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Poetic Edda

the women went home to the dwelling. Another evening Sigrun bade the maiden keep watch at the hill. And at sunset when Sigrun came to the hill she said:

49.[1] "Now were he come,  if come he might,Sigmund's son,  from Othin's seat;Hope grows dim  of the hero's returnWhen eagles sit  on the ash-tree boughs,And men are seeking  the meeting of dreams."
  The Maiden said:50. "Mad thou wouldst seem  alone to seek,Daughter of heroes,  the house of the dead;For mightier now  at night are allThe ghosts of the dead  than when day is bright."

Sigrun was early dead of sorrow and grief. It was believed in olden times that people were born again, but that is now called old wives' folly. Of Helgi and Sigrun it is said that they were born again; he became Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara the daughter of Halfdan, as is told in the Lay of Kara, and she was a Valkyrie.[2]

  1. ↑ Many editors assign this speech to the maid. Line 5 (or 4) may be spurious. Meeting of dreams ("Dream-Thing"): sleep.
  2. ↑ Prose. The attitude of the annotator is clearly revealed by his contempt for those who put any faith in such "old wives' folly" as the idea that men and women could be reborn. As in the case of Helgi Hjorvarthsson, the theory of the hero's rebirth seems to have developed in order to unite around a single Helgi

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