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Poetic Edda

Fighters more noble saw I never,
The body fought when the head had fallen.

20. "On the ground full low the slain are lying,
Most are there of the men of thy race;
Nought hast thou won, for thy fate it was
Brave men to bring to the battle-field."

Then Sigrun wept. Helgi said:

21.^[1] "Grieve not, Sigrun, the battle is gained,
The fighter can shun not his fate."

Sigrun spake:
"To life would I call them who slaughtered lie,
If safe on thy breast I might be."

or nothing to connect it with the slaying of Granmar's sons. In the manuscript line 2, indicated as the beginning of a stanza, precedes line 1. Hlebjorg ("Sea-Mountain") and Styrkleifar ("Battle-Cliffs"): place names not elsewhere mentioned. Of Hrollaug's sons nothing further is known. Starkath: this name gives a hint of the origin of this stanza, for Saxo Grammaticus tells of the slaying of the Swedish hero Starkath ("The Strong") the son of Storverk, and describes how his severed head bit the ground in anger (cf. line 4). In all probability this stanza is from an entirely different poem, dealing with the Starkath story, and the annotator's attempt to identify the Swedish hero as a third son of Granmar is quite without foundation.

↑ The difference of meter would of itself be enough to indicate that this stanza comes from an entirely different poem. A few editions assign the whole stanza to Helgi, but lines 3-4 are almost certainly Sigrun's, and the manuscript begins line 3 with a large capital letter following a period.

[320]

[Helgakvitha_Hundingsbana_II_21-1] The difference of meter would of itself be enough to indicate that this stanza comes from an entirely different poem. A few editions assign the whole stanza to Helgi, but lines 3-4 are almost certainly Sigrun's, and the manuscript begins line 3 with a large capital letter following a period.

[1]