Then Siegfried’s wife began to weep anew.
And Gernot said, “Sooner than be troubled with this gold, let us sink it in the Rhine. Then it were no man’s.”
She went wailing to Giselher, and said, “Dear brother, forsake me not, but be my kind and good steward.”
He answered her, “I will, when we win home again. For the present we ride on a journey.”
The king and his kinsmen left the land. He took the best he had with him. Only Hagen tarried behind through the hate he bare Kriemhild, and that he might work her ill.
Or the great king came back, Hagen had seized all the treasure and sunk it in the Rhine at Lochheim. He thought to profit thereby, but did not.
Or Hagen hid the treasure, they had sworn a mighty oath that it should remain a secret so long as they lived. Neither could they take it themselves nor give it to another.
The princes returned, and with them many knights. Thereupon Kriemhild, with her women and her maidens, began to bewail her wrong bitterly. She was right woeful. And the knights made as to slay Hagen, and said with one accord, “He hath done evilly.” So he fled from before their anger till they took him in favour again. They let him live, but Kriemhild hated him with deadly hate.
Her heart was heavy with new grief for her husband’s murder, and that they had stolen her treasure, and till her last day she ceased not to wail.
After Siegfried’s death (I say sooth) she mourned till the thirteenth year, nor could she forget the hero. She was ever true to him, and for this folk have praised her.