not longer, but went to the minster to hear mass. Thither also went
Siegfried, and there was great press of people.

Crowns and robes were ready for them there; and after they had taken
their vows, they stood up, all four, proudly beneath their crowns.

Youths, to the number of six hundred or more, were dubbed knights (I say
sooth) in honour of the king. And great joy was in Burgundy, and much
splintering of lances by sworded knights.

The beautiful maidens sat at the windows, and underneath them was the
flashing of many shields. But the king stood apart from his men, and
went about sadly.

He and Siegfried were unlike of their moods. The hero guessed what ailed
him, and went to him and asked him, "Tell me how it hath fared with thee."

Then said the host to his guest, "Shame and hurt have I suffered from my
wife in my house. When I would have caressed her, she bound me tight,
and took me to a nail, and hung me up on the wall. There I dangled in
fear the night through till the day, or she loosed me. How soft she lay
there! I tell thee this in secret."

And stark Siegfried said, "I grieve for thee. I will tell thee a remedy
if thou keep it from her. I will so contrive it that this night she will
defy thee no longer." The word was welcome to Gunther after his pain.

"Now see my hands, how they are swollen. She overmastered me, as I had
been a child, that the blood spurted all over me from my nails. I
thought not to come off with my life."