ained, that I cannot deny, pernicious
woman! of which I have no benefit: peace we have seldom had, since
thou among us camest. Of kinsmen ye have bereft me, of riches often
wronged. To Hel my sister ye have sent; that is to me most bitter."

_Gudrun_.

53. "This thou callest to mind, Atli! but thou so first didst act:
my mother thou didst take, and for her treasures murder; my gifted
niece with hunger thou didst cause to perish. Laughable to me it
seems, when thou sorrows dost recount. The gods are to be thanked,
that it goes ill with thee."

_Atli_.

54. Jarls! I exhort you the sorrow to augment of that presumptuous
woman: I would fain see it. Strive so to do, that Gudrun may lament.
Might I but see that in her lot she joys not!

55. Take ye Hogni, and with a knife hack him: cut out his heart:
this ye shall do. Gunnar the fierce of soul to a gallows fasten; do
the work thoroughly, lure up the serpents.

_Hogni_.

56. Do as thou listest, glad I will await it; stout I shall prove
myself: I have ere now things much harder proved. Ye had a hindrance
while unscathed we were: now are we so wounded that our fate thou
mayest command.

57. Beiti spake,--he was Atli's steward--Take we Hialli, but Hogni
let us save. Let us do half the work; he is death-worthy. As long as
he lives a slug he will ever be.

58. Terrified was the kettle-watcher, the place no longer held him:
he could be a whiner, he clomb into every nook: their conflict was his
bane, as he the penalty must pay; and the day sad, when he must from
the swine die, from all good things, which he had enjoyed.

59. Budli's cook they took, and the knife brought towards him.
Howled the wretched thrall, ere the point he felt; declared that he
had time the gardens to manure, the vilest offices to do, if from
death he might escape. Joyful indeed was Hialli, could he but save his
life.

60. Hogni all this observed--few so act, as for a slave to
intercede, that he may escape!--"Less 'tis, I say, for me to play this
game myself. Why shall we here desire to listen to that screaming?"

61. Hands on the good prince they laid. Then was no option for the
bold warriors, the sentence longer to delay. Then laughed Hogni;
heard the sons of day how he could hold out: torment he well endured!

62. A harp Gunnar took, with his foot-branches touched it. He could
so strike it, that women wept, and the men sobbed, who best could hear
it. He the noble queen counselled: the rafter