Part 25 (1/2)

She said: ”Art thou Gunnar the Stranger? O art thou the man that I see?

Yea, verily I am Brynhild: what other is like unto me?

O men of the Earth behold me! hast thou seen, O labouring Earth, Such sorrow as my sorrow, or such evil as my birth?”

Then spake the Wildfire's Trampler that Gunnar's image bore: ”O Brynhild, mighty of women, be thou glorious evermore!

Thou seest Gunnar the Niblung, as he sits mid the Niblung lords, And rides with the G.o.ds of battle in the fore-front of the swords.

Now therefore awaken to life! for this eve have I ridden thy Fire, When but few of the kings would outface it, to fulfil thine heart's desire.

And such love is the love of the kings, and such token have women to know That they wed with G.o.d's beloved, and that fair from their bed shall outgrow The stem of the world's desire, and the tree that shall not be abased, Till the day of the uttermost trial when the war-s.h.i.+eld of Odin is raised.

So my word is the word of wooing, and I bid thee remember thine oath, That here in this hall fair-builded we twain may plight the troth; That here in the hall of thy waiting thou be made a wedded wife, And be called the Queen of the Niblungs, and awaken unto life.”

Hard rang his voice in the hall, and a while she spake no word, And there stood the Image of Gunnar, and leaned on his bright blue sword: But at last she cried from the high-seat: ”If I yet am alive and awake, I know no words for the speaking, nor what answer I may make.”

She ceased and he answered nothing; and a hush on the hall there lay, And the moon slipped over the windows as he clomb the heavenly way; And no whit stirred the raiment of Brynhild: till she hearkened the Wooer's voice, As he said: ”Thou art none of the women that swear and forswear and rejoice, Forgetting the sorrow of kings and the G.o.ds and the labouring earth.

Thou shalt wed with King Gunnar the Niblung and increase his worth with thy worth.”

And again was there silence a while, and the War-King leaned on his sword In the shape of his foster-brother; then Brynhild took up the word: ”Hail Gunnar, King of the Niblungs! tonight shalt thou lie by my side, For thou art the G.o.ds' beloved, and for thee was I shapen a bride: For thee, for the King, have I waited, and the waiting now is done; I shall bear Earth's kings on my bosom and nourish the Niblung's son.

Though women swear and forswear, and are glad no less in their life, Tonight shall I wed with the King-folk and be called King Gunnar's wife.

Come Gunnar, Lord of the Niblungs, and sit in my fathers' seat!

For for thee alone was it shapen, and the deed is due and meet.”

Up she rose exceeding glorious, and it was as when in May The blossomed hawthorn stirreth with the dawning-wind of day; But the Wooer moved to meet her, and amid the golden place They met, and their garments mingled and face was close to face; And they turned again to the high-seat, and their very right hands met, And King Gunnar's bodily semblance beside her Brynhild set.

But over his knees and the mail-rings the high King laid his sword, And looked in the face of Brynhild and swore King Gunnar's word: He swore on the hand of Brynhild to be true to his wedded wife, And before all things to love her till all folk should praise her life.

Unmoved did Brynhild hearken, and in steady voice she swore To be true to Gunnar the Niblung while her life-days should endure; So she swore on the hand of the Wooer: and they two were all alone, And they sat a while in the high-seat when the wedding-troth was done, But no while looked each on the other, and hand fell down from hand, And no speech there was betwixt them that their hearts might understand.

At last spake the all-wise Brynhild: ”Now night is beginning to fade, Fair-hung is the chamber of Kings, and the bridal bed is arrayed.”

He rose and looked upon her: as the moon at her utmost height, So pale was the visage of Brynhild, and her eyes as cold and bright: Yet he stayed, nor stirred from the high-seat, but strove with the words for a s.p.a.ce, Till she took the hand of the King and led him down from his place, And forth from the hall she led him to the chamber wrought for her love; The fairest chamber of earth, gold-wrought below and above, And hung were the walls fair-builded with the G.o.ds and the kings of the earth And the deeds that were done aforetime, and the coming deeds of worth.

There they went in one bed together; but the foster-brother laid 'Twixt him and the body of Brynhild his bright blue battle-blade, And she looked and heeded it nothing; but e'en as the dead folk lie, With folded hands she lay there, and let the night go by: And as still lay that Image of Gunnar as the dead of life forlorn, And hand on hand he folded as he waited for the morn.

So oft in the moonlit minster your fathers may ye see By the side of the ancient mothers await the day to be.

Thus they lay as brother by sister--and e'en such had they been to behold, Had he borne the Volsung's semblance and the shape she knew of old.

Night hushed as the moon fell downward, and there came the leaden sleep And weighed down the head of the War-King, that he lay in slumber deep, And forgat today and tomorrow, and forgotten yesterday; Till he woke in the dawn and the daylight, and the sun on the gold floor lay, And Brynhild wakened beside him, and she lay with folded hands By the edges forged of Regin and the wonder of the lands, The Light that had lain in the Branstock, the hope of the Volsung Tree, The Sunderer, the Deliverer, the torch of days to be: Then he strove to remember the night and what deeds had come to pa.s.s, And what deeds he should do hereafter, and what manner of man he was; For there in the golden chamber lay the dark unwonted gear, And beside his cheek on the pillow were long locks of the raven hair: But at last he remembered the even and the deed he came to do, And he turned and spake to Brynhild as he rose from the bolster blue:

”I give thee thanks, fair woman, for the wedding-troth fulfilled; I have come where the Norns have led me, and done as the high G.o.ds willed: But now give we the gifts of the morning, for I needs must depart to my men And look on the Niblung children, and rule o'er the people again.

But I thank thee well for thy greeting, and thy glory that I have seen, For but little thereto are those tidings that folk have told of the Queen.

Henceforth with the Niblung people anew beginneth thy life, And fair days of peace await thee, and fair days of glorious strife.

And my heart shall be grieved at thy grief, and be glad of thy well-doing, And all men shall say thou hast wedded a true heart and a king.”

So spake he in semblance of Gunnar, and from off his hand he drew A ring of the spoils of the Southland, a marvel seen but of few, And he set the ring on her finger, and she turned to her lord and spake: ”I thank thee, King, for thy goodwill, and thy pledge of love I take.

Depart with my troth to thy people: but ere full ten days are o'er I shall come to the Sons of the Niblungs, and then shall we part no more Till the day of the change of our life-days, when Odin and Freyia shall call.

Lo, here, my gift of the morning! 'twas my dearest treasure of all; But thou art become its master, and for thee was it fore-ordained, Since thou art the man of mine oath and the best that the earth hath gained.”

And lo, 'twas the Grief of Andvari, and the lack that made him loth, The last of the G.o.d-folk's ransom, the Ring of Hindfell's oath; Now on Sigurd's hand it s.h.i.+neth, and long he looketh thereon, But it gave him back no memories of the days that were bygone.

Then in most exceeding sorrow rose Sigurd from the bed, And again lay Brynhild silent as an image of the dead.

Then the King did on his war-gear and girt his sword to his side, And was e'en as an image of Gunnar when the Niblungs dight them to ride.

And she on the bed of the bridal, remembering hope that was, Lay still, and hearkened his footsteps from the echoing chamber pa.s.s.