21. They came to the chest, | and they craved the keys,
The evil was open | when in they looked;
To the boys it seemed | that gems they saw,
Gold in plenty | and precious stones.
Völund spake:
22. "Come ye alone, | the next day come,
Gold to you both | shall then be given;
Tell not the maids | or the men of the hall,
To no one say | that me you have sought."
23. . . . . . . . . . .
Early did brother | to brother call:
"Swift let us go | the rings to see."
24. They came to the chest, | and they craved the keys,
The evil was open | when in they looked;
He smote off their heads, | and their feet he hid
Under the sooty | straps of the bellows.
25. Their skulls, once hid | by their hair, he took,
Set them in silver | and sent them to Nithuth;
Gems full fair | from their eyes he fashioned,
To Nithuth's wife | so wise he gave them.
[20. The editions vary radically in combining the lines of this stanza with those of stanzas 19 and 21, particularly as the manuscript
indicates the third line as the beginning of a stanza. The meaning, however, remains unchanged.
21. Several editions make one stanza out of lines 1-4 of stanza 20 and lines 1-2 of stanza 21, and another out of the next four lines.
The evil was open: i.e., the gold in the chest was destined to be their undoing.
22. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza, and several editors have adopted this grouping. In the Thithrekssaga
Völund sends the boys away with instructions not to come back until just after a fall of snow, and then to approach his dwelling walking
backward. The boys do this, and when, after he has killed them, Völund is questioned regarding them, he points to the tracks in the snow
as evidence that they had left his house.
23. No gap indicated in the manuscript. Some editors assume it, as here; some group the lines with lines 3-4 of stanza 22, and some with
lines 1-2 of stanza 24.
24. Some editions begin a new stanza with line 3.
25. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza, and many editors have adopted this grouping.]
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21. Kómu þeir til kistu, kröfðu lukla,
opin var illúð er þeir í sáu;
fjölð var þar menja, er þeim mögum sýndisk
at væri gull rautt ok görsimar.
Völundr kvað:
22. "Komið einir tveir, komið annars dags;
ykkr læt ek þat gull of gefit verða;
segið-a meyjum né salþjóðum,
manni engum, at it mik fyndið."
23. Snemma kallaði seggr annan,
bróðir á bróður:
"Göngum baug séa!"
Kómu til kistu, kröfðu lukla,
opin var illúð, er þeir í litu.
24. Sneið af höfuð húna þeira
ok und fen fjöturs fætr of lagði;
en þær skálar, er und skörum váru,
sveip hann útan silfri, seldi Níðaði.
25. En ór augum jarknasteina
sendi hann kunnigri konu Níðaðar,
en ór tönnum tveggja þeira
sló hann brjóstkringlur sendi Böðvildi.
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