"Why speakest thou to me of men, dear brother mine? I would fain ever be
without a warrior's love. So fair will I remain until my death, that I
shall never gain woe from love of man."
"Now forswear this not too roundly," spake the mother in reply. "If ever
thou shalt wax glad of heart in this world, that will chance through the
love of man. Passing fair wilt thou become, if God grant thee a right
worthy knight."
"I pray you leave this speech," spake she, "my lady. Full oft hath it
been seen in many a wife, how joy may at last end in sorrow. I shall
avoid them both, then can it ne'er go ill with me."
Thus in her heart Kriemhild forsware all love. Many a happy day
thereafter the maiden lived without that she wist any whom she would
care to love. In after days she became with worship a valiant here's
bride. He was the selfsame falcon which she beheld in her dream that her
mother unfolded to her. How sorely did she avenge this upon her nearest
kin, who slew him after! Through his dying alone there fell full many a
mother's son.
ENDNOTES:
(1) "Nibelungenlied", the lay of the Nibelungs. The ordinary
etymology of this name is 'children of the mist'
("Nebelkinder", O.N. "Niflungar"), and it is thought to have
belonged originally to the dwarfs. Piper, I, 50, interprets
it as 'the sons of Nibul'; Boer, II, 198, considers
"Hniflungar" to be the correct Norse form and interprets it
as 'the descendants of Hnaef' (O.E. "Hnaef", O.H.G.
"Hnabi"), whose death is related in the "Finnsaga".
(2) "Adventure" (M.H.G. "aventiure", from O.F. "aventure", Lat.
"adventura"). The word meant originally a happening,
especially some great event, then the report of such an
event. Here it is used in the sense of the different cantos
or "fitts" of the poem, as in the "Gudrun" and other M.H.G.
epics. Among the courtly poets it also frequently denotes
the source, or is the personification of the muse of poetry.
(3) "Kriemhild" is the Upper German form of the Frankish
"Grimhild". In the MSS., the name generally appears with a
further shifting as "Chriemhilt", as if the initial
consonant were Germanic "k". On the various forms of the
name, which have never yet been satisfactorily explained,
see Mullenhoff, ZsfdA. xii, 299, 413; xv, 313; and
Bohnenberger, PB. Beit. xxiv, 221-231.
(4) "Gunther" is the historical "Gundahari", king of the
Burgundians in the fifth century.
(5) "Gernot" was probably introduced by some minstrel in place
of the historical "Godomar", who appears in the Norse
version as "Gutthormr", though the names are not
etymologically the same, as "Godomar" would be "Guthmarr" in
Old Norse.
(6) "Giselher" is the historical "Gislaharius". Although
mentioned by the "Lex Burgundionum" as one of the Burgundian
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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