Part 14

Then these twain stripped all raiment from their limbs, and on earth they laid, And in nought save thin white tunics men saw their bodies arrayed. Bounding as two wild panthers they raced o'er the clover green; But long ere they won to the fountain, there standing was Siegfried seen. In all manner of prowess ever men gave him the chiefest renown. Straightway he unbuckled his war-glaive, his quiver laid he down, And he leaned the stubborn boar-spear on the linden-tree's smooth shaft. And the princely guest stood waiting where the dimpling ripples laughed: Yea, Siegfried then, as ever, his knightly courtesy showed. He laid on the earth his buckler hard by where the runnel flowed. How sorely he thirsted soever, not yet the hero drank Till first the King had drunken--he earned right evil thank!

{P. 133}

Clear was the spring as crystal, pure was the water and cool. Down on the brink bowed Gunther, and stooped his lips to the pool; And when to the full he had drunken, again to his feet did he rise, While still looked Siegfried the fearless on the water with longing eyes. For his courtesy heavily paid he!--his bow and his mighty sword Were borne away by Hagen from their noble-hearted lord. Back swiftly sprang the traitor; on the javelin his grasp he laid, And glared in search of the token at the vest of the man betrayed. Even as Siegfried the noble drank of the life-giving flood, Fair through the crosslet he stabbed him. Sprang from the wound the blood, His heart's blood; and Hagen's tunic was besprent with murder's stain. --Never may hand of warrior such villainy do again!

There in his heart deep-planted the murderer left the spear. How swiftly thence did Hagen flee in his deadly fear! Never on earth so fleetly from the face of man fled he As when Siegfried's limbs at the death-stab leapt convulsively. Forthright did the maddened hero up from the well-brink spring: Stood far out 'twixt his shoulders the long shaft quivering: Swift glanced he around, as thinking to find there bow or sword-- Good sooth, he had dealt unto Hagen a richly-earned reward! But now when the deadly-wounded might nowhere find his brand, No weapon save only his buckler lay ready there to his hand: That snatched he up from the well-side, and in chase of the murderer ran. Full soon was the fleeing Hagen outrun by the dying man. Albeit to death he was stricken, he smote with such mighty power That out of the shield-face started and fell to earth in a shower The costly gemstones: rifted was the very buckler's rim-- Grim earnest of what stern vengeance he fain would have wreaked upon him! By his hands' resistless smiting was Hagen hurled to the ground: With the clang of that mighty buffet the wood-lawn echoed round. Had he gripped in his hand but his war-glaive, surely had Hagen been slain. Maddened him now that death-wound, a very torment of pain. {P. 134} Now fled from his face all colour, he was reeling on tottering feet: Fainted his strength from his body as when earth-spilt waters fleet: Death set on his brow his token, his lips were ashen-grey. --Ah, many a comely woman for this mourned many a day!

On flowers with red dew sprinkled the belovèd of Kriemhild fell, With the blood from his wound outbursting as the streams from a spring outwell. Then he brake into bitter upbraiding from the lips by anguish wrung Against them which had compassed his murder by the snare of a lying tongue. Loud cried the deadly-wounded: "Dastards, accursèd be ye! Where now is my guerdon for service to you who have murdered me? Your stay was I still and your helper: for all this death is my meed! O caitiffs, that do unto kinsman and friend so evil a deed! Accursèd for this your offspring, even all that shall see the light, Shall be ever from this day onward! Your malice and your spite Ruthlessly on my body have ye wreaked all causelessly! By all good knights shunned ever for your villainy ye shall be!"

Now by this had the knights run thither, and saw where murdered he lay. To many a man true-hearted was that a joyless day. Who cherished faith and honour, they wailed for the glory slain: Well of them all he deserved it, that battle-fearless thane! The traitor king that consented to his death wept now for it: But the death-stricken cried: "Thou needest not this, thou hypocrite! What doth he to weep for the mischief, who the profit thereof hath won? O'erlate the accursèd repenteth the deed best left undone!"

Spake Hagen then, the relentless: "I see not why ye should rue. There is an end of the terror that hath haunted us hitherto. Few now are the foes remaining that against our might shall stand. Glad am I that this man's lordship is brought to an end by mine hand." {P. 135} "Lightly enow may ye vaunt you!" did the hero of Netherland cry: "Had I known thy murderous purpose, thou serpent of treachery, Full well against this thy plotting had Siegfried warded his life! Ah, now is my chiefest sorrow for Kriemhild my widowed wife. Now God forgive it, that ever to me hath a son been born On whom shall be cast his life long the flouts of men and their scorn, Because of the man whom his kinsfolk betrayed to his death with a kiss! Had I but time--had I respite--well might I wail for this! (C) Never was murder compassed so with villainy fraught," Unto the King said Siegfried, "as this that on me ye have wrought! In the day of your dread I saved you, I helped you in bitterest need: And for all my service rendered this is mine evil meed!"

Yet again that death-stricken hero spake with an anguished moan: "If it be possible, Gunther, that to any on earth can be shown By thee true faith hereafter, let one be commended now, My dear-loved wife, to thine honour as a king: protect her thou. May this for her profit avail her, that she is thy sister still. By all the honour of princes, defend her thou from ill! For me, for me shall my father and my liegemen tarry long. Ne'er from her nearest and dearest hath woman received such wrong!"

(C) Then writhed he in mortal sufferance: he gasped with hard-drawn breath; And he groaned from a heart sore anguished: "For this my murderous death Through all your days hereafter shall ye bear the brand of Cain. Know me herein true prophet--your own selves have ye slain!" To right and to left were the flowers all drenched with the crimson flow. Now hard with death is he wrestling, but short is the agony-throe, For the wound that the blade death-dealing had stricken was all too sore. Now the peerless knight and stainless shall never speak word more.

When they saw, those lords there standing, that the noble hero was dead, They lifted him up, and they laid him on a golden buckler red. {P. 136} Then took they counsel together that the truth might be known unto none, And how this thing should be hidden, that of Hagen the deed had been done. Spake of them many: "Evil this day is, a day of bale! Remaineth only concealment: ye needs must be all in a tale. We must say, as alone he was riding, robbers beset and slew The hero, the lord of Kriemhild, as he fared the wildwood through." Spake Hagen of Troneg: "To Rhineland will I bear him, even I. No whit shall it trouble Hagen, though she know all certainly, That woman who dared flout Brunhild, and fill her heart with woe! Let her weep, let her do as she listeth--I shall reck of it little enow."

(C) Now as touching that selfsame fountain--if ye peradventure be fain To learn where welleth the water whereby was Siegfried slain-- On the Odenwald's fringe a village, hight Odenheim, doth lie: Still floweth the stream--of a surety Siegfried died thereby.

XVII. How Siegfried was Mourned and Buried

Till the even they waited; in darkness they crossed the Rhineflood then. Never from eviller hunting came heroes home again! That quarry was cause of lamenting unto many a noble wife: For his sake must many a warrior forfeit a gallant life.

Of exceeding arrogant outrage now must the minstrel sing, Yea, of revenge inhuman; for Hagen made them bring The Netherland hero Siegfried, even his murdered kin, Before a certain chamber--and Kriemhild lay therein! Secretly there he laid him, before that door to lie, That his wife might find his body when her feet came forth thereby Unto mass in the grey dawn faring ere rising of the sun; For thereof the Lady Kriemhild missed full seldom one.

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Then heard they the bells as aforetime peal from the minster-tower; And Kriemhild the lovely wakened the maidens of her bower; And she bade bring lights, and the raiment withal that she should wear; And a chamberlain bringing them stumbled on Siegfried lying there. He beheld one blood-empurpled, with all his vesture wet; But that this was his own lord Siegfried in no wise knew he yet. So bare he into the chamber the torch in his hand that burned; And from him the Lady Kriemhild a tale of horror learned. For, even as she with her maidens would forth to the holy place, "O Lady," the chamberlain stammered, "tarry a little space! Behold, without the chamber a murdered knight doth lie!" Rang out from the lips of Kriemhild an exceeding bitter cry. Ere she had looked, ere the fearful truth was certainly known, Back to that question of Hagen her thought had swiftly flown, How he should shield him. Anguish she never had known till that day; But now with his death all gladness from her life had fled away.

To the floor then sank she swooning; no word her lips could say. There in the heavy silence the lovely and joyless lay. Full was her cup of sorrow, sharp was her anguish-pang. She came to herself with a wild shriek, that all the chamber rang. Then faltered her bower-maidens, "A stranger it haply may be." But the blood from her mouth came bursting in her heart's fierce agony-- "O nay, it is Siegfried, Siegfried, my lord, my belovèd one! Brunhild hath plotted the murder, and Hagen the deed hath done!" Then forth did her handmaids lead her, where lay the hero dead; And the wife's white hands uplifted the husband's comely head. Albeit with blood all crimsoned, he was known of love's keen sight. There lay the Niblung hero in lamentable plight.

Then the cry of a queen's heart-anguish through the shadowy palace pealed "Woe for my bitter affliction!--behold, how lieth thy shield With swords unbacked! O Siegfried, thee did a murderer smite! Him--knew I the doer--my vengeance to the uttermost should requite!" {P. 138} Brake forth into wailing her maidens with lamentation loud With her, their belovèd Lady: they mourned all sorrow-bowed For their noble King and their Master, lost unto them for aye. Foully avenged by Hagen was Brunhild's wrath that day!

Then spake the sorrow-stricken: "Let some one haste away, And swiftly arouse from slumber my Siegfried's vassal-array: Let him tell withal unto Siegmund the tale of my bitter pain. He must bear his part in the wailing o'er valiant Siegfried slain." Then ran a messenger, hasting where lay the warrior-band Of the vassals of King Siegfried, the Lord of the Netherland. That story of sore tribulation stripped bare their life of its joys. They believed not, till came far-ringing that lamentable voice. Hasted the messenger onward, where the old King lay on his bed; Yet not on the eyes of Siegmund had the dews of slumber been shed, For dimly his heart foreboded the sorrow hard by the door. He was doomed to behold his belovèd, his son, in life no more!

"Wake thee, O wake, King Siegmund! Tidings to thee I bring From the Lady Kriemhild my mistress--there hath happed a fearful thing. Above all woes known or imagined she hath suffered grief and wrong. Thou must bear thy part in the wailing, for to thee doth the sorrow belong." Uprose then Siegmund, and questioned: "For what lamenteth she, My daughter, Kriemhild the lovely, as now thou sayest to me?" "Sore cause hath she for lamenting," weeping the messenger said: "Murdered is Siegfried the valiant, her lord and her love lieth dead!" Answered and spake King Siegmund: "Jest me no jests! Have done With a tale of such evil tidings concerning Siegfried my son! Unto no man say thou hereafter that slain he is!--O nay, For then could I never with wailing have done to my latest day!" "Nay then, if thou wilt not believe me, if thou wilt not receive my tale, Thou shalt learn for thine own self--hearken! for that is Kriemhild's wail And the cry of all her maidens for Siegfried in death laid low!" Sharp terror thrilled through Siegmund, and pangs of unfeignèd woe.

{P. 139}

He sprang from his bed: gathered round him a hundred men of his band. Each man had caught up swiftly a sword keen-whetted in hand. Forth ran they whither the woeful death-keen guided them on, And after them knights a thousand, bold Siegfried's vassals, are gone. Was none that bethought him of vesture, till suddenly these drew nigh Where the long wild wail of the women went shivering up to the sky. In their anguish had none remembered; they knew not what they did; All thought was buried with sorrow in the grave of their hearts deep hid.

So came King Siegmund where Kriemhild crouched by Siegfried's side: "Woe for our journey hither to this land accursèd!" he cried. "Who hath reft from thee thine husband, hath torn this son most dear From me by the hand of murder, when none but friends were near?" "Ha, if I knew but the felon," in fierce grief answered the Queen, "Never mine heart should forgive him while memory's edge is keen! With such vengeance would I requite him, that all his friends and his kin. Trust me, should weep for my weeping, should find their affliction therein!" Then in his arms did Siegmund embrace that fallen chief; Then rose from all his lovers so mighty a cry of grief That with that wild lamentation did hall and palace ring, And wailed up the streets of the city the shrieks wide-echoing. Who then to the wife of Siegfried to speak of comfort dared? They drew off the blood-stained raiment, and his goodly limbs they bared. They washed his wounds dark-clotted, they laid him on the bier. High swelled the tide of anguish in all that held him dear.

Then cried aloud his warriors that came from the Netherland: "Ready and eager for vengeance waiteth ever our hand. Here in this castle he lurketh of whom the deed was done!" Then hasted the knights of Siegfried to gird their armour on. With their shields those chosen heroes full-armed returned again, Brave knights eleven hundred; they were all of the warrior-train Now of the old King Siegmund: full fain for the death of his son Would the father have taken vengeance; yea, honour spurred him on. {P. 140} But as yet these wronged ones knew not upon whom should their vengeance light, Unless peradventure with Gunther and his vassals they closed in fight; For these on that woeful hunting with Siegfried rode that day. Then all-armed Kriemhild beheld them, and filled was her soul with dismay. How wild was her grief soever, how tortured soever her breast, Yet for the lives of the Niblungs she trembled terror-distressed, Lest by the men of her brethren they be slain; and she earnestly spake, And in love she warned them, as ever doth friend for a dear friend's sake: And she cried from the depths of her sorrow: "My lord, O Siegmund King, What would ye essay? Ye know not how all too hard is the thing. For the valiant men of Gunther be a passing great array: Ye shall perish all of a surety, if ye fall on so many as they!"

But they clashed their uptossed bucklers, with the battle-lust were they mad. But the noble Daughter of Princes now pleaded, and now forbade Those knights all battle-eager to rush upon their doom; And it troubled her very sorely that they would not be turned therefrom. Then she turned to the King--"Lord Siegmund, for this time sheathed be the sword Till there come a convenient season. Fear not, for my murdered lord I will help you to wreak full vengeance. Who hath torn my love from mine hands Shall drink of my vengeance deeply, when once convicted he stands. But here by the Rhine so many of our haughty foes there are, That I counsel you, I beseech you, rush not yet into war. They can set in array full thirty where we can set but one. May God so do to the traitors as they unto us have done! Abide ye here in the palace, and mourn for my dead with your Queen, Until the day beginneth, O heroes battle-keen: Then help me to lay in a coffin the man beloved of me." Answered the thanes: "Dear Lady, as thou wilt, so shall it be."

The marvel of that lamentation, no man can tell it o'er, How the wail of the knights and the maidens, like the stormy tempest-roar, {P. 141} Shrieked through the shuddering city till all her people heard, And thitherward hasted the burghers, a great throng terror-stirred. They joined to the guests' their wailing, they grieved for the glory gone. Wherein had Siegfried offended, unto no man was it known: Nay, none could divine cause wherefore the good knight lost his life. So wept with the Queen's handmaidens many a burgher's wife. Now for the silversmiths sent they, and bade them haste to mould A great and strong-knit coffin of silver and ruddy gold; And with burnished steel they bade them brace it in every part. All folk were of sorrowful spirit, and exceeding heavy of heart.

By this was the night passed over: one said, "Lo, day is near." And the noble Queen commanded to the minster-door to bear Her royal dead, her husband for ever well-beloved; And with her all friends sore weeping in long procession moved. So when to the minster they brought him, tolled forth many a bell, And the chant of the priests rose upward, and the requiem's solemn swell. And thitherward King Gunther and all his liegemen came. Yea, Hagen the grim mid the mourners stood--and had no shame!

And the King said: "Sister belovèd, alas for thy sore distress! Alas for the heavy affliction that toucheth us no less! We too for the death of Siegfried must evermore lament." "Wrongly ye do!" cried the Lady from a heart with anguish rent. "If ye hereby were afflicted, it had never befallen so! Nay, me had ye wholly forgotten, and this full well I know, In the hour when thus I was severed from my lord, my love, my one! Oh would to God in heaven that to me this deed had been done!" But they held to their lying story. Then did Kriemhild say: "He that affirmeth him guiltless may prove it now straightway. Here in the presence of all men let him go and stand by the bier! Forthright before all people shall the very truth appear."

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A marvel it is past telling, oft have we known it betide:-- When the slayer murder-polluted is seen by the dead man's side, The wounds bleed in witness against him: so did it now befall, And thereby was the guilt of Hagen made manifest unto all. For the wound brake forth into bleeding, as freely as at the first. Now they that before wept sorely into wilder weeping burst. But answered and spake King Gunther: "Now hearken, the truth is this-- He was set on and slain of robbers: no deed of Hagen it is." But Kriemhild replied: "These robbers but all too well I know! God give to the hands of his kinsmen vengeance on his foe! Thou, Gunther, and thou, Hagen, of you was the foul deed done!" Surged forward the vassals of Siegfried, fierce-eager to fall on.

But Kriemhild spake: "Unto mourning be this hour sacred, I pray!" Then two beside of her kinsmen drew nigh where the dead man lay, Even her brethren, Gernot and the stripling Giselher: And in leal faith these bewailed him with all the true souls there. Yea, from the heart they lamented for Kriemhild's perished lord. Now pealed the holy mass-chant: through the doors of the minster poured On every hand young children no less than women and men. Even they whom his death smote lightly, wept with the best for him then. Spake Giselher and Gernot: "O sister, receive of us thou For the death of thy lord consolation: it is past all healing now. Thy loss by our love will we make good, so long as we both shall live." But no one on earth could console her, of none would she comfort receive.

By this was his coffin fashioned, when the sun in the mid-heaven shone. Loving hands from the bier uplifted the corpse that lay thereon. But the Queen said: "Nay, I beseech you, lay him not yet in the grave; Ere then heavy tribute of mourning from all that love him I crave." In a pall most costly-woven that lifeless form they wound. Of a surety none that wept not was in all that concourse found. From her heart poured Uta the noble lamentation and mourning and woe; Wailing were all her handmaids for the princely head brought low. {P. 143} When the folk heard how in the minster they sang the requiem, And that Siegfried lay in his coffin, there came vast throngs of them With their offerings--ah, how freely!--to buy his soul's repose. Good friends had he without number in the very house of his foes. Kriemhild the hapless woman to her treasure-keeper spake: "Now sorrow ye all in my sorrow, and suffer dole for my sake, All ye whose hearts have loved him, all ye that be true unto me. For the rest of the soul of Siegfried gold to the poor give ye." There was no child so little, so it had understanding at all, But something it brought for the masses for him who lay stark under pall. Yea, full one hundred masses on that one day did they sing. Ah, there was a mighty concourse of lovers of that dead king!

When ended was all the mass-chant, the vast crowd melted away. But again to her friends spake Kriemhild: "Leave me not this day To keep vigil alone o'er the hero, the hope of the world and its pride; Now all the joy of my life-days is buried by his side. Three days, three nights unceasing will I keep vigil here Till my soul is filled with lamenting for him, my lord most dear. Peradventure His white Death-angel for me too God will send; So the sorrow of Kriemhild the hapless should find a blessèd end."

Now homeward the folk of the city were gone to their rest and their sleep: But the priests and the monks aye chanting that vigil with her must keep; And his vassals and leal retainers that served that gallant chief-- Ah, weariful nights were appointed to these, and days of grief. Through the days of their mourning many drank not, nor tasted of bread: But, for such as could not endure it, to these was it plainly said: "Eat, drink, for we give to you freely." King Siegmund cared therefor. Then fell on the faithful Niblungs trouble and travail sore.