_
So ten days wore over, and on the morrow-morn the folk were all astir
in the Niblung house, till the watchers on the towers cried to them
tidings of a goodly company drawing nigh upon the road. Then the
Niblungs got them to horse in glittering-gay raiment and went forth to
meet the people of Brynhild.
First rode bands of maidens arrayed in fine linen and blue-broidered
cloaks, and after them came a golden wain with horses of snowy white and
bench-cloths of blue, and therein sat Brynhild alone, clad in swan-white
raiment and crowned with gold. Then they hailed her sweet and goodly, and
so she entered the darksome gate-way and came within the Niblung Burg.
So fair in the sun of the forecourt doth Brynhild's wain shine bright,
And the huge hall riseth before her, and the ernes cry out from its height,
And there by the door of the Niblungs she sees huge warriors stand,
Dark-clad, by the shoulders greater than the best of any land,
And she knoweth the chiefs of the Niblungs, the dreaded dukes of war:
But one in cloudy raiment stands a very midst the door,
And ruddy and bright is his visage, and his black locks wave in the wind,
And she knoweth the King of the Niblungs and the man she came to find:
Then nought she lingered nor loitered, but stepped to the earth adown
With right-hand reached to the War-God, the wearer of the crown;
And she said:
"I behold thee, Gunnar, the King of War that rode
Through the waves of the Flickering Fire to the door of mine abode,
* * * * *
"And for this I needs must deem thee the best of all men born,
The highest-hearted, the greatest, the staunchest of thy love:
And that such the world yet holdeth, my heart is fain thereof:
And for thee I deem was I fashioned, and for thee the oath I swore
In the days of my glory and wisdom, ere the days of youth were o'er.
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