Helreith Brynhildar (“Brynhild’s Ride to Hel”) follows closely on the death of Brynhild in Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, describing Brynhild’s encounters in Hel following her death on Sigurth’s funeral pyre.
When Brynhild was dead, they built two funeral pyres. The first was for Sigurth, and it burned first. But Brynhild was placed on another pyre, and her body was on a wagon draped with expensive cloths. It is said that she came driving in this wagon along the road to Hel, and she passed through a farm where a certain giant woman lived. The giant woman said:
“YOU DON’T GET TO ride through my rocky lands, through my pastures. It would be more fitting for you to sew a tapestry than to come here to visit another woman’s husband.
“Why are you visiting my home from the land above, you two-faced woman? You have fed human blood to the wolves, cursed by you.”
Brynhild said:
“Don’t scold me, you bride from the stones, even if I did once go on Viking raids. I think people would say that I’m the nobler of us two, if our ancestry were compared.”
The giant woman said:
“You were Brynhild, daughter of Buthli, born into the world for the worst luck. You have destroyed the children of Gjuki, changed forever their once-happy home.”
Brynhild said:
“You are unwise, but I am wise in my wagon. I will tell you in brief, if you want to know how Gjuki’s sons made me into a loveless wife and an oathbreaker.
“Everyone who knew me called me by the name ‘Hild in the Helmet’ at home in Hlymdalir. A man was named Agnar, brother of Autha; no one would ever help him in any way.
“A brave king ordered the feather-cloaks of us eight Valkyries to be carried beneath an oak. I was twelve years old, if you want to know, when I gave a young prince my oath.
“Then I let an old warrior, Hjalmgunnar of the Gothic lands, go to Hel. I gave victory to Agnar, Autha’s young brother, and Odin was intolerably angry at me for this.
“He closed me up behind red and white shields, set them in a circle around me in Skatalund. He said only a man who could never know fear could break my sleep.
“And around my south-facing hall, he kindled high-flaming fires; only one man could ride over the flames— the one who brought me the gold that had lain beneath Fafnir.
“Then that good man, that sharer of rings, came riding on Grani to my foster-father’s hall. He alone, the Viking Sigurth, seemed better to me than every other man at that Danish court.
“The two of us slept together in one bed, not as lovers, but as if he were my brother— for eight nights neither of us laid so much as a hand upon the other.
“Guthrun, daughter of Gjuki, mocked me, she said I had slept in the arms of Sigurth. And when she said it, I realized the horrible truth of how they wooed me— they had tricked me.
“Men and women will go on living for far too many days, for far too little joy. But as for me and Sigurth, we will never be parted, never again after death! Now sink back down, giant.”