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Poetic Edda

Known to few are the runes,—  and put off thy faring;I have read now the runes  that thy sister wrote,And this time the bright one  did not bid thee to come.
12.[1] "Full much do I wonder,  nor well can I see,Why the woman wise  so wildly hath written;But to me it seems  that the meaning beneathIs that both shall be slain  if soon ye shall go.But one rune she missed,  or else others have marred it."
  Hogni spake:13. [2] "All women are fearful;  not so do I feel,Ill I seek not to find  till I soon must avenge it;The king now will give us  the glow-ruddy gold;I never shall fear,  though of dangers I know."
  Kostbera spake:14.[3] "In danger ye fare,  if forth ye go thither,

    12 (either lines 1-4 or 1-2). The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza.

  1. Line 5 may be spurious, or else all that is left of a lost stanza. The manuscript marks it as the beginning of a new stanza, which, as the text stands, is clearly impossible.
  2. The manuscript, followed by some editions, has "Hogni spake" in the middle of line 1. Ill: the manuscript and many editions have "this." The king: Atli.
  3. The manuscript does not indicate the speakers in this dialogue between Kostbera and Hogni (stanzas 14-19). Two lines may possibly have been lost after line 2, filling out stanza 14 and

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