arts.

Then came Siegmund to Queen Kriemhild, and said, "Woe is me for our
journey hither! Who, among such good friends, hath murderously robbed me
of my child, and thee of thy husband?"

"If I knew that," answered the noble woman, "I were ever his foe with
heart and soul. Trust me, I would so contrive his hurt that all his
friends, by reason of me, would yet weep for sorrow."

Siegmund took the prince in his arms; the grief of his friends was so
great that, with their loud wailing and their weeping, palace and hall
and the town of Worms rang again. None could comfort Siegfried's wife.
They took the clothes off his beautiful body, and washed his wounds and
laid him on a bier, and all his folk were heavy with great grief.

Then spake his knights of the Netherland, "Our hands are ready for
vengeance. He that hath done it is in this house."

Siegfried's men armed them in haste; the valiant knights assembled to the
number of eleven hundred. These had Siegmund, the mighty king, for his
following; and, as his honour bade him, he had gladly avenged the death
of his son. They knew not whom they should fall on, if it were not
Gunther and his men, with whom Siegfried had gone hunting.

But when Kriemhild saw them armed, she was greatly grieved. For all her
dole and her pain, she so feared the death of the Nibelungs at the hand
of her brother's men that she forbade their vengeance, and warned them in
love, as friend doth with dear friend.

The sorrowful queen said, "My lord, Siegmund, what wouldst thou do?
Surely thou knowest not how many bold knights Gunther has. If ye come to
grips with them, ye must certainly perish."

They stood eager for strife with their shields dressed, but the queen
begged and commanded them to forbear; that they would not, grieved her
sore.

She said, "My lord Siegmund, let be, till more fitting season, and I will
help thee to avenge my husband. Verily, I will show him that took him
from me that he hath done it to his hurt. Here by the Rhine there are so
many overweening men that I would have thee, for the present, forbear
from battle; for thy one man they have at least the thirty. God do to
them as they have done to us. Tarry here, brave knights, and mourn with
me till it is day, and help me to lay my dear husband in his coffin."

The warriors answered, "Dear lady, be it so."

None might tell to the end the wailing that arose there from knights and
women. It was so loud that they