Introductory Note
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Bellows, Henry Adams
38. “How meanest thou? | Why make we the change
Of shape and form | as forth we fare?
There must follow | another falsehood
Grim in all ways; | speak on, Gripir!”
[351]
Gripir spake:
39. “The form of Gunnar | and shape thou gettest,
But mind and voice | thine own remain;
The hand of the fosterling | noble of Heimir
Now dost thou win, | and none can prevent.”
Sigurth spake:
40. “Most evil it seems, | and men will say
Base is Sigurth | that so he did;
Not of my will | shall I cheat with wiles
The heroes’ maiden | whom noblest I hold.”
Gripir spake:
41. “Thou dwellest, leader | lofty of men,
With the maid as if | thy mother she were;
Lofty as long | as the world shall live,
Ruler of men, | thy name shall remain.”
[352]
Sigurth spake:
42. “Shall Gunnar have | a goodly wife,
Famed among men,— | speak forth now, Gripir!
Although at my side | three nights she slept,
The warrior’s bride? | Such ne’er has been.”
Gripir spake:
43. “The marriage draught | will be drunk for both,
For Sigurth and Gunnar, | in Gjuki’s hall;
Your forms ye change, | when home ye fare,
But the mind of each | to himself remains.”
Sigurth spake:
44. “Shall the kinship new | thereafter come
To good among us? | Tell me, Gripir!
To Gunnar joy | shall it later give,
Or happiness send | for me myself?”
Gripir spake:
45. “Thine oaths remembering, | silent thou art,
And dwellest with Guthrun | in wedlock good;
But Brynhild shall deem | she is badly mated,