Before me foemen fell.
Fordone and dead lay the brothers.
The slain were embraced by the maid,
Her wrongs forgotten in grief.
She wept wild streams of woe,
And bathed the dead with her tears;
For the loss of her brothers slain
Lamented the ill-fated bride.
Then the dead men’s kinsmen
Came like a storm,
Vowing vengeance,
Frantic to fall on me;
Foemen on all sides
Rose and assailed me.
But from the spot
Moved not the maid;
My shield and spear
Sheltered her long,
Till spear and shield
Were hewn from my hand.
Standing weaponless, wounded,
I beheld the maid die:
I fled from the furious host——
She lay lifeless on the dead.
[To Sieglinde with a look of fervent sorrow.
The reason now I have told
Why none may know me as Friedmund.
[He rises and walks to the hearth. Pale and deeply moved, Sieglinde looks on the ground.
