Song and Legend From the Middle Ages [37]
Who now are left, against us who'll dare to make defence? Well's me, for all this weeping, that I have rid him hence."
"Small cause hast thou," said Siegfried, "to glory in my fate. Had I ween'd thy friendship cloak'd such murderous hate, From such as thou full lightly could I have kept my life. Now grieve I but for Kriemhild, my dear, my widow'd wife. . . . . . . . . . Then further spake the dying, and speaking sigh'd full deep, "Oh king! if thou a promise with any one wilt keep, Let me in this last moment thy grace and favour find For my dear love and lady, the wife I leave behind.
Remember, she's thy sister, yield her a sister's right, Guard her with faith and honour, as thou'rt a king and knight. My father and my followers for me they long must wait. Comrade ne'er found from comrade so sorrowful a fate."
In his mortal anguish he writh'd him to and fro, And then said, deadly groaning, "this foul and murderous blow Deep will ye rue hereafter; this for sure truth retain, That in slaying Siegfried you yourselves have slain."
With blood were all bedabbled the flowerets of the field. Some time with death he struggled, as though he scorn'd to yield E'en to the foe, whose weapon strikes down the loftiest head. At last prone in the meadow lay mighty Siegfried dead.
They carry the body of Siegfried back to Worms, and lay it at Kriemhild's door. Here she finding it next morning. She has it carried to the church and stands by it while the heroes come to view it, expecting to discover the murderer.
KRIEMHILD'S TEST. Stanza 1071-1078.
And now the night was over; forth peep'd the morning fair; Straight had the noble lady thence to the minster bear The matchless champion Siegfried, her husband lov'd so dear. All her friends close follow'd with many a sigh and tear.
When they the minster enter'd, how many a bell was rung! How many a priest on all sides the mournful requiem sung! Then thither with his meiny came Dancrat's haughty son, And thither too grim Hagan; it had been better left undone.
Then spoke the king, "dear sister, woe worth this loss of thine! Alas that such misfortune has happ'd to me and mine! For sure the death of Siegfried we ever both must rue." "Nay", said the mournful lady, "so without cause you do,
For if you really rued it, never had it been. I know, you have your sister forgotten quite and clean, So I and my beloved were parted as you see. Good God! would he had granted the stroke had fall'n on me!"
Firmly they made denial; Kriemhild at once replied, "Whoe'er in this is guiltless, let him this proof abide. In sight of all the people let him approach the bier, And so to each beholder shall the plain truth appear."
It is a mighty marvel, which oft e'en now we spy, That when the blood-stain'd murderer comes to the murder'd nigh, The wounds break out a-bleeding; then too the same befell, And thus could each beholder the guilt of Hagan tell.
The wounds at once burst streaming fast as they did before; Those, who then sorrow'd deeply, now yet lamented more. Then outspake king Gunther, "I give you here to know, He was slain by robbers; Hagan struck ne'er a blow."
"Ay! well know I those robbers," his widow'd sister said; "By the hands of his true comrades may God revenge the dead! False Gunther, and false Hagan! 't was you, your friend that slew." Thereat the knights of Siegfried grip'd to their swords anew.
After the burial of Siegfried, Kriemhild decides to remain at the court of Gunther, in the care of her brothers. Thither is brought the enormous treasures of the Niebelungen, which Siegfried had won, and of which he had been the guardian, and which now fell to Kriemhild. The crafty Hagen gains possession of this horde, and conceals it by sinking it in the Rhine, hoping some day to recover and enjoy it. For thirteen years Kriemhild remains at the court of her brother, brooding over her wrongs and meditating revenge. The second part of the poem begins by telling how Etzel, king of the Hung, proposed for the hand of the widowed Kriemhild, and how she finally, hoping
"Small cause hast thou," said Siegfried, "to glory in my fate. Had I ween'd thy friendship cloak'd such murderous hate, From such as thou full lightly could I have kept my life. Now grieve I but for Kriemhild, my dear, my widow'd wife. . . . . . . . . . Then further spake the dying, and speaking sigh'd full deep, "Oh king! if thou a promise with any one wilt keep, Let me in this last moment thy grace and favour find For my dear love and lady, the wife I leave behind.
Remember, she's thy sister, yield her a sister's right, Guard her with faith and honour, as thou'rt a king and knight. My father and my followers for me they long must wait. Comrade ne'er found from comrade so sorrowful a fate."
In his mortal anguish he writh'd him to and fro, And then said, deadly groaning, "this foul and murderous blow Deep will ye rue hereafter; this for sure truth retain, That in slaying Siegfried you yourselves have slain."
With blood were all bedabbled the flowerets of the field. Some time with death he struggled, as though he scorn'd to yield E'en to the foe, whose weapon strikes down the loftiest head. At last prone in the meadow lay mighty Siegfried dead.
They carry the body of Siegfried back to Worms, and lay it at Kriemhild's door. Here she finding it next morning. She has it carried to the church and stands by it while the heroes come to view it, expecting to discover the murderer.
KRIEMHILD'S TEST. Stanza 1071-1078.
And now the night was over; forth peep'd the morning fair; Straight had the noble lady thence to the minster bear The matchless champion Siegfried, her husband lov'd so dear. All her friends close follow'd with many a sigh and tear.
When they the minster enter'd, how many a bell was rung! How many a priest on all sides the mournful requiem sung! Then thither with his meiny came Dancrat's haughty son, And thither too grim Hagan; it had been better left undone.
Then spoke the king, "dear sister, woe worth this loss of thine! Alas that such misfortune has happ'd to me and mine! For sure the death of Siegfried we ever both must rue." "Nay", said the mournful lady, "so without cause you do,
For if you really rued it, never had it been. I know, you have your sister forgotten quite and clean, So I and my beloved were parted as you see. Good God! would he had granted the stroke had fall'n on me!"
Firmly they made denial; Kriemhild at once replied, "Whoe'er in this is guiltless, let him this proof abide. In sight of all the people let him approach the bier, And so to each beholder shall the plain truth appear."
It is a mighty marvel, which oft e'en now we spy, That when the blood-stain'd murderer comes to the murder'd nigh, The wounds break out a-bleeding; then too the same befell, And thus could each beholder the guilt of Hagan tell.
The wounds at once burst streaming fast as they did before; Those, who then sorrow'd deeply, now yet lamented more. Then outspake king Gunther, "I give you here to know, He was slain by robbers; Hagan struck ne'er a blow."
"Ay! well know I those robbers," his widow'd sister said; "By the hands of his true comrades may God revenge the dead! False Gunther, and false Hagan! 't was you, your friend that slew." Thereat the knights of Siegfried grip'd to their swords anew.
After the burial of Siegfried, Kriemhild decides to remain at the court of Gunther, in the care of her brothers. Thither is brought the enormous treasures of the Niebelungen, which Siegfried had won, and of which he had been the guardian, and which now fell to Kriemhild. The crafty Hagen gains possession of this horde, and conceals it by sinking it in the Rhine, hoping some day to recover and enjoy it. For thirteen years Kriemhild remains at the court of her brother, brooding over her wrongs and meditating revenge. The second part of the poem begins by telling how Etzel, king of the Hung, proposed for the hand of the widowed Kriemhild, and how she finally, hoping