But now the fire sank withal, and he leapt from his horse and
went into the hall, even as the song says --
"The flame flared at its maddest,
Earth's fields fell a-quaking
As the red flame aloft
Licked the lowest of heaven.
Few had been fain,
Of the rulers of folk,
To ride through that flame,
Or athwart it to tread.
"Then Sigurd smote
Grani with sword,
And the flame was slaked
Before the king;
Low lay the flames
Before the fain of fame;
Bright gleamed the array
That Regin erst owned.
Now when Sigurd had passed through the fire, he came into a
certain fair dwelling, and therein sat Brynhild.
She asked, "What man is it?"
Then he named himself Gunnar, son of Giuki, and said -- "Thou art
awarded to me as my wife, by the good will and word of thy father
and thy foster-father, and I have ridden through the flame of thy
fire, according to thy that thou hast set forth."
"I wot not clearly," said she, "how I shall answer thee.
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