Then spake the Lady Kriemhild: / "My friends have counselled me,
That by the love I bear them, / here my home shall be,
For that no kinsmen have I / in the Nibelungen land."
Grieved full sore was Siegmund / when he did Kriemhild understand.
Then spake the royal Siegmund: / "To such give not thine ear,
A queen 'mid all my kinsmen, / thou a crown shalt wear
And wield as lordly power / as e'er till now thou hast.
Nor thou a whit shalt forfeit, / that we the hero thus have lost.
"And journey with us thither, / for child's sake eke of thine:
Him shalt thou never, lady, / an orphan leave to pine.
When hath grown thy son to manhood, / he'll comfort thee thy mood.
Meanwhile shall ready serve thee / many a warrior keen and good."
She spake: "O royal Siegmund, / I may not thither ride,
For I here must tarry, / whate'er shall me betide,
'Mid them that are my kinsmen, / who'll help my grief to share."
The knights had sore disquiet / that such tidings they must hear.
"So might we say full truly," / spake they every one,
"That unto us still greater / evil now were done,
Would'st thou longer tarry / here amid our foes:
In sooth were never journey / of knights to court more full of woes."