th the gifts that Odin hath
given,
Wherewith my fathers of old, and the ancient mothers have striven."

"Thy word is good," quoth Gunnar, "a happy word indeed:
Lo, how shall I fear a woman, who have played with kings in my need?
Yea, how may I speak of my sister, save well remembering
How goodly she was aforetime, how fair in everything,
How kind in the days passed over, how all fulfilled of love
For the glory of the Niblungs, and the might that the world shall move?
She shall see my face and Hogni's, she shall yearn to do our will,
And the latter days of her brethren with glory shall fulfil."

Then Grimhild laughed and answered: "Today then shalt thou ride
To the dwelling of Thora the Queen, for there doth thy sister abide."

As she spake came the wise-heart Hogni, and that speech of his mother
he heard,
And he said: "How then are ye saying a new and wonderful word,
That ye meddle with Gudrun's sorrow, and her grief of heart awake?
Will ye draw out a dove from her nest, and a worm to your hall-hearth
take?"

"What then," said his brother Gunnar, "shall we thrust by Atli's word?
Shall we strive, while the world is mocking, with the might of the
Eastland sword,
While the wise are mocking to see it, how the great devour the great?"

"O wise-heart Hogni," said Grimhild, "wilt thou strive with the hand
of fate,
And thrust back the hand of Odin that the Niblung glory will crown?
Wert thou born in a cot-carle's chamber, or the bed of a King's
renown?"

"I know not, I know not," said Hogni, "but an unsure bridge is the sea,
And such would I oft were builded betwixt my foeman and me.
I know a sorrow that sleepeth, and a wakened grief I know,
And the torment of the mighty is a strong and fearful foe."

They spake no word before him; but he said: "I see the road;
I see the ways we must journey--I have long cast off the load,
The burden of men's bearing wherein they needs must bind
All-eager hope unseeing with eyeless fear and blind:
So today shall my riding be light; nor now, nor ever henceforth
Shall men curse the sword of Hogni in the tale of the Niblung worth."

Therewith he went out from before them, and through chamber and hall
he cried
On the best of the Niblung earl-folk, for that now the Kings would
ride:
Soon are all men assemb