The Nibelungenlied Part 64

Lx.x.x

"Small cause hast thou," said Siegfried, "to glory in my fate.

Had I ween'd, thy friends.h.i.+p cloak'd such murderous hate, From such as thou full lightly could I have kept my life.

Now grieve I but for Kriemhild, my dear, my widow'd wife.

Lx.x.xI

"Now may G.o.d take pity, that e'er I had a son, Who this reproach must suffer from deed so foully done, That by his murderous kinsmen his father thus was slain.

Had I but time to finish, of this I well might plain.

Lx.x.xII

"Surely so base a murder the world did never see,"

Said he, and turn'd to Gunther, "as you have done on me.

I sav'd your life and honor from shame and danger fell, And thus am I requited by you I serv'd so well."

Lx.x.xIII

Then further spake the dying, and speaking sigh'd full deep, "Oh king! if thou a promise with anyone wilt keep, Let me in this last moment thy grace and favor find For my dear love and lady, the wife I leave behind.

Lx.x.xIV

"Remember, she's thy sister, yield her a sister's right, Guard her with faith and honor, as thou'rt a king and knight.

My father and my followers for me they long must wait, Comrade ne'er found from comrade so sorrowful a fate."

Lx.x.xV

In his mortal anguish he writh'd him to and fro, And then said, deadly groaning, "This foul and murderous blow Deep will ye rue hereafter; this for sure truth retain, That in slaying Siegfried you yourselves have slain."

Lx.x.xVI

With blood were all bedabbled the flowerets of the field.

Some time with death he struggled, as though he scorn'd to yield E'en to the foe, whose weapon strikes down the loftiest head.

At last p.r.o.ne in the meadow lay mighty Siegfried dead.

Lx.x.xVII

When now the chiefs were certain that dead was the good knight, They laid him on a buckler with gold all richly dight, Then counsel took together the general to mislead, And keep the shameful secret that Hagan did the deed.

Lx.x.xVIII

Then many said, repenting, "This deed will prove our bale; Still let us shroud the secret, and all keep in one tale, That the good lord of Kriemhild to hunt alone preferr'd, And so was slain by robbers as through the wood he spurr'd."

Lx.x.xIX

"I'll bring him home, and gladly," said Hagan, frowning stern; "As to his wife, I reck not whether the truth she learn, Who slander'd gentle Brunhild, and wrought her so much ill.

I care not for her weeping, do she whate'er she will."

XC

Of that same little runnel where Siegfried murder'd fell, The true and rightful story you now shall hear me tell.

In th' Odenwald is a village, Odenheim is its name.

There still the brook is running; doubt not it is the same.

SEVENTEENTH ADVENTURE

HOW SIEGFRIED WAS BEWAILED AND BURIED

I

Till nightfall there they tarried, and then the Rhine recross'd; Never yet hunted warriors at such a grievous cost.

Many a fair lady sorrow'd for a hart they slew that day; The life of many a champion must for that hunting pay.

II

Of overweening outrage now must tell my strain, And dire revenge remorseless; the dead, thus foully slain, As though athirst for horrors, Hagan bade bear away, And cast before the chamber where unweeting Kriemhild lay.

III

He bade his followers darkling down lay him at the door, That she might surely find him, as she stepp'd the threshold o'er.

Going forth to matins ere the dawn of day, For from a single service she seldom kept away.

IV

The minster bells were ringing at th' early 'custom'd hour.

Upstarted then fair Kriemhild, and wak'd each maid in bower.

For light she call'd and vesture that she might straight be gown'd.

A chamberlain hasten'd thither, and there Sir Siegfried found.

V