forth, women of the Goths, and
thou, O Signy, my sister, come forth to seek the boughs of the
Branstock." So fled the white-faced women from the fire, and passed
scatheless by Sinfiotli's blade, but Signy came not at all. Then the
earls of Siggeir strove to burst from the hall, but ever the two
glaives at the doorways drove them back to the fire.

And, lo, now came Signy in queenly raiment, and stood before Sinfiotli
and said, "O mightiest son, this is the hour of our parting, and fain
am I of slumber and the end of my toil now I have seen this day. And
the blither do I leave thee because thy days on earth shall be but
few; I charge thee make thy life glorious, and leave a goodly tale."

She kissed him and turned to Sigmund, and her face in the dawn-light
seemed to him fair and ruddy as in the days when they twain dwelt by
the Branstock. And she said, "My youth was happy, yet this hour is
the crown of my life-days which draw nigh their ending. And now I
charge thee, Sigmund, when thou sittest once more a mighty king
beneath the boughs of the Branstock, that thou remember how I loved
the Volsung name, and spared not to spend all that was mine for its
blossoming." Then she kissed him and turned again, and the dawn
brightened at her back, and the fire shone red before her, and so for
the last time was Signy beheld by the eyes of men. Thereafter King
Siggeir's roof-tree bowed earthward, and the mighty walls crashed
down, and so that dark murder-hall lay wasted, and its glory was
swept away.

_How Sigmund cometh to the Land of the Volsungs again, and of the
death of Sinfiotli his Son._

Now Sigmund the king bestirs him, and Sinfiotli, Sigmund's son,
And they gather a host together, and many a mighty one;
Then they set the ships in the sea-flood and sail from the stranger's shore,
And the beaks of the golden dragons see the Volsungs' land once more;
And men's hearts are fulfilled of joyance; and they cry, The sun shines now
With never a curse to hide it, and they shall reap that sow!
Then for many a day sits Sigmund 'neath the boughs of the Branstock green,
With his earls and lords about him as the Volsung wont hath been.
And oft he thinketh on Signy and oft he nameth her name,
And tells how she spent her joyance and her life-days and her fame
That the Volsung kin might blossom and bear the fruit of worth
For the hope of unborn people and the harvest of the earth.
And again he thinks of the w