Seldom in sooth, if ever, / the hero's heart was sad.
He heard them tell the story, / how that a winsome maid
There lived afar in Burgundy, / surpassing fair to see:
Great joy she brought him later, / but eke she brought him misery.
Of her exceeding beauty / the fame spread far and near,
And of the thing, moreover, / were knights oft-times aware
How the maid's high spirit / no mortal could command:
The thing lured many a stranger / from far unto King Gunther's land.
Although to win her favor / were many wooers bent,
In her own heart would never / Kriemhild thereto consent
That any one amongst them / for lover she would have:
Still to her was he a stranger / to whom anon her troth she gave.
To true love turned his fancy / the son of Siegelind.
'Gainst his, all others' wooing / was like an idle wind:
Full well did he merit / a lady fair to woo,
And soon the noble Kriemhild / to Siegfried bold was wedded true.
By friends he oft was counselled, / and many a faithful man,
Since to think of wooing / in earnest he began,
That he a wife should find him / of fitting high degree.
Then spoke the noble Siegfried: / "In sooth fair Kriemhild shall it be,