The Nibelungenlied: The Lay of the Nibelungs (Oxford World's Classics) (16 page)

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Many young men took sword there, six hundred or more, all in honour of the kings, let me tell you. Great joy arose in Burgundy. Shafts were heard resounding in the hands of the knights who had taken sword there. In the windows the fair maidens sat; they saw

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the glint of shields in great numbers shining before them. The king had parted then from his vassals. No matter what pastimes anyone else indulged in, he was seen to walk in sorrow.

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He and Sivrit were in unequal mood. The noble, worthy knight well knew what troubled Gunther. He walked over to the king then. He asked: ‘How did you fare last night? You must tell me about it now.’

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The host replied to the guest: ‘I suffer disgrace and loss, for I have invited the foul fiend home to my house. When I thought to make love to her, she tied me up in tight bonds. She carried me over to
a nail and hung me high up on the wall. There I hung in fear throughout

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the night until daybreak, before she untied me. How softly she then lay! Let this complaint be made to you in confidence and friendship!’

Strong Sivrit replied: ‘I am truly sorry for that. I’ll prove it to you,

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if you’ve no objection. I’ll bring it about that she lies so close to you tonight that she’ll never again be slow to give you her love.’ Gunther was happy to hear those words then, after the hardship he had suffered.

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Then Lord Sivrit said: ‘You will come through this well. I believe we fared unequally last night. Your sister Kriemhilt is dearer to me than my life. Lady Prünhilt must become your wife before the night is out.’ He went on: ‘I’ll come to your chamber this very night in

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secret, in my cloak of invisibility, so that no one will be aware of my wiles. Then have the chamberlains go to their lodgings. Then I will

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quench the pages’ candles to show you that I am in the room. By that sign you will know that I am willing to serve you. Thus I will compel your wife to let you make love to her tonight, or else I will lose my life.’

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‘Provided that you do not make love at all to my dear lady,’ the king replied, ‘I am happy with this. Do to her otherwise all that you will. Even if you were to take her life, I would leave it unavenged. She is a terror of a woman!’

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‘I swear by my loyalty,’ said Sivrit, ‘that I will not make love to her. I prefer your fair sister to all I have ever beheld.’ Gunther readily believed what Sivrit then promised.

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The pleasures the knights took there brought about both joy and peril. Bohorts and clamour were all forbidden when the ladies were to go up to the great hall. Then the chamberlains bade the people make way. The courtyard was cleared of chargers and of people. Each of the

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ladies was led by a bishop, when they were to go to table before the kings. Handsome men in great numbers followed them to the seats.

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The king then sat down there in hopeful mood, in good spirits. He was thinking hard on what Sivrit had promised him. That one day seemed to him as long as a good thirty. All his thoughts were bent on love of his lady. He could hardly wait for them to leave the tables.

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Then they had both the fair Prünhilt and Lady Kriemhilt go to their chambers. Ah, what bold knights were to be seen standing before the queens!

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Lord Sivrit sat, full of love, together with his wife, with joy without rancour. She was caressing his hands with her own white hands, until he vanished from her sight—she didn’t know when! Caressing

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him, and then seeing him no longer, the queen said to his retinue: ‘I wonder greatly where the king may have gone. Who has taken his hands out of mine?’

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She let the matter lie. He had gone, then, to where he found many chamberlains standing with candles. He set about quenching the pages’ lights. Gunther knew then that it was Sivrit. Gunther was

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well aware of what he had in mind. He bade the maidens and ladies leave the chamber then. Once that had been done, the powerful king himself locked the door, quickly sliding two very sturdy bolts across it. Quickly he hid the lights under the bedclothes.
*
Then strong

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Sivrit set about playing his game—there was nothing else for it!—with the fair maiden. That caused King Gunther both joy and sorrow. Sivrit laid himself down close to the damsel. She said: ‘Now

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let it be, Gunther, dearly though you desire it, or else you will suffer the same hardship as before!’ (The lady was to cause bold Sivrit harm in time to come.)

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He refrained from speech, concealing himself. Gunther could clearly hear, although he could not see him at all, that nothing intimate passed between them there. They had very little comfort in that bed! Sivrit acted as if he were Gunther, that powerful king. He

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embraced the admirable maiden. She threw him out of the bed, down onto a seat nearby, so that his head banged loudly against a stool. The

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bold warrior leapt up again with all his might, wanting to make another attempt. When he set about overcoming her, she caused him much pain. I doubt if such defiance will ever be made by a lady again.

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When he would not give up, the maiden then leapt up: ‘You are not to tear apart my shift, so white as it is! You are most uncouth—this will cost you dear! I’ll make the consequences clear to you!’ said the comely maiden.

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She grasped the mettlesome knight in her arms. She wanted to tie him up as she had done the king, so that she might be at peace in the bed. The lady had avenged herself abundantly upon Gunther for tearing her clothes. What use was his great strength and massive

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might to Sivrit? She showed her superior strength to the warrior. She carried him by sheer force—he had no choice!—and squeezed him roughly between the wall and a chest.

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‘Alas!’ thought the warrior. ‘If I am now to lose my life at the hands of a maiden, then all women will forever be high and mighty in their dealings with their husbands after this, little though they act like that now!’

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The king could hear the struggle clearly. He feared for Sivrit. Sivrit was greatly ashamed and began to wax wrath. Exerting his monstrous strength, he sat upright. Perilously he made another attempt on Lady Prünhilt. It seemed a long time to the king before

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he overcame her. She gripped his hands so tightly that the blood spurted from his nails—that hurt the hero hard! Yet he was to make the haughty maiden take back the monstrous desire
*
she had spoken

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of before. The king heard all this, though he did not speak. Sivrit thrust her onto the bed, causing her to scream out loud. His strength caused her anguish in abundance. Then she reached down to her side

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to the braid, intent on tying him up. His hand then prevented it with such strength that her limbs and all her body creaked. It was that which ended the battle—then she became Gunther’s wife.

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She said: ‘Noble king, you must let me live! I will make full amends for all that I have done to you. Never again shall I defy your noble love. I have found out for certain that you can be a lady’s master.’

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Sivrit stood back as if he wanted to take off his clothes, leaving the maiden lying there. He took a golden ring off her finger, without the noble queen ever noticing it. He also took her girdle, a fine braid.

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I don’t know if he did that out of his high spirits.
*
He gave it to his wife; that was to cost him dear in time to come.

Then Gunther and the beautiful maiden lay with one another.

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He caressed her lovingly, as well became him. She was then obliged to renounce her anger and her shame. His intimacies caused her to become a little pale. Oh, how much of her great strength abandoned her because of that love-making! After that she was no stronger, indeed,

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than any other woman. He made ardent love to the beautiful lady. If she were to try to resist again, how would that have helped her? Gunther and his love-making had done away with all that.

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How truly lovingly she then lay with him, with amorous affection, until bright day dawned! Meanwhile Lord Sivrit had gone out of the chamber to where he was warmly welcomed by a certain well-favoured lady. He prevented her asking the question that was in

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her mind, hiding from her for a very long time what he had brought her, until she wore a crown in his own land. As for what he ought to have given her, how little of that he left undone!

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The lord of the land was in far better spirits the following morning than he had been before. This brought great joy to many nobles in all his land. Many services were rendered to those whom he had invited to his castle. The festivity then lasted for a fortnight, the clamour

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caused by the various pleasures that are rightly practised on such occasions never ceasing all the while. The king’s expenditure weighed very dear. The noble host’s kinsmen, at the command of the king,

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gave away, to do him honour, clothes and bright red gold, chargers, and also silver, to great numbers of strangers. Those who desired gifts there departed in good spirits.

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Lord Sivrit of the Netherlands, along with a thousand of his men, gave away all the garments they had brought to the Rhine, as also their chargers together with their saddles. They knew how to live in splendour! Even before all those rich gifts had been flung away there,

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it seemed to those who wanted to return home that they had been there too long. Never were guests given greater hospitality. Thus the festivity ended, as Gunther the warrior wanted.

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W
HEN
the guests had all departed, Sigmunt’s son said to his retinue: ‘We must also prepare to return home to my lands.’ That brought pleasure to his wife when the lady learned of it.
*
She said

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to her husband: ‘When are we to depart? I would advise against any great haste on my part. Before we leave, my brothers must share their lands with me.’ It grieved Sivrit to learn of this from Kriemhilt.

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The princes approached him, and all three said: ‘Now know, Sir Sivrit, that we are loyally at your service until death.’ He bowed to the knights when they treated him so graciously.

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‘Moreover, we must share with you’, said young Giselher, ‘the lands and castles that are our property, and all the wide realms that are subject to us. You must have a good share of these, together with Kriemhilt.’

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Sigmunt’s son said to the princes, when he had heard and seen those lords’ resolve: ‘May God forever bless your inheritance, and also the people that dwell there. Yet my dearly beloved can readily dispense with the share you would give her. There where she is to wear

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a crown, if I live to see it, she may well become wealthier than anyone now alive. Otherwise, whatever you command, I am at your service.’

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Then Lady Kriemhilt said: ‘If you will dispense with the inheritance, yet it is no small matter with regard to the Burgundian warriors. A king might gladly lead them into his land. My dear brothers’ hands ought, indeed, to share them with me.’

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Then Lord Gernot said: ‘Now take all that you will. You’ll find many here who’ll gladly ride with you. We’ll give you a thousand men out of thirty hundred warriors; let them be your retinue at home.’

Kriemhilt then set about sending for Hagen of Tronege, and

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also Ortwin, to ask whether they, and also their kinsmen, would be Kriemhilt’s. Hagen waxed wrath at that. He said: ‘Indeed, Gunther cannot give us away to anyone in the world! Let others of your

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retinue follow you, for you know full well the custom of the men of Tronege—we must stand by the kings here at court. We shall go on serving those whom we have followed hitherto.’

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They let the matter rest. Then they took steps to depart. Lady Kriemhilt gathered for her noble retinue thirty-two maidens and five hundred men. Count Eckewart followed Sivrit to his homeland.

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They all took their leave, both knights and squires, maidens and ladies, as was only right. They parted amid kisses. In joyful spirits they departed from King Gunther’s land. Then the Burgundians

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accompanied their kinsfolk for a great distance on the roads. Their overnight quarters were ordered to be readied for them everywhere they wished, throughout the kings’ lands. Soon messengers were sent off to Sigmunt, to let him, and also Sigelint, know that his son wished

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to return home from Worms on the Rhine, together with Lady Uote’s daughter, most beautiful Kriemhilt. No tidings might ever be dearer to them than those.

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‘Happy am I,’ Sigmunt then said, ‘that I have lived to see the day when most beautiful Kriemhilt is to walk beneath a crown here! My inheritance will be greatly enhanced by this! My son, noble Sivrit, shall be king here himself.’

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Then Lady Sigelint gave presents of red samite
*
in great numbers, silver and heavy gold—that was her messenger’s bread. She rejoiced at the tidings she had then heard. Her retinue clad themselves with care, as well befitted them.

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The messengers told them who was coming with Sivrit into the land. Then they ordered seating to be set up at once, there where
Sivrit was to walk beneath a crown before his allies. King Sigmunt’s men then rode to meet him. If anyone was ever better welcomed than

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those famed heroes in Sigmunt’s land, I have no knowledge of it. Fair Sigelint rode a day’s distance from home towards Kriemhilt, together with many beautiful ladies, to meet the strangers. Gallant knights rode in their train. Strangers and acquaintances alike suffered