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xxii great joy, for she had vowed never to marry a man who knew fear. At Sigurd’s request she teaches him many wise precepts, and finally pledges her troth to him. He then departs, after promising to be faithful to her and to remember her teachings.

On his journeyings Sigurd soon arrives at the court of Giuki (the Norse form of the German Gibicho, Gibich), a king whose court lay on the lower Rhine. Giuki has three sons, Gunnar, Högni, and Guthorm, and a daughter Gudrun, endowed with great beauty. The queen bears the name of Grimhild, and is versed in magic, but possessed of an evil heart. Sigurd is received with great honor, for his coming had been announced to Gudrun in dreams, which had in part been interpreted to her by Brynhild. The mother, knowing of Sigurd’s relations to the latter, gives him a potion which produces forgetfulness, so that he no longer remembers his betrothed, and accepts the hand of Gudrun, which the king offers him at the queen’s request. The marriage is celebrated with great pomp, and Sigurd remains permanently attached to Giuki’s court, performing with the others many deeds of valor.

Meanwhile Grimhild urges her son Gunnar to sue for the hand of Brynhild. Taking with him Sigurd and a few others, Gunnar visits first Brynhild’s father Budli, and then her brother-in-law Heimir, from both of whom he learns that she is free to choose whom she