And she came a second time and gave the horn into his hands, saying: "Art thou a coward after all? Come now and drink."
But he looked into the horn, and lo: "Guile is in the drink," said he.
Sigmund again seized the vessel, saying: "Give it then to me," and drank the full draught.
Then the queen came to Sinfiotli a third time, and mocked him, saying: "How is this that thou fearest to take thy mead like a man? If thou hast the heart of a Volsung, drink now thy portion."
But again he looked on the horn, and said: "Venom is therein."
Now Sigmund by this time was weary of drinking, and he said: "Pour it through thy beard then, and all will be well." But Sinfiotli mistook his meaning, and thought he desired him to drink the mead; and he drank, and straightway fell down dead to the ground.
Then the heart of Sigmund was full of grief at his kinsman's end. He would let no man touch him, but took him in his arms and fared away to the wild woods and so to the seashore. And behold, there was an old man sitting in a little boat; on his head was a grey hat pulled well over his face, and over his shoulders a blue-grey cloak.
"Wilt thou be ferried across the bay?" asked the old man; and Sigmund bowed his head. But the boat was too little to carry all at once; so Sinfiotli was laid therein and Sigmund stood by on the shore.
A moment later both boat and ferryman had vanished from before his eyes.
Then Sigmund knew that All-Father Odin had himself come for his kinsman and had carried him to the halls of Asgard, and, after he had mused awhile upon what had befallen, he returned to his folk; but because of the wrong that she had done he would not look upon his queen again, and soon afterwards she died.