THE LAY OF HAMDIR
19. "Remember, Sigurd! what we together said, when on our bed we both were sitting, that thou, brave one, wouldst come to me from Hel's abode, but I from the world to thee.
20. "Raise, ye Jarls! an oaken pile; let it under heaven the highest be. May it burn a breast full of woes! the fire round my heart its sorrows melt!"
21. May all men's lot be bettered, all women's sorrow lessened, to whom this tale of woes shall be recounted.
1. In that court[1] I arose woeful deeds, at the Alfar's doleful lament;[2] at early morn, men's afflictions, troubles of various kinds; sorrows were quickened.
2. It was not now, nor yesterday, a long time since has passed away,—few things are more ancient, it was by much earlier—when Gudrun, Giuki's daughter, her young sons instigated Svanhild to avenge.
3. "She was your sister, her name Svanhild, she whom Jormunrek with horses trod to death, white and black, on the public way, with grey and way-wont Gothic steeds.
4. "Thenceforth all is sad to you, kings of people! Ye alone survive,
- ↑ See Str. 10, and Ghv. 9, and, Luning, Glossar.
- ↑ "The Alfar's Lament" is the early dawn, and is in apposition to 'early morn," in the following line. The swart Alfar are meant, who were turned to stone if they did not flee from the light of day. This is the best interpretation I can offer of this obscure strophe.
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