144 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



dear ones. But if life to them would snatch me from thy arms, to 

 life would I never call them." After that Helgi and Sigrun became 

 man and wife. But Helgi did not live to grow old. He had 

 spared one brother of Sigrun's in the fight, and this one vowed to 

 Odin that he would avenge the death of his father and brothers. 

 This he did with Odin's own spear, and then he rode away to tell 

 Sigrun what he had done. Sigrun, his sister, cursed him with many 

 curses, but she sang a song of praise to the memory of Helgi, the hero, 

 and never ceased to weep for him. One evening when Helgi had 

 been dead for some time, Sigrun's maid announced to her that armed 

 warriors were to be seen riding toward the mound where Helgi was 

 buried. "Go, Sigrun," she said, "out upon the Sefafell, if thou 

 yearnest to see the prince of thy people. The mound is open, Helgi 

 is come. His wounds are bleeding, and he, the dayling, bids thee 

 cease thy weeping, and still the blooddrops from his wounds." Sigrun 

 went with all speed to the grave, and when she had entered it, she 

 said, "Now do I rejoice to see thee. But, Helgi, thy hair is thick 

 with frost, and thou, thyself, art with deadly dew bedecked. How 

 can I, O Prince, bring help to thee?" And Helgi replied, "Thine 

 alone is the fault, Sigrun of the Sleeping Rock, that Helgi with the 

 dew of grief is dripping. 'Tis thy tears that fall bloody on the 

 Prince's breast, with sorrow laden. But deep shall we drink of the 

 dearest cup, though we have lost joy and lands as men do count. 

 No man shall sing a sorrow song, even though my wounds be plain 



to see Now, I say, shall nothing seem strange, early or late, 



at the Sleeping Rock, since thou, living and breathing, hast rested a 

 while in the mound of the dead." But at the first dawn Helgi started 

 up. "Now is it time for me to ride the reddened paths, to let the 

 white horse tread the air-way. I must over the rainbow bridge ere 

 cockcrow." Helgi rode away, and Sigrun and her maid went home 

 to her dwelling. Sigrun did not live long after that, but pined away 

 in grief and pain to an early death. 



The tragedy in the story of Signi is also brought about by a feud 

 between the chosen lover of the maiden and her own family — again 

 the motif, fidelity unto death, even against the ties of blood. Signi, 



