The Nibelungenlied, - [best color ebook reader .txt] 📗

surety hath little time to waste.
I ween, beneath their clothing, their hauberks bright they wear;
But whom therewith they threaten I nowise can declare.”

1776

Then spake in mood of anger Hagen, the valiant one:
“For me, right well I know it, the whole of this is done⁠—
That thus their unsheath’d weapons they carry in the hand;
Yet will I, notwithstanding, ride to Burgundian land!

1777

“Now say if thou, friend Volker, thine aid to me wilt lend,
If so be Kriemhild’s liegemen to fight with me intend?
That let me hear you promise, as I am dear to you;
And evermore I’ll answer to you with service true.”

1778

“Ay, surely will I help thee,” the gallant minstrel spake:
“Saw I a king come hither, attack on us to make
With all his warriors round him, so long as I should live
I would not fail to help thee, and not a foot would give.”

1779

“Thy service, noble Volker, may God in Heaven requite.
What further can I ask for, if thou by me wilt fight?
Since thou art fain to aid me, as I am glad to hear,
These blades may come and welcome with all their warlike gear.”

1780

“Now from the seat upstand we,” then said the man of song:
“She is a sovereign lady; and let her pass along.
Let us that honour pay her, she is of noble birth,
Thereby our own condition shall seem of greater worth.”

1781

“For love of me, I pray thee, do it not,” Hagen spake:
“Lest otherwise these warriors perchance the deed mistake
And think that I had risen, through fear, upon my feet.
For such as her and her kind I’ll never leave my seat!

1782

“For both of us ’twere better, methinks, to let it be.
Why should I do her honour who bears such hate to me?
Nay, that will I do never as long as I have life;
Nor care I for the hatred of royal Etzel’s wife!”

1783

The overweening Hagen across his knees laid down
A bare and shining weapon, upon whose pommel shone
A very brilliant jasper, greener than any sward.
Kriemhilda well remember’d that it was Siegfried’s sword.

1784

When she that sword remember’d a grief it needs must be;
The hilt of it was golden, its sheath red broidery.
It brought to mind her sorrow; her tears began to fall;
I ween the hardy Hagen had therefor done it all.

1785

Upon the bench towards him the valiant Volker drew
A fiddle-bow, a strong one, and long and mighty, too,
Which to a sword had likeness, right keen and broad of blade
The pair of doughty heroes thus sat there undismay’d.

1786

The valiant twain so lordly seem’d, in their own conceit,
They did not deem it fitting to stand up from their seat
For fear of man or woman. Whereon, with foe-like mien,
Nigh to their feet, to greet them, came up the noble queen.

1787

She spake: “Now tell me, Hagen, who sent to bid you here,
That riding in our country thou darest to appear?
Thou, too, who so well knowest what thou hast done to me?
Hadst thou been well adviséd thou best hadst let it be.”

1788

“No one hath sent to fetch me,” Hagen in answer said:
“But hither to this country three warriors you bade;
My masters they are calléd, to them I service owe.
On any royal journey I scarce could fail to go.”

1789

Said she: “Now tell me further, how was it thou didst that
For which thou hast deservéd my everlasting hate?
Thou was it who didst Siegfried, my well-loved husband, slay;
Whom I must mourn for ever until my dying day.”

1790

He spake: “What boots that further? Of talk we have no need.
I am that self-same Hagen who did to death Siegfried,
The mighty-handed hero. How dearly he repaid
The flouts which Dame Kriemhilda on fair Brunhilda laid!

1791

“It is not to be doubted, O great and mighty queen,
Of all your baleful sorrows that I have guilty been.
Now be it man or woman, let them avenge who will;
Though I should then gainsay you, I’ve done you grievous ill.”

1792

Said she: “Now hark ye, warriors, he doth not e’en deny
That he hath work’d my sorrow! What may befall thereby
To him, ye men of Etzel, of no account I hold.”
Then look’d on one another those haughty thanes and bold.

1793

It doubtless had befallen, whichever had begun
The strife, that these two comrades the honour would have won;
Seeing how oft in battle they gallantly had fought.
In dread the others shrank from the deed they had in thought.

1794

Then spake one of the warriors: “Why look ye so on me?
From what I erewhile promised I would that I were free!
For sake of no one’s largesse would I forego my life.
Ay! to our ruin go we, led by King Etzel’s wife.”

1795

Whereafter spake another: “To that same thought I hold;
Were anyone to give me whole towers of good red gold,
I’d care not to contend with that fiddler willingly,
For dread of the swift glances that in his eyes I see.

1796

“Hagen have I known also, and from his early youth:
Thus little can be told me about that knight, forsooth!
In two-and-twenty battles I’ve seen him, in the strife;
Whereby hath heartfelt sorrow befallen many a wife.

1797

“On many a foray went they, he and the Spaniard,
When they were here with Etzel; ofttimes a battle hard
They fought for the king’s honour; and many such befell;
Whereof one must of Hagen much to his honour tell.

1798

“At that time this same warrior was but a child in years.
They who were then but youngsters, how gray are now their hairs!
Now he is come to wisdom, a man of ruth is he.
And eke he wieldeth Balmung, won by foul treachery.”

1799

With that the thing was settled⁠— that none should strike a blow.
Whereby the queen was stricken unto the heart with woe.
The heroes all disbanded: fearful lest death indeed
Be dealt them by the fiddler: in sooth they had good need.

1800

Then spake anon the fiddler: “We have right plainly seen
That foemen here beset us, as we forewarn’d have been.
Now to the court return we and seek the sovrans there:
That no one, then, our masters to meet in strife may dare.

1801

“How oft a man, faint-hearted, will let a chance slip by,
When if a friend beside him upheld him cheerfully
And with good understanding, he would not do the same.
Right many a man by forethought is saved from loss and shame.”

1802

“Where you go I will follow,” Hagen was quick to say;
Then back into the courtyard forthwith they took their way,
Where still in grand assembly waited the knightly crowd.
And then the valiant Volker began to speak aloud

1803

And say unto his masters: “How long here will ye stay
To let yourselves be crowded? To court ye should away,
And from the king discover what he in mind may have.”
Then might one see forgather the heroes good and brave.

1804

The prince of Bern, Sir Dietrich, took hold of by the