be not in love,
Travail not thou to win her, for nought can come thereof.”
(C) “Be she as strong as she may be, on that journey I needs must fare
Hence unto Brunhild, befall me what may befall me there!
For the sake of her peerless beauty no peril will I decline.
Peradventure may God yet move her to follow us to the Rhine.”
“Then will I counsel,” made answer Hagen, “if this must be,
That thou make thy request unto Siegfried, that he will bear with thee
The burden of this sore travail: this rede remaineth the best,
Seeing he hath alone clear knowledge of Brunhild’s perilous test.”
Said the King, “O Siegfried belovèd, mine helper wilt thou fare
In my wooing of Brunhild the lovely? Do according to this my prayer,
And if for my bride I win her, and crown her my queenly wife,
For thee at all times will I venture honour and limb and life.”
Answered him Siegfried, the scion of Siegmund the Lowland’s lord:
“This will I do, if thou promise to give me for reward
The Lovely, the Queen of Women, Kriemhild thy sister, for bride:
For my toil for thee nor guerdon nor thank I desire beside.”
“Even this do I promise,” said Gunther, “O Siegfried, on thine hand;
And if Brunhild the lovely cometh hither to this my land,
Then will I give thee my sister to wife in requital for this;
So mayest thou with thy fair one for ever live in bliss.”
Then by an oath did they pledge them, those noble warriors twain;
But thereof unto both was begotten exceeding toil and strain.
Or ever they brought into Rhineland that lady of princely blood,
In peril exceeding grievous those valiant heroes stood.
(C) Now concerning the tameless Earth-dwarfs this thing have I heard folk say,
That they dwell in the mountain-caverns, and about their heads they lay
For helmets the Hoods of Darkness, and a strange power floweth thence;
For who weareth such on his body, therein hath perfect defence
(C) From stroke of sword and from spear-thrust; while resteth on him this pall,
No man may in any wise see him, but he heareth and seeth all
So much as his soul desireth, yet himself may none behold;
And his strength to a giant’s waxeth, as the tale in our ears hath been told.
Now the Hood of Darkness Siegfried for their help at need hath ta’en,
Even that which the valiant warrior had wrested with toil and strain
From Alberich, Dwarf of the Mountain, in the stormy days gone by.
So these to their journey addressed them in their fearless chivalry.
Now whene’er the stalwart Siegfried had donned that Hood of Night,
He gat from its overscreening exceeding fulness of might;
In twelve men’s strength he clad him, as the runes of the old songs run.
So it fell, by the Dwarf-lords’ cunning that glorious bride was won.
Yea, and so wondrous-shapen was that strange cloudy Hood,
That a man overpalled by its shrouding might do even that which he would,
Yea, after his heart’s good pleasure, for of none was he espied:
Therewith did he win Queen Brunhild—and through her at the last he died.
“Now, ere we set forth on our journey, unto me, O Siegfried, declare
How best for our honour and glory over the sea we may fare.
Shall we lead ’neath our banners a war-host of knights unto Brunhild’s land?
Swiftly may thrice ten thousand be arrayed in our warrior-band.”
“How great soever the war-host that we take,” spake Siegfried to him,
“The might of that queen and her fury be so exceeding grim,
That all our array should be blasted ’neath the storm of her battle-mood.
I will give to you better counsel, O valiant thanes and good:
In guise as of lone knights-errant let us sail adown the Rhine.
Touching who in our band shall be numbered, hear this counsel of mine:
With thee and with me two only let there go, none other beside,
That with these we may woo this lady, whatsoever thereafter betide.
Even I am one in the venture, the second must needs be thou,
And let the third be Hagen—fear not, we shall prosper now;—
For the fourth be chosen Dankwart, that lord of battle-might;
Then not a thousand aliens shall ever withstand us in fight.”
“Of this too,” spake King Gunther, “would I fain be certified—
For thereof should mine heart be gladdened—or ever forth we ride,
What manner of raiment in presence of Brunhild befits that we wear
Such as shall meetly beseem us: this, O Siegfried, declare.”
“In the richest of all rich vesture that is found in any land
Be arrayed evermore the people that in Brunhild’s presence stand.
Let us therefore appear before her in silk and in ermine and gold,
That none think scorn of our splendour when the tale thereafter is told.”
Answered the good thane Gunther: “Myself will go forthright
To my well-belovèd
