"No matter whose hearth this may be here I must rest" "A stranger?" "I must question him" "Who is lying there   weary and travel-worn?" "Has he fainted?" "Could he be ill?" "He is still breathing:" "he has only closed his eyes" "The man seems robust, though exhausted" "A drink!" "I'll fetch water" "For your parched lips   I've brought a drink" "Cool and refreshing was the water lt has lightened my weariness" "My spirits were revived." "My eyes enjoy the boon of sight" "Who is it that has comforted me?" "This house and this woman belong to Hunding" "He will not grudge you shelter." "Wait till he comes home l am weaponless." "Your husband will not turn away a wounded guest" "Quick!" "Show me your wounds" "They are slight" "My limbs are still intact and firm" "Had shield and spear supported me half as stoutly as my arms   I would never have fled my foes" "They shattered spear and shield" "They harried me till I was weary" "The storm exhausted my strength" "Yet my weariness has fled faster than I" "Night fell on my eyelids" "But now the sun smiles on me anew" "Do not refuse from me a drink of honeyed mead" "Will you taste it first?" "You comfort an ill-starred man   who wishes to keep you from misfortune" "I am rested and refreshed" "Now I must be on my way" "Who is pursuing you?" "lll-luck pursues me wherever I flee" "lll-luck comes wherever I stay" "Far may it remain from you!" "I must go and look elsewhere" "Remain here!" "You cannot bring misfortune   where misfortune has its home" "I have called myself Woeful I will wait for Hunding" "I found this man exhausted." "Dire need drove him to this house" " Have you tended him?" " l refreshed him as a guest" "For shelter I thank her." "Will you rebuke your wife for that?" "Sacred is my hearth" "Let my house be so to you!" "Prepare the meal for us men!" "How like my wife he is!" "Guile gleams from his eyes too" "Your steps have led you far." "Who rested here rode no horse" "What path caused your plight?" "Storm and dire distress drove me through forest and field I know not the way that I came" "Still less do I know whither I have wandered I'd be glad to find out" "Hunding is the owner of the house that harbours you" "Westwards from here   in rich estates   kinsmen guard his honour" "Now do me the honour   of telling me your name" "If you are uneasy, inform my wife" "See how eagerly she asks you!" "I would gladly know who you are" "I may not call myself Peaceful" "Would that I were Joyful" "Woeful   must be my name" "My father was Wolfe l came into the world one of two   a twin sister and I" "Mother and sister were soon lost I hardly knew her who bore me and her born with me" "Warlike Wolfe made many enemies" "Father took the youth hunting" "One day we came home from coursing" "The wolf's lair lay empty" "The splendid hall was in ashes   the oak reduced to a stump" "The mother was slain   all trace of the sister lost" "This bitter blow was dealt   by a cruel, envious hand" "The old man and I fled" "Many years the youth lived with Wolfe in the woods" "Many a pursuit was made but the wolf pair defended itself" "A wolf-cub tells you this   whom many knew well as Wolfing" "Strange tales you tell, intrepid guest!" "I have heard dark stories of that pair, although   I never knew Wolfe and Wolfing" "But tell us more, stranger." "Where is your father now?" "Our foes launched an onslaught" "Many hunters fell to the wolves" "The enemy was scattered like chaff" "But I lost track of my father though long l sought him" "I found only an empty wolfskin in the forest" "I did not find my father" "I felt the urge to leave the woods." "I was drawn to men   and women" "But though I met many, wherever I found them   whether I sought a friend or wooed a woman   I was always rejected" "lll-luck lay on me" "Whatever I thought right seemed bad to others" "Whatever I held to be wrong others favoured" "Wherever I was, I fell into feuds and was met with resentment" "If I craved for happiness, I created only woe" "So I had to call myself Wehwalt" "I was master only of woe" "The Norn who assigned you so grievous a lot   did not love you" "The man to whom you came as stranger   does not greet you as guest with joy" "Only the cowardly fear the man who travels unarmed and alone" "Tell us how you lost your weapons" "A girl called on me to defend her" "Her family wanted her to wed a man she did not love I met her oppressors in fight" "The enemy fell before the victor" "Her brothers lay there dead" "The girl's grief replaced her rage" "She surveyed the carnage, weeping" "The unhappy bride lamented the slaughter of her brothers" "Then the kinsmen of the dead rushed in, crying for vengeance" "Enemies were on every quarter" "But the girl would not move I protected her for long   until spear and shield were hacked from my hands" "Wounded and weaponless I stood   and saw the maid die" "The raging crowd pursued me" "On the bodies she lay dead" "Now you know, woman   why I am not called Peaceful" "I know a race who hold sacred nothing that others revere" "They are hated by all, and by me" "I was summoned to wreak vengeance for kinsmen's blood" "I was too late, and now come home   to see the fleeing culprit in my house" "My house shelters you today   for tonight I accept you" "But tomorrow arm yourself with a stout weapon I choose daylight for the fight" "You shall pay dearly for the dead" "Leave the room!" "Do not linger!" "Prepare my drink and wait in there until I come   to bed!" "A man should have weapons" "Wolfing, I will meet you tomorrow" "You heard what I said" "Be on your guard!" "My father promised me a sword I would find in my hour of need" "Unarmed, I have fallen into the house of a foe" "I wait here as a hostage to his vengeance" "I have seen a lovely woman of noble bearing" "A rapturous fear gnaws at my heart" "Longing now draws me to her   who sears me with sweet magic" "But she is held by the man who mocks my lack of weapons" "Walse!" "Where is your sword that I may wield it in combat   when the rage my heart holds shall burst from my breast?" "What glints brightly there from the ash tree's trunk?" "A lightning-gleam dazzles my eyes" "How gloriously it scorches my heart!" "is it the glance of the woman which, clinging there, she left?" "The dark of night covered my eyes" "Then her radiant glance fell on me, bringing me warmth and daylight" "The sun's light shone on me its radiance encircled my head   till it sank behind mountains" "Yet once more, as it departed, at evening its light fell on me" "Even the ancient ash tree's trunk was bathed in a golden glow" "That glow is fading" "The dark of night covers my eyes" "Hidden deep in my breast   a glow still smoulders" " Are you asleep?" " Who is that creeping in?" "It is I." "Listen to me!" "Hunding lies in heavy sleep." "I seasoned his drink with a drug" " Use the night to save yourself!" " Your nearness makes me safe!" "Let me show you a sword." "If you could only win it   I could call you the noblest of heroes lt was destined for the strongest alone" "Mark well what I tell you!" "My husband's kinsmen sat here, invited to Hunding's wedding" "He was marrying a wife robbers had given him without asking her" "Sadly I sat while they drank" "A stranger entered the house   an old man clad in grey" "His hat covered one of his eyes" "But the glint of the other struck fear in them all   when they observed its menace" "To me alone his eye conveyed   tears and solace together" "He looked at me and glared at them, while he brandished a sword   which he thrust to the hilt into the ash tree's trunk" "The sword should belong to the one who could draw it from the tree" "Resolutely as all the men strove, none could win the weapon" "Guests came and guests went." "The strongest tugged at the steel" "Not an inch could they loosen it" "Silently the sword remains there" "I knew then who it was   that had greeted me in my grief" "I also know for whom alone   the sword is ordained" "If I could find that friend now, if he came to me from afar   then all I have borne in woe   all I have suffered in shame   would be sweetly revenged!" "I should have retrieved all I lost   if I had found this friend   and could clasp that hero in my arms!" "Blessed woman, that friend   for whom weapon and wife are destined holds you now!" "Fierce in my breast burns the vow that unites me to you" "What I yearn for l see in you ln you I have found all I lack!" "Though you suffered shame and sorrow   though I was outlawed and you were dishonoured   joyful vengeance now calls us to happiness!" "I laugh aloud in delight   as I hold you in my embrace   and feel your beating heart!" "Ah, who went out?" "Who came in?" "Nobody left" "But someone has come" "Spring is smiling into the room!" "Winter storms have given way to May" "On breezes light and lovely, Spring is wafted" "His breath blows through wood and meadow" "His open eyes are smiling" "Sweetly he sounds from birdsong" "Flowers spring from his warm blood" "Shoots sprout from his vigour" "With his weaponry of charm he conquers the world" "Winter yields to his assault" "At his blows the doors that kept us from him had to yield" "To his sister here he swept" "Love lured the Spring" "Deep in our hearts love lay hidden" "Now she smiles at the light" "The brother frees his sister and bride" "All that held them apart is demolished" "The young couple greet each other joyfully" "United are Love   and Spring!" "You are the Spring for which I have yearned   through the long icy winter" "My heart greeted you   with holy fear" "I blossomed at your glance" "I had always seen what was alien" "All around me was friendless" "All that happened   was as if outside my ken" "You I recognised plain and clear" "When I saw you, you were my own" "What I hid in my heart   what I am   was revealed bright as day lt rang like a resounding peal   when, in alien empty winter, I first saw my friend" "Sweetest bliss!" "Most blessed woman!" "Let me come close to you" "The noble light that shines   from your eyes and face   sweetly overwhelms my senses" "In the spring moonlight   you shine brightly" "Your hair crowns you with glory" "Now I can tell what captivated me" "My eyes feast on you in rapture" "How broad and open is your brow!" "How the veins wind into your temples!" "I tremble with rapture" "A marvel awakes in my memory" "Though I first beheld you today, my eyes have seen you before" "I too recall a dream of love ln longing I have seen you before" "In the stream I have looked at my own image" "Now I behold it again" "As once it was reflected, now you present my likeness to me!" "You are the likeness I hid in myself" "Let me listen to that voice" "I seem to have heard it as a child" "But no!" "I heard it recently   when the woods echoed my voice" "Loveliest sound that I hear!" "The gleam of your eyes has shone on me before" "That was how the old man gazed at me   when he consoled my sorrow" "By that look his child recognised him I even wanted to call him by name!" "Are you truly called Woeful?" "Not since you love me" "Now I am filled with bliss" "May you not call yourself Peaceful?" "Give me whatever name you love" "I will take my name from you" "But was your father's name Wolfe?" "A wolf to faint-hearted foxes" "But he whose eyes shone as yours   now gloriously shine on me" "His name is Walse lf Walse was your father and you are a Walsung   for you he thrust his sword into the tree" "So let me name you as I love you" "Siegmund!" "Thus I name you!" "Victorious you call me, Victorious I am!" "Let the sword I hold be witness!" "Walse promised me that, in direst need   I should find it" "Now I grasp it!" "Holiest love's highest need   yearning love's searing need   burns bright in my breast   drives me to daring and death" "Notung!" "Needful do I call you" "Stubborn steel, show me your cutting edge" "Come forth from your scabbard to me!" "You see Siegmund the Walsung!" "As bridal gift he brings this sword" "With it he wins the fairest of women   and carries you off from his enemy's house" "Far from here follow me now   into Spring's smiling mansion" "Notung the sword will guard you   should Siegmund die, loving you" "is this Siegmund that I see?" "I am Sieglinde, who longed for you" "Your own sister you have won with the sword!" "You are bride and sister   to your brother" "Let the Walsung race flourish!"