Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/377

Rh Quoth he: “I would how before you, dear sister mine, if your greetings were but kinder. I know you, queen, to be so wroth of mood that ye do give me and Hagen meagre greetings.”

Up spake the knight of Berne: “Most noble queen, never were such good knights made hostages, as I have given you in them, exalted lady. For my sake, I pray you, spare these homeless men.”

She vowed she’d do it gladly. Then Sir Dietrich left the worshipful knights with weeping eyes. Later Etzel’s wife avenged her grimly; she took the life of both the chosen heroes. To make their duress worse she let them lie apart, so that neither saw the other, till she bare her brother’s head to Hagen. Kriemhild’s vengeance on both was great enow.

Then the queen went to Hagen. In what right hostile wise she spake to the knight: “If ye will give me back what ye have taken from me, then ye may still go home alive to Burgundy.”

Grim Hagen answered: “Thou dost waste thy words, most noble queen. Forsooth I have sworn an oath, that I would not show the hoard, the while and any of my lords still live; so I shall give it to none.”

“I’ll make an end of this,” quoth the high-born wife. Then she bade her brother's life be taken. His head they struck off, and by the hair she bare it to the knight of Troneg. Loth enow it was to him. When sad of mind the warrior gazed upon his master’s head, he spake to Kriemhild: “Thou hast brought it to an end after thy will, and it hath happed, as I had thought me. The noble king of Burgundy now lieth dead, and Giselher, the youth, and Sir Gernot, too. None know-