The Nibelungenlied

ADVENTURE II Of Siegfried.

In the Nether­lands there grew the child of a no­ble king (his fa­ther had for name Siege­mu­nd, (1) his moth­er Siegelind), (2) in a mighty cas­tle, known far and wide, in the low­lands of the Rhine: Xan­ten, (3) men called it. Of this hero I sing, how fair he grew. Free he was of ev­ery blem­ish. Strong and fa­mous he lat­er be­came, this valiant man. Ho! What great wor­ship he won in this world! Siegfried hight this good and doughty knight. Full many king­doms did he put to the test through his war­like mood. Through his strength of body he rode in­to many lands. Ho! What bold war­riors he af­ter found in the Bur­gun­di­an land! Mick­le won­ders might one tell of Siegfried in his prime, in youth­ful days; what hon­ors he re­ceived and how fair of body he. The most state­ly wom­en held him in their love; with the zeal which was his due men trained him. But of him­self what virtues he at­tained! Tru­ly his fa­ther’s lands were hon­ored, that he was found in all things of such right lord­ly mind. Now was he be­come of the age that he might ride to court. Glad­ly the peo­ple saw him, many a maid wished that his de­sire might ev­er bear him hith­er. Enow gazed on him with fa­vor; of this the prince was well aware. Full sel­dom was the youth al­lowed to ride with­out a guard of knights. Sieg­mund and Siegelind bade deck him out in brave at­tire. The old­er knights who were ac­quaint with court­ly cus­tom, had him in their care. Well there­fore might he win both folk and land.

Now he was of the strength that he bare weapons well. What­ev­er he need­ed there­to, of this he had enow. With pur­pose he be­gan to woo fair ladies; these bold Siegfried court­ed well in prop­er wise. Then bade Sieg­mund have cried to all his men, that he would hold a feast­ing with his lov­ing kin­dred. The tid­ings there­of men brought in­to the lands of oth­er kings. To the strangers and the home-​folk he gave steeds and ar­mor. Where­so­ev­er any was found who, be­cause of his birth, should be­come a knight, these no­ble youths were sum­moned to the land for the feast­ing. Here with the youth­ful prince they gained the knight­ly sword. Won­ders might one tell of this great feast; Sieg­mund and Siegelind wist well how to gain great wor­ship with their gifts, of which their hands dealt out great store. Where­fore one be­held many strangers rid­ing to their realm. Four hun­dred sword-​thanes (4) were to put on knight­ly garb with Siegfried. Many a fair maid was aught but idle with the work, for he was beloved of them all. Many pre­cious stones the ladies in­laid on the gold, which to­geth­er with the edg­ing they would work up­on the dress of the proud young war­riors, for this must needs be done.

The host bade make bench­es for the many valiant men, for the mid­sum­mer fes­ti­val, (5) at which Siegfried should gain the name of knight. Then full many a no­ble knight and many a high-​born squire did hie them to the min­ster. Right were the el­ders in that they served the young, as had been done to them afore. Pas­times they had and hope of much good cheer. To the hon­or of God a mass was sung; then there rose from the peo­ple full great a press, as the youths were made knights in court­ly wise, with such great hon­ors as might not ev­er light­ly be again. Then they ran to where they found sad­dled many a steed. In Sieg­mund’s court the hurtling (6) waxed so fierce that both palace (7) and hall were heard to ring; the high-​met­tled war­riors clashed with mighty sound. From young and old one heard many a shock, so that the splin­ter­ing of the shafts ree­choed to the clouds. Trun­cheons (8) were seen fly­ing out be­fore the palace from the hand of many a knight. This was done with zeal. At length the host bade cease the tour­ney and the steeds were led away. Up­on the turf one saw all to-​shiv­ered (9) many a mighty buck­ler and great store of pre­cious stones from the bright span­gles (10) of the shields. Through the hurtling this did hap.

Then the guests of the host be­took them to where men bade them sit. With good cheer they re­freshed them and with the very best of wine, of which one bare frill plen­ty. To the strangers and the home-​folk was shown wor­ship enow. Though much pas­time they had through­out the day, many of the strolling folk for­sware all rest. They served for the largess, which men found there rich­ly, where­by Sieg­mund’s whole land was decked with praise. Then bade the king en­fe­off Siegfried, the youth, with land and cas­tles, as he him­self had done. Much his hand be­stowed up­on the sword- com­pan­ions. The jour­ney liked them well, that to this land they were come. The feast­ing last­ed un­til the sev­enth day. Siegelind, the no­ble queen, for the love of her son, dealt out rud­dy gold in time-​hon­ored wise. Full well she wot how to make him beloved of the folk. Scarce could a poor man be found among the strolling mimes. Steeds and rai­ment were scat­tered by their hand, as if they were to live not one more day. I trow that nev­er did serv­ing folk use such great boun­ty. With wor­ship­ful hon­ors the com­pa­ny de­part­ed hence. Of the mighty barons the tale doth tell that they de­sired the youth un­to their lord, but of this the state­ly knight, Sir Siegfried, list­ed naught. Foras­much as both Sieg­mund and Siegelind were still alive, the dear child of them twain wished not to wear a crown, but fain would he be­come a lord against all the deeds of force with­in his lands, where­of the bold and dar­ing knight was sore adread.

END­NOTES: (1) “Sieg­mund” (M.H.G. “Sige­mu­nt”) was orig­inal­ly the hero of an in­de­pen­dent saga. See “Vol­sun­gasaga”, chaps. 3-8. (2) “Siegelind” (M.H.G. “Sigelint”) is the cor­rect name of Siegfried’s moth­er, as the al­lit­er­ation shows. The Ear­ly Norse ver­sion has “Hjordis”, which has come from the “Hel­gi saga”. (3) “Xan­ten” (M.H.G. “San­ten” from the Latin “ad sanc­tos”) is at present a town in the Rhen­ish Prus­sian dis­trict of Dus­sel­dorf. It does not now lie on the Rhine, but did in the Mid­dle Ages. (4) “Sword-​thanes” (M.H.G. “swert­de­gene”) were the young squires who were to be made knights. It was the cus­tom for a youth­ful prince to re­ceive the ac­co­lade with a num­ber of oth­ers. (5) “Mid­sum­mer fes­ti­val”. The M.H.G. “sunewende” means lit­er­al­ly the ’sun’s turn­ing’, i.e., the sum­mer sol­stice. This was one of the great Ger­man­ic fes­ti­vals, which the church lat­er turned in­to St. John’s Eve. The bon­fires still burnt in Ger­many on this day are sur­vivals of the old hea­then cus­tom. (6) “Hurtling” trans­lates here M.H.G. “buhurt”, a word bor­rowed from the French to de­note a knight­ly sport in which many knights clashed to­geth­er. Hurtling was used in old­er En­glish in the same sig­nif­icance. (7) “Palace” (M.H.G. “palas”, Lat. “palatium”) is a large build­ing stand­ing alone and large­ly used as a re­cep­tion hall. (8) “Trun­cheons” (M.H.G. “trun­zune”, O.F. “tron­con”, ‘lance splin­ters’, ‘frag­ments of spears’. (9) “To-​shiv­ered”, ‘bro­ken to pieces’, in im­ita­tion of the old­er En­glish to-​beat, to-​break, etc. (10) “Span­gles” (M.H.G. “span­gen”), strips of met­al ra­di­at­ing from the raised cen­tre of the shield and of­ten set, as here, with pre­cious stones.