And mid the hedge of foemen his blunted sword he threw, And, laid like the oars of a longship the level war-shafts pressed On 'gainst the unshielded elder, and clashed amidst his breast; And dead he fell, thrust backward, and rang on the dead men's gear: But still for a certain season durst no man draw anear, For 'twas e'en as a great God's slaying, and they feared the wrath of the sky; And they deemed their hearts might harden if awhile they should let him lie. _Of the ending of all Volsung's Sons save Sigmund only, and of how he abideth in the wild wood._ They joined battle again, but the fight grew feeble after Volsung fell, and his earls were struck down one by one. Last of all, his sons were borne to earth and carried captive to the hall, where Siggeir awaited them, for he himself had feared to face the Volsung swords. Then he would have slain them at once without torture, but Signy besought him that they might breathe the earthly air a day or two before their death, and he listened to her, for he saw how he might thus give them greater pain. He bade his men lead them to a glade in the forest and fetter them to the mightiest tree that grew there. So the ten Volsungs were fettered with iron to a great oak, and on the morrow Siggeir's woodmen told him sweet tidings, for beasts of the wood had devoured two and left their bones in the fetters. So it befell every night till the woodmen brought word that nothing remained of the king's foemen save their bones in the fetters that had bound them. Now a watch had been set on Signy lest she should send help to her brethren, but henceforth no man hindered her from going out to the wood. So that night she came to the glade in the forest, and saw in the midst of it a mighty man who was toiling to dig a grave in the greensward. And behold, it was Sigmund the Volsung: but she cried and had no fear: "If thou art living, Sigmund, what day's work dost thou here In the midnight and the forest? but if thou art nought but a ghost Then where are those Volsung brethren, of whom thou wert best and most?" Then he turned about unto her, and his raiment was fouled and torn, And his eyen were great and hollow, as a famished man forlorn; But he cried: "Hail, Sister Signy! I looked for thee before, Though what should a woman compass, she one alone and no more, When all we shielded Volsungs did nought in Siggeir's land? O yea, I am living indeed, and this labour of mine hand Is to bury the bones of the Volsungs; and lo, it is well-nigh done. So draw near, Volsung's daughter, and pile we many a stone Where lie the grey wolf's gleanings of what was once so good."