Then spake the Son of Giuki:  “Give forth the word and the thing. 
    Since thy faithfulness constraineth:  but I know thy tokens true,
    And thy rune-staff hath the letters that in days agone I knew.”

    “Then this is the word,” said the elder, “that Atli set in my mouth: 
    ’I have known thee of old, King Gunnar, when we twain drew sword in
      the south
    In the days of thy father Giuki, and great was the fame of thee then: 
    But now it rejoiceth my heart that thou growest the greatest of men,
    And anew I crave thy friendship, and I crave a gift at thy hands,
    That thou give me the white-armed Gudrun, the queen and the darling of
      lands,
    To be my wife and my helpmate, my glory in hall and afield;
    That mine ancient house may blossom and fresh fruit of the King-tree
      yield. 
    I send thee gifts moreover, though little things be these. 
    But such is the fashion of great-ones when they speak across the
      seas.’”

    Then cried out that earl of the strangers, and men brought the gifts
      and the gold;
    White steeds from the Eastland horse-plain, fine webs of price untold,
    Huge pearls of the nether ocean, strange masteries subtly wrought
    By the hands of craftsmen perished and people come to nought.

    But Gunnar laughed and answered:  “King Atli speaketh well;
    Across the sea, peradventure, I too a tale may tell: 
    Now born is thy burden of speech; so rejoice at the Niblung board,
    For here art thou sweetly welcome for thyself and thy mighty lord: 
    And maybe by this time tomorrow, or maybe in a longer space,
    Shall ye have an answer for Atli, and a word to gladden his face.”

    So the strangers sit and are merry, and the Wonder of the East
    And the glory of the Westland kissed lips in the Niblung feast.

    But again on the morrow-morning speaks Gunnar with Grimhild and saith: 
    “Where then in the world is Gudrun, and is she delivered from death? 
    For nought hereof hast thou told me:  but the wisest of women art thou,
    And I deem that all things thou knowest, and thy cunning is timely now;
    For King Atli wooeth my sister; and as wise as thou mayst be,
    What thing mayst thou think of greater ’twixt the ice and the
      uttermost sea
    Than the might of the Niblung people, if this wedding come to pass?”

    Then answered the mighty Grimhild, and glad of heart she was: 
    “It is sooth that Gudrun liveth; for that daughter of thy folk
    Fled forth from the Burg of the Niblungs when the Volsung’s might ye
      broke: 
    She fled from all holy dwellings to the houses of the deer,
    And the feet of the mountains deserted that few folk come anear: 
    There the wolves were about and around her, and no mind she had to
      live;