21. To Atli rings | so red they offered,
And mighty gifts | to my brother would give.
"Fifteen dwellings | fain would he give
For me, and the burden | that Grani bore;

22. But Atli said | he would never receive
Marriage gold | from Gjuki's son.
"Yet could we not | our love o'ercome,
And my head I laid | on the hero's shoulder;

23. Many there were | of kinsmen mine
Who said that together | us they had seen.
Atli said | that never I
Would evil plan, | or ill deed do;

24. But none may this | of another think,
Or surely speak, | when love is shared.

25. "Soon his men | did Atli send,
In the murky wood | on me to spy;
Thither they came | where they should not come,
Where beneath one cover | close we lay.

[21. Grani's burden: the treasure won by Sigurth from Fafnir; cf. Fafnismol, concluding prose. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza, as also in stanzas 21 and 22.

25. Murky wood: the forest which divided Atli's realm from that of the Gjukungs is in Atlakvitha, 3, called Myrkwood. This hardly accords with the extraordinary geography of stanzas 29-30, or with the journey described in Guthrunarkvitha II, 36.]

21. Buðu þeir árla bauga rauða
ok bræðrum mínum bætr ósmáar;
bað hann enn við mér bú fimmtían,
hliðfarm Grana, ef hann hafa vildi.

22. En Atli kvaðsk eigi vilja
mund aldrigi at megi Gjúka;
þeygi vit máttum við munum vinna,
nema ek helt höfði við hringbrota.

23. Mæltu margir mínir niðjar,
kváðusk okkr hafa orðit bæði;
en mik Atli kvað eigi mundu
lýti ráða né löst gera.

24. En slíks skyli synja aldri
maðr fyr annan, þar er munúð deilir.

25. Sendi Atli áru sína
um myrkvan við mín at freista;
ok þeir kómu þar, er þeir koma né skyldu-t,
þá er breiddum vit blæju eina.