ted him, and kissed his lips beneath his
helmet, and they loved each other deeply.

"But Sigrun's father had betrothed her to another, and Helgi was
compelled to wage a hard battle for his love. He killed her lover, her
father, and all her brothers except one. Sigrun herself, hovering in
the clouds, had given him the victory, and she became his wife, though
he had slain her father and her brothers. But soon Helgi, the beloved
hero, was murdered by the one brother whom he had spared. True, the
assassin tried to make amends to the widow; but she cursed him, saying:
'May the ship that carries you never move forward, though a fair wind
is blowing! May the steed that bears you stop running, when you are
fleeing from your foes! May the sword you wield cease to cut, and may
it whirl around your own head! May you live in the world without peace,
as the hunted wolf wanders through the forest!' Disdaining all comfort,
she tore her hair, saying: 'Woe betide the widow who accepts
consolation! She never knew love, for love is eternal. Woe to the wife
who has lost her husband! Her heart is desolate; why should she live
on?'"

Eugenia softly repeated the words: "Woe betide the widow who accepts
consolation! She never knew love, for love is eternal. Woe to the wife
who has lost her husband! Her heart is desolate; why should she live
on?"

"'Helgi towered above all other heroes, as the ash towers above thorns
and thistles. For the widow there remains but one spot on earth--her
husband's grave. Sigrun will no longer find pleasure in this world,
unless perchance a light should burst from the doors of his tomb, and I
might again embrace him.'

"And so mighty, so all-constraining is the longing of the true
widow, that it will even break the power of death. In the evening a
maid-servant came running to Sigrun, saying: 'Hasten forth, if you wish
to have your husband again. Look! the mound has opened; a light is
streaming from it; your longing has brought the hero from the heaven of
the god of victory; he is sitting in the mound and beseeches you to
stanch his bleeding wounds.'"

Eugenia, in a low, trembling voice, repeated: "The longing of the true
widow will even break the power of death."

"Sigrun went in to Helgi, kissed him, stanched his wounds, and said:
'Your locks are drenched with moisture; you are covered with blood;
your hands are cold--how shall I keep you?' 'You are the sole cause,'
he replied. 'You shed so many tears, and