Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/337

Rh now? Certes, I must lose my life from these wounds I have received. Death will no longer let me serve you and Etzel.” To the men of Thuringia and to those of Denmark he spake: “None of you must take from the queen her shining ruddy gold as meed, for if ye encounter Hagen, ye must gaze on death.”

Pale grew his hue; brave Iring bare the mark of death. Dole enow it gave them, for no longer might Hawart’s liegeman live. Then the men of Denmark must needs renew the fray. Irnfried and Hawart with well a thousand champions leaped toward the hall. On every side one heard a monstrous uproar, mighty and strong. Ho, what sturdy javelins were cast at the Burgundian men! Bold Irnfried rushed at the minstrel, but gained great damage at his hands. Through his sturdy helmet the noble fiddler smote the landgrave. Certes, he was grim enow! Then Sir Irnfried dealt the valiant gleeman such a blow that his coat of mail burst open and his breastplate was enveloped with a bright red flame. Yet the landgrave fell dead at the minstrel’s hands. Hawart and Hagen, too, had come together. Wonders would he have seen, who beheld the fight. The swords fell thick and fast in the heroes’ hands. Through the knight from the Burgundian land Hawart needs must die. When the Thuringians and the Danes espied their lordings dead, there rose before the hall a fearful strife, before they gained the door with mighty hand. Many a helm and shield was hacked and cut thereby.

“Give way,” spake Folker, “and let them in, for else what they have in mind will not be ended. They must die in here in full short time. With death they’ll gain what the queen would give them.”