(3) opening,
Oft from that bag
Rede of bale cometh!
Heart hast thou, Hamdir,
If thou hadst heart's wisdom
Great lack in a man
Who lacks wisdom and lore!"

HAMDIR SAID:
"Yes, off were the head
If Erp were alive yet,
Our brother the bold
Whom we slew by the way;
The far-famed through the world--
Ah, the fares drave me on,
And the man war made holy,
There must I slay!"

SORLI SAID:
"Unmeet we should do
As the doings of wolves are,
Raising wrong each 'gainst other
As the dogs of the Norns,
The greedy ones nourished
In waste steads of the world.

In strong wise have we fought,
On Goths' corpses we stand,
Beat down by our edges,
E'en as ernes on the bough.
Great fame our might winneth,
Die we now, or to-morrow,--
No man lives till eve
Whom the fates doom at morning."
At the hall's gable-end
Fell Sorli to earth,
But Hamdir lay low
At the back of the houses.

Now this is called the Ancient Lay of Hamdir.

ENDNOTES:
(1) Randver, the son of their sister's husband.
(2) Odin, namely.
(3) "Bag", his mouth.

THE LAMENT OF ODDRUN.

There was a king hight Heidrik, and his daughter was called Borgny, and
the name of her lover was Vilmund. Now she might nowise be made lighter
of a child she travailed with, before Oddrun, Atil's sister, came to
her,--she who had been the love of Gunnar, Giuki's son. But of their
speech together has this been sung:

I have hear tell
In ancient tales
How a may there came
To Morna-land,
Because no man
On mould abiding
For Heidrik's daughter
Might win healing.

All that heard Oddrun,
Atil's sister,
How that the damsel
Had heavy sickness,
So she led from stall
Her bridled steed,
And on the swart one
Laid the saddle.

She made her horse wend
O'er smooth ways of earth,
Until to a high-built
Hall she came;
Then the saddle she had
From the hungry horse,
And her ways wended
In along the wide hall,
And this word first
Spake forth therewith:

"What is most famed,
Afield in Hunland,
Or what may be
Blithest in Hunland?"

QUOTH THE HANDMAID:
"Here lieth Borgny,
Borne down by trouble,
Thy sweet friend, O Odd