om sight of her, and they
crowded about her to catch a glimpse of her face. Pleased and sad was
Siegfried, for, thought he, "How may I ever hope to win so peerless a
creature? The hope is a rash one. Better were I to forget her--but then,
alas, my heart would have ceased to beat, and I should be dead!" Pale
and red he grew. He recked not of his own great worth. For all there
agreed that so handsome a warrior had never come to the Rhineland, so
fair of body, so debonair was he.

The Wooing of Brunhild

Siegfried now resolved to win Kriemhild, and on Gunther's asking him to
accompany him on an adventure the purpose of which is to gain the hand
of Queen Brunhild of Isenstein, he accepted on condition that on their
return he should be rewarded by the hand of his sister. To this Gunther
gave assent, and they set out, accompanied by Hagen and his brother
Dankwart. But the Nibelungenlied proper is silent regarding Siegfried's
previous relations with Brunhild. In Scandinavian versions--such as the
Volsunga Saga, where this legend, originally a German one, is preserved
in its pagan form--Brunhild was a Valkyr, or war-maiden of Odin, who
sent her to sleep with a prick of a magic thorn and imprisoned her
within a circle of flame, through which Siegfried (in this version
almost certainly the god of nature, springtide, and the sun) broke,
delivered the captive, and took her as his bride, soon, however,
departing from her. In the Nibelungenlied this ancient myth is either
presupposed or intentionally omitted as unfitting for consumption by a
Christianized folk, but it is hinted that Brunhild had a previous claim
upon Siegfried's affections.

Brunhild had made it a condition that the hero whom she would wed must
be able to overcome her in three trials of prowess, losing his head as
a penalty of failure. Siegfried, donning the magic cloak of invisibility
he had won from Alberich, king of the dwarfs, took Gunther's place and
won the three trials for him, Gunther going through a pantomime of the
appropriate actions while Siegfried performed the feats. The passage
which tells of the encounter is curious. A great spear, heavy and keen,
was brought forth for Brunhild's use. It was more a weapon for a hero
of might than for a maiden, but, unwieldy as it was, she was able to
brandish it as easily as if it had been a willow wand. Three and a half
weights of iron went to the making of this mighty spear, which scarce
three of her men could ca