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Helreith Brynhildar

wagon which was covered with a rich cloth. Thus it is told, that Brynhild went in the wagon on Hel-way, and passed by a house where dwelt a certain giantess. The giantess spake:

1. "Thou shalt not further  forward fare,My dwelling ribbed  with rocks across;More seemly it were  at thy weaving to stay,Than another's husband  here to follow.
2.[1] "What wouldst thou have  from Valland here,Fickle of heart,  in this my house?Gold-goddess, now,  if thou wouldst know,Heroes' blood  from thy hands hast washed."
  Brynhild spake:3. "Chide me not, woman  from rocky walls,Though to battle once  I was wont to go;Better than thou  I shall seem to be,When men us two  shall truly know."
  The giantess spake:4. "Thou wast, Brynhild,  Buthli's daughter,

    Prose. The prose follows the last stanza of Sigurtharkvitha en skamma without break.

    Two bale-fires: this contradicts the statement made in the concluding stanzas of Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, that Sigurth and Brynhild were burned on the same pyre; there is no evidence that the annotator here had anything but his own mistaken imagination to go on.

  1. ↑ Valland: this name ("Land of Slaughter") is used elsewhere of mythical places; cf. Harbarthsljoth, 24, and prose introduction to Völundarkvitha; it may here not be a proper name at all. Gold-goddess: poetic circumlocution for "woman."

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