Sorli spake:

27. "Ill didst win, brother, | when the bag thou didst open,
Oft from that bag | came baleful counsel;
Heart hast thou, Hamther, | if knowledge thou hadst!
A man without wisdom | is lacking in much."

Hamther spake:

28. "His head were now off | if Erp were living,
The brother so keen | whom we killed on our road,
The warrior noble,-- | 'twas the Norns that drove me
The hero to slay | who in fight should be holy.

29. "In fashion of wolves | it befits us not
Amongst ourselves to strive,
Like the hounds of the Norns, | that nourished were
In greed mid wastes so grim.

30. "We have greatly fought, | o'er the Goths do we stand
By our blades laid low, | like eagles on branches;
Great our fame though we die | today or tomorrow;
None outlives the night | when the Norris have spoken."

31. Then Sorli beside | the gable sank,
And Hamther fell | at the back of the house.

This is called the old ballad of Hamther.

[27. in the manuscript this stanza is introduced by the same line as stanza 25: "Then did Hamther speak forth, the haughty of heart," but the speaker in this case must be Sorli and not Hamther. Some editors, however, give lines 1-2 to Hamther and lines 3-4 to Sorli. Bag: i.e., Hamther's mouth; cf. note on stanza 11. The manuscript indicates line 3 as beginning a new stanza.

28. Most editors regard stanzas 28-30 as a speech by Hamther, but the manuscript does not indicate the speaker, and some editors assign one or two of the stanzas to Sorli. Lines 1-2 are quoted in the Volsungasaga. The manuscript does not indicate line I as beginning a stanza. Erp: Hamther means that while the two brothers had succeeded only in wounding Jormunrek, Erp, if he had been with them, would have killed him. Lines 3-4 may be a later interpolation. Norns: the fates; the word used in the original means the goddesses of ill fortune."

29. This is almost certainly an interpolated Ljothahattr stanza, though some editors have tried to expand it into the Fornyrthislag form. Hounds of the Norns: wolves.

30, Some editors assume a gap after this stanza.

31. Apparently a fragment of a stanza from the "old" Hamthesmol to which the annotator's concluding prose note refers. Some editors assume the loss of two lines after line 2.

Prose. Regarding the "old" Hamthesmol, cf. Guthrunarhvot, introductory note.]

Sörli Kvað:

27. "Hug hefðir þú, Hamðir, ef þú hefðir hyggjandi;
mikils er á mann hvern vant, er mannvits er!"

Hamðir kvað:

28. "Af væri nú höfuð, ef Erpr lifði,
bróðir okkarr inn böðfrækni,
er vit á braut vágum, verr inn vígfrækni,
- hvöttumk at dísir, -
gumi inn gunnhelgi, - gerðumk at vígi -."

Sörli kvað:

29. "Ekki hygg ek okkr vera ulfa dæmi,
at vit mynim sjalfir of sakask
sem grey norna, þá er gráðug eru
í auðn of alin.

30. Vel höfum vit vegit, stöndum á val Gotna,
ofan eggmóðum, sem ernir á kvisti;
góðs höfum tírar fengit,
þótt skylim nú eða í gær deyja;
kveld lifir maðr ekki eftir kvið norna."

31. Þar fell Sörli at salar gafli,
enn Hamðir hné at húsbaki.

Þetta eru kölluð Hamðissmál in fornu.