tle carrying a weapon. It was but
sullenly that he let his sword be taken away along with his mighty
shield.

After the strangers had been refreshed with wine, her liegemen sent to
the Queen to tell her that strange guests had arrived.

'Who are the strangers who come thus unheralded to my land?' haughtily
demanded Brunhild.

But no one could tell her who the warriors were, though some murmured
that the tallest and fairest might be the great hero Siegfried.

It may be that the Queen thought that if the knight were indeed
Siegfried she would revenge herself on him now for the mischievous
pranks he had played the last time he was in her kingdom. In any case
she said, 'If the hero is here he shall enter into contest with me,
and he shall pay for his boldness with his life, for I shall be the
victor.'

Then with five hundred warriors, each with his sword in hand, Brunhild
came down to the knights from Burgundy.

'Be welcome, Siegfried,' she cried, 'yet wherefore hast thou come
again to Isenland?'

'I thank thee for thy greeting, lady,' said the Prince 'but thou hast
welcomed me before my lord. He, King Gunther, ruler over the fair
realms of Burgundy, hath come hither to wed with thee.'

Brunhild was displeased that the mighty hero should not himself seek
to win her as a bride, yet since for all his prowess he seemed but a
vassal of the King, she answered, 'If thy master can vanquish me in
the contests to which I bid him, then I will be his wife, but if I
conquer thy master, his life, and the lives of his followers will be
forfeited.'

'What dost thou demand of my master?' asked Hagen.

'He must hurl the spear with me, throw the stone from the ring, and
leap to where it has fallen,' said the Queen.

Now while Brunhild was speaking, Siegfried whispered to the King to
fear nothing, but to accept the Queen's challenge. 'I will be near
though no one will see me, to aid thee in the struggle,' he whispered.

Gunther had such trust in the Prince that he at once cried boldly,
'Queen Brunhild, I do not fear even to risk my life that I may win
thee for my bride.'

Then the bold maiden called for her armour, but when Gunther saw her
shield, 'three spans thick with gold and iron, which four chamberlains
could hardly bear,' his courage began to fail.

[Illustration: The maiden hurled her spear]

While the Queen donned her silken fighting doublet, which could turn
aside the sharpest spear, Siegfried slipped away unnoti