set of counsels comparable to those in . This passage is probably an accretion unrelated to the Brynhild fragment, and it contains in turn a number of what are likely interpolations to the original text. The valkyrie's drinking-speech The first three stanzas are spoken by Sigrdrífa after she has been awoken by Sigurd (stanza 1 in Bellows 1936 corresponds to the final stanza 45 of Fáfnismál in the edition of Jonsson 1905). What is labelled as stanza 4 by Bellows (1936) is actually placed right after stanza 2, introduced only by ("she said"), marking it as the reply of the valkyrie to Sigmund's identification of himself in the second half of stanza 1. The following two stanzas are introduced as follows: "Sigurth sat beside her and asked her name. She took a horn full of mead and gave him a memory-draught." Henry Adams Bellows stated in his commentary that stanzas 2-4 are "as fine as anything in Old Norse poetry" and these three stanzas constituted the basis of much of the third act in Richard Wagner's opera Siegfried. This fragment is the only direct invocation of the Norse gods which has been preserved, and it is sometimes dubbed a "pagan prayer". The first two stanzas are given below in close transcription (Bugge 1867), in normalized Old Norse (Jonsson 1905) and in the translations by Thorpe (1866) and of Bellows (1936): Runic stanzas Stanzas 5-18 concern runic magic, explaining the use of runes in various contexts. In stanza 5, Sigrdrífa brings Sigurd ale which she has charmed with runes: Stanza 6 advises to carve "victory runes" on the sword hilt, presumably referring to the t rune named for Tyr: The following stanzas address "Ale-runes" (7), "birth-runes" (8), "wave-runes" (9), "branch-runes" (10), "speech-runes" (11), "thought-runes" (12). Stanzas 13-14 appear to have been taken from a poem about the finding of the runes by Odin. Stanzas 15-17 are again from an unrelated poem, but still about the topic of runes. The same holds for stanzas 18-19, which return to the mythological acquisition of the runes, and the passing of their knowledge to the æsir, elves, vanir and mortal men. Gnomic stanzas Stanzas 20-21 are again in the setting of the frame narrative, with Brynhild asking Sigurd to make a choice. They serve as introduction for the remaining part of the text, stanzas 22-37 (of which, however, only 22-28 and the first line of