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Brot af Sigurtharkvithu

  Gunnar spake:
2.[1] "Sigurth oaths  to me hath sworn,
Oaths hath sworn,  and all hath broken;
He betrayed me there  where truest all
His oaths, methinks,  he ought to have kept."

  Hogni spake:
3. "Thy heart hath Brynhild  whetted to hate,
Evil to work  and harm to win;
She grudges the honor  that Guthrun has,
And that joy of herself  thou still dost have."

4.[2] They cooked a wolf,  they cut up a snake,
They gave to Gotthorm  the greedy one's flesh,
Before the men,  to murder minded,
Laid their hands  on the hero bold.

5.[3] Slain was Sigurth  south of the Rhine;
From a limb a raven  called full loud:

    hild,  daughter of Buthli, / Scheming ill  with evil counsel?

  1. ↑ A few editors ascribe this speech to Brynhild. Gunnar, if the stanza is his, has believed Brynhild's statement regarding Sigurth's disloyalty to his blood-brother.
  2. ↑ The Volsungasaga quotes a somewhat different version of this stanza, in which the snake is called "wood-fish" and the third line adds "beer and many things." Eating snakes and the flesh of beasts of prey was commonly supposed to induce ferocity. Gotthorm: Grimhild's son, half-brother to Gunnar. He it is who, not having sworn brotherhood with Sigurth, does the killing.
  3. ↑ In the manuscript this stanza stands between stanzas 11 and 12; most editions have made the change here indicated.

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