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Fafnismol

Wise were the breaker  of rings, I ween,To eat the life-muscles  all so bright."
  A second spake:33. "There Regin lies,  and plans he laysThe youth to betray  who trusts him well;Lying words  with wiles will he speak,Till his brother the maker  of mischief avenges."
  A third spake:34.[1] "Less by a head  let the chatterer hoary Go from here to hell;Then all of the wealth  he alone can wield, The gold that Fafnir guarded."
  A fourth spake:35.[2] "Wise would he seem  if so he would heedThe counsel good  we sisters give;

    is fairly apparent, but whether from two or from three or more is uncertain. It is also far from clear how many birds are speaking. The manuscript numbers II, III, and IV in the margin with numerals; the Volsungasaga makes a different bird speak each time. There are almost as many guesses as there are editions. I suspect that in the original poem there was one bird, speaking stanzas 34 and 37. Stanza 38 is little more than a repetition of stanza 34, and may well have been a later addition. As for the stanzas in Fornyrthislag (32-33 and 35-36), they apparently come from another poem, in which several birds speak (cf. "we sisters" in stanza 35). This may be the same poem from which stanzas 40-44 were taken, as well as some of the Fornyrthislag stanzas in the Sigrdrifumol.

  1. ↑ Some editions turn this speech from the third person into the second, but the manuscript is clear enough.
  2. ↑

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