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Brynhild answers, "I shall gaze on the hosts of the war-kings, but thou shalt wed Gudrun, the daughter of Giuki." Sigurd answered, "What king's daughter lives to beguile me? neither am I double-hearted herein; and now I swear by the Gods that thee shall I have for mine own, or no woman else." And even suchlike wise spake she.
And for token of their troth Sigurd took the ring that was on his finger and placed it on Brynhild's Andvari's ring it was. He left Hindfell and he came into a kingdom that was ruled over by a people that were called the Nibelungs as Sigurd's people were called the Volsungs. Giuki was the name of the King of that land.
Then he named himself Gunnar, son of Giuki, and said "Thou art awarded to me as my wife, by the good will and word of thy father and thy foster-father, and I have ridden through the flames of thy fire, according to thy word that thou hast set forth." "I wot not clearly," said she, "how I shall answer thee."
'Whereas from Gudrun Well they hid it, Though better by half Had she have known it. "Din was there to hear Of the hoofs gold-shod, When into the garth Rode the sons of Giuki. "There from Hogni The heart they cut, But into the worm-close Cast the other. There the king, the wise-hearted, Swept his harp-strings, For the might king Had ever mind That I to his helping Soon should come.
Thus this song telleth of the death of Sigurd, and setteth forth how that they slew him without doors; but some say that they slew him within doors, sleeping in his bed. But the Dutch Folk say that they slew him out in the wood: and so sayeth the ancient song of Gudrun, that Sigurd and the sons of Giuki were riding to the Thing whenas he was slain.
"Gunnar, son of Giuki, of the race of the Nibelungs," Sigurd said. "Art thou the bravest one in the world?" she asked. "I have ridden through the wall of flaring fire to come to thee," Sigurd answered. "He who has come through that wall of flaring fire may claim me," Brynhild said. "It is written in the runes, and it must be so. But I thought there was only one who would come to me through it."
A day came when he asked Gunnar and Högni, his sworn brethren, for Gudrun. They were glad as though a great fortune had befallen them. And they brought him before Giuki the King, and Grimhild the Queen.
"What didst thou with that ring that I gave thee, even the one which King Budli gave me at our last parting, when thou and King Giuki came to him and threatened fire and the sword, unless ye had me to wife?
He then departed, after promising to remain faithful to her. On his travels he arrived at the court of Giuki or Gibicho, a king whose domains were situated on the Lower Rhine. Three sons had he, Gunnar, Hogni, and Gutthorm, and a daughter Gudrun, a maiden of exquisite beauty. His queen bore the name of Grimhild, and was deeply versed in magical science, but was evil of nature.
But Grimhild finds how heartily Sigurd loved Brynhild, and how oft he talks of her; and she falls to thinking how well it were, if he might abide there and wed the daughter of King Giuki, for she saw that none might come anigh to his goodliness, and what faith and goodhelp there was in him, and how that he had more wealth withal than folk might tell of any man; and the king did to him even as unto his own sons, and they for their parts held him of more worth than themselves.
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