So the feast sped on and the mirth-tide, till they saw the seventh sun rise; And all in the olden fashion did the Queen give gifts of price; Red gold for the love of Siegfried, and in Siegfried's name she gave. That to him as the giver of bounty the hearts of all men clave. Not a wandering bard thereafter in need in the land abode: Steeds, raiment on these were showered as though with gifts it snowed, As though there should come no morrow, and men's lives lack nothing more: Never were palace-stewards that lavished so of their store. So filled with the winning of honour that feast-tide fleeted by, That whiles one heard the earl-folk each unto other cry: "Well were we if but Prince Siegfried in his father's stead were our lord!" But a grief unto him was their longing, and his true heart loathed the word. {P. 7} While endured the days of Siegmund and Siegelind, their son Siegfried, the loved and the loving, would in no wise sit on the throne. But he yearned in his fearless spirit to break the oppressor's yoke, And to rid of the fear of the spoiler the hearth of the lowly folk. (C) No man might make him a mocking: since first the sword he drew, The praise of the brave was his lodestar; but little rest he knew: Ever he wooed war-perils, and his battle-triumphant hand Bare the banner of his glory through many a far-off land. III. How Siegfried rode to the City of Worms Not often the heart of the hero had ache or sorrow known, Till the tidings came of a fair-one on a wind of rumour blown. Fair past all heart's desiring was the Star of Burgundy-- She was doomed to be joy and anguish unto him in the days to be! With the fame of her glorious beauty there flew forth far and wide The tale of the queenly spirit, of the heart of tameless pride; And the souls of princely champions were set on fire of the word, That from lands afar to the guest-hall of Gunther the King they spurred. But for all the love of the wooers, and their burning words thereof, No whit were Kriemhild's heart-strings once swept by the finger of love, That she deigned to take of them any for the love of her life and her king. In a strange land yet was her Falcon with the victory in his wing.