1. After the death of Brynhild there were made two bale-fires, the one for Sigurth, and that burned first, and on the other was Brynhild burned, and she was on a

2. wagon which was covered with a rich cloth. Thus it is told, that Brynhild went in the wagon on Hel-way, and passed by a house where dwelt a certain giantess. The giantess spake:

3. "Thou shalt not further forward fare, My dwelling ribbed with rocks across; More seemly it were at thy weaving to stay, Than another's husband here to follow.

4. "What wouldst thou have from Valland here, Fickle of heart, in this my house? Gold-goddess, now, if thou wouldst know, Heroes' blood from thy hands hast washed."

5. Brynhild: "Chide me not, woman from rocky walls, Though to battle once I was wont to go; Better than thou I shall seem to be, When men us two shall truly know."

6. The giantess: "Thou wast, Brynhild, Buthli's daughter,

7. For the worst of evils born in the world; To death thou hast given Gjuki's children, And laid their lofty house full low."

8. Brynhild: "Truth from the wagon here I tell thee, Witless one, if know thou wilt How the heirs of Gjuki gave me to be joyless ever, a breaker of oaths.

9. "Hild the helmed in Hlymdalir They named me of old, all they who knew me.

10. "The monarch bold the swan-robes bore Of the sisters eight beneath an oak;

11. Twelve winters I was, if know thou wilt, When oaths I yielded the king so young.

12. "Next I let the leader of Goths, Hjalmgunnar the old, go down to hell, And victory brought to Autha's brother; For this was Othin's anger mighty.

13. "He beset me with shields in Skatalund, Red and white, their rims o'erlapped; He bade that my sleep should broken be By him who fear had nowhere found.

14. "He let round my hall, that southward looked, The branches' foe high-leaping burn; Across it he bade the hero come Who brought me the gold that Fafnir guarded

15. On Grani rode the giver of gold,

16. Where my foster-father ruled his folk; Best of all he seemed to be, The prince of the Danes, when the people met.

17. "Happy we slept, one bed we had, As he my brother born had been; Eight were the nights when neither there Loving hand on the other laid.

18. "Yet Guthrun reproached me, Gjuki's daughter, That I in Sigurth's arms had slept; Then did I hear what I would were hid, That they had betrayed me in taking a mate.

19. "Ever with grief and all too long Are men and women born in the world; But yet we shall live our lives together, Sigurth and I. Sink down, Giantess!"

About this reader

What is Scripture?

Scripture is a browser-based reader for sixteen sacred texts spanning multiple religious and literary traditions. It provides chapter-by-chapter navigation, full-text search across all works, word concordance with frequency analysis, verse-linked notes, text-to-speech, and deep linking to any chapter or verse.

Traditions Represented

The collection spans Abrahamic, East Asian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Nordic traditions. Christian texts include the King James Version Old and New Testaments (1611) and Apocrypha. The Quran uses Marmaduke Pickthall's 1930 English translation. Latter-day Saint scripture includes the Book of Mormon (1830), Doctrine and Covenants (1835), and Pearl of Great Price (1851).

Confucian works include James Legge's translations of The Four Books (1893) and the Book of Poetry (1876). The Tao Te Ching uses Legge's 1891 translation. The Kojiki uses Basil Hall Chamberlain's 1919 English translation. Zoroastrian texts include the Bundahishn (E. W. West, 1880) and the Arda Viraf (Haug & West, 1872). The Lotus Sutra uses Hendrik Kern's 1884 translation. The Finnish Kalevala uses John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation, and the Norse Poetic Edda uses Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation.

Public Domain Translations

Every translation in this collection is in the public domain. The most recent translation dates to 1930 (Pickthall's Quran). All texts are freely available for reading, study, quotation, and redistribution with no copyright restrictions.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance indexes every word across all sixteen works, showing frequency and distribution. TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) scoring identifies passages with similar vocabulary across different traditions, enabling comparative study without requiring prior knowledge of each text's structure. TF-IDF weights words that are frequent in one chapter but rare across the corpus, surfacing meaningful thematic connections rather than common function words.

Deep Linking

Every chapter and verse has a permanent URL. Chapter links follow the pattern /scripture/{work}/{book}-{chapter} (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1 for Genesis 1). Verse links append the verse number (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1:26 for Genesis 1:26). These URLs can be shared, bookmarked, or cited directly.

Accessibility

Scripture supports keyboard navigation throughout: Tab moves between controls, Enter activates verse actions, and arrow keys navigate chapters. The reading pane has a skip-to-content link. All overlays (search, concordance) are focus-trapped ARIA dialogs. Dynamic content regions use aria-live for screen reader announcements. High-contrast mode is available via the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

Scripture is part of a suite of educational simulations at a9l.im. Explore particle physics with Geon, redistricting with Gerry, or cellular metabolism with Cyano.