greatest hero of the Migration period, next to Siegfried
the centre of Teutonic epic, now an exile at Etzel's court
until he returns as a victor to the dominions of his fathers.
THE YEARS OF THE WANDERINGS 83
The strength and majesty of this heroic warrior appeal to
the heart of Kriemhilde, but appeal only as the means
to the accomplishment of sure revenge on the murderers
of her husband, Siegfried. The marriage feast is cele-
brated at Vienna for seventeen days with profuse magnifi-
cence and numberless gifts to the bride; but Kriemhilde's
heart is faithful to her first and only love.
"When now the thought would cross her how by the Rhine she sat
Beside her noble husband, with tears her eyes were wet;
Yet must she weep in secret that it by none was seen."
Thus she proceeds sadly down the Danube to the Etzel
castle, a stranger in a strange land concealing her deep
woe under her royal splendor. After seven years she
bears to Etzel a son, Ortlieb, then six years more pass
by twenty-six years in all since Siegfried was murdered
at the linden fountain in the Oden forest then at last the
time arrives to quench the thirst of her revenge.
Kriemhilde says to Etzel: "For long years I have now
been here in a strange land, and no one of my lofty kins-
men has visited us. No longer may I bear the absence
from my relatives, for already the rumor goes here, since
no one of my family visits us, that I am an exile and a
fugitive from my land, without home or friends." The
king, ever ready to please Kriemhilde, sends the two
singer-heroes, Werbel and Swemlin, to Worms as envoys
to invite the Burgundian kings with their suite to visit
Hungary at the next solstice. Kriemhilde urges all her
relatives to come. The ever suspicious Hagen dissuades
the kings from the journey. " You know indeed what we
have done to Kriemhilde, that I with my own hand slew
her husband. How can we dare to travel in Etzel's land?
There we shall lose life and honor King Etzel's wife is of
long revenge!" When his warning fails, he advises that
84 WOMAN
the expedition shall be strongly armed and of large num-
bers. All the vassals are summoned, and eleven thousand
men go joyfully forth on their dire mission. The element
of music and song is not wanting; brave, cheerful Volker,
the fiddler, an expert singer and musician as well as a
great warrior, is of the party.
Kriemhilde is informed of the success of the mission, and
voices her grim joy: " How are you pleased with the good
tidings, dear husband and master; what I have desired
ever and ever is now fulfilled." "Your will is mine,"
replied Etzel; "I never rejoiced thus over the arrival of
my own relatives as I do over the arrival of yours."
An ill omen almost prevents the fateful expedition. The
hoary mother of the Burgundian Kings and of Kriemhilde
dreams, during the preparations for departure, that all the
birds in the land lie scattered dead on the fields and groves.
Hagen realizes the purport of the dream; but when scorned
by Gernot, he says: " It is not fear that moves me; if you
order the journey, I shall ride gladly to Etzel's land."
The journey is full of adventures and novel experiences;
Hagen, because he is well versed in the intricate roads, is
the leader; his adventure with the mermaid-prophetesses
is recorded in the first episode. Out of the rustling water
the ominous voice of the swan-virgin is heard: "Hagen,
Aldrian's son, I will warn thee. Return, as long as it is
time yet; no one of your great host will return across the
Danube, but one man, the king's chaplain." Hagen fights
with the ferryman, whom he found, according to the
warning of the mermaids, untrustworthy. He slays him
and hurls the corpse into the flood, but, though this is
done, the kings still see his blood streaming in the ship.
Hagen himself ferries the entire army over the stream.
On the last boat rides the chaplain. Him Hagen seizes,
as he leans with his hand on the sanctuary, and hurls him
THE YEARS OF THE WANDERINGS 85
pitilessly beneath the surface of the rippling water. The
chaplain then turns and safely reaches the home bank;
as he shakes in his dripping garments, he sees the Bur-
gundians file into the distance. The first prophecy is
fulfilled, and Hagen now realizes the irretrievable doom
that awaits the kings and their followers. He destroys
the ship, knowing well that it will serve for no one's safe
return from the land of the Huns; but he justifies the act
as a means of preventing retreat if a coward sought to
gain safety by flight.
The description of the hospitality afforded to the Bur-
gundians by Margrave Rudiger of Bechlarn, in Austria, is
a classical account of German court life. In it are welded
together the customs and manners both of the migration
period and the transition period between the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. In the noble hostesses, Rudiger's
wife, Gotelinde, and Dietlinde, her lovely daughter, are
depicted true types of the loftiest German womanhood.
The royal housewife receives the guests in true German
fashion, with a kiss, thus honoring the brothers of her
queen. The lovely maiden, too, proceeds along the ranks
of the king's suite, offering them the kiss of welcome; but,
with the intuitive soul of a pure German woman, she
shudders before Hagen's grim features, and only in obe-
dience to her father's order she offers to him her pale
cheek for a kiss. There is hardly in any literature such
a charming illustration of the joyous nature of a people, as
shown in their customs and pleasures and music, as the
banquet given by Rudiger. Good cheer prevails at the
joyful table over which presided the noble and hospitable
Gotelinde. During the afternoon, the daughter of the
house appears with her companions to inspire Volker to
song and merry jest. The climax of the scene is reached
when the Burgundian heroes woo lovely Dietlinde for the
86 WOMAN
youngest of their kings, Giselher. The suit is accepted by
the parents, and the betrothal of the noble couple is con-
cluded amid joyful consent and pleasurable anticipation of
the marriage, which is to be celebrated when the Burgun-
dians return from Etzel's court. When the hour of parting
approaches, precious gifts are exchanged in truly Homeric
fashion as a symbol of intimate connection and eternal
friendship. RUdiger presents Gernot with his own sword,
which he had gloriously wielded in many a battle. The
last blow of the glorious, but ill-fated, sword is, alas! to
cleave the head of noble RUdiger himself. Gotelinde
honors Hagen with the shield of her own father, who had
fallen in battle.
Dietrich, the hero, first receives the Burgundians on
Hunnish soil: " Be welcome, Gunther, Gernot, and Gisel-
her; be welcome, Hagen, Volker, and Dankwart; are you
unaware that Kriemhilde still grievously weeps for the hero
from the Nibelung land?" "May she weep weep yet
for a long time: he has been slain many years ago; Sieg-
fried will never return; may she cling to the King of the
Huns," is Hagen's grimly defiant reply. " How Siegfried
fell we will not now investigate: but so long as Kriemhilde
lives, grievous calamity is impending; do thou beware of
it most of all, O Hagen, heir of the Nibelungs." Still
more definitely Dietrich expresses his fears to the Bur-
gundian kings in secret interview; though unaware of a
determined plot of revenge, he knows that Etzel's wife
raises every morning her loud dirge to mighty God for
strong Siegfried's direful death. "It cannot now be
helped," replies the brave fiddler Volker; "let us ride to
Etzel's court and await what is destined to us by the
Huns."
When the eagle helmets and coats of arms of the Burgun-
dians gleam at the gate entrance to the castle, Kriemhilde
THE YEARS OF THE WANDERINGS 87
exclaims: "There are my relatives; let him who loves
me be mindful of my sorrow." The heroes are received
at Etzel's castle with barbarous splendor, yet a terrible
gloom seems to overhang everything. Hagen and Volker,
in the consciousness that death is near, join each other
in a personal compact for life and death. They seat
themselves outside on a stone bench, and are looked
at with fear and awe. When Kriemhilde sees from the
window her deadly enemy, she is overcome by emotion,
her tears flow, and she calls upon her royal vassals around
her to avenge her bitter woe and sorrow on Hagen, the
murderer of Siegfried. Sixty men buckle on their armor.
Kriemhilde herself, with the royal crown on her head,
descends to the courtyard to obtain from Hagen 's own
lips the confession of his deed as a testimony for her men.
" I know," she says, " he is so haughty, he will not deny
it, so I do not care what happens to him for the deed."
While the sixty hostile warriors approach, the two Bur-
gundian heroes once more renew their bond for life and
death. To Hagen 's question whether Volker will stand
by him "in true love as I shall never forsake you,"
Volker replies: "So long as I live, even though all Hun-
nish knights storm against us I do not yield from you,
Hagen, not a finger's breadth." "Now God reward
you, noble Volker, what more do I need? Let them ap-
proach, the armored heroes!" This splendid monument
of German loyalty partially reconciles us to the horrors
soon to be enacted.
Kriemhilde then approaches the terrible pair. Though
Volker prompts his comrade to rise before the queen,
Hagen defiantly remains seated, and lays before him on
his knees a shining sword with a brilliant jewel of green
color on the handle. Kriemhilde at once recognizes Sieg-
fried's saga-famed sword Balmung. Her grief is thus
88 WOMAN
renewed. "Who bade you come, Hagen, how could you
dare to ride hither? Do you not know what you have
done to me?"
" No one sent for me; three kings have been invited
hither, they are my masters, I their vassal; where they
are, I am."
"You know indeed," continued Kriemhilde, "why I de-
test you? You have slain Siegfried, and for him I shall
weep to the very end."
"Yes," snarled grim Hagen, "I did slay Siegfried, the
hero, because Lady Kriemhilde chided fair Brunhild, my
queen. Avenge it whoever will, I confess, I caused you
much sorrow." Thereupon, war is declared for life and
death. However, the sixty Hunnish heroes do not dare
to attack the two Burgundians, who rise and go to the
royal hall in order that they may stand by their kings
should they be in distress.
Kriemhilde enters and salutes her brothers, but bestows
a kiss and handshake only on Giselher, the youngest.
Hagen ties his helmet more tightly. Kriemhilde inquires
whether they had brought her property, the Nibelung
treasure, with them.
"The Nibelung treasure," replies Hagen scornfully,
"has been buried in the deepest Rhine where it shall lie
till the last day, and
" 'To thee I bring the devil 1
In this my buckler have I quite enough to bear,
And also in my armor this helm so fairly wrought
This sword my hand is holding ; therefore I bring thee naught.' "
Kriemhilde requests the Burgundians to give up their
arms, as is customary, at friendly visits; Hagen refuses.
She thus realizes that the Burgundians must have been
warned.
THE YEARS OF THE WANDERINGS 89
"Who has done this?" she inquires angrily. Proudly
and firmly Dietrich replies: "It is I, I have warned them;
on me, thou, terrible one, wilt not avenge this warning."
Before his piercing eye Kriemhilde conceals her boiling
anger and retreats, throwing hostile glances upon her ene-
mies. The guests, too, retire guarded by the indefatigable
Hagen and Volker. For the last time, Volker's music rings
out into the night as he sings in sweet melodies the part-
ing from life. It is the dirge for the Burgundian kings and
heroes. Kriemhilde vainly endeavors to enlist Hildebrand
and Dietrich to aid her revenge. Both refuse.
"He who will slay the Nibelungs will do it without
me," says Hildebrand. Nor will Dietrich break faith to
those who came in good faith and from whom he had
suffered no harm. He says: "By my hand Siegfried will
remain unavenged."
At last the queen by great promises wins Blodel, Etzel's
brother. He agrees to attack the lesser knights and the
men-at-arms who under Dankwart's command rest in
the outhouses. During the surprise, Kriemhilde quietly
enters the dining hall of the royal castle where the great
heroes are already assembled. Her son Ortlieb, only five
years old, is presented by Etzel to his uncles and their
favor is bespoken when the prince shall be sent to Bur-
gundy for his education. Now the untamed fury of Hagen
suddenly breaks out in a fearful explosion. The fierce
savagery of the Migration period, regardless of the Chris-
tian varnish of the thirteenth century, in striking contrast
to the elegiac traits exhibited in the departure of the kings,
in Giselher's betrothal to Dietlinde and voiced in Volker's
sweet melodies, reappears in an unheard of act of brutal
murder. Hagen exclaims that the young king does not
look to him as if he would grow very old; that no one
would ever see him in Ortlieb's court. While everybody
90 WOMAN
is yet stunned by the ferocious prophecy of the terrible
man, Dankwart breaks into the festal hall and shouts:
"Why do you sit here so long, brother Hagen; to you
and to God in heaven do I complain of our distress.
Knights and servants lie altogether slain in the outhouse."
Indeed, Blodel had kept his word, but lost his life in the
attempt. Not one Burgundian escaped the carnage, save
Dankwart who succeeded in cutting his way through the
press. Hagen sprang up like a wounded lion, the sword
shone in his mighty hand, and with one blow the head of
the innocent royal child was tossed into the lap of his
mother Kriemhilde. This atrocious deed is the signal fora
universal carnage. In her deathly agony Kriemhilde ap-
peals to Dietrich, who is at once ready to fulfil his duty
toward the queen and consort of his host and protector,
Etzel. Dietrich demands peace for himself and his men,
who are no participants in the strife. King Gunther bids
all go who are not involved in the murder of his men; he
will take his revenge but on the retinue of Etzel who are
in the plot. Etzel and Kriemhilde, Rudiger of Bechlarn,
Dietrich and his retinue, leave the hall. Then the battle
began to rage again, until all Etzel's men were slain.
Their bodies were hurled by the Burgundians downstairs
in front of the door. Intoxicated by the victory, Hagen,
in the doorway, reviles Kriemhilde for her second marriage,
and the latter, exasperated, promises to fill Etzel's shield
with gold for him who would bring her Hagen's head. It
is not our task to describe here the battle, the blood flow-
ing in rivulets from the hall to the courtyard. The attempt
to obtain a free departure from the hall to die in open
battle fails, since Kriemhilde fears Hagen might escape her
vengeance. Yet even among those horrors a feature of
love and truth is not missing. Giselher, who was hardly
a boy when Siegfried was murdered, addresses his sister:
THE YEARS OF THE WANDERINGS 91
" O fair sister, how could I expect this great and dire
calamity when thou invitedst me from the Rhine. How
do I deserve death in this strange land? At all times was
I true to thee, and never did I a wrong; I hoped to find
thee loving and gracious to me; let me die quickly, if it
must be!"
Deeply moved by his words, Kriemhilde demands only
the surrender of Hagen. "As to you, I will let you live, for
you are my brothers, and children of the same mother."
But Gernot rejects the offer: "We die with Hagen, even
though we were a thousand of the same race." And "We
die with Hagen, if die we must," repeats Giselher; "we
shall not forego loyalty unto death."
At the failure of this last attempt at peace, the wrath
of Kriemhilde knows no bounds. She orders fire to be
put to the hall, and the flames are fanned by the wind to
a roaring shower of fire. A terrible thirst increases the
torture, until the heroes quench it according to Hagen's
advice with the blood of the slain. When the night sets
in, the Burgundians protect themselves with their shields
from the falling timbers. The last morning dawns. The
battle rages anew. At last Riidiger decides, though with
a bleeding heart, that the loyalty to his king and queen,
the faithfulness of the vassal, must prevail over his truth
and love for his new friends, for Giselher, the betrothed
of his child. In the ensuing struggle Rudiger splits Ger-
not's head, while Gernot's last blow with RUdiger's own
sword ends the latter's life. Both heroes thus mingle
their blood in death.
The bloody contest continues until all the Goths, with
the exception of Hildebrand and Dietrich, are slain. In
the royal hall, Gunther and Hagen alone stand over the
bodies of their brothers and companions from Burgundy.
Dietrich demands their surrender; the demand is rejected
92 WOMAN
by Hagen. The last terrible duel begins. Dietrich inflicts
a severe wound upon Hagen, seizes him with his mighty
arms, chains him in his lion's grasp, and thus delivers him
to Kriemhilde. The same fate awaits Gunther. Recom-
mending the lives of the heroes to Kriemhilde, Dietrich
leaves the court.
Kriemhilde vows to Hagen that she will spare his life if
he will return to her the hidden hoard, the Nibelung treas-
ure. Though grievously wounded and lying in chains,
Hagen, loyal to his masters, replies: "So long as one of
my masters lives, I will not reveal the hiding place of the
treasure." The queen is desperate. She causes her own
royal brother's head to be cut off, and herself carries it by
the hair to Hagen. The true vassal cries out with sad
resolution: "Now it is accomplished as thou hast willed.
" ' Dead is now of Burgundy the noble monarch true,
Giselher, the young prince, and eke Gernot too.
Of the Hoard knows no one save God and I alone ;
To thee, thou devil's wife, shall it ne'er be shown.' "
" Then only the sword of Siegfried, my sweet husband,
is left to me." She draws it from the sheath, and, by the
hand of the long-sorrowing wife, Siegfried's sword avenges
Siegfried's death upon his murderer.
At this moment old Hildebrand, wrathful over the breach
of the condition imposed upon her by Dietrich when he
delivered Gunther and Hagen to her, cuts her down.
Kriemhilde, with a frightful scream, sinks to the ground,
beside the body of her deadly enemy.
"With anguish thus had ended the monarch's revelry,
As love will to sorrow too oft become a prey."
Kriemhilde, the German woman par excellence, with her
heart filled with all the virtues of love and faith, outraged
THE YEARS OF THE WANDERINGS 93
in her holiest feelings, and thus turning ' ' the milk of human
kindness to fermenting dragon's poison," presents to us
all the potentialities of womanhood, and withal the entire
range of the psychology of German womanhood.
When we emerge from the orgy of hate and bloodshed
with which the second part of the Nibelungenlied is filled,
when we have fathomed the depths of the passion of
which a high-minded, loving type of royal womanhood
such as Kriemhilde is capable, we are glad to resort to the
beneficent contrast of womanly gentleness and loveliness
which we find in Gudrun, the second great mediaeval Ger-
man epic, whose roots and branches are deeply set in the
Migration period. We discover here a portrait of the cul-
ture of the time, its warfare, its seafaring, its discoveries,
its geographical horizon, and, especially, its love and truth
and faith. If we were stirred in the former epic by the
gloomy and lurid background that overshadowed even its
sunniest scenes; if the sinking of the noblest, purest, most
affectionate Kriemhilde into demoniacal passion did not
permit us to arrive at a serene contemplation of that
gigantic work of art, we now celebrate the triumph of
the loyalty and devotion and perseverance of a genuine
womanly heart over long and bitter sorrow and humilia-
tions. While Kriemhilde's fierce hatred immolates both
herself and a great dynasty on the altar of revenge, in
Gudrun we celebrate the victory of self-abnegation,
patience, and peace, and the reconciliation of two mighty
dynasties.
The theatre of action of this, the second greatest na-
tional epic, is the entire range of the North Sea, with its
measureless limits extending into mythical infinity, with
its long coast line and sea-girt isles, with its Viking ships
storm-tossed on the watery roads of all the races. The
94 WOMAN
North Sea did not limit the sturdiness of the Teutonic
seafarers of the Norse race, just as the Mediterranean did
not restrain their energy and wandering instincts. As the
Lombard cycle of sagas reaches out beyond the confines
of the Teutonic world to Constantinople, to Syria, to Baby-
lon, and to the mythical lands beyond the seas, so the
cycle of the North leads us not only to the Netherlands,
the land of the Frisians and Ditmarsch, but over to
Seeland, Normandy, Ireland, even to the Orkneys, and
perchance to Iceland.
And perhaps it may not be amiss, by way of contrast
and to show the opposite poles of the Germanic world, to
recount briefly an epic lay of the Lombard cycle which
breathes quite a different atmosphere and exhibits differ-
ent colors, geographically and morally speaking, from those
of the North Sea. In the Lombard cycle there is a con-
nection of the Teutonic cosmos with the fabulous Oriental
world. King Ortnit of Lamparten (Lombardy) wins by
a series of stratagems the resplendent daughter of the
heathen king Nachaol, of Muntabur, in Syria, and makes
her his wife. Descriptions of golden armor, magic rings,
and rich treasures of the East betray everywhere the
Oriental character of this Langobard legend.
More Germanic, though its sources lay entirely in the
Byzantine Empire, is the saga of Hugdietrich with its moral
of the all-pervading power of love. The names of the
leading characters especially indicate the Teutonic setting
of the saga. Hugdietrich is King of Constantinople, and,
after the early death of his father, is reared by Duke
Berchtung. At the age of twelve an Oriental age for
marriage he consults with his guardian concerning the
choice of a wife. The choice falls upon the fair maiden
Hildeburg, daughter of King Walgund at Salnek (Saloniki);
but this princess is confined in a lofty tower, for it has
THE YEARS OF THE WANDERINGS 95
been decided that she is never to marry. Unlike Danae,
the Greek beauty, who is reached in her solitary tower
by the love of the Olympian Zeus in the form of a golden
rain, Hildeburg receives Hugdietrich in a more satisfactory
form. The young king to attain his end disguises him-
self in the garb of a maiden with flowing golden hair; he
learns feminine arts, among them that of embroidery, and
journeys to Salnek, accompanied by a numerous retinue.
Here he represents himself as Hildegund, the exiled sister
of the King of the Greeks, and is hospitably received by
King Walgund. The false Hildegund quickly gains the
favor of the royal couple of Salnek by her wonderful em-
broideries in gold and silver; and when her position at the
court is assured, she requests the honor of becoming an
attendant and playmate to Hildeburg. This granted, Hug-
dietrich is admitted to the tower of the captive princess.
For twelve weeks, Hugdietrich plays his r61e and teaches
his love the art of embroidery, but he is unable longer to
restrain his passion, and he reveals himself to her. His
love is reciprocated, and a blissful year is passed by the
loving pair. At this juncture, Duke Berchtung arrives
from Constantinople to conduct Hildegund home, since the
king, her brother, wishes to receive her again into grace and
brotherly affection. Hildeburg is left in painful longing
and sadness. Soon afterward she gives birth to a son,
whom she tries to conceal from the sight of men. One
day, however, her mother surprises her by an unexpected
visit; and the frightened nurse lets the babe, wrapped in
silken cloths, down among the bushes of the ditch sur-
rounding the castle. When, after the departure of the
queen, the child is searched for, he is not to be found.
A wolf has carried him away as food for his young. But
King Walgund, who, as it happens, is out hunting, kills
the wolves, and finds the child grievously weeping. The
96 WOMAN
king takes him under his mantle and brings him to his
queen, calling him Wolfdietrich, as he had found him
among the wolves. Hildeburg, too, sees him, and recog-
nizes him as her own child by his birthmark, a red cross
between his shoulders. She confesses everything to her
parents, and is forgiven. Hugdietrich is sent for. He
comes, recognizes the boy as his own, kisses him in truly