then gazed they across the rhine-stream, and beheld on the farther shore
the king with his guests around him, which had drawn nigh theretofore;
and they saw the good knights standing by the bridle of many a maid,
even them that they looked to welcome, who now for their coming stayed.
so passed they down to the galleys, that host from the northern land,
they and the niblung thousand, even siegfried’s own war-band,
{p. 79}
and adown the bank they hasted: their toil the rowers plied,
till all these friends of gunther had won to the farther side.
now list ye withal, how the story of the queen of burgundy
telleth, how uta the stately with her maiden-company
went forth of the castle riding with that bright cavalcade:
then were made known to each other many a knight and maid.
the lord of the marches, gere, led kriemhild’s steed by the rein
to the fortress-gate, no farther: siegfried the noble thane
should render her service thereafter—how queenly and lovely she shone!
well was his service requited by the maiden’s love anon.
ortwein the noble, the dauntless, led onward uta the queen,
and, each by a lady riding, was many a knight there seen.
unto festal welcoming rode they, plain for all folk to see.
never was seen of ladies so goodly a company!
in front of kriemhild the lovely, through all the merry way
those far-famed heroes jousted in gentle and joyous play:
’twas the ancient and honoured custom. so when to the ships they came,
then lifted they from their palfreys full many a noble dame.
now the king had by this crossed over with many a stranger knight;
but in jousting still they shivered strong spears in ladies’ sight.
ever the shields were ringing with echoing clash and clang;
in the press of the warriors charging rich bosses mightily rang.
so there these winsome ladies stood by the river-side;
and forth of the ships came gunther with his guests, the folk of his bride;
and himself forth out of the galley by the hand led brunhild the queen.
as they met, bright raiment to raiment and stone unto stone flashed sheen.
then stepped the lady kriemhild forward with queenly grace,
and she greeted the lady brunhild and her train with loving face.
men saw white hands from their foreheads the coronals softly move,
as each fair queen kissed other in token of knitting of love.
then sweet spake kriemhild the maiden, the child of a royal line:
“into this our land burgundian welcome be thou and thine
{p. 80}
unto me and to my mother, and to all this loyal crowd
of liegemen and kinsfolk,” with stately grace queen brunhild bowed.
ofttimes with arms enfolding those lovely ladies clung;—
of such loving welcome aforetime hath never minstrel sung
as now to the bride was rendered of those noble ladies twain
uta and kriemhild: her sweet lips kissed they once and again.
now as the ladies of brunhild beside the river stand,
the goodly knights step forward, and they take them by the hand
in token of loving greeting to those fair ones lovely-eyed—
ah, comely were they, the maidens at the lady brunhild’s side!
ere all that greeting was ended, long time had fleeted by:
on rosebud lips full many fell kisses lovingly.
long face to face communing those daughters of kings abode;
and the peerless knights looked on them with hearts that for gladness glowed.
with their own eyes then beheld they, who oft had heard it told
that so glorious beauty might no man in all the world behold
as the beauty of these two fair ones; and the rumour’s truth they learned;
for in all their lovely bodies might no blemish be discerned.
of such as could weigh the fairness of form and winsome face,
some to the bride of gunther gave beauty’s chiefest praise;
but they that were more discerning, that wiselier looked thereon,
said, “nay, ye must own that brunhild by kriemhild is outshone.”
now mingled they, home-abiders and strangers, matron and maid:
there many a comely woman was seen all costly-arrayed.
rich tents and silken pavilions all round lay far and wide,
wherewith were the green meads covered from worms to the river-side.
then nigher pressed to behold them king gunther’s friends and kin.
then prayed they the lady brunhild and kriemhild to pass within,
and all their handmaids with them, ’neath the wavering silken shade.
thither the knights burgundian their noble guests conveyed.
now by this upon their horses those knightly guests had sprung,
and with sport of the breaking of lances the shining bucklers rung.
{p. 81}
over the field upsoaring was the dust, as though all the land
were flame-devoured, as the heroes made proof of their might of hand.
to the eyes of the watching maidens those knights their prowess showed:
right well with the host of his warriors siegfried the valiant rode;
in tourney before the pavilion aye to and fro he wheeled:
with the hero a thousand niblungs went sweeping across the field.
then strode forth hagen of troneg at gunther the king’s behest,
and courteously the hero bade the knights from their jousting rest,
that they should not o’erpall with the dust-cloud the maidens fair and sweet;
and the knightly guests blithe-hearted rendered obedience meet.
then out spake gernot the noble: “awhile let the horses abide
till the day on-draweth to coolness, and so shall our escort ride
beside the lovely ladies to the wide-roofed palace-hall.
when the word of the king shall be given, ‘to horse!’ be ye ready all.”
through the length and the breadth of the lealand stayed was the tournament;
then the knights sought unto the ladies in many a stately tent
to while the hours in converse, and to make them merry of heart:
so fleeted fast the moments, till time was thence to depart.
before the falling of even, when sank the light of the sun,
and came thereafter the coolness, no more would they linger on.
then cityward knight and lady rode the summer ways,
and on many a form most winsome fell warrior’s loving gaze.
as they rode, were there tourney-courses; oft mantles with sudden hand[8]
were twitched from the gallant riders, after the wont of the land,
till afront of the gate of the palace the king his war-horse stayed:
so by the knights to the ladies was honour-service paid.
then from the throng departed those queens in their royal pride;
and the lady uta and kriemhild straightway turned aside
{p. 82}
with all the train of their handmaids into a fair wide hall:
there did bright tides of laughter and of voices rise and fall.
now set they in order the high-seats, and on king gunther passed
leading his guests to the banquet. then saw they beside him at last
a queen!—it was brunhild the lovely. a crown on her brow she bare
as a queen in her king’s dominions—ah, stately she was and fair!
for the banquet were seats rich-carven, broad tables goodly to see
laden with plenty, as singeth the ancient minstrelsy.
of all the due of the feasters there lacked not anything.
sat many a noble baron in the presence of the king.
then entered the chamberlains bringing in basons golden-red
for the hands of the guests bright water—all vainly his labour were sped
who would say that courtlier service was rendered ever on earth
at a prince’s feast—i would reckon his word as nothing-worth.
but or ever the lord of the rhineland set hand to the water clear,
siegfried—unshamed might he do it—unto gunther the king drew near:
“bethink thee of that faith royal and the pledge thou gavest me,”
he said, “ere thou sawest brunhild in iceland far oversea.”
yea, he added and said, “remember how thou swarest by thy right hand,
in the day we should bring queen brunhild home unto this your land,
thou wouldst give me to wife thy sister—doth the oath unbroken remain?
thou knowest, for that thy journey i begrudged nor travail nor pain.”
the host to the guest made answer: “well dost thou to call it to mind.
i will break not the oath that with hand-clasp close to my soul did i bind.
lo, i help thee to its fulfilment—may blessing thereof befall!”
then sent he his word unto kriemhild to come to the king in the hall[9].
with the train of her lovely maidens on to the hall she swept;
then from the dais of honour giselher lightly stept:—
{p. 83}
“now give ye command to the handmaids that backward they turn to their bower:
it befits that alone my sister commune with the king in this hour.”
thither bring they the lady kriemhild where waiting doth gunther stand,
and noble knights stood round him, and princes of many a land.
and now proclaimed they silence through the hall of the presence vast.
—in the midst of the hush queen brunhild to the feast-hall proudly passed.
(c) so entered the maid, nothing wotting of work whose fulfilment was nigh.
but first spake the son of dankart to his knights that stood thereby:
“help me at need, that my sister may take for her lord siegfried.”
with one accord they answered: “in sooth ’twere a goodly deed!”
then spake unto her king gunther: “my sister, noble maid,
let thy queenly blood and thine heart’s love for mine oath’s redemption aid.
i have pledged thine hand to a warrior; if thou take him for thy lord,
then thou by thy loyal obedience hast redeemed my plighted word.”
answered the noble maiden: “heart’s dearest, brother mine,
needs not that thou supplicate me: my will shall be even as thine.
what thing thou commandest soever, of a surety shall that be done:
whom thou, lord, appointest my bridegroom, i will wed that noble one.”
as a fire was the face of siegfried, his eyes were rapture-ablaze
as the knight unto kriemhild tendered love-service through all his days.
then hand in hand they set them in the midst of the great hushed ring,
and they asked, “wilt thou take this hero for thy lord and for thine heart’s king?”
a little she hung in the balance in maiden shamefastness;
but the fortune of siegfried whispered to her heart’s love, “answer ‘yes!’”
that she could not, and ah, she would not, deny unto him her hand;
and he plighted him her husband, the hero of netherland.
and so soon as his troth was spoken, and her troth unto his had replied,
swiftly in arms enfolding he drew unto him his bride.
there in the arms of siegfried that tender maiden lay,
and he kissed the noble princess in the midst of that knightly array.
{p. 84}
as parted the throngs asunder, and the banquet’s order was seen,
lo, in the place of honour, facing the king and the queen,
was siegfried by kriemhild seated, with service of many a knight;
and there were the niblung warriors beside him to left and to right.
beside the king at the banquet sat brunhild the maiden queen:
then kriemhild she saw—no dagger to her heart had stabbed more keen—
by the side of siegfried seated; and from weeping she could not refrain,
so that adown her fair cheeks fast did the hot tears rain.
then spake the lord of rhineland: “what aileth thee, lady mine,
that thou drawest a cloud of grieving o’er the brightness of thine eyne?
thou shouldst rather be heart-uplifted, for bowed in subjection to thee
this day are my land and my castles and all her chivalry.”
“nay, i do well to be weeping,” unto him did the maid-queen say;
“my heart for the sake of thy sister is in bitterness this day,
that i see her beside one sitting who is nought but thy vassal, thy thrall!
well may i weep unceasing that she unto this should fall.”
answered and spake king gunther: “thy peace as now do thou hold.
unto thee at a fitting season shall all the tale be told,
for what cause unto this siegfried i have given my sister to wife.
a blessing on them! with the hero be hers a happy life!”
she answered: “i cease not to pity her fairness, her royal birth.
of a truth would i flee hence, knew i a place of refuge on earth!
—never, i tell thee, never will i couch me by thy side,
or ever i know cause wherefore is kriemhild siegfried’s bride!”
answered and spake king gunther to her: “unto thee be it known,
he hath in possession castles and lands as wide as mine own.
yea, i tell thee this of a surety, a mighty king is he,
and i give him my comely sister with a glad heart and free.”
yet, how pleaded the king soever, she sat with lowering eyes.
but by this from the banquet-table doth many a good knight rise,
and they clash so hotly in tourney that the courts of the castle ring.
—but amidst of his guests for the host-king time traileth a broken wing.
{p. 85}
“by the side of my love, my fair one,” he thought, “how sweet to lie!”
his heart to the dream was captive, he could not thrust it by,
the dream of her lovingkindness, and all the joy thereof.
and ever on lady brunhild he glanced with eyes of love.
so they gave command to the good knights from tourney-sport to refrain,
for that now for the peace of the night-tide the king and his bride were fain.
and before the great hall-stairway face to face they met,
kriemhild and brunhild—nothing had sundered their love as yet.
followed the train of the handmaids; they lingered there no more
as on to the bridal-chamber the torches led before.
now came the kings, and parted the knights of either’s train.
then followed after siegfried full many a noble thane.
now over the bridal threshold are king and hero gone,
and the heart of either was leaping at the thought of a winsome one,
and of love the overcomer—how glad were their souls for this!
and for siegfried the arms of the loving were a haven of infinite bliss.
as siegfried the hero gathered kriemhild unto his breast,
and poured out his love upon her in the glory of love’s twin-rest,
as a knight all-courteous, his darling became unto him as his life.
not for a thousand fair ones had he given his belovèd—his wife!
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.
