and care for no man unless thou see the maiden. ... Ye shall swear
all binding oaths but keep few when thou hast been one night Giuki's
guest, thou shalt not remember Heimi's brave foster-daughter.... Thou
shalt suffer treachery from another and pay the price of Grimhild's
plots. The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter."

_Völsunga_ gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer
to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear
oaths to each other. The description of their second meeting, when
he finds her among her maidens, and she prophesies that he will marry
Giuki's daughter, and also the meeting between her and Gudrun before
the latter's marriage, represent a later development of the story,
inconsistent with the older conception of the Shield-maiden. Sigurd
gives Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which belonged to the hoard,
as a pledge, and takes it from her again later when he woos her in
Gunnar's form. It is the sight of the ring afterwards on Gudrun's
hand which reveals to her the deception; but the episode has also
a deeper significance, since it brings her into connection with the
central action by passing the curse on to her. According to Snorri's
paraphrase, Sigurd gives the ring to Brynhild when he goes to her in
Gunnar's form.

For the rest of the story we must depend chiefly on _Gripisspa_ and
_Völsunga_. The latter tells that Grimhild, the mother of the Giukings,
gave Sigurd a magic drink by which he forgot Brynhild and fell in love
with Giuki's daughter. Gudrun's brothers swore oaths of friendship
with him, and he agreed to ride through the waverlowe, or ring of
fire, disguised and win Brynhild for the eldest brother Gunnar. After
the two bridals, he remembered his first passing through the flame,
and his love for Brynhild returned. The Shield-maiden too remembered,