CHAP.
whether of the ocean or the sea. In the spirtnig out of Siegfried's
blood on Hagen, in the wonderful stroke with which he almost smites
his betrayer dead, in the death wrestle which covers the flowers all
around with blood and gore, we have the chief features of the blood-
stained sunset which looms out in the legend of the death of
Herakles. The body of Siegfried, placed on a golden shield, is
borne to the chamber of Kriemhild, who feels, before she is told,
that it is the corpse of her murdered husband. " This is Brynhild's
counsel," she said, "this is Hagen's deed;" and she swears to
avenge his death by a vengeance as fearful as that of Achilleus. As
Siegfried had spoken, so should Hagen assuredly rue the day of his
death hereafter. She gives orders to awaken Siegfried's men and his
father Sigmund ; but Sigmund has not slept, for, like Peleus, he has
felt that he should see his son again no more. Then follows the
burial of Siegfried, when Gunther swears that no harm has come to
the hero either from himself or from his men : but the lie is given to
his words when the wounds bleed as Hagen passes before the dead
body. 'hen all is over, Sigmund says that they must return to their
own land ; but Kriemhild is at last persuaded to remain at Worms,
where she sojourns for more than three years in bitter grief, seeing
neither Gunther nor Hagen. The latter now makes Gemot press
Kriemhild to have her hoard brought from the Niblung land, and
thus at length gaining possession of it, he sinks it all in the Rhine.
In other words, Adonis is dead, and the women are left mourning
and wailing for him ; or the maiden is stolen away from Demeter,
and her wealth is carried to the house of Hades ; or again, as in the
Norse tale, the dwarf Andvari is keeping watch over the treasures of
Brynhild : and thus ends the first of the series of mythical histories
embodied in the Nibelung Lay. Whether this portion of the great
Teutonic epic be, or be not, older than the parts which follow it, it
is indubitably an integral narrative in itself, and by no means indis-
pensable to the general plan of the poem, except in so far as it ac-
counts for the implacable hatred of Kriemhild for her brothers.
The second part of the drama begins with the death of Hclche, The Stop; the wife of Etzel or Atli, who longs to marry Kriemhild, and who is restrained only by the recollection that he is a heathen while the widow of Siegfried is a Christian. This objection, however, is over- ruled by the whole council, who, with the one exception of Hagen, decide that Etzel shall marry Kriemhild. Hagen is opposed to it, because Siegfried swore that he should rue the day on which ho touched him, and on account of the prophecy that if ever Kricmheld took the place of Helche, she would bring harm to the Burgundians,
