[26]. In the manuscript stanzas 26–29 stand after stanza 31, which fails to make clear sense; they are here rearranged in accordance with the Volsungasaga paraphrase.
[28–29]. Almost certainly interpolated from some such poem as the Hovamol. Even the faithful Volsungasaga fails to paraphrase stanza 29. [[380]]
[30]. Something has evidently been lost before this stanza. Sigurth clearly refers to Regin’s reproach when he was digging the trench (cf. note on introductory prose), but the poem does not give such a passage.
[Prose]. Rithil (“Swift-Moving”): Snorri calls the sword Refil (“Serpent”).
[32]. That the birds’ stanzas come from more than one source [[381]]is fairly apparent, but whether from two or from three or more is uncertain. It is also far from clear how many birds are speaking. The manuscript numbers II, III, and IV in the margin with numerals; the Volsungasaga makes a different bird speak each time. There are almost as many guesses as there are editions. I suspect that in the original poem there was one bird, speaking stanzas 34 and 37. Stanza 38 is little more than a repetition of stanza 34, and may well have been a later addition. As for the stanzas in Fornyrthislag (32–33 and 35–36), they apparently come from another poem, in which several birds speak (cf. “we sisters” in stanza 35). This may be the same poem from which stanzas 40–44 were taken, as well as some of the Fornyrthislag stanzas in the Sigrdrifumol.
[34]. Some editions turn this speech from the third person into the second, but the manuscript is clear enough. [[382]]
[35]. Wolf, etc.: the phrase is nearly equivalent to “there must be fire where there is smoke.” The proverb appears elsewhere in Old Norse.
[36]. Tree of battle: warrior.
[37]. Here, as in stanza 34, some editions turn the speech from the third person into the second.
[38]. Giant: Regin was certainly not a frost-giant, and the whole stanza looks like some copyist’s blundering reproduction of stanza 34. [[383]]