"So he spake; but a little season nought answered Reidmar the wise, But turned his face from the Treasure, and peered with eager eyes Endlong the hall and athwart it, as a man may chase about A ray of the sun of the morning that a naked sword throws out; And lo from Loki's right-hand came the flash of the fruitful ring, And at last spake Reidmar scowling: 'Ye wait for my yea-saying That your feet may go free on the earth, and the fear of my toils may be done That then ye may say in your laughter: The fools of the time agone! The purblind eyes of the Dwarf-kind! they have gotten the garnered sheaf And have let their Masters depart with the Seed of Gold and of Grief: O Loki, friend of Allfather, cast down Andvari's ring, Or the world shall yet turn backward and the high heavens lack a king.'
"Then Loki drew off the Elf-ring and cast it down on the heap, And forth as the gold met gold did the light of its glory leap: But he spake: 'It rejoiceth my heart that no whit of all ye shall lack, Lest the curse of the Elf-king cleave not, and ye 'scape the utter wrack.'
"Then laughed and answered Reidmar: 'I shall have it while I live, And that shall be long, meseemeth: for who is there may strive With my sword, the war-wise Fafnir, and my shield that is Regin the Smith? But if indeed I should die, then let men-folk deal therewith, And ride to the golden glitter through evil deeds and good. I will have my heart's desire, and do as the high Gods would.'
"Then I loosed the Gods from their shackles, and great they grew on the floor And into the night they gat them; but Odin turned by the door, And we looked not, little we heeded, for we grudged his mastery; Then he spake, and his voice was waxen as the voice of the winter sea:
"'O Kings, O folk of the Dwarfs, why then will ye covet and rue? I have seen your fathers' fathers and the dust wherefrom they grew; But who hath heard of my father or the land where first I sprung? Who knoweth my day of repentance, or the year when I was young? Who hath learned the names of the Wise-one or measured out his will? Who hath gone before to teach him, and the doom of days fulfill? Lo, I look on the Curse of the Gold, and wrong amended by wrong, And love by love confounded, and the strong abased by the strong; And I order it all and amend it, and the deeds that are done I see, And none other beholdeth or knoweth; and who shall be wise unto me? For myself to myself I offered, that all wisdom I might know, And fruitful I waxed of works, and good and fair did they grow; And I knew, and I wrought and fore-ordered; and evil sat by my side, And myself by myself hath been doomed, and I look for the fateful tide; And I deal with the generations, and the men mine hand hath made, And myself by myself shall be grieved, lest the world and its fashioning fade.'