heart: "Jormunrek! thou didst
desire our coming, brothers of one mother, into thy burgh:[123] now
seest thou thy feet, seest thy hands Jormunrek! cast into the glowing
fire."

26. Then roared forth a godlike[124] mail-clad warrior, as a bear
roars: "On the men hurl stones, since spears bite not, nor edge of
sword, nor point, the sons of Jonakr."

27. Then said Hamdir, the great of heart: "Harm didst thou, brother!
when thou that mouth didst ope. Oft from that mouth bad counsel
comes."

28. "Courage hast thou, Hamdir! if only thou hadst sense: that man
lacks much who wisdom lacks.

29. "Off would the head now be, had but Erp lived, our brother bold
in fight, whom on the way we slew, that warrior brave--me the Disir
instigated--that man sacred to us, whom we resolved to slay.

30. "I ween not that ours should be the wolves' example, that with
ourselves we should contend, like the Norns' dogs, that voracious are
in the desert nurtured."

31. "Well have we fought, on slaughtered Goths we stand, on those
fallen by the sword, like eagles on a branch. Great glory we have
gained, though now or to-morrow we shall die. No one lives till eve
against the Norns' decree."

33. There fell Sorli, at the mansion's front; but Hamdir sank at the
house's back.

This is called the Old Lay of Hamdir.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 118: See Str. 10, and Ghv. 9, and. Luning, Glossar.]

[Footnote 119: "The Alfar's Lament" is the early dawn, and is in
apposition to "early morn," in the following line. The swart Alfar are
meant, who were turned to stone if they did not flee from the light of
day. This is the best interpretation I can offer of this obscure
strophe.]

[Footnote 120: In this and the four following strophes the person
alluded to is their half-brother Erp, of whose story nothing more is
known. He, it appears, had preceded or outridden the others.]

[Footnote 121: Malmesbury relates a similar story of King AEthelstan
and his cupbearer.]

[Footnote 122: Lit. wolf-trees; a fugitive criminal being called vargr
_wolf_.]

[Footnote 123: According to the Skalda It would appear that they cut
off his hands and feet while he was asleep. Erp, had they not murdered
him, was to have cut off his head.]

[Footnote 124: Odin, as in the battle of Bravalla.]

THE YOUNGER EDDAS OF STURLESON.

THE DELUDING OF GYLFI.

GEFJON'S PLOUGHING.[125]

1. King Gylfi ruled over the land which is now called Svithiod
(Sweden). It is