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

doing, the very noblest thane
That ever came to battle, or ever buckler bore!
Albeit I was his foeman I could not sorrow more!”

2375

Old Hildebrand cried: “Truly she shall no gainer be
That she hath dared to slay him! Whate’er befalleth me,
Although myself but lately to direst straits he brought,
For this brave Tronian’s murder I’ll yet have vengeance wrought.”

2376

Then Hildebrand right wrathful upon Kriemhilda leapt,
And at the queen with broadsword a heavy stroke he swept.
Ay, Hildebrand she dreaded with sore anxiety.
But what could it avail her to shriek thus horribly?

2377

The bodies of the slaughter’d were lying all around;
And there the noble lady lay mangled on the ground.
Dietrich along with Etzel fell bitterly to weep;
For kinsmen and for lieges they mourn’d in sorrow deep.

2378

There mickle pride and honour in death dishonour’d lay.
The people all were stricken with pity and dismay.
In sorrowing was ended the king’s high festival⁠—
As loving ever endeth in sorrow after all.

2379

I cannot tell you plainly what later may have been,
Save that in bitter weeping were knights and ladies seen⁠—
And noble liegemen also⁠— for friends beloved laid low.
The story now is ended: this is the Niblungs’ woe.

Endnotes

The Hood of Darkness or Invisibility. ↩

I.e. Verona. ↩

Colophon

The Nibelungenlied
was written around 1200.
It was translated from Middle High German in 1898 by
Alice Horton.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Emma Sweeney,
and is based on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Valkyrie,
a painting completed in 1865 by
Peter Nicolai Arbo.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
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