21. Men came and the tale | to Jormunrek told
How warriors helmed | without they beheld:
"Take counsel wise, | for brave ones are come,
Of mighty men | thou the sister didst murder."
22. Then Jormunrek laughed, | his hand laid on his beard,
His arms, for with wine | he was warlike, he called for;
He shook his brown locks, | on his white shield he looked,
And raised high the cup | of gold in his hand.
23. "Happy, methinks, | were I to behold
Hamther and Sorli | here in my hall;
The men would I bind | with strings of bows,
And Gjuki's heirs | on the gallows hang."
24. In the hall was clamor, | the cups were shattered,
Men stood in blood | from the breasts of the Goths,
25. Then did Hamther speak forth, | the haughty of heart:
"Thou soughtest, Jormunrek, | us to see,
Sons of one mother | seeking thy dwelling;
Thou seest thy hands, | thy feet thou beholdest,
Jormunrek, flung | in the fire so hot."
[21. The word here rendered men (line 1) is missing in the original, involving a metrical error, and various words have been suggested.
22. Line 2 in the original is thoroughly obscure; some editors directly reverse the meaning here indicated by giving the line a negative force,
while others completely alter the phrase rendered "his arms he called for" into one meaning "he stroked his cheeks."
23. Gjuki's heirs: the original has "the well-born of Gjuki," and some editors have changed the proper name to Guthrun, but the phrase apparently
refers to Hamther and Sorli as Gjuki's grandsons. In the manuscript this stanza is followed by stanza 11, [fp. 553] and such editors as have
retained this arrangement have had to resort to varied and complex explanations to account for it.
24. Editors have made various efforts to reconstruct a four line stanza out of these two lines, in some cases with the help of lines borrowed from
the puzzling stanza 11 (cf. note on stanza 23). Line 2 in the original is doubtful.
25. Some editors mark line 1 as an interpolation. The manuscript marks line 4 as beginning a new stanza. As in the story told by Jordanes, Hamther
and Sorli succeed in wounding Jormunrek (here they cut off his hands and feet), but do not kill him. 26. The manuscript marks line 3, and not line 1,
as beginning a stanza. Of the race of the gods: the reference here is apparently to Jormunrek, but in the Volsungasaga the advice to kill Hamther and
Sorli with stones, since iron will not wound them (cf. note on stanza 11), Comes from Othin, who enters the hall as an old man with one eye.]
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21. "Sæll ek þá þóttumk, ef ek sjá knætta
Hamði ok Sörla í höllu minni,
buri mynda ek þá binda með boga strengjum,
góð börn Gjúka festa á galga."
22. Hitt kvað þá Hróðrglöð, stóð of hleðum,
mæfingr mælti við mög þenna:
-- -- --
"Því at þat heita, at hlýðigi myni;
megu tveir menn einir tíu hundruð Gotna
binda eða berja í borg inni háu."
23. Styrr varð í ranni, stukku ölskálir,
í blóði bragnar lágu, komit ór brjósti Gotna.
24. Hitt kvað þá Hamðir inn hugumstóri:
"Æstir, Jörmunrekkr, okkarrar kvámu
bræðra sammæðra innan borgar þinnar;
fætr sér þína, höndum sér þú þínum,
Jörmunrekkr, orpit í eld heitan."
25. Þá hraut við inn reginkunngi
baldr í hrynju, sem björn hryti:
"Grýtið ér á gumna, alls geirar né bíta,
eggjar né éarn Jónakrs sonu."
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