While sat the noble Kriemhild a watcher by Siegfried’s grave, Eckwart, Lord of the Marches, unto her with his war-band clave,
In Burgundia-land abiding constrained by his fealty;
And aye for the dead with his mistress he mourned right bitterly.
{p. 150}
At Worms hard by the minster they reared her a palace-hall
Wide and stately-builded, and royally-dight withal:
And there with her handmaids round her that joyless one abode,
And oft she fared to the minster, for she loved the house of God.
There, where her belovèd was buried, full seldom her presence failed;
Day after day did she enter with spirit that inly wailed,
And prayed unto God the Almighty to take to his mercy his soul:
Ay, ever the faithful-hearted made for the knight great dole.
Came Uta and all her women to comfort her day by day;
But Kriemhild’s wounded spirit so crushed ’neath affliction lay,
That nothing availed consolation that the lips of the loving spake,
Forasmuch as with sharper anguish did her heart for her lost love ache
Than wife felt ever for husband, were her sorrow never so keen;
And the love of the true and faithful herein was of all men seen
That on to the end she mourned him, long as endured her life,
Till that great vengeance for Siegfried was wreaked at last by the wife.
So sat she sorrow-shrouded—truth is it the minstrel saith—
On till the fourth year’s dawning after her dear lord’s death;
And never a word unto Gunther her lips had uttered yet,
Never her eyes upon Hagen her mortal foe had she set.
Then Hagen spake unto Gunther: “If haply this might be done
That thou so couldst appease thy sister that again ye were set at one,
Then the gold of the Hoard of the Niblungs might unto thy kingdom be brought:
And how much might be thine, if Kriemhild unto lovingkindness were wrought!”
Said Gunther: “We will essay it. By my brethren may she be beguiled:
These shall beset her with pleading that now she be reconciled.
We may win her to bring that treasure—yea, share it willingly.”
“Nay, sooth I misdoubt me,” said Hagen, “that this may ever be.”
Then the King sent word unto Ortwein unto the palace to fare,
And the Lord of the Marches, Gere: when these were gotten there,
Gernot withal, and the young Prince Giselher, they brought.
And these with words of kindness on their lips unto Kriemhild sought.
{p. 151}
Then spake the Prince Burgundian Gernot the first, and he said:
“Behold, overlong thou mournest, Lady, for Siegfried dead.
Sure proof shall of Gunther be given that he had no part in his death.
Yet for him folk hear thee mourning evermore with passionate breath.”
She said: “Him no man accuseth: it was Hagen who struck the blow.
Where only my lord could be wounded through me, through me did he know!
Whence should I have had misgivings of the hate unto him that he bare?
Else,” cried the Queen, “I had guarded my lips with jealous care
From the horror of such betrayal of my lord’s beloved life,
And had had no cause for weeping—oh wretched, wretched wife!
Never will I forgive him who wrought that dastard deed!”
Then for the King his brother did Giselher intercede.
(C) “Yea,” said she, “I needs must greet him, ye urge me so cruelly:
Yet so do ye make you partakers in Gunther’s sin against me.
He hath wrung my soul with anguish, who never wronged him yet!
My lips may grant him forgiveness, mine heart will never forget.”
(C) “Yet hereafter shall this be bettered,” whispered her kinsmen then.
If only the King by kindness may win her to smile again,
“He may yet by his love,” said Gernot, “fill all that void in her breast.”
Then again said the sorrow-burdened: “Behold, I grant your request:
I will meet the King, I will greet him.” The word unto Gunther they bring,
And to her with the best of his kinsfolk straightway cometh the King.
But Hagen the murderer dared not in the presence of Kriemhild be seen:
Too well did he know his vileness, the wrong he had done to the Queen.
Yet, seeing her hatred of Gunther was in semblance so put by,
With the kiss of reconcilement might he too have drawn nigh;
Yea, but for the felon plotting, the inexpiable wrong,
Even he might have stood unshrinking mid that false courtier-throng.
Never was reconcilement ’twixt sundered friend and friend
Made with such weeping. Rankled the wound in her heart without end.
Yet unto all forgiveness she granted—save that one.
No man would have slain him, had Hagen the wicked deed not done.
{p. 152}
Not long thereafter the plotters brought to pass their intent
That Kriemhild the Daughter of Princes for the Hoard of the Treasure sent
To the land of the Niblungs: to Rhineland she caused them to bring the same.
’Twas her morning-gift, nor its warders might hold it against her claim.
So Giselher and Gernot to bring that Hoard must wend;
And armed men eighty hundred did the Lady Kriemhild send
To bring that hidden treasure from the caverns wherein it lay,
And Alberich the Dwarf-knight and his stout friends warded it aye.
When they saw these men from the Rhineland which had come for the Treasure’s sake,
Then Alberich the valiant to his mighty kinsmen spake:
“We may nowise refuse this treasure, to yield it to her desire;
’Tis her Gift of the Marriage-morning, and the Queen doth her own require.
Howbeit,” said Alberich, “never had this befallen thus,
Except by chance most evil this too had been lost unto us,
The potent Hood of Darkness, which vanished when Siegfried died,
Which the lord of Kriemhild the lovely had ever by his side.
In an evil hour for Siegfried did the Hero win that prey,
And pluck the Hood of Darkness from the hands of its keepers away,
And therewithal the lordship of all this land did he seize.”
Then the seneschal went to the chambers where lay that cavern’s keys.
There stood those sent of Kriemhild in front of the mountain’s door,
And divers withal of her kinsmen. So all that treasure-store
Brought they down to the sea-flood, and the ships therewith were fraught.
So over the rolling waters and on to the Rhine was it brought.
Now of the Hoard of the Niblungs shall ye hear the marvel told:
Twelve wains to the utmost laden down from that mountain-hold
Must bear that treasure seaward: four days and nights toiled they,
Each going and each returning three times each several day.
Therein was there nothing meaner than precious stones and gold,
And if one therewith had purchased all wealth that the world could hold,
{p. 153}
“By not one mark is it minished!” whoso had seen it had said.
Not without cause that treasure was of Hagen coveted!
In its midst was the Wishing-rod lying, a little golden wand.
Whoso divined its virtue could stretch his sovereign hand
Over all the wide earth’s compass and all the folk therein.
Back to the Rhine with Gernot went many of Albrich’s kin.
(C) So then when the strong knight Gernot and the young prince Giselher
Had gotten the Hoard in possession, lords thereby they were
............