Atli bids the Giukings to him.
Now tells the tale that on a night King Atli woke from sleep and
spake to Gudrun --
"Medreamed," said he, "that thou didst thrust me through with a
sword."
Then Gudrun areded the dream, and said that it betokened fire,
whenas folk dreamed of iron. "It befalls of thy pride belike, in
that thou deemest thyself the first of men,"
Atli said, "Moreover I dreamed that here waxed two sorb-tree (1)
saplings, and fain I was that they should have no scathe of me;
then these were riven up by the roots and reddened with blood,
and borne to the bench, and I was bidden eat thereof.
"Yea, yet again I dreamed that two hawks flew from my hand hungry
and unfed, and fared to hell, and meseemed their hearts were
mingled with honey, and that I ate thereof.
"And then again I dreamed that two fair whelps lay before me
yelling aloud, and that the flesh of them I ate, though my will
went not with the eating."
Gudrun says, "Nowise good are these dreams, yet shall they come
to pass; surely thy sons are nigh to death, and many heavy things
shall fall upon us.
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