The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Ix Part 31

SCENE VI

_Flourish of trumpets_. BRUNHILDA, FRIGGA, GUNTHER, HAGEN, VOLKER, _retainers_, KRIEMHILD _and_ UTE _approach them from the castle_.

GUNTHER.

And here's the castle!

My mother's coming now to welcome thee, Kriemhilda too.

VOLKER (_to BRUNHILDA, _as the women approach each other_).

Are they no gain to thee?

HAGEN.

Siegfried, a word! Thy trick availed us naught.

SIEGFRIED.

Availed us naught? Was she not vanquished then?

Is she not here?

HAGEN.

What profit is in that?

SIEGFRIED.

Why, all!

HAGEN.

But nay! Who cannot take by force Her first caress will master nevermore This maid, and Gunther is not strong enough.

SIEGFRIED.

And has he tried?

HAGEN.

Why else should I complain?

In full sight of the castle! She at first Resisted him, as it befits a maid, And as our mothers may have done of old; But when she saw that but the lightest touch Sufficed to drive the ardent wooer forth, She grew enraged, and, when he tarried still, She seized and held him with her outstretched arm Above the Rhine. A shame it was to him, A shame to all of us.

SIEGFRIED.

She is a witch!

HAGEN.

Chide not, but help!

SIEGFRIED.

I think that if the priest But married them--

HAGEN.

Were that old hag not there, The woman that attends her! All day long She spies and questions, and she sits by her As the embodiment of wise old age.

I fear the nurse the most.

UTE (_to_ KRIEMHILD _and_ BRUNHILDA).

Now love each other, And may the circlet that your arms have twined In this first joyful moment widen out Further and further to a perfect ring Within which you may wander, side by side, Sharing your joys in harmony complete!

Yours is a privilege that I had not, For what I might not say unto my lord I had to bear in silence; but at least I could not speak complainingly of him.

KRIEMHILD.

Let us be like two sisters.

BRUNHILDA.

For your sake Your son and brother may imprint the seal Upon my lips that stamps me as his maid Before the nightfall comes, for I am still Unblemished and untouched like some young tree, And were it not for your sweet gentleness Forever would I hold this shame afar.

UTE.

Thou speak'st of shame?

BRUNHILDA.

Forgive me for that word; I speak but as I feel. And I am strange Here in your world, and as my rugged land Would surely terrify you, were you there, So does your land alarm me, for I feel That here I could not have been born at all--Yet must I live here!--Is the sky so blue Forever?

KRIEMHILD.

Nearly all the time 'tis blue.

BRUNHILDA.

We know not blue, unless we see blue eyes, And those we only have with ruddy hair And milk-white faces! Is it always still, And does the wind blow never?

KRIEMHILD.

Sometimes storms O'erwhelm the land, and then the day is night With thunderpeals and lightning.

BRUNHILDA.

Would it come Today!--'Twould be a greeting from my home!

I cannot well endure the brilliant light; It pains me and it makes me feel so bare, As if no garment here were thick enough!

And are those flowers--red and gold and green?

KRIEMHILD. Thou ne'er hast seen them, yet thou know'st their hues?