The Nibelungenlied

ADVENTURE XXVIII How The Burgundians Came To Etzel’s Castle.

When the Bur­gun­di­ans were come to the land, old Hilde­brand (1) of Berne did hear the tale, and sore it rued him. He told his lord, who bade him wel­come well the lusty knights and brave. The doughty Wolfhart (2) bade fetch the steeds; then many a stur­dy war­rior rode with Di­et­rich, to where he thought to meet them on the plain where they had pitched full many a lord­ly tent. When Ha­gen of Troneg saw them rid­ing from afar, to his lords he spake in cour­te­ous wise: “Now must ye doughty war­riors rise from your seats and go to meet them, who would greet you here. Yon­der cometh a fel­low­ship I know full well, they be full speedy knights from the Amelung land, (3) whom the lord of Berne doth lead — high-​met­tled war­riors they. Scorn not the ser­vice that they prof­fer.”

Then with Di­et­rich there alight­ed from the steeds, as was mick­le right, many a knight and squire. To­wards the strangers they went, to where they found the heroes; in friend­ly wise they greet­ed those from the Bur­gun­di­an land. Ye may now hear what Sir Di­et­rich said to the sons of Uta, as he saw them com­ing to­ward him. Their jour­ney rued him sore; he weened that Rudeger wist it, and had told them the tale. “Be ye wel­come, fair sirs, Gun­ther and Gisel­her, Ger­not and Ha­gen, like­wise Folk­er and the doughty Dankwart. Know ye not that Kriemhild still mour­neth sore­ly for the hero of the Ni­belung land?”

“Let her weep long time,” quoth Ha­gen. “He hath lain these many years, done to death. Let her love now the Hun­nish king. Siegfried cometh not again, he hath long been buried.”

“Let us not talk of Siegfried’s wounds, but if Kriemhild still live, scathe may hap again,” so spake Sir Di­et­rich, the lord of Berne. “Hope of the Ni­belungs, guard thee well against this.”

“Why should I guard me?” spake the high-​born king. “Et­zel sent us en­voys (why should I ques­tion more?) to say that we should ride to vis­it him, hith­er to this land. My sis­ter Kriemhild sent us many a mes­sage, too.”

“Let me coun­sel you,” quoth Ha­gen, “to beg Sir Di­et­rich and his good knights to tell you the tid­ings fur­ther, and to let you know the La­dy Kriemhild’s mood.”

Then the three mighty kings, Gun­ther and Ger­not and Sir Di­et­rich, too, went and spake apart. “Pray tell us, good and no­ble knight of Berne, what ye do know of the queen’s mood?”

An­swered the lord of Berne: “What more shall I tell you? Ev­ery morn­ing I hear King Et­zel’s wife wail and weep with piteous mind to the mighty God of heav­en over the stal­wart Siegfried’s death.”

“That which we have heard,” spake bold Folk­er, the fid­dler, “can­not be turned aside. We must ride to court and abide what may hap to us doughty knights among the Huns.”

The brave Bur­gun­di­ans now rode to court. In lord­ly wise they came af­ter the fash­ion of their land. Many a brave man among the Huns won­dered what man­ner of man Ha­gen of Troneg be. It was enough that men told tales, that he had slain Kriemhild’s hus­band the might­iest of all heroes. For that cause alone much ques­tion­ing about Ha­gen was heard at court. The knight was fair of stature, that is full true; broad he was across the breast; his hair was mixed with gray; his legs were long, and fierce his glance; lord­ly gait he had.

Then one bade lodge the Bur­gun­di­an men, but Gun­ther’s fel­low­ship was placed apart. This the queen ad­vised, who bare him much hate, and there­fore men lat­er slew the foot­men in their lodg­ings. Dankwart, Ha­gen’s broth­er, he was mar­shal. The king earnest­ly com­mend­ed to him his fol­low­ers, that he pur­vey them well and give them enow to eat; The hero of Bur­gundy bare them all good will. Kriemhild, the fair, went with her maids-​in-​wait­ing to where, false of mood, she greet­ed the Ni­belungs. Gisel­her alone she kissed and took by the hand. That Ha­gen of Troneg saw, and bound his hel­met tighter. “Af­ter such a greet­ing,” quoth Ha­gen, “doughty knights may well be­think them. One giveth kings a greet­ing dif­fer­ent from their men. We have not made a good jour­ney to this feast.” (4)

She spake: “Be wel­come to him that be fain to see you; I greet you not for your kin­ship. Pray tell me what ye do bring me from Worms be­yond the Rhine, that ye should be so pass­ing wel­come to me here?”

“Had I known,” quoth Ha­gen, “that knights should bring you gifts, I had bethought me bet­ter, for I be rich enow to bring you presents hith­er to this land.”

“Now let me hear the tale of where ye have put the Ni­belung hoard? It was mine own, as ye well know, and ye should have brought me that to Et­zel’s land.”

“I’ faith, my La­dy Kriemhild, it is many a day sith I have had the care of the Ni­belung hoard. My lords bade sink it in the Rhine, and there it must ver­ily lie till dooms­day.”

Then spake the queen: “I thought as much. Ye have brought full lit­tle of it hith­er to this land, al­beit it was mine own, and I had it whilom in my care. There­fore have I all time so many a mourn­ful day.”

“The dev­il I’ll bring you,” an­swered Ha­gen. “I have enough to car­ry with my shield and breast­plate; my helm is bright, the sword is in my hand, there­fore I bring yon naught.”

Then the queen spake to the knights on ev­ery side: “One may not bring weapons to the hall. Sir Knights, give them to me, I’ll have them tak­en in charge.”

“I’ faith,” quoth Ha­gen, “nev­er shall that be done. In sooth I crave not the hon­or, O boun­teous princess, that ye should bear my shield and oth­er arms to the lodg­ings; ye be a queen. This my fa­ther did not teach me, I my­self will play the cham­ber­lain.”

“Alack for my sor­rows,” spake La­dy Kriemhild. “Why will Ha­gen and my broth­er not let their shields be tak­en in charge? They be warned, and wist I, who hath done this, I’d ev­er plan his death.”

To this Sir Di­et­rich an­swered in wrath: “‘Tis I, that hath warned the no­ble and mighty princes and the bold Ha­gen, the Bur­gun­di­an liege­man. Go to, thou she-​dev­il, thou durst not make me suf­fer for the deed.”

Sore abashed was King Et­zel’s wife, for bit­ter­ly she feared Sir Di­et­rich. At once she left him, not a word she spake, but gazed with fu­ri­ous glance up­on her foes. Two war­riors then grasped each oth­er quick­ly by the hand, the one was Sir Di­et­rich, the oth­er Ha­gen. With gen­tle breed­ing the lusty hero spake: “For­sooth I rue your com­ing to the Huns, be­cause of what the queen hath said.”

Quoth Ha­gen: “There will be help for that.”

Thus the two brave men talked to­geth­er. King Et­zel saw this, and there­fore he be­gan to query: “Fain would I know,” spake the mighty king, “who yon­der war­rior be, whom Sir Di­et­rich greeteth there in such friend­ly wise. He car­ri­eth high his head; who­ev­er be his fa­ther, he is sure a doughty knight.”

A liege­man of Kriemhild made an­swer to the king: “By birth he is from Troneg, his fa­ther hight Aldri­an; how­ev­er blithe he bear him here, a grim man is he. I’ll let you see full well that I have told no lie.”

“How shall I know that he be so fierce?” replied the king. As yet he wist not the many evil tricks that the queen should lat­er play up­on her kin, so that she let none es­cape from the Huns alive.

“Well know I Aldri­an, for he was my vas­sal (5) and here at my court gained mick­le praise and hon­or. I dubbed him knight and gave hint of my gold. The faith­ful Hel­ca loved him in­ly. There­fore I have since known Ha­gen ev­ery whit. Two state­ly youths be­came my hostages, he and Walther of Spain. (6) Here they grew to man­hood; Ha­gen I sent home again, Walther ran away with Hilde­gund.”

He bethought him of many tales that had happed of yore. He had spied aright his friend of Troneg, who in his youth had giv­en him yeo­man ser­vice. Lat­er in his old age he did him many a dear friend to death.

END­NOTES: (1) “Hilde­brand” is the teach­er and ar­mor bear­er of Di­et­rich. He is the hero of the fa­mous “Hilde­brand­slied”. (2) “Wolfhart” is Hilde­brand’s nephew. In the “Thidrek­saga” he falls in the bat­tle of Gron­sport. (3) “Amelung land” is the name un­der which Di­et­rich’s land ap­pears. Theodorich, the king of the East Goths, be­longed to the race of the Amali. (4) “Feast”. That Kriemhild kissed on­ly Gisel­her, who was in­no­cent of Siegfried’s death, aroused Ha­gen’s sus­pi­cions. (5) “Vas­sal”. No oth­er ac­count speaks of Aldri­an as be­ing at Et­zel’s court. He is prob­ably con­fused here with his son, for Ha­gen’s stay with Et­zel in var­ious leg­ends, as al­so in our po­em a few lines fur­ther down. (6) “Walther of Spain” is Walther of Aqui­tania, a leg­endary per­son­age of whom the O.E. frag­ment “Waldere”, the Latin epic “Walthar­ius”, a M.H.G. epic, and the “Thidrek­saga” tell. He flees with Hilde­gund, the daugh­ter of the Bur­gun­di­an King Her­rich, from Et­zel’s court, as re­lat­ed here, but has to fight for his life against over­pow­er­ing num­bers, in the “Thidrek­saga” against the pur­su­ing Huns, in the oth­er sources against the Bur­gun­di­ans. In both cas­es Ha­gen is among his foes, but takes no part in the fight at first, out of friend­ship for Walther.