15.  Their sister forthwith saw, when the hall they had entered, her brothers both—­beer had she little drunken—­“Betrayed art thou now, Gunnar! though strong, how wilt thou contend with the Huns’ deadly wiles?  Go quickly from this hall!

16.  “Better hadst thou, Gunnar! in corslet come, than with helm of state, to see the home of Atli; thou in the saddle wouldst have sat whole sun-bright days, and o’er the pallid dead let the Norns weep, the Hunnish shield-maids misery suffer; but Atli himself thou shouldst into the serpent-pen have cast; but now the serpent-pen is for you two reserved.”

17.  “Sister! ’tis now too late the Niflungs to assemble, long ’tis to seek the aid of men, of valiant heroes, over the rugged fells of Rhine.”

18.  Then the Burgundians’ friends[103] Gunnar seized, in fetters laid, and him fast bound.

19.  Hogni hewed down seven, with the keen sword, but the eighth he thrust into the raging fire.  So should a valiant man defend himself from foes.

20.  Hogni had Gunnar’s hands[104] protected.  The bold chief they asked, if the Goths’ lord would with gold his life redeem?

21.  “Hogni’s heart in my hand shall lie, cut bloody from the breast of the valiant chief, the king’s son, with a dull-edged knife.” * * * They the heart cut out from Hialli’s breast; on a dish bleeding laid it, and it to Gunnar bare.

23.  Then said Gunnar, lord of men:  “Here have I the heart of the timid Hialli, unlike the heart of the bold Hogni; for much it trembles as in the dish it lies:  it trembled more by half, while in his breast it lay.”

24.  Hogni laughed, when to his heart they cut the living crest-crasher; no lament uttered he.  All bleeding on a dish they laid it, and it to Gunnar bare.

25.  Calmly said Gunnar, the warrior Niflung:  “Here have I the heart of the bold Hogni, unlike the heart of the timid Hialli; for it little trembles, as in the dish it lies:  it trembled less, while in his breast it lay.

26.  “So far shalt thou, Atli! be from the eyes of men as thou wilt from the treasures be.  In my power alone is all the hidden Niflungs’ gold, now that Hogni lives not.

27.  “Ever was I wavering, while we both lived; now am I so no longer, as I alone survive.  Rhine shall possess men’s baleful metal, the mighty stream, the As-known Niflungs’ heritage.  In the rolling water the choice rings shall glitter, rather than on the hands of the Huns’ children shine.

28.  “Drive your wheel-chariots, the captive is now in bonds.”

29.  Atli the mighty, their sister’s husband, rode with resounding steeds, with strife-thorns[105] surrounded.  Gudrun perceived the heroes’ peril, she from tears refrained, on entering the hall of tumult.

30.  “So be it with thee, Atli! as towards Gunnar thou hast held the oft-sworn oaths, formerly taken—­by the southward verging sun, and by Sigty’s hill, the secluded bed of rest, and by Ullr’s ring.”  Yet thence the more did the bit-shaker[106] the treasure’s guardian, the warrior chief, drag to death.