630 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 
She tasted no food, and to none she replied, 
But spurn’d the sad bridegroom with hate from her side. 
Shall the words of young Sigurd now bid her rejoice? 
Does she hear his known accents, and start at his voice? 
« ‘Awake, fair Brynhilda, behold the bright ray ! 
‘* The flowers in the forest are laughing and gay. 
“‘ Full long hast thou slept on the bosom of woe ; 
** Awake, fair Brynhilda, and see the sun glow !” 
She heard him with anguish, and raising her head 
She gaz’d on his features, then proudly she said : 
“<I choose not two husbands, and marvel that thou 
“ Shouldst dare thus intrude in my chamber of woe. 
“‘ Heaven witness, proud Sigurd, how firmly I loved! 
«* My fancy adored thee, my reason approved. 
‘¢ Thou saw’st me in bloom of my glory and youth, 
** And our hearts interchang’d the chaste promise of truth. 
*¢ Mid the damsels of Hlyndale no maid was so fair, 
*¢ So courted in bower, so dreaded in war. 
* Like a Virgin of slaughter I rov’d o’er the sea, 
“« My arm was victorious, my valour was free. 
* By prowess, by Runic enchantment and song, 
‘“‘T raised up the weak, and I beat down the strong. 
**T held the young prince mid the hurly .of war, 
‘* My arm wav’d around him the charm’d scimitar ; 
“©I saved him in battle,-I crown’d him in hall, 
*¢ Though Odin and fate had foredoom’d him to fall, 
“ Hence Odin’s dread curses were pour’d on my head ; 
** He doom’d the undaunted Brynhilda to wed. 
*« But I vow’d the high vow which gods dare not gainsay, 
“« That the bravest in warfare should bare me away : 
** And full well I knew, that thou, Sigurd, alone 
** Of mortals the boldest in battle hast shone, 
‘I knew that none other the furnace could stem, 
ss eg wrought was the spell, and so fierce was the Aame) 
‘‘ Save Sigurd the glorious, the slayer of kings, 
** With the spoils of the Dragon, his gold and his rings. 
‘¢ Now thy treason has marr’d me, to Gunnar resign’d 
‘« By the force of the spell, when my reason was blind. 
** At my nuptials I loathed the embrace of his lust, 
** But I smother’d my hate, and conceal’d my disgust ; 
¢ And sooner than forfeit the faith which I gave 
« At the altar to him, I will sink in my grave. 
* Like a brother thou slept’st in the gloom by my side, 
“* And pure as the day-star was Gunnar’s young bride. 
** Yet hence did Gudruna revile me, and say 
‘In the arms of proud Sigurd despoiled I lay. 
