Now there passed not a day but Gunther’s wife thought, “Surely Kriemhild beareth her too proudly. Siegfried, her husband, is our vassal. Little service hath he done for his land.”
She pondered it secretly in her heart; for it irked her that they were strangers, and she had fain known wherefore Siegfried’s country yielded no tribute. She prayed the king that she might behold Kriemhild again, and told him her secret thought. But her word pleased him not. “How could we bid them hither?” said the great king. “It cannot be. They dwell too far off. I durst not do it.”
But Brunhild answered proudly, “However mighty a king’s vassal may be, he must do what his lord commandeth.”
But Gunther laughed, for he took it not as homage when he saw Siegfried.
She said further, “Dear lord, for my love, help me thereto, that Siegfried and thy sister visit us, and that we see them here. Truly nothing could rejoice me more. Thy sister’s courtesy, her gentle breeding—with what delight my heart dwelleth thereon, and how we sat together the day I became thy wife! That she chose Siegfried to her husband did her honour.”
She begged the king for it so long that he said, “Certes! no guests would I gladlier welcome, and willingly I grant it thee. I will bid them hither by my envoys.”
The queen answered then, “Send not thither without my knowledge, and inform me, without fail, when my dear friends shall come. And tell me, also, whom thou wilt charge with the embassy.”
“That will I,” said the king. “I will despatch thirty of my knights.”
He bade them to his presence, and sent greeting by them to Siegfried’s country. Brunhild clad them in rich apparel, and the king spake, “Ye knights shall keep back naught wherewith I charge you, but shall say to stark Siegfried, and to my sister, that no man in this world is better minded to them than I be. Bid them both hither to the Rhine. If they come, I and my wife will cease not to be beholden to them. Or midsummer is here, he and his knights will find among us many to do them worship. Greet King Siegmund also from me, and say that I and my friends are his true servants; and entreat my sister that, without fail, she ride hither to her friends. No hightide were fitter for her.”
Brunhild and Uta, and their women, commended them to the fair women and the bold men at Siegfried’s court.