Twenty-third Adventure — How Kriemhild Thought of Revenging Her Injuries
I
King Etzel and Queen Kriemhild in proudest honor dwelt
For seven whole years together, nor woe nor sorrow felt;
Meanwhile to her fond husband the queen produced a boy;
Never before did Etzel exult so high with joy.
II
She never ceas’d entreating till her good lord she won
To have the right of baptism giv’n to her infant son
After the Christian custom; Ortlieb call’d was he;
Thereat all Etzel’s kingdoms were fill’d with mirth and glee.
Whatever queenly virtues had fame to Helca brought,
Dame Kriemhild daily practis’d, and love, like Helca, sought.
From the foreign maiden Herrat, who still in secret yearn’d
For Helca’s loss, the customs of all the land she learn’d.
IV
Her praise both friends and strangers alike were glad to tell;
’Twas own’d that never kingdom so graciously and well
By queen had e’er been governed; so much to all was clear.
This fame she bore in Hungary e’en to the thirteenth year.
V
When now she knew for certain that none would thwart her will
(So deal with wives of princes their husbands’ vassals still),
And saw twelve kings for ever standing her before,
Her home-bred wrongs and sorrows again she brooded o’er.
VI
She thought how all the honors of the Nibelungers’ land,
That once were her possession, fierce Hagan’s rugged hand,
After the death of Siegfried, had torn from her away,
And how the proud wrong-doer with wrong she might repay.
VII
“’Twere done, if I could only lure him to this land!”
Still would she dream, that often she wander’d hand in hand
With Giselher her brother, and often on the mouth
Kiss’d him in her slumber; too soon came bale on both.
VIII
Sure the foul fiend possess’d her, and lurking in her heart
Prompted her from King Gunther so lovingly to part,
Kissing, but not forgiving, close harboring still the feud.
Hot tears of wrath and malice once more her vesture dew’d.
IX
At her heart for ever early and late it lay,
How, guiltless, from her country she had been driven away,
And forc’d to take for husband a man of heathen creed.
Gunther and bloody Hagan had brought her to such need.
X
One long and dreary yearning she foster’d hour by hour;
She thought, “I am so wealthy and hold such boundless power,
That I with ease a mischief can bring on all my foes,
But most on him of Trony, the deadliest far of those.
XI
“Full oft for its beloved my heart is mourning still;
Them could I but meet with, who wrought me so much ill,
Revenge should strike at murder, and life atone for life;
Wait can I no longer.” So murmur’d Etzel’s wife.
XII
All the great king’s vassals much love unto her bore,
And to do her service were ready evermore.
Her chamberlain was Eckewart, who thus made hosts of friends;
So none could thwart her pleasure, whate’er might be her ends.
XIII
Ever was she thinking, “I’ll ask the king a boon,
Which he, I know, will grant me readily and soon,
To bid my friends and kinsmen hither to Hunnish ground,”
None guess’d her secret malice, or harm in Kriemhild found.
XIV
So on a night reposing, as by the king she lay
(He in his arms embrac’d her, and bless’d the happy day,
That gave him such a consort, dear to him as his life;
She on her foes was thinking and th’ old intestine strife),
XV
Thus spake she to the monarch, “Dear lord, full fain would I
Entreat of thee a favor, which thou wilt not deny
If thou think’st I deserve it, to let me see aright
If my friends in good earnest have favor in thy sight.”
XVI
Then spake the mighty monarch (kind was his heart and true),
“Of that can I assure thee; whatever good accrue
To those bold knights, be certain to me content it lends;
Never through love of woman acquir’d I better friends.”
XVII
Then thus made Kriemhild answer, “’Tis true, as thou dost know,
Right noble are my kinsmen, yet ever am I woe
That still they keep so distant nor I by them am seen.
I’m told, for a mere outcast people report your queen.”
XVIII
Then answer’d thus King Etzel, “Dear love and lady mine,
If they regard not distance, I’ll send beyond the Rhine.
And hither bid whomever thou here to see art fain.”
Much joy’d the vengeful lady thus his consent to gain.
XIX
Said she, “Would’st thou but please me, dear lord and master mine,
Despatch from hence thy envoys to Worms beyond the Rhine.
Such friends as most I long for, I hither will invite,
And straight will come among us full many a noble knight.”
XX
Said he, “As thou would’st have it, so let the matter be;
Assure thee, thou wilt never thy friends so gladly see
As I shall gladly see them, noble Uta’s children dear;
It irks me much and deeply, they’ve been such strangers here.
XXI
“So, if it thus content thee, dear love and lady mine,
I’ll gladly send my minstrels for those good friends of thine.
They this very morning shall start for Burgundy.”
With that, the king his minstrels bade summon instantly.
XXII
They hasten’d at the summons where, newly ris’n from bed,
The king sat with his consort; thus to both he said,
“Hence you with a message to Burgundy must ride.”
With that, the richest vesture, he bade for them provide.
XXIII
For four and twenty warriors fit raiment was prepar’d.
Moreover to his envoys his will the king declar’d,
How they should to Hungary bid Gunther and his folk.
But what the queen enjoin’d them close apart she spoke.
XXIV
Thus them address’d King Etzel, “I’ll tell you what to do;
To my good friends go tender my love and service true,
And bid them deign ride hither, and taste our Hunnish cheer.
Guests have I none other whom I hold so dear.
XXV
“So if they will do me the favor which I pray,
Entreat them not to linger; speed makes the surest way.
At my high feast this summer I trust to see my friends,
And on my wife’s fair kinsmen much of my joy depends.”
XXVI
Thereto replied the minstrel, the haughty Swemmeline,
“When in this land of Hungary your feast do you design?
That to your friends exactly your purpose we may say.”
“About,” replied King Etzel, “next midsummer day.”
XXVII
“We’ll surely do your bidding,” Werbel made reply.
Into her inmost chamber the queen bade by and by
In secret bring the envoys, and there her will ‘gan tell,
Whence death and grim destruction many a good knight befell.
XXVIII
She said to both the envoys, “Now only serve me true,
And as I command you my will discreetly do,
And, when you come to Rhineland, speak but my bidding there,
And I’ll give you gold and raiment plenty and to spare.
XXIX
“To my friends, whomever you meet with, more or less,
At Worms, as there you tarry, be sure you ne’er confess
That ever you beheld me moody or sorrow-worn;
Only let my service to the good knights be borne.
XXX
“Beg them to grant the favor for which the king hath sent,
And so at once will vanish my only discontent.
I here am fancied friendless, and scarce esteem’d aright.
I’d go myself to visit them if I but were a knight.
XXXI
“And also to Sir Gernot, my noble brother, say,
That none can love him better than his sister far away,
And bid him bring me hither our friends most prov’d and true,
That all may here accord us the honor that’s our due.
XXXII
“And say, too, to young Giselher that he should bear in mind,
That he never wrong’d me, but still was good and kind.
My eyes are ever yearning to look upon him here,
For dearly do I love him, as I to him am dear.
XXXIII
“And tell my noble mother what honors here I bear.
Then, if Hagan of Trony resolve to tarry there,
Who will there be to guide them through lands so waste and lone?
But he the roads to Hungary e’en from a child has known.”
XXXIV
Not a whit the envoys could guess her deep design
In keeping him of Trony from tarrying by the Rhine.
It irk’d them sore thereafter, when their unconscious breath
With him had drawn the guiltless into the toils of death.
XXXV
Letters and goodly greetings the king was prompt to give;
And riches bore they with them right sumptuously to live.
So leave they took of Etzel, and of his noble queen;
Adorn’d were they with raiment as rich as e’er was seen.