Part 26 (1/2)

May the fire ne'er stay thy glory, nor the ocean-flood thy fame!

Through ages of all ages may the wide world praise thy name!

Yea oft may the word be spoken when low we lie at rest, 'It befell in the days of Gunnar, the happiest and the best!'

All this may the high G.o.ds give thee, and thereto a gift I give, The body of Queen Brynhild so long as both we live.”

With unmoved face, unfaltering, the blessing-words she said, But the joy sprang up in Gunnar and increased his goodlihead, And he cast his arms about her and kissed her on the mouth, And he said: ”The gift is greater than all treasure of the south: As glad as my heart this moment, so glad may be thy life, And the world be never weary of the joy of Gunnar's wife!”

She spake no word, and smiled not, but she held his hand henceforth.

And he said: ”Now take the greetings of my men, the most of worth.”

Then she turned her face to the war-dukes, and hearkened to their praise, And she spake in few words sweetly, and blessed their coming days.

Then again spake Gunnar and said: ”Lo, Hogni my brother is this; But Guttorm is far on the East-seas, and seeketh the warrior's bliss; A third there is of my brethren, and my house holds none so great; In the hall by the side of my sister thy face doth he await.”

Then Brynhild turned unto Hogni, and he greeted her fair and well, And she prayed all blessings upon him, and a tale that the world should tell: Then again she spake unto Gunnar: ”I had deemed ye had been but three Who sprang from the loins of Giuki; is this fourth akin unto thee, This hall-abider the mighty?”

He said: ”He is nought of our blood.

But the G.o.ds have sent him to usward to work us measureless good: It is even Sigurd the Volsung, the best man ever born, The man that the G.o.ds withstand not, my friend, and my brother sworn.”

She heard the name, and she changed not, but her feet went forth as he led, And under the cloudy roof-tree Queen Brynhild bowed her head.

Then, were there a man so ancient as had lived beyond his peers On the earth, that beareth all things, a twice-told tale of years, He had heard no sound so mighty as the shout that shook the wall When Brynhild's feet unhearkened first trod the Niblung hall.

No whit the clamour stirred her; but her G.o.dlike eyes she raised And betwixt the hedge of the earl-folk on the golden high-seat gazed, And the man that sat by Gudrun: but e'en as the rainless cloud Ere the first of the tempest ariseth the latter sun doth shroud, And men look round and shudder, so Grimhild came between The silent golden Sigurd and the eyes of the mighty Queen, And again heard Brynhild greeting, and again she spake and said:

”O Mother of the Niblungs, such hap be on thine head, As thy love for me, the stranger, was past the pain of words!

Mayst thou see thy son's sons glorious in the meeting of the swords!

Mayst thou sleep and doubt thee nothing of the fortunes of thy race!

Mayst thou hear folk call yon high-seat the earth's most happy place!”

Then the Wise-wife hushed before her, and a little fell aside, And nought from the eyes of Brynhild the high-seat now did hide; And the face so long desired, unchanged from time agone, In the house of the Cloudy People from the Niblung high-seat shone: She stood with her hand in Gunnar's, and all about and around Were the unfamiliar faces, and the folk that day had found; But her heart ran back through the years, and yet her lips did move With the words she spake on Hindfell, when they plighted troth of love.

Lo, Sigurd fair on the high-seat by the white-armed Gudrun's side, In the midst of the Cloudy People, in the dwelling of their pride!

His face is exceeding glorious and awful to behold; For of all his sorrow he knoweth and his hope smit dead and cold: The will of the Norns is accomplished, and, lo, they wend on their ways, And leave the mighty Sigurd to deal with the latter days: The G.o.ds look down from heaven, and the lonely King they see, And sorrow over his sorrow, and rejoice in his majesty.

For the will of the Norns is accomplished, and outworn is Grimhild's spell, And nought now shall blind or help him, and the tale shall be to tell: He hath seen the face of Brynhild, and he knows why she hath come, And that his is the hand that hath drawn her to the Cloudy People's home: He knows of the net of the days, and the deeds that the G.o.ds have bid, And no whit of the sorrow that shall be from his wakened soul is hid: And his glory his heart restraineth, and restraineth the hand of the strong From the hope of the fools of desire and the wrong that amendeth wrong; And he seeth the ways of the burden till the last of the uttermost end.

But for all the measureless anguish, and the woe that nought may amend, His heart speeds back to Hindfell, and the dawn of the wakening day; And the hours betwixt are as nothing, and their deeds are fallen away As he looks on the face of Brynhild; and nought is the Niblung folk, But they two are again together, and he speaketh the words he spoke, When he swore the love that endureth, and the truth that knoweth not change; And Brynhild's face drew near him with eyes grown stern and strange.

--Lo, such is the high G.o.ds' sorrow, and men know nought thereof, Who cry out o'er their undoing, and wail o'er broken love.

Now she stands on the floor of the high-seat, and for e'en so little a s.p.a.ce As men may note delaying, she looketh on Sigurd's face, Ere she saith: ”I have greeted many in the Niblungs' house today, And for thee is the last of my greetings ere the feast shall wear away: Hail, Sigurd, son of the Volsungs! hail, lord of Odin's storm!

Hail, rider of the wasteland and slayer of the Worm!

If aught thy soul shall desire while yet thou livest on earth, I pray that thou mayst win it, nor forget its might and worth.”

All grief, sharp scorn, sore longing, stark death in her voice he knew, But gone forth is the doom of the Norns, and what shall he answer thereto, While the death that amendeth lingers? and they twain shall dwell for awhile In the Niblung house together by the hearth that forged the guile; Yet amid the good and the guileless, and the love that thought no wrong, Shall they fas.h.i.+on the deeds to remember, and the fame that endureth for long: And oft shall he look on Brynhild, and oft her words shall he hear, And no hope and no beseeching in his inmost heart shall stir.

So he spake as a King of the people in whom all fear is dead, And his anguish no man noted, as the greeting-words he said:

”Hail, fairest of all things fas.h.i.+oned! hail, thou desire of eyes!

Hail, chooser of the mightiest, and teacher of the wise!

Hail, wife of my brother Gunnar! in might may thy days endure, And in peace without a trouble that the world's weal may be sure!”

She heard and turned unto Gunnar as a queen that seeketh her place, But to Gudrun she gave no greeting, nor beheld the Niblung's face.

Then up stood the wife of Sigurd and strove with the greeting-word, But the cold fear rose in her heart, and the hate within her stirred, And the greeting died on her lips, and she gazed for a moment or twain On the lovely face of Brynhild, and so sat in the high-seat again, And turned to her lord beside her with many a word of love.

But the song sprang up in the hall, and the eagles cried from above, And forth to the freshness of May went the joyance of the feast: And Sigurd sat with the Niblungs, and gave ear to most and to least, And showed no sign to the people of the grief that on him lay; Nor seemeth he worser to any than he was on the yesterday.