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Strife and din in the hall, Cups smitten asunder Men lay low in blood From the breasts of Goths flowing. Then spake Hamdir, The high-hearted: "Thou cravedst, O king, From the coming of us, The sons of one mother, Amidmost thine hall Look on these hands of thine, Look on these feet of thine, Cast by us, Jormunrek, On to the flame!"
Then said Hamdir: 'Were Erp alive, the head would be off, and he couldn't call out. Then Hermanaric's men arose and took the twain, and when they found that no steel would touch them, an old one-eyed man gave them advice to stone them to death. Thus fell Saurli and Hamdir, and soon after Gudrun died too, and with her ends the Volsung and the Niflung tale.
It is in the Sigurd-, Fafnir-, Brynhild-, Gudrun-, Oddrun-, Atli-, and Hamdir Lays of the Norse Scripture that the original nature of the older German songs, which must have preceded the epic, can best be guessed. Rhapsodic lays, referring to Siegfried, were, in all probability, part of the collection which Karl the Great, the Frankish Kaiser, ordered to be made.
Byrnies and helms she gave them so true that no sword would bite on them. They were to steal on Hermanaric as he slept; Saurli was to cut off his hands, Hamdir his feet, and Erp his head. So as the three went along, the two asked Erp what help he would give them when they got to Hermanaric. 'Such as hand lends to foot' he said.
"Sweet sight for me Those twain to set eyes on, Sorli and Hamdir, Here in my hall! Then with bowstrings Would I bind them, And hang the good Giukings Aloft on the gallows!" Then spake Hrothglod From off the high steps, Spake the slim-fingered Unto her son, For a threat was cast forth Of what ne'er should fall "Shall two men alone Two hundred Gothfolk Bind or bear down In the midst of their burg?"
Then cried aloud The high Gods' kinsman Bold under byrny, Roared he as bears roar; "Stones to the stout ones That the spears bite not, Nor the edges of steel, These sons of Jonakr!" QUOTH SORLI: "Bale, brother, wroughtst thou By that bag's opening, Oft from that bag Rede of bale cometh! Heart hast thou, Hamdir, If thou hadst heart's wisdom Great lack in a man Who lacks wisdom and lore!"
But the deep will not have her, the billows bear her over to King Jonakr's land. He marries her, and has three sons by her, Saurli, Hamdir, and Erp, black-haired as ravens, like all the Niflungs. Svanhild, her daughter by Sigurd, who had her father's bright and terrible eyes, she has still with her, now grown up to be the fairest of women.
But mighty billows drave her forth along the sea, and by means of their upholding was she borne along till she came at the last to the burg of King Jonakr, a mighty king, and lord of many folk. And he took Gudrun to wife, and their children were Hamdir, and Sorli, and Erp; and there was Swanhild nourished withal.
HAMDIR SAID: "Yes, off were the head If Erp were alive yet, Our brother the bold Whom we slew by the way; The far-famed through the world Ah, the fares drave me on, And the man war made holy, There must I slay!" SORLI SAID: "Unmeet we should do As the doings of wolves are, Raising wrong each 'gainst other As the dogs of the Norns, The greedy ones nourished In waste steads of the world.
In strong wise have we fought, On Goths' corpses we stand, Beat down by our edges, E'en as ernes on the bough. Great fame our might winneth, Die we now, or to-morrow, No man lives till eve Whom the fates doom at morning." At the hall's gable-end Fell Sorli to earth, But Hamdir lay low At the back of the houses. Now this is called the Ancient Lay of Hamdir. Odin, namely. "Bag", his mouth.
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