Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/355
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II
then Granmar's sons summoned an army. Many kings came there; there were Hogni, Sigrun's father, and his sons Bragi and Dag. There was a great battle, and all Granmar's sons were slain and all their allies; only Dag, Hogni's son, was spared, and he swore loyalty[1] to the Volsungs. Sigrun went among the dead and found Hothbrodd at the coming of death. She said:
17.[2] "Never shall Sigrun from Sevafjoll,
Hothbrodd king, be held in thine arms;
Granmar's sons full cold have grown,
And the giant-steeds gray on corpses gorge."
Hothbrodd king, be held in thine arms;
Granmar's sons full cold have grown,
And the giant-steeds gray on corpses gorge."
Then she sought out Helgi, and was full of joy. He said:
18.[3] "Maid, not fair is all thy fortune,
The Norns I blame that this should be;
This morn there fell at Frekastein
Bragi and Hogni beneath my hand.
The Norns I blame that this should be;
This morn there fell at Frekastein
Bragi and Hogni beneath my hand.
- ↑ Loyalty: apparently the annotator got this bit of information out of stanza 29, in which Sigrun refers to the oaths which her brother had sworn to Helgi.
- ↑ Sevafjoll ("Wet Mountain"): mentioned only in this poem. Giant-steeds: wolves, the usual steeds of giantesses; cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 56.
- ↑ Maid: the word thus rendered is the same doubtful one which appears in Völundarkvitha, 1 and 5, and which may mean specifically a Valkyrie (Gering translates it "helmed" or "heroic") or simply "wise." Cf. Völundarkvitha, note on introductory prose. Norns: cf. Voluspo, 20 and note. In stanza 33 Dag similarly lays the blame for the murder he has committed on Othin. Bragi: probably Sigrun's brother.
- ↑ This stanza looks like an interpolation, and there is little
[319]