Gudrun exults over the thought of their approaching liberation. Her entire nature seems to change. From the patient, enduring, humble, martyr-like, though constant and faithful, maiden, she changes to a proud, self-asserting queen. Angrily she hurls the linen, the symbol of her humiliation, into the flood; she is too highly placed; she declares to the warning, anxious friend Hildeburg that she will never wash again for Gerlinde, for two kings have kissed her and held her in their arms. When, at their late arrival at the castle, Gerlinde receives them with harsh words, asks for the linen, and learns that Gudrun has thrown it into the sea, the she-wolf as she is called here in the epic orders thorn rods to be tied together to chastise Gudrun. But the cunning maiden, who, as we have seen, does not shrink from a needful little lie, escapes by a clever ruse:
"' Release me from chastisement, you'll gladly do it sure;
For whom I have rejected, I choose now for my lord;
As queen will I reside in the Normanish fields;
In power I shall perform deeds: you'll scarcely trust your eyes."
Gerlinde immediately informs her son Hartmut of Gudrun's decision; but when he hastens to the spot to embrace her, she declines, saying:
"'O King Hartmut, leave this yet undone!
If people saw this action, it would be your dishonor;
I am a lowly servant, how would it be befitting,
Were a mighty king to embrace me or to touch me?'"