Ne'er have been brought to bondage knights of such peerless fame,
As those, whom you, fair lady, now from your servant take.
Grant these forlorn and friendless fair treatment for my sake."
XLII
She said, she fain would do so; then from the captive pair
With weeping eyes Sir Dietrich retir'd and left them there.
Straight a bloody vengeance wreak'd Etzel's furious wife
On those redoubted champions, and both bereft of life.
XLIII
In dark and dismal durance them kept apart the queen,
So that from that hour neither was by the other seen,
Till that at last to Hagan her brother's head she bore.
On both she took with vengeance as tongue ne'er told before.
XLIV
To the cell of Hagan eagerly she went;
Thus the knight bespake she, ah! with what fell intent!
"Wilt thou but return me what thou from me hast ta'en,
Back thou may'st go living to Burgundy again."
XLV
Then spake grim-visag'd Hagan, "You throw away your prayer,
High-descended lady; I took an oath whilere,
That, while my lords were living, or of them only one,
I'd ne'er point out the treasure; thus 'twill be given to none."
XLVI
Well knew the subtle Hagan, she ne'er let him 'scape.
Ah! when did ever falsehood assume so foul a shape?
He fear'd, that, soon as ever the queen his life had ta'en,
She then would send her brother to Rhineland back again.
XLVII
"I'll make an end, and quickly," Kriemhild fiercely spake.
Her brother's life straight bade she in his dungeon take.
Off his head was smitten; she bore it by the hair
To the Lord of Trony; such sight he well could spare.
XLVIII
Awhile in gloomy sorrow he view'd his master's head;
Then to remorseless Kriemhild thus the warrior said;
"E'en to thy wish this business thou to an end hast brought,
To such an end, moreover, as Hagan ever thought.
XLIX
"Now the brave King Gunther of Burgundy is dead;
Young Giselher and eke Gernot alike with him are sped;
So now, where lies the treasure, none knows save God and me,
And told shall it be never, be sure, she-fiend! to thee."
L
Said she, "Ill hast thou quitted a debt so deadly scored;
At least in my possession I'll keep my Siegfried's sword.
My lord and lover bore it, when last I saw him go.
For him woe wrung my bosom, that pass'd all other woe."
LI
Forth from the sheath she drew it; that could not he prevent;
At once to slay the champion was Kriemhild's stern intent.
High with both hands she heav'd it, and off his head did smite
That was seen of King Etzel; he shudder'd at the sight.
LII
"Ah!" cried the prince impassion'd, "Harrow and wellaway!
That the hand of a woman the noblest knight should slay,
That e'er struck stroke in battle, or ever buckler bore!
Albeit I was his foeman, needs must I sorrow sore."
LIII
Then said the aged Hildebrand, "Let not her boast of gain,
In that by her contrivance this noble chief was slain.
Though to sore strait he brought me, let ruin on me light,
But I will take full vengeance for Trony's murdered knight."
LIV
Hildebrand, the aged, fierce on Kriemhild sprung;
To the death he smote her as his sword he swung.
Sudden and remorseless he his wrath did wreak.
What could then avail her, her fearful thrilling shriek?
LV
There now the dreary corpses stretch'd all around were seen:
There lay, hewn in pieces, the fair and noble queen.
Sir Dietrich and King Etzel, their tears began to start;
For kinsmen and for vassals each sorrow'd in his heart.
LVI
The mighty and the noble there lay together dead;
For this had all the people dole and drearihead.
The feast of royal Etzel was thus shut up in woe.
Pain in the steps of Pleasure treads ever here below.
LVII
'Tis more than I can tell you what afterward befell,
Save that there was weeping for friends belov'd so well;
Knights and squires, dames and damsels, were seen lamenting all.
So here I end my story. This is THE NIBELUNGERS' FALL.
NOTES
According to Professor Lachmann, this poem has no title in most of the
manuscripts. In the two that have a superscription, it is styled the
Book of Kriemhild. Its ordinary name, The Nibelungenlied, is derived
from the Lassberg manuscript which ends with the words, _der Nibelunge
liet_, the lay of the Nibelungs, while the better manuscripts for _liet_
read _nôt_, calamity. The word Nibelung is a patronymic from _nebel_,
mist or darkness, and means, child of mist or darkness. Who these
Nibelungs were is involved in appropriate obscurity. In the first part
of the poem, they are Siegfried's Norwegian dependents, formerly
subjects of King Nibelung; in the second, they are the Burgundians,
possibly as being then the possessors of the wondrous treasure. In F.H.
von der Hagen's Remarks on the poem, there is a long rambling note on
this word, a note, however, which is worth reading. The commentator
travels from the Nephilim, or giants of scripture, down to Neville, the
great Earl of Warwick, and his coal-black head of hair. I have followed
Mr. Birch in using the form _Nibelunger_, as more convenient for the
verse, and more suitable to our language, and also to mark the
difference between the name of an individual, and that of a tribe. For
the same reasons I have ventured to employ the form _Amelunger_.
FIRST ADVENTURE
(St. VI.) The famous city of Worms derived its name, according to one
tradition, from the _Lindwurm_, or dragon slain by Siegfried under the
linden tree; according to another, from the multitude of dragons that
infested the neighborhood. The Rose-garden of Kriemhild (which, though
celebrated in other poems, is not noticed in this) was in the vicinity.
The progress of civilization, elegance, cleanliness and classic
refinement has converted the Rose-garden into a tobacco ground.
(St. XIII.) Lachmann's First Lay begins here, and ends with St.
LXXXVIII, Second Adventure.
(St. XVII.) _Liebe_, here, is not _Love_, but _Joy_, _Pleasure_. See
Lachmann's Treatise on the Original Form of the Poem, p. 91.
SECOND ADVENTURE
(St. XIII.) _Swertdegne_ are young noble squires destined for
knighthood. The _manic rîcher kneht_ of St. XXXIV are also squires, the
same as the _edeln knehte_ at the end of the poem. The mere _knehte_
were an inferior class, like our yeomen. Nine thousand of these last
accompanied Gunther to Etzel's court, and were entertained apart.
THIRD ADVENTURE
(St. V.) _Make_, an old form for _mate_. Spenser has among other
passages
And of fair Britomart ensample take,
That was as true in love as turtle to her make.
"Faerie Queene," III, ii. 2.
It is common in German romances of a certain period for brides to be
carried off by force, and maidens to be wooed by suitors who have never
set eyes on them. See Gervinus's Abridgment of his History of German
poetry. See also the Gudrun.
(St. XXVII.) Lachmann observes on the third verse: "This verse cannot be
explained from our Lays (_i.e._, from anything in the poem); the
Netherlanders lost no friend but Siegfried. Is there an allusion to
other legends, or is the departure adorned with the usual coloring?" It
really almost seems as if the writer of this particular stanza had
confounded Nibelungers, Netherlanders and Burgundians all together.
(St. LI.) Most of the marvels of modern romantic poetry may be traced
back to much older tales reported by Greek authorities. The Scythian
griffins, who watched the treasures coveted by their neighbors the
Arimaspians, the dragon Ladon, who guarded the golden apples of the
Hesperides, the more celebrated bullionist, who kept an eye on the
golden fleece, are the undoubted ancestors of the more modern specimens
of the serpent tribe, who inherited the like miserly passion, and
allured such champions as Siegfried and Orlando to tread in the steps of
Hercules and Jason. The volatile disposition of Wayland the Smith
reminds us of Dædalus; his skill in his art exhibits him as a rival of
Vulcan; his grandfather Wiking, like Ulysses, "_æquoreas torsit amore
Deas_." The Alcinas and Armidas of the modern Italians are only
heightened copies of Calypso and Circe; Siegfried, Orlando and Ferraù,
with their invulnerable hides and superfluous armor, are each of them a
modernized Achilles. This list might be easily lengthened. I am not,
however, aware that the fancy of giving names to swords can be traced to
the classics. Durindana, the sword of Orlando, Fusberta, that of
Rinaldo, Excalibur, of King Arthur, Joyeuse, of Charlemagne, and others,
may be paralleled by the following list from Northern fable, Gram and
Balmung belonging to Siegfried, Mimung to Wayland and Wittich, Nagelring
to Dietrich, Brinnig to Hildebrand, Sachs to Eck, Blutang to Heime,
Schrit to Biterolf, Welsung to Sintram the Greek and Dietlieb, Waske to
Iring, etc. This list is anything but perfect.
(St. LV.) The _tarnkappe_, from an old word _tarnen_ to conceal, and
_kappe_, _a mantle or cloak_, otherwise called _nebelkappe_, from
_nebel_, mist, obscurity, was a long and broad mantle, which made the
wearer invisible, and gave him the strength of twelve men. For want of a
better word I have translated it "cloud-cloak."
FOURTH ADVENTURE
(St. I.) Lachmann's Second Lay begins here, and ends with St. CXXII,
Fourth Adventure.
(St. XLIV)
A Skottysshe knight hoved upon te bent,
A wache I dare well saye;
So was he ware on the noble Percy
In the dawnynge of the daye.
English "Battle of Otterbourne."
(St. LXVII.) In this poem "_the Rhine_" is used to express the dominion
of Gunther, though, strictly speaking, Siegfried was himself from the
Rhine, being a native of Xanten. It is remarkable that at St. I, Second
Adventure, this last circumstance is stated, and yet at St. XIII and St.
XV, Third Adventure, in the conversation between Siegfried and his
father, both of whom were then at Xanten, the phrase _ze Rîne_ is used
with reference to Gunther's country.
(St. LXIX.) "slew him many a slain." This phrase is borrowed from Samson
Agonistes.
FIFTH ADVENTURE
(St. I.) Lachmann's Third Lay begins here, and ends with St. LX of this
Adventure.
(St. XX.)
Ne she was derke ne browne, but bright,
And clear as the Moone light,
Againe whom all the starres semen
But small candles, as we demen.
Chaucer's "Romaunt of the Rose" in the description of Beauty.
For all afore, that seemed fayre and bright,
Now base and contemptible did appeare,
Compar'd to her that shone as Phebes light
Among the lesser starres in evening clear.
"Faerie Queene," IV, v. 14.
(St. XXIII.) So Chaucer says of Mirth in the "Romaunt of the Rose":
He seemed like a portreiture,
So noble was he of his stature.
(St. XXVIII.) In the last verse of this stanza Lachmann thinks
_magetlîchen_, not _minnelîchen_, was the original word; "We have,"
says he rather austerely, "love enough and to spare in St. XXX, Fifth
Adventure;" and certainly, if he be justified in rejecting St. CCXCVIII,
and consequently in putting St. CCXCIX next to St. CCXCVII, there is
rather a superabundance of the tender passion with _minnelîchen_, in two
successive lines, and _minne_ in a third. On the other hand, it may be
said that this very superabundance is produced by Lachmann's own
rejection of St. CCXCVIII, and that to alter the text of the preceding
stanza in consequence of that rejection, is something like what lawyers
call taking advantage of one's own wrong. But however that may be, it
cannot be denied, that _magetlîchen_ is in St. CCXCVII far more
appropriate than _minnelîchen_, and its suits my convenience as a
translator infinitely better. I have therefore gladly adopted it.
(St. XL.)
In fame's eternal beadroll worthy to be fil'd.
"Faerie Queene."
SIXTH ADVENTURE
(St. II.) Lachmann's Fourth Lay begins here, and ends with St. LXXXVIII.
The poem, which we now possess under the name of the Nibelungenlied,
throws into the shade the early history of Siegfried and Brunhild, and
retains only a few obscure allusions to the fact that they were old
acquaintances. See the Preface.
_Issland_, the Kingdom of Brunhild, which I have thus written to
distinguish it from our English word _island_, is identified by von der
Hagen with Iceland; Wackernagel, in the Glossary to his "Alt-deutsches
Lesebuch" prefers to derive it from _Itisland_ (_itis_, woman in old
German), the land of women or Amazons. It is however against this
derivation, that, though Brunhild was a "Martial Maid" herself, her
kingdom was not a kingdom of Amazons, like that of Radigund in the
"Faerie Queene." Her female attendants were like other women, and her
knights and the officers of her court were of the other sex.
(St. XVI.) In this stanza and those that follow we may clearly discern
that several versions of the same tale have been huddled together. The
same thing may be observed in other parts of the poem, but nowhere so
clearly as here. For the _tarnkappe_ see the note to St. CI.
(St. XXXVIII.)
tuus, O Regina, quid optes
Explorare labor, mihi jussa capessere fas est.
(St. XLV.) Zazamanc, according to von der Hagen, is a city in Asia
Minor; Lachmann seems to place it in the Land of Romance.
(St. XLVI.) The hides here meant, according to von der Hagen, are the
hairy ones of warm-blooded marine animals rather than the skins of
fishes properly so called.
(St. LII.) This stanza (not to mention some others) must have been
interpolated by a poetical tailor.
(St. LXIII.) According to von der Hagen, the best Rhenish wine is
produced about Worms. It is called "Our Lady's Milk," and is superior to
Lacryma Christi.
SEVENTH ADVENTURE
(St. XII.) The Ballad of Lord Thomas and Fair Annet has something
similar of the lady's horse:
Four and twenty siller bells
Wer a' tyed till his mane,
And yae tift of the norland wind,
They tinkled ane by ane.
(St. XVI.) This description of a castle (_burc_) does not materially
differ from those which occur elsewhere in the poem. The castle was not
one building, however large and complex, but included in the same ample
circuit of its walls several extensive buildings, and afforded
sufficient accommodation for a very great number of persons. The most
conspicuous of the buildings within the castle seem to have been large
detached erections, to which in this poem are applied the words _hûs_
(house), _palas_ (palace), _sal_ (hall), and _gadem_ (room). In the
passage before us, _palas_ and _sal_ are distinguished from one another;
the same is the case at St. LXXXIV, Twenty-fourth Adventure (_palas unde
sal_), and at St. XXXVII, Ninth Adventure, where Etzel's and Gunther's
dwellings are respectively spoken of. On the other hand, the hall where
the Burgundians feast with Etzel, and where the repeated conflicts take
place, is called _palas_ at St. XIX, Thirty-sixth Adventure, _sal_ at
St. XX, same Adventure, _hûs_ at St. IX, same Adventure, and _gadem_ at
St. XX, Thirty-ninth Adventure, not to mention other passages; and the
large building in Etzel's castle, where Gunther and his knights sleep,
is called _sal_ at stanzas VII and XVI, _hûs_ at stanzas XV and XVII,
and _gadem_ at St. XIX, of the Thirtieth Adventure. These terms
therefore seem nearly synonymous, or at least equally applicable to the
large detached buildings in question, which resembled our public halls,
such as Westminster hall and Guild-hall, and the halls of colleges and
Inns of Court. Some of the halls in this poem seem to have been of truly
poetical dimensions. Gunther (St. XXVI, of the Thirteenth Adventure)
entertains in his hall twelve hundred knights of Siegfried's, besides
his own Burgundians. Etzel's circle was still more numerous. The
Burgundian knights were more than a thousand in number; Rudeger's five
hundred or more: Dietrich had many a stately man, no doubt the six
hundred mentioned at St. IV, of the Thirty-second Adventure, and we
learn from stanza V, of the Thirty-fourth Adventure, that 7,000 Huns
were massacred by the Burgundians; all these made up a dinner party of
about 9,000 guests. The less aristocratic followers of Gunther, 9,000 in
number, seem also to have been feasting in one immense room, when the
Huns took advantage of their unarmed condition to massacre them. The
term, indeed, applied to the building is _hûs_, but this, we have seen,
is one of the words used to designate great public halls. The hall,
where Gunther and his knights lay so splendidly (St. IX, Thirtieth
Adventure), seems to have been an Eton Long Chamber on a gigantic scale.
After allowing for the twelve knights with Dankwart and the yeomen, he
must have had more than a thousand warriors in his train. Treachery and
violence were so common in the Middle Ages, that a great man was not
safe except with a multitude of dependents about him, and the peculiar
circumstances of Gunther's case required peculiar precaution. Yet even
Siegfried took a thousand warriors of his own, and a hundred of
Siegmund's, when they went together to visit his brother-in-law. These
large halls were used for feasting, dancing, conversation, and sleeping,
but there were other smaller separate buildings (_kemenaten_) for the
residence of people of consequence, which no doubt contained several
rooms. These also formed the bowers, or private apartments, of high-born
ladies. The _kamere_ (chamber) seems to have been a room used for all
sorts of purposes, among others for keeping stores and treasure as well
as for living and sleeping. There seem to have been no private chapels
within the walls of the castles described in this poem, none, for
instance, such as St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, or the chapels
in our Inns of Court and Colleges. Everybody went for his divinity to
the minster. Kriemhild, who was in the habit of going to matins before
daybreak, took her way to the minster, though it was so far from the
castle at Worms that the ladies (St. XXXIV, Thirteenth Adventure) rode
on horseback from one to the other. Gunther's castle was connected with
the city of Worms, but seems to have communicated with the surrounding
country, like the citadels of our present fortified towns. At stanzas
XXXII, XXXIII, Thirteenth Adventure, the ladies view from the castle
windows a tournament held in the country outside the walls. Etzel's
castle, as far as I remember, is not represented as connected with any
town.
(St. XXII.) All this description of the adventurers bears a resemblance
to the passage in the Iliad where Helen points out the Greek chiefs to
Priam; it reminds us also of the imitation of Homer in the "Jerusalem
Delivered."
(St. XXXIV.) Siegfried here seems to apologize to Brunhild for
presenting himself before her.
(St. XLIII.) Compare stanzas LXXXIV, Seventh Adventure--LXXXV, Tenth
Adventure--XXXI, Nineteenth Adventure, and the observations.
(St. XLVI.) I cannot understand how the skin could be seen under a
silken surcoat, which was so strong as never to have been cut by weapon,
and which was moreover worn over a breastplate. Lachmann has reason to
say "_die Brunne ist vergessen_."
(St. LXX.)
So did Sir Artegal upon her lay,
As if she had an iron anvil been,
That flakes of fire, bright as the sunny ray,
Out of her steely arms were flashing seen,
That all on fire you would her surely ween.
"Faerie Queene," V, v. 8.
(St. LXX.) For _der helt_, the hero, Lachmann conjectures _der helde_,
the concealed one.
(St. LXXXVIII.) According to Lachmann the Fourth Lay concludes with this
stanza (L. St. XLII). What follows between this stanza and St. XLI,
Tenth Adventure (L. St. XXVII, Ninth Adventure) he considers to consist
of two continuations by different authors. Among other matters, they
contain the two marriages of Brunhild and Kriemhild, events which I can
scarcely imagine to have been passed over without notice, though I admit
that they are not related in the clearest manner.
EIGHTH ADVENTURE
(St. I.) Lachmann observes that this stanza is inconsistent with St.
LXXXIV, Seventh Adventure, where Siegfried is said to have taken the
cloak back to the ship.
(St. XVIII.) Siegfried, I suppose, was not recognized from being in
complete armor, but his shield might have identified him, as in the
battle with the Saxons. Nothing is said here of what he had done with
his _tarnkappe_.
(St. XXIII.) The _lûtertranc_ (clear drink) was wine passed through
spices, and afterward strained.
(St. XLV.) Our common participle _bound_ (bound for such and such a
place) seems in this sense to be derived from the old northern verb
_bown_, to make ready, and not from _bind_.
And Jedburgh heard the Regent's order,
That each should bown him for the border.
"Lay of the Last Minstrel."
NINTH ADVENTURE
(St. I.) According to Lachmann (L. St. XCV, Seventh Adventure) another
continuation begins here. He thinks this addition is by another author
than the composer of the first, and that it resembles in several
respects the Third Lay of his edition, which answers to the Fifth
Adventure ("How Siegfried first saw Kriemhild") of other editions.
(St. III.) Hagan here speaks ironically, but with good nature, as to a
friend. He exhibits the same turn, but with the bitterness that suits
the change of circumstances and the person whom he addresses, in his
dialogues with his enemy Kriemhild, when he meets her in Hungary.
(St. XXVII, Ninth Adventure.) The lady supplies the place of the modern
pocket handkerchief _mit snêblanken gêren_ in the original. The German
_gêre_ is evidently the English _gore_, a word which puzzled no less a
person than Tyrwhitt, and which Johnson, who writes it _goar_, has
confounded with the _gusset_. The latter is the piece under the arm of a
shirt; the gore, as Tyrwhitt was afterward accurately informed by "a
learned person," is a common name for a slip, which is inserted to widen
a garment in any particular part. It is a wedge-shaped piece, as the
German commentators say of their _gêre_. Shirts at present, however it
may have been in Chaucer's or in Tyrwhitt's time, are not made with
gores; the opening on each side renders gores unnecessary; but in the
female of the shirt and in the smockfrock, gores are, I believe, still
used. The passage in Chaucer illustrates the passage before us. The poet
says of the Carpenter's Wife (Canterbury Tales, 3235)--
A seint (girdle) she wered, barred all of silk,
A barme-cloth (apron) eke white as morwe (morning) milk
Upon hire lendes (loins) full of many a gore.
In the last line the expression "full of many a gore" means, probably,
full made, spread out by means of many a gore; otherwise "full of gores"
would have been sufficient, and the addition of "many" an inelegant
piece of surplusage. However that may be, it is clear that the apron
stuck out and extended round the person of the wearer in consequence of
the number of these gores, or wedge-shaped pieces, which made the bottom
much wider than the top. An apron, thus made up of a multitude of gores,
might not unaptly be itself called in the plural a woman's gores, and
this seems to have been formerly the case in Germany. Kriemhild is here
said to wipe her eyes with snow-white gores, and, in the Gudrun, the
heroine of that name is rated by the tyrannical Gerlind for wrapping up
her hands indolently in her gores. It is of course impossible for a
translator to render these two passages literally, at least if he wishes
to be intelligible.
(St. XLVIII.) The commentators are not particularly clear as to what
these garments, called in the original "noble Ferrans robes," really
were. Von der Hagan says there must have been a city of that name in the
East, from which these robes came, while Lachmann says there is a stuff
composed of silk and wool, which still goes by the name of _ferrandine_.
The Dictionary of the French Academy mentions a silk stuff as _formerly_
going by that name.
TENTH ADVENTURE
(St. XLI.) Lachmann's Fifth Lay begins here, and concludes with St.
DCCV.
(St. LXIX.) The cord or girdle, thus worn by ladies, seems to have been
tolerably strong, not merely from the use to which Brunhild put hers
here, but also from the manner in which Florimel's is applied by Sir
Satyrane.--"Faerie Queene," III, vii., 36.
The golden ribband, which that virgin wore
About her slender waste, he took in hand,
And with it bownd the beast, that lowd did rore
For great despight of that unwonted band.
(St. LXXII.)
Ἰλίῳ αἰπεινᾷ Πάρις οὐ γάμον, ἀλλά τιν' ἄταν
ἀγάγετ' εὐναίαν ἐς Θαλάμους Ἑλέναν.
Eurip. Androm. 103.