The Nibelungenlied
By George Henry Needler, Translator
Eighteenth Adventure - How Siegmund fared Home Again
1073
Then went royal Siegmund / where he Kriemhild found. Unto the queen spake he: / “Home must we now be bound. We ween that guests unwelcome / here are we by the Rhine. Kriemhild, beloved lady, / come now to country that is mine.
1074
“Though from us hath been taken / by foul traitor’s hand Thy good spouse and noble / here in stranger land, Thine be it not to suffer: / good friend thou hast in me For sake of son beloved: / thereof shalt thou undoubting be.
1075
“Eke shalt thou have, good lady, / all the power to hold, The which erstwhile hath shown thee / Siegfried the thane full bold. The land and the crown likewise, / be they thine own to call, And gladly eke shall serve thee / Siegfried’s doughty warriors all.”
1076
Then did they tell the servants / that they thence would ride, And straight to fetch the horses / these obedient hied. ’Mid such as so did hate them / it grieved them more to stay: Ladies high and maidens / were bidden dress them for the way.
1077
When that for royal Siegmund / stood ready horse and man, Her kinsmen Lady Kriemhild / to beseech began That she from her mother / would still forbear to go. Then spake the lofty lady: / “That might hardly yet be so.
1078
“How might I for ever / look with eyes upon Him that to me, poor woman, / such evil thing hath done?" Then spake the youthful Giselher: / “Sister to me full dear, By thy goodness shalt thou / tarry with thy mother here.”
1079
“Who in this wise have harmed thee / and so grieved thy heart, Thyself may’st spurn their service: / of what is mine take part." Unto the knight she answered: / “Such thing may never be. For die I must for sorrow / when that Hagen I should see.”
1080
“From need thereof I’ll save thee, / sister full dear to me, For with thy brother Giselher / shalt thou ever be. I’ll help to still thy sorrow / that thy husband lieth dead." Then spake she sorrow-stricken: / “Thereof in sooth had Kriemhild need.”
1081
When that the youthful Giselher / such kindly offer made, Then her mother Ute / and Gernot likewise prayed, And all her faithful kinsmen, / that she would tarry there: For that in Siegfried’s country / but few of her own blood there were.
1082
“To thee they all are strangers," / did Gernot further say. Nor lived yet man so mighty / but dead at last he lay. Bethink thee that, dear sister, / in comfort of thy mood. Stay thou amid thy kinsmen, / I counsel truly for thy good.”
1083
To Giselher she promised / that she would tarry there. For the men of Siegmund / the horses ready were, When they thence would journey / to the Nibelungen land: On carrying-horses laden / the knights’ attire did ready stand.
1084
Went the royal Siegmund / unto Kriemhild then; He spake unto the lady: / “Now do Siegfried’s men Await thee by the horses. / Straight shall we hence away, For ’mid the men of Burgundy / unwilling would I longer stay.”
1085
Then spake the Lady Kriemhild: / “My friends have counselled me, That by the love I bear them, / here my home shall be, For that no kinsmen have I / in the Nibelungen land." Grieved full sore was Siegmund / when he did Kriemhild understand.
1086
Then spake the royal Siegmund: / “To such give not thine ear, A queen ’mid all my kinsmen, / thou a crown shalt wear And wield as lordly power / as e’er till now thou hast. Nor thou a whit shalt forfeit, / that we the hero thus have lost.
1087
“And journey with us thither, / for child’s sake eke of thine: Him shalt thou never, lady, / an orphan leave to pine. When hath grown thy son to manhood, / he’ll comfort thee thy mood. Meanwhile shall ready serve thee / many a warrior keen and good.”
1088
She spake: “O royal Siegmund, / I may not thither ride, For I here must tarry, / whate’er shall me betide, ’Mid them that are my kinsmen, / who’ll help my grief to share." The knights had sore disquiet / that such tidings they must hear.
1089
“So might we say full truly," / spake they every one, “That unto us still greater / evil now were done, Would’st thou longer tarry / here amid our foes: In sooth were never journey / of knights to court more full of woes.”
1090
“Now may ye free from trouble / in God’s protection fare: I’ll bid that trusty escort / shall you have in care Unto Siegmund’s country. / My child full dear to me, Unto your knights’ good mercy / let it well commended be.”
1091
When that they well perceived / how she would not depart, Wept all the men of Siegmund / and sad they were at heart. In what right heavy sorrow / Siegmund then took leave Of the Lady Kriemhild! / Full sore thereover must he grieve.
1092
“Woe worth this journey hither," / the lofty monarch spake. “Henceforth from merry meeting / shall nevermore o’ertake King or his faithful kinsmen / what here our meed hath been. Here ’mid the men of Burgundy / may we never be more seen.”
1093
Then spake the men of Siegfried / in open words and plain: “An might we right discover / who our lord hath slain, Warriors bent on vengeance / shall yet lay waste this ground. Among his kin in plenty / may doughty foemen be found.”
1094
Anon he kissed Kriemhild / and spake sorrowfully, When she there would tarry, / and he the same did see: “Now ride we joy-forsaken / home unto our land. First now what ’tis to sorrow / do I rightly understand.”
1095
From Worms away sans escort / unto the Rhine they rode: I ween that they full surely / did go in such grim mood, That had against them any / aught of evil dared, Hand of keen Nibelungen / had known full well their life to guard.
1096
Nor parting hand they offered / to any that were there.
Then might ye see how Gernot / and likewise Giselher
Did give him loving greeting. / That as their very own
They felt the wrong he suffered, / by the courteous knights and brave
was shown.
1097
Then spake in words full kindly / the royal knight Gernot: “God in heaven knoweth / that of guilt I’ve naught In the death of Siegfried, / that e’er I e’en did hear Who here to him were hostile. / Well may I of thy sorrow share.”
1098
An escort safe did furnish / the young knight Giselher: Forth from out that country / he led them full of care, The monarch with his warriors, / to Netherland their home. How joyless is the greeting / as thither to their kin they come!
1099
How fared that folk thereafter, / that can I nowise say. Here heard ye Kriemhild plaining / as day did follow day, That none there was to comfort / her heart and sorry mood, Did Giselher not do it; / he faithful was to her and good.
1100
The while the fair Queen Brunhild / in mood full haughty sat, And weep howe’er did Kriemhild, / but little recked she that, Nor whit to her of pity / displayed she evermore. Anon was Lady Kriemhild / eke cause to her of sorrow sore.
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