Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/257

XVII.]

With all their hearts they mourn’d him, the husband of Kriemhild.

Now masses must be chanted: the minster soon was fill’d

With men, and wives, and children,— from every side they came.

E’en they who little miss’d him mourn’d Siegfried all the same.

Gernot, and Giselher with him, spake: “Sister dear to me,

Now, for this death, take comfort, as verily must be.

We will atone unto you as long as we shall live.”

Yet on the earth was no one who could her comfort give.

His coffin was made ready wellnigh about mid-day;

Then from the bier they raised him, whereon till then he lay.

Fain would the noble lady have kept him from the grave;

Which unto her attendants sore trouble surely gave.

In richly broider’d vestment they wrapp’d the body round,

And then, I ween, that noone unweeping there was found,

With all her heart wept Uté— a noble woman she—

And each of her attendants the goodly corpse to see.

When people heard the chanting within the church begin,

And knew that he was coffin’d, they throng’d to enter in;

For his soul’s weal and profit what offerings were made!

In sooth, among the foemen good friends enough he had!

Kriemhilda, the poor lady, said to her chamberlain:

“The love they bear towards me will be to them a bane,

Seeing they grudge him nothing and hold me also dear;

For Siegfried’s weal ’tis fitting that they his gold should share.