Legends of the Rhine | Page 7

wed King Gunther. As a reward Siegfried receives the hand of
Chriemhild. In the fulness of his heart the hero presents to Chriemhild

as a marriage gift, the Nibelungen Hoard, which he had gained in his
early years from the sons of the king of the Nibelungen and from Dwarf
Alberich the guardian of the treasure.
Joy reigns in the king's court at Worms, but it was not shared by all.
Besides Chriemhild there was another secretly drawn towards the hero,
and in Brunhild's heart the bridal happiness of Chriemhild awakens
such envy that soon no friendly word passes between the women. They
become estranged and one day her bad feeling leads Brunhild to harsh
words. Then alas, Chriemhild gave unbridled licence to her tongue. In
her rash insolence she represents to Brunhild that it was not Gunther
but Siegfried who formerly overcame her. As proof of this she
produces the ring and girdle which Siegfried had taken on that night
from the powerful Brunhild, and which he had presented to Chriemhild.
With fierce haughtiness Chriemhild taunts her opponent with a hateful
name no woman could endure, and forbids her to enter the cathedral.
Brunhild, weeping, informs King Gunther of the contumely heaped
upon her. The king is filled with wrath, and his vassal, the gloomy
Hagen, considers how he may destroy Siegfried avowedly to avenge
the Queen, but secretly for the possession of the Nibelungen Hoard.
During a hunt in the Odenwald Siegfried was treacherously stabbed by
Hagen whilst stopping to drink from a well. The intention was to
spread the report that Siegfried had been slain by robbers whilst
hunting alone. So, on the following day they crossed the Rhine back to
Worms.
In the night Hagen caused the dead body of Siegfried to be laid in front
of Chriemhild's chamber. In the early morning as Chriemhild
accompanied by her attendants was preparing to go to mass in the
cathedral she noticed the corpse of her hero. A wail of sorrow arose.
Chriemhild threw herself weeping on the body of her murdered
husband. "Alas!" she cried "thy shield is not hewn by swords: thou hast
been foully murdered. Did I but know who has done this, I would
avenge thy death." Chriemhild ordered a magnificent bier for her royal
hero, and demanded that an ordeal should be held over the corpse. "For
it is a marvellous thing, and to this day it happens, that when the

bloodstained murderer approaches wounds bleed anew."
So all the princes and nobles of Burgundy walked past the dead body,
above which was the figure of the crucified Redeemer of the world, and
lo! when the grim Hagen came forward the wounds of the dead man
began to flow. In the presence of the astounded men and horrified
women Chriemhild accused Hagen of the assassination of her husband.
Much treachery and woe accompanied the expiation of this great crime.
The Nibelungen Hoard, the cause of the shameful deed, was sunk in the
middle of the Rhine in order to prevent future strife arising from human
greed. But Chriemhild's undying sorrow was not mitigated, nor her
unconquerable thirst for revenge appeased.
After the burial of his son King Siegmund begged in vain that
Chriemhild should come to the royal city of Xanten; she remained at
Worms for thirteen years constantly near her beloved dead.
Then the sorrowing woman removed to the Abbey of Lorch which her
mother, Frau Ute, had founded. Thither also, she transferred Siegfried's
body.
When Etzel (Attila) the ruler of the Huns wooed her, Chriemhild urged
not by love but by very different feelings gave him her hand and
accompanied her heathen lord to the Ungarland. Then she treacherously
invited Siegfried's murderers to visit her husband, and prepared for
them a destruction which fills the mind with horror. The Burgundian
king and his followers, who, since the Hoard had come into their
possession, were called the Nibelungen, fell slaughtered in the
Etzelburg under the swords of the Huns and their allies, thus atoning
for their faithlessness to the hero Siegfried. And with this awful
holocaust ends the Lied of the Nibelungen Not, the most renowned
heroic legend in the German tongue.

SPEYER
The Bells of Speyer

The German Emperor, Henry IV., had much trouble to bear under his
purple mantle. Through his own and through stranger's faults the crown
which he wore was set with thorns, and even into the bosom of his
family this unhappy spirit of dissension had crept. The
excommunication of the Pope, his powerful enemy, was followed by
the revolt of the princes, and lastly by the conspiracy of his own sons.
His eldest son, Conrad, openly rebelled against him, and treated his
father most scornfully. When this prince died suddenly, the second son,
Henry, attempted the deposition of