for the second part of our book.

Of Sigurd at Hlymdale, of Gudrun's dream, the magic potion of
Grimhild, the wedding of Sigurd consequent on that potion; of the
wooing of Brynhild for Gunnar, her marriage to him, of the
quarrel of the Queens, the brooding grief and wrath of Brynhild,
and the interview of Sigurd with her -- of all this, the most
dramatic and best-considered parts of the tale, there is now no
more left that retains its metrical form than the few snatches
preserved by the Sagaman, though many of the incidents are
alluded to in other poems.

Chap. xxx. is met by the poem called the "Short Lay of Sigurd",
which, fragmentary apparently at the beginning, gives us
something of Brynhild's awakening wrath and jealousy, the slaying
of Sigurd, and the death of Brynhild herself; this poem we have
translated entire.

The Fragments of the "Lay of Brynhild" are what is left of a poem
partly covering the same ground as this last, but giving a
different account of Sigurd's slaying; it is very incomplete,
though the Sagaman has drawn some incidents from it; the reader
will find it translated in our second part.

But before the death of the heroine we have inserted entire into
the text as chap. xxxi. the "First Lay of Gudrun", the most
lyrical, the most complete, and the most beautiful of all the
Eddaic poems; a poem that any age or language might count among
its most precious possessions.