Then spake Kriemhild sorrowing: / "Hence now the message take, And all the men of Siegfried / shall ye straightway awake. Unto Siegmund likewise / tell ye my sorrow deep, If that he will help me / for the doughty Siegfried weep." 1015 Then ran straightway a messenger / and soon he found at hand, Siegfried's valiant warriors / of Nibelungenland. Of joy he all bereft him / with tale that he did bear, Nor would they aught believe it / till sound of weeping met their ear. 1016 The messenger came eke quickly / where the king did lie, Yet closed was not in sleeping / the monarch Siegmund's eye: I ween his heart did tell him / the thing that there had been, And that his dear son living / might nevermore by him be seen. 1017 "Awake, awake, Lord Siegmund. / Hither hath sent for thee Kriemhild my mistress. / A wrong now beareth she, A grief that 'fore all others / unto her heart doth go: To mourn it shalt thou help her, / for sorely hast thou need thereto." 1018 Up raised himself then Siegmund. / He spake: "What may it be Of wrong that grieveth Kriemhild, / as thou hast told to me?" The messenger spake weeping: / "Now may I naught withhold: Know thou that of Netherland / Siegfried brave lies slain and cold." 1019 Thereto gave answer Siegmund: / "Let now such mocking be And tale of such ill tidings / --an thou regardest me-- As that thou say'st to any / now he lieth slain: An were it so, I never / unto my end might cease to plain." 1020 "Wilt thou now believe not / the tidings that I bear, So may'st thyself the Lady / Kriemhild weeping hear, And all of her attendants, / that Siegfried lieth dead." With terror filled was Siegmund: / whereof in very sooth was need. 1021 He and his men a hundred / from their beds they sprang, Then snatched in hand full quickly / swords both sharp and long, And toward the sound of weeping / in sorrow sore did speed. There came a thousand warriors / eke of the valiant knight Siegfried. 1022 When they heard the women weeping / in such sore distress Thought some, strict custom keeping, / we first must don our dress. In sooth for very sorrow / their wits no more had they, For on their hearts a burden / of grief full deep and heavy lay. 1023 Then came the monarch Siegmund / where he Kriemhild espied. He spake: "Alack that ever / to this country I did ride! Who in such wondrous manner, / and while good friends are near, Hath of my child bereft me / and thee of spouse thou hold'st so dear?" 1024 "Ah, might I him discover," / spake the lady high, "Evermore would mercy / I to him deny. Such meed of vengeance should he / at my hands receive That all who call him kinsman / reason good should have to grieve." 1025 Siegmund the monarch / in arms the knight did press, And of his friends there gathered / so great was the distress, That from the mighty wailing / palace and wide hall And Worms the city likewise / with sound of woe re-echoed all. 1026