Then spake Hamdir, "Lo now, this is our last parting, for thou
shalt hear tidings of us, and drink one grave-ale (2) over us and
over Swanhild."
So therewith they went their ways.
But Gudrun went unto her bower, with heart swollen with sorrow,
and spake --
"To three men was I wedded, and first to Sigurd Fafnir's-bane,
and he was bewrayed and slain, and of all griefs was that the
greatest grief. Then was I given to King Atli, and so fell was
my heart toward him that I slew in the fury of my grief his
children and mine. Then gave I myself to the sea, but the
billows thereof cast me out aland, and to this king then was I
given; then gave I Swanhild away out of the land with mighty
wealth; and lo, my next greatest sorrow after Sigurd, for under
horses feet was she trodden and slain; but the grimmest and
ugliest of woes was the casting of Gunnar into the Worm-close,
and the hardest was the cutting of Hogni's heart from him.
"Ah, better would it be if Sigurd came to meet me, and I went my
ways with him, for here bideth now behind with me neither son nor
daughter to comfort me.
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