Helgakviða Hundingsbana II

Henry Adams Bellows maintains in his commentaries that it is a patchwork of various poems that do not fit well together, but stanzas 28-37 and 39-50 are held to be among the finest in Old Norse poetry.

In the second section (containing stanzas 5 to 12), Helgi lay with his war party at Brunarvagar and had slaughtered some rustled cattle on the beach and were eating the meat raw.

Sigrún opposed the marriage and sought out Helgi, who was exhausted from a battle in which he had killed Hunding's sons Eyjólfr, Álfr, Hjörvarðr and Hávarðr.

A fifth section (stanzas 22 to 27) consists of a misplaced version of the flyting between Sinfjötli (Helgi's half-brother) and Guthmundr, which probably is older than the one found in Helgakviða Hundingsbana I.

[2] Sad am I, sister, sorrow to tell thee, Woe to my kin unwilling I worked; In the morn there fell at Fjoturlund The noblest prince the world has known, (And his heel he set on the heroes' necks.

Þik skyli allir eiðar bíta, þeir er Helga hafðir unna at inu ljósa Leiftrar vatni ok at úrsvölum Unnarsteini.

"Vengeance were mine for Helgi's murder, Wert thou a wolf in the woods without, Possessing nought and knowing no joy, Having no food save corpses to feed on.

Þú skalt, Hundingr, hverjum manni fótlaug geta ok funa kynda, hunda binda, hesta gæta, gefa svínum soð, áðr sofa gangir.