sound of wail.
Then came a thousand men-at-arms, bold Siegfried's men. When they heard
the ladies wail so pitifully, some first grew ware that they should
dress them. Forsooth they lost their wits for very sorrow. Great
heaviness was buried in their hearts.

Then King Siegmund came to where he found Kriemhild. He spake: "Alas
for the journey hither to this land! Who hath so foully bereft me of my
child and you of your husband among such good friends?"

"Oh, if I knew him," spake the noble wife, "neither my heart nor soul
would ever wish him well. I would plan such ill against him that his kin
must ever weep because of me."

Around the prince Lord Siegmund threw his arms. So great grew the sorrow
of his kin, that the palace, the hall, and the town of Worms resounded
from the mighty wail and weeping. None might now comfort Siegfried's
wife. They stripped off the clothes from his fair body; they washed his
wounds and laid him on the bier. Woe were his people from their mighty
grief. Then spake his warriors from the Nibelung land: "Our hands be
ever ready to avenge him; he liveth in this castle who hath done the
deed."

All of Siegfried's men hasted then to arms. These chosen knights came
with their shields, eleven hundred men-at-arms, whom Lord Siegmund had
in his troop. He would fain avenge the death of his son, as indeed he
had great need. They wist not to whom they should address their strife,
unless it be to Gunther and his men, with whom Lord Siegfried had ridden
to the hunt.

Kriemhild saw them armed, which rued her sore. However great her grief
and how dire her need, yet she did so mightily fear the death of the
Nibelungs at the hands of her brothers' liegemen, that she tried to
hinder it. In kindly wise she warned them, as kinsmen do to loving kin.
The grief-stricken woman spake: "My Lord Siegmund, what will ye do? Ye
wot naught aright; forsooth King Gunther hath so many valiant men, ye
will all be lost, and ye would encounter these knights."

With their shields uncovered, the men stood eager for the fight. The
noble queen both begged and bade that the lusty knights avoid it. When
they would not give it over, sorely it grieved her. She spake: "Lord
Siegmund, ye must let it be until more fitting time, then I'll avenge my
husband with you. An' I receive proof who hath bereft me of him, I'll do
him scathe. There be too many haughty warriors by the Rhine, wherefore I
will not counsel you to fight. They have full