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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 guiltToward 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 oathIf 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 ThingShalt fight not in words with fools;For the man unwise  a worser wordThan he thinks doth utter oft.
25.[3] Ill it is  if silent thou art,A coward born men call thee,And truth mayhap they tell;

  1. 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.
  2. Wolf of his word: oath-destroyer, oath-breaker.
  3. 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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