She asked, "What man is it?"

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 flame of thy
fire, according to thy that thou hast set forth."

"I wot not clearly," said she, "how I shall answer thee."

Now Sigurd stood upright on the hall floor, and leaning on the
hilt of his sword, and he spake to Brynhild --

"In reward thereof, shall I pay thee a great dower in gold and
goodly things?"

She answered in heavy mood from her seat, whereas she sat like
unto swan on billow, having a sword in her hand and a helm on her
head, and being clad in a byrny, "O Gunnar," she says, "speak not
to me of such things unless thou be the first and best of all
men; for then shall thou slay those my wooers, if thou hast heart
thereto; I have been in battles with the king of the Greeks, and
weapons were stained with red blood, and for such things still I
yearn."

He answered, "Yea, certes many great deeds hast thou done; but
yet call thou to mind thine oath, concerning the riding through
of this fire, wherein thou didst swear that thou wouldst go with
the man who should do this deed."

So she found that he spoke but the sooth, and she paid heed to