father and Solkatla's sons have alone obtained for
thee that horn of hart, which from the grave-mound bore the wise
Vigdvalin.

79. Here are runes which have engraven Niord's daughters nine,
Radvor the eldest, and the youngest Kreppvor, and their seven sisters.

80. How much violence have they perpetrated Svaf and Svaflogi!
bloodshed they have excited, and wounds have sucked, after an evil
custom.

81. This lay, which I have taught thee, thou shalt before the living
sing, the Sun-Song, which will appear in many parts no fiction.

82. Here we part, but again shall meet on the day of men's
rejoicing. Oh Lord! unto the dead grant peace, and to the living
comfort.

83. Wondrous lore has in dream to thee been sung, but thou hast seen
the truth: no man has been so wise created that has before heard the
Sun-song.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 44: That is, _they engaged in single combat_; the spot for
such encounters being called a _holm_, consisting of a circular space
marked out by stones.]

THE LAY OF VOLUND.

There was a king in Sweden named Nidud: he had two sons and a
daughter, whose name was Bodvild. There were three brothers, sons of a
king of the Finns, one was called Slagfid, the second Egil, the third
Volund. They went on snow-shoes and hunted wild-beasts. They came to
Ulfdal, and there made themselves a house, where there is a water
called Ulfsiar. Early one morning they found on the border of the lake
three females sitting and spinning flax. Near them lay their
swan-plumages: they were Valkyriur. Two of them, Hladgud-Svanhvit and
Hervor-Alvit, were daughters of King Hlodver; the third was Olrun, a
daughter of Kiar of Valland. They took them home with them to their
dwelling. Egil had Olrun, Slagfid Svanhvit, and Volund Alvit. They
lived there seven years, when they flew away seeking conflicts, and
did not return. Egil then went on snow-shoes in search of Olrun, and
Slagfid in search of Svanhvit, but Volund remained in Ulfdal. He was a
most skilful man, as we learn from old traditions. King Nidud ordered
him to be seized, so as it is here related.

1. Maids flew from the south, through the murky wood, Alvit the
young, fate to fulfil. On the lake's margin they sat to repose, the
southern damsels; precious flax they spun.

2. One of them, of maidens fairest, to his comely breast Egil
clasped. Svanhvit was the second, she a swan's plumage bore; but the
third, their sister, the white neck clasped of Volun