Then the wrath from the Niblung slippeth and the shame that anger
      hath bred,
    And the heavy wings of the dreamtide flit over Gunnar’s head: 
    But he doth by his brother’s bidding, and Sigurd’s hand he takes,
    And he looks in the eyes of the Volsung, though scarce in the desert
      he wakes. 
    There Hogni sits in the saddle aloof from the King’s desire,
    And little his lips are moving, as he stares on the rolling fire,
    And mutters the spells of his mother, and the words she bade him say: 
    But the craft of the kings of aforetime on those Kings of the battle
      lay;
    Dark night was spread behind them, and the fire flared up before,
    And unheard was the wind of the wasteland mid the white flame’s
      wavering roar.

    Long Sigurd gazeth on Gunnar, till he sees, as through a cloud,
    The long black locks of the Niblung, and the King’s face set and proud: 
    Then the face is alone on the dark, and the dusky Niblung mail
    Is nought but the night before him:  then whiles will the visage fail,
    And grow again as he gazeth, black hair and gleaming eyes,
    And fade again into nothing, as for more of vision he tries: 
    Then all is nought but the night, yea the waste of an emptier thing,
    And the fire-wall Sigurd forgetteth, nor feeleth the hand of the King: 
    Nay, what is it now he remembereth? it is nought that aforetime he
      knew,
    And no world is there left him to live in, and no deed to rejoice in
      or rue;
    But frail and alone he fareth, and as one in the sphere-stream’s drift,
    By the starless empty places that lie beyond the lift: 
    Then at last is he stayed in his drifting, and he saith, It is blind
      and dark;
    Yet he feeleth the earth at his feet, and there cometh a change and a
      spark,
    And away in an instant of time is the mirk of the dreamland rolled,
    And there is the fire-lit midnight, and before him an image of gold,
    A man in the raiment of Gods, nor fashioned worser than they: 
    Full sad he gazeth on Sigurd from the great wide eyes and grey;
    And the Helm that Aweth the people is set on the golden hair,
    And the Mail of Gold enwraps him, and the Wrath in his hand is bare.

    Then Sigurd looks on his arm and his hand in his brother’s hand,
    And thereon is the dark grey mail-gear well forged in the southern
      land;
    Then he looks on the sword that he beareth, and, lo, the eager blade
    That leaps in the hand of Gunnar when the kings are waxen afraid;
    And he turns his face o’er his shoulder, and the raven-locks hang down
    From the dark-blue helm of the Dwarf-folk, and the rings of the
      Niblung crown.