So then of their doings in Hunland needeth no more to say: But for them of Burgundia—never such high-souled heroes as they
Rode in such lordly fashion in the land of any king.
All had they, weapons and raiment, that they would for their wayfaring.
The Lord of the Rhine in vesture arrayed his warrior-throng,
Knights fourscore and a thousand, as sayeth the olden song;
Yea also, and squires nine thousand to that great feast-tide rode.
—They were sorely bewept thereafter by them that at home abode.
At Worms through the palace-courtyard armour they bare and attire.
As he watched, a word of boding spake the ancient bishop of Speyer
Unto Queen Uta the lovely: “Our friends be minded to fare
To be guests in a far-off country—God have them in his care!”
Then Uta the noble Lady spake to her sons in her fear:
“O heroes mighty-hearted, I pray you, tarry here!
Last night came a dream of anguish mid the visions of mine head;
For meseemed in the land Burgundian that all her birds were dead.”
Swiftly made answer Hagen: “Whoso regardeth a dream
Shall never wisely advise him; he shall never rightly deem
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In a matter that toucheth his honour, or choose the better part!
Now it behoveth my master to bid farewell and depart.
Blithely will we ride onward into King Etzel’s land;
There well to a king may service be done by a hero’s hand:
There what manner of high-tide Kriemhild holds shall we see.”
So Hagen counselled the journey—cause to rue it had he!
Nay, still had he spoken against it, were it not for the bitter jeer
That Gernot had flung at the hero, when he said with scornful sneer:
“The ghost of Siegfried standeth, of the Lady Kriemhild’s lord,
In the path, and frighteth Hagen from journeying thitherward!”
Spake Hagen of Troneg: “Never fear stirreth nor stayeth me!
Lo, ye have determined it, heroes: your hands to the work set ye.
Doubt not, I will ride with you blithely into King Etzel’s realm.”
—Soon hewn by him asunder was many a shield and helm.
To bear them over the Rhine-flood ready the galleys lay;
So the warriors set a-shipboard their goodly vesture-array:
With lading and unlading till eventide busy they were.
—O forth from their homes full blithely on the journey did they fare.
The warriors pitched in the meadow for themselves pavilion and tent
On the other side the Rhine-flood, where that last night was spent.
“Tarry, O Gunther!” did Brunhild, his lovely wife, implore,
As she clasped to her heart her husband that night, and never more.
Shrilled flutes and blared forth trumpets as the first of the dawn-light shone,
Bidding them forth on the journey, and all made haste to be gone.
Lover in arms of lover was strained close, close to the heart,
They whom with anguish unending would the wife of Etzel part.
Now the sons of the fair Queen Uta had of their vassals a man
Bold and withal true-hearted: even as the journey began,
The thoughts of his heart he uttered to the King, for he drew him aside,
And he said: “It grieveth me sorely that thou goest to this high-tide.”
And the name of the thane was Rumold, trusty of heart and hand.
“Whom wilt thou leave as warden,” he said, “of thy folk and thy land?
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Alas that none can turn you, O knights, from your enterprise!
Never the message of Kriemhild was good in thy servant’s eyes.”
“Unto thee be the land committed, and also my little son.
To our wives do loyal service: I will that so it be done.
Whomsoever thou seest weeping, speak to them words of cheer.
No hurt shall the wife of Etzel do us; have thou no fear.”
(C) Moreover the King took counsel, or ever they parted thence,
With all his chiefest liegemen: he left not bare of defence
His kingdom and his castles: to keep them safe in ward
He delivered them over to chosen barons, to watch and to guard.
All harnessed stood the horses for vassal and for king.
With loving kisses of parting did wives unto husbands cling
In whose bosoms were hearts high-leaping, in whose veins was lusty life,
Yet for whom there was soon sore weeping of many a widowed wife.
(C) Now all the air was thrilling with weeping and wailing wild.
To the King drew nigh Queen Brunhild; she bare in her arms their child:
“How canst thou endure to leave us desolate both in a day?
For love of us,” said the woeful Queen, “ah, stay with us, stay!”
(C) “My wife, it doth not beseem thee thus to be weeping for me;
Rather in queenly courage fearless here shouldst thou be.
With joy shall we soon be returning safe and sound again.”
In that same hour from their dear ones parted all his train.
Now did those valiant warriors their steeds at last bestride,
While many a loving woman stood watching tearful-eyed.
“Long, long shall be this parting!” their hearts were whispering still.
None can be blithe of spirit in the shadow of coming ill.
Forward set the Burgundians, a battle-eager band.
Thronged and pressed to behold them the people of the land.
To right and to left on the hill-sides men and women wept;
But, how sorrowed the people soever, for joy their own hearts leapt.
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Forth also with these went riding Niblung men of war,
A thousand heroes in hauberks: in the Niblung homes afar
Fair women they left full many whom they saw not from that day.
—Rankled the wounds of Siegfried in the heart of Kriemhild aye!
(C) Albeit the faith of Christians was weak in those far-off days,
Yet journeyed with these a chaplain for chanting of prayer and praise;
And, though out of desperate peril, alive this man came home;
But all the rest in the Hunland tarried, for death was their doom.
Onward their way they wended far up the stream of Main,
And upward through Eastern Frankland, that armour-glittering line.
By Hagen still were they guided, for all the land knew he.
And Dankwart was their marshal, the hero of Burgundy.
On through the land of the East-Franks, through Swanfeld are they gone.
It was like a procession of princes as the stately ranks swept on,
Kings and their high-born kinsmen, heroes of world-sung fame.
So at the twelfth day’s dawning the King to the Danube came.
There rode Hagen of Troneg afront of all the rest,
Right good at need as a helper, and a stay unto men distressed.
From the saddle that dauntless baron sprang by the river-side,
And the bridle of his charger straightway to a tree hath he tied.
In flood were the mighty waters, no boat might any see.
Then were the Niblung warriors in sore perplexity
How they should win thereover, so broad was the rolling flood.
Down lighted beside the river full many a warrior good.
“Evil may well befall thee,” said Hagen, “in this place.
See, Lord of Rhineland, the peril stareth thee in the face.
Over-bank are the great flood-waters: too strong is their rush to essay:
Many good knights, if we tempt it, I ween, shall we lose this day.”
“Wherefore essay to daunt me, Hagen?” the proud King said.
“For the sake of thy knightly honour no more speak counsels of dread!
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Seek thou for a ford for our crossing over to yonder land,
Whereby our gear and our horses may be brought from strand to strand.”
“Not yet of my life so weary am I waxen,” Hagen replied,
“That I were contented to drown me in yonder waters wide.
Full many a warrior smitten by mine hands shall perish first
In the land of this King Etzel—yea, I am battle-athirst.
Tarry ye here by the water, ye thanes of knightly pride.
Alone will I go, and for boatmen will I search by the river-side
Which unto the land of Gelfrat shall ferry us over the spate.”
Then took the aweless Hagen his strong shield, goodly and great.
Well was he armed against foemen: his shield from his shoulders was slung,
And he laced on his head his helmet, a splendour of fight far-flung:
Belted unto his corslet was a broad bright battle-glaive
Twin-edged, whose deadly keenness the shields of the mighty clave.
Up-stream and down-stream casting for a ferry-wight sought he.
Then heard he a plashing of water, and hearkened where it should be.
And lo, in a pool fair-welling did mermaids plunge and swim
To cool in the dimpling river each summer-fevered limb.
Then Hagen was ware of the wise-wives, and stealthily nearer he crept.
They saw him, and swiftly flashing far off through the ripples leapt.
Laughed they for glee, as fleers that mark a pursuer outrun.
Then seized he their raiment, but further scathe unto them did he none.
Then cried unto him a mermaiden, and Hadburg had she to name:
“Behold, we will tell thee, Hagen, thou knight of peerless fame,—
So thou wilt restore our apparel in guerdon for our rede,—
How thou and thy friends in thy journey to the land of the Huns shall speed.”
They swayed on the swaying water as birds that rock on the sea:
And he thought on their weird foreknowledge, on the eyes that pierce the To Be;
The gladlier therefore he trusted that their lips the truth would show;
And answer they made, when he questioned of the thing that he fain would know.
For Hadburg said: “Ye may safely to the land of Etzel ride.
I pledge thee my faith in surety for that I have prophesied.
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Never hath journey of heroes to an alien land been crowned
With such high honour and worship. True shall my words be found.”
Welcome and heart-uplifting did the word unto Hagen come:
He restored unto them their raiment, and tarried no more therefrom.
But when they had donned the vesture of the wondrous cloudy fold,
Of the journey to Etzel’s kingdom then first the truth they told.
For now the second mermaid, whose name was Sieglind, spake:
“Aldrian’s son, thou Hagen, from me this warning take:—
False is the thing my cousin but to win her raiment saith.
If thou to the Hunfolk goest, betrayed art thou to thy death.
While yet there is time, turn backward; wisely so should ye do,
Forasmuch as ye valiant heroes are but bidden thereto
To the end that ye all may perish in the Hunfolk’s land.
Yea, whoso rideth thither, Death rideth at his right hand.”
Answered and spake to her Hagen: “This your deceit is vain.
How should thy word be accomplished, that all we should be slain,
And so through any man’s malice dead at their high-tide stay?”
Then to the knight the story did they clearly and throughly say.
Moreover said one of the mermaids: “Thus is it doomed to betide,
That none shall alive fare homeward of all in your host that ride,
Save one, King Gunther’s chaplain. We verily know this thing,
That unharmed he only returneth to the land of Gunther the King.”
In scornful indignation made answer Hagen the bold:
“And a goodly tale to my masters in sooth were this to be told,
That doomed are we all mid the Hunfolk to pour out our lives in blood!
Nay, show us, thou wisest of women, how we may cross this flood.”
She said: “If thou wilt not be counselled, if thy journey needs must be,
Look yonder across the water; a hostel there shalt thou see.
Therein a ferry-wight dwelleth: there is none else far or near.”
Thither impatiently turned he, to ask yet more and to hear.
Yet after the wrathful warrior again the mermaid cried:
“Too hasty art thou, Lord Hagen: a little yet abide
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Till thou have received instruction how thou shalt reach yon strand.
Elsè named is the ruler of the marches of yonder land.
Gelfrat named is his brother, a mighty man in fight,
A prince in the land Bavarian. Count not the emprise light,
If ye think to press on through his marches: of peril must ye beware;
And for dealing with yonder boatman have ye need of heedful care.
So grim is he of his temper, he will do a mischief to thee,
If............