XIX. KING ETZEL WOOS KRIEMHILD 100 XX. ETZEL’S INVITATION TO GÜNTHER 103 XXI. THE SWAN-MAIDENS 106 XXII. KRIEMHILD’S WELCOME 113 XXIII. THE COMRADES 119 XXIV. THE MINSTREL KNIGHT 125 XXV. THE BURGUNDIANS GO TO MASS 129 XXVI. THE FEAST 132 XXVII. BLÖDELIN AND DANKWART 135 XXVIII. THE STRIFE IN THE HALL 139 XXIX. IRING’S FIGHT WITH HAGEN 144 XXX. THE NIGHT OF TERROR 149 XXXI. THE MARGRAVE RÜDIGER 153 XXXII. HILDEBRAND AND DIETRICH 161 XXXIII. KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE AND DEATH 169 Illustrations The Death of Siegfried _Frontispiece_ Siegfried vanquishes Alberich 62 The Minstrel and Hagen 126 Death of Kriemhild 170 The Nibelungs _Chapter I_ _Wieland the Smith_ In olden times there lived at Santen on the Rhine a noble pair, Siegmund and Sieglind, King and Queen of Niderland, to whom late in life was born a son. They named the boy Siegfried, and he throve and grew apace, so that none could equal him for beauty or strength, and in all knightly sports and exercises he soon left far behind him the other lads of his age. Now, these were the days of heroes whose fame spread far and wide throughout the world. To listen to tales of their mighty deeds gave even more joy to the bold youth than the call of the hunting-horn or the sound of the battle-trumpet; while to forge good swords that, like the lions’ teeth, should pierce through bone and sinew, seemed in truth to him a noble art. One day his father, Siegmund the King, told to him the tale of Wieland the Smith. The giant Wadi had a son whose evil fortune it was to be lame, wherefore he besought his father to let him become a smith. “For,” said he, “since with such limbs as these it is plain I may do no knightly deeds, what better lot can be mine than to forge arms fit for heroes to wield?” “Now hast thou well spoken,” replied Wadi, and forthwith took his son to Mime. Mime was the greatest smith in all Hunland, and he kept Wieland for three years and made him master of his art. Nor was this all; for, when the time was spent, his father sent him to two famous dwarfs who dwelt in the Kallova mountains. These dwarfs were possessed of marvellous strength and skill, and would not agree to take Wieland into their forge for a twelve-month save upon payment of a piece of gold. At the end of the time Wadi came to fetch his son. But Wieland already surpassed the dwarfs in skill and cunning, and they would not let him go. They said to Wadi: