Now the word that Hagen answered full well was heard of the _The Lay of the Nibelung Men

How flashed 'twixt her half-closed eyelids her hate's glance

bitter-keen!

But as touching her fatherland's custom not she would utter the

truth,

Albeit Burgundia's daughter had known it full well from her youth.

How grim and stern soever was the Queen's mood unto her foe,

Had any revealed her purpose unto Etzel the King, I trow,

He had verily prevented the thing that thereafter befell;

But their pride thought scorn of complaining, and nought unto him

would they tell.

To the minster-door paced Kriemhild with a multitude in her train;

Yet to step aside at her coming they two would nowise deign

Two handbreadths: wroth were the Hunfolk, as men that chafe being

wronged,

For in passing the stalwart heroes their Queen was jostled and

thronged.

Wroth with their reckless defiance were Etzel's chamberlains:

Full fain from the path had they thrust them, and angered those

insolent thanes,

Had they but dared in the presence of the great King to do aught.

So then there was thronging and pressing, but more than this was

there nought.

{P. 255}

When again they turned them homeward from holy chant and prayer,

High-borne upon goodly chargers hosts of the Hunfolk were.

In Kriemhild's train moreover was many a winsome maid,

And warriors full seven thousand in the Queen's war-band were

arrayed.

Amidst of her ladies Kriemhild at the casement sat on high

At Etzel's side: that pageant well-pleased he saw sweep by.

They would fain see the far-famed heroes ride in the tourney-ring.

What gallant Burgundian barons were in presence of the King!

Now came Burgundia's marshal bringing the mighty steeds,

And came with Dankwart the valiant to minister unto their needs

The squires of the princes and barons, the lords of Burgundia-land;

And they brought out the good steeds saddled for the Niblung

warrior-band.

So soon as they all were mounted, the Princes and their men,

Volker the fearless captain gave them his counsel then

After their own land's fashion to close in the wild mellay.

Then into the lists the heroes rode in gallant array.

That which the minstrel counselled, was none that against it spake.

Then in the lists did the clashing and clanging of arms awake.

Into the spacious tilt-yard thronged many a thane to the strife:

And high over all sat gazing King Etzel and his wife.

Unto the place of the tourney six hundred warriors came--

Knights were they all of Dietrich--to meet those guests of fame.

They would clash in the mimic battle with the sons of Burgundy:

Had their lord but given them licence, they had done it joyfully.

Ha, they were goodly warriors that rode to the barriers!

But tidings of their purpose were borne unto Dietrich's ears:

Forthright their clashing in tourney with Gunther's men he forbade.

He feared for his vassals, lest mischief befall them--good cause he

had!

And so, when the knights of Dietrich were thus withheld from the

fray,

On came the men of Bechlaren, even Rüdiger's array;

Five hundred in front of the palace rode under buckler-fence.

Well pleased had been the Margrave, afar had they tarried thence.

{P. 256}

On through the press fast riding he came to his retinue,

And he spake unto all his liegemen: "It must needs be known unto you

How chafed and ungentle of spirit the warriors of Rhineland be.

Ye therefore refrain from the tourney, and so shall ye pleasure me."

So when these war-fain heroes had turned from the lists away,

Then came Thuringia's champions, as telleth the ancient lay,

And valiant men from Daneland a thousand with these there were.

Then the shards of the shivered lances went leaping high through the

air.

Into the ringing tourney Irnfried and Hawart rode,

But the champions of the Rhineland their onset proudly abode;

And they clashed with the knights Thuringian in the hero-sport of

spears:

Full many a goodly shield-rim did the lightening lances pierce.

Then came the good knight Blödel, and followed him thousands three.

Etzel the King and Kriemhild watched full eagerly

The meeting of charging squadrons, the gallant glorious fray:

But in fierce joy Kriemhild waited till her hate should have its way.

seen--

"If haply any be wounded, then, ah then, I ween,

This sport may grow into earnest: then over my scornful foe

Should I stand in revenge triumphant--small were my grief, I trow!"

Then clashed Gibeke and Schrutan with the strangers front to front,

And with them Hornbog and Ramung, after the Hunnish wont:

Yet stayed by the knights Burgundian were the onsets of them all.

The splintered spear-shafts whirling flew over the palace-wall.

Yet, how featly they rode soever, it was nought but empty sound.

With clanging of smitten bucklers rang wide echoes round

From mansion and hall, as the champions of Gunther clashed with the

Hun.

High praise and glorious honour by his mighty men were won.

So strenuous was their pastime as in grapple of giants they met,

That drenched were the saddle-housings with foam-flakes and with

sweat

From the goodly chargers dripping, as in gentle and joyous sport

The heroes against the Hunfolk matched them in chivalrous sort.

{P. 257}

Then the noble viol-minstrel, Volker the aweless, said:

"I trow these knights be faint-hearts; to meet us fairly they dread.

Yet hear I talk of their hatred, how bitter against us it is.

Sooth, never a better season may they find to prove it than this!

Now once more unto the stables," again Lord Volker cried,

"Let the squires lead back the horses. Peradventure again will we

ride

When draweth the day unto even, if haply the time suffice.

Perchance to the knights Burgundian will the Queen give valour's

prize!"

Then into the lists came riding one of such lordly mien

That in all the host of the Hunfolk no goodlier man was seen.

Perchance from a casement a dear one gazed on his pomp and his pride:

Like a maid was he richly apparelled, yea, like a young knight's

bride.

Then again in his scorn spake Volker: "Who now can forbear to smite?

He must needs take a buffet, yon minion of women, yon carpet-knight.

He hath set his life on the hazard: not I will be turned from my

path!

As for yon wife of King Etzel, nothing I reck of her wrath."

"Now nay, by my love I charge thee," said Gunther, "do not thus!

All folk will blame if the first blood be wantonly shed by us.

Let the Huns be the first wrong-doers: it were more for our honour,

I ween."

--And all this while King Etzel at the casement sat with the Queen.

"I make one more in the tourney," cried Hagen instantly.

"We will let yon dames at their casements and the knights that throng

us see

How knightly is our jousting: yea, it were right well done.

In any wise, from our foemen small praise shall by us be won."

Volker the battle-eager again rode into the strife:

That onset to many a woman with sore heart-anguish was rife.

From breast to back his lance-head hath pierced that noble Hun.

That stroke wept many a maiden and matrons many an one.

Straightway returning Hagen came with his hero-train;

With his own threescore warriors he rode the lists again.

On pricked they to where the minstrel had shown them such grim sport.

--Etzel the while and Kriemhild gazed down on the stormy court.

{P. 258}

Now also Burgundia's princes would leave not void of aid

In the midst of unnumbered foemen that minstrel unafraid.

With a thousand heroes behind them, the flower of chivalry,

They rode the lords of the tourney, and their hearts were proud and

high.

Now when that knight of the Hunfolk in death had been thus laid low,

A cry brake forth from his kinsmen of lamentation and woe.

All through the throng were they shouting, "Now who hath done this

thing?"

Men answered, "Volker the dauntless, the lord of the viol-string."

They shouted, "Take ye the bucklers, and grip ye the sword in hand!"

Those friends of the slaughtered Margrave, the lords of the Hunfolk's

land.

Fain were they to smite the minstrel to death for that grim deed;

But down from the casement hasted the King with eager speed.

Then rose from the midst of the Hunfolk uproar that on all sides

rang.

Down to the earth from their saddles the Kings with their liegemen

sprang:

Behind them they put their horses, the men of Gunther's array.

Now cometh in haste King Etzel, with intent to part the fray.

From a man of the slain Hun's kinsmen, who chanced anigh him to

stand,

He gat him a sword keen-whetted, yea, tore it out of his hand,

And therewith beat back his people, and he cried in exceeding wrath:

"May I not keep faith with the heroes? Must I break my plighted

troth?

If ye had slain this minstrel in revenge for the deed he hath done,

On the word of a king, I had hanged you--I had hanged you every one!

As touching the spear-thrust given to the Hun--I marked him ride:--

It was not of his will, but his charger stumbled in his stride.

These be my guests: ye shall suffer that in peace they all go hence."

So himself became their escort. Led were the horses thence

To the stalls, for squires there waited, and henchmen not a few,

With swift obedience ready to render them service due.

So back to the hall of the palace his guests did the host-king lead:

He suffered in his presence no wrathful word or deed.

They set the tables in order, the water the pages bare:

--Yet many a most stern foeman had the Rhineland warriors there.

{P. 259}

Followed the lords Burgundian, and weapons had they all.

On the guests they scowled their hatred, as they passed to the

feastful board;

For they burned to avenge their kinsman when time and place should

accord.

thigh,"

Spake the lord of the land to his people, "is foul discourtesy

Now whoso dareth to offer an insult to any guest

Shall atone with his head for the outrage. Huns, ye have heard mine

hest."

Long was it, ere at the banquet seated were all those chiefs,

The while the heart of Kriemhild was racked with manifold griefs.

"O Prince of Bern," she pleaded, "this day must I of thee

Entreat both help and counsel in my sore perplexity."

Then unto her the good knight Hildebrand answer made:

"Whosoever slayeth the Niblungs doth it without mine aid.

What treasures tempt him soever, he taketh his death with the gold.

Never yet have they been vanquished, those warriors aweless-bold."

Siegfried, my lord, my belovèd, he murdered treacherously.

Who severeth him from his fellows, my gold shall guerdon him well.

My spirit should inly sorrow, if hurt to the rest befell."

That one should slay him only? Surely thyself mayst see

That if any beset him, his fellows with him will live or die.

Yea, small and great together, if he fell, in death would lie."

Then added and spake Lord Dietrich with knightly courtesy:

"O mighty Queen, I pray thee, put all such pleading by.

Never to me have thy kinsmen done any deed of wrong

That I should defy to battle such valiant thanes and strong.

For thy prayer, O noble Lady, small honour to thee is therein

That so thou devisest mischief against the lives of thy kin.

They came under pledge of friendship hither to Etzel's land.

It must needs be that Siegfried remaineth unavenged by Dietrich's

hand."

{P. 260}

So when in the Bernese champions no treachery might be found,

Unto Blödel her faith she plighted, by oath and by handclasp bound

To give him a fair wide lordship, which Nudung possessed of yore--

But ere long, smitten of Dankwart, he remembered her gift no more.

She said: "O Blödel my brother, unto thee for help I call.

My deadliest foes be gathered in yonder palace-hall,

Even they which murdered Siegfried, my belovèd lord, time was.

Unto him were I bounden for ever who now would avenge my cause."

Unto her made answer Blödel: "Know thou, O Lady and Queen,

In Etzel's presence I dare not let this hatred be seen

So long as unto thy kinsmen he showeth his favour still.

Never the King would forgive me, if I wrought them aught of ill."

"Nay, fear not thou, Lord Blödel; thy friend evermore will I stand,

And with guerdon of my silver and my gold will I fill thine hand,

And will give thee to wife that fair-one who was plighted Nudung's

bride,

And in cherishing her beauty shall thine heart be satisfied.

Her land withal and her castles will I give to be thine of right;

So shalt thou live in joyance evermore, O noble knight,

When thou shalt be lord of the marches that were Nudung's in days

gone by:

Yea, all that to-day I promise will I then do faithfully."

Then seemed unto Blödel the castles and the gold a guerdon fair,

And the witchery of beauty to his heart became a snare.

Fain was he by battle-prowess to win that fair-one to wife:

But foredoomed thereby was the warrior to cast away his life.

He spake to the Queen: "To the feast-hall pass thou unto thy place.

Ere these be ware of the peril, a tumult will I upraise.

For the wrong he hath done thee shall Hagen make atonement at last,

When this King Gunther's liegeman in bonds at thy feet I cast.

Now arm you all, my liegemen!" to his vassals did Blödel cry.

"We will forth against our foemen where in harbourage they lie.

My Lady, the wife of King Etzel, constrains me to this assay.

We must needs all set on the hazard life and limb this day!"

{P. 261}

So when from Blödel the warrior the Queen had wrung consent

To make beginning of conflict, to the feast-hall thence she went

Beside the great King Etzel, and their knights behind them pressed.

A terrible doom for the strangers she purposed within her breast.

declare:

Men saw great kings and mighty the crown before her bear;

Yea, high-born princes many and thanes of high degree

Before the Queen did service in great humility.

feast-hall wide,

And the chiefest and noblest among them were nearest set to his side.

For Christian knights and heathen were diverse meats prepared,

Yet all to the full were feasted, for all in his wisdom he cared.

arrayed,

And there before them the sewers all things in order laid

With diligent heed that nothing of all they lacked should fail:--

Too soon were revel and joyance turned into woe and wail!

Now since the flame of battle could be lit in none other way,--

For the old pain crying for vengeance in Kriemhild's heart still

lay,--

She caused that her child and Etzel's to the banquet-board should be

brought.

How by a vengeful woman could fearfuller deed be wrought?

Forth four men went from the feast-hall of Etzel's following,

And returned with the young prince Ortlieb, the little child of the

King;

And they set him before the princes--and Hagen sat thereby,

He through whose murderous hatred that child was doomed to die.

So then when the great King Etzel beheld his son brought in,

In faith and in lovingkindness he spake unto Kriemhild's kin:

"Behold, my friends and my kinsmen, mine only son is this,

And the child of Kriemhild your sister: your friend that shall be he

is.

If he favour his Rhineland kinsmen, a stalwart man shall he be,

Mighty withal and noble, valiant and comely to see.

{P. 262}

If I live, I will make him ruler of lordships twelve in my land:

So service fair shall be rendered to you of Ortlieb's hand.

Therefore I fain would pray you, belovèd kinsmen mine,

Whensoe'er again ye be riding homeward unto the Rhine,

That ye take him, the child of your sister, in that day home with

you,

And show all lovingkindness to my son as kinsmen true.

Train him in ways of honour, till unto man he shall grow;

Then, if to your land a mischief be done of any foe,

And he to his strength be waxen, his aid unto you shall he bring."

--And all this speech heard Kriemhild, the wife of Etzel the King.

"Yea, well may all these warriors in his loyal faith confide,

If ever he grow unto manhood," grimly Hagen replied;

"But the young king is but a weakling, I trow, in outward show.

Not oft to the court of Ortlieb shall folk behold me go."

Then the King looked sharply at Hagen, for stung by the word was he,

Albeit he answered nothing, of his kingly courtesy;

Yet his soul was chafed and indignant, for he deemed it nowise good.

Yea, also was Hagen's spirit nowise in jesting mood.

No less than the King were his servants indignant, a princely band,

That so evilly Hagen had spoken of the child of the lord of the land.

To sit and endure such insult as gall to their spirit seemed;

But of that which ere long by the warrior should be done, ah, little

they dreamed!

Would fain have fallen upon him--yea, that would the King, I wot,

Had his honour permitted; the hero had then been in evil plight.

More cruelly soon did he wrong him, that he slew his child in his

sight.

XXXII.

Of the Slaughter of the Squires and the Slaying of the Slayer

{P. 263}

Now the knights that Blödel gathered arrayed themselves forthright.

To the feast-hall they hied them, a thousand in hauberks harnessed

for fight,

To the hall where ranged at the tables the squires with Dankwart

sate.

Soon brake there forth between heroes the deadliest of all hate.

In strode the war-thane Blödel, and afront of the board stood grim.

But with friendly courtesy Dankwart the Marshal greeted him:

"With welcoming to our mansion, Lord Blödel, I hail thee now;

Yet I marvel at thy coming. What tidings bringest thou?"

"Thou hast nothing to do to greet me," sternly Blödel spake;

"Seeing my coming hither an end of thee shall make,

For that Hagen thy brother murdered Siegfried years agone;

For the deed with heroes many shalt thou to the Huns atone."

"Now nay, my good Lord Blödel," peaceably Dankwart replied;

"Sooth, this were a sorry ending for us all unto this high-tide!

But a child was I when Siegfried departed from light and life.

No cause know I why hated I should be of Etzel's wife."

"For thee, I know not and care not how the truth of the story lies:

Thy kinsmen, Hagen and Gunther, did it in any wise.

Defend you, ye doomed and homeless! Ye live not another day!

Here, now, with your lives the forfeit unto Kriemhild must ye pay!"

"Ha, will ye forbear not?" cried Dankwart, "ye messengers of death!

I repent me of mine entreaty: I had better have spared my breath!"

That keen knight battle-eager leapt from his place at the board;

He swept from out the scabbard a mighty and long sharp sword:

Therewith hath he dealt unto Blödel a stroke that as lightning

flashed;

And lo, his head in the helmet down at his feet was dashed.

{P. 264}

"That be thy morning bride-gift," the war-fain warrior cried,

"To the widowed wife of Nudung, whom thou wert to win for bride!

Ay, let them wed her to-morrow to another traitor yet:

If he craveth a dower, that Blödel hath gotten shall he too get!"

So scoffed he touching the tidings that a Hun true-hearted had

brought

Of the plot whereby Queen Kriemhild the destruction of all these

sought.

Then saw the men of Blödel how their good lord lay slain,

And their hands from the guests Burgundian no longer would they

refrain.

With swords for the onset uplifted they rushed in furious mood

On the squires--but this their emprise ere long full many rued.

With a great voice then to his henchmen all did Dankwart cry:

"Ye see well, squires brave-hearted, they have doomed us all to die!

Now, homeless men, defend you, for sore is your need, I ween,

--So then for this were we bidden guests of a gracious queen!"

Then, whoso were swordless, 'twixt table and seat good weapons they

found,

For many a massy footstool swung they up from the ground.

O yea, those youths Burgundian would flinch no foot from the fray,

But with those ponderous maces the foes' helms dinted they.

How grimly the friendless yeomen defended them in the fight!

Those armèd knights from the feast-hall they drave in huddled flight.

Five hundred--yea, more, it may be--fled not, for they lay there

dead.

There yeomen and squires all blood-drenched stood and crimson-red.

In a little while thereafter these heavy tidings came

To the knights of King Etzel: with anguish and wrath were their souls

aflame

That Blödel with all those warriors nought save death had won.

This had the brother of Hagen with his squires and his yeomen done.

Or ever the King might hear it, a host of the Hunfolk stood,

Two thousand--yea, more, it may be--mail-clad, in furious mood.

They fell on the squires--one ending alone could there be to the

strife;--

And they left of all that concourse no single soul in life.

For a mighty host did the traitors lead to that hostelry,

And the homeless men unarmoured withstood them valiantly.

{P. 265}

What profited strength and valour? One doom of death did they find.

--But the feet of a terrible vengeance were treading close behind.

Now must ye hear a marvel and a horror hard to be said:

Burgundian squires nine thousand in the hall of blood lay dead,

And with these lay the knights of Dankwart, twelve battle-helpers

good;

And alone at last and unholpen in the midst of his foes he stood.

The uproar fell to silence, the tumult was stilled for a space;

Then Dankwart glanced around him o'er the slaughter-reeking place:

"Alas for the dear friends," cried he, "that here in death lie low!

And I--woe's me!--I am standing alone in the midst of the foe!"

Upon that one man in fury did countless sword-strokes leap:

But the wife of many a hero for this had cause to weep.

Higher he lifted his buckler; the arm-brace lower he drew.

Then many a rifted harness was drenched with crimson dew.

Cried Aldrian's son: "My torment is greater than man may bear!

Give way, ye knights of the Hunfolk; let me win forth to free air,

That over the warfare-weary the cooling breeze may play!"

To the door through blows down-hailing he gallantly hewed his way.

When the battle-weary champion forth of the portal sprang,

How many swords unblooded then on his helmet rang

Wielded by them who had seen not the marvels wrought by his hand!

Forth leapt to meet them the hero, the pride of Burgundia-land.

"Now would to God," cried Dankwart, "that a messenger were but nigh,

Who should tell my brother Hagen of mine extremity,

Who am thus by armèd traitors beset before and behind!

Me from their midst would he rescue, or his own death here would he

find."

Answered the Hunfolk scoffing: "That messenger thou must be,

When into thy brother's presence we drag a dead man--thee!

Then first shall the liegeman of Gunther gaze on his own heart's woe.

Thou to the men of King Etzel hast here done mischief enow."

"Have done with your threats!" he shouted. "Give back, ye traitor

brood!

Else many a man's war-harness will I drench with his own life-blood.

{P. 266}

I, even I, to the palace will bear these tidings of bane,

And there of the wrong and the outrage to my lords will I complain."

Then he plunged in their midst, and such havoc he wrought in the

Hunnish horde,

That they shrank before him, and dared not close in the strife of the

sword;

But they hurled their spears, till so thickly did the shafts in his

buckler stand

That the weight thereof constrained him to cast it away from his

hand.

Then thought they to overbear him, that one man shieldless left.

Ha! but he hewed two-handed, and through helmet and brain he cleft.

Before him many a brave man went reeling and staggering back.

High praise and renown bold Dankwart won in the battle-wrack.

Then leapt his adversaries upon him to left and to right:--

Ha! but of these full many too hastily came to the fight!

Full on the foemen charged he, as chargeth a forest-boar

On the hounds in the wood--was valour like his seen ever before?

Now the word that Hagen answered full well was heard of the Queen.