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Sigurtharkvitha en Skamma

Fearful and deadly  the plan they found,The counsel new  that now they have heeded.
27.[1] "No son will ride,  though seven thou hast,To the Thing as the son  of their sister rides;Well I see  who the ill has worked,On Brynhild alone  lies the blame for all.
28.[2] "Above all men  the maiden loved me,Yet false to Gunnar  I ne'er was found;I kept the oaths  and the kinship I swore;Of his queen the lover  none may call me.
29.[3] In a swoon she sank  when Sigurth died;So hard she smote  her hands togetherThat all the cups  in the cupboard rang,And loud in the courtyard  cried the geese.
30.[4] Then Brynhild, daughter  of Buthli, laughed,Only once,  with all her heart,When as she lay  full loud she heardThe grievous wail  of Gjuki's daughter.
  1. ↑ Sigurth means that although Guthrun may have seven sons by a later marriage, none of them will equal Sigmund, "son of their (i.e., Gunnar's and Hogni's) sister." Thing: council.
  2. ↑ Sigurth's protestation of guiltlessness fits perfectly with the story of his relations with Brynhild used in this poem, but not, of course, with the alternative version, used in the Gripisspo and elsewhere, wherein Sigurth meets Brynhild before he woos her for Gunnar, and they have a daughter, Aslaug.
  3. ↑ Cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 15.
  4. ↑ Cf. Brot, 10.

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