Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/266

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Now when the noble Kriemhild a widow thus was made

Count Eckewart was with her, and in the land he stay’d

With all his men, and daily he served her without fail,

And helped his lady often his master to bewail.

At Worms, hard by the minster, they built for her a hall:

’Twas very wide and lofty, and richly deck’d withal.

There, with her own attendants, all joylessly sat she.

She loved the church’s service and went there willingly.

From where her love lay buried, she seldom was away;

With sorrow-laden spirit she went there every day.

She prayed to God Almighty to keep his soul aright.

And faithfully and often bewailéd was the knight.

Uté and all her women to cheer her aye were fain;

Yet was the heart within her so sorely smit with pain,

However they might comfort she took not any heed.

She had for her belovéd such all-surpassing need,

As for a well-loved husband no other wife ere found.

Thus might one see how virtues in her did much abound . Unto her end she mourn’d him, as long as she had life,

And soon a mighty vengeance took valiant Siegfried’s wife!