Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/153

Rh CHAP. whether of the ocean or the sea. In the spirtnig out of Siegfried's blood on Hagen, in the wonderful stroke with which he almost smites his betrayer dead, in the death wrestle which covers the flowers all around with blood and gore, we have the chief features of the blood- stained sunset which looms out in the legend of the death of Herakles. The body of Siegfried, placed on a golden shield, is borne to the chamber of Kriemhild, who feels, before she is told, that it is the corpse of her murdered husband. " This is Brynhild's counsel," she said, "this is Hagen's deed;" and she swears to avenge his death by a vengeance as fearful as that of Achilleus. As Siegfried had spoken, so should Hagen assuredly rue the day of his death hereafter. She gives orders to awaken Siegfried's men and his father Sigmund ; but Sigmund has not slept, for, like Peleus, he has felt that he should see his son again no more. Then follows the burial of Siegfried, when Gunther swears that no harm has come to the hero either from himself or from his men : but the lie is given to his words when the wounds bleed as Hagen passes before the dead body. 'hen all is over, Sigmund says that they must return to their own land ; but Kriemhild is at last persuaded to remain at Worms, where she sojourns for more than three years in bitter grief, seeing neither Gunther nor Hagen. The latter now makes Gemot press Kriemhild to have her hoard brought from the Niblung land, and thus at length gaining possession of it, he sinks it all in the Rhine. In other words, Adonis is dead, and the women are left mourning and wailing for him ; or the maiden is stolen away from Demeter, and her wealth is carried to the house of Hades ; or again, as in the Norse tale, the dwarf Andvari is keeping watch over the treasures of Brynhild : and thus ends the first of the series of mythical histories embodied in the Nibelung Lay. Whether this portion of the great Teutonic epic be, or be not, older than the parts which follow it, it is indubitably an integral narrative in itself, and by no means indis- pensable to the general plan of the poem, except in so far as it ac- counts for the implacable hatred of Kriemhild for her brothers.

The second part of the drama begins with the death of Hclche, The Stop; the wife of Etzel or Atli, who longs to marry Kriemhild, and who is restrained only by the recollection that he is a heathen while the widow of Siegfried is a Christian. This objection, however, is over- ruled by the whole council, who, with the one exception of Hagen, decide that Etzel shall marry Kriemhild. Hagen is opposed to it, because Siegfried swore that he should rue the day on which ho touched him, and on account of the prophecy that if ever Kricmheld took the place of Helche, she would bring harm to the Burgundians,