Page:The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda - tr. Thorpe - 1907.djvu/177

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THE SECOND LAY OF HELGI HUNDINGCIDE

death be on thee avenged, if a wolf thou wert, out in the woods, of all good bereft, and every joy, have no sustenance, unless on corpses thou shouldst spring.

Dag.

32. Sister! thou ravest, and hast lost thy wits, when on thy brother thou callest down such miseries. Odin alone is cause of all the evil; for between relatives he brought the runes of strife.

33. Thy brother offers thee rings of red gold, all Vandilsve and Vigdalir: have half the land, thy grief to compensate, woman ring-adorned! thou and thy sons.

Sigrun.

34. So happy I shall not sit at Sefafioll, neither at morn nor night, as to feel joy in life, if o'er the people plays not the prince's beam of light; if his war-steed runs not under the chieftain hither, to the gold bit accustomed; if in the king I cannot rejoice.

35. So had Helgi struck with fear all his foes and their kindred, as before the wolf the goats run frantic from the fell, of terror full.

36. So himself Helgi among warriors bore, as the towering ash is among thorns, or as the fawn, moistened with dew, that more proudly stalks than all the other beasts, and its horns glisten against the sky.

A mound was raised for Helgi: but when he came to Valhall, Odin offered him the rule over all jointly with himself. Helgi said:

37. Thou, Hunding! shalt for every man a foot-bath

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