Adventure XXXII: Of the Slaughter of the Squires and the Slaying of the Slayer

Now the knights that Blödel gathered arrayed themselves forthright.To the feast-hall they hied them, a thousand in hauberks harnessedfor fight,To the hall where ranged at the tables the squires with Dankwartsate.Soon brake there forth between heroes the deadliest of all hate.

In strode the war-thane Blödel, and afront of the board stood grim.But with friendly courtesy Dankwart the Marshal greeted him:"With welcoming to our mansion, Lord Blödel, I hail thee now;Yet I marvel at thy coming. What tidings bringest thou?""Thou hast nothing to do to greet me," sternly Blödel spake;"Seeing my coming hither an end of thee shall make,For that Hagen thy brother murdered Siegfried years agone;For the deed with heroes many shalt thou to the Huns atone.""Now nay, my good Lord Blödel," peaceably Dankwart replied;"Sooth, this were a sorry ending for us all unto this high-tide!But a child was I when Siegfried departed from light and life.No cause know I why hated I should be of Etzel's wife.""For thee, I know not and care not how the truth of the story lies:Thy kinsmen, Hagen and Gunther, did it in any wise.Defend you, ye doomed and homeless! Ye live not another day!Here, now, with your lives the forfeit unto Kriemhild must ye pay!"

"Ha, will ye forbear not?" cried Dankwart, "ye messengers of death!I repent me of mine entreaty: I had better have spared my breath!"That keen knight battle-eager leapt from his place at the board;He swept from out the scabbard a mighty and long sharp sword:Therewith hath he dealt unto Blödel a stroke that as lightningflashed;And lo, his head in the helmet down at his feet was dashed."That be thy morning bride-gift," the war-fain warrior cried,"To the widowed wife of Nudung, whom thou wert to win for bride!Ay, let them wed her to-morrow to another traitor yet:If he craveth a dower, that Blödel hath gotten shall he too get!"So scoffed he touching the tidings that a Hun true-hearted hadbroughtOf the plot whereby Queen Kriemhild the destruction of all thesesought.

Then saw the men of Blödel how their good lord lay slain,And their hands from the guests Burgundian no longer would theyrefrain.With swords for the onset uplifted they rushed in furious moodOn the squires--but this their emprise ere long full many rued.With a great voice then to his henchmen all did Dankwart cry:"Ye see well, squires brave-hearted, they have doomed us all to die!Now, homeless men, defend you, for sore is your need, I ween,--So then for this were we bidden guests of a gracious queen!"Then, whoso were swordless, 'twixt table and seat good weapons theyfound,For many a massy footstool swung they up from the ground.O yea, those youths Burgundian would flinch no foot from the fray,But with those ponderous maces the foes' helms dinted they.How grimly the friendless yeomen defended them in the fight!Those armèd knights from the feast-hall they drave in huddled flight.Five hundred--yea, more, it may be--fled not, for they lay theredead.There yeomen and squires all blood-drenched stood and crimson-red.

In a little while thereafter these heavy tidings cameTo the knights of King Etzel: with anguish and wrath were their soulsaflameThat Blödel with all those warriors nought save death had won.This had the brother of Hagen with his squires and his yeomen done.Or ever the King might hear it, a host of the Hunfolk stood,Two thousand--yea, more, it may be--mail-clad, in furious mood.They fell on the squires--one ending alone could there be to thestrife;--And they left of all that concourse no single soul in life.For a mighty host did the traitors lead to that hostelry,And the homeless men unarmoured withstood them valiantly.What profited strength and valour? One doom of death did they find.--But the feet of a terrible vengeance were treading close behind.Now must ye hear a marvel and a horror hard to be said:Burgundian squires nine thousand in the hall of blood lay dead,And with these lay the knights of Dankwart, twelve battle-helpersgood;And alone at last and unholpen in the midst of his foes he stood.

The uproar fell to silence, the tumult was stilled for a space;Then Dankwart glanced around him o'er the slaughter-reeking place:"Alas for the dear friends," cried he, "that here in death lie low!And I--woe's me!--I am standing alone in the midst of the foe!"Upon that one man in fury did countless sword-strokes leap:But the wife of many a hero for this had cause to weep.Higher he lifted his buckler; the arm-brace lower he drew.Then many a rifted harness was drenched with crimson dew.Cried Aldrian's son: "My torment is greater than man may bear!Give way, ye knights of the Hunfolk; let me win forth to free air,That over the warfare-weary the cooling breeze may play!"To the door through blows down-hailing he gallantly hewed his way.When the battle-weary champion forth of the portal sprang,How many swords unblooded then on his helmet rangWielded by them who had seen not the marvels wrought by his hand!Forth leapt to meet them the hero, the pride of Burgundia-land.

"Now would to God," cried Dankwart, "that a messenger were but nigh,Who should tell my brother Hagen of mine extremity,Who am thus by armèd traitors beset before and behind!Me from their midst would he rescue, or his own death here would hefind."Answered the Hunfolk scoffing: "That messenger thou must be,When into thy brother's presence we drag a dead man--thee!Then first shall the liegeman of Gunther gaze on his own heart's woe.Thou to the men of King Etzel hast here done mischief enow.""Have done with your threats!" he shouted. "Give back, ye traitorbrood!Else many a man's war-harness will I drench with his own life-blood.I, even I, to the palace will bear these tidings of bane,And there of the wrong and the outrage to my lords will I complain."

Then he plunged in their midst, and such havoc he wrought in theHunnish horde,That they shrank before him, and dared not close in the strife of thesword;But they hurled their spears, till so thickly did the shafts in hisbuckler standThat the weight thereof constrained him to cast it away from hishand.Then thought they to overbear him, that one man shieldless left.Ha! but he hewed two-handed, and through helmet and brain he cleft.Before him many a brave man went reeling and staggering back.High praise and renown bold Dankwart won in the battle-wrack.Then leapt his adversaries upon him to left and to right:--Ha! but of these full many too hastily came to the fight!Full on the foemen charged he, as chargeth a forest-boarOn the hounds in the wood--was valour like his seen ever before?

Ever gushing as streams from a fountain the hot blood reddened hisway.Did e'er knight single-handed more gallantly turn to bayFacing such hosts of foemen as in that hour did he?On pressed to the palace the brother of Hagen triumphantly.The cupbearers heard and the stewards the bickering blades' fierceclang,And they caught at their swords, down casting the cups on the floorthat rang:Some clutched spears, dropping the bakemeats that they to thefeast-hall bare;So when Dankwart won to the palace, fresh foemen thronged the stair."How now, ye knightly sewers," did the weary warrior say,"Of a truth, to the guests of your master meet service should ye pay,And should bear to the waiting princes the goodly meats through thehall,And let me bear to my masters the tidings I come withal."Whosoe'er with presumptuous courage to bar his coming essayed,Upon him with his swinging war-glaive such giant strokes he laid,That the rest all terror-stricken fell back from his fierceonslaught.Marvels exceeding mighty by his prowess had he wrought.