[Sidenote:  The journey to Hungary.] After receiving this promise, Kriemhild signified her consent, and immediately prepared to accompany Ruediger to King Etzel’s court.  Eckewart and all her maidens accompanied her, with five hundred men as a bodyguard; and Gernot and Giselher, with many Burgundian nobles, escorted her to Vergen on the Danube, where they took an affectionate leave of her, and went back to their home in Burgundy.

From Vergen, Kriemhild and her escort journeyed on to Passau, where they were warmly welcomed and hospitably entertained by good Bishop Pilgrim, brother of Queen Ute.  He would gladly have detained them, had not Ruediger declared that his master impatiently awaited the coming of his bride, which had duly been announced to him.

A second pause was made at Bechlaren, Ruediger’s castle, where Kriemhild was entertained by his wife and daughter, Gotelinde and Dietelinde, and where the usual lavish distribution of gifts took place.  Then the procession swept on again across the country and down the Danube, until they met King Etzel, whom Kriemhild graciously kissed, and who obtained a similar favor for his brother and a few of his principal nobles.

[Sidenote:  The marriage at Vienna.] After witnessing some tilting and other martial games, the king and queen proceeded to Vienna, where a triumphal reception awaited them, and where their marriage was celebrated with all becoming solemnity and great pomp.  The wedding festivities lasted seventeen days; but although all vied in their attempts to please Kriemhild, she remained sad and pensive, for she could not forget her beloved Siegfried and the happy years she had spent with him.

The royal couple next journeyed on to Gran, Etzel’s capital, where Kriemhild found innumerable handmaidens ready to do her will, and where Etzel was very happy with his new consort.  His joy was complete, however, only when she bore him a son, who was baptized in the Christian faith, and called Ortlieb.

Although thirteen years had now elapsed since Kriemhild had left her native land, the recollection of her wrongs was as vivid as ever, her melancholy just as profound, and her thoughts were ever busy planning how best to lure Hagen into her kingdom so as to work her revenge.

    “One long and dreary yearning she foster’d hour by hour;
    She thought, ’I am so wealthy and hold such boundless power,
    That I with ease a mischief can bring on all my foes,
    But most on him of Trony, the deadliest far of those.

    “’Full oft for its beloved my heart is mourning still;
    Them could I but meet with, who wrought me so much ill,
    Revenge should strike at murder, and life atone for life;
    Wait can I no longer.’  So murmur’d Etzel’s wife.”
          
                              Nibelungenlied (Lettsom’s tr.).