He took the hood of darkness and hid it safe away.
Then the great hall he entered, where many ladies sat,
And fell to question Gunther, and artfully did that:
471
“Wherefore, my lord, delay you? when doth the game begin
At which the queen so often hath challenged you to win?
Let us behold and quickly in what wise it is done!”
As though he knew naught of it behaved the crafty one.
472
“How can it e’er have happened,” thereon inquired the queen,
“That you, most noble Siegfried, naught of the game have seen,
Wherein I have been worsted by mighty Gunther’s hand?”
Then answered her Sir Hagen of the Burgundian land.
473
He spake: “Yourself, O lady, did much disturb our mood;
So to the ship departed Siegfried, the hero good,
What time our lord of Rhineland did win the game from you:
Therefore he knows naught of it,” said Gunther’s liegeman true.
474
“Now welcome are these tidings,” quoth warrior Siegfried,
“That thus your pride hath fallen doth please me well, indeed,
That some one there is living who may your master be!
Now must you, noble maiden, go with us o’er the sea.”
475
Then spake the noble fair one: “This may not yet befall:
My kinsmen first must hear it, and my good liegemen all;
I may not thus so lightly desert my land, I trow;
My chief friends must be sent there, ere I myself shall go.”
476
Then sent she heralds riding here, there and everywhere,
To bid her friends and kinsmen, and lieges all repair
To Isenstein the fortress, nor would she take excuse;
And bade that costly raiment be given for their use.
477
So daily came they riding, from early hours till late
Unto Brunhilda’s castle, like to an army great.
“Now, by my faith!” cried Hagen, “see now what we have done!
With fair Brunhilda’s liegemen we’ll trouble have anon.
478
“While thus in power and numbers they throng throughout the land,
What is the queen’s intention we cannot understand:
What if she be against us so wroth that we be lost?
The noble maiden surely was born to our great cost!”
479
Then spake the sturdy Siegfried: “All this will I forestall;
The danger you are dreading I will not let befall.
I must go hence, and succour bring quickly to this shore—
A band of chosen warriors ne’er known to you before.
480
“Ye must not seek to find me, I go across the sea;
May God meanwhile preserve you from all indignity!
I’ll come back quickly, bringing a thousand men with me,
The very best of warriors that ever one could see.”
481
“Be not too long gone from us,” the king in answer said:
“In this our need we shall be right glad to have your aid.”
Said he: “I’ll come back to you, ere many days be spent;
And you must tell the queen that by you I have been sent.”
Adventure VIII
How Siegfried Went to Fetch the Nibelungs
482
So thence went Siegfried unto the haven on the strand,
Clad in his hood of darkness, to where a boat did stand.
Therein he stood, all hidden, this son of Siegmund brave;—
He steered it quickly seaward, as ’twere the wind that drave.
483
Though no one saw the steersman, fast sped the bark along,
Urged by the strength of Siegfried— in sooth his arms were strong.
Men thought that she was driven by some strange, mighty wind:
No, it was Siegfried drave her, the son of fair Sieglind.
484
When he a day had voyaged, and likewise through a night,
He came unto a country, by dint of main and might;—
From one end to the other a hundred leagues or more,
The Niblung land, where kept he the mighty hoard in store.
485
Then, all alone, the hero steered to an eyot broad,
And ran his skiff alongshore and left her safely moor’d.
Then climbed he to a mountain, on which a castle stood,
And, like a wayworn traveller, for shelter sought and food.
486
So came he to the gateway, which, locked, before him stood—
They guarded well their honour, as folk at this day would.
Then straight he fell a-knocking, like any man unknown.
The gate was kept well guarded: he saw within it soon
487
A monstrous giant warder, who sentinel did stand,
And kept at all times ready his weapons close at hand.
He called: “Who cometh knocking so loudly at the door?”
Then answer’d the bold Siegfried— but changed his voice therefore—
488
And said: “I am a warrior; undo me now the gate,
Ere I arouse to anger some one, though it be late,
Who rather would sleep softly and in his chamber bide.”
It anger’d the gate-keeper that Siegfried thus replied.
489
Soon had the doughty giant girded his armour on,
Set on his head his helmet, and quickly seized upon
And swung aloft his buckler, and opened wide the gate:
How straightly then on Siegfried he rush’d, with scowl of hate!
490
“How had he dared awaken so many a gallant man?”
And straight upon the question his hand to smite began.
The noble guest prepared him a bold defence to make—
But, at the porter’s onset, his very shield-clasps brake,
491
Smashed by a bar of iron; the knight was sore distrest,
And somewhat was he fearful that death would end his quest—
Seeing the huge gate-keeper did smite so sturdily;
Which yet his master Siegfried was not ill-pleased to see.
492
So mighty was their combat that all the castle rang.
Throughout the halls of Niblung men heard the crash and clang.
At last he threw the giant, and bound him foot and hand;
The tidings soon spread over the whole of Niblung-land.
493
The noise of fierce strife sounded deep through the mountain side,
Where Alberich the bold one— a wild dwarf—did abide:
With speed he seized his weapons, and ran to where he found
This brave and noble stranger, as he the giant bound.
494
A fierce wight was this Albrich, of strength he had good store;
A helmet and a hauberk he on his body wore;
A weighty whip, gold-handled, he carried in his hand:
With all his swiftness ran he to where Siegfried did stand.
495
Seven knots, both hard and heavy, hung down in front of it,
With which the bold man’s buckler so ruthlessly he hit—
As in his hand he held it— that it in pieces fell.
Then was the goodly stranger in fear for life as well.
496
The shield, that now was broken, he from his hand did throw,
And thrust into its scabbard his sword—’twas long enow.—
His treasurer he would not, an he could help it, slay:
His breeding he forgat not, as was his righteous way.
497
With his strong hands for weapons at Alberich he ran,
And by the beard he gripp’d him, that old and grizzly man!
So ruthlessly he pull’d it, that loud the old man cried:
The grip of the young hero could Albrich ill abide.
498
Loud was the bold dwarf’s outcry: “I prithee now, have done;
An I could be the liegeman of any knight, save one
To whom I have sworn
