Then said Gudrun, "This is my fourth dream. I thought I had a helm of
gold upon my head, set with many precious stones. And I thought this
precious thing belonged to me, but what I chiefly found fault with was
that it was rather too heavy, and I could scarcely bear it, so that I
carried my head on one side; yet I did not blame the helm for this, nor
had I any mind to part with it. Yet the helm tumbled from my head out
into Hvammfirth, and after that I awoke. Now I have told you all my
dreams." [Sidenote: Gest's reading of the dreams] Gest answered, "I
clearly see what these dreams betoken; but you will find my unravelling
savouring much of sameness, for I must read them all nearly in the same
way. You will have four husbands, and it misdoubts me when you are
married to the first it will be no love match. Inasmuch as you thought
you had a great coif on your head and thought it ill-fitting, that shows
you will love him but little. And whereas you took it off your head and
cast it into the water, that shows that you will leave him. For that,
men say, is 'cast on to the sea,' when a man loses what is his own, and
gets nothing in return for it." And still Gest spake: "Your second dream
was that you thought you had a silver ring on your arm, and that shows
you will marry a nobleman whom you will love much, but enjoy him for but
a short time, and I should not wonder if you lose him by drowning. That
is all I have to tell of that dream. And in the third dream you thought
you had a gold ring on your hand; that shows you will have a third
husband; he will not excel the former at the rate that you deemed this
metal more rare and precious than silver; but my mind forebodes me that
by that time a change of faith will have come about, and your husband
will have taken the faith which we are minded to think is the more
exalted. And whereas you thought the ring broke in two through some
misheed of yours, and blood came from the two pieces, that shows that
this husband of yours will be slain, and then you will think you see for
the first time clearly all the flaws of that match." Still Gest went on