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