s ready by the middle of the day, and they lifted the dead
man from the bier whereupon he lay, but the queen would not let them bury
him yet. All his folk must first toil sore.

They wound him in a rich cloth. Not one, I ween, was there that wept
not. Uta, the noble queen and all her women wailed bitterly for
Siegfried.

When the folk heard they sang the requiem, and that Siegfried was in his
chest, they crowded thither, and brought offerings for his soul. Amidst
of his enemies, he had good friends enow.

Then poor Kriemhild said to her chamberlain, "For my sake, stint not thy
labour. For Siegfried's soul, divide his wealth among them that were
well minded to him, and are true to me."

The smallest child, if he understood all, must go with its offering or he
was buried. They sang at the least an hundred masses a day. And great
was the press among Siegfried's friends.

When they had done singing, the folk rose and departed; but Kriemhild
said, "Leave me not alone to watch the valiant knight. With his body
lieth all my joy. Three days and three nights will I keep him here, till
that I have had my fill of my dear husband. What if God let death take
me too? So the sorrow of poor Kriemhild were ended."

The townsfolk went home; and priests, and monks, and all them that had
served Siegfried, she bade tarry. Heavy were their nights and toilsome
their days. Many a man neither ate nor drank, but they that desired it
were bidden take their fill. Siegmund saw to that. No easy time had the
Nibelungs. They say that all that could sing got no rest. What
offerings were brought! The poorest was rich enow, for they that had
naught were bidden bring an offering from the gold of Siegfried's own
hoard. When he lived no more, they gave many thousand marks for his
soul. Kriemhild bestowed lands and revenues over all, on cloisters and
holy men. Silver and clothes in plenty they gave to the poor. She
showed plain the love she bare Siegfried.

On the third morning, when mass was due, the great churchyard by the
minster was full of weeping countryfolk; for they served him in death as
dear friends should.

They say that, in these four days, thirty thousand marks, or more, were
given to the poor for his soul's sake, when his beauty and life were
brought to nothing.

God had been served; the song was done. The folk were shaken with
weeping. They bade carry him from the minster to the grave, and naught
was heard bu