SIEGFRIED SUBDUES BRUNHILD
The little ship had sailed on now close beneath the castle, so close
indeed that as the King looked up to the window he could catch
glimpses of beautiful maidens passing to and fro.
Sir Siegfried also looked and laughed aloud for glee. It would be but
a little while until Brunhild was won and he was free to return to his
winsome lady Kriemhild.
By this time the maidens in the castle had caught sight of the ship,
and many bright eyes were peering down upon King Gunther and his three
brave comrades.
'Look well at the fair maidens, sire,' said Siegfried to the King.
'Among them all show me her whom thou wouldst choose most gladly as
your bride.'
'Seest thou the fairest of the band,' cried the King, 'she who is
clad in a white garment? It is she and no other whom I would wed.'
Right merrily then laughed Siegfried. 'The maiden,' said he gaily, 'is
in truth none other than Queen Brunhild herself.'
The King and his warriors now moored their vessel and leaped ashore,
Siegfried leading with him the King's charger. For each knight had
brought his steed with him from the fair land of Burgundy.
More bright than ever beamed the bright eyes of the ladies at the
castle window. So fair, so gallant a knight never had they seen,
thought the damsels as they gazed upon Sir Siegfried. And all the
while King Gunther dreamed their glances were bent on no other than
himself.
Siegfried held the noble steed until King Gunther had mounted, and
this he did that Queen Brunhild might not know that he was the Prince
of the Netherlands, owing service to no man. Then going back to the
ship the hero brought his own horse to land, mounted, and rode with
the King toward the castle gate.
King and Prince were clad alike. Their steeds as well as their
garments were white as snow, their saddles were bedecked with jewels,
and on the harness hung bells, all of bright red gold. Their shields
shone as the sun, their spears they wore before them, their swords
hung by their side.
Behind them followed Hagen and Dankwart, their armour black as the
plumage of the wild raven, their shields strong and mighty.
As they approached the castle the gates were flung wide open, and the
liegemen of the great Queen came out to greet the strangers with words
of welcome. They bid their hirelings also take the shields and
chargers from their guests.
But when a squire demanded that the strangers should also yield their
swords, grim Hagen smiled his grimmest, and cried, 'Nay, our swords
will we e'en keep lest we have need of them.' Nor was he too well
pleased when Siegfried told him that the custom in Isenland was that
no guest should enter the castle carrying a weapon. It was but
sullenly that he let his sword be taken away along with his mighty
shield.
After the strangers had been refreshed with wine, her liegemen sent to
the Queen to tell her that strange guests had arrived.
'Who are the strangers who come thus unheralded to my land?' haughtily
demanded Brunhild.
But no one could tell her who the warriors were, though some murmured
that the tallest and fairest might be the great hero Siegfried.
It may be that the Queen thought that if the knight were indeed
Siegfried she would revenge herself on him now for the mischievous
pranks he had played the last time he was in her kingdom. In any case
she said, 'If the hero is here he shall enter into contest with me,
and he shall pay for his boldness with his life, for I shall be the
victor.'
Then with five hundred warriors, each with his sword in hand, Brunhild
came down to the knights from Burgundy.
'Be welcome, Siegfried,' she cried, 'yet wherefore hast thou come
again to Isenland?'
'I thank thee for thy greeting, lady,' said the Prince 'but thou hast
welcomed me before my lord. He, King Gunther, ruler over the fair
realms of Burgundy, hath come hither to wed with thee.'
Brunhild was displeased that the mighty hero should not himself seek
to win her as a bride, yet since for all his prowess he seemed but a
vassal of the King, she answered, 'If thy master can vanquish me in
the contests to which I bid him, then I will be his wife, but if I
conquer thy master, his life, and the lives of his followers will be
forfeited.'
'What dost thou demand of my master?' asked Hagen.
'He must hurl the spear with me, throw the stone from the ring, and
leap to where it has fallen,' said the Queen.
Now while Brunhild was speaking, Siegfried whispered to the King to
fear nothing, but to accept the Queen's challenge. 'I will be near
though no one will see me, to aid thee in the struggle,' he whispered.
Gunther had such trust in the Prince that he at once cried boldly,
'Queen Brunhild, I do not fear even to risk my life that I may win
thee for my bride.'
Then the bold maiden called for her armour, but when Gunther saw her
shield, 'three spans thick with gold and iron, which four chamberlains
could hardly bear,' his courage began to fail.
[Illustration: The maiden hurled her spear]
While the Queen donned her silken fighting doublet, which could turn
aside the sharpest spear, Siegfried slipped away unnoticed to the
ship, and swiftly flung around him his Cloak of Darkness. Then unseen
by all, he hastened back to King Gunther's side.
A great javelin was then given to the Queen, and she began to fight
with her suitor, and so hard were her thrusts that but for Siegfried
the King would have lost his life.
'Give me thy shield,' whispered the invisible hero in the King's ear,
'and tell no one that I am here.' Then as the maiden hurled her spear
with all her force against the shield which she thought was held by
the King, the shock well-nigh drove both Gunther and his unseen friend
to their knees.
But in a moment Siegfried's hand had dealt the Queen such a blow with
the handle of his spear (he would not use the sharp point against a
woman) that the maiden cried aloud, 'King Gunther, thou hast won
this fray.' For as she could not see Siegfried because of his Cloak of
Darkness, she could not but believe that it was the King who had
vanquished her.
In her wrath the Queen now sped to the ring, where lay a stone so
heavy that it could scarce be lifted by twelve strong men.
But Brunhild lifted it with ease, and threw it twelve arms' length
beyond the spot on which she stood. Then, leaping after it, she
alighted even farther than she had thrown the stone.
Gunther now stood in the ring, and lifted the stone which had again
been placed within it. He lifted it with an effort, but at once
Siegfried's unseen hand grasped it and threw it with such strength
that it dropped even beyond the spot to which it had been flung by the
Queen. Lifting King Gunther with him Siegfried next jumped far beyond
the spot on which the Queen had alighted. And all the warriors
marvelled to see their Queen thus vanquished by the strange King. For
you must remember that not one of them could see that it was Siegfried
who had done these deeds of prowess.
Now in the contest, still unseen, Siegfried had taken from the Queen
her ring and her favourite girdle.
With angry gestures Brunhild called to her liegemen to come and lay
their weapons down at King Gunther's feet to do him homage. Henceforth
they must be his thralls and own him as their lord.
As soon as the contests were over, Siegfried had slipped back to the
ship and hidden his Cloak of Darkness. Then boldly he came back to the
great hall, and pretending to know nothing of the games begged to be
told who had been the victor, if indeed they had already taken place.
When he had heard that Queen Brunhild had been vanquished, the hero
laughed, and cried gaily, 'Then, noble maiden, thou must go with us to
Rhineland to wed King Gunther.'
'A strange way for a vassal to speak,' thought the angry Queen, and
she answered with a proud glance at the knight, 'Nay, that will I not
do until I have summoned my kinsmen and my good lieges. For I will
myself say farewell to them ere ever I will go to Rhineland.'
Thus heralds were sent throughout Brunhild's realms, and soon from
morn to eve her kinsmen and her liegemen rode into the castle, until
it seemed as though a mighty army were assembling.
'Does the maiden mean to wage war against us,' said Hagen grimly. 'I
like not the number of her warriors.'
Then said Siegfried, 'I will leave thee for a little while and go
across the sea, and soon will I return with a thousand brave warriors,
so that no evil may befall us.'
So the Prince went down alone to the little ship and set sail across
the sea.