Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/433
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Sigrdrifumol
Thy loving word for mine will I win, As long as I shall live."
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22.[1] Then first I rede thee, that free of guilt Toward kinsmen ever thou art;No vengeance have, though they work thee harm, Reward after death thou shalt win.
23.[2] Then second I rede thee, to swear no oath If true thou knowest it not;Bitter the fate of the breaker of troth, And poor is the wolf of his word.
24. Then third I rede thee, that thou at the Thing Shalt fight not in words with fools;For the man unwise a worser word Than he thinks doth utter oft.
- ↑ With this stanza begins the list of numbered counsels, closely resembling the Loddfafnismol (Hovamol, 111-138), here attributed to Brynhild. That the section originally had anything to do with Brynhild is more than improbable.
- ↑ Wolf of his word: oath-destroyer, oath-breaker.
- ↑ This chaotic and obscure jumble of lines has been unsuccessfully "improved" by various editors. It is clearly an interpolation, meaning, in substance: "It is dangerous to keep silent too long, as men may think you a coward; but if any one taunts
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