Helgi.  “Good luck is not granted thee, maid, in all things, though the Norns are partly to blame.  Bragi and Hoegni fell to-day at Frekastein, and I was their slayer;... most of thy kindred lie low.  Thou couldst not hinder the battle:  it was thy fate to be a cause of strife to heroes.  Weep not, Sigrun, thou hast been Hild to us; heroes must meet their fate.”

Sigrun.  “I could wish those alive who are fallen, and yet rest in thy arms.”

The surviving brother, Dag, swears oaths of reconciliation to Helgi, but remembers the feud.  The end comes, as in the Norse Sigmund tale, through Odin’s interference:  he lends his spear to Dag, who stabs Helgi in a grove, and rides home to tell his sister.  Sigrun is inconsolable, and curses the murderer with a rare power and directness: 

“May the oaths pierce thee that thou hast sworn to Helgi....  May the ship sail not that sails under thee, though a fair wind lie behind.  May the horse run not that runs under thee, though thou art fleeing from thy foes.  May the sword bite not that thou drawest, unless it sing round thine own head.  If thou wert an outlaw in the woods, Helgi’s death were avenged....  Never again while I live, by night or day, shall I sit happy at Sevafell, if I see not the light play on my hero’s company, nor the gold-bitted War-breeze run thither with the warrior.”

But Helgi returns from the grave, unable to rest because of Sigrun’s weeping, and she goes down into the howe with him: 

Sigrun.  “Thy hair is covered with frost, Helgi; thou art drenched with deadly dew, thy hands are cold and wet.  How shall I get thee help, my hero?”

Helgi.  “Thou alone hast caused it, Sigrun from Sevafell, that Helgi is drenched with deadly dew.  Thou weepest bitter tears before thou goest to sleep, gold-decked, sunbright, Southern maid; each one falls on my breast, bloody, cold and wet, cruel, heavy with grief....”

Sigrun.  “I have made thee here a painless bed, Helgi, son of the Wolfings.  I will sleep in thy arms, my warrior, as if thou wert alive.”

Helgi.  “There shall be no stranger thing at Sevafell, early or late, than that thou, king-born, Hoegni’s fair daughter, shouldst be alive in the grave and sleep in a dead man’s arms.”

The lay of Helgi Hjoervardsson is furthest from the original, for there is no feud with Svava’s kindred, nor does Helgi die at their hands; but it preserves a feature omitted elsewhere, in his leaving his bride to his brother’s protection.  Like the wife in the English ballad of Earl Brand, and the heroine of the Danish Ribold and Guldborg, Svava refuses, but Hedin’s last words seem to imply that he is to return and marry her after avenging Helgi.  This would be contrary to all parallels, according to which Svava should die with Helgi.