wake
Niarars' lord!"

29. "Ever am I awake, joyless I lie to rest, when I call to mind my
children's death: my head is chilled, cold are to me thy counsels.
Now with Volund I desire to speak."

30. "Tell me, Volund, Alfars' chief! of my brave boys what is
become?"

31. "Oaths shalt thou first to me swear, by board of ship, by rim of
shield, by shoulder of steed, by edge of sword, that thou wilt not
slay the wife of Volund, nor of my bride cause the death; although a
wife I have whom ye know, or offspring within thy court.

32. To the smithy go, which thou hast made, there wilt thou the
bellows find with blood besprinkled. The heads I severed of thy boys,
and under the prison's mixen laid their bodies.

33. But their skulls beneath the hair I in silver set, and to Nidud
gave; and of their eyes precious stones I formed, which to Nidud's
wily wife I sent.

34. Of the teeth of the two, breast-ornaments I made, and to Bodvild
sent. Now Bodvild goes big with child, the only daughter of you both."

35. "Word didst thou never speak that more afflicted me, or for
which I would more severely punish thee. There is no man so tall that
he from thy horse can take thee, or so skilful that he can shoot thee
down, thence where thou floatest up in the sky."

36. Laughing Volund rose in air, but Nidud sad remained sitting.

37. "Rise up Thakrad, my best of thralls! bid Bodvild, my
fair-browed daughter, in bright attire come, with her sire to speak.

38. Is it, Bodvild! true what has been told to me, that thou and
Volund in the isle together sat?"

39. "True it is, Nidud! what has been told to thee, that Volund and
I in the isle together sat, in an unlucky hour: would it had never
been! I could not against him strive, I might not against him
prevail."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 45: On snow-shoes.]

[Footnote 46: The designation of Alfars' chief, or prince, applied to
Volund, who, as we learn from the prose introduction, was a son of a
king of the Finns, may perhaps be accounted for by the circumstance
that the poem itself hardly belongs to the Odinic Mythology, and was
probably composed when that system was in its decline and giving place
to the heroic or romantic.]

[Footnote 47: The translation of this line is founded solely on a
conjectural emendation of the text. The wrong alluded to may be the
hamstringing.]

THE LAY OF HELGI HIORVARD'S SON.

There was a king named Hiorvard, who had four wives, one of whom wa