Smiths they bade a casket / work full hastily All of gold and silver / that great and strong should be. They bade them fast to weld it / with bands of steel full good. Then saw ye all the people / stand right sorrowful of mood. 1039 Now the night was over, / for day, they said, drew near. Then bade the noble lady / unto the minster bear Siegfried her lord full loved / for whom she mourned so. Whoe'er was friend unto him, / him saw ye weeping thither go. 1040 As they brought him to the minster / bells full many rung. On every hand then heard ye / how priests did chant their song. Thither with his followers / came Gunther the king And eke the grim knight Hagen / where was sound of sorrowing. 1041 He spake: "Full loving sister, / alack for grief to thee, And that from such great evil / spared we might not be! Henceforth must we ever / mourn for Siegfried's sake." "That do ye without reason," / full of woe the lady spake. 1042 "If that ye grieved for it, / befallen were it not. For say I may full truly, / me had ye all forgot There where I thus was parted / from my husband dear. Would it God," spake Kriemhild, / "that done unto myself it were!" 1043 Fast they yet denied it. / Kriemhild spake again: "If any speak him guiltless, / let here be seen full plain. Unto the bier now shall he / before the people go; Thus the truth full quickly / may we in this manner know." 1044 It is a passing wonder / that yet full oft is seen, Where blood-bespotted slayer / beside slain corse hath been, That from the wounds come blood-drops, / as here it eke befell. Thereby the guilt of Hagen / might they now full plainly tell. 1045 Now ran the wounds all bloody /like as they did before. Who erstwhile wept full sorely / now wept they mickle more. Then spake the monarch Gunther: / "To thee the truth be known: Slain hath he been by robbers, / nor is this deed by Hagen done." 1046 "Of these same robbers," spake she, / "full well I understand. God give that yet may vengeance / wreak some friendly hand. Gunther and Hagen, / yourselves have done this deed." Then looked for bloody conflict / the valiant thanes that served Siegfried. 1047 Then spake unto them Kriemhild: / "Now bear with me my need." Knights twain came likewise hither / and did find him dead,-- Gernot her brother / and the young Giselher. With upright hearts then joined they / with the others grief to share. 1048 They mourned for Kriemhild's husband / with hearts all full of woe. A mass should then be chanted: / to the minster forth did go Man and child and woman / gathered from every side. E'en they did likewise mourn him / who little lost that Siegfried died. 1049 Gernot and Giselher spake: / "O Sister dear, Now comfort thee in sorrow, / for death is ever near. Amends we'll make unto thee / the while that we shall live." In the world might never any / unto her a comfort give. 1050