_Hundingsbani_, i.e. 'Slayer of Hunding.' See _Vˆlsunga Saga_, ch. 9. V. _It chanced one day that_, etc. Chapters 5 and 6 are mainly taken from the poem _Reginsm·l_ of which strophes 13-26 are quoted in our text. _Reginsm·l_ is the first poem of a trilogy dealing with the early adventures of Sigurth. The two remaining poems _F·fnism·l_ and _Sigrdrifum·l_ are used only in the last two sentences of ch. 6. _Yngvi_ is a name of the god Frey, from whom the kings of Norway and the early kings of Sweden were believed to have sprung. _Fafnisbani_, i.e. 'Slayer of Fafnir.' Cf. ch. 6 _infra_. See also _Vˆlsunga Saga_, ch. 18. _The Imperial Power had not_, etc. This may mean either the refounding of the Western Empire by Charlemagne, A.D. 800, or possibly the gaining of the Imperial throne by Otto I, King of the Germans, in 962. VI. _Sigurth prepared for battle_, etc. An account of this battle is given in _Vˆlsunga Saga_, ch. 17. _The sea-king's steed._ The text has _RÊfils hestum_, lit. 'RÊfil's horses.' RÊfil was a legendary sea-king. The names of such characters are frequently used in 'kennings' (i.e. poetic circumlocutions) like this. _Hnikar_, a name of the god Othin in the _GrÌmnism·l_ (str. 47) and elsewhere. _The Moon's sister._ The text has _systur M·na_, 'M·ni's sister,' i.e. the sun. _M·ni_, the old word for the moon, is preserved in Iceland only in a mythological sense, the ordinary word in use for moon being _tungl_. _M·ni_ and _SÛl_ (the sun) were brother and sister. See _Vaf˛r˙˛nism·l_, str. 23; also _Gylfaginning_, ch. 11, 12. _Order their array_, lit. 'draw up a wedge-shaped column'--a favourite battle-formation, the origin of which was ascribed to Othin. _Stumbling is bad luck_, etc. So Wilken (gloss. _s.v. fyrir_, 2.) Vigf˙sson and Gering transl. 'It is an ill thing to outrun one's luck.' _Friesland._ In early times the Frisians occupied a much greater extent of coast than now, reaching from the boundary between Holland and Belgium on one side to beyond the mouth of the Weser on the other--apart from the Frisians inhabiting the west coast of Slesvig. _The 'blood-eagle'_ was a form of vengeance practised by the heathen Scandinavians in battle when anyone captured the slayer of his father. The ribs were cut in the shape of an eagle, and the lungs torn out through the opening. The Northumbrian King Ella (∆lla) is said to have been put to death in this way by the sons of Ragnar LothbrÛk. Cf. the _Saga of Ragnar LobrÛk and his sons_, ch. 18; also the _Th·ttr of Ragnar's Sons_, ch. 3. _Hugin and Munin_ were Othin's attendant ravens who gave him information. See _GrÌmnism·l_, str. 20; _Gylfaginning_, ch. 38; _Ynglingasaga_ (_Heimskringla_), ch. 7. _The story of Sigurth Fafnisbani._ The whole story of the loves of Sigurth and Brynhild is related in the _Vˆlsunga Saga_, ch. 20-32. It is uncertain whether the reference here is to the _Vˆlsunga Saga_ as we have it or to an earlier form of the story.