Now Gudrun asked her bower-maidens why they sat so joyless and
downcast. "What has come to you, that ye fare ye as witless
women, or what unheard-of wonders have befallen you?"
Then answered a waiting lady, hight Swaflod, "An untimely, an
evil day it is, and our hall is fulfilled of lamentation."
Then spake Gudrun to one of her handmaids, "Arise, for we have
slept long; go, wake Brynhild, and let us fall to our needlework
and be merry."
"Nay, nay," she says, "nowise may I wake her, or talk with her;
for many days has she drunk neither mead nor wine; surely the
wrath of the Gods has fallen upon her."
Then spake Gudrun to Gunnar, "Go and see her," she says, "and bid
her know that I am grieved with her grief."
"Nay," says Gunnar, "I am forbid to go see her or to share her
weal."
Nevertheless he went unto her, and strives in many wise to have
speech of her, but gets no answer whatsoever; therefore he gets
him gone and finds Hogni, and bids him go see her: he said he was
loth thereto, but went, and gat no more of her.
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