he worst that he could
do was to bite off the hand of unlucky Tyr. And this is why Tyr is
called the one-armed god.

"But it is said," added Siegfried, "that in the last twilight the
Fenris-wolf will break his chain, and that he will swallow the sun, and
slay the great Odin himself, and that none can subdue him save Vidar the
Silent."

It was thus that the heroes conversed with each other as they rode
through the silent ways of the wood.

At length, one afternoon in early summer, the little company reached the
Rhine valley; and looking down from the sloping hill-tops, green with
growing corn, they saw the pleasant town of the Burgundians and the high
gray towers of Gunther's dwelling. And not long afterwards they rode
through the streets of the old town, and, tired and travel-stained,
halted outside of the castle-gates. Very soon it became noised about
that Siegfried and a company of strange knights, fair and tall, had come
again to Burgundy and to the home of the Burgundian kings. But when it
was certainly known that neither Gunther the king, nor Hagen of the evil
eye, nor Dankwart his brother, had returned, the people felt many
sad misgivings; for they greatly feared that some hard mischance had
befallen their loved king. Then Gernot and the young Giselher, having
heard of Siegfried's arrival, came out with glad but anxious faces to
greet him.

"Welcome, worthy chief!" they cried. "But why are you alone? What are
your tidings? Where is our brother? and where are our brave uncles,
Hagen and Dankwart? And who are those strange, fair men who ride with
you? And what about Brunhild, the warrior-maiden? Alas! if our brother
has fallen by her cruel might, then woe to Burgundy! Tell us quickly all
about it!"

"Have patience, friends!" answered Siegfried. "Give me time to speak,
and I will gladden the hearts of all the folk of Burgundy with my news.
Your brother Gunther is alive and well; and he is the happiest man in
the whole mid-world, because he has won the matchless Brunhild for his
bride. And he is ere now making his way up the river with a mighty fleet
of a hundred vessels and more than two thousand warriors. Indeed, you
may look for him any day. And he has sent me, with these my Nibelungen
earls, to bid you make ready for his glad home-coming."

Then, even before he had alighted from Greyfell, he went on to tell of
the things that had happened at Isenstein; but he said nothing of the
part which he had taken in