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Poetic Edda
13.[1] "To the sea I went, my heart full sore
For the Norns, whose wrath I would now escape;
But the lofty billows bore me undrowned,
Till to land I came, so I longer must live.
For the Norns, whose wrath I would now escape;
But the lofty billows bore me undrowned,
Till to land I came, so I longer must live.
14.[2] "Then to the bed— of old was it better!—
Of a king of the folk a third time I came;
Boys I bore his heirs to be,
Heirs so young, the sons of Jonak.
Of a king of the folk a third time I came;
Boys I bore his heirs to be,
Heirs so young, the sons of Jonak.
15. "But round Svanhild handmaidens sat,
She was dearest ever of all my children;
So did Svanhild seem in my hall
As the ray of the sun is fair to see.
She was dearest ever of all my children;
So did Svanhild seem in my hall
As the ray of the sun is fair to see.
16.[3] "Gold I gave her and garments bright,
Ere I let her go to the Gothic folk;
Of my heavy woes the hardest it was
When Svanhild's tresses fair were trodden
In the mire by hoofs of horses wild.
Ere I let her go to the Gothic folk;
Of my heavy woes the hardest it was
When Svanhild's tresses fair were trodden
In the mire by hoofs of horses wild.
- ↑ Norns: the fates; cf. Voluspo, 8 and note.
- ↑ The manuscript omits the first half of line 4.
- ↑ Some editors assume a gap of two lines after line 2, and make a separate stanza of lines 3-5; Gering adds a sixth line of his own coining, while Grundtvig inserts one between lines 3 and 4. The manuscript indicates line 5 as beginning a new stanza.
- ↑ The manuscript does not indicate line 1 as beginning a stanza (cf. note on stanza 16). Stanzas 17 and 18 are very likely
Hniflung) to the descendants of Gjuki, Guthrun's father, cf. Brot, 17, note.
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