At Worms, upon the Rhine, (so the poem opens,) there dwelt three puissant kings--Gunther and Gernot and Gieselher--three brothers, of whom Gunther was the eldest, and, in right of primogeniture, swayed the sceptre of Burgundy.[16] These kings had a sister named Kriemhild, the real heroine and fell female Achilles of the Epos; for though she is as gentle and mild as a Madonna till her love is wounded, after that she nourishes a desire of vengeance on the murderers of her husband, as insatiate and inexorable as that which the son of Peleus, in the _Iliad_, nurses against the son of Atreus for the rape of the lovely Briseis. In fact, as the great work of Homer might be more fully designated _the wrath of Achilles_, so the most significant designation for this mediæval Iliad of the Germans would be _the revenge of Kriemhild_. After naming these, and other notable personages of the Burgundian court at Worms, the poet makes use of a dream, as Æschylus in the _Agamemnon_ uses an omen, to open up, in a fitful glimpse of prophecy, the general burden and fateful issue of his tale. "A dream was dreamed by Kriemhild, the virtuous and the gay, How a wild young falcon she trained for many a day, Till two fierce eagles tore it; to her there could not be In all the world such sorrow as this perforce to see. To her mother Uta at once the dream she told; But she the threatening future could only thus unfold-- 'The falcon that thou trainedst is sure a noble mate; God shield him in his mercy, or thou must lose him straight.' 'A mate for me! What say'st thou, dearest mother mine? Ne'er to love, assure thee, my heart will I resign. I'll live and die a maiden, and end as I began, Nor (let what else befall me) will suffer woe for man.' 'Nay!' said the anxious mother, 'renounce not marriage so; Wouldst thou true heartfelt pleasure taste ever here below, Man's love alone can give it. Thou'rt fair as eye can see: A fitting mate God send thee, and naught will wanting be.' 'No more,' the maiden answered, 'no more, dear mother, say; From many a woman's fortune, this truth is clear as day, That falsely smiling pleasure with pain requites us ever. I from both will keep me, and thus will sorrow never.' So in her lofty virtue, fancy-free and gay, Lived the noble maiden many a happy day; Nor one more than another found favour in her sight; Still, at the last, she wedded a far-renowned knight. He was the self-same falcon she in her dream had seen, Foretold by her wise mother. What vengeance took the queen On her nearest kinsmen, who him to death had done! That single death atoning died many a mother's son."