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Poetic Edda

43.[1] "First will I kiss  the lifeless king,
Ere off the bloody  byrnie thou cast;
With frost thy hair  is heavy, Helgi,
And damp thou art  with the dew of death;
(Ice-cold hands  has Hogni's kinsman,
What, prince, can I  to bring thee ease?)"

  Helgi spake:
44.[2] "Thou alone, Sigrun  of Sevafjoll,
Art cause that Helgi  with dew is heavy;
Gold-decked maid,  thy tears are grievous,
(Sun-bright south-maid,  ere thou sleepest;)
Each falls like blood  on the hero's breast,
(Burned-out, cold,  and crushed with care.)

45.[3] "Well shall we drink  a noble draught,
Though love and lands  are lost to me;
No man a song  of sorrow shall sing,
Though bleeding wounds  are on my breast;

  1. ↑ Possibly lines 5-6 are spurious, or part of a stanza the rest of which has been lost. It has also been suggested that two lines may have been lost after line 2, making a new stanza of lines 3-6. Kinsman: literally "son-in-law."
  2. ↑ Lines 4 and 6 have been marked by various editors as probably spurious. Others regard lines 1-2 as the beginning of a stanza the rest of which has been lost, or combine lines 5-6 with lines 5-6 of stanza 45 to make a new stanza. South-maid: cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 17 and note.
  3. ↑ Both lines 3-4 and lines 5-6 have been suspected by editors of being interpolated, and the loss of two lines has also been suggested. Brides: the plural here is perplexing. Gering insists that only Sigrun is meant, and translates the word as singular, but both "brides" and "loves" are uncompromisingly plural in

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