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“And likewise what Dame Uté, your mother, sendeth you,

And Giselher the young knight, and noble Gernot too,

And all your nearest kinsfolk, from whom we have command

To offer you their greeting from the Burgundian land.”

“Now God reward ye, heralds,” cried Siegfried, “and I trust

Unto your truth and kindness,— as towards friends we must,—

So likewise doth their sister;— and now your tidings give

If still our friends belovéd at home in gladness live.

“Since we from them departed hath no one evil done

Unto Kriemhilda’s kinsmen? let that to me be known.

My faithful help is ready in ev’ry time of need,

Until mine aid and service their foes shall rue indeed!”

Then quoth the Margrave Gere,— he was a warrior good:

“Right happily abide they in all good livelihood;

They bid you to the Rhineland, to a high festival;

Right gladly will they see you, of that doubt not at all.

“They pray my lady also that she will thither wend

So soon as e’er the winter shall come unto its end.

Before this next midsummer your faces would they see.”

Then spake the stalwart Siegfried: “Nay, that can hardly be!”

But further spake Sir Gere, from the Burgundian land:

“It is your mother Uté who maketh this demand;

Eke Giselher and Gernot, ye must not them gainsay:

That ye be so far distant I hear complaints each day.