Part 31 (1/2)

XCI

Daily to Brunhild's castle early they rode and late, In troops from all sides flocking, and all in martial state.

”Ay! ay!” said frowning Hagan, ”ill have we done, I fear; Surely 't will be our ruin to wait this gathering here.

XCII

”Let her strength be only here together brought (And of the queen's intentions we little know or naught), If so her pa.s.sion wills it, we're lost at once, I trow.

In sooth this dainty damsel was born to work us woe.”

XCIII

Then spoke the valiant Siegfried, ”I'll undertake for all; Trust me, what now you look for, that shall ne'er befall.

Safe and sound to keep you, I'll hither bring a crew Of fierce, selected champions, of whom ye never knew.

XCIV

”Inquire not of my journey; I hence must instant fare; The little while I'm absent G.o.d have you in his care.

Again here will I quickly with a thousand men be found, The bravest and the boldest that ever moved on ground,”

XCV

”Be sure then not to linger,” the anxious Gunther said, ”For we meanwhile shall ever be longing for your aid.”

”In a few days you'll see me at hand for your defence, And tell,” said he, ”fair Brunhild, that you have sent me hence.”

EIGHTH ADVENTURE

HOW SIEGFRIED CAME TO THE NIBELUNGERS.

I

Thence in his cloud-cloak Siegfried descended to the strand; There he found a shallop, that close lay to the land; Unseen the bark he boarded, that from the harbor pa.s.s'd Moved by the son of Siegmund, as though before the blast.

II

The steersman could see no man; yet the vessel flew Beneath the strokes of Siegfried the yielding water through.

'T was a tempest thought they, that drove it furious on.

No! 't was the strength of Siegfried, fair Sieglind's peerless son.

III

All that day they were running, and all the night the same, Then to a famous country of mighty power they came, Days' journey full a hundred stretching far away, The Nibelungers' country, where his hard-won treasure lay.