The Nibelungenlied: Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original
General
The Nibelungenlied: Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original
Epic poetry, German -- Translations into English
As went he angry-minded / one from afar did say:
"Now tarry still, Sir Hagen; / why so dost haste away?
Give ear yet while we tell thee / how thou reachest yonder strand.
Master here is Else, / who doth rule this borderland.
1546
"Hight is his brother Gelfrat, / and is a thane full rare,
Lord o'er Bavarian country. / Full ill with you 'twill fare,
Will ye pass his border. / Watchful must ye be,
And eke with the ferryman / 'twere well to walk right modestly.
1547
"He is so angry-minded / that sure thy bane 'twill be,
Wilt thou not show the warrior / all civility.
Wilt thou that he transport thee, / give all the boatman's due.
He guardeth well the border / and unto Gelfrat is full true.
1548
"If he be slow to answer, / then call across the flood
That thy name is Amelrich. / That was a knight full good,
Who for a feud did sometime / go forth from out this land.
The ferryman will answer, / when he the name doth understand.
1549
Hagen high of spirit / before those women bent,
Nor aught did say, but silent / upon his way he went.
Along the shore he wandered / till higher by the tide
On yonder side the river / a cabin standing he espied.
1550
He straight began a calling / across the flood amain.
"Now fetch me over, boatman," / cried the doughty thane.
"A golden armband ruddy / I'll give to thee for meed.
Know that to make this crossing / I in sooth have very need."
1551
Not fitting 'twas high ferryman / his service thus should give,
And recompense from any / seldom might he receive;
Eke were they that served him / full haughty men of mood.
Still alone stood Hagen / on the hither side the flood.
1552
Then cried he with such power / the wave gave back the sound,
For in strength far-reaching / did the knight abound:
"Fetch me now, for Amelrich, / Else's man, am I,
That for feud outbroken / erstwhile from this land did fly."
1553
Full high upon his sword-point / an armband did he hold,
Fair and shining was it / made of ruddy gold,
The which he offered to him / for fare to Gelfrat's land.
The ferryman high-hearted / himself did take the oar in hand.
1554
To do with that same boatman / was ne'er a pleasant thing;
The yearning after lucre / yet evil end doth bring.
Here where thought he Hagen's / gold so red to gain,
Must he by the doughty / warrior's fierce sword be slain.
1555
With might across the river / his oar the boatman plied,
But he who there was named / might nowhere be espied.
His rage was all unbounded / when he did Hagen find,
And loud his voice resounded / as thus he spake his angry mind:
1556
"Thou mayst forsooth be called / Amelrich by name:
Whom I here did look for, / no whit art thou the same.
By father and by mother / brother he was to me.
Since me thou thus hast cozened, / so yet this side the river be."
1557
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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