Complete works of willia.., p.496
Complete Works of William Morris, page 496
And over the hall woe-stricken the words of pride he spoke:
“Mourn now, O Niblung people, for gone is Sigurd our guest,
And Guttorm the King is departed, and this is our day of unrest;
But all this of the Norns was fore-ordered, and herein is Odin’s hand;
Cast down are the mighty of men-folk, but the Niblung house shall stand:
Mourn then today and tomorrow, but the third day waken and live,
For the Gods died not this morning, and great gifts they have to give.”
He spake and awhile was silence, and then did the cry outbreak,
And many there were of the Earl-folk that wept for Sigurd’s sake;
And they wept for their little children, and they wept for those unborn,
Who should know the earth without him and the world of his worth forlorn.
* * * * *
So rent is the joy of the Niblungs; and their simple days and fain
From that ancient house are departed, and who shall buy them again?
For he, the redeemer, the helper, the crown of all their worth,
They looked upon him and wondered, they loved, and they thrust him forth.
Of the mighty Grief of Gudrun over Sigurd dead.
But as for the grief of Gudrun over Sigurd no man may tell it. Long
she lay on his body and spent herself in weeping, but at last she
arose and cursed Brynhild and Gunnar and all the Niblung house,
saying:
“O hearken, hearken Gunnar! May the dear Gold drag thee adown,
And Greyfell’s ruddy Burden, and the Treasure of renown,
And the rings that ye swore the oath on! yea, if all avengers die,
May Earth, that ye bade remember, on the blood of Sigurd cry!
Be this land as waste as the troth-plight that the lips of fools have sworn!
May it rain through this broken hall-roof, and snow on the hearth forlorn!
And may no man draw anigh it to tell of the ruin and the wrack!
Yea, may I be a mock for the idle if my feet come ever aback,
If my heart think kind of the chambers, if mine eyes shall yearn to behold
The fair-built house of my fathers, the house beloved of old!”
And therewith Gudrun fled forever from the Burg of the Niblungs, and
none dared hinder or follow her, and none knew whither she turned for
refuge.
Of the passing away of Brynhild.
Once more on the morrow-morning fair shineth the glorious sun,
And the Niblung children labour on a deed that shall be done.
For out in the people’s meadows they raise a bale on high,
The oak and the ash together, and thereon shall the Mighty lie;
Nor gold nor steel shall be lacking, nor savour of sweet spice,
Nor cloths in the Southlands woven, nor webs of untold price;
The work grows, toil is as nothing; long blasts of the mighty horn
From the topmost tower out-wailing o’er the woeful world are borne.
* * * * *
But Brynhild cried to her maidens: “Now open ark and chest,
And draw forth queenly raiment of the loveliest and the best,
Red rings that the Dwarf-lords fashioned, fair cloths that queens have
sewed,
To array the bride for the mighty, and the traveller for the road.”
They wept as they wrought her bidding and did on her goodliest gear;
But she laughed mid the dainty linen, and the gold-rings fashioned fair:
She arose from the bed of the Niblungs, and her face no more was wan;
As a star in the dawn-tide heavens, mid the dusky house she shone:
And they that stood about her, their hearts were raised aloft
Amid their fear and wonder: then she spake them kind and soft:
“Now give me the sword, O maidens, wherewith I sheared the wind
When the Kings of Earth were gathered to know the Chooser’s mind.”
All sheathed the maidens brought it, and feared the hidden blade,
But the naked blue-white edges across her knees she laid,
And spake: “The heaped-up riches, the gear my fathers left,
All dear-bought woven wonders, all rings from battle reft,
All goods of men desired, now strew them on the floor,
And so share among you, maidens, the gifts of Brynhild’s store.”
* * * * *
Then upright by the bed of the Niblungs for a moment doth she stand,
And the blade flasheth bright in the chamber, but no more they hinder her
hand
Than if a God were smiting to rend the world in two:
Then dulled are the glittering edges, and the bitter point cleaves through
The breast of the all-wise Brynhild, and her feet from the pavement fail,
And the sigh of her heart is hearkened mid the hush of the maidens’ wail.
Chill, deep is the fear upon them, but they bring her aback to the bed,
And her hand is yet on the hilts, and sidelong droopeth her head.
Then there cometh a cry from withoutward, and Gunnar’s hurrying feet
Are swift on the kingly threshold, and Brynhild’s blood they meet.
Low down o’er the bed he hangeth and hearkeneth for her word,
And her heavy lids are opened to look on the Niblung lord,
And she saith:
“I pray thee a prayer, the last word in the world I speak,
That ye bear me forth to Sigurd, and the hand my hand would seek;
The bale for the dead is builded, it is wrought full wide on the plain,
It is raised for Earth’s best Helper, and thereon is room for twain:
Ye have hung the shields about it, and the Southland hangings spread,
There lay me adown by Sigurd and my head beside his head.”
* * * * *
Then they took the body of Brynhild in the raiment that she wore,
And out through the gate of the Niblungs the holy corpse they bore,
And thence forth to the mead of the people, and the high-built shielded
bale;
Then afresh in the open meadows breaks forth the women’s wail
When they see the bed of Sigurd and the glittering of his gear;
And fresh is the wail of the people as Brynhild draweth anear,
And the tidings go before her that for twain the bale is built,
That for twain is the oak-wood shielded and the pleasant odours spilt.
There is peace on the bale of Sigurd, and the Gods look down from on high,
And they see the lids of the Volsung close shut against the sky,
As he lies with his shield beside him in the Hauberk all of gold,
That has not its like in the heavens, nor has earth of its fellow told;
And forth from the Helm of Aweing are the sunbeams flashing wide,
And the sheathed Wrath of Sigurd lies still by his mighty side.
Then cometh an elder of days, a man of the ancient times,
Who is long past sorrow and joy, and the steep of the bale he climbs;
And he kneeleth down by Sigurd, and bareth the Wrath to the sun
That the beams are gathered about it, and from hilt to blood-point run,
And wide o’er the plain of the Niblungs doth the Light of the Branstock
glare,
Till the wondering mountain-shepherds on that star of noontide stare,
And fear for many an evil; but the ancient man stands still
With the war-flame on his shoulder, nor thinks of good or of ill,
Till the feet of Brynhild’s bearers on the topmost bale are laid,
And her bed is dight by Sigurd’s; then he sinks the pale white blade
And lays it ‘twixt the sleepers, and leaves them there alone —
He, the last that shall ever behold them, — and his days are well nigh done.
Then is silence over the plain; in the noon shine the torches pale
As the best of the Niblung Earl-folk bear fire to the builded bale:
Then a wind in the west ariseth, and the white flames leap on high,
And with one voice crieth the people a great and mighty cry,
And men cast up hands to the Heavens, and pray without a word,
As they that have seen God’s visage, and the voice of the Father have heard.
They are gone — the lovely, the mighty, the hope of the ancient Earth:
It shall labour and bear the burden as before that day of their birth.
* * * * *
Ye have heard of Sigurd aforetime, how the foes of God he slew;
How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of the Waters he drew;
How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the Bright,
And dwelt upon Earth for a season and shone in all men’s sight.
Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
And the latter world’s confusion, and Sigurd gone away.
THE END
GLOSSARY
ABBREVIATIONS: — n., noun; n., verb; cf., compare; e.g., for
example; p.t., past tense; p.p. past participle.
Abasement, casting down, defeat.
Acre-biders, peaceful workers in the fields as distinguished from
warriors who left their homes to go to war.
Amber, a yellow substance found on the shores of the Baltic Sea and
used from very early days as an ornament. The “southern men,” or
traders from the shores of the Mediterranean, came north to buy it.
Ark, a box for treasures.
Atwain, in two pieces, e.g. “The sword ... had smitten his body
atwain.”
Avail, n. power; n. to have power, to succeed.
Bale, disaster, destruction, death; a great pile of wood for
burning.
Balks, pieces of timber used to make a bridge.
Bane, destruction or a cause of destruction; often used to mean an
enemy or slayer, e.g. Sigurd’s sword is called “Fafnir’s bane,” and
in the old saga Sigurd himself had the title Fafnir’s-Bane.
Barter, to give in exchange for something else.
Bast, wrappings made of the soft inner bark of trees.
Bath of the swan, the sea.
Battle-acre, field of battle.
Beaker, a drinking cup.
Befall, happen.
Begrudge, to feel unwillingness in giving, to be displeased at
another’s success. Loki is called the World’s Begrudger, because he
liked to cause failure and unhappiness, and hated success in others.
Bench-cloths, coverings for seats.
Bent, a piece of high ground.
Betide, p.t. betided; p.p. betid; to happen, come to pass,
e.g. “What hath betid?”
Bickering, stormy, struggling.
Bide or abide, p.t. abode; p.p. abode; to remain, dwell
Bight, a bend or curve in a coast or river bank.
Bill, an axe with a long handle.
Blazoning, painting, especially the painting of coats of arms or of
records of valiant deeds.
Boar of Son. It was customary when making any solemn vows to lay the
hand or sword on a sacred boar called the Boar of Son or the Boar of
Atonement. The ceremony seems to have been also accompanied by
drinking a draught, called in this poem the Cup of Daring Promise, in
honour of one of the gods.
Boding, a misgiving, a feeling that evil is to come.
Bole, a tree-trunk.
Bows the acre’s face, bends the growing grain in a harvest-field.
Brand, a sword.
Bucklers, shields.
Burg, a town, a fortress.
Byrny, a coat of armour for back and breast, made of linked iron
rings.
Carles, peasants; a contemptuous word used for a man who is not a
warrior.
Change his life, die and pass from the life on earth to that in
Valhalla or Niflheim.
Chooser. One of the titles of Brynhild, as she was one of the
Valkyries or maidens whom Odin sent into battles to single out for
death the men he had chosen to be slain. Victory-Wafter is another
title of Brynhild, since she brought victory to those for whom it was
appointed and death to others.
Churl, a grudging, ungracious man.
Clave, p.p. of cleave, to pierce, hew, cut through.
Cloisters, a roofed passage running round a court-yard and open on
the side towards the court-yard.
Close, a field.
Cloud-wreath, the cloud that often gathers about the top of a high
mountain.
Compass, to contrive, accomplish.
Constrain, to force, to control and guide.
Coping, the topmost row of bricks in a wall, the top of a wall.
Craft, skill, knowledge of some particular art, a trade or
occupation, e.g. song-craft.
Cull, to choose, pick out.
Cup of Daring Promise, see Boar of Son.
Dais, a raised part of the floor at one end of a banquet hall, where
the principal persons sat.
Dastard, a coward.
Dawn-dusk, the twilight at dawn before the sun is fully risen.
Day of the Battle, Ragnarok, when the spirits of dead warriors
should join in the battle of the gods. “Day of Doom” has the same
meaning.
Dearth, want, famine, scarcity.
Deft, skilful, e.g. deft in every cunning.
Dight, made ready, prepared, e.g. war-dight, prepared for war.
Dole, n. a gift dealt out as charity; n. to measure out in small
portions, e.g. I doled out wisdom to thee.
Doom, n. a sentence, verdict, e.g. give righteous doom; n. to
condemn, to sentence. Doom-ring, a circle of stones or hazel poles
where kings heard complaints from their people and gave judgment.
Do on, put on; often shortened into “don”; cf. doff, which is
shortened from do off.
Door-wards, porters, door-keepers.
Dragons, the war-ships of the northern nations, which often had
their prows carved into a dragon’s head.
Dwindle, to grow less.
Edges of bale, the sword edges, which bring bale or destruction.
Egg, to urge on, to persuade to some deed, e.g. “Too much thou
eggest me.”
Eld, old age.
Endlong, length-ways, along. Endlong and athwart, along and
across.
Erewhile, some time ago, formerly.
Erne, an eagle.
Eyen, eyes; old plural of eye.
Fain, glad, willing, full of desire. Sometimes used as an adverb
meaning “willingly,” e.g. “They fain would go aland.”
Fair-speech-masters, men skilled in poetry. There were professional
singers and poets called skalds among the northern people, and the
power to make verses and to sing was cultivated among the mass of the
people and was fairly common.
Fallow, lying quiet, inactive, not bearing crops. The expression,
“fallow bondage,” means a bondage of sleep and idleness.
Fare, to travel. Sometimes when joined to adverbs it means to
prosper, e.g. to fare ill, to fare well, how does he fare?
Fashion, to make, to arrange. Regin hoped to be the world’s
“fashioning lord,” that is, the supreme king and orderer of all
things.
Fell-abiding folk, men who worked at home instead of going out to
battle.
Flame-blink, the flash of light from the fire round Brynhild’s home.
Flaw, defect, fault, e.g. “the hauberk ... clean wrought without a
flaw;” “the ring ... that hath ... no flaw for God to mend.” If used
of rain, it means a slight shower, e.g. “a flaw of summer rain,”
Fleck, spot, mark.
Foam-bow, the small rainbow seen in the spray from a waterfall.
Foil, n. defeat, failure; n. to defeat, to baffle.
Fold, a place for shutting up sheep. It is often used meaning any
dwelling-place, e.g. Fafnir’s abode is called “the lone destroyer’s
fold.”
Folk, people. It is often joined with other words, e.g. man-folk,
Goth-folk. Folk of the-war-wands forgers, are the race of dwarfs who
had great skill in the making of weapons.
Fond, used in Old English to mean “foolish,” or sometimes only to
give emphasis, as in the expression “thy fondest need,” meaning “thy
greatest need.”
