Saying: “Dearest brother, hear what for you is best;
All that I shall tell you comes from a faithful breast.
If you for bliss are hoping, so long as you are living,
Then for Hartmut’s sister you must, as best you may, henceforth be striving.”
To her young Ortwin answered: “Now think you this is well?
I and her brother Hartmut never as friends can feel;
We slew their father Ludwig, and, when to me she’s wedded,
Of him will she be thinking; then with her sighs I oft shall be upbraided.”
“You such love must show her that for him she will not long.
If now this word I give you, ’tis from a love as strong
As I have had for any, or e’er in my life was feeling.
Should she to you be wedded, your bliss with her will be beyond all telling.”
Then said her knightly brother: “If she to you is known,
And now you think the Hegelings will her for a mistress own,
Gladly will I love her— a maid of such high-breeding.”
Him Gudrun then answered: “You’ll ne’er a sorry day with her be leading.”
Of this he spoke to others, but Hilda’s word was nay;
He told it unto Herwic, to hear what he would say,
Who held it right and worthy; then to Fru-te speaking,
That friend would have him woo her, “for many knights will she your own be making.
“Soothed should be the hatred that we each other bore;
Of how it may be ended, I now will tell you more;
Then,” said the Danish Fru-te, whose word was ever heeded,
“Hildeburg, the maiden, to young King Hartmut also must be wedded.”
The wise and upright Herwic with faithful words thus spake:
“I deem it right and fitting the maiden him should take;
When in the land of Hartmut she is queen and lady,
A thousand lordly castles to own her sway will there be glad and ready.”
Then to the high-born Hildeburg Gudrun the fair thus spake,
With words unheard by others: “Care for your weal I’ll take;
If I may well reward you, my friend and playmate dearest,
For all the love you’ve shown me, soon in the Norman land a crown thou wearest.”
To her then said fair Hildeburg: “For me it were not well
To give my troth to any who ne’er his love did tell,
Nor unto me, in fondness, e’er his heart was turning;
Should we grow old together, I fear between us oft there’ll be heart-burning.”
Her Gudrun thus answered: “Give not a thought to that:
I soon will send to Hartmut, and bid him answer straight
Whether he now would like it if from his pledge I free him,
As well as all his followers, and send him home, that his friends again may see him.
“If he his thanks shall tell me, I then in turn will bid
That he by deeds shall show it, and shall my wishes heed.
I then will freely ask him if he will wed a maiden,
That I and all my kinsmen may him with love and friendship ever gladden.”
To her they brought young Hartmut, king of the Norman land,
And with him came old Fru-te. Near her, on either hand,
Proud Hildeburg and Ortrun within her bower were sitting;
If the lady’s word they heeded, their many woes they both would be forgetting.
Hartmut, the son of Ludwig, went through the palace hall;
To him a friendly greeting was given by one and all,
Alike both high and lowly from their seats arising.
None than he was braver; no worth or greatness e’er in him was missing.
He by Gudrun, fair lady, to seat himself was told;
And neither of the others her greeting did withhold.
Then said Queen Hilda’s daughter: “I beg you to be sitting
Near my faithful maidens, who washed with me for your knights, as was befitting.”
“This in scorn you bid me, fair and lovely queen!
Whatever wrong was done you truly gives me pain:
’Twas by my mother’s wishes that this from me was hidden;
To keep it from my father, and from his knights as well, were all men bidden.”
To him the maiden answered: “My wish I may not hide:
I now, in truth, Sir Hartmut, must speak with you aside.
I and yourself, we only, may hear what I am saying.”
Hartmut then bethought him: “May God now grant she is not falsely playing.”
No one else but Fru-te allowed she to come near;
Then the high-born maiden said in Hartmut’s ear:
“If you to me will hearken, and do what I shall tell you
With ready heart and freely, now of all your sorrows I will heal you.”
“Well I know your wisdom,” then young Hartmut said;
“Of aught that is unworthy I need not be afraid.
My heart for nothing wishes, unless to do your bidding:
Gladly, high-born lady, to all that you shall say will I give heeding.”
She said: “My wish I tell you, and now your life would cheer;
I, and my kinsmen with me, will give you a helpmeet fair.
To keep both land and honor you may thus be seeking,
And of the hate we bore you none shall evermore a word be speaking.”
“Who is it, say, fair lady, that you for me will choose?
Ere yet my love I give her, life would I rather lose
Than ever that my kinsmen her with scorn were eying;
For me it were far better that I in death upon the field were lying.”
“I will give your sister Ortrun, the maid beloved and fair,
To be a wife to my brother, himself to me most dear.
You must wed with Hildeburg, of a king the well-born daughter:
Never a dearer maiden you in the world could find, where’er you sought her.”
“If this indeed may happen,” then young Hartmut said,
“And now your brother Ortwin shall take that lovely maid,
My dear-loved sister, Ortrun, and she to him is wedded,
Then I will woo fair Hildeburg; thus hate will end, nor longer shall be dreaded.”
She said: “To this I’ve brought him; his troth to her he gave.
If now ’twould make you happy your father’s lands to have,
And again within his castles that you should soon be living,
You well may wed with Hildeburg, and there the queenly crown to her be giving.”
He said: “That pledge I gladly, and on it give my hand;
As soon as the king of Ortland shall with my sister stand,
And both the crown have taken, then I, no more forbearing,
Will, with lovely Hildeburg, among our men our lands and fiefs be sharing.”
When he his word had plighted, then said the high-born maid:
“Now will I do gladly a further friendly deed;
Unto the lord of Karadie for a wife will I be giving
The sister of King Herwic, that she with him may evermore be living.”
I ween that never hatred was smoothed as now was done:
Brave knights who long were foemen now became as one.
Fru-te, the lord of Daneland, thought it
