Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/471

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Sigurtharkvitha en Skamma

On all her wealth  her eyes were gazing,On the bond-women slain  and the slaughtered slaves.
47.[1] Her byrnie of gold  she donned, and grimWas her heart ere the point  of her sword had pierced it;On the pillow at last  her head she laid,And, wounded, her plan  she pondered o'er.
48.[2] "Hither I will  that my women comeWho gold are fain  from me to get;Necklaces fashioned  fair to eachShall I give, and cloth,  and garments bright."
49.[3] Silent were all  as so she spake,And all together  answer made:"Slain are enough;  we seek to live,Not thus thy women  shall honor win."

    editions treat lines 1-2 as a separate stanza, and combine lines 3-4 with lines 1-2 of stanza 47. Jewel-bearer (literally "land of jewels"): woman, here Brynhild. Bond-women, etc.: in stanza 69 we learn that five female slaves and eight serfs were killed to be burned on the funeral pyre, and thus to follow Sigurth in death.

  1. ↑ The manuscript marks line 3, and not line 1, as beginning a stanza, and some editions treat lines 3-4 as a separate stanza, or combine them with stanza 48.
  2. ↑ Brynhild means, as stanzas 49-51 show, that those of her women who wish to win rewards must be ready to follow her in death. The word translated "women" in line 1 is conjectural, but the general meaning is clear enough.
  3. ↑ In place of "as so she spake" in line 1 the manuscript has

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