from off him then,
and be only lord of all that gold."

And once more the fourth spake and said, "Ah, the wiser were he if he
followed after that good counsel, and rode thereafter to Fafnir's lair,
and took to him that mighty treasure that lieth there, and then rode
over Hindfell, whereas sleeps Brynhild; for there would he get great
wisdom. Ah, wise he were, if he did after your redes, and bethought him
of his own weal; 'for where wolf's ears are, wolf's teeth are near.'"

Then cried the fifth: "Yea, yea, not so wise is he as I deem him, if he
spareth him, whose brother he hath slain already."

At last spake the sixth: "Handy and good rede to slay him, and be lord
of the treasure!"

Then said Sigurd, "The time is unborn wherein Regin shall be my bane;
nay, rather one road shall both these brothers fare."

And therewith he drew his sword Gram and struck off Regin's head.

Then heard Sigurd the wood-peckers a-singing, even as the song says. (1)

For the first sang:

"Bind thou, Sigurd,
The bright red rings!
Not meet it is
Many things to fear.
A fair may know I,
Fair of all the fairest
Girt about with gold,
Good for thy getting."

And the second:

"Green go the ways
Toward the hall of Giuki
That the fates show forth
To those who fare thither;
There the rich king
Reareth a daughter;
Thou shalt deal, Sigurd,
With gold for thy sweetling."

And the third:

"A high hall is there
Reared upon Hindfell,
Without all around it
Sweeps the red flame aloft.
Wise men wrought
That wonder of halls
With the unhidden gleam
Of the glory of gold."

Then the fourth sang:

"Soft on the fell
A shield-may sleepeth
The lime-trees' red plague
Playing about her:
The sleep-thorn set Odin
Into that maiden
For her choosing in war
The one he willed not.

"Go, son, behold
That may under helm
Whom from battle
Vinskornir bore,
From her may not turn
The torment of sleep.
Dear offspring of kings
In the dread Norns' despite."

Then Sigurd ate some deal of Fafnir's heart, and the remnant he kept.
Then he leapt on his horse and rode along the trail of the worm Fafnir,
and so right unto his abiding-place; and he found it open, and beheld
all the doors and the gear of them that they were wrought of iron: yea,
and all the be