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Skirnismol

  Skirnir spake to the horse:10.[1] "Dark is it without,  and I deem it time To fare through the wild fells, (To fare through the giants' fastness;)We shall both come back,  or us both together The terrible giant will take."

Skirnir rode into Jotunheim to Gymir's house. There were fierce dogs bound before the gate of the fence which was around Gerth's hall. He rode to where a herdsman sat on a hill, and said:

11. "Tell me, herdsman,  sitting on the hill, And watching all the ways,How may I win  a word with the maid Past the hounds of Gymir here?"
  The herdsman spake:12.[2] "Art thou doomed to die  or already dead, Thou horseman that ridest hither?Barred from speech  shalt thou ever be With Gymir's daughter good."
  Skirnir spake:13.[3] "Boldness is better  than plaints can be For him whose feet must fare;
  1. ↑ Some editors reject line 3 as spurious.
  2. ↑ Line 2 is in neither manuscript, and no gap is indicated. I have followed Grundtvig's conjectural emendation.
  3. ↑ This stanza is almost exactly like many in the first part of

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