they met and kissed together: then they hewed and heaved
full hard
Till, lo, through the bursten rafters the winter heavens bestarred!
And they leap out merry-hearted; nor is there need to say
A many words between them of whither was the way."

Sigmund's Vengeance

As soon as they were free, Sigmund and Sinfiotli returned to the king's
hall, and piling combustible materials around it, they set fire to
the mass. Then stationing themselves on either side of the entrance,
they prevented all but the women from passing through. They loudly
adjured Signy to escape ere it was too late, but she did not desire
to live, and so coming to the entrance for a last embrace she found
opportunity to whisper the secret of Sinfiotli's birth, after which
she sprang back into the flames and perished with the rest.

"And then King Siggeir's roof-tree upheaved for its utmost fall,
And its huge walls clashed together, and its mean and lowly things
The fire of death confounded with the tokens of the kings."

Helgi

The long-planned vengeance for the slaughter of the Volsungs having
thus been carried out, Sigmund, feeling that nothing now detained
him in the land of the Goths, set sail with Sinfiotli and returned to
Hunaland, where he was warmly welcomed to the seat of power under the
shade of his ancestral tree, the mighty Branstock. When his authority
was fully established, Sigmund married Borghild, a beautiful princess,
who bore him two sons, Hamond and Helgi. The latter was visited by
the Norns as he lay in his cradle, and they promised him sumptuous
entertainment in Valhalla when his earthly career should be ended.

"And the woman was fair and lovely and bore him sons of fame;
Men called them Hamond and Helgi, and when Helgi first saw light,
There came the Norns to his cradle and gave him life full bright,
And called him Sunlit Hill, Sharp Sword, and Land of Rings,
And bade him be lovely and great, and a joy in the tale of kings."

Northern kings generally entrusted their sons' upbringing to a
stranger, for they thought that so they would be treated with less
indulgence than at home. Accordingly Helgi was fostered by Hagal,
and under his care the young prince became so fearless that at the
age of fifteen he ventured alone into the hall of Hunding, with whose
race his family was at feud. Passing through the hall unmolested and
unrecognised, he left an insolent message, whi