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Brot af Sigurtharkvithu

  Gunnar spake:2.[1] "Sigurth oaths  to me hath sworn,Oaths hath sworn,  and all hath broken;He betrayed me there  where truest allHis oaths, methinks,  he ought to have kept."
  Hogni spake:3. "Thy heart hath Brynhild  whetted to hate,Evil to work  and harm to win;She grudges the honor  that Guthrun has,And that joy of herself  thou still dost have."
4.[2] They cooked a wolf,  they cut up a snake,They gave to Gotthorm  the greedy one's flesh,Before the men,  to murder minded,Laid their hands  on the hero bold.
5.[3] Slain was Sigurth  south of the Rhine;From a limb a raven  called full loud:

    hild,  daughter of Buthli, / Scheming ill  with evil counsel?

  1. ↑ A few editors ascribe this speech to Brynhild. Gunnar, if the stanza is his, has believed Brynhild's statement regarding Sigurth's disloyalty to his blood-brother.
  2. ↑ The Volsungasaga quotes a somewhat different version of this stanza, in which the snake is called "wood-fish" and the third line adds "beer and many things." Eating snakes and the flesh of beasts of prey was commonly supposed to induce ferocity. Gotthorm: Grimhild's son, half-brother to Gunnar. He it is who, not having sworn brotherhood with Sigurth, does the killing.
  3. ↑ In the manuscript this stanza stands between stanzas 11 and 12; most editions have made the change here indicated.

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