Eckwart, Lord of the Marches, unto her with his war-band clave,
In Burgundia-land abiding constrained by his fealty;
And aye for the dead with his mistress he mourned right bitterly.
{p. 150}
At Worms hard by the minster they reared her a palace-hall
Wide and stately-builded, and royally-dight withal:
And there with her handmaids round her that joyless one abode,
And oft she fared to the minster, for she loved the house of God.
There, where her belovèd was buried, full seldom her presence failed;
Day after day did she enter with spirit that inly wailed,
And prayed unto God the Almighty to take to his mercy his soul:
Ay, ever the faithful-hearted made for the knight great dole.
Came Uta and all her women to comfort her day by day;
But Kriemhild’s wounded spirit so crushed ’neath affliction lay,
That nothing availed consolation that the lips of the loving spake,
Forasmuch as with sharper anguish did her heart for her lost love ache
Than wife felt ever for husband, were her sorrow never so keen;
And the love of the true and faithful herein was of all men seen
That on to the end she mourned him, long as endured her life,
Till that great vengeance for Siegfried was wreaked at last by the wife.
So sat she sorrow-shrouded—truth is it the minstrel saith—
On till the fourth year’s dawning after her dear lord’s death;
And never a word unto Gunther her lips had uttered yet,
Never her eyes upon Hagen her mortal foe had she set.
Then Hagen spake unto Gunther: “If haply this might be done
That thou so couldst appease thy sister that again ye were set at one,
Then the gold of the Hoard of the Niblungs might unto thy kingdom be brought:
And how much might be thine, if Kriemhild unto lovingkindness were wrought!”
Said Gunther: “We will essay it. By my brethren may she be beguiled:
These shall beset her with pleading that now she be reconciled.
We may win her to bring that treasure—yea, share it willingly.”
“Nay, sooth I misdoubt me,” said Hagen, “that this may ever be.”
Then the King sent word unto Ortwein unto the palace to fare,
And the Lord of the Marches, Gere: when these were gotten there,
Gernot withal, and the young Prince Giselher, they brought.
And these with words of kindness on their lips unto Kriemhild sought.
{p. 151}
Then spake the Prince Burgundian Gernot the first, and he said:
“Behold, overlong thou mournest, Lady, for Siegfried dead.
Sure proof shall of Gunther be given that he had no part in his death.
Yet for him folk hear thee mourning evermore with passionate breath.”
She said: “Him no man accuseth: it was Hagen who struck the blow.
Where only my lord could be wounded through me, through me did he know!
Whence should I have had misgivings of the hate unto him that he bare?
Else,” cried the Queen, “I had guarded my lips with jealous care
From the horror of such betrayal of my lord’s beloved life,
And had had no cause for weeping—oh wretched, wretched wife!
Never will I forgive him who wrought that dastard deed!”
Then for the King his brother did Giselher intercede.
(C) “Yea,” said she, “I needs must greet him, ye urge me so cruelly:
Yet so do ye make you partakers in Gunther’s sin against me.
He hath wrung my soul with anguish, who never wronged him yet!
My lips may grant him forgiveness, mine heart will never forget.”
(C) “Yet hereafter shall this be bettered,” whispered her kinsmen then.
If only the King by kindness may win her to smile again,
“He may yet by his love,” said Gernot, “fill all that void in her breast.”
Then again said the sorrow-burdened: “Behold, I grant your request:
I will meet the King, I will greet him.” The word unto Gunther they bring,
And to her with the best of his kinsfolk straightway cometh the King.
But Hagen the murderer dared not in the presence of Kriemhild be seen:
Too well did he know his vileness, the wrong he had done to the Queen.
Yet, seeing her hatred of Gunther was in semblance so put by,
With the kiss of reconcilement might he too have drawn nigh;
Yea, but for the felon plotting, the inexpiable wrong,
Even he might have stood unshrinking mid that false courtier-throng.
Never was reconcilement ’twixt sundered friend and friend
Made with such weeping. Rankled the wound in her heart without end.
Yet unto all forgiveness she granted—save that one.
No man would have slain him, had Hagen the wicked deed not done.
{p. 152}
Not long thereafter the plotters brought to pass their intent
That Kriemhild the Daughter of Princes for the Hoard of the Treasure sent
To the land of the Niblungs: to Rhineland she caused them to bring the same.
’Twas her morning-gift, nor its warders might hold it against her claim.
So Giselher and Gernot to bring that Hoard must wend;
And armed men eighty hundred did the Lady Kriemhild send
To bring that hidden treasure from the caverns wherein it lay,
And Alberich the Dwarf-knight and his stout friends warded it aye.
When they saw these men from the Rhineland which had come for the Treasure’s sake,
Then Alberich the valiant to his mighty kinsmen spake:
“We may nowise refuse this treasure, to yield it to her desire;
’Tis her Gift of the Marriage-morning, and the Queen doth her own require.
Howbeit,” said Alberich, “never had this befallen thus,
Except by chance most evil this too had been lost unto us,
The potent Hood of Darkness, which vanished when Siegfried died,
Which the lord of Kriemhild the lovely had ever by his side.
In an evil hour for Siegfried did the Hero win that prey,
And pluck the Hood of Darkness from the hands of its keepers away,
And therewithal the lordship of all this land did he seize.”
Then the seneschal went to the chambers where lay that cavern’s keys.
There stood those sent of Kriemhild in front of the mountain’s door,
And divers withal of her kinsmen. So all that treasure-store
Brought they down to the sea-flood, and the ships therewith were fraught.
So over the rolling waters and on to the Rhine was it brought.
Now of the Hoard of the Niblungs shall ye hear the marvel told:
Twelve wains to the utmost laden down from that mountain-hold
Must bear that treasure seaward: four days and nights toiled they,
Each going and each returning three times each several day.
Therein was there nothing meaner than precious stones and gold,
And if one therewith had purchased all wealth that the world could hold,
{p. 153}
“By not one mark is it minished!” whoso had seen it had said.
Not without cause that treasure was of Hagen coveted!
In its midst was the Wishing-rod lying, a little golden wand.
Whoso divined its virtue could stretch his sovereign hand
Over all the wide earth’s compass and all the folk therein.
Back to the Rhine with Gernot went many of Albrich’s kin.
(C) So then when the strong knight Gernot and the young prince Giselher
Had gotten the Hoard in possession, lords thereby they were
Of the Niblung land and its castles, and of many a noble knight:
Unto these came all in subjection through fear and awe of their might.
When in the land of Gunther that Hoard at last was seen,
And thereof was all the lordship laid in the hands of the Queen,
Therewith unto overflowing were towers and chambers stored.
Never since have been told such marvels of any treasure-hoard.
Ah, but had that great Treasure been greater a thousand-fold,
In its stead might she have but regiven from the grave her Siegfried the bold,
O gladly empty-handed had Kriemhild stood by his side!
Never was wife unto hero in love so true and tried.
When now that Hoard was Kriemhild’s, as a lode-star it drew to the land
Knights many from alien kingdoms: so freely bestowed her hand
That never such bounteous giving was seen in the olden days.
Unto all was she open-handed, and all men spoke her praise.
So freely thereof did she lavish on rich alike and on poor,
That Hagen spake unto Gunther: “Lo now, if this woman endure
In life but a little longer, she shall win to her fealty
So great an array of champions, that in evil case shall we be.”
Answered and spake King Gunther: “Her own is the treasure, I trow.
What have I to do to hinder? Let her hands as she will bestow.
Hardly I won her pardon for that first wrong that I wrought.
Let her share as she will her silver and her gold; unto me is it nought.”
To the King made answer Hagen: “Who suffers a woman to rule—
Be she who she may—such a treasure, of a surety he is but a fool.
{p. 154}
She shall bring with all this largess a day upon us at the last
When all we bold Burgundians shall rue deeds overpast.”
Answered and spake King Gunther: “An oath unto her I swore
That sorrow or scathe would I visit upon her never more.
And thereunto will I hold me. My sister withal is she.”
Said Hagen: “Do thou nothing: be all the guilt upon me.”
So divers of her kinsmen were traitors again: they brake
Their oath; they robbed the widow, and her mighty wealth did they take.
Seized by the hand of Hagen were the keys that warded the same.
Wroth was her brother Gernot, when he knew that deed of shame.
Spake Giselher the young Prince: “Foul wrong hath been done herein
By Hagen unto my sister: I will none of the shame and the sin!
Yea, he, were he not my blood-kin, should forfeit for this his life!”
Brake forth afresh into weeping Siegfried’s unhappy wife.
Then spake again Prince Gernot: “Or ever such mischief befall
Unto us for the sake of the Treasure, it were well that we sank it all
In the waters of Rhine, to the end that the curse may cleave unto none!”
Unto Giselher came the forlorn one, and to him she made her moan.
She cried: “O brother belovèd, thou shouldst take thought for me:
A warder and protector of my life and my wealth shouldst thou be!”
He answered: “Yea, of a surety thy right shall of me be maintained
When we return—for a journey hath been for thy brethren ordained.”
Then Gunther the King and his kinsmen rode forth of Burgundia-land,
Even all that were best and noblest among them, a princely band.
But to work the will of his hatred Hagen tarried alone,
His undying hatred of Kriemhild: that he did, for her hurt was it done.
For ere that the great King Gunther homeward returned again,
In those days all that treasure Hagen by force had ta’en.
In the river-mere at Lochheim ’neath Rhine he sank it deep.
He sowed unto greed—but destruction was the fruit that his hands were to reap.
Now before that Hagen of Troneg thus hid the Treasure from sight,
Those kinsmen had sworn to each other an oath of awful might,
{p. 155}
That, while in the land of the living they were, it should hidden abide;
So these could not use it, nor give it to any other beside.
Thereafter returned those princes with many a noble thane.
Then Kriemhild came before them of her grievous wrong to complain:
With her ladies she came and her maidens. The wrath of the earls flamed high:
They arrayed them against the traitor, and said, “He shall surely die!”
With one voice cried they together: “A wicked deed hath he done!”
From their anger he needs must hide him for a space, till again he won
The princes’ pardon and favour, and they yielded to let him live.
But henceforth was he hated of Kriemhild with the hate that will never forgive.
For now with a new affliction her heart was wrung once more:—
First took they the life of her husband, and now these traitors tore
From her hands her possessions! Her mourning was never at a stay
Through all the space of her life-tide unto her latest day.
From the hour of the death of Siegfried—behold, this witness is true—
Wearily lived she thirteen years of sorrow through,
And ever the death of the Hero unto her spirit clung.
Unto him was she true and faithful, as many a bard hath sung.
(C) A wealthy and princely abbey had Uta builded high
After the death of Dankart with the wealth of her treasury,
And with revenues richly endowed it, which it draweth unto this day.
By Lorsch that cloister standeth in honour abiding aye.
(C) Unto this were given thereafter of Kriemhild unstinted doles
For the peace of the soul of Siegfried, and for all Christian souls.
Gold gave she with hand ungrudging, and many a precious stone.
More faithful wife hath never on earth unto us been known.
(C) Since Kriemhild had granted forgiveness to the King for her lord’s blood spilt,
And of that great hoard thereafter had been spoiled through Gunther’s guilt,
Then higher swelled than ever the tide of her anguish of heart,
And the noble lady and royal from his city was fain to depart.
(C) Now it was so, that Lady Uta had builded a mansion beside
That cloister of Lorsch, a palace goodly and great and wide.
{p. 156}
Thither went she leaving her children, and hid her from all men’s eyes;
And there to this day in her coffin the great queen buried lies.
(C) Then spake the old king’s widow: “Belovèd daughter, come;
No longer here shalt thou tarry; with me shall be thine home
At Lorsch in mine own palace: from weeping thou there shalt refrain.”
“Nay, where then,” answered Kriemhild, “shall I leave my lord who was slain?”
(C) “Even here,” said the Lady Uta, “by the minster in peace let him lie.”
“Now God in Heaven forbid it!” that true wife made reply.
“Nay, mother belovèd, never will I suffer it so to be.
Hence of a truth must mine husband be taken thither with me.”
(C) Therefore the sorrowful-hearted bade them unseal his grave.
To the noble bones of the Hero a resting-place they gave
At Lorsch beside the minster with honour manifold.
There still in a giant coffin lies the Hero chivalrous-souled.
(C) But it came to pass at the season when Kriemhild should have gone
To dwell with her mother, even as her will was to have done,
In Worms must she tarry, forbidden to rest by the hallowed shrine.
So was it by reason of tidings that came from afar over Rhine.