Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/436

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Poetic Edda

 And hands and head shalt wash;Wipe them and comb,  ere they go in the coffin, And pray that they sleep in peace.
35.[1] Then tenth I rede thee,  that never thou trust The word of the race of wolves, (If his brother thou broughtest to death, Or his father thou didst fell;)Often a wolf  in a son there is, Though gold he gladly takes.
36.[2] Battle and hate  and harm, methinks, Full seldom fall asleep;Wits and weapons  the warrior needs If boldest of men he would be.
37.[3] Then eleventh I rede thee,  that wrath thou shun, And treachery false with thy friends;Not long the leader's  life shall be, For great are the foes he faces.
  1. ↑ Lines 3-4 are probably interpolated. Race of wolves: family of a slain foe.
  2. ↑ Probably an interpolation.
  3. ↑ Lines 3-4 may well have come from the old Sigurth-Brynhild poem, like stanzas 2-4 and 20-21, being inserted here, where they do not fit particularly well, in place of the two lines with which the eleventh counsel originally ended. Perhaps they formed part of the stanza of warning which evidently preceded Brynhild's speech in stanza 20. In the Volsungasaga they are paraphrased at the end of Brynhild's long speech of advice (stanzas 20-37), and are immediately followed by the prose passage given in the note on stanza 21. It seems likely, therefore,

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