In vain the fond parents tried to prevail upon him to remain quietly at home; the young hero insisted so strongly that he finally won their consent to his immediate departure.  With eleven companions, all decked out in the richest garments that the queen’s chests could furnish, the young prince rode down the Rhine, and reached Worms on the seventh day.

[Sidenote:  Siegfried’s arrival in Burgundy.] The arrival of the gallant little troop was soon noted by Gunther’s subjects, who hastened out to meet the strangers and help them dismount.  Siegfried immediately requested to be brought into the presence of their king, who, in the mean while, had inquired of his uncle, Hagen, the names and standing of the newcomers.  Glancing down from the great hall window, Hagen said that the leader must be Siegfried, the knight who had slain the owners of the Nibelungen hoard and appropriated it for his own use, as well as the magic cloud-cloak, or Tarnkappe, which rendered its wearer invisible to mortal eyes.[1] He added that this same Siegfried was ruler of the Nibelungen land, and the slayer of a terrible dragon, whose blood had made him invulnerable, and he concluded by advising Gunther to receive him most courteously. [Footnote 1:  For various legends of this cycle see Guerber’s Legends of the Rhine, article Xanten.]

“Yet more I know of Siegfried, that well your ear may hold: 
A poison-spitting dragon he slew with courage bold,
And in the blood then bath’d him; thus turn’d to horn his skin,
And now no weapons harm him, as often proved has been.

“Receive then this young hero with all becoming state;
’Twere ill advis’d to merit so fierce a champion’s hate. 
So lovely is his presence, at once all hearts are won,
And then his strength and courage such wondrous deeds have done.”
Nibelungenlied (Lettsom’s
tr.).

In obedience to this advice, Gunther went to meet Siegfried and politely inquired the cause of his visit.  Imagine his dismay, therefore, when Siegfried replied that he had come to test the Burgundian’s vaunted strength, and to propose a single combat, in which the victor might claim the lands and allegiance of the vanquished.  Gunther recoiled from such a proposal, and as none of his warriors seemed inclined to accept the challenge, he and his brother hastened to disarm Siegfried’s haughty mood by their proffers of unbounded hospitality.

Siegfried sojourned for nearly a year at Gunther’s court, displaying his skill in all martial exercises; and although he never caught a glimpse of the fair maiden Kriemhild, she often admired his strength and manly beauty from behind the palace lattice.

[Sidenote:  War with the Saxons and Danes.] One day the games were interrupted by the arrival of a herald announcing that Ludeger, King of the Saxons, and Ludegast, King of Denmark, were about to invade Burgundy.  These tidings filled Gunther’s heart with terror, for the enemy were very numerous and their valor was beyond all question.  But when Hagen hinted that perhaps Siegfried would lend them a helping hand, the King of Burgundy seized the suggestion with joy.