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Adventure IX
The Journey to Burgundy-Land.
For many days before Siegfried's departure, the queen, and
all the women of the household, busily plied their needles;
and many suits of rich raiment made they for the prince and
his worthy comrades. At length the time for leave-taking
came, and all the inmates of the castle went out to the gate
to bid the heroes God-speed. Siegfried sat upon his noble
horse Greyfell, and his trusty sword Balmung hung at his
side. And his Nibelungen knights were mounted on lordly
steeds, with gold-red saddles and silver trappings chased
with gold; and their glittering helmets, and burnished
shields, and war-coats of polished steel, when added to
their noble bearing and manlike forms, made up a picture of
beauty and strength such as no one in Santen had ever seen
before, or would ever see again.
"Only go not into Burgundy-land," were the parting words of
Siegmund.
And all who had come to bid them farewell wept bitterly as
the young men rode out of the city, and were lost to sight
in the distance.
"Only go not into Burgundy-land!" These words of his father
sounded still in Siegfried's ears; and he turned his horse's
head towards the west and south; and they rode through the
level country, and among the fields, from which the corn had
already been gathered; and at night they slept in the open
air, upon the still warm ground. Thus for many days they
travelled. And they left the Lowlands far behind them, and
Burgundy far to the left of them; and by and by they came to
a country covered with high hills, and mountains that seemed
to touch the sky. The crags and peaks were covered with
snow, and ice lay all summer in the dales and in the deep
gorges cleft long time ago by giant hands. Here it is that
the rivers take their beginning. And here it is that the
purple grapes and the rare fruits of milder climes are
found; for the sun shines warm in the valleys and upon the
plains, and the soil is exceeding rich. It is said that
these mountains are midway between the cold regions of
Jotunheim and the glowing gardens of Muspelheim, and that,
in ages past, they were the scene of many battles between
the giants who would overwhelm the earth,--these with ice,
and those with fire. Here and there were frowning caves dug
out of the solid mountain-side; while higher up were great
pits, half-filled with ashes, where, it is said, the
dwarf-folk, when they were mighty on earth, had their
forges.
Siegfried stopped not long in this land. Thoughts of the
Nibelungen Land, and of his faithful liegemen who waited for
his return, began to fill his mind. Then the heroes turned
their horses' heads, and rode back towards the north,
following the course of the River Rhine, as it wound, here
and there, between hills and mountains, and through meadows
where the grass was springing up anew, and by the side of
woodlands, now beginning to be clothed in green again; for
the winter was well over, and spring was hastening on apace.
And as they rode down the valley of the Rhine they came, ere
they were aware, into the Burgundian Land, and the high
towers of King Gunther's castle rose up before them. Then
Siegfried remembered again his father's words,--
"Only go not into Burgundy-land."
But it was now too late to go back, and they determined to
stop for a few days with the Burgundian kings. They rode
onwards through the meadows and the pleasant farming-lands
which lay around the city; and they passed a wonderful
garden of roses, said to belong to Kriemhild, the peerless
princess of the Rhine country; and at last they halted
before the castle-gate. So lordly was their bearing, that a
company of knights came out to meet them, and offered, as
the custom was, to take charge of their horses and their
shields. But Siegfried asked that they be led at once to
King Gunther and his brothers; and, as their stay would not
be long, they said they would have no need to part with
horses or with shields. Then they followed their guides, and
rode through the great gateway, and into the open court, and
halted beneath the palace windows.
And the three kings--Gunther, Gernot, and Giselher--and
their young sister, the matchless Kriemhild, looked down
upon them from above, and hazarded many guesses as to who
the lordly strangers might be. And all the inmates of the
castle stood at the doors and windows, or gathered in
curious groups in the courtyard, and gazed with open-mouthed
wonder upon the rich armor and noble bearing of the thirteen
heroes. But all eyes were turned most towards Siegfried and
the wondrous steed Greyfell. Some of the knights whispered
that this was Odin, and some that it was Thor, the
thunderer, making a tour through Rhineland. But others said
that Thor was never known to ride on horseback, and that the
youth who sat on the milk-white steed was little like the
ancient Odin. And the ladies who looked down upon the heroes
from the palace windows said that this man could be no other
than the Sunbright Balder, come from his home in Breidablik,
to breathe gladness and sunshine into the hearts and lives
of men.
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