Part 10
Now no more singeth the minstrel of his joy in that lady bright; But thereafter the story telleth how Gunther fared that night In the bride-bower of Queen Brunhild--O me, that gentle thane By any other woman in easier plight had lain! All folk were gone out from before him, maid and man were gone: Fast shut was the door of the bridal bower; they twain were alone. He looked that in arms fond-clasping he should fold her loveliness-- Ah, not but through weary waiting he won her and bitter stress! Vestured in fair white linen to the couch that Lady passed; And the noble knight to his heart cried--"Now all is mine at last, Even all that mine heart hath longed for my life through unto this hour!" Well might she to him be delightsome for her beauty's priceless dower. {P. 86} Then the hand of the King in a darkling nook set the lamp aside; And he turned him, the valiant warrior, to the bed of the maiden bride, And he laid himself anear her, and the tide of his joy was at flood, As he stretched arms fain of embracing to that glory of womanhood.
Upon nought but gentle dalliance the King in that sweet hour thought, Had the noble lady but suffered the will of love to be wrought. But she raged with exceeding fury, that the heart of the King was stung: He looked but for lovingkindness, and hate in his face was flung. For she said to him, "Noble warrior, I say unto thee, refrain! That which thine heart desireth in no wise shalt thou attain. I still will abide a maiden, Sir King, I do thee to wit, Till I know truth touching Siegfried." Then the flame of his wrath was lit. By force he essayed to embrace her, that her fair white vesture was torn. Then the proud maid caught at her girdle in her terrible anger and scorn, Wherewithal was her waist encompassed--it was strong as an iron chain-- Therewith did she deal King Gunther exceeding bitter pain. For she gripped him, she bound together his feet and his hands withal: To a staple of iron she bare him, and hung him thence by the wall. "Thy love shall not trouble my slumber!" she laughed with bitter breath. Her terrible strength had thrust him well-nigh through the gates of death. Then fell he to make supplication--he who should be her lord!-- "O noble Queen, I beseech thee, loose from the captive the cord! Fair Lady, I pledge me never to essay thy will to constrain. Long shall it be of a surety ere I couch me nigh thee again."
She recked not how fared it with Gunther, so she all restfully lay. There must he hang in torment through the weary night till the day, Yea, until shot through the casement were the shafts of the dawning light. --Had he ever been stalwart of body, now passing faint was his might! "Make answer to me, Lord Gunther, wouldst haply be sore dismayed If thy chamberlains entered and found thee," spake that lovely maid, "Hanging a shackled captive, by a woman's hand so bound?" But he answered, "Therein thy dishonour and thine own hurt should be found. {P. 87} Yea also, and little honour," said the King, "were this for me. By thy queenly heart and thy kindness, let me now draw nigh unto thee! And if thou dost abhor my embraces, and my love dost wholly contemn, This hand of mine shall touch not so much as thy vesture's hem." Then loosed she the King, that hanging he should not longer abide; And he went to the couch, and he laid him in sooth by that fair one's side, Yet so far off, and he bare him so fearful-reverent, That he stirred not her fine-spun vesture; nor once did her heart relent.
Then came who waited upon them, which bare to them fresh attire Whereof upon such a morning was more than heart could desire. But, how blithe soe'er were his people, in bitter heaviness Went the Lord of the land: on his forehead did the crown royal heavily press. After the land's old custom, whereunto bound are kings, Gunther and Brunhild forbore not from observance of holy things. So passed they on to the minster, and the mass-chant rolled along The aisles: thither also Siegfried came, and a mighty throng. As beseemeth the honour of kingfolk, ready were all things found Which were meet for their arraying, wherein to be robed and crowned, And the oil of consecration. Now all hath been done aright, And they four, joy-triumphant, stand crowned in all men's sight. Unto squires was the accolade given in honour of the King, To six hundred, yea, more it may be, as the olden minstrels sing. High swelled the tides of joyance through all Burgundia-land As the lances crashed and splintered in the sworded warrior's hand. There sat on high at the casements the lovely maidens arow; Lightened before them ever the shield-flash to and fro. But the King the while had sundered himself from his vassal-train: What sport they devised soever, it could not salve his pain.
Far other than Gunther's anguish was Siegfried's happy mood; Well he divined what ailed him, that noble knight and good. So to the King hath he hied him, and questioneth lovingly: "How fared with you twain the night-tide? I pray thee tell unto me." {P. 88} And the host to the guest made answer: "My portion is scathe and shame! To mine house a very demon have I brought for wedded dame! When I thought to embrace her, swiftly my limbs into bonds she flung: To an iron staple she bare me, and against the wall she hung. There swung I sore in torment the long night through till the day Or ever she deigned to unbind me--and she all restfully lay! Lo, this is my bitter secret--O true friend, pity thou me!"
Made answer Siegfried the mighty: "Of a truth I sorrow for thee. Yea, this will I prove, if for thy part thou count not the deed for despite. I will bring to pass her submission to couch by thy side this night; And she shall not spurn thine embraces from this time forth again." After all his anguish the war-king for the word was exceeding fain. (C) "Look on mine hands, and mark them, how bruised and swollen are they: Her grip thereon was so mighty, as a babe in her arms I lay: From beneath my nails was bursting the blood, and earthward dripped. No whit in that hour I doubted that my throat by death was gripped."
Answered him Siegfried the stalwart: "Fear not, all yet shall be well. Far other was my well-faring from thine when the darkness fell. Unto me is Kriemhild thy sister dear as limb and life! Yea, also to-night must Brunhild become in truth thy wife. I will come when the daylight endeth unto thy bridal bower So veiled in my Hood of Darkness, the screen of magic power, That of these my cunning devices no man on earth may be ware. First bid thou thy lords of the chamber that unto their lodging they fare. The lights in the hands of the pages will I darken suddenly, And that same manifest token shall then be a sign unto thee That I have entered the chamber. I will surely tame thy wife: 'Neath the yoke of love shall she bow her--or forfeited be my life!" "But not 'neath the yoke of _thy_ love!" cried the King in sudden fear. "Be all the rest as thou sayest; but she still is my wife most dear. Yet--though in the grapple thou slay her, if it may not better be, Even so could I hold thee guiltless, for a fearful bride is she!" {P. 89} "Thereunto I plight me," said Siegfried; "be mine honour the pledge thereof. For me shall she still be virgin. Thy sister hath all my love: She far above all earth's daughters that mine eyes have seen is preferred." Then with all his heart King Gunther gave credence to Siegfried's word.
The rapture and travail of jousting went on without surcease, Till over the clangour and clamour the marshal's voice cried "Peace!" For now would the ladies be passing to the hall where the feast was dight: And the chamberlains bade all people avoid from their path forthright. Cleared was the castle courtyard of armèd knight and steed. Then each fair Queen to the feast-hall did the hand of a bishop lead, As these passed in to the banquet before those war-kings twain: And after them thronged to the high-seats many a chosen thane.
In high-wrought expectation by his wife's side sat the King, For aye did the promise of Siegfried within the heart of him sing. Unto him that one day's evening was as thirty days by seeming, For still on the love of Brunhild his trancèd soul was dreaming. Scarce could he tarry till ended was the banquet-festival; But at last rose Brunhild the lovely, and passed forth out of the hall, And forth of the feast went Kriemhild; for the slumber-tide was nigh. What throngs of valiant barons stood up as the Queens swept by!
Now a little while thereafter, as, with Siegfried at her side, In the joy and trust of the wedded sat Kriemhild his fair bride, His hands she lovingly folded in her fingers snowy-fair;-- He was gone from her--how, she knew not; but she saw him no more there! Even now his hand was she fondling--and now she saw him no more! Then to the train of her handmaids the Queen spake wondering sore: "Exceedingly do I marvel whither my lord is gone, Who out of my clasping fingers his hands even now hath drawn!" Then her wonder fell to silence. But he hasted to Gunther's door, And bearing the lamps the pages were standing therebefore. {P. 90} In their hands all suddenly quenched he the lights that the chamberlains bare; And Gunther knew by the token that now was Siegfried there. Well knew he what was his purpose: he sent forth thence each one, Each handmaid and dame of the chamber: so soon as his hest was done, That noble King with his own hand shut the bower-door fast, And strong bolts twain right swiftly through the iron staples passed.
The hand of the King in a darkling nook set the lamp aside. Now a trial of strength beginneth which of sore need must betide Of strong hero and lovely maiden, a strife of bitter strain; And the same was for King Gunther full fraught with joy and pain. For now to the couch stole Siegfried, and laid him down by the Queen; And she said, "Refrain thee, Gunther--ay, though thy longing be keen!-- Lest thou get to thyself sore anguish, even as yesternight." --Of a truth, ere all was ended, he was oft in desperate plight. He locked his lips from speaking, he uttered never a word; And, albeit he said nought, Gunther full keenly hearkened and heard That by word or by deed in secret nothing by them was done. --Good sooth, it was no soft lying that these on the bride-bed won!
He made as though he were Gunther, Burgundia's mighty King; And around that peerless maiden a sudden arm did he fling. But forth of the couch she hurled him, and against a high-seat dashed, That his brows against the footstool thereof full heavily crashed. Then leapt to his feet the hero, and he summoned up all his might To essay it with better fortune; and these twain closed in a fight Wherein he strove to tame her, and bitter she made it for him. --Never, I ween, of woman was made a defence so grim! Forasmuch as he would not refrain him, the Maiden sprang full-height-- "How dar'st thou so much as ruffle the hem of my vesture white, Thou insolent knave, thou ruffian? The deed shalt thou dearly abide! Yea, now will I make thee to know it!" that warrior maiden cried.
{P. 91}
Arms like unto bands of iron she locked round the valiant thane. She was minded in fetters to lay him even as the King had lain, That still she might lie untroubled in the peace of her maiden sleep. That he touched but her vesture, how fiercely did the flame of her fury upleap! Despite his brawny sinews, in his magic power's despite, She gave dread proof to the hero of her matchless bodily might: She bare him resistlessly backward with overmastering stress. As in vice of steel she crushed him 'twixt the bed and an oaken press. "Out on it!" his heart indignant cried; "if my limb and life Be lost at the hands of a maiden, then every shrewish wife-- Who had dreamed not else of rebellion--against her lord shall upraise Malapert brows of defiance through all earth's coming days!"
Now the King heard all: for his champion with exceeding fear was he filled. Then swift through the heart of Siegfried fierce shame and anger thrilled. With the might of the Dwarfs and the Giants he hurled himself on his foe, And strained his strength against Brunhild as in fury of madness-throe. (C) Yea, even as she thrust him backward, it spurred his fury on, So stinging each mighty sinew, that, spite of her vantage won, He upwrithed himself against her: the flame of his rage outflashed, And from wall unto wall of the chamber those wrestlers hurtled and crashed. (C) Great fear and tribulation the King endured in that hour: Oft must he flee before them to this side and that of the bower. So furiously they grappled and strained, that a marvel it seemed That out of the hands of each other their very lives were redeemed. (C) In anguish of dread King Gunther trembled for each of twain; But most was his spirit quaking lest Siegfried should be slain. Oft thought he, "The life of the hero is well nigh reft by the maid!" Had he but dared to essay it, he would fain have gone to his aid.
(C) Long, long between those wrestlers endured that desperate strife: But he slowly at last bare backward to the couch that maiden-wife. How grimly she fought soever, her strength waxed faint at the last: But aye through the heart of Gunther a tumult of wild thoughts passed. {P. 92} Long, long it seemed unto Gunther ere Siegfried tamed her mood. Her grip on his hands was so mighty that from 'neath his nails the blood At her terrible crushing spirted, that his soul was wrung with pain: Yet he wore her down by his stubborn endurance, and forced to refrain From the fury of eager onset, from the erstwhile tiger-leap. --Ware of all this was Gunther, though he hearkened in silence deep. He crushed her against the bed-beam, that for pain aloud she cried; For the strength of Siegfried the mighty tortured at last the bride. In a desperate hope, at the girdle that around her sides she wore She snatched, if she haply might bind him; but this from her grasp he tore. Her joints are strained unto breaking, on the rack is her fainting frame-- Lo, now is the strife's decision: wife to the King is the dame. She moaned, "O king and hero, take not my life from me! Atoned for in wifely duty shall be all scathe done unto thee! Against thy noble embraces myself no more do I ward. At last have I throughly proved it, that thou art master and lord."
Uprose from the grapple Siegfried--while faint lay the panting bride-- Back drew he as though he were minded to put but his raiment aside: Yet first did he draw from her finger a little golden ring; But thereof the Queen outwearied knew not anything. That silken marvel, her girdle, for a trophy withal took he: I know not if haply he did it in pride of victory. To his wife he gave them thereafter--his own bane came thereof! He is gone; and the King and Brunhild are alone in the bed of love.
All in the old sweet fashion he gathered her unto his breast: The erstwhile shame and the anger are for ever laid to rest. As Love the Overcomer prevailed, her cheek waxed wan-- There is no more Brunhild the Maiden, and her might as a dream is gone! O yea, she is now no stronger than any woman beside! He poured out his love upon her, he cherished his winsome bride. Ay, though she now should withstand him, what were her strength made frail? Unto Gunther is victory given by Love who is strong to prevail. {P. 93} Ah, in what lovingkindness the knight and the lady lay Through the glory-litten darkness till the shadows fled away!
But long since had the hero Siegfried from the Bower of Slain Hate hied To the welcoming arms of the lovely, to the lips of a waiting bride. Lightly he put by questions that trembled on her tongue; And he kept those victory-trophies hidden from sight full long, Until to his Queen in his kingdom he gave, afar and late, The Gifts of Doom--how little availeth to strive with fate!
That King on the morrow's dawning far blither was of cheer Than yestermorn: through the marches of his kingdom far and near High swelled the tides of joyance in stately homes and fair; And the guests to the palace bidden rendered him homage there. Through days twice seven lasted the joy of the bridal-feast, So that in all that season never the music ceased Of all manner of mirth and pastime that the wit of man may devise: And all was at Gunther's charges at his marriage-solemnities. The noble Gunther's kinsmen, according to his behest, Gave gifts of gold in his honour, and many a rich-wrought vest. Silver withal and horses on the wandering bard they bestowed: All lovers of royal bounty from Worms glad-hearted rode.
Yea, also Siegfried the Hero, the Prince of the Nether Land, Caused all the goodly raiment that was brought by his Niblung band, His thousand, to Rhine, to be given to whosoever might crave, Fair horses withal, and saddles: like kings his vassals gave. Ere the giving of costly presents to an end had wholly come, Long seemed the time to the sated guests that yearned for home. Ne'er with such royal bounty were desires of guests fulfilled. So ended the marriage high-tide, and all was as Gunther willed.
XI. How Siegfried and his Wife journeyed Home
{P. 94}
Now so soon as the guests of Gunther had wended all away, Then spake the Son of Siegmund unto them of his vassal-array: "Time is it we made us ready to our fatherland to ride." Right glad to hear that saying was the heart of Kriemhild the bride. Then spake she unto her husband: "How soon is thy mind to depart? So hastily hence to be faring is nowise after mine heart, Ere my brethren divide me my portion of the land of Burgundy." But vexed was the soul of Siegfried that such her desire should be. Then came unto him the Princes, and with one voice spake all three: "We do thee to wit, Lord Siegfried, that for aye are we bound unto thee In loyalty of service, so long as life shall remain." Unto this their gracious tender low bowed that royal thane. "We will give thee withal thy portion," the young lord Giselher cried, "Of all that we hold in possession, of our castles and manors wide, And of all this mighty kingdom the rule whereof we claim. Yea, thou receivest with Kriemhild thine own full share of the same." Made answer then to the Princes the son of Siegmund the King, When he heard the speech of their kindness and their royal offering: "God seal unto you by His blessing your heritage all your life, And therewithal its people: but this my beloved wife, No need hath she of the portion that ye so freely would give. Where she shall reign a crowned queen--if to see that day we live-- There shall she be far richer than any the wide world through. For all that beside ye have proffered I am ever beholden to you." Then answered the Lady Kriemhild: "Though lightly thou reck of my land, As touching the thanes Burgundian not so doth the matter stand: For the escort-royal homeward these may no king disdain. Let my loving brethren give me of these for my princely train."
{P. 95}
Answered and spake Lord Gernot: "Whomsoever thou wilt, take thou. Thou shalt find here many that gladly will ride with thee, I trow. There be good knights thirty hundred; take thee a thousand of these For thy palace-retainers." Kriemhild 'gan send forth messages Unto Hagen of Troneg and Ortwein, and asked that mighty twain If they and their kinsmen accepted Kriemhild for suzerain. But an answer of scornful anger from Hagen her message won: "Unto no one on earth can Gunther pass us as chattels on! Let other escort-vassals with you on your journey go. The Law of the Men of Troneg full well by this should ye know: We be bound to abide with our liege-lord the King in hall and field, And to them which have had our homage, our homage ever to yield."
So they spake no more of the matter, but they dight them for the way; And Kriemhild took for escort of her noble palace-array Two-and-thirty maidens, and of knights five hundred men; And Eckwart Lord of the Marches went forth with Kriemhild then. All these took leave of their people, from the henchman unto the knight, The stately dame and the handmaid, even as was meet and right: With manifold clasping and kissing was wrought that sundering. So fared they forth blithe-hearted from the land of Gunther the King.
Far on the way with them kinsfolk for friendship and honour fared. Unto Burgundy's uttermost marches for their resting was lodging prepared Wheresoe'er in the land of Gunther they chose to abide for the night. Therewithal to the old king Siegmund were messengers sent forthright, To bear unto him the tidings and to Siegelind the Queen That his son and the Daughter of Uta full soon at his gates should be seen, Kriemhild the Fair, from the City of Worms, from the Rhine-stronghold. Never could welcomer tidings in the ears of these be told. "Happy am I," cried Siegmund, "that I live to see the day When in this land Kriemhild the Lovely shall be crowned for royal sway! Henceforth shall my father's kingdom yet higher in honour stand, For now shall my son, my Siegfried, himself be king of the land." {P. 96} Then Siegelind gave to the heralds for vesture the velvet red And the massy gold and the silver, their guerdon for tidings sped. She joyed beyond words for the story, she had gotten her heart's desire. And all her palace-maidens made ready their fairest attire. Each told unto other what escort drew with Siegfried near; And they gave command that the craftsmen should the ranks of the high-seats rear Wherefrom all friends should behold him crowned their king ere long. Then rode forth onward to meet them King Siegmund's vassal-throng.
If ever was royaller welcome, thereof have I heard not yet Than this wherewith were the heroes in the land of Siegmund met. Forth to the meeting with Kriemhild did Siegfried's mother ride With many a lovely lady and valiant knight at her side. A day's march rode they, or ever those guests they might behold. Home-dwellers and far-comers alike were restless-souled Till they met at the last by a fortress with towers encompassed round, Xanten its name, where Siegfried and Kriemhild ere long should be crowned. With smiling lips King Siegmund and Siegelind greeted there With kisses on loving kisses Queen Uta's daughter fair And Siegfried the Knight--for his safety had their hearts been long in pain;-- And they gave withal glad welcome unto all his escort-train.
Into the hall of Siegmund the long-desired led they; And unto the winsome handmaids was many a hand straightway Upreached, from the palfreys to lift them: knights many of high degree Waited on those fair ladies with eager courtesy. How splendid soever the bridal had been where Rhine-river flowed, This day far goodlier raiment on the hero-guests they bestowed For the marriage-feast, than ever had arrayed them in all their days. Of the wealth of their kingdom marvels are sung in the minstrels' praise. So sat they high in honour amid all that heart desired. In what gold-broidered vesture were the palace-pages attired! {P. 97} With needlework laid were their garments and the gemstone's starry sheen By the heedful care provided of Siegelind the Queen.