THE GROENLAND LAY OF ATLI
trated crimes unexampled among men of frantic cruelty, in this world: now thou hast added what we have just witnessed. A great misdeed hast thou committed, thy death-feast thou hast prepared.
Atli.
S4. On the pile thou shalt be burnt, but first be stoned; then wilt thou have earned what thou hast ever sought.
Gudrun.
S5. Tell to thyself such griefs early to-morrow: by a fairer death I will pass to another light.
S6. In the same hall they sat, exchanged hostile thoughts, bandied words of hate: each was ill at ease.
S7. Hate waxed in a Hniflung, a great deed he meditated; to Gudrun he declared that he was Atli's deadly foe.
S8. Into her mind came Hogni's treatment; happy she him accounted, if he vengeance wreaked. Then was Atli slain, within a little space; Hogni's son him slew, and Gudrun herself.
S9. The bold king spake, roused up from sleep; quickly he felt the wounds, said he no binding needed. "Tell me most truly who has slain Budli's son. I am hardly treated: of life I have no hope."
Gudrun.
90. I, Grimhild's daughter, will not from thee hide, that I am the cause that thy life passes away; but partly Hogni's son, that thy wounds make thee faint.
Atli.
91. To the slaughter thou hast rushed, although it ill
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