ruel, when of Gunnar the
glistening serpents to the vitals crawled; but the most agonizing,
which to my heart flew, when the brave king's heart they while quick
cut out.

18. "Many griefs I call to memory, many ills I call to memory.
Guide, Sigurd! thy black steed, thy swift courser, hither let it run.
Here sits no son's wife, no daughter, who to Gudrun precious things
may give.

19. "Remember, Sigurd! what we together said, when on our bed we
both were sitting, that thou, brave one, wouldst come to me from Hel's
abode, but I from the world to thee.

20. "Raise, ye Jarls! an oaken pile; let it under heaven the highest
be. May it burn a breast full of woes! the fire round my heart its
sorrows melt!"

21. May all men's lot be bettered, all women's sorrow lessened, to
whom this tale of woes shall be recounted.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 117: Themselves and the two sons of Atli.]

THE LAY OF HAMDIR.

1. In that court[118] arose woeful deeds, at the Alfar's doleful
lament;[119] at early morn, men's afflictions, troubles of various
kinds; sorrows were quickened.

2. It was not now, nor yesterday, a long time since has passed
away,--few things are more ancient, it was by much earlier--when
Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, her young sons instigated Svanhild to
avenge.

3. "She was your sister, her name Svanhild, she whom Jormunrek with
horses trod to death, white and black, on the public way, with grey
and way-wont Gothic steeds.

4. "Thenceforth all is sad to you, kings of people! Ye alone
survive,

5. "Branches of my race. Lonely I am become, as the asp-tree in the
forest, of kindred bereft, as the fir of branches; of joy deprived, as
is the tree of foliage, when the branch-spoiler comes in the warm
day."

6. Then spake Hamdir, the great of soul, "Little, Gudrun! didst thou
care Hogni's deed to praise, when Sigurd they from sleep awaked On the
bed thou satst, and the murderers laughed.

7. "Thy bed-clothes, blue and white, woven by cunning hands, swam in
thy husband's gore. When Sigurd perished, o'er the dead thou satst,
caredst not for mirth--so Gunnar willed it.

8. "Atli thou wouldst afflict by Erp's murder, and by Eitil's life's
destruction: that proved for thyself the worse: therefore should every
one so against others use, for life's destruction, a sharp-biting
sword, that he harm not himself."

9. Then said Sorli--he had a prudent mind--"I with my mother will
not speeches exchange: though words to