<h2><SPAN name="chap19"></SPAN>Nineteenth Adventure<br/> How the Nibelung Hoard Came to Worms</h2>
<p>When noble Kriemhild was widowed, Count Eckewart stayed by her in Burgundy with
his men, as honour bade him, and served his mistress with goodwill till his
death.</p>
<p>At Worms, by the minster, they gave her a room, wide and high, rich and
spacious, where she sat joyless with her attendants. To church she went often
and gladly. Since her dear one was buried, how seldom she failed there! She
went thither sorrowfully every day, and prayed to great God for his soul.
Faithfully and without stint the knight was mourned.</p>
<p>Uta and her women ceased not to comfort her. But her heart was wounded so deep
that she could not be cheered. She sorrowed for Siegfried more than wife ever
did for husband. Her great love appeared therein, and she mourned him to the
end, while her life endured. Strong and true she took vengeance at the last.</p>
<p>So she remained (I say sooth) till the fourth year after her husband’s
death, and had spoken no word to Gunther, nor once, in the whole of that time,
had looked on Hagen, her foe.</p>
<p>Then said Hagen of Trony, “Couldst thou contrive that thy sister took
thee to friend again? So would the Nibelung gold come into this land. Thou
mightest win much thereof for thyself, if the queen were appeased.”</p>
<p>“We will try it,” answered the king. “I will send my brothers
thither, that haply they may prevail upon her to do it gladly.”</p>
<p>But Hagen said, “I doubt that will never be.”</p>
<p>Gunther sent Ortwin and the Margrave Gary to the court. When that was done,
they brought Gernot, and Giselher the youth. And on friendly wise they essayed
it with Kriemhild.</p>
<p>Bold Gernot of Burgundy said, “Lady, thou mournest Siegfried’s
death too long. The king will prove to thee that it was not he that slew him.
Evermore thou art heard wailing bitterly.”</p>
<p>She said, “No one blameth the king. Hagen’s hand slew him, and from
me he discovered where he should stab. How could I know he hated him? Good care
had I taken then not to betray his beautiful body, and had not needed now to
weep, wretched woman that I am. I will never be the friend of them that did
it.”</p>
<p>Then began Giselher, the valiant man, to entreat her.</p>
<p>She said, “Ye give me no peace. I must greet him, but great is your blame
therein, for without fault of mine the king hath brought on me bitter
heart’s dole. With my mouth I may pardon him, but with my heart,
never.”</p>
<p>“After this it will be better,” thought her friends. “What if
he so entreat her that she grow glad again?”</p>
<p>“He may yet make it good to her,” said Gernot, the warrior.</p>
<p>And the sorrowful woman said, “See, I will do as ye desire; I will greet
the king.”</p>
<p>When they told him that, the king went with his best friends to her. But Hagen
durst not come before her. Well he knew his guilt, and that he had done her a
wrong.</p>
<p>Since she had hid her hate to him, Gunther deemed it well to kiss her. If he
had not wrought her such woe, he might have gone often and boldly into her
presence.</p>
<p>Friends were never reconciled with so many tears, for her wrongs weighed heavy
on her heart. She forgave them all, save the one man, for none but Hagen had
slain him.</p>
<p>Soon after, they contrived that Kriemhild won the great hoard from the land of
the Nibelungs, and brought it to the Rhine. It was her marriage-morning gift,
and rightly hers. Giselher and Gernot went for it. Kriemhild sent eighty
hundred men to fetch it from where it lay hid, and where Albric with his
nearest kinsmen guarded it.</p>
<p>When they saw the men of the Rhine come for the treasure, bold Albric spake to
his friends, “We dare not refuse her the treasure, for it is the noble
queen’s wedding gift. Yet we had never parted with it, if we had not lost
with Siegfried the good <i>Tarnkappe</i>. At all times it was worn by fair
Kriemhild’s husband. A woeful thing hath it proved for Siegfried that he
took from us the <i>Tarnkappe</i>, and won all this land to his service.”</p>
<p>Then the chamberlain went and got the keys. Kriemhild’s men and some of
her kinsmen stood before the mountain. They carried the hoard to the sea, on to
the ships, and bare it across the waves from the mountain to the Rhine.</p>
<p>Now hear the marvels of this treasure. Twelve wagons scarce carried it thence
in four days and four nights, albeit each of them made the journey three times.
It was all precious stones and gold, and had the whole world been bought
therewith, there had not been one coin the less. Certes, Hagen did not covet it
without cause.</p>
<p>The wishing-rod lay among it, the which, if any discovered it, made him master
over every man in all the world.</p>
<p>Many of Albric’s kinsmen went with Gernot. When Gernot and Giselher the
youth got possession of the hoard, there came into their power lands, and
castles, also, and many a good warrior, that served them through fear of their
might.</p>
<p>When the hoard came into Gunther’s land, and the queen got it in her
keeping, chambers and towers were filled full therewith. One never heard tell
of so marvelous a treasure. But if it had been a thousand times more, but to
have Siegfried alive again, Kriemhild had gladly stood bare by his side. Never
had hero truer wife.</p>
<p>Now that she had the hoard, it brought into the land many stranger knights; for
the lady’s hand gave more freely than any had ever seen. She was kind and
good; that must one say of her.</p>
<p>To poor and rich she began to give, till Hagen said that if she lived but a
while longer, she would win so many knights to her service that it must go hard
with the others.</p>
<p>But King Gunther said, “It is her own. It concerneth me not how she useth
it. Scarcely did I win her pardon. And now I ask not how she divideth her
jewels and her red gold.”</p>
<p>But Hagen said to the king, “A wise man would leave such a treasure to no
woman. By reason of her largess, a day will come that the bold Burgundians may
rue.”</p>
<p>Then King Gunther said, “I sware an oath to her that I would do her no
more hurt, nor will I do it. She is my sister.”</p>
<p>But Hagen said, “Let me be the guilty one.”</p>
<p>And so they brake their oath and took from the widow her rich hoard. Hagen got
hold of all the keys.</p>
<p>Gernot was wroth when he heard thereof, and Giselher said, “Hagen hath
greatly wronged Kriemhild. I should have withstood him. Were he not my kinsman,
he should answer for it with his life.”</p>
<p>Then Siegfried’s wife began to weep anew.</p>
<p>And Gernot said, “Sooner than be troubled with this gold, let us sink it
in the Rhine. Then it were no man’s.”</p>
<p>She went wailing to Giselher, and said, “Dear brother, forsake me not,
but be my kind and good steward.”</p>
<p>He answered her, “I will, when we win home again. For the present we ride
on a journey.”</p>
<p>The king and his kinsmen left the land. He took the best he had with him. Only
Hagen tarried behind through the hate he bare Kriemhild, and that he might work
her ill.</p>
<p>Or the great king came back, Hagen had seized all the treasure and sunk it in
the Rhine at Lochheim. He thought to profit thereby, but did not.</p>
<p>Or Hagen hid the treasure, they had sworn a mighty oath that it should remain a
secret so long as they lived. Neither could they take it themselves nor give it
to another.</p>
<p>The princes returned, and with them many knights. Thereupon Kriemhild, with her
women and her maidens, began to bewail her wrong bitterly. She was right
woeful. And the knights made as to slay Hagen, and said with one accord,
“He hath done evilly.” So he fled from before their anger till they
took him in favour again. They let him live, but Kriemhild hated him with
deadly hate.</p>
<p>Her heart was heavy with new grief for her husband’s murder, and that
they had stolen her treasure, and till her last day she ceased not to wail.</p>
<p>After Siegfried’s death (I say sooth) she mourned till the thirteenth
year, nor could she forget the hero. She was ever true to him, and for this
folk have praised her.</p>
<p>Uta founded a rich abbey with her wealth after Dankrat’s death, and
endowed it with great revenue, the which it draweth still. It is the Abbey of
Lorsch, renowned to this day. Kriemhild also gave no little part thereto, for
Siegfried’s soul, and for the souls of all the dead. She gave gold and
precious stones with willing hand. Seldom have we known a truer wife.</p>
<p>After that Kriemhild forgave Gunther, and yet, through his fault, lost her
great treasure, her heart’s dole was a thousand times worse than afore,
and she was fain to be gone. A rich palace was built for Uta fast by the
cloister of Lorsch. She left her children and went thither, and there she lieth
still, buried in her coffin.</p>
<p>Then said the queen, “Dearest daughter mine, since thou canst not tarry
here, dwell with me in my house at Lorsch, and cease from weeping.”</p>
<p>But Kriemhild answered, “To whom then should I leave my husband?”</p>
<p>“Leave him here,” said Uta.</p>
<p>“God in Heaven forbid!” said the good wife. “That could I
never do, dearest mother; he must go with me.”</p>
<p>The sorrowful one had his body taken up, and his noble bones were buried again
at Lorsch beside the minster with great honour; and there the bold hero lieth
in a long coffin.</p>
<p>But when Kriemhild would have journeyed thither with her mother, the which she
was fain to do, she was forced to tarry, by reason of news that came from far
beyond the Rhine.</p>
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