Him will I trust most fully, knowing his heart for us with care is laden.”
They now their leave were taking; to them the lady spake:
“May he be blest and happy who thought for me shall take.
’Tis right that you, brave warriors, to fight for me are ready;
Meanwhile for the coming inroad do all you can, and therein be you speedy.”
Wisely then spake Wâ-te, the warrior old and good:
“Lady, we should be felling trees in the western wood.
Since we to fight have chosen, our hopes upon it staking,
The men of every princedom should forty well-built ships for us be making.”
“I too will bid,” quoth Hilda, “that near the deep sea-flood
Twenty ships be builded, strong, and firm, and good;
And have them fully ready —my hest shall well be heeded—
To bear my friends and kindred to where they for the fight will soon be needed.”
Siegfried, lord of Moorland, while their leave they took,
With kind and seemly bearing, thus to the women spoke:
“You have to tell me only when our time to wait is ending;
To sail shall I be ready, nor need you then for me be further sending.”
Then to the sorrowing women, before they spread the sail,
The friendly guests, now leaving, bade a kind farewell.
The hearts of knights and maidens deep in woe were sinking;
Yet warlike deeds they plotted of which their Norman foes were never thinking.
When they at length had ridden back again to their land,
Sadly they mourned their losses: then to the Wulpensand,
For the sake of the dead, did Hilda bid that food be taken
To the priests for them there praying. The queen was wise, the dead were not forsaken.
There she bade to be builded a minster fair and wide;
A house for the sick, and a cloister built they at its side,
Near where the slain were buried. In many a land one heareth
Its name, and of those there fallen: ‘The church of Wulpensand’ is the name it beareth.
Tale XX
How Hartmut Went Home to Normandy
The Normans reach their land with Gudrun and her maidens; she refuses to marry Hartmut, and is placed in the care of Gerlind, his mother, who treats her harshly and obliges her to perform menial service. Ortrun, the sister of Hartmut, shows kindness to Gudrun.
No further will we tell you of how with these it fared,
Or how the cloister-brothers their life together shared.
Now to the tale of Hartmut we ask you all to listen;
How he with many maidens, high-born and fair, unto his land did hasten.
After the fight was ended, as I have told before,
For many there was sorrow for the bitter wounds they bore:
Many who had fallen on the stormy field lay dying;
Children bereft of fathers bewailed them soon with tears they ne’er were drying.
With heavy hearts the Normans were wafted o’er the flood;
Every night and morning many a warrior good
Felt ashamed and sorry, thus from the sands to be driven;
So felt the old and the youthful, although in all things else they well had thriven.
They came to the Norman borders, unto King Ludwig’s land.
It was a day of gladness to all the sailing band,
To see at last their homesteads and thither to be steering.
Then said one among them: “These are Hartmut’s towns that we are nearing.”
Helped by kindly breezes, soon they reached the shore.
Now the men of Normandy happy hearts all bore,
When to their wives and children they again were coming;
Long had they been fearing that they must die, while they afar were roaming.
When now the glad King Ludwig did on his castles look,
Thus the lordly Norman to Gudrun, the maiden, spoke:
“See you that palace, Lady? In bliss you may there be living;
If you to us are kindly, our richest lands will we to you be giving.”
Then the high-born maiden thus made her sorrow known:
“To whom should I feel kindly, when kindness none have shown?
From that, alas! I’m sundered, and in my hopes am thwarted;
Nothing I know but hardship, and all my weary days I spend sad-hearted.”
Then answered her King Ludwig: “Throw off this sorry mood,
And give your love to Hartmut, a knight both brave and good.
Whatever we are owning to give you we are willing;
With one who is so worthy blest may you live, and lofty rank be filling.”
Then spake Hilda’s daughter: “Why leave me not in peace?
Rather than wed with Hartmut death would I dread far less.
That he should be my lover by birth he is not fitted;
To lose my life were better than take his love and as his bride be greeted.”
When this was heard by Ludwig, filled with wrath was he;
Quick by the hair he seized her, and flung her into the sea.
Straightway the daring Hartmut his ready help then gave her;
He sprang at once to the maiden, and from the whirling waves his arm did save her.
Just as the maid was sinking Hartmut reached her side;
Had not her lover helped her drowned were she in the tide.
Her yellow locks well grasping, then from out the water
With his hands he drew her: else nought from death had spared Queen Hilda’s daughter.
Back to the ship did Hartmut bring the maiden fair;—
Rough ways to lovely women Ludwig did not spare.
Dragged from out the water, she in her smock was seated;
How full was she of sadness! Never before had the maiden thus been treated.
Then all her friends together wept for the lovely maid,
None could there be happy; for what could be more sad
Than to see the king’s own daughter handled thus so roughly?
The thought to them was rising: “To us they now will bear themselves more gruffly.”
Then said the knightly Hartmut: “Why drown my hoped-for wife,
Gudrun, the lovely maiden, dear to me as life?
If any but my father so foul a wrong had done her,
Sore would be my anger, and I from him would take both life and honor.”
To him King Ludwig answered: “Ever free from shame
Have I till age been living, and still a worthy name
And rank among my fellows will hold till life is ending.
Bid now Gudrun, your lady, that she no more her scorn on me be spending.”
Now unto Queen Gerlind errand-bearers came,
Who, in mood most happy, bore in Hartmut’s name
Words of love and honor, as from her son was fitting.
He asked a friendly welcome for his many knights who on the shore were waiting.
They bore from him the tidings that he across the wave
Had brought the Hegeling maiden, to whom his love he gave
Ere he had looked upon her, and for whom he still was pining.
When this was heard by Gerlind, a happier day on her was never shining.
Then said he who told it: “Lady, you now should ride
To the
