So King Eylimi hearkened the message, and hath no word to say,
    For an earl of King Lyngi the mighty is come that very day,
    He too for the wooing of Hiordis:  and Lyngi’s realm is at hand,
    But afar King Sigmund abideth o’er many a sea and land: 
    And the man is young and eager, and grim and guileful of mood.

At last he sayeth:  “Abide here such space as thou deemest good,
But tomorn shalt thou have thine answer that thine heart may the
lighter be
For the hearkening of harp and songcraft, and the dealing with game
and glee.” 
Then he went to Queen Hiordis bower, where she worked in the silk
and the gold
The deeds of the world that should be, and the deeds that were of old. 
And he stood before her and said: 
“I have spoken a word, time was,
That thy will should rule thy wedding; and now hath it come to pass
That again two kings of the people will woo thy body to bed.” 
So she rose to her feet and hearkened:  “And which be they?” she said.

He spake:  “The first is Lyngi, a valiant man and a fair,
A neighbour ill for thy father, if a foe’s name he must bear: 
And the next is King Sigmund the Volsung of a land far over sea,
And well thou knowest his kindred, and his might and his valiancy,
And the tales of his heart of a God; and though old he be waxen now,
Yet men deem that the wide world’s blossom from Sigmund’s loins

    shall grow.”

    Said Hiordis:  “I wot, my father, that hereof may strife arise;
    Yet soon spoken is mine answer; for I, who am called the wise,
    Shall I thrust by the praise of the people, and the tale that no
      ending hath,
    And the love and the heart of the godlike, and the
      heavenward-leading path,
    For the rose and the stem of the lily, and the smooth-lipped
      youngling’s kiss,
    And the eyes’ desire that passeth, and the frail unstable bliss? 
    Now shalt thou tell King Sigmund, that I deem it the crown of my life
    To dwell in the house of his fathers amidst all peace and strife,
    And to bear the sons of his body:  and indeed full well I know
    That fair from the loins of Sigmund shall such a stem outgrow
    That all folk of the earth shall be praising the womb where once he lay
    And the paps that his lips have cherished, and shall bless my happy
      day.”

    Now the king’s heart sore misgave him, but herewith must he be content,
    And great gifts to the earl of Lyngi and a word withal he sent,
    That the woman’s troth was plighted to another people’s king. 
    But King Sigmund’s earl on the morrow hath joyful yea-saying,
    And ere two moons be perished he shall fetch his bride away. 
    “And bid him,” King Eylimi sayeth, “to come with no small array,
    But with sword and shield and war-shaft, lest aught of ill betide.”