before the time of thy wedding; the greatest of all griefs is that."

Then said Brynhild, "I swore an oath to wed the man who should ride my
flaming fire, and that oath will I hold to, or die."

"Rather than thou die, I will wed thee, and put away Gudrun," said
Sigurd.

But therewithal so swelled the heart betwixt the sides of him, that the
rings of his byrny burst asunder.

"I will not have thee," says Brynhild, "nay, nor any other!"

Then Sigurd got him gone.

So saith the song of Sigurd--

"Out then went Sigurd,
The great kings' well-loved,
From the speech and the sorrow,
Sore drooping, so grieving,
That the shirt round about him
Of iron rings woven,
From the sides brake asunder
Of the brave in the battle."

So when Sigurd came into the hall, Gunnar asked if he had come to a
knowledge of what great grief lay heavy on her, or if she had power of
speech: and Sigurd said that she lacked it not. So now Gunnar goes
to her again, and asked her, what wrought her woe, or if there were
anything that might amend it.

"I will not live," says Brynhild, "for Sigurd has bewrayed me, yea,
and thee no less, whereas thou didst suffer him to come into my bed:
lo thou, two men in one dwelling I will not have; and this shall be
Sigurd's death, or thy death, or my death;--for now has he told Gudrun
all, and she is mocking me even now!"

ENDNOTES:
(1) Sunder.

CHAPTER XXX. Of the Slaying of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane.

Thereafter Brynhild went out, and sat under her bower-wall, and had
many words of wailing to say, and still she cried that all things were
loathsome to her, both land and lordship alike, so she might not have
Sigurd.

But therewith came Gunnar to her yet again, and Brynhild spake, "Thou
shalt lose both realm and wealth, and thy life and me, for I shall fare
home to my kin, and abide there in sorrow, unless thou slayest Sigurd
and his son; never nourish thou a wolfcub."

Gunnar grew sick at heart thereat, and might nowise see what fearful
thing lay beneath it all; he was bound to Sigurd by oath, and this way
and that way swung the heart within him; but at the last he bethought
him of the measureless shame if his wife went from him, and he said
within himself, "Brynhild is better to me than all things else, and the
fairest woman of all women, and I will lay down my life rather than lose
the love of her." And herewith he called to him his brother and spake,--