harp fell silent,
and heart was still.
140
To the queen that cry came
clear and piercing;
aghast she sat
in guarded bower.
Erp and Eitill
eager called she:
dark their locks were,
dark their glances.
*
141
Pyres they builded
proud and stately;
Hunland’s champions
there high upraised.
A pyre they builded
on the plain standing;
there naked lay
the Niflung lords.
142
Flames were mounting,
fire was roaring,
reek was swirling
ringed with tumult.
Smoke was fading,
sunk was burning;
windblown ashes
were wafted cold.
143
A hall was thronging,
Huns were drinking
the funeral feast
of fallen men.
Foes were vanquished,
fire had burned them;
now Atli was lord
of East and West.
144
Wealth he dealt there,
wounds requiting,
worthy weregild
of warriors slain.
Loud they praised him;
long the drinking,
wild grew the words
of the wine-bemused.
145
Gudrun came forth
goblets bearing:
‘Hail, O Hun-king,
health I bring thee!’
Deep drank Atli,
drained them laughing:
though gold he missed,
yet was Gunnar dead.
146
‘Hail, O Hun-king,
hear me speaking:
My brethren are slain
that I begged of thee.
Erp and Eitill
dost thou ask to look on?
Ask no longer –
their end hath come!
147
Their hearts thou tastest
with honey mingled,
their blood was blent
in the bowls I gave;
those bowls their skulls
bound with silver,
their bones thy hounds
have burst with teeth.’
148
There awful cries
of anguish woke;
their heads men hid
their horror shrouding.
Pale grew Atli,
as one poison-sick,
on his face crashed he
fallen swooning.
149
To bed they brought him
in bower empty,
laid him and left him
to loathsome dream.
Women were wailing,
wolves were howling,
hounds were baying
the horned moon.
150
