d for my
sake, I pray that you will undertake it for the sake of my sister, the
fair Kriemhild, who has so long waited for our coming."

Then willingly did the prince agree to be the king's herald. And on the
morrow the ship touched land; and Siegfried bade his companions a short
farewell, and went ashore with four and twenty Nibelungen chiefs,
who were to ride with him to Burgundy. And, when every thing was in
readiness, he mounted the noble Greyfell, as did also each warrior his
favorite steed, and they galloped briskly away; and their glittering
armor and nodding plumes were soon lost to sight among the green trees
of the wood. And the ship which bore Gunther and his kingly party
weighed anchor, and moved slowly along the shore towards the distant
river's mouth.

For many days, and through many strange lands, rode Siegfried and his
Nibelungen chiefs. They galloped through the woodland, and over a stony
waste, and came to a peopled country rich in farms and meadows, and
dotted with pleasant towns. And the folk of that land wondered greatly
at sight of the radiant Siegfried, and the tall warriors with him, and
their noble steeds, and their sunbright armor. For they thought that it
was a company of the gods riding through the mid-world, as the gods were
wont to do in the golden days of old. So they greeted them with smiles,
and kind, good words, and scattered flowers and blessings in their way.

They stopped for a day in Vilkina-land, where dwelt one Eigill, a
famous archer, who, it is said, was a brother of Veliant, Siegfried's
fellow-apprentice in the days of his boyhood. And men told them this
story of Eigill. That once on a time old Nidung, the king of that land,
in order to test his skill with the bow, bade him shoot an apple, or, as
some say, an acorn, from the head of his own little son. And Eigill
did this; but two other arrows, which he had hidden beneath his coat,
dropped to the ground. And when the king asked him what these were for
he answered, "To kill thee, wretch, had I slain my child."[EN#27]

After this our heroes rode through a rough hill-country, where the
ground was covered with sharp stones, and the roads were steep and hard.
And their horses lost their shoes, and were so lamed by the travel,
that they were forced to turn aside to seek the house of one Welland, a
famous smith, who re-shod their steeds, and entertained them most
kindly three days and nights. And it is said by some that Welland is