Then Rüdeger’s fair daughter with all her company, Unto the queen approaching, received her lovingly. There likewise was her mother, the wife of the Margrave. To many a young damsel they kindly greeting gave. Hands took they with each other, and so together went Unto a wide roomed palace of fashion excellent, For there beneath it rushing, one saw the Danube’s flood. They sat and took the breezes, and had much pastime good.” There was further feasting in the castle of Pöchlarn, when Rüdeger, a few years later, welcomed King Gunther and his Burgundians on their fateful visit to King Etzel’s Court. Surely he deserved the tribute paid to him by Eckewart in the “Lied.” “A host to you I’ll show: And such a one ne’er bade you into his house to go, In any land whatever, as ye may meet with here If ye, good thanes, are willing to visit Rüdeger. He dwells hard by the highway: of hosts he is the best That ever had a rooftree. His heart is aye possesst Of kindness, as of flowers are meadows in sweet May; If he can succour heroes, glad will he be the day.” Of Rüdeger’s castle nothing now remains, but the town where that best of hosts could provide emergency entertainment for ten thousand visitors--as is recorded in one stanza of the “Lied”--may well be proud of its association with the great epic of the North. Planché, it may be said, gives a highly coloured account of Kriemhilda’s coming down the river by boat--a vision which is scarcely supported by the text of the “Nibelungenlied.” Opposite to the famous Pöchlarn is a pleasant little village of the same name, known as Klein Pöchlarn, with further tall chimney shafts suggesting that this widened Danube valley is becoming a manufacturing centre. The right bank along here is low, but the hills approach close to the river on the left, and soon ahead of us is seen the ruined castle of Weitenegg, at which point we may perhaps best begin the story and description of the Wachau. FOOTNOTES: [8] This is no doubt a slip for Struden, as Stockerau lies far further down the river, about seventy miles nearer Vienna, on a branch of it some distance from the main stream. [9] It is about eight English miles. CHAPTER VI THE WACHAU “’Mid castled crags and swirling stream, ’Mid green-clad vineyard hills, Where History and Legend dream, My heart with beauty thrills.” _From the German_