"
Then Signy wept right sore, and prayed that she might not go back
to King Siggeir, but King Volsung answered --
"Thou shalt surely go back to thine husband, and abide with him,
howsoever it fares with us."
So Signy went home, and they abode there that night but in the
morning, as soon as it was day, Volsung bade his men arise and go
aland and make them ready for battle; so they went aland, all of
them all-armed, and had not long to wait before Siggeir fell on
them with all his army, and the fiercest fight there was betwixt
them; and Siggeir cried on his men to the onset all he might; and
so the tale tells that King Volsung and his sons went eight times
right through Siggeir's folk that day, smiting and hewing on
either hand, but when they would do so even once again, King
Volsung fell amidst his folk and all his men withal, saving his
ten sons, for mightier was the power against them than they might
withstand.
But now are all his sons taken, and laid in bonds and led away;
and Signy was ware withal that her father was slain, and her
brothers taken and doomed to death, that she called King Siggeir
apart to talk with her, and said --
"This will I pray of thee, that thou let not slay my brothers
hastily, but let them be set awhile in the stocks, for home to me
comes the saw that says, "Sweet to eye while seen": but longer
life I pray not for them, because I wot well that my prayer will
not avail me.
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