Adventure XXXVI: How the Queen bade set fire to the Hall

"Unlace ye now your helmets," spake Hagen Troneg's lord."I and my comrade Volker will again keep watch and ward;And if yon vassals of Etzel once more the onset essay,Straightway will I warn my masters with all the speed I may."Then loosed was the band of his helmet by many a warrior good;And they sat them down on the corpses that lay there in their blood,Which had come by the hands Burgundian to their death, and cumberedthe floor,The while with bitter hatred the Hunfolk scowled at the door.

Ere the evening shadows had fallen, the King by hest and prayer,With Kriemhild the Queen, had persuaded that with hope of fortunefairThe Huns should essay the onset again: in huge arrayThey stood, full twenty thousand in ordered ranks for the fray.Then a wilder battle-tempest against the King's guests swept.Dankwart, the brother of Hagen, the mighty warrior, leaptFrom beside his lords to the foemen to meet them afront of the hall.They deemed him verily death-doomed, yet scatheless he won throughall.Long lasted that stubborn conflict till the shadows darkened down;And the guests still stood unflinching like heroes of renownAgainst the hosts of Etzel through that long summer day.Ha, what unnumbered heroes in death before them lay!

In the fair midsummer season was that mighty murder wrought,When Kriemhild for her heart's anguish revenge so dearly boughtOn her own nearest kinsfolk and on many guiltless men,By reason whereof King Etzel knew never joy again.(C) But so grim and great a murder had she purposed not at the first:Nay, in the strife's beginning one thought in her breast she nursed,That Hagen alone by her vengeance to a bloody end should come:--But therein was the Foul Fiend working to fashion for all one doom.

The day was past: the heroes were now in evil strait.Weary and famished, it seemed them swift death were a better fateThan long to linger in torment of hunger and thirst and pain.Wherefore the knights high-hearted for a truce with their foes werefain.They asked that the King might meet them before the feast-hall door.Then the heroes with armour-soilure blackened, and red with gore,Strode forth of the hall, and amidst them stood the Princes three:But their haggard eyes found nowhere one glance of sympathy.

And now stand Etzel and Kriemhild that place of death before--Theirs is the whole land, therefore waxeth their host evermore--Then spake the King to the King's guests: "Say, what would ye of me?Haply for peace ye petition? Hardly this may beAfter the wrongs ye have done me, and your ruthless work of death.Ye shall not in any wise win it so long as I draw breath.My child whom ye have murdered, and all my friends laid low--Look ye for peace and forgiveness for these? In sooth, not so!"

"Enforced," made answer Gunther, "were we by a grievous wrong.Within their lodging murdered were all mine henchman-throng,Murdered by thine own heroes!--whereby had I earned such meed?I came to thee trustful-hearted, I held thee a friend indeed!"Then spake of the Princes Burgundian the youngest, Giselher:"Ye warriors of King Etzel which be yet alive, give ear.What have ye against me, heroes? What have I done unto you,I, who to this land journeyed with loving heart and true?""Thy love!" they replied: "our castles are filled by reason thereofWith mourning, and all our country! We well could have spared thylove,Hadst thou never journeyed hither from Worms beyond the Rhine!The whole land lieth orphaned through thee and those brethren ofthine!"

Then in mighty indignation Gunther the hero cried:"Would ye suffer this deadly hatred even now to be laid asideIn peace with the homeless warriors, for us and for you it were well.For no guilt of ours is the anger of Etzel the King so fell."The King to the guests gave answer: "Not yet made equal they are,Your sufferings and Etzel's--the bitter travail of war,The scathe and the deadly insult that ye have loaded on me--For these no man of you living cometh forth into liberty!"

To the King made answer Gernot the stalwart and valorous:"At the least may God incline thee to do one grace unto us:Slay us indeed, the homeless; but let us forth unto youFrom this prison into the open: for your honour this should ye do.Whatsoever then may betide us, be it quickly over and done.Ye have hosts of men unwounded: if they dare one and all set on,They shall give to the battle-weary death and a soon-won rest.How long shall we knights linger thus grievously distressed?"

Now the warriors of King Etzel would lightly have done them thegraceThat the heroes forth of the feast-hall should come to the openspace.But so soon as Kriemhild heard it, in anguish of wrath she criedAgainst it; and unto the homeless was this last boon denied."Nay, noble knights," she pleaded, "the thing ye incline untoYe never will grant, if ye hearken to faithful counsel and true,To let these murder-lusters set foot forth of the hall!If ye do it, many your kinsmen in the pit of death shall fall.If only three were living, my brethren, Uta's sons,And to free air of heaven came forth those mighty ones,To cool their scalding harness, ye were lost!--not lightly I warn;For verily braver heroes on earth were never born."

Spake Giselher the young Prince: "O fairest sister mine,In an evil hour did I trust thee, at whose word I passed over RhineA bidden guest to thy country--nay rather to this sore strait!What have I done to the Hunfolk to earn me this evil fate?Unto thee have I kept troth ever; never I wronged thee in aught.Unto Etzel's palace riding I came with this one thoughtThat to me thou wert loving-hearted, O sister cherished of me.Now show unto us thy mercy: ah, surely so it must be!"

"I show unto you no mercy: no mercy to me was shown!Unto me hath Hagen of Troneg foul wrong and ruthless done,And for this is there no atonement, so long as I yet have life;And for this must ye all pay forfeit!" So spake King Etzel's wife."Yet--yet if Hagen only for hostage to me ye give,Not utterly will I deny you, I will haply let you live,Forasmuch as ye be my brethren; sons of my mother ye are:So will I commune of pardon with these my men of war."

"Now God in Heaven forbid it!" Gernot indignantly cried."Though yet we numbered a thousand, we would all die side by side--We who are yet thy kinsmen!--ere one man of us allShall be rendered up for a hostage: that shame shall never befall.""So then we must needs all perish," did the young Prince Giselhersay;"Yet none shall hinder our dying like knights in our war-array.If any be fain to fight us, ready here we stand.No friend I forsake, betraying the troth of my right hand!"Then spake the valiant Dankwart; in the word was his true heartshown:"Verily Hagen my brother standeth not here alone.We asked of them peace: their denial thereof shall work them woe!Yea, by my troth, to their sorrow they yet shall find it so."

Then spake that Daughter of Princes: "O heroes valiant and strongGo forward unto the stairway, and avenge us of our wrong;And to you will I aye be beholden, even as is meet and right,And the insolent outrage of Hagen will I to the full requite.Let none of all their warriors tarry without the door;And I will cause yon feast-hall to be fired at its corners four:So shall I have meet vengeance for all mine anguish of heart!"Swiftly the warriors of Etzel set them to play their part.Them that without were standing they drave back through the doorWith swords and with hail of javelins: loud rang the battle-roar.Yet in all that stress the princes and liegemen were sundered not:From loyal faith to each other never they swerved one jot.

Then the wife of Etzel commanded to set the hall aflame.Now on the heroes the torment of a fiery furnace came.The house was enwrapped in the leaping flames by a great wind blown.Never, I ween, such anguish by a leaguered host was known!Within were there voices crying: "Woe's me for this horror of pain!Better that dead we were lying in the storm of battle slain!God upon us have mercy!--how utterly are we lost!Grimly the Queen is wreaking her vengeance on all this host!"Cried a voice yet again through the hot reek: "Here must we meet ourdoom!Unto such a festal high-tide did the false King bid us come?Thirst in this flaming furnace so sore tormenteth me,That fainteth my life and faileth in this mine agony!"

Then shouted Hagen of Troneg: "O noble knights and good,Whoso by thirst is tormented, here let him drink of the blood.In heat thus fiercely scorching better than wine it is:In this our strait moreover may we find none better than this."Then a certain knight which heard him went unto one of the dead;He bowed him down to the death-gash, he loosed the helm from hishead;He drank of the blood fresh-flowing, and deep and long he quaffedOf a cup theretofore untasted, and sweet to his lips was the draught."God guerdon thee, Lord Hagen," the weary warrior cried,"For this good drink I have gotten, who took thy counsel for guide!Never hath cupbearer poured me more soul-refreshing wine.So long as I live am I bounden to thee for this rede of thine."Now when his fellows heard it, that counsel seemed them good,And behold, there was many another that likewise drank of the blood:Therefrom in the frames of the warriors was strength and liferenewed;By many a wife on the morrow in the death of her lord was it rued.

From the roof great fragments flaming fell heavily all round;But their heads with the shields they warded, and dashed the brandsto the ground.The rolling smoke and the scorching tormented them full sore:Never, I ween, unto heroes befell such pain before.Then again spake Hagen of Troneg: "Stand ye close to the wall:Suffer ye not the firebrands on your helmet-bands to fall,But beneath your feet do ye trample and quench in blood the flame.Unto an evil high-tide at Kriemhild's bidding we came!"

Amid such tribulation the night drew on to an end.And ever the valiant minstrel kept guard with Hagen his friend,Before the palace-portal on his shield-rim resting a hand,Aye watching against new onslaughts from the men of Etzel's land.(C) Much it advantaged the heroes that the hall was vaulted o'er:By reason thereof, in the morning there lived so many the more.Albeit on them at the windows more hotly the flame-tongues played,Unflinching did they withstand them as valour and honour bade.

Then spake the viol-minstrel: "Now go we into the hall.These Huns shall deem peradventure that their enemies one and allBe dead through the fiery torment wherewith we have been beset;But I ween there be some that in grapple of fight shall close withthem yet."Then of the Princes Burgundian the youngest, Giselher, spake:"Lo now, a cold wind riseth: the day shall, I trow, soon break.May God in Heaven vouchsafe us that a happier day may dawn!To an ill high-tide by the bidding of my sister were we drawn!"Spake after a space another: "Now I discern the day.Then, seeing nought else remaineth, and for us there is but one way,E'en make you ready, my masters, as needeth to be done.At the least will we die with honour, seeing escape is none."

Now thought, as he well might, Etzel that the guests by this weredead,Forspent with battle-travail and with flames encompassèd;Yet there six hundred warriors still dauntless stood at bay.No king on earth had ever better knights than they.Now the watchers that spied on the strangers full well by this werewareThat many a guest was living, what grievous scathe soe'erAnd torment had been suffered by the kings and their warrior-band.They beheld in the blackened feast-hall a goodly company stand.Then one brought word unto Kriemhild that yet lived many a foe."Nay," cried the Queen in amazement, "never can this be so--Never, that one man living through such a fire could come!Nay, I must needs think rather that all have found one doom."

Full fain would Princes and liegemen yet have been spared to live,Had any been moved by mercy that boon at the last to give.There was none: they could find no daysman in all the Hunfolk's land:Therefore did they for their slaying avenge them with willing hand.A sudden greeting received they in the first of the morning-red,Even a furious onslaught, that the heroes were hardly bestead.With javelins flying before it rolled up that battle-flood;Yet ever the knights unquailing with ranks unbroken stood.

Now were the hosts of Etzel high-wrought and eager-souled,For they looked to win the guerdon of Kriemhild's lavished gold;And they burned to prove them loyal in fulfilling their King'scommand--But for many an one doom waited, swift death was hard at hand.Of her gifts and her promises marvels now might the minstrel sing.She bade men bear upon bucklers the gold bright-glittering;And on all that desired and would take it freely did she bestow.Never was wealth so lavished to spur men against a foe.

So a mighty array of warriors all-armed to the door drew near.Then cried the viol-minstrel: "O yea, yet are we here!Never so gladly beheld I heroes come to the fightAs these which have taken the treasure of the King to do us despite."Then many a stern voice shouted: "Ye heroes, come more nigh!Make ye an end of us quickly, seeing we needs must die!Here shall ye find none waiting save them whom death is to win!"Soon were the bucklers heavy with the spears that quivered therein.

What shall I more say?--hundreds twelve, with toil and strainOf mightiest sword-strokes battled to break through once and again;But with gaping wounds the defenders cooled their fiery mood.By none could their strife be parted: rushed in torrents the bloodOut of the death-deep gashes: fast, fast men fell and died.Lamentation for dear friends perished shrieked up on every side.So fought they, till all those champions of Etzel the mighty fell,And nought was heard but the wailing of them that loved them well.