hese,
The pride and the glory of Sigurd, and the latter days' increase?
O live, live, Brynhild beloved! and thee on the earth will I wed,
And put away Gudrun the Niblung--and all those shall be as the dead."

But so swelled the heart within him as he cast the speech abroad,
That the golden wall of the battle, the fence unrent by the sword.
The red rings of the uttermost ocean on the breast of Sigurd brake:
And he saw the eyes of Brynhild, and turned from the word she spake:

"I will not wed thee, Sigurd, nor any man alive."

Then Sigurd goes out from before her; and the winds in the wall-nook
strive,
And the craving of fowl and the beast-kind with the speech of men is
blent,
And the voice of the sons of the Niblungs; and their day's first hour
is spent
As he goes through the hall of the War-dukes, and many an earl is
astir,
But none durst question Sigurd lest of evil days he hear:
So he comes to his kingly chamber, and there sitteth Gudrun alone,
And the fear in her soul is minished, but the love and the hatred are
grown:
She is wan as the moonlit midnight; but her heart is cold and proud,
And she asketh him nought of Brynhild, and nought he speaketh aloud.

_Of the slaying of Sigurd the Volsung._

Ere the noon ariseth Brynhild, and forth abroad she goes,
And sits by the wall of her bower 'twixt the lily and the rose;
Great dread and sickness is on her, as it shall be once on the morn
When the uttermost sun is arisen 'neath the blast of the world-shaking
horn:
Her maidens come and go, but none dares cast her a word;
From the wall the warders behold her, and turn round to the spear and
the sword;
Yea, few dare speak of Brynhild as morning fadeth in noon
In the Burg of the ancient people mid the stir and the glory of June.

Then cometh forth speech from Brynhild, and she calls to her maidens
and saith:
"Go tell ye the King of the Niblungs that I am arisen from death,
And come forth from the uttermost sickness, and with him I needs must
speak:
That we look into weighty matters and due deeds for king-folk seek."

So they went and returned not again, and it was but a little space
Ere she looked, and behold, it was Gunnar that stood before her face,
And his war-gear darkened the noon-tide and the grey helm gleamed from
his