And now she holds the funeral feast for her brother by the aid and counsel of the king, and makes ready all things there or in the best of wise, and bade thither many great men.
At that feast, Borghild the queen bare the drink to folk, and she came over against Sinfjofli with a great horn, and said --
"Fall to now and drink, fair stepson!"
Then he took the horn to him, and looked therein, and said --
"Nay, for the drink is charmed drink"
Then said Sigmund, "Give it unto me then;" and therewith he took the horn and drank it off.
But the queen said to Sinfjotli, "Why must other men needs drink thine ale for thee?" And she came again the second time with the horn, and said, "Come now and drink!" and goaded him with many words.
And he took the horn, and said --
"Guile is in the drink."
And thereon, Sigmund cried out --
"Give it then unto me!"
Again, the third time, she came to him, and bade him drink off his drink, if he had the heart of a Volsung; then he laid hand on the horn, but said --
"Venom is therein."
"Nay, let the lip strain it out then, O son," quoth Sigmund; and by then was he exceeding drunk with drink, and therefore spake he in that wise.
So Sinfjotli drank, and straightway fell down dead to the ground.
Sigmund rose up, and sorrowed nigh to death over him; then he took the corpse in his arms and fared away to the wood, and went till he came to a certain firth; and then he saw a man in a little boat; and that man asked if he would be wafted by him over the firth, and he said yes thereto; but so little was the boat, that they might not all go in it at once, so the corpse was first laid therein, while Sigmund went by the firth-side. But therewith the boat and the man therein vanished away from before Sigmund's eyes. (2)
So thereafter Sigmund turned back home, and drave away the queen, and a little after she died. But Sigmund the king yet ruled his realm, and is deemed ever the greatest champion and king of the old law.
Chapter IX
Chapter XI