g a spear to slay him."

"For the sake of the gold that is in the Dragon's cave he would slay
him," said the second bird.

And the third bird said: "If he would eat the Dragon's heart himself he
would know all wisdom."

But the fourth bird said: "He has tasted a drop of the Dragon's blood
and he knows what we are saying."

The four birds did not fly away nor cease from speaking. Instead they
began to tell of a marvelous abode that was known to them.

Deep in the forest, the birds sang, there was a Hall that was called the
House of Flame. Its ten walls were Uni, Iri, Barri, Ori, Varns,
Vegdrasil, Derri, Uri, Dellinger, Atvarder, and each wall was built by
the Dwarf whose name it bore. All round the Hall there was a circle of
fire through which none might pass. And within the Hall a maiden slept,
and she was the wisest and the bravest and the most beautiful maiden in
the world.

Sigurd stood like a man enchanted listening to what the birds sang.

But suddenly they changed the flow of their discourse, and their notes
became sharp and piercing.

"Look, look!" cried one. "He is coming against the youth."

"He is coming against the youth with a spear," cried another.

"Now will the youth be slain unless he is swift," cried a third.

Sigurd turned round and he saw Regin treading the way toward him, grim
and silent, with a spear in his hands. The spear would have gone through
Sigurd had he stayed one instant longer in the place where he had been
listening to the speech of the birds. As he turned he had his sword in
his hand, and he flung it, and Gram struck Regin on the breast.

Then Regin cried out: "I die--I die without having laid my hands on the
hoard that Fafnir guarded. Ah, a curse was upon the hoard, for Hreidmar
and Fafnir and I have perished because of it. May the curse of the gold
now fall on the one who is my slayer."

Then did Regin breathe out his life. Sigurd took the body and cast it
into the pit that was alongside the dead Fafnir. Then, that he might eat
the Dragon's heart and become the wisest of men, he went to where he had
left it roasting. And he thought that when he had eaten the heart he
would go into the Dragon's cave and carry away the treasure that was
there, and bring it as spoil of his battle to King Alv and to his
mother. Then he would go through the forest and find the House of Flame
where slept the maiden who was the wisest and bravest and most beautiful
in the world.

But Sigurd d