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Poetic Edda

  Grimhild spake:
29.[1] "Seek not on men  to avenge thy sorrows,
Though the blame at first  with us hath been;
Happy shalt be  as if both still lived,
Sigurth and Sigmund,  if sons thou bearest."

  Guthrun spake:
30.[2] "Grimhild, I may not  gladness find,
Nor hold forth hopes  to heroes now,
Since once the raven  and ravening wolf
Sigurth's heart's-blood  hungrily lapped."

  Grimhild spake:
31. "Noblest of birth  is the ruler now
I have found for thee,  and foremost of all;
Him shalt thou have  while life thou hast,
Or husbandless be  if him thou wilt choose not.

  Guthrun spake:
32.[3] "Seek not so eagerly  me to send
To be a bride  of yon baneful race;
On Gunnar first  his wrath shall fall,
And the heart will he tear  from Hogni's breast."


  1. Sigmund: son of Sigurth and Guthrun, killed at Brynhild's behest.
  2. This stanza presents a strong argument for transposing the description of the draught of forgetfulness (stanzas 22-24 and lines 1-2 of stanza 25) to follow stanza 33. Raven, etc.: the original is somewhat obscure, and the line may refer simply to the "corpse-eating raven."
  3. In the manuscript this stanza is immediately followed by the two lines which here, following Bugge's suggestion, appear

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