than whom the world holdeth none better."

"Only tarry not too long," said the king, "for we are right glad of thy
help."

He answered, "I will come again in a few days. Tell the queen I left by
thy command."


Eighth Adventure
How Siegfried Journeyed to the Nibelungs

Siegfried hasted thence in his _Tarnkappe_ to the haven on the shore,
where he found a ship, the which he boarded secretly, and rowed it
swiftly, as it had been blown by the wind. None saw the boatman. He
made it fly with his great strength. Any that marked it deemed it driven
by a tempest, but it was by Siegfried, fair Sieglind's child.

A day and a night brought him to a great country that an hundred days'
journey could not compass; this hight the Nibelung land, where he had his
vast treasure.

The hero landed alone on a broad meadow, and moored the ship. Then he
went to a mountain, whereon a castle stood, and asked for lodging, as he
had been a way-weary man. He went up to the door, that stood locked
before him. For folk guarded their honour then, even as now. The
stranger began to knock at the bolted door, and encountered within a huge
giant that kept watch, and that had his weapons ever by him. And this
giant said, "Who knocketh so loud on that door?"