16. "Yon garment of linen | lies little of worth,
It will soon be burned, | so thou sawest the bed-cover."

Kostbera spake:

17. "A bear saw I enter, | the pillars he broke,
And he brandished his claws | so that craven we were;
With his mouth seized he many, | and nought was our might,
And loud was the tumult, | not little it was."

Hogni spake:

18. "Now a storm is brewing, | and wild it grows swiftly,
A dream of an ice-bear | means a gale from the east."

Kostbera spake:

19. "An eagle I saw flying | from the end through the house,
Our fate must be bad, | for with blood he sprinkled us;
. . . . . . . . . .
From the evil I fear | that 'twas Atli's spirit."

Hogni spake:

20. "They will slaughter soon, | and so blood do we see,
Oft oxen it means | when of eagles one dreams;
True is Atli's heart, | whatever thou dreamest."
Then silent they were, | and nought further they said.

[18. Two lines may have been lost after line 2, but the Volsungasaga paraphrase gives no clue. Ice-bear: polar bears, common in Greenland, are very rarely found in Iceland, and never in Norway, a fact which substantiates the manuscript's reference to Greenland as the home of the poem.

19. The manuscript indicates no gap, but most editors assume the loss of a line after line 1 or 2; Grundtvig adds, after line 1: "Black were his feathers, | with blood was he covered." Atli's spirit: the poet's folk-lore seems here a bit weak. Presumably he means such a female following-spirit ("fylgja") as appears in Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, prose following stanza 34 (cf. note thereon), but the word he uses, "hamr" (masculine) means "skin," "shape." He may, however, imply that Atli had assumed the shape of an eagle for this occasion.

20. The manuscript indicates line 4 as beginning a new stanza.]

16. "Liggja hér línklæði, þau er lítt rækið,
þau munu brátt brenna, þau er þú blæju sátt."

Kostbera kvað:

17. "Björn hugða ek hér inn kominn, bryti upp stokka,
hristi svá hramma, at vér hrædd yrðim;
munn oss mörg hefði, svá at vér mættim ekki;
þar var ok þrömmun þeygi svá lítil."

Högni kvað:

18. "Veðr mun þar vaxa, verða ótt snemma,
hvítabjörn hugðir, þar mun hregg austan."

Kostbera kvað:

19. "Örn hugða ek hér inn fljúga at endlöngu húsi,
þat mun oss drjúgt deilask, dreifði hann oss öll blóði,
hugða ek af heitum at væri hamr Atla."

Högni kvað:

20. "Slátrum sýsliga, séum þá roðru,
oft er þat fyr öxnum, er örnu dreymir;
heill er hugr Atla, hvatki er þik dreymir."
Lokit því létu, líðr hver ræða.