Page:The Prose Edda (1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur).pdf/192

 Most skalds have made verses and divers short tales from these sagas. Bragi the Old wrote of the fall of Sörli and Hamdir in that song of praise which he composed on Ragnarr Lodbrók:


 * Once Jörmunrekkr awakened
 * To an dream, 'mid the princes
 * Blood-stained, while swords were swirling:
 * A brawl burst in the dwelling
 * Of Randvér's royal kinsman,
 * When the raven-swarthy
 * Brothers of Erpr took vengeance
 * For all the bitter sorrows.


 * The bloody dew of corpses,
 * O'er the king's couch streaming,
 * Fell on the floor where, severed,
 * Feet and hands blood-dripping
 * Were seen; in the ale-cups' fountain
 * He fell headlong, gore-blended:
 * On the Shield, Leaf of the Bushes
 * Of Leifi's Land, 't is painted.


 * There stood the shielded swordsmen,
 * Steel biting not, surrounding
 * The king's couch; and the brethren
 * Hamdir and Sörli quickly
 * To the earth were beaten
 * By the prince's order,
 * To the Bride of Odin
 * With hard stones were battered.