Page:Völsunga Saga (1888).djvu/310

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252
SONGS FROM THE EDDA.
Our brother the bold
Whom we slew by the way;
The far-famed through the world.—
Ah, the fates drave me on,
And the man war made holy,
There must I slay!”

Sorli said.

“Unmeet we should do
As the doings of wolves are,
Raising wrong each ’gainst other
As the dogs of the Norns,
The greedy ones nourished
In waste steads of the world.

In strong wise have we fought,
On Goths’ corpses we stand,
Beat down by our edges,
E’en as ernes on the bough.
Great fame our might winneth,
Die we now, or to-morrow,—
No man lives till eve
Whom the fates doom at morning.”
At the hall’s gable-end
Fell Sorli to earth,
But Hamdir lay low
At the back of the houses.

Now this is called the Ancient Lay of Hamdir.