slew, yea, and he rode thy flaming fire, whereas thou didst deem
that he was Gunnar the King, and by thy side he lay, and took
from thine hand the ring Andvari's-loom; -- here mayst thou well
behold it!"

Then Brynhild saw the ring and knew it, and waxed as wan as a
dead woman, and she went home and spake no word the evening long.

So when Sigurd came to bed to Gudrun she asked him why Brynhild's
joy was so departed.

He answered, "I know not, but sore I misdoubt me that soon we
shall know thereof overwell."

Gudrun said, "Why may she not love her life, having wealth and
bliss, and the praise of all men, and the man withal that she
would have?"

"Ah, yea!" said Sigurd, "and where in all the world was she then,
when she said that she deemed she had the noblest of all men, and
the dearest to her heart of all?"

Gudrun answers, "Tomorn will I ask her concerning this, who is
the liefest to her of all men for a husband."

Sigurd said, "Needs must I forbid thee this, and full surely wilt
thou rue the deed if thou doest it."

Now the next morning they sat in the bower, and Brynhild was
silent; then spake Gudrun --