16. "But Brynhild the helm | he bade to wear,
A wish-maid bright | he said she should be;
For a nobler maid | would never be born
On earth, he said, | if death should spare her.

17. "At her weaving Brynhild | sat in her bower,
Lands and folk | alike she had;
The earth and heaven | high resounded
When Fafnir's slayer | the city saw.

18. "Then battle was fought | with the foreign swords,
And the city was broken | that Brynhild had;
Not long thereafter, | but all too soon,
Their evil wiles | full well she knew.

19. "Woeful for this | her vengeance was,
As so we learned | to our sorrow all;
In every land | shall all men hear
How herself at Sigurth's | side she slew.

20. "Love to Gunnar | then I gave,
To the breaker of rings, | as Brynhild might;

[16. Lines 1-2 have here been transposed from the middle of stanza 19; cf. note on stanzas 11-21. Wish-maid: a Valkyrie, so called because the Valkyries fullfilled Othin's wish in choosing the slain heroes for Valhall. The reference to Brynhild as a Valkyrie by no means fits with the version of the story used in stanzas 16-17, and the poet seems to have attempted to combine the two contradictory traditions, cf. Fafnismol, note on stanza 44. In the manuscript stanzas 11-12 follow line 4 of stanza 16.

17. In stanzas 16-17 the underlying story seems to be the one used in Sigurtharkvitha en skamma (particularly stanzas 32-39), and referred to in Guthrunarkvitha I, 24, wherein Gunnar and Sigurth lay siege to Atli's city (it here appears as Brynhild's) and are bought off only by Atli's giving Brynhild to Gunnar as wife, winning her consent thereto by falsely representing to her that Gunnar is Sigurth. This version is, of course, utterly at variance with the one in which Sigurth wins Brynhild for Gunnar by riding through the ring of flames, and is probably more closely akin to the early German traditions. In the Nibelungenlied Brynhild appears as a queen ruling over lands and peoples. Fafnir's slayer: Sigurth.

18. Cf. note on preceding stanza.

20. Cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, stanzas 64-70.

20. In the manuscript lines 1-2 of stanza 15 follow line 2, resulting in various conjectural combinations. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Rings, etc.: possibly, as Gering maintains, payment offered by Gunnar and Hogni for Brynhild's death, but more probably, as in stanza 21, Gunnar's proffered "marriage gold" for the hand of Oddrun.]

16. En hann Brynhildi bað hjalm geta,
hana kvað hann óskmey verða skyldu;
kvað-a hann ina æðri alna mundu
mey í heimi, nema mjötuðr spillti.

17. Brynhildr í búri borða rakði,
hafði hon lýði ok lönd um sik;
jörð dúsaði ok upphiminn,
þá er bani Fáfnis borg of þátti.

18. Þá var víg vegit völsku sverði
ok borg brotin, sú er Brynhildr átti;
var-a langt af því heldr válítit,
unz þær vélar vissi allar.

19. Þess lét hon harðar hefndir verða,
svá at vér öll höfum ærnar raunir;
þat mun á hölða hvert land fara,
er hon lét sveltask at Sigurði.

20. En ek Gunnari gatk at unna,
bauga deili, sem Brynhildr skyldi.