds."
+
+"Good talk," says Gudrun, "let us do even so; what kings deemest thou to
+have been the first of all men?"
+
+Brynhild says, "The sons of Haki, and Hagbard withal; they brought to
+pass many a deed of fame in the warfare."
+
+Gudrun answers, "Great men certes, and of noble fame! Yet Sigar took
+their one sister, and burned the other, house and all; and they may be
+called slow to revenge the deed; why didst thou not name my brethren, who
+are held to be the first of men as at this time?"
+
+Brynhild says, "Men of good hope are they surely, though but little
+proven hitherto; but one I know far before them, Sigurd, the son of
+Sigmund the king; a youngling was he in the days when he slew the sons
+of Hunding, and revenged his father, and Eylimi, his mother's father."
+
+Said Gudrun, "By what token tellest thou that?"
+
+Brynhild answered, "His mother went amid the dead, and found Sigmund the
+king sore wounded, and would bind up his hurts; but he said he grew over
+old for war, and bade her lay this comfort to her heart, that she should
+bear the most famed of sons; and wise was the wise man's word therein:
+for after the death of King Sigmund, she went to King Alf, and there was
+Sigurd nourished in great honour, and day by day he wrought some deed of
+fame, and is the man most renowned of all the wide world."
+
+Gudrun says, "From love hast thou gained these tidings of him; but for
+this cause came I here, to tell thee dreams of mine which have brought
+me great grief."
+
+Says Brynhild, "Let not such matters sadden thee; abide with thy friends
+who wish thee blithesome, all of them!"
+
+"This I dreamed," said Gudrun, "that we went, a many of us in company,
+from the bower, and we saw an exceeding great hart, that far excelled
+all other deer ever seen, and the hair of him was golden; and this
+deer we were all fain to take, but I alone got him; and he seemed to me
+better than all things else; but sithence thou, Byrnhild, didst shoot
+and slay my deer even at my very knees, and such grief was that to
+me that scarce might I bear it; and then afterwards thou gavest me a
+wolf-cub, which besprinkled me with the blood of my brethren."
+
+Brynhild answers, "I will arede thy dream, even as things shall come
+to pass hereafter; for Sigurd shall come to thee, even he whom I have
+chosen for my well-beloved; and Grimhild shall give him mead mingled
+with hurtful things, which shall cast us all into mighty strife. Him
+shalt thou have, and him shalt thou quickly miss; and Atli the king
+shalt thou wed; and thy brethren shalt thou lose, and slay Atli withal
+in the end."
+
+Gudrun answers, "Grief and woe to know that such things shall be!"
+
+And therewith she and hers get them gone home to King Giuki.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. Sigurd comes to the Giukings and is wedded to Gudrun.
+
+Now Sigurd goes his ways with all that great treasure, and in friendly
+wise he departs from them; and on Grani he rides with all his war-gear
+and the burden withal; and thus he rides until he comes to the hall
+of King Giuki; there he rides into the burg, and that sees one of the
+king's men, and he spake withal--
+
+"Sure it may be deemed that here is come one of the Gods, for his array
+is all done with gold, and his horse is far mightier than other horses,
+and the manner of his weapons is most exceeding goodly, and most of all
+the man himself far excels all other men ever seen."
+
+So the king goes out with his court and greets the man, and asks--
+
+"Who art thou who thus ridest into my burg, as none has durst hitherto
+without the leave of my sons?"
+
+He answered, "I am called Sigurd, son of King Sigmund."
+
+Then said King Giuki, "Be thou welcome here then, and take at our hands
+whatso thou willest."
+
+So he went into the king's hall, and all men seemed little beside him,
+and all men served him, and there he abode in great joyance.
+
+Now oft they all ride abroad together, Sigurd and Gunnar and Hogni,
+and ever is Sigurd far the foremost of them, mighty men of their hands
+though they were.
+
+But Grimhild finds how heartily Sigurd loved Brynhild, and how oft he
+talks of her; and she falls to thinking how well it were, if he might
+abide there and wed the daughter of King Giuki, for she saw that none
+might come anigh to his goodliness, and what faith and goodhelp there
+was in him, and how that he had more wealth withal than folk might tell
+of any man; and the king did to him even as unto his own sons, and they
+for their parts held him of more worth than themselves.
+
+So on a night as they sat at the drink, the queen arose, and went before
+Sigurd, and said--
+
+"Great joy we have in thine abiding here, and all good things will
+we put before thee to take of us; lo now, take this horn and drink
+thereof."
+
+So he took it and drank, and therewithal she said, "Thy father shall be
+Giuki the king, and I shall be thy mother, and Gunnar and Hogni shall be
+thy brethren, and all this shall be sworn with oaths each to each; and
+then surely shall the like of you never be found on earth."
+
+Sigurd took her speech well, for with the drinking of that drink all
+memory of Brynhild departed from him. So there he abode awhile.
+
+And on a day went Grimhild to Giuki the king, and cast her arms about
+his neck, and spake--
+
+"Behold, there has now come to us the greatest of great hearts that the
+world holds; and needs must he be trusty and of great avail; give him
+thy daughter then, with plenteous wealth, and as much of rule as he
+will; perchance thereby he will be well content to abide here ever."
+
+The king answered, "Seldom does it befall that kings offer their
+daughters to any; yet in higher wise will it be done to offer her to
+this man, than to take lowly prayers for her from others."
+
+On a night Gudrun pours out the drink, and Sigurd beholds her how fair
+she is and how full of all courtesy.
+
+Five seasons Sigurd abode there, and ever they passed their days
+together in good honour and friendship.
+
+And so it befell that the kings held talk together, and Giuki said --
+
+"Great good thou givest us, Sigurd, and with exceeding strength thou
+strengthenest our realm."
+
+Then Gunnar said, "All things that may be will we do for thee, so thou
+abidest here long; both dominion shalt thou have, and our sister freely
+and unprayed for, whom another man would not get for all his prayers."
+
+Sigurd says, "Thanks have ye for this wherewith ye honour me, and
+gladly will I take the same."
+
+Therewith they swore brotherhood together, and to be even as if they
+were children of one father and one mother; and a noble feast was
+holden, and endured many days, and Sigurd drank at the wedding of him
+and Gudrun; and there might men behold all manner of game and glee, and
+each day the feast better and better.
+
+Now fare these folk wide over the world, and do many great deeds, and
+slay many kings' sons, and no man has ever done such works of prowess as
+did they; then home they come again with much wealth won in war.
+
+Sigurd gave of the serpent's heart to Gudrun, and she ate thereof, and
+became greater-hearted, and wiser than ere before: and the son of these
+twain was called Sigmund.
+
+Now on a time went Grimhild to Gunnar her son, and spake--
+
+"Fair blooms the life and fortune of thee, but for one thing only, and
+namely whereas thou art unwedded; go woo Brynhild; good rede is this,
+and Sigurd will ride with thee."
+
+Gunnar answered, "Fair is she certes, and I am fain enow to win her;"
+and therewith he tells his father, and his brethren, and Sigurd, and
+they all prick him on to that wooing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. The Wooing of Brynhild.
+
+Now they array them joyously for their journey, and ride over hill and
+dale to the house of King Budli, and woo his daughter of him; in a good
+wise he took their speech, if so be that she herself would not deny
+them; but he said withal that so high-minded was she, that that man
+only might wed her whom she would.
+
+Then they ride to Hlymdale, and there Heimir gave them good welcome; so
+Gunnar tells his errand; Heimir says, that she must needs wed but him
+whom she herself chose freely; and tells them how her abode was but a
+little way thence, and that he deemed that him only would she have who
+should ride through the flaming fire that was drawn round about her
+hall; so they depart and come to the hall and the fire, and see there a
+castle with a golden roof-ridge, and all round about a fire roaring up.
+
+Now Gunnar rode on Goti, but Hogni on Holkvi, and Gunnar smote his horse
+to face the fire, but he shrank aback.
+
+Then said Sigurd, "Why givest thou back, Gunnar?"
+
+He answered, "The horse will not tread this fire; but lend me thy horse
+Grani."
+
+"Yea, with all my good will," says Sigurd.
+
+Then Gunnar rides him at the fire, and yet nowise will Gram stir, nor
+may Gunnar any the more ride through that fire. So now they change
+semblance, Gunnar and Sigurd, even as Grimhild had taught them; then
+Sigurd in the likeness of Gunnar mounts and rides, Gram in his hand, and
+golden spurs on his heels; then leapt Grani into the fire when he felt
+the spurs; and a mighty roar arose as the fire burned ever madder, and
+the earth trembled, and the flames went up even unto the heavens, nor
+had any dared to ride as he rode, even as it were through the deep mirk.
+
+But now the fire sank withal, and he leapt from his horse and went into
+the hall, even as the song says--
+
+     "The flame flared at its maddest,
+     Earth's fields fell a-quaking
+     As the red flame aloft
+     Licked the lowest of heaven.
+     Few had been fain,
+     Of the rulers of folk,
+     To ride through that flame,
+     Or athwart it to tread.
+
+     "Then Sigurd smote
+     Grani with sword,
+     And the flame was slaked
+     Before the king;
+     Low lay the flames
+     Before the fain of fame;
+     Bright gleamed the array
+     That Regin erst owned.
+
+Now when Sigurd had passed through the fire, he came into a certain fair
+dwelling, and therein sat Brynhild.
+
+She asked, "What man is it?"
+
+Then he named himself Gunnar, son of Giuki, and said--"Thou art awarded
+to me as my wife, by the good will and word of thy father and thy
+foster-father, and I have ridden through the flames of thy fire,
+according to thy word that thou hast set forth."
+
+"I wot not clearly," said she, "how I shall answer thee."
+
+Now Sigurd stood upright on the hall floor, and leaned on the hilt of
+his sword, and he spake to Brynhild--
+
+"In reward thereof, shall I pay thee a great dower in gold and goodly
+things?"
+
+She answered in heavy mood from her seat, whereas she sat like unto swan
+on billow, having a sword in her hand, and a helm on her head, and being
+clad in a byrny, "O Gunnar," she says, "speak not to me of such things,
+unless thou be the first and best of all men; for then shalt thou slay
+those my wooers, if thou hast heart thereto; I have been in battles with
+the king of the Greeks, and our weapons were stained with red blood, and for
+such things still I yearn."
+
+He answered, "Yea, certes many great deeds hast thou done; but yet call
+thou to mind thine oath, concerning the riding through of this fire,
+wherein thou didst swear that thou wouldst go with the man who should do
+this deed."
+
+So she found that he spoke but the sooth, and she paid heed to his
+words, and arose, and greeted him meetly, and he abode there three
+nights, and they lay in one bed together; but he took the sword Gram and
+laid it betwixt them: then she asked him why he laid it there; and he
+answered, that in that wise must he needs wed his wife or else get his
+bane.
+
+Then she took from off her the ring Andvari's-loom, which he had given
+her aforetime, and gave it to him, but he gave her another ring out of
+Fafnir's hoard.
+
+Thereafter he rode away through the same fire unto his fellows, and he
+and Gunnar changed semblances again, and rode unto Hlymdale, and told
+how it had gone with them.
+
+That same day went Brynhild home to her foster-father, and tells him
+as one whom she trusted, how that there had come a king to her; "And he
+rode through my flaming fire, and said he was come to woo me, and named
+himself Gunnar; but I said that such a deed might Sigurd alone have
+done, with whom I plighted troth on the mountain; and he is my first
+troth-plight, and my well-beloved."
+
+Heimir said that things must needs abide even as now they had now come
+to pass.
+
+Brynhild said, "Aslaug the daughter of me and Sigurd shall be nourished
+here with thee."
+
+Now the kings fare home, but Brynhild goes to her father; Grimhild
+welcomes the kings meetly, and thanks Sigurd for his fellowship; and
+withal is a great feast made, and many were the guests thereat; and
+thither came Budli the King with his daughter Brynhild, and his son
+Atli, and for many days did the feast endure: and at that feast was
+Gunnar wedded to Brynhild: but when it was brought to an end, once more
+has Sigurd memory of all the oaths that he sware unto Brynhild, yet
+withal he let all things abide in rest and peace.
+
+Brynhild and Gunnar sat together in great game and glee, and drank
+goodly wine.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. How the Queens held angry converse together at the
+Bathing.
+
+On a day as the Queens went to the river to bathe them, Brynhild waded
+the farthest out into the river; then asked Gudrun what that deed might
+signify.
+
+Brynhild said, "Yea, and why then should I be equal to thee in this
+matter more than in others? I am minded to think that my father is
+mightier than thine, and my true love has wrought many wondrous works of
+fame, and hath ridden the flaming fire withal, while thy husband was but
+the thrall of King Hjalprek."
+
+Gudrun answered full of wrath, "Thou wouldst be wise if thou shouldst
+hold thy peace rather than revile my husband: lo now, the talk of all
+men it is, that none has ever abode in this world like unto him in all
+matters soever; and little it beseems thee of all folk to mock him who
+was thy first beloved: and Fafnir he slew, yea, and he rode thy flaming
+fire, whereas thou didst deem that he was Gunnar the King, and by thy
+side he lay, and took from thine hand the ring Andvari's-loom;--here
+mayst thou well behold it!"
+
+Then Brynhild saw the ring and knew it, and waxed as wan as a dead
+woman, and she went home and spake no word the evening long.
+
+So when Sigurd came to bed to Gudrun she asked him why Brynhild's joy
+was so departed.
+
+He answered, "I know not, but sore I misdoubt me that soon we shall know
+thereof overwell."
+
+Gudrun said, "Why may she not love her life, having wealth and bliss,
+and the praise of all men, and the man withal that she would have?"
+
+"Ah, yea!" said Sigurd, "and where in all the world was she then, when
+she said that she deemed she had the noblest of all men, and the dearest
+to her heart of all?"
+
+Gudrun answers, "Tomorn will I ask her concerning this, who is the
+liefest to her of all men for a husband."
+
+Sigurd said, "Needs must I forbid thee this, and full surely wilt thou
+rue the deed if thou doest it."
+
+Now the next morning they sat in the bower, and Brynhild was silent;
+then spake Gudrun--
+
+"Be merry, Brynhild! Grievest thou because of that speech of ours
+together, or what other thing slayeth thy bliss?"
+
+Brynhild answers, "With naught but evil intent thou sayest this, for a
+cruel heart thou hast."
+
+"Say not so," said Gudrun; "but rather tell me all the tale."
+
+Brynhild answers, "Ask such things only as are good for thee to
+know--matters meet for mighty dames. Good to love good things when all
+goes according to thy heart's desire!"
+
+Gudrun says, "Early days for me to glory in that; but this word of thine
+looketh toward some foreseeing. What ill dost thou thrust at us? I did
+naught to grieve thee."
+
+Brynhild answers, "For this shalt thou pay, in that thou hast got Sigurd
+to thee,--nowise can I see thee living in the bliss thereof, whereas
+thou hast him, and the wealth and the might of him."
+
+But Gudrun answered, "Naught knew I of your words and vows together; and
+well might my father look to the mating of me without dealing with thee
+first."
+
+"No secret speech had we," quoth Brynhild, "though we swore oath
+together; and full well didst thou know that thou wentest about to
+beguile me; verily thou shalt have thy reward!"
+
+Says Gudrun, "Thou art mated better than thou are worthy of; but thy
+pride and rage shall be hard to slake belike, and therefor shall many a
+man pay."
+
+"Ah, I should be well content," said Brynhild, "if thou hadst not the
+nobler man!"
+
+Gudrun answers, "So noble a husband hast thou, that who knows of a
+greater king or a lord of more wealth and might?"
+
+Says Brynhild, "Sigurd slew Fafnir, and that only deed is of more worth
+than all the might of King Gunnar."
+
+(Even as the song says):
+
+     "The worm Sigurd slew,
+     Nor e'er shall that deed
+     Be worsened by age
+     While the world is alive:
+     But thy brother the King
+     Never durst, never bore
+     The flame to ride down
+     Through the fire to fare."
+
+Gudrun answers, "Grani would not abide the fire under Gunnar the King,
+but Sigurd durst the deed, and thy heart may well abide without mocking
+him."
+
+Brynhild answers, "Nowise will I hide from thee that I deem no good of
+Grimhild."
+
+Says Gudrun, "Nay, lay no ill words on her, for in all things she is to
+thee as to her own daughter."
+
+"Ah," says Brynhild, "she is the beginning of all this hale that biteth
+so; an evil drink she bare to Sigurd, so that he had no more memory of
+my very name."
+
+"All wrong thou talkest; a lie without measure is this," quoth Gudrun.
+
+Brynhild answered, "Have thou joy of Sigurd according to the measure of
+the wiles wherewith ye have beguiled me! Unworthily have ye conspired
+against me; may all things go with you as my heart hopes!"
+
+Gudrun says, "More joy shall I have of him than thy wish would give unto
+me: but to no man's mind it came, that he had aforetime his pleasure of
+me; nay not once."
+
+"Evil speech thou speakest," says Brynhild; "when thy wrath runs off
+thou wilt rue it; but come now, let us no more cast angry words one at
+the other!"
+
+Says Gudrun, "Thou wert the first to cast such words at me, and now thou
+makest as if thou wouldst amend it, but a cruel and hard heart abides
+behind."
+
+"Let us lay aside vain babble," says Brynhild. "Long did I hold my peace
+concerning my sorrow of heart, and, lo now, thy brother alone do I love;
+let us fall to other talk."
+
+Gudrun said, "Far beyond all this doth thine heart look."
+
+And so ugly ill befell from that going to the river, and that knowing of
+the ring, wherefrom did all their talk arise.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. Of Brynhild's great Grief and Mourning.
+
+After this talk Brynhild lay a-bed, and tidings were brought to King
+Gunnar that Brynhild was sick; he goes to see her thereon, and asks what
+ails her; but she answered him naught, but lay there as one dead: and
+when he was hard on her for an answer, she said--
+
+"What didst thou with that ring that I gave thee, even the one which
+King Budli gave me at our last parting, when thou and King Giuki came to
+him and threatened fire and the sword, unless ye had me to wife? Yea, at
+that time he led me apart, and asked me which I had chosen of those who
+were come; but I prayed him that I might abide to ward the land and be
+chief over the third part of his men; then were there two choices for me
+to deal betwixt, either that I should be wedded to him whom he would, or
+lose all my weal and friendship at his hands; and he said withal that
+his friendship would be better to me than his wrath: then I bethought me
+whether I should yield to his will, or slay many a man; and therewithal
+I deemed that it would avail little to strive with him, and so it fell
+out, that I promised to wed whomsoever should ride the horse Grani with
+Fafnir's Hoard, and ride through my flaming fire, and slay those men
+whom I called on him to slay, and now so it was, that none durst ride,
+save Sigurd only, because he lacked no heart thereto; yea, and the Worm
+he slew, and Regin, and five kings beside; but thou, Gunnar, durst do
+naught; as pale as a dead man didst thou wax, and no king thou art,
+and no champion; so whereas I made a vow unto my father, that him alone
+would I love who was the noblest man alive, and that this is none save
+Sigurd, lo, now have I broken my oath and brought it to naught, since
+he is none of mine, and for this cause shall I compass thy death; and a
+great reward of evil things have I wherewith to reward Grimhild;--never,
+I wot, has woman lived eviler or of lesser heart than she."
+
+Gunnar answered in such wise that few might hear him, "Many a vile
+word hast thou spoken, and an evil-hearted woman art thou, whereas thou
+revilest a woman far better than thou; never would she curse her life
+as thou dost; nay, nor has she tormented dead folk, or murdered any; but
+lives her life well praised of all."
+
+Brynhild answered, "Never have I dwelt with evil things privily, or done
+loathsome deeds;--yet most fain I am to slay thee."
+
+And therewith would she slay King Gunnar, but Hogni laid her in fetters;
+but then Gunnar spake withal--
+
+"Nay, I will not that she abide in fetters."
+
+Then said she, "Heed it not! For never again seest thou me glad in thine
+hall, never drinking, never at the chess-play, never speaking the words
+of kindness, never over-laying the fair cloths with gold, never giving
+thee good counsel;--ah, my sorrow of heart that I might not get Sigurd
+to me!"
+
+Then she sat up and smote her needlework, and rent it asunder, and bade
+set open her bower doors, that far away might the wailings of her sorrow
+be heard; then great mourning and lamentation there was, so that folk
+heard it far and wide through that abode.
+
+Now Gudrun asked her bower-maidens why they sat so joyless and downcast.
+"What has come to you, that ye fare ye as witless women, or what
+unheard-of wonders have befallen you?"
+
+Then answered a waiting lady, hight Swaflod, "An untimely, an evil day
+it is, and our hall is fulfilled of lamentation."
+
+Then spake Gudrun to one of her handmaids, "Arise, for we have slept
+long; go, wake Brynhild, and let us fall to our needlework and be
+merry."
+
+"Nay, nay," she says, "nowise may I wake her, or talk with her; for many
+days has she drunk neither mead nor wine; surely the wrath of the Gods
+has fallen upon her."
+
+Then spake Gudrun to Gunnar, "Go and see her," she says, "and bid her
+know that I am grieved with her grief."
+
+"Nay," says Gunnar, "I am forbid to go see her or to share her weal."
+
+Nevertheless he went unto her, and strives in many wise to have speech
+of her, but gets no answer whatsoever; therefore he gets him gone and
+finds Hogni, and bids him go see her: he said he was loth thereto, but
+went, and gat no more of her.
+
+Then they go and find Sigurd, and pray him to visit her; he answered
+naught thereto, and so matters abode for that night.
+
+But the next day, when he came home from hunting, Sigurd went to Gudrun,
+and spake--
+
+"In such wise do matters show to me, as though great and evil things
+will betide from this trouble and upheaving; and that Brynhild will
+surely die."
+
+Gudrun answers, "O my lord, by great wonders is she encompassed, seven
+days and seven nights has she slept, and none has dared wake her."
+
+"Nay, she sleeps not," said Sigurd, "her heart is dealing rather with
+dreadful intent against me."
+
+Then said Gudrun, weeping, "Woe worth the while for thy death! Go and
+see her; and wot if her fury may not be abated; give her gold, and
+smother up her grief and anger therewith!"
+
+Then Sigurd went out, and found the door of Brynhild's chamber open; he
+deemed she slept, and drew the clothes from off her, and said--
+
+"Awake, Brynhild! The sun shineth now over all the house, and thou hast
+slept enough; cast off grief from thee, and take up gladness!"
+
+She said, "And how then hast thou dared to come to me? in this treason
+none was worse to me than thou."
+
+Said Sigurd, "Why wilt thou not speak to folk? for what cause sorrowest
+thou?"
+
+Brynhild answers, "Ah, to thee will I tell of my wrath!"
+
+Sigurd said, "As one under a spell art thou, if thou deemest that there
+is aught cruel in my heart against thee; but thou hast him for husband
+whom thou didst choose."
+
+"Ah, nay," she said, "never did Gunnar ride through the fire to me, nor
+did he give me to dower the host of the slain: I wondered at the man
+who came into my hall; for I deemed indeed that I knew thine eyes; but I
+might not see clearly, or divide the good from the evil, because of the
+veil that lay heavy on my fortune."
+
+Says Sigurd, "No nobler men are there than the sons of Giuki, they slew
+the king of the Danes, and that great chief, the brother of King Budli."
+
+Brynhild answered, "Surely for many an ill-deed must I reward them; mind
+me not of my griefs against them! But thou, Sigurd, slewest the Worm,
+and rodest the fire through; yea, and for my sake, and not one of the
+sons of King Giuki."
+
+Sigurd answers, "I am not thy husband, and thou art not my wife; yet did
+a farfamed king pay dower to thee."
+
+Says Brynhild, "Never looked I at Gunnar in such a wise that my heart
+smiled on him; and hard and fell am I to him, though I hide it from
+others."
+
+"A marvellous thing," says Sigurd, "not to love such a king; what angers
+thee most? for surely his love should be better to thee than gold."
+
+"This is the sorest sorrow to me," she said, "that the bitter sword is
+not reddened in thy blood."
+
+"Have no fear thereof!" says he, "no long while to wait or the bitter
+sword stand deep in my heart; and no worse needest thou to pray for
+thyself, for thou wilt not live when I am dead; the days of our two
+lives shall be few enough from henceforth."
+
+Brynhild answers, "Enough and to spare of bale is in thy speech, since
+thou bewrayedst me, and didst twin (1) me and all bliss;--naught do I
+heed my life or death."
+
+Sigurd answers, "Ah, live, and love King Gunnar and me withal! and all
+my wealth will I give thee if thou die not."
+
+Brynhild answers, "Thou knowest me not, nor the heart that is in me;
+for thou art the first and best of all men, and I am become the most
+loathsome of all women to thee."
+
+"This is truer," says Sigurd, "that I loved thee better than myself,
+though I fell into the wiles from whence our lives may not escape; for
+whenso my own heart and mind availed me, then I sorrowed sore that thou
+wert not my wife; but as I might I put my trouble from me, for in a
+king's dwelling was I; and withal and in spite of all I was well content
+that we were all together. Well may it be, that that shall come to pass
+which is foretold; neither shall I fear the fulfilment thereof."
+
+Brynhild answered, and said, "Too late thou tellest me that my grief
+grieved thee: little pity shall I find now."
+
+Sigurd said, "This my heart would, that thou and I should go into one
+bed together; even so wouldst thou be my wife."
+
+Said Brynhild, "Such words may nowise be spoken, nor will I have two
+kings in one hall; I will lay my life down rather than beguile Gunnar
+the King."
+
+And therewith she call to mind how they met, they two, on the mountain,
+and swore oath each to each.
+
+"But now is all changed, and I will not live."
+
+"I might not call to mind thy name," said Sigurd, "or know thee again,
+before the time of thy wedding; the greatest of all griefs is that."
+
+Then said Brynhild, "I swore an oath to wed the man who should ride my
+flaming fire, and that oath will I hold to, or die."
+
+"Rather than thou die, I will wed thee, and put away Gudrun," said
+Sigurd.
+
+But therewithal so swelled the heart betwixt the sides of him, that the
+rings of his byrny burst asunder.
+
+"I will not have thee," says Brynhild, "nay, nor any other!"
+
+Then Sigurd got him gone.
+
+So saith the song of Sigurd--
+
+     "Out then went Sigurd,
+     The great kings' well-loved,
+     From the speech and the sorrow,
+     Sore drooping, so grieving,
+     That the shirt round about him
+     Of iron rings woven,
+     From the sides brake asunder
+     Of the brave in the battle."
+
+So when Sigurd came into the hall, Gunnar asked if he had come to a
+knowledge of what great grief lay heavy on her, or if she had power of
+speech: and Sigurd said that she lacked it not. So now Gunnar goes
+to her again, and asked her, what wrought her woe, or if there were
+anything that might amend it.
+
+"I will not live," says Brynhild, "for Sigurd has bewrayed me, yea,
+and thee no less, whereas thou didst suffer him to come into my bed:
+lo thou, two men in one dwelling I will not have; and this shall be
+Sigurd's death, or thy death, or my death;--for now has he told Gudrun
+all, and she is mocking me even now!"
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Sunder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. Of the Slaying of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane.
+
+Thereafter Brynhild went out, and sat under her bower-wall, and had
+many words of wailing to say, and still she cried that all things were
+loathsome to her, both land and lordship alike, so she might not have
+Sigurd.
+
+But therewith came Gunnar to her yet again, and Brynhild spake, "Thou
+shalt lose both realm and wealth, and thy life and me, for I shall fare
+home to my kin, and abide there in sorrow, unless thou slayest Sigurd
+and his son; never nourish thou a wolfcub."
+
+Gunnar grew sick at heart thereat, and might nowise see what fearful
+thing lay beneath it all; he was bound to Sigurd by oath, and this way
+and that way swung the heart within him; but at the last he bethought
+him of the measureless shame if his wife went from him, and he said
+within himself, "Brynhild is better to me than all things else, and the
+fairest woman of all women, and I will lay down my life rather than lose
+the love of her." And herewith he called to him his brother and spake,--
+
+"Trouble is heavy on me," and he tells him that he must needs slay
+Sigurd, for that he has failed him where in he trusted him; "so let us
+be lords of the gold and the realm withal."
+
+Hogni answers, "Ill it behoves us to break our oaths with wrack and
+wrong, and withal great aid we have in him; no kings shall be as
+great as we, if so be the King of the Hun-folk may live; such another
+brother-in-law never may we get again; bethink thee how good it is to
+have such a brother-in-law, and such sons to our sister! But well I see
+how things stand, for this has Brynhild stirred thee up to, and surely
+shall her counsel drag us into huge shame and scathe."
+
+Gunnar says, "Yet shall it be brought about: and, lo, a rede
+thereto;--let us egg on our brother Guttorm to the deed; he is young,
+and of little knowledge, and is clean out of all the oaths moreover."
+
+"Ah, set about in ill wise," says Hogni, "and though indeed it may well
+be compassed, a due reward shall we gain for the bewrayal of such a man
+as is Sigurd."
+
+Gunnar says, "Sigurd shall die, or I shall die."
+
+And therewith he bids Brynhild arise and be glad at heart: so she arose,
+and still ever she said that Gunnar should come no more into her bed
+till the deed was done.
+
+So the brothers fall to talk, and Gunnar says that it is a deed well
+worthy of death, that taking of Brynhild's maidenhead; "So come now, let
+us prick on Guttorm to do the deed."
+
+Therewith they call him to them, and offer him gold and great dominion,
+as they well have might to do. Yea, and they took a certain worm and
+somewhat of wolf's flesh and let seethe them together, and gave him to
+eat of the same, even as the singer sings--
+
+     "Fish of the wild-wood,
+     Worm smooth crawling,
+     With wolf-meat mingled,
+     They minced for Guttorm;
+     Then in the beaker,
+     In the wine his mouth knew,
+     They set it, still doing
+     More deeds of wizards.
+
+Wherefore with the eating of this meat he grew so wild and eager, and
+with all things about him, and with the heavy words of Grimhild, that
+he gave his word to do the deed; and mighty honour they promised him in
+reward thereof.
+
+But of these evil wiles naught at all knew Sigurd, for he might not deal
+with his shapen fate, nor the measure of his life-days, neither deemed
+he that he was worthy of such things at their hands.
+
+So Guttorm went in to Sigurd the next morning as he lay upon his bed,
+yet durst he not do aught against him, but shrank back out again; yea,
+and even so he fared a second time, for so bright and eager were the
+eyes of Sigurd that few durst look upon him. But the third time he went
+in, and there lay Sigurd asleep; then Guttorm drew his sword and thrust
+Sigurd through in such wise that the sword point smote into the bed
+beneath him; then Sigurd awoke with that wound, and Guttorm gat him unto
+the door; but therewith Sigurd caught up the sword Gram, and cast it
+after him, and it smote him on the back, and struck him asunder in the
+midst, so that the feet of him fell one way, and the head and hands back
+into the chamber.
+
+Now Gudrun lay asleep on Sigurd's bosom, but she woke up unto woe that
+may not be told of, all swimming in the blood of him, and in such wise
+did she bewail her with weeping and words of sorrow, that Sigurd rose up
+on the bolster, and spake.
+
+"Weep not," said he, "for thy brothers live for thy delight; but a young
+son have I, too young to be ware of his foes; and an ill turn have these
+played against their own fortune; for never will they get a mightier
+brother-in-law to ride abroad with them; nay, nor a better son to their
+sister, than this one, if he may grow to man's estate. Lo, now is that
+come to pass which was foretold me long ago, but from mine eyes has it
+been hidden, for none may fight against his fate and prevail. Behold
+this has Brynhild brought to pass, even she who loves me before all
+men; but this may I swear, that never have I wrought ill to Gunnar, but
+rather have ever held fast to my oath with him, nor was I ever too much
+a friend to his wife. And now if I had been forewarned, and had been
+afoot with my weapons, then should many a man have lost his life or
+ever I had fallen, and all those brethren should have been slain, and
+a harder work would the slaying of me have been than the slaying of the
+mightiest bull or the mightiest boar of the wild-wood."
+
+And even therewithal life left the King; but Gudrun moaned and drew
+a weary breath, and Brynhild heard it, and laughed when she heard her
+moaning.
+
+Then said Gunnar, "Thou laughest not because thy heart-roots are
+gladdened, or else why doth thy visage wax so wan? Sure an evil creature
+thou art; most like thou art nigh to thy death! Lo now, how meet would
+it be for thee to behold thy brother Atli slain before thine eyes, and
+that thou shouldst stand over him dead; whereas we must needs now
+stand over our brother-in-law in such a case, our brother-in-law and our
+brother's bane."
+
+She answered, "None need mock at the measure of slaughter being
+unfulfilled; yet heedeth not Atli your wrath or your threats; yea, he
+shall live longer than ye, and be a mightier man."
+
+Hogni spake and said, "Now hath come to pass the soothsaying of
+Brynhild; an ill work not to be atoned for."
+
+And Gudrun said, "My kinsmen have slain my husband; but ye, when ye next
+ride to the war and are come into the battle, then shall ye look about
+and see that Sigurd is neither on the right hand nor the left, and ye
+shall know that he was your good-hap and your strength; and if he
+had lived and had sons, then should ye have been strengthened by his
+offspring and his kin."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. Of the Lamentation of Gudrun over Sigurd dead, as it is
+told told in ancient Songs. (1)
+
+     Gudrun of old days
+     Drew near to dying
+     As she sat in sorrow
+     Over Sigurd;
+     Yet she sighed not
+     Nor smote hand on hand,
+     Nor wailed she aught
+     As other women.
+
+     Then went earls to her.
+     Full of all wisdom,
+     Fain help to deal
+     To her dreadful heart:
+     Hushed was Gudrun
+     Of wail, or greeting,
+     But with a heavy woe
+     Was her heart a-breaking.
+
+     Bright and fair
+     Sat the great earls' brides,
+     Gold arrayed
+     Before Gudrun;
+     Each told the tale
+     Of her great trouble,
+     The bitterest bale
+     She erst abode.
+
+     Then spake Giaflaug,
+     Giuki's sister:
+     "Lo upon earth
+     I live most loveless
+     Who of five mates
+     Must see the ending,
+     Of daughters twain
+     And three sisters,
+     Of brethren eight,
+     And abide behind lonely."
+
+     Naught gat Gudrun
+     Of wail and greeting,
+     So heavy was she
+     For her dead husband,
+     So dreadful-hearted
+     For the King laid dead there.
+
+     Then spake Herborg
+     Queen of Hunland--
+     "Crueller tale
+     Have I to tell of,
+     Of my seven sons
+     Down in the Southlands,
+     And the eighth man, my mate,
+     Felled in the death-mead.
+
+     "Father and mother,
+     And four brothers,
+     On the wide sea
+     The winds and death played with;
+     The billows beat
+     On the bulwark boards.
+
+     "Alone must I sing o'er them,
+     Alone must I array them,
+     Alone must my hands deal with
+     Their departing;
+     And all this was
+     In one season's wearing,
+     And none was left
+     For love or solace.
+
+     "Then was I bound
+     A prey of the battle,
+     When that same season
+     Wore to its ending;
+     As a tiring may
+     Must I bind the shoon
+     Of the duke's high dame,
+     Every day at dawning.
+
+     "From her jealous hate
+     Gat I heavy mocking,
+     Cruel lashes
+     She laid upon me,
+     Never met I
+     Better master
+     Or mistress worser
+     In all the wide world."
+
+     Naught gat Gudrun
+     Of wail or greeting,
+     So heavy was she
+     For her dead husband,
+     So dreadful-hearted
+     For the King laid dead there.
+
+     Then spake Gullrond,
+     Giuki's daughter--
+     "O foster-mother,
+     Wise as thou mayst be,
+     Naught canst thou better
+     The young wife's bale."
+     And she bade uncover
+     The dead King's corpse.
+
+     She swept the sheet
+     Away from Sigurd,
+     And turned his cheek
+     Towards his wife's knees--
+     "Look on thy loved one
+     Lay lips to his lips,
+     E'en as thou wert clinging
+     To thy king alive yet!"
+
+     Once looked Gudrun--
+     One look only,
+     And saw her lord's locks
+     Lying all bloody,
+     The great man's eyes
+     Glazed and deadly,
+     And his heart's bulwark
+     Broken by sword-edge.
+
+     Back then sank Gudrun,
+     Back on the bolster,
+     Loosed was her head array,
+     Red did her cheeks grow,
+     And the rain-drops ran
+     Down over her knees.
+
+     Then wept Gudrun,
+     Giuki's daughter,
+     So that the tears flowed
+     Through the pillow;
+     As the geese withal
+     That were in the homefield,
+     The fair fowls the may owned,
+     Fell a-screaming.
+
+     Then spake Gullrond,
+     Giuki's daughter--
+     "Surely knew I
+     No love like your love
+     Among all men,
+     On the mould abiding;
+     Naught wouldst thou joy in
+     Without or within doors,
+     O my sister,
+     Save beside Sigurd."
+
+     Then spake Gudrun,
+     Giuki's daughter--
+     "Such was my Sigurd
+     Among the sons of Giuki,
+     As is the king leek
+     O'er the low grass waxing,
+     Or a bright stone
+     Strung on band,
+     Or a pearl of price
+     On a prince's brow.
+
+     "Once was I counted
+     By the king's warriors
+     Higher than any
+     Of Herjan's mays;
+     Now am I as little
+     As the leaf may be,
+     Amid wind-swept wood
+     Now when dead he lieth.
+
+     I miss from my seat,
+     I miss from my bed,
+     My darling of sweet speech.
+     Wrought the sons of Giuki,
+     Wrought the sons of Giuki,
+     This sore sorrow,
+     Yea, for their sister,
+     Most sore sorrow.
+
+     "So may your lands
+     Lie waste on all sides,
+     As ye have broken
+     Your bounden oaths!
+     Ne'er shalt thou, Gunnar,
+     The gold have joy of;
+     The dear-bought rings
+     Shall drag thee to death,
+     Whereon thou swarest
+     Oath unto Sigurd.
+
+     Ah, in the days by-gone
+     Great mirth in the homefield
+     When my Sigurd
+     Set saddle on Grani,
+     And they went their ways
+     For the wooing of Brynhild!
+     An ill day, an ill woman,
+     And most ill hap!"
+
+     Then spake Brynhild,
+     Budli's daughter--
+     "May the woman lack
+     Both love and children,
+     Who gained greeting
+     For thee, O Gudrun!
+     Who gave thee this morning
+     Many words!"
+
+     Then spake Gullrond,
+     Giuki's daughter--
+     "Hold peace of such words
+     Thou hated of all folk!
+     The bane of brave men
+     Hast thou been ever,
+     All waves of ill
+     Wash over thy mind,
+     To seven great kings
+     Hast thou been a sore sorrow,
+     And the death of good will
+     To wives and women."
+
+     Then spake Brynhild,
+     Budli's daughter--
+     "None but Atli
+     Brought bale upon us,
+     My very brother
+     Born of Budli.
+
+     When we saw in the hall
+     Of the Hunnish people
+     The gold a-gleaming
+     On the kingly Giukings;
+     I have paid for that faring
+     Oft and full,
+     And for the sight
+     That then I saw."
+
+     By a pillar she stood
+     And strained its wood to her;
+     From the eyes of Brynhild,
+     Budli's daughter,
+     Flashed out fire,
+     And she snorted forth venom,
+     As the sore wounds she gazed on
+     Of the dead-slain Sigurd.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  This chapter is the Eddaic poem, called the first Lay of
+       Gudrun, inserted here by the translators.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. Of the Ending of Brynhild.
+
+And now none might know for what cause Brynhild must bewail with weeping
+for what she had prayed for with laughter: but she spake--
+
+"Such a dream I had, Gunnar, as that my bed was acold, and that thou
+didst ride into the hands of thy foes: lo now, ill shall it go with thee
+and all thy kin, O ye breakers of oaths; for on the day thou slayedst
+him, dimly didst thou remember how thou didst blend thy blood with the
+blood of Sigurd, and with an ill reward hast thou rewarded him for all
+that he did well to thee; whereas he gave unto thee to be the mightiest
+of men; and well was it proven how fast he held to his oath sworn, when
+he came to me and laid betwixt us the sharp-edged sword that in venom
+had been made hard. All too soon did ye fall to working wrong against
+him and against me, whenas I abode at home with my father, and had all
+that I would, and had no will that any one of you should be any of mine,
+as ye rode into our garth, ye three kings together; but then Atli led me
+apart privily, and asked me if I would not have him who rode Grani; yea,
+a man nowise like unto you; but in those days I plighted myself to the
+son of King Sigmund and no other; and lo, now, no better shall ye fare
+for the death of me."
+
+Then rose up Gunnar, and laid his arms about her neck, and besought her
+to live and have wealth from him; and all others in likewise letted her
+from dying; but she thrust them all from her, and said that it was not
+the part of any to let her in that which was her will.
+
+Then Gunnar called to Hogni, and prayed him for counsel, and bade him go
+to her, and see if he might perchance soften her dreadful heart, saying
+withal, that now they had need enough on their hands in the slaking of
+her grief, till time might get over.
+
+But Hogni answered, "Nay, let no man hinder her from dying; for no gain
+will she be to us, nor has she been gainsome since she came hither!
+
+Now she bade bring forth much gold, and bade all those come thither who
+would have wealth: then she caught up a sword, and thrust it under her
+armpit, and sank aside upon the pillows, and said, "Come, take gold
+whoso will!"
+
+But all held their peace, and she said, "Take the gold, and be glad
+thereof!"
+
+And therewith she spake unto Gunnar, "Now for a little while will I tell
+of that which shall come to pass hereafter; for speedily shall ye be
+at one again with Gudrun by the rede of Grimhild the Wise-wife; and the
+daughter of Gudrun and Sigurd shall be called Swanhild, the fairest of
+all women born. Gudrun shall be given to Atli, yet not with her good
+will. Thou shalt be fain to get Oddrun, but that shall Atli forbid thee;
+but privily shall ye meet, and much shall she love thee. Atli shall
+bewray thee, and cast thee into a worm-close, and thereafter shall Atli
+and his sons be slain, and Gudrun shall be their slayer; and afterwards
+shall the great waves bear her to the burg of King Jonakr, to whom she
+shall bear sons of great fame: Swanhild shall be sent from the land
+and given to King Jormunrek; and her shall bite the rede of Bikki, and
+therewithal is the kin of you clean gone; and more sorrows therewith for
+Gudrun.
+
+"And now I pray thee, Gunnar, one last boon.--Let make a great bale on
+the plain meads for all of us; for me, and for Sigurd, and for those who
+were slain with him, and let that be covered over with cloth dyed red by
+the folk of the Gauls, (1) and burn me thereon on one side of the King
+of the Huns, and on the other those men of mine, two at the head and two
+at the feet, and two hawks withal; and even so is all shared equally;
+and lay there betwixt us a drawn sword, as in the other days when we
+twain stepped into one bed together; and then may we have the name of
+man and wife, nor shall the door swing to at the heel of him as I go
+behind him. Nor shall that be a niggard company if there follow him
+those five bond-women and eight bondmen, whom my father gave me, and
+those burn there withal who were slain with Sigurd.
+
+"Now more yet would I say, but for my wounds, but my life-breath flits;
+the wounds open,--yet have I said sooth."
+
+Now is the dead corpse of Sigurd arrayed in olden wise, and a mighty
+bale is raised, and when it was somewhat kindled, there was laid thereon
+the dead corpse of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane, and his son of three winters
+whom Brynhild had let slay, and Guttorm withal; and when the bale was
+all ablaze, thereunto was Brynhild borne out, when she had spoken with
+her bower-maidens, and bid them take the gold that she would give; and
+then died Brynhild, and was burned there by the side of Sigurd, and thus
+their life-days ended.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  The original has "raudu manna blodi", red-dyed in the blood
+       of men; the Sagaman's original error in dealing with the
+       word "Valaript" in the corresponding passage of the short
+       lay of Sigurd.--Tr.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. Gudrun wedded to Atli.
+
+Now so it is, that whoso heareth these tidings sayeth, that no such an
+one as was Sigurd was left behind him in the world, nor ever was such a
+man brought forth because of all the worth of him, nor may his name ever
+minish by eld in the Dutch Tongue nor in all the Northern Lands, while
+the world standeth fast.
+
+The story tells that, on a day, as Gudrun sat in her bower, she fell to
+saying, "Better was life in those days when I had Sigurd; he who was far
+above other men as gold is above iron, or the leek over other grass
+of the field, or the hart over other wild things; until my brethren
+begrudged me such a man, the first and best of all men; and so they
+might not sleep or they had slain him. Huge clamour made Grani when he
+saw his master and lord sore wounded, and then I spoke to him even as
+with a man, but he fell drooping down to the earth, for he knew that
+Sigurd was slain."
+
+Thereafter Gudrun gat her gone into the wild woods, and heard on all
+ways round about her the howling of wolves, and deemed death a merrier
+thing than life. Then she went till she came to the hall of King Alf,
+and sat there in Denmark with Thora, the daughter of Hakon, for seven
+seasons, and abode with good welcome. And she set forth her needlework
+before her, and did thereinto many deeds and great, and fair plays after
+the fashion of those days, swords and byrnies, and all the gear of
+kings, and the ship of King Sigmund sailing along the land; yea, and
+they wrought there, how they fought, Sigar and Siggeir, south in Fion.
+Such was their disport; and now Gudrun was somewhat solaced of her
+grief.
+
+So Grimhild comes to hear where Gudrun has take up her abode, and
+she calls her sons to talk with her, and asks whether they will make
+atonement to Gudrun for her son and her husband, and said that it was
+but meet and right to do so.
+
+Then Gunnar spake, and said that he would atone for her sorrows with
+gold.
+
+So they send for their friends, and array their horses, their helms,
+and their shields, and their byrnies, and all their war-gear; and their
+journey was furnished forth in the noblest wise, and no champion who
+was of the great men might abide at home; and their horses were clad in
+mail-coats, and every knight of them had his helm done over with gold or
+with silver.
+
+Grimhild was of their company, for she said that their errand would
+never be brought fairly to pass if she sat at home.
+
+There were well five hundred men, and noble men rode with them. There
+was Waldemar of Denmark, and Eymod and Jarisleif withal. So they went
+into the hall of King Alf, and there abode them the Longbeards and
+Franks, and Saxons: they fared with all their war-gear, and had over
+them red fur-coats. Even as the song says--
+
+     "Byrnies short cut,
+     Strong helms hammered,
+     Girt with good swords,
+     Red hair gleaming."
+
+They were fain to choose good gifts for their sister, and spake softly
+to her, but in none of them would she trow. Then Gunnar brought unto her
+a drink mingled with hurtful things, and this she must needs drink, and
+with the drinking thereof she had no more memory of their guilt against
+her.
+
+But in that drink was blended the might of the earth and the sea with
+the blood of her son; and in that horn were all letters cut and reddened
+with blood, as is said hereunder--
+
+     "On the horn's face were there
+     All the kin of letters
+     Cut aright and reddened,
+     How should I rede them rightly?
+     The ling-fish long
+     Of the land of Hadding,
+     Wheat-ears unshorn,
+     And wild things' inwards.
+
+     In that beer were mingled
+     Many ills together,
+     Blood of all the wood
+     And brown-burnt acorns,
+     The black dew of the hearth,
+     The God-doomed dead beast's inwards,
+     And the swine's liver sodden
+     Because all wrongs that deadens.
+
+And so now, when their hearts are brought anigh to each other, great
+cheer they made: then came Grimhild to Gudrun, and spake:
+
+"All hail to thee, daughter! I give thee gold and all kinds of good
+things to take to thee after thy father, dear-bought rings and bed-gear
+of the maids of the Huns, the most courteous and well dight of all
+women; and thus is thy husband atoned for: and thereafter shalt thou be
+given to Atli, the mighty king, and be mistress of all his might. Cast
+not all thy friends aside for one man's sake, but do according to our
+bidding."
+
+Gudrun answers, "Never will I wed Atli the King: unseemly it is for us
+to get offspring betwixt us."
+
+Grimhild says, "Nourish not thy wrath; it shall be to thee as if Sigurd
+and Sigmund were alive when thou hast borne sons."
+
+Gudrun says, "I cannot take my heart from thoughts of him, for he was
+the first of all men."
+
+Grimhild says, "So it is shapen that thou must have this king and none
+else."
+
+Says Gudrun, "Give not this man to me, for an evil thing shall come
+upon thy kin from him, and to his own sons shall he deal evil, and be
+rewarded with a grim revenge thereafter."
+
+Then waxed Grimhild fell at those words, and spake, "Do even as we
+bid thee, and take therefore great honour, and our friendship, and the
+steads withal called Vinbjorg and Valbjorg."
+
+And such might was in the words of her, that even so must it come to
+pass.
+
+Then Gudrun spake, "Thus then must it needs befall, howsoever against
+the will of me, and for little joy shall it be and for great grief."
+
+Then men leaped on their horses, and their women were set in wains. So
+they fared four days a-riding and other four a-shipboard, and yet four
+more again by land and road, till at the last they came to a certain
+high-built hall; then came to meet Gudrun many folk thronging; and
+an exceedingly goodly feast was there made, even as the word had gone
+between either kin, and it passed forth in most proud and stately wise.
+And at that feast drinks Atli his bridal with Gudrun; but never did her
+heart laugh on him, and little sweet and kind was their life together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. Atli bids the Giukings to him.
+
+Now tells the tale that on a night King Atli woke from sleep and spake
+to Gudrun--
+
+"Medreamed," said he, "that thou didst thrust me through with a sword."
+
+Then Gudrun areded the dream, and said that it betokened fire, whenas
+folk dreamed of iron. "It befalls of thy pride belike, in that thou
+deemest thyself the first of men."
+
+Atli said, "Moreover I dreamed that here waxed two sorb-tree (1)
+saplings, and fain I was that they should have no scathe of me; then
+these were riven up by the roots and reddened with blood, and borne to
+the bench, and I was bidden eat thereof.
+
+"Yea, yet again I dreamed that two hawks flew from my hand hungry and
+unfed, and fared to hell, and meseemed their hearts were mingled with
+honey, and that I ate thereof.
+
+"And then again I dreamed that two fair whelps lay before me yelling
+aloud, and that the flesh of them I ate, though my will went not with
+the eating."
+
+Gudrun says, "Nowise good are these dreams, yet shall they come to pass;
+surely thy sons are nigh to death, and many heavy things shall fall upon
+us."
+
+"Yet again I dreamed," said he, "and methought I lay in a bath, and folk
+took counsel to slay me."
+
+Now these things wear away with time, but in nowise was their life
+together fond.
+
+Now falls Atli to thinking of where may be gotten that plenteous gold
+which Sigurd had owned, but King Gunnar and his brethren were lords
+thereof now.
+
+Atli was a great king and mighty, wise, and a lord of many men; and now
+he falls to counsel with his folk as to the ways of them. He wotted well
+that Gunnar and his brethren had more wealth than any others might have,
+and so he falls to the rede of sending men to them, and bidding them
+to a great feast, and honouring them in diverse wise, and the chief of
+those messengers was hight Vingi.
+
+Now the queen wots of their conspiring, and misdoubts her that this
+would mean some beguiling of her brethren: so she cut runes, and took a
+gold ring, and knit therein a wolf's hair, and gave it into the hands of
+the king's messengers.
+
+Thereafter they go their ways according to the king's bidding; and or
+ever they came aland Vingi beheld the runes, and turned them about in
+such wise as if Gudrun prayed her brethren in her runes to go meet King
+Atli.
+
+Thereafter they came to the hall of King Gunnar, and had good welcome at
+his hands, and great fires were made for them, and in great joyance they
+drank of the best of drink.
+
+Then spake Vingi, "King Atli sends me hither, and is fain that ye go
+to his house and home in all glory, and take of him exceeding honours,
+helms and shields, swords and byrnies, gold and goodly raiment, horses,
+hosts of war, and great and wide lands, for, saith he, he is fainest of
+all things to bestow his realm and lordship upon you."
+
+Then Gunnar turned his head aside, and spoke to Hogni--
+
+"In what wise shall we take this bidding? might and wealth he bids us
+take; but no kings know I who have so much gold as we have, whereas
+we have all the hoard which lay once on Gnitaheath; and great are our
+chambers, and full of gold, and weapons for smiting, and all kinds of
+raiment of war, and well I wot that amidst all men my horse is the best,
+and my sword the sharpest, and my gold the most glorious."
+
+Hogni answers, "A marvel is it to me of his bidding, for seldom hath he
+done in such a wise, and ill-counselled will it be to wend to him; lo
+now, when I saw those dear-bought things the king sends us I wondered to
+behold a wolf's hair knit to a certain gold ring; belike Gudrun deems him
+to be minded as a wolf towards us, and will have naught of our faring."
+
+But withal Vingi shows him the runes which he said Gudrun had sent.
+
+Now the most of folk go to bed, but these drank on still with certain
+others; and Kostbera, the wife of Hogni, the fairest of women, came to
+them, and looked on the runes.
+
+But the wife of Gunnar was Glaumvor, a great-hearted wife.
+
+So these twain poured out, and the kings drank, and were exceeding
+drunken, and Vingi notes it, and says--
+
+"Naught may I hide that King Atli is heavy of foot and over-old for the
+warding of his realm; but his sons are young and of no account: now will
+he give you rule over his realms while they are yet thus young, and most
+fain will he be that ye have the joy thereof before all others."
+
+Now so it befell both that Gunnar was drunk, and that great dominion was
+held out to him, nor might he work against the fate shapen for him; so
+he gave his word to go, and tells Hogni his brother thereof.
+
+But he answered, "Thy word given must even stand now, nor will I fail to
+follow thee, but most loth am I to this journey."
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Service-tree; "pyrus sorbus domestica", or "p. s.
+       tormentalis.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV. The Dreams of the Wives of the Giukings.
+
+So when men had drunk their fill, they fared to sleep; then falls
+Kostbera to beholding the runes, and spelling over the letters, and sees
+that beneath were other things cut, and that the runes are guileful;
+yet because of her wisdom she had skill to read them aright. So then she
+goes to bed by her husband; but when they awoke, she spake unto Hogni--
+
+"Thou art minded to wend away from home--ill-counselled is that; abide
+till another time! Scarce a keen reader of runes art thou, if thou
+deemest thou hast beheld in them the bidding of thy sister to this
+journey: lo, I read the runes, and had marvel of so wise a woman
+as Gudrun is, that she should have miscut them; but that which lieth
+underneath beareth your bane with it,--yea, either she lacked a letter,
+or others have dealt guilefully with the runes.
+
+"And now hearken to my dream; for therein methought there fell in upon
+us here a river exceeding strong, and brake up the timbers of the hall."
+
+He answered, "Full oft are ye evil of mind, ye women, but for me, I
+was not made in such wise as to meet men with evil who deserve no evil;
+belike he will give us good welcome."
+
+She answered, "Well, the thing must ye yourselves prove, but no
+friendship follows this bidding:--but yet again I dreamed that another
+river fell in here with a great and grimly rush, and tore up the dais
+of the hall, and brake the legs of both you brethren; surely that
+betokeneth somewhat."
+
+He answers, "Meadows along our way, whereas thou didst dream of the
+river; for when we go through the meadows, plentifully doth the seeds of
+the hay hang about our legs."
+
+"Again I dreamed," she says, "that thy cloak was afire, and that the
+flame blazed up above the hall."
+
+Says he, "Well, I wot what that shall betoken; here lieth my fair-dyed
+raiment, and it shall burn and blaze, whereas thou dreamedst of the
+cloak."
+
+"Methought a bear came in," she says, "and brake up the king's
+high-seat, and shook his paws in such a wise that we were all adrad
+thereat, and he gat us all together into the mouth of him, so that we
+might avail us naught, and thereof fell great horror on us."
+
+He answered, "Some great storm will befall, whereas thou hadst a white
+bear in thy mind."
+
+"An erne methought came in," she says, "and swept adown the hall, and
+drenched me and all of us with blood, and ill shall that betoken, for
+methought it was the double of King Atli."
+
+He answered, "Full oft do we slaughter beasts freely, and smite down
+great neat for our cheer, and the dream of the erne has but to do with
+oxen; yea, Atli is heart-whole toward us."
+
+And therewithal they cease this talk.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI. Of the Journey of the Giukings to King Atli.
+
+Now tells the tale of Gunnar, that in the same wise it fared with him;
+for when they awoke, Glaumvor his wife told him many dreams which seemed
+to her like to betoken guile coming; but Gunnar areded them all in other
+wise.
+
+"This was one of them," said she; "methought a bloody sword was borne
+into the hall here, wherewith thou wert thrust through, and at either
+end of that sword wolves howled."
+
+The king answered, "Cur dogs shall bite me belike; blood-stained weapons
+oft betoken dogs' snappings."
+
+She said, "Yet again I dreamed--that women came in, heavy and drooping,
+and chose thee for their mate; may-happen these would be thy fateful
+women."
+
+He answered, "Hard to arede is this, and none may set aside the fated
+measure of his days, nor is it unlike that my time is short." (1)
+
+So in the morning they arose, and were minded for the journey, but some
+letted them herein.
+
+Then cried Gunnar to the man who is called Fjornir--
+
+"Arise, and give us to drink goodly wine from great tuns, because
+mayhappen this shall be very last of all our feasts; for belike if we
+die the old wolf shall come by the gold, and that bear shall nowise
+spare the bite of his war-tusks."
+
+Then all the folk of his household brought them on their way weeping.
+
+The son of Hogni said--
+
+"Fare ye well with merry tide."
+
+The more part of their folk were left behind; Solar and Snaevar, the
+sons of Hogni, fared with them, and a certain great champion, named
+Orkning, who was the brother of Kostbera.
+
+So folk followed them down to the ships, and all letted them of their
+journey, but attained to naught therein.
+
+Then spake Glaumvor, and said--
+
+"O Vingi, most like that great ill hap will come of thy coming, and
+mighty and evil things shall betide in thy travelling."
+
+He answered, "Hearken to my answer; that I lie not aught: and may the
+high gallows and all things of grame have me, if I lie one word!"
+
+Then cried Kostbera, "Fare ye well with merry days."
+
+And Hogni answered, "Be glad of heart, howsoever it may fare with us!"
+
+And therewith they parted, each to their own fate. Then away they rowed,
+so hard and fast, that well-nigh the half of the keel slipped away from
+the ship, and so hard they laid on to the oars that thole and gunwale
+brake.
+
+But when they came aland they made their ship fast, and then they rode
+awhile on their noble steeds through the murk wild-wood.
+
+And now they behold the king's army, and huge uproar, and the clatter of
+weapons they hear from thence; and they see there a mighty host of men,
+and the manifold array of them, even as they wrought there: and all the
+gates of the burg were full of men.
+
+So they rode up to the burg, and the gates thereof were shut; then Hogni
+brake open the gates, and therewith they ride into the burg.
+
+Then spake Vingi, "Well might ye have left this deed undone; go to now,
+bide ye here while I go seek your gallows-tree! Softly and sweetly I
+bade you hither, but an evil thing abode thereunder; short while to bide
+ere ye are tied up to that same tree!"
+
+Hogni answered, "None the more shall we waver for that cause; for little
+methinks have we shrunk aback whenas men fell to fight; and naught
+shall it avail thee to make us afeard,--and for an ill fate hast thou
+wrought."
+
+And therewith they cast him down to earth, and smote him with their
+axe-hammers till he died.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Parallel beliefs to those in the preceding chapters, and
+       elsewhere in this book, as to spells, dreams, drinks, etc.,
+       among the English people may be found in "Leechdoms,
+       Wortcunning, and Starcraft of the Anglo-Saxons; being a
+       collection of Documents illustrating the History of Science
+       in this Country before the Norman Conquest".  Ed: Rev. T. O.
+       Cockayne, M.A. (3 vols.)  Longmans, London, 1864, 8vo.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII. The Battle in the Burg of King Atli.
+
+Then they rode unto the king's hall, and King Atli arrayed his host for
+battle, and the ranks were so set forth that a certain wall there was
+betwixt them and the brethren.
+
+"Welcome hither," said he. "Deliver unto me that plenteous gold which is
+mine of right; even the wealth which Sigurd once owned, and which is now
+Gudrun's of right."
+
+Gunnar answered, "Never gettest thou that wealth; and men of might must
+thou meet here, or ever we lay by life if thou wilt deal with us in
+battle; ah, belike thou settest forth this feast like a great man, and
+wouldst not hold thine hand from erne and wolf!"
+
+"Long ago I had it in my mind," said Atli, "to take the lives of you, and
+be lord of the gold, and reward you for that deed of shame, wherein ye
+beguiled the best of all your affinity; but now shall I revenge him."
+
+Hogni answered, "Little will it avail to lie long brooding over that
+rede, leaving the work undone."
+
+And therewith they fell to hard fighting, at the first brunt with shot.
+
+But therewithal came the tidings to Gudrun, and when she heard thereof
+she grew exceeding wroth, and cast her mantle from her, and ran out and
+greeted those new-comers, and kissed her brethren, and showed them all
+love,--and the last of all greetings was that betwixt them.
+
+Then said she, "I thought I had set forth counsels whereby ye should not
+come hither, but none may deal with his shapen fate." And withal she
+said, "Will it avail aught to seek for peace?"
+
+But stoutly and grimly they said nay thereto. So she sees that the
+game goeth sorely against her brethren, and she gathers to her great
+stoutness of heart, and does on her a mail-coat and takes to her a
+sword, and fights by her brethren, and goes as far forward as the
+bravest of man-folk: and all spoke in one wise that never saw any fairer
+defence than in her.
+
+Now the men fell thick, and far before all others was the fighting of
+those brethren, and the battle endured a long while unto midday; Gunnar
+and Hogni went right through the folk of Atli, and so tells the tale
+that all the mead ran red with blood; the sons of Hogni withal set on
+stoutly.
+
+Then spake Atli the king, "A fair host and a great have we, and mighty
+champions withal, and yet have many of us fallen, and but evil am I
+apaid in that nineteen of my champions are slain, and but left six
+alive."
+
+And therewithal was there a lull in the battle.
+
+Then spake Atli the king, "Four brethren were we, and now am I left
+alone; great affinity I gat to me, and deemed my fortune well sped
+thereby; a wife I had, fair and wise, high of mind, and great of heart;
+but no joyance may I have of her wisdom, for little peace is betwixt
+us,--but ye--ye have slain many of my kin, and beguiled me of realm and
+riches, and for the greatest of all woes have slain my sister withal."
+
+Quoth Hogni, "Why babblest thou thus? thou wert the first to break the
+peace. Thou didst take my kinswoman and pine her to death by hunger, and
+didst murder her, and take her wealth; an ugly deed for a king!--meet
+for mocking and laughter I deem it, that thou must needs make long tale
+of thy woes; rather will I give thanks to the Gods that thou fallest
+into ill."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII. Of the slaying of the Giukings.
+
+Now King Atli eggs on his folk to set on fiercely, and eagerly they
+fight; but the Giukings fell on so hard that King Atli gave back into
+the hall, and within doors was the fight, and fierce beyond all fights.
+
+That battle was the death of many a man, but such was the ending
+thereof, that there fell all the folk of those brethren, and they twain
+alone stood up on their feet, and yet many more must fare to hell first
+before their weapons.
+
+And now they fell on Gunnar the king, and because of the host of men
+that set on him was hand laid on him, and he was cast into fetters;
+afterwards fought Hogni, with the stoutest heart and the greatest
+manlihood; and he felled to earth twenty of the stoutest of the
+champions of King Atli, and many he thrust into the fire that burnt
+amidst the hall, and all were of one accord that such a man might scarce
+be seen; yet in the end was he borne down by many and taken.
+
+Then said King Atli, "A marvellous thing how many men have gone their
+ways before him! Cut the heart from out of him, and let that be his
+bane!"
+
+Hogni said, "Do according to thy will; merrily will I abide whatso thou
+wrlt do against me; and thou shalt see that my heart is not adrad, for
+hard matters have I made trial of ere now, and all things that may try
+a man was I fain to bear, whiles yet I was unhurt; but now sorely am
+I hurt, and thou alone henceforth will bear mastery in our dealings
+together."
+
+Then spake a counsellor of King Atli, "Better rede I see thereto; take
+we the thrall Hjalli, and give respite to Hogni; for this thrall is made
+to die, since the longer he lives the less worth shall he be."
+
+The thrall hearkened, and cried out aloft, and fled away anywhither
+where he might hope for shelter, crying out that a hard portion was his
+because of their strife and wild doings, and an ill day for him whereon
+he must be dragged to death from his sweet life and his swine-keeping.
+But they caught him, and turned a knife against him, and he yelled and
+screamed or ever he felt the point thereof.
+
+Then in such wise spake Hogni as a man seldom speaketh who is fallen
+into hard need, for he prayed for the thrall's life, and said that these
+shrieks he could not away with, and that it were a lesser matter to him
+to play out the play to the end; and therewithal the thrall gat his life
+as for that time: but Gunnar and Hogni are both laid in fetters.
+
+Then spake King Atli with Gunnar the king, and bade him tell out
+concerning the gold, and where it was, if he would have his life.
+
+But he answered, "Nay, first will I behold the bloody heart of Hogni, my
+brother."
+
+So now they caught hold of the thrall again, and cut the heart from out
+of him, and bore it unto King Gunnar, but he said--
+
+"The faint heart of Hjalli may ye here behold, little like the proud
+heart of Hogni, for as much as it trembleth now, more by the half it
+trembled whenas it lay in the breast of him."
+
+So now they fell on Hogni even as Atli urged them, and cut the heart
+from out of him, but such was the might of his manhood, that he laughed
+while he abode that torment, and all wondered at his worth, and in
+perpetual memory is it held sithence. (1)
+
+Then they showed it to Gunnar, and he said--
+
+"The mighty heart of Hogni, little like the faint heart of Hjalli, for
+little as it trembleth now, less it trembled whenas in his breast it
+lay! But now, O Atli, even as we die so shalt thou die; and lo, I alone
+wot where the gold is, nor shall Hogni be to tell thereof now; to and
+fro played the matter in my mind whiles we both lived, but now have I
+myself determined for myself, and the Rhine river shall rule over the
+gold, rather than that the Huns shall bear it on the hands of them."
+
+Then said King Atli, "Have away the bondsman;" and so they did.
+
+But Gudrun called to her men, and came to Atli, and said--
+
+"May it fare ill with thee now and from henceforth, even as thou hast
+ill held to thy word with me!"
+
+So Gunnar was cast into a worm-close, and many worms abode him there,
+and his hands were fast bound; but Gudrun sent him a harp, and in such
+wise did he set forth his craft, that wisely he smote the harp, smiting
+it with his toes, and so excellently well he played, that few deemed
+they had heard such playing, even when the hand had done it. And with
+such might and power he played, that all worms fell asleep in the end,
+save one adder only, great and evil of aspect, that crept unto him and
+thrust its sting into him until it smote his heart; and in such wise
+with great hardihood he ended his life days.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Since ("sidh", after, and "dham", that.).
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX. The End of Atli and his Kin and Folk.
+
+Now thought Atli the King that he had gained a mighty victory, and spake
+to Gudrun even as mocking her greatly, or as making himself great before
+her. "Gudrun," saith he, "thus hast thou lost thy brethren, and thy very
+self hast brought it about."
+
+She answers, "In good liking livest thou, whereas thou thrustest these
+slayings before me, but mayhappen thou wilt rue it, when thou hast tried
+what is to come hereafter; and of all I have, the longest-lived matter
+shall be the memory of thy cruel heart, nor shall it go well with thee
+whiles I live."
+
+He answered and said, "Let there be peace betwixt us; I will atone for
+thy brethren with gold and dear-bought things, even as thy heart may
+wish."
+
+She answers, "Hard for a long while have I been in our dealings
+together, and now I say, that while Hogni was yet alive thou mightest
+have brought it to pass; but now mayest thou never atone for my brethren
+in my heart; yet oft must we women be overborne by the might of you men;
+and now are all my kindred dead and gone, and thou alone art left to
+rule over me: wherefore now this is my counsel that we make a great
+feast, wherein I will hold the funeral of my brother and of thy kindred
+withal."
+
+In such wise did she make herself soft and kind in words, though far
+other things forsooth lay thereunder, but he hearkened to her gladly,
+and trusted in her words, whereas she made herself sweet of speech.
+
+So Gudrun held the funeral feast for her brethren, and King Atli for his
+men, and exceeding proud and great was this feast.
+
+But Gudrun forgat not her woe, but brooded over it, how she might work
+some mighty shame against the king; and at nightfall she took to her the
+sons of King Atli and her as they played about the floor; the younglings
+waxed heavy of cheer, and asked what she would with them.
+
+"Ask me not," she said; "ye shall die, the twain of you!"
+
+Then they answered, "Thou mayest do with thy children even as thou wilt,
+nor shall any hinder thee, but shame there is to thee in the doing of
+this deed."
+
+Yet for all that she cut the throats of them.
+
+Then the king asked where his sons were, and Gudrun answered, "I will
+tell thee, and gladden thine heart by the telling; lo now, thou didst
+make a great woe spring up for me in the slaying of my brethren; now
+hearken and hear my rede and my deed; thou hast lost thy sons, and
+their heads are become beakers on the board here, and thou thyself hast
+drunken the blood of them blended with wine; and their hearts I took and
+roasted them on a spit, and thou hast eaten thereof."
+
+King Atli answered, "Grim art thou in that thou hast murdered thy sons,
+and given me their flesh to eat, and little space passes betwixt ill
+deed of thine and ill deed."
+
+Gudrun said, "My heart is set on the doing to thee of as great shame as
+may be; never shall the measure of ill be full to such a king as thou
+art."
+
+The king said, "Worser deeds hast thou done than men have to tell of,
+and great unwisdom is there in such fearful redes; most meet art thou
+to be burned on bale when thou hast first been smitten to death with
+stones, for in such wise wouldst thou have what thou hast gone a weary
+way to seek."
+
+She answered, "Thine own death thou foretellest, but another death is
+fated for me."
+
+And many other words they spake in their wrath.
+
+Now Hogni had a son left alive, hight Niblung, and great wrath of heart
+he bare against King Atli; and he did Gudrun to wit that he would
+avenge his father. And she took his words well, and they fell to counsel
+together thereover, and she said it would be great goodhap if it might
+be brought about.
+
+So on a night, when the king had drunken, he gat him to bed, and when he
+was laid asleep, thither to him came Gudrun and the son of Hogni.
+
+Gudrun took a sword and thrust it through the breast of King Atli, and
+they both of them set their hands to the deed, both she and the son of
+Hogni.
+
+Then Atli the king awoke with the wound, and cried out; "no need of
+binding or salving here!--who art thou who hast done the deed?"
+
+Gudrun says, "Somewhat have I, Gudrun, wrought therein, and somewhat
+withal the son of Hogni."
+
+Atli said, "Ill it beseemed to thee to do this, though somewhat of wrong
+was between us; for thou wert wedded to me by the rede of thy kin, and
+dower paid I for thee; yea, thirty goodly knights, and seemly maidens,
+and many men besides; and yet wert thou not content, but if thou should
+rule over the lands King Budli owned: and thy mother-in-law full oft
+thou lettest sit a-weeping."
+
+Gudrun said, "Many false words hast thou spoken, and of naught I account
+them; oft, indeed, was I fell of mood, but much didst thou add thereto.
+Full oft in this thy house did frays befall, and kin fought kin, and
+friend fought friend, and made themselves big one against the other;
+better days had I whenas I abode with Sigurd, when we slew kings, and
+took their wealth to us, but gave peace to whomso would, and the great
+men laid themselves under our hands, and might we gave to him of them
+who would have it; then I lost him, and a little thing was it that I
+should bear a widow's name, but the greatest of griefs that I should
+come to thee--I who had aforetime the noblest of all kings, while for
+thee, thou never barest out of the battle aught but the worser lot."
+
+King Atli answered, "Naught true are thy words, nor will this our speech
+better the lot of either of us, for all is fallen now to naught; but now
+do to me in seemly wise, and array my dead corpse in noble fashion."
+
+"Yea, that will I," she says, "and let make for thee a goodly grave, and
+build for thee a worthy abiding place of stone, and wrap thee in fair
+linen, and care for all that needful is."
+
+So therewithal he died, and she did according to her word: and then they
+cast fire into the hall.
+
+And when the folk and men of estate awoke amid that dread and trouble,
+naught would they abide the fire, but smote each the other down, and
+died in such wise; so there Atli the king, and all his folk, ended their
+life-days. But Gudrun had no will to live longer after this deed so
+wrought, but nevertheless her ending day was not yet come upon her.
+
+Now the Volsungs and the Giukings, as folk tell in tale, have been the
+greatest-hearted and the mightiest of all men, as ye may well behold
+written in the songs of old time.
+
+But now with the tidings just told were these troubles stayed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL. How Gudrun cast herself into the Sea, but was brought ashore
+again.
+
+Gudrun had a daughter by Sigurd hight Swanhild; she was the fairest of
+all women, eager-eyed as her father, so that few durst look under the
+brows of her; and as far did she excel other woman-kind as the sun
+excels the other lights of heaven.
+
+But on a day went Gudrun down to the sea, and caught up stones in her
+arms, and went out into the sea, for she had will to end her life. But
+mighty billows drave her forth along the sea, and by means of their
+upholding was she borne along till she came at the last to the burg of
+King Jonakr, a mighty king, and lord of many folk. And he took Gudrun to
+wife, and their children were Hamdir, and Sorli, and Erp; and there was
+Swanhild nourished withal.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI. Of the Wedding and Slaying of Swanhild.
+
+Jormunrek was the name of a mighty king of those days, and his son was
+called Randver. Now this king called his son to talk with him, and said,
+"Thou shalt fare on an errand of mine to King Jonakr, with my counsellor
+Bikki, for with King Jonakr is nourished Swanhild, the daughter of
+Sigurd Fafnir's-bane; and I know for sure that she is the fairest may
+dwelling under the sun of this world; her above all others would I have
+to my wife, and thou shalt go woo her for me."
+
+Randver answered, "Meet and right, fair lord, that I should go on thine
+errands."
+
+So the king set forth this journey in seemly wise, and they fare till
+they come to King Jonakr's abode, and behold Swanhild, and have many
+thoughts concerning the treasure of her goodliness.
+
+But on a day Randver called the king to talk with him, and said,
+"Jormunrek the King would fain be thy brother-in-law, for he has heard
+tell of Swanhild, and his desire it is to have her to wife, nor may it
+be shown that she may be given to any mightier man than he is one."
+
+The King says, "This is an alliance of great honour, for a man of fame
+he is."
+
+Gudrun says, "A wavering trust, the trust in luck that it change not!"
+
+Yet because of the king's furthering, and all the matters that went
+herewith, is the wooing accomplished; and Swanhild went to the ship with
+a goodly company, and sat in the stern beside the king's son.
+
+Then spake Bikki to Randver, "How good and right it were if thou thyself
+had to wife so lovely a woman rather than the old man there."
+
+Good seemed that word to the heart of the king's son, and he spake to
+her with sweet words, and she to him in like wise.
+
+So they came aland and go unto the king, and Bikki said unto him, "Meet
+and right it is, lord, that thou shouldst know what is befallen, though
+hard it be to tell of, for the tale must be concerning thy beguiling,
+whereas thy son has gotten to him the full love of Swanhild, nor is she
+other than his harlot; but thou, let not the deed be unavenged."
+
+Now many an ill rede had he given the king or this, but of all his ill
+redes did this sting home the most; and still would the king hearken
+to all his evil redes; wherefore he, who might nowise still the wrath
+within him, cried out that Randver should be taken and tied up to the
+gallows-tree.
+
+And as he was led to the gallows he took his hawk and plucked the
+feathers from off it, and bade show it to his father; and when the king
+saw it, then he said, "Now may folk behold that he deemeth my honour to
+be gone away from me, even as the feathers of this hawk;" and therewith
+he bade deliver him from the gallows.
+
+But in that while had Bikki wrought his will, and Randver was
+dead-slain.
+
+And, moreover, Bikki spake, "Against none hast thou more wrongs to
+avenge thee of than against Swanhild; let her die a shameful death."
+
+"Yea," said the king, "we will do after thy counsel."
+
+So she was bound in the gate of the burg, and horses were driven at her
+to tread her down; but when she opened her eyes wide, then the horses
+durst not trample her; so when Bikki beheld that, he bade draw a bag
+over the head of her; and they did so, and therewith she lost her life.
+(1)
+
+
+  ENDNOTES
+  (1)  In the prose Edda the slaying of Swanhild is a spontaneous
+       and sudden act on the part of the king.  As he came back
+       from hunting one day, there sat Swanhild washing her linen,
+       and it came into the king's mind how that she was the cause
+       of all his woe, so he and his men rode over her and slew
+       her.--Tr.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII. Gudrun sends her Sons to avenge Swanhild.
+
+Now Gudrun heard of the slaying of Swanhild, and spake to her sons, "Why
+sit ye here in peace amid merry words, whereas Jormunrek hath slain your
+sister, and trodden her under foot of horses in shameful wise? No heart
+ye have in you like to Gunnar or Hogni; verily they would have avenged
+their kinswoman!"
+
+Hamdir answered, "Little didst thou praise Gunnar and Hogni, whereas
+they slew Sigurd, and thou wert reddened in the blood of him, and ill
+were thy brethren avenged by the slaying of thine own sons: yet not
+so ill a deed were it for us to slay King Jormunrek, and so hard thou
+pushest us on to this that we may naught abide thy hard words."
+
+Gudrun went about laughing now, and gave them to drink from mighty
+beakers, and thereafter she got for them great byrnies and good, and all
+other weed (1) of war.
+
+Then spake Hamdir, "Lo now, this is our last parting, for thou shalt
+hear tidings of us, and drink one grave-ale (2) over us and over
+Swanhild."
+
+So therewith they went their ways.
+
+But Gudrun went unto her bower, with heart swollen with sorrow, and
+spake--
+
+"To three men was I wedded, and first to Sigurd Fafnir's-bane, and he
+was bewrayed and slain, and of all griefs was that the greatest grief.
+Then was I given to King Atli, and so fell was my heart toward him that
+I slew in the fury of my grief his children and mine. Then gave I myself
+to the sea, but the billows thereof cast me out aland, and to this king
+then was I given; then gave I Swanhild away out of the land with mighty
+wealth; and lo, my next greatest sorrow after Sigurd, for under horses'
+feet was she trodden and slain; but the grimmest and ugliest of woes
+was the casting of Gunnar into the Worm-close, and the hardest was the
+cutting of Hogni's heart from him.
+
+"Ah, better would it be if Sigurd came to meet me, and I went my ways
+with him, for here bideth now behind with me neither son nor daughter
+to comfort me. Oh, mindest thou not, Sigurd, the words we spoke when we
+went into one bed together, that thou wouldst come and look on me; yea,
+even from thine abiding place among the dead?"
+
+And thus had the words of her sorrow an end.
+
+
+  ENDNOTE:
+  (1)  Weed (A.S. "weodo"), clothing.
+  (2)  Grave-ale, burial-feast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII. The Latter End of all the Kin of the Giukings.
+
+Now telleth the tale concerning the sons of Gudrun, that she had arrayed
+their war-raiment in such wise, that no steel would bite thereon; and
+she bade them play not with stones or other heavy matters, for that it
+would be to their scathe if they did so.
+
+And now, as they went on their way, they met Erp, their brother, and
+asked him in what wise he would help them.
+
+He answered, "Even as hand helps hand, or foot helps foot."
+
+But that they deemed naught at all, and slew him there and then. Then
+they went their ways, nor was it long or ever Hamdir stumbled, and
+thrust down his hand to steady himself, and spake therewith--
+
+"Naught but a true thing spake Erp, for now should I have fallen, had
+not hand been to steady me."
+
+A little after Sorli stumbled, but turned about on his feet, and
+so stood, and spake--
+
+"Yea now had I fallen, but that I steadied myself with both feet."
+
+And they said they had done evilly with Erp their brother.
+
+But on they fare till they come to the abode of King Jormunrek, and they
+went up to him and set on him forthwith, and Hamdir cut both hands from
+him and Sorli both feet. Then spake Hamdir--
+
+"Off were the head if Erp were alive; our brother, whom we slew on the
+way, and found out our deed too late." Even as the Song says,--
+
+     "Off were the head
+     If Erp were alive yet,
+     Our brother the bold,
+     Whom we slew by the way,
+     The well-famed in warfare."
+
+Now in this must they turn away from the words of their mother, whereas
+they had to deal with stones. For now men fell on them, and they
+defended themselves in good and manly wise, and were the scathe of many
+a man, nor would iron bite on them.
+
+But there came thereto a certain man, old of aspect and one-eyed, (1)
+and he spake--
+
+"No wise men are ye, whereas ye cannot bring these men to their end."
+
+Then the king said, "Give us rede thereto, if thou canst."
+
+He said, "Smite them to the death with stones."
+
+In such wise was it done, for the stones flew thick and fast from every
+side, and that was the end of their life-days.
+
+And now has come to an end the whole root and stem of the Giukings. (2)
+
+     NOW MAY ALL EARLS
+     BE BETTERED IN MIND,
+     MAY THE GRIEF OF ALL MAIDENS
+     EVER BE MINISHED,
+     FOR THIS TALE OF TROUBLE
+     SO TOLD TO ITS ENDING.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Odin; he ends the tale as he began it.
+  (2)  "And now," etc., inserted by translators from the Poetic
+       Edda, the stanza at the end from the Whetting of Gudrun.
+
+
+
+APPENDIX: EXCERPTS FROM THE POETIC EDDA.
+
+
+
+
+PART OF THE SECOND LAY OF HELGI HUNDINGS-BANE (1)
+
+Helgi wedded Sigrun, and they begate sons together, but Helgi lived not
+to be old; for Dag, (2) the son of Hogni, sacrificed to Odin, praying
+that he might avenge his father. So Odin lent Dag his spear, and Dag met
+Helgi, his brother-in-law, at a place called Fetter-grove, and thrust
+him through with that spear, and there fell Helgi dead; but Dag rode to
+Sevafell, and told Sigrun of the news.
+
+     DAG:
+     Loth am I, sister
+     Of sorrow to tell thee,
+     For by hard need driven
+     Have I drawn on the greeting;
+     This morning fell
+     In Fetter-grove
+     The king well deemed
+     The best in the wide world,
+     Yea, he who stood
+     On the necks of the strong."
+
+     SIGRUN:
+     All oaths once sworn
+     Shall bite thee sore,
+     The oaths that to Helgi
+     Once thou swarest
+     At the bright white
+     Water of Lightening, (3)
+     And at the cold rock
+     That the sea runneth over.
+
+     May the ship sweep not on
+     That should sweep at its swiftest,
+     Though the wind desired
+     Behind thee driveth!
+     May the horse never run
+     That should run at his most might
+     When from thy foe's face
+     Thou hast most need to flee!
+
+     May the sword never bite
+     That thou drawest from scabbard
+     But and if round thine head
+     In wrath it singeth!
+
+     Then should meet price be paid
+     For Helgi's slaying
+     When a wolf thou wert
+     Out in the wild-wood,
+     Empty of good things
+     Empty of gladness,
+     With no meat for thy mouth
+     But dead men's corpses!
+
+     DAG:
+     With mad words thou ravest,
+     Thy wits are gone from thee,
+     When thou for thy brother
+     Such ill fate biddest;
+     Odin alone
+     Let all this bale loose,
+     Casting the strife-runes
+     'Twixt friends and kindred.
+
+     Rings of red gold
+     Will thy brother give thee,
+     And the stead of Vandil
+     And the lands of Vigdale;
+     Have half of the land
+     For thy sorrow's healing,
+     O ring-arrayed sweetling
+     For thee and thy sons!
+
+     SIGRUN:
+     No more sit I happy
+     At Sevafell;
+     At day-dawn, at night
+     Naught love I my life
+     Till broad o'er the people
+     My lord's light breaketh;
+     Till his war-horse runneth
+     Beneath him hither,
+     Well wont to the gold bit--
+     Till my king I welcome.
+
+     In such wise did Helgi
+     Deal fear around
+     To all his foes
+     And all their friends
+     As when the goat runneth
+     Before the wolf's rage
+     Filled with mad fear
+     Down from the fell.
+
+     As high above all lords
+     Did Helgi beat him
+     As the ash-tree's glory
+     From the thorn ariseth,
+     Or as the fawn
+     With the dew-fell sprinkled
+     Is far above
+     All other wild things,
+     As his horns go gleaming
+     'Gainst the very heavens.
+
+A barrow was raised above Helgi, but when he came in Valhall, then Odin
+bade him be lord of all things there, even as he; so Helgi sang--
+
+     HELGI:
+     Now shalt thou, Hunding
+     For the help of each man
+     Get ready the foot-bath,
+     And kindle the fire;
+     The hounds shalt thou bind
+     And give heed to the horses,
+     Give wash to the swine
+     Ere to sleep thou goest.
+
+A bondmaid of Sigrun went in the evening-tide by Helgi's mound, and
+there saw how Helgi rode toward it with a great company; then she sang--
+
+     BONDMAID:
+     It is vain things' beguilling
+     That methinks I behold,
+     Or the ending of all things,
+     As ye ride, O ye dead men,
+     Smiting with spurs
+     Your horses' sides?
+     Or may dead warriors
+     Wend their ways homeward?
+
+     THE DEAD:
+     No vain things' beguiling
+     Is that thou beholdest,
+     Nor the ruin of all things;
+     Though thou lookest upon us,
+     Though we smite with spurs
+     Our horses' sides;
+     Rather dead warriors
+     May wend their ways homeward.
+
+Then went the bondmaid home, and told Sigrun, and sang--
+
+     BONDMAID:
+     Go out, Sigrun
+     From Sevafell,
+     If thou listest to look on
+     The lord of thy people!
+     For the mound is uncovered
+     Thither is Helgi come,
+     And his wounds are bleeding,
+     But the king thee biddeth
+     To come and stay
+     That stream of sorrow.
+
+So Sigrun went into the mound to Helgi, and sang--
+
+     SIGRUN:
+     Now am I as fain
+     Of this fair meeting,
+     As are the hungry
+     Hawks of Odin,
+     When they wot of the slaying
+     Of the yet warm quarry,
+     Or bright with dew
+     See the day a-dawning.
+
+     Ah, I will kiss
+     My king laid lifeless,
+     Ere thou castest by
+     Thy blood-stained byrny.
+     O Helgi, thy hair
+     Is thick with death's rime,
+     With the dew of the dead
+     Is my love all dripping;
+     Dead-cold are the hands
+     Of the son of Hogni;
+     How for thee, O my king,
+     May I win healing?
+
+     HELGI:
+     Thou alone, Sigrun
+     Of Sevafell,
+     Hast so done that Helgi
+     With grief's dew drippeth;
+     O clad in gold
+     Cruel tears thou weepest,
+     Bright May of the Southlands,
+     Or ever thou sleepest;
+     Each tear in blood falleth
+     On the breast of thy lord,
+     Cold wet and bitter-sharp
+     Swollen with sorrow.
+
+     Ah, we shall drink
+     Dear draughts and lovely,
+     Though, we have lost
+     Both life and lands;
+     Neither shall any
+     Sing song of sorrow,
+     Though in my breast
+     Be wounds wide to behold:
+     For now are brides
+     In the mound abiding;
+     Kings' daughters sit
+     By us departed.
+
+Bow Sigrun arrayed a bed in the mound, and sang--
+
+     SIGRUN:
+     Here, Helgi, for thee
+     A bed have I dight,
+     Kind without woe,
+     O kin of the Ylfings!
+     To thy bosom, O king,
+     Will I come and sleep soft,
+     As I was wont
+     When my lord was living.
+
+     HELGI:
+     Now will I call
+     Naught not to be hoped for
+     Early or late
+     At Sevafell,
+     When thou in the arms
+     Of a dead man art laid,
+     White maiden of Hogni,
+     Here in the mound:
+     And thou yet quick,
+     O King's daughter!
+
+     Now needs must I ride
+     On the reddening ways;
+     My pale horse must tread
+     The highway aloft;
+     West must I go
+     To Windhelm's bridge
+     Ere the war-winning crowd
+     Hall-crower (4) waketh.
+
+So Helgi rode his ways: and the others gat them gone home to the house.
+But the next night Sigrun bade the bondwoman have heed of the mound. So
+at nightfall, thenas Sigrun came to the mound, she sang:
+
+     SIGRUN:
+     Here now would he come,
+     If to come he were minded;
+     Sigmund's offspring
+     From the halls of Odin.
+     O me the hope waneth
+     Of Helgi's coming;
+     For high on the ash-boughs
+     Are the ernes abiding,
+     And all folk drift
+     Toward the Thing of the dreamland.
+
+     BONDMAID:
+     Be not foolish of heart,
+     And fare all alone
+     To the house of the dead,
+     O Hero's daughter!
+     For more strong and dreadful
+     In the night season
+     Are all dead warriors
+     Than in the daylight.
+
+But a little while lived Sigrun, because of her sorrow and trouble.
+But in old time folk trowed that men should be born again, though their
+troth be now deemed but an old wife's dotting. And so, as folk say,
+Helgi and Sigrun were born again, and at that tide was he called Helgi
+the Scathe of Hadding, and she Kara the daughter of Halfdan; and she was
+a Valkyrie, even as is said in the Lay of Kara.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Only that part of the song is given which completes the
+       episodes of Helgi Hunding's-bane; the earlier part of the
+       song differs little from the Saga.
+  (2)  Hogni, the father of Dar and Sigrun, had been slain by Helgi
+       in battle, and Helgi had given peace to, and taken oaths of
+       Dag.
+  (3)  One of the rivers of the under-world.
+  (4)  Hall-crower, "Salgofnir": lit. Hall-gaper, the cock of
+       Valhall.
+
+
+
+
+PART OF THE LAY OF SIGRDRIFA (1)
+
+       Now this is my first counsel,
+       That thou with thy kin
+     Be guiltless, guileless ever,
+       Nor hasty of wrath,
+       Despite of wrong done--
+     Unto the dead good that doeth.
+
+       Lo the second counsel,
+       That oath thou swearest never,
+     But trusty oath and true:
+       Grim tormenting
+       Gripes troth-breakers;
+     Cursed wretch is the wolf of vows.
+
+       This is my third rede,
+       That thou at the Thing
+     Deal not with the fools of folk;
+       For unwise man
+       From mouth lets fall
+     Worser word than well he wotteth.
+
+       Yet hard it is
+       That holding of peace
+     When men shall deem thee dastard,
+     Or deem the lie said soothly;
+     But woeful is home-witness,
+     Unless right good thou gettest it.
+       Ah, on another day
+       Drive the life from out him,
+     And pay the liar back for his lying.
+
+       Now behold the fourth rede:
+       If ill witch thee bideth,
+     Woe-begatting by the way,
+       Good going further
+       Rather than guesting,
+     Though thick night be on thee.
+
+       Far-seeing eyes
+       Need all sons of men
+     Who wend in wrath to war;
+       For baleful women
+       Bide oft by the highway,
+     Swords and hearts to soften.
+
+       And now the fifth rede:
+       As fair as thou seest
+     Brides on the bench abiding,
+       Let not love's silver
+       Rule over thy sleeping;
+     Draw no woman to kind kissing!
+
+       For the sixth thing, I rede
+       When men sit a-drinking
+     Amid ale-words and ill-words,
+       Dead thou naught
+       With the drunken fight-staves
+     For wine stealeth wit from many.
+
+       Brawling and drink
+       Have brought unto men
+     Sorrow sore oft enow;
+       Yea, bane unto some,
+       And to some weary bale;
+     Many are the griefs of mankind.
+
+       For the seventh, I rede thee,
+       If strife thou raisest
+     With a man right high of heart,
+       Better fight a-field
+       Than burn in the fire
+     Within thine hall fair to behold.
+
+       The eighth rede that I give thee:
+       Unto all ill look thou,
+     And hold thine heart from all beguiling;
+       Draw to thee no maiden,
+       No man's wife bewray thou,
+     Urge them not unto unmeet pleasure.
+
+       This is the ninth counsel:
+       That thou have heed of dead folk
+     Whereso thou findest them a-field;
+       Be they sick-dead,
+       Be they sea-dead,
+     Or come to ending by war-weapons.
+
+       Let bath be made
+       For such men fordone,
+     Wash thou hands and feet thereof,
+       Comb their hair and dry them
+       Ere the coffin has them;
+     Then bid them sleep full sweetly.
+
+       This for the tenth counsel:
+       That thou give trust never
+     Unto oaths of foeman's kin,
+     Be'st thou bane of his brother,
+     Or hast thou felled his father;
+     Wolf in young son waxes,
+     Though he with gold be gladdened.
+
+       For wrong and hatred
+       Shall rest them never,
+     Nay, nor sore sorrow.
+       Both wit and weapons
+       Well must the king have
+     Who is fain to be the foremost.
+
+       The last rede and eleventh:
+       Until all ill look thou.
+     And watch thy friends' ways ever
+       Scarce durst I look
+       For long life for thee, king:
+     Strong trouble ariseth now already.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  This continues the first part of the lay given in Chapter XX
+       of the Saga; and is, in fact, the original verse of Chapter
+       XXI.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAY CALLED THE SHORT LAY OF SIGURD.
+
+     Sigurd of yore,
+     Sought the dwelling of Giuki,
+     As he fared, the young Volsung,
+     After fight won;
+     Troth he took
+     From the two brethren;
+     Oath swore they betwixt them,
+     Those bold ones of deed.
+
+     A may they gave to him
+     And wealth manifold,
+     Gudrun the young,
+     Giuki's daughter:
+     They drank and gave doom
+     Many days together,
+     Sigurd the young,
+     And the sons of Giuki.
+
+     Until they wended
+     For Brynhild's wooing,
+     Sigurd a-riding
+     Amidst their rout;
+     The wise young Volsung
+     Who knew of all ways--
+     Ah!  He had wed her,
+     Had fate so willed it.
+
+     Southlander Sigurd
+     A naked sword,
+     Bright, well grinded,
+     Laid betwixt them;
+     No kiss he won
+     From the fair woman,
+     Nor in arms of his
+     Did the Hun King hold her,
+     Since he gat the young maid
+     For the son of Giuki.
+
+     No lack in her life
+     She wotted of now,
+     And at her death-day
+     No dreadful thing
+     For a shame indeed
+     Or a shame in seeming;
+     But about and betwixt
+     Went baleful fate.
+
+     Alone, abroad,
+     She sat of an evening,
+     Of full many things
+     She fall a-talking:
+     "O for my Sigurd!
+     I shall have death,
+     Or my fair, my lovely,
+     Laid in mine arms.
+
+     "For the word once spoken,
+     I sorrow sorely--
+     His queen is Gudrun,
+     I am wed to Gunnar;
+     The dread Norns wrought for us
+     A long while of woe."
+
+     Oft with heart deep
+     In dreadful thoughts,
+     O'er ice-fields and ice-hills
+     She fared a-night time,
+     When he and Gudrun
+     Were gone to their fair bed,
+     And Sigurd wrapped
+     The bed-gear round her.
+
+     "Ah!  Now the Hun King
+     His queen in arms holdeth,
+     While love I go lacking,
+     And all things longed for
+     With no delight
+     But in dreadful thought."
+
+     These dreadful things
+     Thrust her toward murder:
+     --"Listen, Gunnar,
+     For thou shalt lose
+     My wide lands,
+     Yea, me myself!
+     Never love I my life,
+     With thee for my lord--
+
+     "I will fare back thither
+     From whence I came,
+     To my nighest kin
+     And those that know me
+     There shall I sit
+     Sleeping my life away,
+     Unless thou slayest
+     Sigurd the Hun King,
+     Making thy might more
+     E'en than his might was!
+
+     "Yea, let the son fare
+     After the father,
+     And no young wolf
+     A long while nourish!
+     For on earth man lieth
+     Vengeance lighter,
+     And peace shall be surer
+     If the son live not."
+
+     Adrad was Gunnar,
+     Heavy-hearted was he,
+     And in doubtful mood
+     Day-long he sat.
+     For naught he wotted,
+     Nor might see clearly
+     What was the seemliest
+     Of deeds to set hand to;
+     What of all deeds
+     Was best to be done:
+     For he minded the vows
+     Sworn to the Volsung,
+     And the sore wrong
+     To be wrought against Sigurd.
+
+     Wavered his mind
+     A weary while,
+     No wont it was
+     Of those days worn by,
+     That queens should flee
+     From the realms of their kings.
+
+     "Brynhild to me
+     Is better than all,
+     The child of Budli
+     Is the best of women.
+     Yea, and my life
+     Will I lay down,
+     Ere I am twinned
+     From that woman's treasure."
+
+     He bade call Hogni
+     To the place where he bided;
+     With all the trust that might be,
+     Trowed he in him.
+
+     "Wilt thou bewray Sigurd
+     For his wealth's sake?
+     Good it is to rule
+     O'er the Rhine's metal;
+     And well content
+     Great wealth to wield,
+     Biding in peace
+     And blissful days."
+
+     One thing alone Hogni
+     Had for an answer:
+     "Such doings for us
+     Are naught seemly to do;
+     To rend with sword
+     Oaths once sworn,
+     Oaths once sworn,
+     And troth once plighted.
+
+     "Nor know we on mould,
+     Men of happier days,
+     The while we four
+     Rule over the folk;
+     While the bold in battle,
+     The Hun King, bides living.
+
+     "And no nobler kin
+     Shall be known afield,
+     If our five sons
+     We long may foster;
+     Yea, a goodly stem
+     Shall surely wax.
+     --But I clearly see
+     In what wise it standeth,
+     Brynhild's sore urging
+     O'ermuch on thee beareth.
+
+     "Guttorm shall we
+     Get for the slaying,
+     Our younger brother
+     Bare of wisdom;
+     For he was out of
+     All the oaths sworn,
+     All the oaths sworn,
+     And the plighted troth."
+
+     Easy to rouse him
+     Who of naught recketh!
+     --Deep stood the sword
+     In the heart of Sigurd.
+
+     There, in the hall,
+     Gat the high-hearted vengeance;
+     For he can his sword
+     At the reckless slayer:
+     Out at Guttorm
+     Flew Gram the mighty,
+     The gleaming steel
+     From Sigurd's hand.
+
+     Down fell the slayer
+     Smitten asunder;
+     The heavy head
+     And the hands fell one way,
+     But the feet and such like
+     Aback where they stood.
+
+     Gudrun was sleeping
+     Soft in the bed,
+     Empty of sorrow
+     By the side of Sigurd:
+     When she awoke
+     With all pleasure gone,
+     Swimming in blood
+     Of Frey's beloved.
+
+     So sore her hands
+     She smote together,
+     That the great-hearted
+     Gat raised in bed;
+     --"O Gudrun, weep not
+     So woefully,
+     Sweet lovely bride,
+     For thy brethren live for thee!
+
+     "A young child have I
+     For heritor;
+     Too young to win forth
+     From the house of his foes.--
+     Black deeds and ill
+     Have they been a-doing,
+     Evil rede
+     Have they wrought at last.
+
+     "Late, late, rideth with them
+     Unto the Thing,
+     Such sister's son,
+     Though seven thou bear,--
+     --But well I wot
+     Which way all goeth;
+     Alone wrought Brynhild
+     This bale against us.
+
+     "That maiden loved me
+     Far before all men,
+     Yet wrong to Gunnar
+     I never wrought;
+     Brotherhood I heeded
+     And all bounden oaths,
+     That none should deem me
+     His queen's darling."
+
+     Weary sighed Gudrun,
+     As the king gat ending,
+     And so sore her hands
+     She smote together,
+     That the cups arow
+     Rang out therewith,
+     And the geese cried on high
+     That were in the homefield.
+
+     Then laughed Brynhild
+     Budli's daughter,
+     Once, once only,
+     From out her heart;
+     When to her bed
+     Was borne the sound
+     Of the sore greeting
+     Of Giuki's daughter.
+
+     Then, quoth Gunnar,
+     The king, the hawk-bearer,
+     "Whereas, thou laughest,
+     O hateful woman,
+     Glad on thy bed,
+     No good it betokeneth:
+     Why lackest thou else
+     Thy lovely hue?
+     Feeder of foul deeds,
+     Fey do I deem thee,
+
+     "Well worthy art thou
+     Before all women,
+     That thine eyes should see
+     Atli slain of us;
+     That thy brother's wounds
+     Thou shouldest see a-bleeding,
+     That his bloody hurts
+     Thine hands should bind."
+
+     "No man blameth thee, Gunnar,
+     Thou hast fulfilled death's measure
+     But naught Atli feareth
+     All thine ill will;
+     Life shall he lay down
+     Later than ye,
+     And still bear more might
+     Aloft than thy might.
+
+     "I shall tell thee, Gunnar,
+     Though well the tale thou knowest,
+     In what early days
+     Ye dealt abroad your wrong:
+     Young was I then,
+     Worn with no woe,
+     Good wealth I had
+     In the house of my brother!
+
+     "No mind had I
+     That a man should have me,
+     Or ever ye Giukings,
+     Rode into our garth;
+     There ye sat on your steeds
+     Three kings of the people--
+     --Ah!  That that faring
+     Had never befallen!
+
+     "Then spake Atli
+     To me apart,
+     And said that no wealth
+     He would give unto me,
+     Neither gold nor lands
+     If I would not be wedded;
+     Nay, and no part
+     Of the wealth apportioned,
+     Which in my first days
+     He gave me duly;
+     Which in my first days
+     He counted down.
+
+     "Wavered the mind
+     Within me then,
+     If to fight I should fall
+     And the felling of folk,
+     Bold in Byrny
+     Because of my brother;
+     A deed of fame
+     Had that been to all folk,
+     But to many a man
+     Sorrow of mind.
+
+     "So I let all sink
+     Into peace at the last:
+     More grew I minded
+     For the mighty treasure,
+     The red-shining rings
+     Of Sigmund's son;
+     For no man's wealth else
+     Would I take unto me.
+
+     "For myself had I given
+     To that great king
+     Who sat amid gold
+     On the back of Grani;
+     Nought were his eyes
+     Like to your eyen,
+     Nor in any wise
+     Went his visage with yours;
+     Though ye might deem you
+     Due kings of men.
+
+     "One I loved,
+     One, and none other,
+     The gold-decked may
+     Had no doubtful mind;
+     Thereof shall Atli
+     Wot full surely,
+     When he getteth to know
+     I am gone to the dead.
+
+     "Far be it from me,
+     Feeble and wavering,
+     Ever to love
+     Another's love--
+     --Yes shall my woe
+     Be well avenged."
+
+     Up rose Gunnar,
+     The great men's leader,
+     And cast his arms
+     About the queen's neck;
+     And all went nigh
+     One after other,
+     With their whole hearts
+     Her heart to turn.
+
+     But then all these
+     From her neck she thrust,
+     Of her long journey
+     No man should let her.
+
+     Then called he Hogni
+     To have talk with him;
+     "Let all folk go
+     Forth into the hall,
+     Thine with mine--
+     --O need sore and mighty!--
+     To wot if we yet
+     My wife's parting may stay.
+     Till with time's wearing
+     Some hindrance wax."
+
+     One answer Hogni
+     Had for all;
+     "Nay, let hard need
+     Have rule thereover,
+     And no man let her
+     Of her long journey!
+     Never born again,
+     May she come back thence!
+
+     "Luckless she came
+     To the lap of her mother,
+     Born into the world
+     For utter woe,
+     TO many a man
+     For heart-whole mourning."
+
+     Upraised he turned
+     From the talk and the trouble,
+     To where the gem-field
+     Dealt out goodly treasure;
+     As she looked and beheld
+     All the wealth that she had,
+     And the hungry bondmaids,
+     And maids of the hall.
+
+     With no good in her heart
+     She donned her gold byrny,
+     Ere she thrust the sword point
+     Through the midst of her body:
+     On the boister's far side
+     Sank she adown,
+     And, smitten with sword,
+     Still bethought her of redes.
+
+     "Let all come forth
+     Who are fain the red gold,
+     Or things less worthy
+     To win from my hands;
+     To each one I give
+     A necklace gilt over,
+     Wrought hangings and bed=gear,
+     And bright woven weed."
+
+     All they kept silence,
+     And thought what to speak,
+     Then all at once
+     Answer gave:
+     "Full enow are death-doomed,
+     Fain are we to live yet,
+     Maids of the hall
+     All meet work winning."
+
+     "From her wise heart at last
+     The linen-clad damsel,
+     The one of few years
+     Gave forth the word:
+     "I will that none driven
+     By hand or by word,
+     For our sake should lose
+     Well-loved life.
+
+     "Thou on the bones of you
+     Surely shall burn,
+     Less dear treasure
+     At your departing
+     Nor with Menia's Meal (1)
+     Shall ye come to see me."
+
+     "Sit thee down, Gunnar,
+     A word must I say to thee
+     Of the life's ruin
+     Of thy lightsome bride--
+     --Nor shall thy ship
+     Swim soft and sweetly
+     For all that I
+     Lay life adown.
+
+     "Sooner than ye might deem
+     Shall ye make peace with Gudrun,
+     For the wise woman
+     Shall full in the young wife
+     The hard memory
+     Of her dead husband.
+
+     "There is a may born
+     Reared by her mother,
+     Whiter and brighter
+     Than is the bright day;
+     She shall be Swanhild,
+     She shall be Sunbeam.
+
+     "Thou shalt give Gudrun
+     Unto a great one,
+     Noble, well-praised
+     Of the world's folk;
+     Not with her goodwill,
+     Or love shalt thou give her;
+     Yet will Atli
+     Come to win her,
+     My very brother,
+     Born of Budli.
+
+     --"Ah!  Many a memory
+     Of how ye dealt with me,
+     How sorely, how evilly
+     Ye ever beguiled me,
+     How all pleasure left me
+     The while my life lasted--!
+
+     "Fain wilt thou be
+     Oddrun to win,
+     But thy good liking
+     Shall Atli let;
+     But in secret wise
+     Shall ye win together,
+     And she shall love thee
+     As I had loved thee,
+     If in such wise
+     Fare had willed it.
+
+     "But with all ill
+     Shall Atli sting thee,
+     Into the strait worm-close
+     Shall he cast thee.
+
+     "But no long space
+     Shall slip away
+     Ere Atli too
+     All life shall lose,
+     Yea, all his weal
+     With the life of his sons,
+     For a dreadful bed
+     Dights Gudrun for him,
+     From a heart sore laden,
+     With the sword's sharp edge.
+
+     "More seemly for Gudrun,
+     Your very sister,
+     In death to wend after
+     Her love first wed;
+     Had but good rede
+     To her been given,
+     Or if her heart
+     Had been like to my heart.
+
+     --"Faint my speech groweth--
+     But for our sake
+     Ne'er shall she lose
+     Her life beloved;
+     The sea shall have her,
+     High billows bear her
+     Forth unto Jonakr's
+     Fair land of his fathers.
+
+     "There shall she bear sons,
+     Stays of a heritage,
+     Stays of a heritage,
+     Jonakr's sons;
+     And Swanhild shall she
+     Send from the land,
+     That may born of her,
+     The may born of Sigurd.
+
+     "Her shall bite
+     The rede of Bikki,
+     Whereas for no good
+     Wins Jormunrek life;
+     And so is clean perished
+     All the kin of Sigurd,
+     Yea, and more greeting,
+     And more for Gudrun.
+
+     "And now one prayer
+     Yet pray I of thee--
+     That last word of mine
+     Here in the world--
+     So broad on the field
+     Be the burg of the dead
+     That fair space may be left
+     For us all to lie down,
+     All those that died
+     At Sigurd's death!
+
+     "Hang round that burg
+     Fair hangings and shields,
+     Web by Gauls woven,
+     And folk of the Gauls:
+     There burn the Hun King
+     Lying beside me.
+
+     "But on the other side
+     Burn by the Hun King
+     Those who served me
+     Strewn with treasure;
+     Two at the head,
+     And two at the feet,
+     Two hounds therewith,
+     And two hawks moreover:
+     Then is all dealt
+     With even dealing.
+
+     "Lay there amidst us
+     The right-dight metal,
+     The sharp-edged steel,
+     That so lay erst;
+     When we both together
+     Into one bed went,
+     And were called by the name
+     Of man and wife.
+
+     "Never, then, belike
+     Shall clash behind him
+     Valhall's bright door
+     With rings bedight:
+     And if my fellowship
+     Followeth after,
+     In no wretched wise
+     Then shall we wend.
+
+     "For him shall follow
+     My five bondmaids,
+     My eight bondsmen,
+     No borel folk:
+     Yea, and my fosterer,
+     And my father's dower
+     That Budli of old days
+     Gave to his dear child.
+
+     "Much have I spoken,
+     More would I speak,
+     If the sword would give me
+     Space for speech;
+     But my words are waning,
+     My wounds are swelling--
+     Naught but truth have I told--
+     --And now make I ending."
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  "Menia's Maid"--periphrasis for gold.
+
+
+
+
+THE HELL-RIDE OF BRYNHILD.
+
+After the death of Brynhild were made two bales, one for Sigurd, and
+that was first burned; but Brynhild was burned on the other, and she was
+in a chariot hung about with goodly hangings.
+
+And so folk say that Brynhild drave in her chariot down along the way
+to Hell, and passed by an abode where dwelt a certain giantess, and the
+giantess spake:--
+
+     THE GIANT-WOMAN
+     "Nay, with my goodwill
+     Never goest thou
+     Through this stone-pillared
+     Stead of mine!
+     More seemly for thee
+     To sit sewing the cloth,
+     Than to go look on
+     The love of another.
+
+     "What dost thou, going
+     From the land of the Gauls,
+     O restless head,
+     To this mine house?
+     Golden girl, hast thou not,
+     If thou listest to hearken,
+     In sweet wise from thy hands
+     The blood of men washen?"
+
+     BRYNHILD
+     "Nay, blame me naught,
+     Bride of the rock-hall,
+     Though I roved a warring
+     In the days that were;
+     The higher of us twain
+     Shall I ever be holden
+     When of our kind
+     Men make account."
+
+     THE GIANT-WOMAN
+     "Thou, O Brynhild,
+     Budli's daughter,
+     Wert the worst ever born
+     Into the world;
+     For Giuki's children
+     Death hast thou gotten,
+     And turned to destruction
+     Their goodly dwelling."
+
+     BRYNHILD
+     "I shall tell thee
+     True tale from my chariot,
+     O thou who naught wottest,
+     If thou listest to wot;
+     How for me they have gotten
+     Those heirs of Giuki,
+     A loveless life,
+     A life of lies.
+
+     "Hild under helm,
+     The Hlymdale people,
+     E'en those who knew me,
+     Ever would call me.
+
+     "The changeful shapes
+     Of us eight sisters,
+     The wise king bade
+     Under oak-tree to bear;
+     Of twelve winters was I,
+     If thou listest to wot,
+     When I sware to the young lord
+     Oaths of love.
+
+     "Thereafter gat I
+     Mid the folk of the Goths,
+     For Helmgunnar the old,
+     Swift journey to Hell,
+     And gave to Aud's brother
+     The young, gain and glory;
+     Whereof overwrath
+     Waxed Odin with me.
+
+     "So he shut me in shield-wall
+     In Skata grove,
+     Red shields and white
+     Close set around me;
+     And bade him alone
+     My slumber to break
+     Who in no land
+     Knew how to fear.
+
+     "He set round my hall,
+     Toward the south quarter,
+     The Bane of all trees
+     Burning aloft;
+     And ruled that he only
+     Thereover should ride
+     Who should bring me the gold
+     O'er which Fafnir brooded.
+
+     "Then upon Grani rode
+     The goodly gold-strewer
+     To where my fosterer
+     Ruled his fair dwelling.
+     He who alone there
+     Was deemed best of all,
+     The War-lord of the Danes,
+     Well worthy of men.
+
+     "In peace did we sleep
+     Soft in one bed,
+     As though he had been
+     Naught but my brother:
+     There as we lay
+     Through eight nights wearing,
+     No hand in love
+     On each other we laid.
+
+     "Yet thence blamed me, Gudrun,
+     Giuki's daughter,
+     That I had slept
+     In the arms of Sigurd;
+     And then I wotted
+     As I fain had not wotted,
+     That they had bewrayed me
+     In my betrothals.
+
+     "Ah!  For unrest
+     All too long
+     Are men and women
+     Made alive!
+     Yet we twain together
+     Shall wear through the ages,
+     Sigurd and I.--
+     --Sink adown, O giant-wife!"
+
+
+
+
+FRAGMENTS OF THE LAY OF BRYNHILD
+
+     HOGNI SAID:
+     "What hath wrought Sigurd
+     Of any wrong-doing
+     That the life of the famed one
+     Thou art fain of taking?"
+
+     GUNNAR SAID:
+     "To me has Sigurd
+     Sworn many oaths,
+     Sworn many oaths,
+     And sworn them lying,
+     And he bewrayed me
+     When it behoved him
+     Of all folk to his troth
+     To be the most trusty."
+
+     HOGNI SAID:
+     "Thee hath Brynhild
+     Unto all bale,
+     And all hate whetted,
+     And a work of sorrow;
+     For she grudges to Gudrun
+     All goodly life;
+     And to thee the bliss
+     Of her very body."
+
+    ..........
+
+     Some the wolf roasted,
+     Some minced the worm,
+     Some unto Guttorm
+     Gave the wolf-meat,
+     Or ever they might
+     In their lust for murder
+     On the high king
+     Lay deadly hand.
+
+     Sigurd lay slain
+     On the south of the Rhine
+     High from the fair tree
+     Croaked forth the raven,
+     "Ah, yet shall Atli
+     On you redden edges,
+     The old oaths shall weigh
+     On your souls, O warriors."
+
+     Without stood Gudrun,
+     Giuki's daughter,
+     And the first word she said
+     Was even this word:
+     "Where then is Sigurd,
+     Lord of the Warfolk,
+     Since my kin
+     Come riding the foremost?
+
+     One word Hogni
+     Had for an answer:
+     "Our swords have smitten
+     Sigurd asunder,
+     And the grey horse hangs drooping
+     O'er his lord lying dead."
+
+     Then quoth Brynhild,
+     Budli's daughter;
+     "Good weal shall ye have
+     Of weapons and lands,
+     That Sigurd alone
+     Would surely have ruled
+     If he had lived
+     But a little longer.
+
+     "Ah, nothing seemly
+     For Sigurd to rule
+     Giuki's house
+     And the folk of the Goths,
+     When of him five sons
+     For the slaying of men,
+     Eager for battle,
+     Should have been begotten!"
+
+     Then laughed Brynhild--
+     Loud rang the whole house--
+     One laugh only
+     From out her heart:
+     "Long shall your bliss be
+     Of lands and people,
+     Whereas the famed lord
+     You have felled to the earth!"
+
+     Then spake Gudrun,
+     Giuki's daughter;
+     "Much thou speakest,
+     Many things fearful,
+     All grame be on Gunnar
+     The bane of Sigurd!
+     From a heart full of hate
+     Shall come heavy vengeance."
+
+     Forth sped the even
+     Enow there was drunken,
+     Full enow was there
+     Of all soft speech;
+     And all men got sleep
+     When to bed they were gotten;
+     Gunnar only lay waking
+     Long after all men.
+
+     His feet fell he to moving,
+     Fell to speak to himself
+     The waster of men,
+     Still turned in his mind
+     What on the bough
+     Those twain would be saying,
+     The raven and erne,
+     As they rode their ways homeward.
+
+     But Brynhild awoke,
+     Budli's daughter,
+     May of the shield-folk,
+     A little ere morning:
+     "Thrust ye on, hold ye back,
+     --Now all harm is wrought,--
+     To tell of my sorrow,
+     Or to let all slip by me?"
+
+     All kept silence
+     After her speaking,
+     None might know
+     That woman's mind,
+     Or why she must weep
+     To tell of the work
+     That laughing once
+     Of men she prayed.
+
+     BRYNHILD SPAKE:
+     "In dreams, O Gunnar,
+     Grim things fell on me;
+     Dead-cold the hall was,
+     And my bed was a-cold,
+     And thou, lord, wert riding
+     Reft of all bliss,
+     Laden with fetters
+     'Mid the host of thy foemen."
+
+     "So now all ye,
+     O House of the Niblungs,
+     Shall be brought to naught,
+     O ye oath-breakers!
+
+     "Think'st thou not, Gunnar,
+     How that betid,
+     When ye let the blood run
+     Both in one footstep?
+     With ill reward
+     Hast thou rewarded
+     His heart so fain
+     To be the foremost!
+
+     "As well was seen
+     When he rode his ways,
+     That king of all worth,
+     Unto my wooing;
+     How the host-destroyer
+     Held to the vows
+     Sworn beforetime,
+     Sworn to the young king.
+
+     "For his wounding-wand
+     All wrought with gold,
+     The king beloved
+     Laid between us;
+     Without were its edges
+     Wrought with fire,
+     But with venom-drops
+     Deep dyed within."
+
+Thus this song telleth of the death of Sigurd, and setteth forth how
+that they slew him without doors; but some say that they slew him within
+doors, sleeping in his bed. But the Dutch Folk say that they slew him
+out in the wood: and so sayeth the ancient song of Gudrun, that Sigurd
+and the sons of Giuki were riding to the Thing whenas he was slain. But
+all with one accord say that they bewrayed him in their troth with him,
+and fell on him as he lay unarrayed and unawares.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND OR ANCIENT LAY OF GUDRUN.
+
+Thiodrek the King was in Atli's house, and had lost there the more part
+of his men: so there Thiodrek and Gudrun bewailed their troubles one to
+the other, and she spake and said:--
+
+     A may of all mays
+     My mother reared me
+     Bright in bower;
+     Well loved I my brethren,
+     Until that Giuki
+     With gold arrayed me,
+     With gold arrayed me,
+     And gave me to Sigurd.
+
+     Such was my Sigurd,
+     Among the sons of Giuki
+     As is the green leek
+     O'er the low grass waxen,
+     Or a hart high-limbed
+     Over hurrying deer,
+     Or glede-red gold
+     Over grey silver.
+
+     Till me they begrudged,
+     Those my brethren,
+     The fate to have him,
+     Who was first of all men;
+     Nor might they sleep,
+     Nor sit a-dooming,
+     Ere they let slay
+     My well-loved Sigurd.
+
+     Grani ran to the Thing,
+     There was clatter to hear,
+     But never came Sigurd
+     Himself thereunto;
+     All the saddle-girt beasts
+     With blood were besprinkled,
+     As faint with the way
+     Neath the slayers they went.
+
+     Then greeting I went
+     With Grani to talk,
+     And with tear-furrowed cheeks
+     I bade him tell all;
+     But drooping laid Grani,
+     His head in the grass,
+     For the steed well wotted
+     Of his master's slaying.
+
+     A long while I wandered,
+     Long my mind wavered,
+     Ere the kings I might ask
+     Concerning my king.
+
+     Then Gunnar hung head,
+     But Hogni told
+     Of the cruel slaying
+     Of my Sigurd:
+     "On the water's far side
+     Lies, smitten to death,
+     The bane of Guttorm
+     To the wolves given over.
+
+     "Go, look on Sigurd,
+     On the ways that go southward,
+     There shalt thou hear
+     The ernes high screaming,
+     The ravens a-croaking
+     As their meat they crave for;
+     Thou shalt hear the wolves howling
+     Over thine husband.
+
+     "How hast thou, Hogni,
+     The heart to tell me,
+     Me of joy made empty,
+     Of such misery?
+     Thy wretched heart
+     May the ravens tear
+     Wide over the world,
+     With no men mayst thou wend."
+
+     One thing Hogni
+     Had for answer,
+     Fallen from his high heart,
+     Full of all trouble:
+     "More greeting yet,
+     O Gudrun, for thee,
+     If my heart the ravens
+     Should rend asunder!"
+
+     Thence I turned
+     From the talk and the trouble
+     To go a leasing (1)
+     What the wolves had left me;
+     No sigh I made
+     No smote hands together,
+     Nor did I wail
+     As other women
+     When I sat over
+     My Sigurd slain.
+
+     Night methought it,
+     And the moonless dark,
+     When I sat in sorrow
+     Over Sigurd;
+     Better than all things
+     I deemed it would be
+     If they would let me
+     Cast my life by,
+     Or burn me up
+     As they burn the birch-wood.
+
+     From the fell I wandered
+     Five days together,
+     Until the high hall
+     Of Half lay before me;
+     Seven seasons there
+     I sat with Thora,
+     The daughter of Hacon,
+     Up in Denmark.
+
+     My heart to gladden
+     With gold she wrought
+     Southland halls
+     And swans of the Dane-folk;
+     There had we painted
+     The chiefs a-playing;
+     Fair our hands wrought
+     Folk of the kings.
+
+     Red shields we did,
+     Doughty knights of the Huns,
+     Hosts spear-dight, hosts helm-dight,
+     All a high king's fellows;
+     And the ships of Sigmund
+     From the land swift sailing;
+     Heads gilt over
+     And prows fair graven.
+
+     On the cloth we broidered
+     That tide of their battling,
+     Siggeir and Siggar,
+     South in Fion.
+
+     Then heard Grimhild,
+     The Queen of Gothland,
+     How I was abiding,
+     Weighed down with woe;
+     And she thrust the cloth from her
+     And called to her sons,
+     And oft and eagerly
+     Asked them thereof,
+     Who for her son
+     Would their sister atone,
+     Who for her lord slain
+     Would lay down weregild.
+
+     Fain was Gunnar
+     Gold to lay down
+     All wrongs to atone for,
+     And Hogni in likewise;
+     Then she asked who was fain
+     Of faring straightly,
+     The steed to saddle
+     To set forth the wain,
+     The horse to back,
+     And the hawk to fly,
+     To shoot forth the arrow
+     From out the yew-bow.
+
+     Valdarr the Dane-king
+     Came with Jarisleif
+     Eymod the third went
+     Then went Jarizskar;
+     In kingly wise
+     In they wended,
+     The host of the Longbeards;
+     Red cloaks had they,
+     Byrnies short-cut,
+     Helms strong hammered,
+     Girt with glaives,
+     And hair red-gleaming.
+
+     Each would give me
+     Gifts desired,
+     Gifts desired,
+     Speech dear to my heart,
+     If they might yet,
+     Despite my sorrow,
+     Win back my trust,
+     But in them nought I trusted.
+
+     Then brought me Grimhild
+     A beaker to drink of,
+     Cold and bitter,
+     Wrong's memory to quench;
+     Made great was that drink
+     With the might of the earth,
+     With the death-cold sea
+     And the blood that Son (2) holdeth.
+
+     On that horn's face were there
+     All the kin of letters
+     Cut aright and reddened,
+     How should I rede them rightly?
+
+     The ling-fish long
+     Of the land of Hadding,
+     Wheat-ears unshorn,
+     And wild things' inwards.
+
+     In that mead were mingled
+     Many ills together,
+     Blood of all the wood,
+     And brown-burnt acorns;
+     The black dew of the hearth, (3)
+     And god-doomed dead beasts' inwards
+     And the swine's liver sodden,
+     For wrongs late done that deadens.
+
+     Then waned my memory
+     When that was within me,
+     Of my lord 'mid the hall
+     By the iron laid low.
+     Three kings came
+     Before my knees
+     Ere she herself
+     Fell to speech with me.
+
+     "I will give to thee, Gudrun,
+     Gold to be glad with,
+     All the great wealth
+     Of thy father gone from us,
+     Rings of red gold
+     And the great hall of Lodver,
+     And all fair hangings left
+     By the king late fallen.
+
+     "Maids of the Huns
+     Woven pictures to make,
+     And work fair in gold
+     Till thou deem'st thyself glad.
+     Alone shalt thou rule
+     O'er the riches of Budli,
+     Shalt be made great with gold,
+     And be given to Atli."
+
+     "Never will I
+     Wend to a husband,
+     Or wed the brother
+     Of Queen Brynhild;
+     Naught it beseems me
+     With the son of Budli
+     Kin to bring forth,
+     Or to live and be merry."
+
+     "Nay, the high chiefs
+     Reward not with hatred,
+     For take heed that I
+     Was the first in this tale!
+     To thy heart shall it be
+     As if both these had life,
+     Sigurd and Sigmund,
+     When thou hast borne sons."
+
+     "Naught may I, Grimhild,
+     Seek after gladness,
+     Nor deem aught hopeful
+     Of any high warrior,
+     Since wolf and raven
+     Were friends together,
+     The greedy, the cruel,
+     O'er great Sigurd's heart-blood."
+
+     "Of all men that can be
+     For the noblest of kin
+     This king have I found,
+     And the foremost of all;
+     Him shalt thou have
+     Till with eld thou art heavy--
+     Be thou ever unwed,
+     If thou wilt naught of him!"
+
+     "Nay, nay, bid me not
+     With thy words long abiding
+     To take unto me
+     That balefullest kin;
+     This king shall bid Gunnar
+     Be stung to his bane,
+     And shall cut the heart
+     From out of Hogni.
+
+     "Nor shall I leave life
+     Ere the keen lord,
+     The eager in sword-play,
+     My hand shall make end of."
+
+     Grimhild a-weeping
+     Took up the word then,
+     When the sore bale she wotted
+     Awaiting her sons,
+     And the bane hanging over
+     Her offspring beloved.
+
+     "I will give thee, moreover,
+     Great lands, many men,
+     Wineberg and Valberg,
+     If thou wilt but have them;
+     Hold them lifelong,
+     And live happy, O daughter!"
+
+     "Then him must I take
+     From among kingly men,
+     'Gainst my heart's desire,
+     From the hands of my kinsfolk;
+     But no joy I look
+     To have from that lord:
+     Scarce may my brother's bane
+     Be a shield to my sons."
+
+     Soon was each warrior
+     Seen on his horse,
+     But the Gaulish women
+     Into wains were gotten;
+     Then seven days long
+     O'er a cold land we rode,
+     And for seven other
+     Clove we the sea-waves.
+     But with the third seven
+     O'er dry land we wended.
+
+     There the gate-wardens
+     Of the burg, high and wide,
+     Unlooked the barriers
+     Ere the burg-garth we rode to--
+
+    ............
+
+     Atli woke me
+     When meseemed I was
+     Full evil of heart
+     For my kin dead slain.
+
+     "In such wise did the Norns
+     Wake me or now."--
+     Fain was he to know
+     Of this ill foreshowing--
+     "That methought, O Gudrun,
+     Giuki's daughter,
+     That thou setst in my heart
+     A sword wrought for guile."
+
+     "For fires tokening I deem it
+     That dreaming of iron,
+     But for pride and for lust
+     The wrath of fair women
+     Against some bale
+     Belike, I shall burn thee
+     For thy solace and healing
+     Though hateful thou art."
+
+     "In the fair garth methought
+     Had saplings fallen
+     E'en such as I would
+     Should have waxen ever;
+     Uprooted were these,
+     And reddened with blood,
+     And borne to the bench,
+     And folk bade me eat of them.
+
+     "Methought from my hand then
+     Went hawks a-flying
+     Lacking their meat
+     To the land of all ill;
+     Methought that their hearts
+     Mingled with honey,
+     Swollen with blood
+     I ate amid sorrow.
+
+     "Lo, next two whelps
+     From my hands I loosened,
+     Joyless were both,
+     And both a-howling;
+     And now their flesh
+     Became naught but corpses,
+     Whereof must I eat
+     But sore against my will."
+
+     "O'er the prey of the fishers
+     Will folk give doom;
+     From the bright white fish
+     The heads will they take;
+     Within a few nights,
+     Fey as they are,
+     A little ere day
+     Of that draught will they eat."
+
+     "Ne'er since lay I down,
+     Ne'er since would I sleep,
+     Hard of heart, in my bed:--
+     That deed have I to do. (4)
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  The original has "a vid lesa".  "Leasing" is the word still
+       used for gleaning in many country sides in England.
+  (2)  Son was the vessel into which was poured the blood of
+       Quasir, the God of Poetry.
+  (3)  This means soot.
+  (4)  The whole of this latter part is fragmentary and obscure;
+       there seems wanting to two of the dreams some trivial
+       interpretation by Gudrun, like those given by Hogni to
+       Kostbera in the Saga, of which nature, of course, the
+       interpretation contained in the last stanza but one is, as
+       we have rendered it: another rendering, from the different
+       reading of the earlier edition of "Edda" (Copenhagen, 1818)
+       would make this refer much more directly to the slaying of
+       her sons by Gudrun.
+
+
+
+
+THE SONG OF ATLI.
+
+Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, avenger her brethren, as is told far and wide;
+first she slew the sons of Atli, and then Atli himself; and she burned
+the hall thereafter, and all the household with it: and about these
+matters is this song made:--
+
+     In days long gone
+     Sent Atli to Gunnar
+     A crafty one riding,
+     Knefrud men called him;
+     To Giuki's garth came he,
+     To the hall of Gunnar,
+     To the benches gay-dight,
+     And the gladsome drinking.
+
+     There drank the great folk
+     'Mid the guileful one's silence,
+     Drank wine in their fair hall:
+     The Huns' wrath they feared
+     When Knefrud cried
+     In his cold voice,
+     As he sat on the high seat,
+     That man of the Southland:
+
+     "Atli has sent me
+     Riding swift on his errands
+     On the bit-griping steed
+     Through dark woodways unbeaten,
+     To bid thee, King Gunnar,
+     Come to his fair bench
+     With helm well-adorned,
+     To the house of King Atli.
+
+     "Shield shall ye have there
+     And spears ashen-shafted,
+     Helms ruddy with gold,
+     And hosts of the Huns;
+     Saddle-gear silver gilt,
+     Shirts red as blood,
+     The hedge of the warwife,
+     And horses bit-griping.
+
+     "And he saith he will give you
+     Gnitaheath widespread,
+     And whistling spears
+     And prows well-gilded,
+     Might wealth
+     With the stead of Danpi,
+     And that noble wood
+     Men name the Murkwood."
+
+     Then Gunnar turned head
+     And spake unto Hogni:
+     "What rede from thee, high one,
+     Since such things we hear?
+     No gold know I
+     On Gnitaheath,
+     That we for our parts
+     Have not portion as great.
+
+     "Seven halls we have
+     Fulfilled of swords,
+     And hilts of gold
+     Each sword there has;
+     My horse is the best,
+     My blade is the keenest;
+     Fair my bow o'er the bench is,
+     Gleams my byrny with gold;
+     Brightest helm, brightest shield,
+     From Kiar's dwelling ere brought--
+     Better all things I have
+     Than all things of the Huns."
+
+     HOGNI SAID:
+     "What mind has our sister
+     That a ring she hath sent us
+     In weed of wolves clad?
+     Bids she not to be wary?
+     For a wolf's hair I found
+     The fair ring wreathed about;
+     Wolf beset shall the way be
+     If we wend on this errand."
+
+     No sons whetted Gunnar,
+     Nor none of his kin,
+     Nor learned men nor wise men,
+     Nor such as were mighty.
+     Then spake Gunnar
+     E'en as a king should speak,
+     Glorious in mead-hall
+     From great heart and high:
+
+     "Rise up now, Fiornir,
+     Forth down the benches
+     Let the gold-cups of great ones
+     Pass in hands of my good-men!
+     Well shall we drink wine,
+     Draughts dear to our hearts,
+     Though the last of all feasts
+     In our fair house this be!
+
+     "For the wolves shall rule
+     O'er the wealth of the Niblungs,
+     With the pine-woods' wardens
+     In Gunnar perish:
+     And the black-felled bears
+     With fierce teeth shall bite
+     For the glee of the dog kind,
+     If again comes not Gunnar."
+
+     Then good men never shamed,
+     Greeting aloud,
+     Led the great king of men
+     From the garth of his home;
+     And cried the fair son
+     Of Hogni the king:
+     "Fare happy, O Lords,
+     Whereso your hearts lead you!"
+
+     Then the bold knights
+     Let their bit-griping steeds
+     Wend swift o'er the fells,
+     Tread the murk-wood unknown,
+     All the Hunwood was shaking
+     As the hardy ones fared there;
+     O'er the green meads they urged
+     Their steeds shy of the goad.
+
+     Then Atli's land saw they;
+     Great towers and strong,
+     And the bold men of Bikki,
+     Aloft on the burg:
+     The Southland folks' hall
+     Set with benches about,
+     Dight with bucklers well bounden,
+     And bright white shining shields.
+
+     There drank Atli,
+     The awful Hun king,
+     Wine in his fair hall;
+     Without were the warders,
+     Gunnar's folk to have heed of,
+     Lest they had fared thither
+     With the whistling spear
+     War to wake 'gainst the king.
+
+     But first came their sister
+     As they came to the hall,
+     Both her brethren she met,
+     With beer little gladdened:
+     "Bewrayed art thou, Gunnar!
+     What dost thou great king
+     To deal war to the Huns?
+     Go thou swift from the hall!
+
+     Better, brother, hadst thou
+     Fared here in thy byrny
+     Than with helm gaily dight
+     Looked on Atli's great house:
+     Them hadst sat then in saddle
+     Through days bright with the sun
+     Fight to awaken
+     And fair fields to redden:
+
+     "O'er the folk fate makes pale
+     Should the Norn's tears have fallen,
+     The shield mays of the Huns
+     Should have known of all sorrow;
+     And King Atli himself
+     To worm-close should be brought;
+     But now is the worm-close
+     Kept but for thee."
+
+     Then spake Gunnar
+     Great 'mid the people:
+     "Over-late sister
+     The Niblungs to summon;
+     A long way to seek
+     The helping of warriors,
+     The high lord unshamed,
+     From the hills of the Rhine!"
+
+    ..............
+
+     Seven Hogni beat down
+     With his sword sharp-grinded,
+     And the eighth man he thrust
+     Amidst of the fire.
+     Ever so shall famed warrior
+     Fight with his foemen,
+     As Hogni fought
+     For the hand of Gunnar.
+
+     But on Gunnar they fell,
+     And set him in fetters,
+     And bound hard and fast
+     That friend of Burgundians;
+     Then the warrior they asked
+     If he would buy life,
+     But life with gold
+     That king of the Goths.
+
+     Nobly spake Gunnar,
+     Great lord of the Niblungs;
+     "Hogni's bleeding heart first
+     Shall lie in mine hand,
+     Cut from the breast
+     Of the bold-riding lord,
+     With bitter-sharp knife
+     From the son of the king."
+
+     With guile the great one
+     Would they beguile,
+     On the wailing thrall
+     Laid they hand unwares,
+     And cut the heart
+     From out of Hjalli,
+     Laid it bleeding on trencher
+     And bare it to Gunnar.
+
+     "Here have I the heart
+     Of Hjalli the trembler,
+     Little like the heart
+     Of Hogni the hardy:
+     As much as it trembleth
+     Laid on the trencher
+     By the half more it trembled
+     In the breast of him hidden."
+
+     Then laughed Hogni
+     When they cut the heart from him,
+     From the crest-smith yet quick,
+     Little thought he to quail.
+     The hard acorn of thought
+     From the high king they took,
+     Laid it bleeding on trencher
+     And bare it Gunnar.
+
+     "Here have I the heart
+     Of Hogni the hardy,
+     Little like to the heart
+     Of Hjalli the trembler.
+     Howso little it quaketh
+     Laid here on the dish,
+     Yet far less it quaked
+     In the breast of him laid.
+
+     "So far mayst thou bide
+     From men's eyen, O Atli,
+     As from that treasure
+     Thou shalt abide!
+
+     "Behold in my heart
+     Is hidden for ever
+     That hoard of the Niblungs,
+     Now Hogni is dead.
+     Doubt threw me two ways
+     While the twain of us lived,
+     But all that is gone
+     Now I live on alone.
+
+     "The great Rhine shall rule
+     O'er the hate-raising treasure,
+     That gold of the Niblungs,
+     The seed of the gods:
+     In the weltering water
+     Shall that wealth lie a-gleaming,
+     Or it shine on the hands
+     Of the children of Huns!"
+
+     Then cried Atli,
+     King of the Hun-folk,
+     "Drive forth your wains now
+     The slave is fast bounden."
+     And straightly thence
+     The bit-shaking steeds
+     Drew the hoard-warden,
+     The war-god to his death.
+
+     Atli the great king,
+     Rode upon Glaum,
+     With shields set round about,
+     And sharp thorns of battle:
+     Gudrun, bound by wedlock
+     To these, victory made gods of,
+     Held back her tears
+     As the hall she ran into.
+
+     "Let it fare with thee, Atli,
+     E'en after thine oaths sworn
+     To Gunnar fell often;
+     Yea, oaths sworn of old time,
+     By the sun sloping southward,
+     By the high burg of Sigry,
+     By the fair bed of rest,
+     By the red ring of Ull!"
+
+     Now a host of men
+     Cast the high king alive
+     Into a close
+     Crept o'er within
+     With most foul worms,
+     Fulfilled of all venom,
+     Ready grave to dig
+     In his doughty heart.
+
+     Wrathful-hearted he smote
+     The harp with his hand,
+     Gunnar laid there alone;
+     And loud rang the strings.--
+     In such wise ever
+     Should hardy ring-scatterer
+     Keep gold from all folk
+     In the garth of his foeman.
+
+     Then Atli would wend
+     About his wide land,
+     On his steed brazen shod,
+     Back from the murder.
+     Din there was in the garth,
+     All thronged with the horses;
+     High the weapon-song rose
+     From men come from the heath.
+
+     Out then went Gudrun,
+     'Gainst Atli returning,
+     With a cup gilded over,
+     To greet the land's ruler;
+     "Come, then, and take it,
+     King glad in thine hall,
+     From Gudrun's hands,
+     For the hell-farers groan not!"
+
+     Clashed the beakers of Atli,
+     Wine-laden on bench,
+     As in hall there a-gathered,
+     The Huns fell a-talking,
+     And the long-bearded eager ones
+     Entered therein,
+     From a murk den new-come,
+     From the murder of Gunnar.
+
+     Then hastened the sweet-faced
+     Delight of the shield-folk,
+     Bright in the fair hall,
+     Wine to bear to them:
+     The dreadful woman
+     Gave dainties withal
+     To the lords pale with fate,
+     Laid strange word upon Atli:
+
+     "The hearts of thy sons
+     Hast thou eaten, sword-dealer,
+     All bloody with death
+     And drenched with honey:
+     In most heavy mood
+     Brood o'er venison of men!
+     Drink rich draughts therewith,
+     Down the high benches send it!
+
+     "Never callest thou now
+     From henceforth to thy knee
+     Fair Erp or fair Eiril,
+     Bright-faced with the drink;
+     Never seest thou them now
+     Amidmost the seat,
+     Scattering the gold,
+     Or shafting of spears;
+     Manes trimming duly,
+     Or driving steeds forth!"
+
+     Din arose from the benches,
+     Dread song of men was there,
+     Noise 'mid the fair hangings,
+     As all Hun's children wept;
+     All saving Gudrun,
+     Who never gat greeting,
+     For her brethren bear-hardy
+     For her sweet sons and bright,
+     The young ones, the simple
+     Once gotten with Atli.
+
+    ...............
+
+     The seed of gold
+     Sowed the swan-bright woman,
+     Rings of red gold
+     She gave to the house-carls;
+     Fate let she wax,
+     Let the bright gold flow forth,
+     In naught spared that woman
+     The store-houses' wealth.
+
+     Atli unaware
+     Was a-weary with drink;
+     No weapon had he,
+     No heeding of Gudrun--
+     Ah, the pity would be better,
+     When in soft wise they twain
+     Would full often embrace
+     Before the great lords!
+
+     To the bed with sword-point
+     Blood gave she to drink
+     With a hand fain of death,
+     And she let the dogs loose:
+     Then in from the hall-door--
+     --Up waked the house-carls--
+     Hot brands she cast,
+     Gat revenge for her brethren.
+
+     To the flame gave she all
+     Who therein might be found;
+     Fell adown the old timbers,
+     Reeked all treasure-houses;
+     There the shield-mays were burnt,
+     Their lives' span brought to naught;
+     In the fierce fire sank down
+     All the stead of the Budlungs.
+
+     Wide told of is this--
+     Ne'er sithence in the world,
+     Thus fared bride clad in byrny
+     For her brothers' avenging;
+     For behold, this fair woman
+     To three kings of the people,
+     Hath brought very death
+     Or ever she died!
+
+
+
+
+THE WHETTING OF GUDRUN.
+
+Gudrun went down unto the sea whenas she had slain Atli, and she cast
+herself therein, for she was fain to end her life: but nowise might
+she drown. She drave over the firths to the land of King Jonakr, and he
+wedded her, and their sons were Sorli, and Erp, and Hamdir, and there
+was Swanhild, Sigurd's daughter, nourished: and she was given to
+Jormunrek the Mighty. Now Bikki was a man of his, and gave such counsel
+to Randver, the king's son, as that he should take her; and with that
+counsel were the young folk well content.
+
+Then Bikki told the king, and the king let hang Randver, but bade
+Swanhild be trodden under horses' feet. But when Gudrun heard thereof,
+she spake to her sons--
+
+     Words of strife heard I,
+     Huger than any,
+     Woeful words spoken,
+     Sprung from all sorrow,
+     When Gudrun fierce-hearted
+     With the grimmest of words
+     Whetter her sons
+     Unto the slaying.
+
+     "Why are ye sitting here?
+     Why sleep ye life away?
+     Why doth it grieve you nought?
+     Glad words to speak,
+     Now when your sister--
+     Young of years was she--
+     Has Jormunrek trodden
+     With the treading of horses?--
+
+     "Black horses and white
+     In the highway of warriors;
+     Grey horses that know
+     The roads of the Goths.--
+
+     "Little like are ye grown
+     To that Gunnar of old days!
+     Nought are your hearts
+     As the heart of Hogni!
+     Well would ye seek
+     Vengeance to win
+     If your mood were in aught
+     As the mood of my brethren,
+     Or the hardy hearts
+     Of the Kings of the Huns!"
+
+     Then spake Hamdir,
+     The high-hearted--
+     "Little didst thou
+     Praise Hogni's doings,
+     When Sigurd woke
+     From out of sleep,
+     And the blue-white bed-gear
+     Upon thy bed
+     Grew red with man's blood--
+     With the blood of thy mate!
+
+     "Too baleful vengeance
+     Wroughtest thou for thy brethren
+     Most sore and evil
+     When thy sons thou slewedst,
+     Else all we together
+     On Jormunrek
+     Had wrought sore vengeance
+     For that our sister.
+
+     "Come, bring forth quickly
+     The Hun kings' bright gear,
+     Since thou has urged us
+     Unto the sword-Thing!"
+
+     Laughing went Gudrun
+     To the bower of good gear,
+     Kings' crested helms
+     From chests she drew,
+     And wide-wrought byrnies
+     Bore to her sons:
+     Then on their horses
+     Load laid the heroes.
+
+     Then spake Hamdir,
+     The high-hearted--
+     "Never cometh again
+     His mother to see
+     The spear-god laid low
+     In the land of the Goths.
+     That one arvel mayst thou
+     For all of us drink,
+     For sister Swanhild,
+     And us thy sons."
+
+     Greeted Gudrun
+     Giuki's daughter;
+     Sorrowing she went
+     In the forecourt to sit,
+     That she might tell,
+     With cheeks tear-furrowed,
+     Her weary wail
+     In many a wise.
+
+     "Three fires I knew,
+     Three hearths I knew,
+     To three husbands' houses
+     Have I been carried;
+     And better than all
+     Had been Sigurd alone,
+     He whom my brethren
+     Brought to his bane.
+
+     "Such sore grief as that
+     Methought never should be,
+     Yet more indeed
+     Was left for my torment
+     Then, when the great ones
+     Gave me to Atli.
+
+     "My fair bright boys
+     I bade unto speech,
+     Nor yet might I win
+     Weregild for my bale,
+     Ere I had hewn off
+     Those Niblungs' heads.
+
+     "To the sea-strand I went
+     With the Norns sorely wroth,
+     For I would thrust from me
+     The storm of their torment;
+     But the high billows
+     Would not drown, but bore me
+     Forth, till I stepped a-land
+     Longer to live.
+
+     "Then I went a-bed--
+     --Ah, better in the old days,
+     This was the third time!--
+     To a king of the people;
+     Offspring I brought forth,
+     Props of a fair house,
+     Props of a fair house,
+     Jonakr's fair sons.
+
+     "But around Swanhild
+     Bond-maidens sat,
+     Her, that of all mine
+     Most to my heart was;
+     Such was my Swanhild,
+     In my hall's midmost,
+     As is the sunbeam
+     Fair to beheld.
+
+     "In gold I arrayed her,
+     And goodly raiment,
+     Or ever I gave her
+     To the folk of the Goths.
+     That was the hardest
+     Of my heavy woes,
+     When the bright hair,--
+     O the bright hair of Swanhild!--
+     In the mire was trodden
+     By the treading of horses.
+
+     "This was the sorest,
+     When my love, my Sigurd,
+     Reft of glory
+     In his bed gat ending:
+     But this the grimmest
+     When glittering worms
+     Tore their way
+     Through the heart of Gunnar.
+
+     "But this the keenest
+     When they cut to the quick
+     Of the hardy heart
+     Of the unfeared Hogni.
+     Of much of bale I mind me,
+     Of many griefs I mind me;
+     Why should I sit abiding
+     Yet more bale and more?
+
+     "Thy coal-black horse,
+     O Sigurd, bridle,
+     The swift on the highway!
+     O let him speed hither!
+     Here sitteth no longer
+     Son or daughter,
+     More good gifts
+     To give to Gudrun!
+
+     "Mindst thou not, Sigurd,
+     Of the speech betwixt us,
+     When on one bed
+     We both sat together,
+     O my great king--
+     That thou wouldst come to me
+     E'en from the hall of Hell,
+     I to thee from the fair earth?
+
+     "Pile high, O earls
+     The oaken pile,
+     Let it be the highest
+     That ever queen had!
+     Let the fire burn swift,
+     My breast with woe laden,
+     And thaw all my heart,
+     Hard, heavy with sorrow!"
+
+     Now may all earls
+     Be bettered in mind,
+     May the grief of all maidens
+     Ever be minished,
+     For this tale of sorrow
+     So told to its ending.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAY OF HAMDIR
+
+     Great deeds of bale
+     In the garth began,
+     At the sad dawning
+     The tide of Elves' sorrow
+     When day is a-waxing
+     And man's grief awaketh,
+     And the sorrow of each one
+     The early day quickeneth.
+
+     Not now, not now,
+     Nor yesterday,
+     But long ago
+     Has that day worn by,
+     That ancientest time,
+     The first time to tell of,
+     Then, whenas Gudrun,
+     Born of Giuki,
+     Whetter her sons
+     To Swanhild's avenging.
+
+     "Your sister's name
+     Was naught but Swanhild,
+     Whom Jormunrek
+     With horses has trodden!--
+     White horses and black
+     On the war-beaten way,
+     Grey horses that go
+     On the roads of the Goths.
+
+     "All alone am I now
+     As in holt is the aspen;
+     As the fir-tree of boughs,
+     So of kin am I bare;
+     As bare of things longed for
+     As the willow of leaves
+     When the bough-breaking wind
+     The warm day endeth.
+
+     "Few, sad, are ye left
+     O kings of my folk!
+     Yet alone living
+     Last shreds of my kin!
+
+     "Ah, naught are ye grown
+     As that Gunnar of old days;
+     Naught are your hearts
+     As the heart of Hogni!
+     Well would ye seek
+     Vengeance to win
+     If your hearts were in aught
+     As the hearts of my brethren!"
+
+     Then spake Hamdir
+     The high-hearted:
+     "Nought hadst thou to praise
+     The doings of Hogni,
+     When they woke up Sigurd
+     From out of slumber,
+     And in bed thou sat'st up
+     'Mid the banes-men's laughter.
+
+     "Then when thy bed=gear,
+     Blue-white, well woven
+     By art of craftsmen
+     All swam with thy king's blood;
+     The Sigurd died,
+     O'er his dead corpse thou sattest,
+     Not heeding aught gladsome,
+     Since Gunnar so willed it.
+
+     "Great grief for Atli
+     Gatst thou by Erp's murder,
+     And the end of thine Eitil,
+     But worse grief for thyself.
+     Good to use sword
+     For the slaying of others
+     In such wise that its edge
+     Shall not turn on ourselves!"
+
+     Then well spake Sorli
+     From a heart full of wisdom:
+     "No words will I
+     Make with my mother,
+     Though both ye twain
+     Need words belike--
+     What askest thou, Gudrun,
+     To let thee go greeting?
+
+     "Weep for thy brethren,
+     Weep for thy sweet sons,
+     And thy nighest kinsfolk
+     Laid by the fight-side!
+     Yea, and thou Gudrun,
+     May'st greet for us twain
+     Sitting fey on our steeds
+     Doomed in far lands to die."
+
+     From the garth forth they went
+     With hearts full of fury,
+     Sorli and Hamdir,
+     The sons of Gudrun,
+     And they met on the way
+     The wise in all wiles:
+     "And thou little Erp,
+     What helping from thee?"
+
+     He of alien womb
+     Spake out in such wise:
+     "Good help for my kin,
+     Such as foot gives to foot,
+     Or flesh-covered hand
+     Gives unto hand!"
+
+     "What helping for foot
+     That help that foot giveth,
+     Or for flesh-covered hand
+     The helping of hand?"
+
+     Then spake Erp
+     Yet once again
+     Mock spake the prince
+     As he sat on his steed:
+     "Fool's deed to show
+     The way to a dastard!"
+     "Bold beyond measure,"
+     Quoth they, "is the base-born!"
+
+     Out from the sheath
+     Drew they the sheath-steel,
+     And the glaives' edges played
+     For the pleasure of hell;
+     By the third part they minished
+     The might that they had,
+     Their young kin they let lie
+     A-cold on the earth.
+
+     Then their fur-cloaks they shook
+     And bound fast their swords,
+     In webs goodly woven
+     Those great ones were clad;
+     Young they went o'er the fells
+     Where the dew was new-fallen
+     Swift, on steeds of the Huns,
+     Heavy vengeance to wreak.
+
+     Forth stretched the ways,
+     And an ill way they found,
+     Yea, their sister's son (1)
+     Hanging slain upon tree--
+     Wolf-trees by the wind made cold
+     At the town's westward
+     Loud with cranes' clatter--
+     Ill abiding there long!
+
+     Din in the king's hall
+     Of men merry with drink,
+     And none might hearken
+     The horses' tramping
+     Or ever the warders
+     Their great horn winded.
+
+     Then men went forth
+     To Jormunrek
+     To tell of the heeding
+     Of men under helm:
+     "Give ye good counsel!
+     Great ones are come hither,
+     For the wrong of men mighty
+     Was the may to death trodden."
+
+     "Loud Jormunrek laughed,
+     And laid hand to his beard,
+     Nor bade bring his byrny,
+     But with the wine fighting,
+     Shook his red locks,
+     On his white shield sat staring,
+     And in his hand
+     Swung the gold cup on high.
+
+     "Sweet sight for me
+     Those twain to set eyes on,
+     Sorli and Hamdir,
+     Here in my hall!
+     Then with bowstrings
+     Would I bind them,
+     And hang the good Giukings
+     Aloft on the gallows!"
+
+    ..............
+
+     Then spake Hrothglod
+     From off the high steps,
+     Spake the slim-fingered
+     Unto her son,--
+     --For a threat was cast forth
+     Of what ne'er should fall--
+     "Shall two men alone
+     Two hundred Gothfolk
+     Bind or bear down
+     In the midst of their burg?"
+
+    ...............
+
+     Strife and din in the hall,
+     Cups smitten asunder
+     Men lay low in blood
+     From the breasts of Goths flowing.
+
+     Then spake Hamdir,
+     The high-hearted:
+     "Thou cravedst, O king,
+     From the coming of us,
+     The sons of one mother,
+     Amidmost thine hall--
+     Look on these hands of thine,
+     Look on these feet of thine,
+     Cast by us, Jormunrek,
+     On to the flame!"
+
+     Then cried aloud
+     The high Gods' kinsman (2)
+     Bold under byrny,--
+     Roared he as bears roar;
+     "Stones to the stout ones
+     That the spears bite not,
+     Nor the edges of steel,
+     These sons of Jonakr!"
+
+    ..............
+
+     QUOTH SORLI:
+     "Bale, brother, wroughtst thou
+     By that bag's (3) opening,
+     Oft from that bag
+     Rede of bale cometh!
+     Heart hast thou, Hamdir,
+     If thou hadst heart's wisdom
+     Great lack in a man
+     Who lacks wisdom and lore!"
+
+     HAMDIR SAID:
+     "Yes, off were the head
+     If Erp were alive yet,
+     Our brother the bold
+     Whom we slew by the way;
+     The far-famed through the world--
+     Ah, the fares drave me on,
+     And the man war made holy,
+     There must I slay!"
+
+     SORLI SAID:
+       "Unmeet we should do
+       As the doings of wolves are,
+     Raising wrong each 'gainst other
+       As the dogs of the Norns,
+       The greedy ones nourished
+     In waste steads of the world.
+
+     In strong wise have we fought,
+     On Goths' corpses we stand,
+     Beat down by our edges,
+     E'en as ernes on the bough.
+     Great fame our might winneth,
+     Die we now, or to-morrow,--
+     No man lives till eve
+     Whom the fates doom at morning."
+     At the hall's gable-end
+     Fell Sorli to earth,
+     But Hamdir lay low
+     At the back of the houses.
+
+Now this is called the Ancient Lay of Hamdir.
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Randver, the son of their sister's husband.
+  (2)  Odin, namely.
+  (3)  "Bag", his mouth.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAMENT OF ODDRUN.
+
+There was a king hight Heidrik, and his daughter was called Borgny, and
+the name of her lover was Vilmund. Now she might nowise be made lighter
+of a child she travailed with, before Oddrun, Atil's sister, came to
+her,--she who had been the love of Gunnar, Giuki's son. But of their
+speech together has this been sung:
+
+     I have hear tell
+     In ancient tales
+     How a may there came
+     To Morna-land,
+     Because no man
+     On mould abiding
+     For Heidrik's daughter
+     Might win healing.
+
+     All that heard Oddrun,
+     Atil's sister,
+     How that the damsel
+     Had heavy sickness,
+     So she led from stall
+     Her bridled steed,
+     And on the swart one
+     Laid the saddle.
+
+     She made her horse wend
+     O'er smooth ways of earth,
+     Until to a high-built
+     Hall she came;
+     Then the saddle she had
+     From the hungry horse,
+     And her ways wended
+     In along the wide hall,
+     And this word first
+     Spake forth therewith:
+
+     "What is most famed,
+     Afield in Hunland,
+     Or what may be
+     Blithest in Hunland?"
+
+     QUOTH THE HANDMAID:
+     "Here lieth Borgny,
+     Borne down by trouble,
+     Thy sweet friend, O Oddrun,
+     See to her helping!"
+
+     ODDRUN SAID:
+     "Who of the lords
+     Hath laid this grief on her,
+     Why is the anguish
+     Of Borgny so weary?"
+
+     THE HANDMAID SAID:
+     "He is hight Vilmund,
+     Friend of hawk-bearers,
+     He wrapped the damsel
+     In the warm bed-gear
+     Five winters long
+     Without her father's wotting."
+
+     No more than this
+     They spake methinks;
+     Kind sat she down
+     By the damsel's knee;
+     Mightily sand Oddrun,
+     Sharp piercing songs
+     By Borgny's side:
+
+     Till a maid and a boy
+     Might tread on the world's ways,
+     Blithe babes and sweet
+     Of Hogni's bane:
+     Then the damsel forewearied
+     The word took up,
+     The first word of all
+     That had won from her:
+
+     "So may help thee
+     All helpful things,
+     Fey and Freyia,
+     And all the fair Gods,
+     As thou hast thrust
+     This torment from me!"
+
+     ODDRUN SAID:
+     "Yet no heart had I
+     For thy helping,
+     Since never wert thou
+     Worthy of helping,
+     But my word I held to,
+     That of old was spoken
+     When the high lords
+     Dealt out the heritage,
+     That every soul
+     I would ever help."
+
+     BORGNY SAID:
+     "Right mad art thou, Oddrun,
+     And reft of thy wits,
+     Whereas thou speakest
+     Hard words to me
+     Thy fellow ever
+     Upon the earth
+     As of brothers twain,
+     We had been born."
+
+     ODDRUN SAID:
+     "Well I mind me yet,
+     What thou saidst that evening,
+     Whenas I bore forth
+     Fair drink for Gunnar;
+     Such a thing, saidst thou,
+     Should fall out never,
+     For any may
+     Save for me alone."
+
+     Mind had the damsel
+     Of the weary day
+     Whenas the high lords
+     Dealt out the heritage,
+     And she sat her down,
+     The sorrowful woman,
+     To tell of the bale,
+     And the heavy trouble.
+
+     "Nourished was I
+     In the hall of kings--
+     Most folk were glad--
+     'Mid the council of great ones:
+     In fair life lived I,
+     And the wealth of my father
+     For five winters only,
+     While yet he had life.
+
+     "Such were the last words
+     That ever he spake,
+     The king forewearied,
+     Ere his ways he went;
+     For he bade folk give me
+     The gold red-gleaming,
+     And give me in Southlands
+     To the son of Grimhild.
+
+     "But Brynhild he bade
+     To the helm to betake her,
+     And said that Death-chooser
+     She should become;
+     And that no better
+     Might ever be born
+     Into the world,
+     If fate would not spoil it.
+
+     "Brynhild in bower
+     Sewed at her broidery,
+     Folk she had
+     And fair lands about her;
+     Earth lay a-sleeping,
+     Slept the heavens aloft
+     When Fafnir's-bane
+     The burg first saw.
+
+     "Then was war waged
+     With the Welsh-wrought sword
+     And the burg all broken
+     That Brynhild owned;
+     Nor wore long space,
+     E'en as well might be,
+     Ere all those wiles
+     Full well she knew.
+
+     "Hard and dreadful
+     Was the vengeance she drew down,
+     So that all we
+     Have woe enow.
+     Through all lands of the world
+     Shall that story fare forth
+     How she did her to death
+     For the death of Sigurd.
+
+     "But therewithal Gunnar
+     The gold-scatterer
+     Did I fall to loving
+     And should have loved him.
+     Rings of red gold
+     Would they give to Atli,
+     Would give to my brother
+     Things goodly and great.
+
+     "Yea, fifteen steads
+     Would they give for me,
+     And the load of Grani
+     To have as a gift;
+     But then spake Atli,
+     That such was his will,
+     Never gift to take
+     From the sons of Giuki.
+
+     "But we in nowise
+     Might love withstand,
+     And mine head must I lay
+     On my love, the ring-breaker;
+     And many there were
+     Among my kin,
+     Who said that they
+     Had seen us together.
+
+     "Then Atli said
+     That I surely never
+     Would fall to crime
+     Or shameful folly:
+     But now let no one
+     For any other,
+     That shame deny
+     Where love has dealing.
+
+     "For Atli sent
+     His serving-folk
+     Wide through the murkwood
+     Proof to win of me,
+     And thither they came
+     Where they ne'er should have come,
+     Where one bed we twain
+     Had dight betwixt us.
+
+     "To those men had we given
+     Rings of red gold,
+     Naught to tell
+     Thereof to Atli,
+     But straight they hastened
+     Home to the house,
+     And all the tale
+     To Atli told.
+
+     'Whereas from Gudrun
+     Well they hid it,
+     Though better by half
+     Had she have known it.
+
+    ................
+
+     "Din was there to hear
+     Of the hoofs gold-shod,
+     When into the garth
+     Rode the sons of Giuki.
+
+     "There from Hogni
+     The heart they cut,
+     But into the worm-close
+     Cast the other.
+     There the king, the wise-hearted,
+     Swept his harp-strings,
+     For the might king
+     Had ever mind
+     That I to his helping
+     Soon should come.
+
+     "But now was I gone
+     Yet once again
+     Unto Geirmund,
+     Good feast to make;
+     Yet had I hearing,
+     E'en out from Hlesey,
+     How of sore trouble
+     The harp-strings sang.
+
+     "So I bade the bondmaids
+     Be ready swiftly,
+     For I listed to save
+     The life of the king,
+     And we let our ship
+     Swim over the sound,
+     Till Atli's dwelling
+     We saw all clearly.
+
+     Then came the wretch (1)
+     Crawling out,
+     E'en Atli's mother,
+     All sorrow upon her!
+     A grave gat her sting
+     In the heart of Gunnar,
+     So that no helping
+     Was left for my hero.
+
+     "O gold-clad woman,
+     Full oft I wonder
+     How I my life
+     Still hold thereafter,
+     For methought I loved
+     That light in battle,
+     The swift with the sword,
+     As my very self.
+
+     "Thou hast sat and hearkened
+     As I have told thee
+     Of many an ill-fate,
+     Mine and theirs--
+     Each man liveth
+     E'en as he may live--
+     Now hath gone forth
+     The greeting of Oddrun."
+
+
+  ENDNOTES:
+  (1)  Atli's mother took the form of the only adder that was not
+       lulled to sleep by Gunnar's harp-playing, and who slew him.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Volsungs, (Volsunga
+Saga), by Anonymous
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