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Guthrunarkvitha II

  Guthrun spake:40.[1] "Fire a dream  of steel shall followAnd willful pride  one of woman's wrath;A baneful sore  I shall burn from thee,And tend and heal thee,  though hated thou art."
  Atli spake:41.[2] "Of plants I dreamed,  in the garden drooping,That fain would I have  full high to grow;Plucked by the roots,  and red with blood,They brought them hither,  and bade me eat.
42. "I dreamed my hawks  from my hand had flown,Eager for food,  to an evil house;I dreamed their hearts  with honey I ate,Soaked in blood,  and heavy my sorrow.
43. "Hounds I dreamed  from my hand I loosed,Loud in hunger  and pain they howled;Their flesh methought  was eagles' food,And their bodies now  I needs must eat."
  Guthrun spake:44.[3] "Men shall soon  of sacrifice speak,
  1. ↑ Guthrun, somewhat obscurely, interprets Atli's first dream (stanza 39) to mean that she will cure him of an abcess by cauterizing it. Her interpretation is, of course, intended merely to blind him to her purpose.
  2. ↑ In stanzas 41-43 Atli's dreams forecast the death of his two sons, whose flesh Guthrun gives him to eat (cf. Atlakvitha, 39, and Atlamol, 78).
  3. ↑ This stanza is evidently Guthrun's intentionally cryptic

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