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Hands-On Penetration Testing on Windows

Unleash Kali Linux, PowerShell, and Windows debugging tools for security testing and
analysis

Phil Bramwell

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BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

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Hands-On Penetration Testing on

Windows
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
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I would like to dedicate this book to my wife, Sonia, without whose unwavering support, patience, and commitment, I
wouldn't be who I am today; to Mom, Dad, Rich, and Alex, for their endless inspiration, support, and willingness to
read my nonsense; to Lenna and Sasha, whose constant support, both emotional and practical, allowed me to muster
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Contributors

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

About the author

Phil Bramwell acquired the Certified Ethical Hacker and Certified Expert Penetration
Tester certifications at the age of 21. His professional experience includes Common
Criteria design reviews and testing, network security consulting, penetration testing, and
PCI-DSS compliance auditing for banks, universities, and governments. He later
acquired the CISSP and Metasploit Pro Certified Specialist credentials. Today, he is a
cybersecurity and cryptocurrency consultant and works as a cybersecurity analyst
specializing in malware detection and analysis.
A big thank you to everyone at Packt. I initially told Shrilekha "no way," but she motivated me to believe in myself.
Sharon was available day and night to guide me and keep my eyes on the prize. I also want to thank my friends and
mentors from Kalamazoo to Atascadero to Answers to Plante Moran: thank you for keeping me going.

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About the reviewer

Abhijit Mohanta works as a malware researcher for Juniper Threat Labs. He worked
as a malware researcher for Cyphort, MacAfee, and Symantec. He has expertise in
reverse engineering. He has experience working with antivirus and sandbox
technologies. He is author of the book Preventing Ransomware, Understand everything
about digital extortion and its prevention. He has written a number of blogs on malware
research. He has filed a couple of patents related to malware detection.

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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Hands-On Penetration Testing on Windows
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Why subscribe?
PacktPub.com
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Disclaimer

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

1. Bypassing Network Access Control

Technical requirements
Bypassing MAC filtering – considerations for the physical assessor
Configuring a Kali wireless access point to bypass MAC filtering
Design weaknesses – exploiting weak authentication mechanisms
Capturing captive portal authentication conversations in the clear
Layer-2 attacks against the network
Bypassing validation checks
Confirming the Organizationally Unique Identifier
Passive Operating system Fingerprinter
Spoofing the HTTP User-Agent
Breaking out of jail – masquerading the stack
Following the rules spoils the fun – suppressing normal TCP replies
Fabricating the handshake with Scapy and Python
Summary
Questions
Further reading

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2. Sniffing and Spoofing

Technical requirements
Advanced Wireshark – going beyond simple captures
Passive wireless analysis
Targeting WLANs with the Aircrack-ng suite
WLAN analysis with Wireshark
Active network analysis with Wireshark
Advanced Ettercap – the man-in-the-middle Swiss Army Knife
Bridged sniffing and the malicious access point
Ettercap filters – fine-tuning your analysis
Killing connections with Ettercap filters
Getting better – spoofing with BetterCAP
ICMP redirection with BetterCAP
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

3. Windows Passwords on the Network

Technical requirements
Understanding Windows passwords
A crash course on hash algorithms
Password hashing methods in Windows
If it ends with 1404EE, then it's easy for me – understanding LM hash
flaws
Authenticating over the network–a different game altogether
Capturing Windows passwords on the network
A real-world pen test scenario – the chatty printer
Configuring our SMB listener
Authentication capture
Hash capture with LLMNR/NetBIOS NS spoofing
Let it rip – cracking Windows hashes
The two philosophies of password cracking
John the Ripper cracking with a wordlist
John the Ripper cracking with masking
Reviewing your progress with the show flag
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

4. Advanced Network Attacks

Technical requirements
Binary injection with BetterCAP proxy modules
The Ruby file injection proxy module – replace_file.rb
Creating the payload and connect-back listener with Metasploit
HTTP downgrading attacks with sslstrip
Removing the need for a certificate – HTTP downgrading
Understanding HSTS bypassing with DNS spoofing
HTTP downgrade attacks with BetterCAP ARP/DNS spoofing
The evil upgrade – attacking software update mechanisms
Exploring ISR Evilgrade
Configuring the payload and upgrade module
Spoofing ARP/DNS and injecting the payload
IPv6 for hackers
IPv6 addressing basics
Local IPv6 reconnaissance and the Neighbor Discovery Protocol
IPv6 man-in-the-middle – attacking your neighbors
Living in an IPv4 world – creating a local 4-to-6 proxy for your tools
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

5. Cryptography and the Penetration Tester

Technical requirements
Flipping the bit – integrity attacks against CBC algorithms
Block ciphers and modes of operation
Introducing block chaining
Setting up your bit-flipping lab
Manipulating the IV to generate predictable results
Flipping to root – privilege escalation via CBC bit-flipping
Sneaking your data in – hash length extension attacks
Setting up your hash attack lab
Understanding SHA-1's running state and compression function
Data injection with the hash length extension attack
Busting the padding oracle with PadBuster
Interrogating the padding oracle
Decrypting a CBC block with PadBuster
Behind the scenes of the oracle padding attack
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

6. Advanced Exploitation with Metasploit

Technical requirements
How to get it right the first time – generating payloads
Installing Wine32 and Shellter
Payload generation goes solo – working with msfvenom
Creating nested payloads
Helter Skelter evading antivirus with Shellter
Modules – the bread and butter of Metasploit
Building a simple Metasploit auxiliary module
Efficiency and attack organization with Armitage
Getting familiar with your Armitage environment
Enumeration with Armitage
Exploitation made ridiculously simple with Armitage
A word about Armitage and the pen tester mentality
Social engineering attacks with Metasploit payloads
Creating a Trojan with Shellter
Preparing a malicious USB drive for Trojan delivery
Summary
Questions
Further reading

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||||||||||||||||||||

7. Stack and Heap Memory Management

Technical requirements
An introduction to debugging
Understanding the stack
Understanding registers
Assembly language basics
Disassemblers, debuggers, and decompilers – oh my!
Getting cozy with the Linux command-line debugger – GDB
Stack smack – introducing buffer overflows
Examining the stack and registers during execution
Lilliputian concerns – understanding endianness 
Introducing shellcoding
Hunting bytes that break shellcode
Generating shellcode with msfvenom
Grab your mittens, we're going a NOP sledding
Summary
Questions
Further Reading

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||||||||||||||||||||

8. Windows Kernel Security

Technical requirements
Kernel fundamentals – understanding how kernel attacks work
Kernel attack vectors
The kernel's role as time cop
It's just a program
Pointing out the problem – pointer issues
Dereferencing pointers in C and assembly
Understanding NULL pointer dereferencing
The Win32k kernel-mode driver
Passing an error code as a pointer to xxxSendMessage()
Metasploit – exploring a Windows kernel exploit module
Practical kernel attacks with Kali
An introduction to privilege escalation
Escalating to SYSTEM on Windows 7 with Metasploit
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

9. Weaponizing Python
Technical requirements
Incorporating Python into your work
Why Python?
Getting cozy with Python in your Kali environment
Introducing Vim with Python syntax awareness
Python network analysis
Python modules for networking
Building a Python client
Building a Python server
Building a Python reverse shell script
Antimalware evasion in Python
Creating Windows executables of your Python scripts
Preparing your raw payload
Writing your payload retrieval and delivery in Python
Python and Scapy – a classy pair
Revisiting ARP poisoning with Python and Scapy
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

10. Windows Shellcoding

Technical requirements
Taking out the guesswork – heap spraying
Memory allocation – stack versus heap
Shellcode whac-a-mole – heap spraying fundamentals
Shellcode generation for the Java vulnerability
Creating the malicious website to exploit Java
Debugging Internet Explorer with WinDbg
Examining memory after spraying the heap
Fine-tuning your attack and getting a shell
Understanding Metasploit shellcode delivery
Encoder theory and techniques – what encoding is and isn't
Windows binary disassembly within Kali
Injection with Backdoor Factory
Code injection fundamentals – fine-tuning with BDF
Trojan engineering with BDF and IDA
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

11. Bypassing Protections with ROP

Technical requirements
DEP and ASLR – the intentional and the unavoidable
Understanding DEP
Understanding ASLR
Testing DEP protection with WinDbg
Demonstrating ASLR on Kali Linux with C
Introducing return-oriented programming
Borrowing chunks and returning to libc – turning the code against itself
The basic unit of ROP – gadgets
Getting cozy with our tools – MSFrop and ROPgadget
Metasploit Framework's ROP tool – MSFrop
Your sophisticated ROP lab – ROPgadget
Creating our vulnerable C program without disabling protections
No PIE for you – compiling your vulnerable executable without ASLR ha
rdening
Generating a ROP chain
Getting hands-on with the return-to-PLT attack
Extracting gadget information for building your payload
Finding the .bss address
Finding  a pop pop ret structure
Finding addresses for system@plt and strcpy@plt functions
Finding target characters in memory with ROPgadget and Python
Go, go, gadget ROP chain – bringing it together for the exploit
Finding the offset to return with gdb
Writing the Python exploit
Summary
Questions
Further reading

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||||||||||||||||||||

12. Fuzzing Techniques

Technical requirements
Network fuzzing – mutation fuzzing with Taof proxying
Configuring the Taof proxy to target the remote service
Fuzzing by proxy – generating legitimate traffic
Hands-on fuzzing with Kali and Python
Picking up where Taof left off with Python – fuzzing the vulnerable FTP ser
ver
The other side – fuzzing a vulnerable FTP client
Writing a bare-bones FTP fuzzer service in Python
Crashing the target with the Python fuzzer
Fuzzy registers – the low-level perspective
Calculating the EIP offset with the Metasploit toolset
Shellcode algebra – turning the fuzzing data into an exploit
Summary
Questions
Further reading

||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||

13. Going Beyond the Foothold

Technical requirements
Gathering goodies – enumeration with post modules
ARP enumeration with meterpreter
Forensic analysis with meterpreter – stealing deleted files
Privileges enumeration with meterpreter
Internet Explorer enumeration – discovering internal web resources
Network pivoting with Metasploit
Just a quick review of subnetting
Launching Metasploit into the hidden network with autoroute
Escalating your pivot – passing attacks down the line
Extracting credentials with hashdump
Quit stalling and pass the hash – exploiting password equivalents in Window
s
Summary
Questions
Further reading

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||||||||||||||||||||

14. Taking PowerShell to the Next Level

Technical requirements
Power to the shell – PowerShell fundamentals
What is PowerShell?
PowerShell's own cmdlets and PowerShell scripting language
Working with the registry
Pipelines and loops in PowerShell
It gets better – PowerShell's ISE
Post-exploitation with PowerShell
ICMP enumeration from a pivot point with PowerShell
PowerShell as a TCP-connect port scanner
Delivering a Trojan to your target via PowerShell
Offensive PowerShell – introducing the Empire framework
Installing and introducing PowerShell Empire
Configuring listeners
Configuring stagers
Your inside guy – working with agents
Configuring a module for agent tasking
Summary
Questions
Further reading

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||||||||||||||||||||

15. Escalating Privileges

Technical requirements
Climb the ladder with Armitage
Named pipes and security contexts
Impersonating the security context of a pipe client
Superfluous pipes and pipe creation race conditions
Moving past the foothold with Armitage
Armitage pivoting
When the easy way fails—local exploits
Kernel pool overflow and the danger of data types
Let's get lazy – Schlamperei privilege escalation on Windows 7
Escalation with WMIC and PS Empire
Quietly spawning processes with WMIC
Create a PowerShell Empire agent with remote WMIC
Escalating your agent to SYSTEM via access token theft
Dancing in the shadows – looting domain controllers with vssadmin
Extracting the NTDS database and SYSTEM hive from a shadow copy
Exfiltration across the network with cifs
Password hash extraction with libesedb and ntdsxtract
Summary
Questions
Further reading

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Random documents with unrelated
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The head from the skulker’s shoulders, that to Etzel’s feet it leapt.
So when the Lord of Hunland came forth from the battle-wrack,
He turned him about, and at Volker he looked in amazement back—
“Woe’s me for the guests I have harboured! O day of sorrow and
bane
Wherein beneath their prowess all these my knights fall slain!
Woe’s me for my festal high-tide!” that king of nations said:
“Within there fighteth a warrior, Volker, a name of dread.
Like some wild boar he rageth—and a minstrel him they name!
Thank Heaven that safe from the talons of this foul fiend I came!
Doom rings and sings in his measures, red are the strokes of his
bow;
In his notes I hear the death-knell of many a knight laid low.
What hath the viol-minstrel against us know I not.
Never by guest such sorrow upon mine house was brought!”

(C) Straight to their harbourage went they, those noble warriors

twain,
Rüdiger, Lord of the Marches, and Dietrich, Bern’s great thane.
Themselves were steadfast-minded aloof from the quarrel to stay,
And they straitly commanded their vassals to have nought to do with
the fray.
(C) Yet had those guests had foreknowledge of the mischief hard by
the door,
To be wrought by those two heroes, which for them fate had in
store,
Verily not so lightly had they won that hall-way through
Ere those grim portal-keepers with the sword had smitten them too.

All whom they would had they suffered by this to pass from
within;
Then again brake forth in the feast-hall a yet more fearful din.
Grimly the guests avenged them for the broken troth and the wrong.
Ha, how were the helmets cloven by the arm of Volker the strong!
To the clash of that deadly music King Gunther turned him about—
“Hearst thou the tunes, O Hagen, that Volker beateth out
On the heads of the Huns, whosoever essay the door that he keeps?
Red are the strings of the viol whereover his swift bow leaps!”
“Sore is mine heart above measure for this thing,” Hagen replied,
“That in this hall-feast I am sundered afar from the good thane’s
side
Ever was I his comrade, and he true comrade to me.
We will dwell, if we win home ever, in love and loyalty.
Behold, Lord King, is Volker to thee not faithful-souled?
Nobly he earneth guerdon of thy silver and thy gold!
His viol-bow goeth cleaving the adamant steel in twain,
And the gemmed helm-crests are shattered and scattered in flashing
rain.
Never beheld I minstrel stand such a lord of the fray
As Volker the thane hath proved him on this his glory-day.
Hark, how through helm and shield-plate his measures clash and
gride!
He shall yet wear kingly raiment, and goodly steeds bestride.”

So fought they on, till of Hunfolk that in that hall had been
Through all its mist of slaughter no living man was seen.
There was none to fight, and the uproar was hushed, the tumult
died.
From their hands the aweless heroes laid now their swords aside.
 XXXIV.
How they cast forth the Dead
Then sat them down the warriors to rest them toil-forspent.
But forth of the feast-hall doorway Volker and Hagen went;
And leaning upon their bucklers, as in scorn of foes without,
Spake they together, casting at the Hunfolk gibe and flout.
Then cried the Prince Burgundian, Giselher the thane:
“We may not, O friends belovèd, resting longer remain.
We must needs first hale the corpses forth of the palace-hall;
For our foes, I say of a surety, again upon us will fall.
Nowise it befitteth that longer clogging our feet they lie.
Ere the foe in the storm of battle from us wrest victory,
Deep wounds will we hew full many, and sweet is the thought unto
me;
Yea, my heart is set on the war-feast,” said Giselher, “steadfastly.”
“Glad am I that such a war-lord I have!” cried Hagen the grim.
“This counsel well beseemeth no meaner knight than him,
But such an one as the young Prince hath proved him to-day in your
sight:
And for this, O thanes Burgundian, blithe be your hearts and light!”

Then did they after his counsel, and out through the door they
drew
Seven thousand slain men’s corpses, and forth of the palace threw.
Afront of the steps they hurled them adown to the court below.
Then wailed from the friends of the slaughtered lamentation and
mourning and woe.
There was many a man among them whose hurts were not so sore,
But that soon, had he gentle tendance, he were whole again as
before,
Who yet found death all swiftly, hurled from that cruel height.
Loudly their kin lamented who saw that pitiful sight.
 Then shouted the viol-minstrel, the champion dauntless-souled:
“Now well do I see how truly the tale unto me was told
That this is a land of cravens: like women they wail, these Huns,
They who should now be tending the battle-stricken ones!”
Then it seemed to a lord of the marches that he spake not in
scoffing mood;
And that same lord had a kinsman there fallen in his blood;
And he thought from the carnage to bear him, and his arms around
him he threw;
But the minstrel with a javelin hurled at him, and slew.
Then back from the stairway fled they who in hope had been
drawing near,
Cursing the viol-minstrel in the impotent fury of fear.
Then caught up Volker a javelin, stubborn-shafted and keen:
Shot by one of the Hunfolk against himself had it been.
Across the court he sped it, putting his might to the cast,
That it flew o’er their heads fierce-singing; and Etzel’s men were
aghast,
As he warned them to safer standing, from the hall-door far away.
At his matchless might all people were thrilled with sore dismay.

Before that hall with Etzel in thousands the Hunfolk stood.

And now did Volker and Hagen in scornful-reckless mood
Set them to gall the Hun-king, and with bitter taunts to defy.
Ere long grim retribution on the heroes came thereby.
“It were well,” cried Hagen, “to hearten the folk in the evil day,
That the lords of the land should battle in the forefront of the fray,
Even as this day battle those true men, even my lords:
They hew the helmets asunder, blood flieth to meet their swords.”

No battle-blencher was Etzel: he grasped in wrath and pride

His shield—“Risk not at their bidding thine own life!” Kriemhild cried.
“Nay, offer thy shield gold-brimming for a champion of thy war-band.
If thou close with yonder Hagen, death standeth at thy right hand.”
Yet the King was a knight so fearless that he would not refrain from
the strife—
Sooth, now such mighty princes more dearly tender their life!—
Their lord from the fray by his shield-band his servants needs must
hale.
Then with grim laughter Hagen again at the King ’gan rail:
“Good sooth, ’tis a far-away kinship,” he cried with bitter jeer,
“That hath drawn this Etzel and Siegfried each unto other so near!
He wantoned with yonder Kriemhild or ever she looked on thee!
What ho, King Etzel the craven, what grudge hast thou against me?”

In the ears of the great Queen tingled the scoffer’s every word:
Black grew the heart of Kriemhild at the thought that his taunt was
heard
Of all those vassals of Etzel, when he dared to make her a jest;
And she set her once more to enkindle her champions against that
guest.
She cried: “Whosoever will smite me yon Hagen of Troneg dead,
And bring for a trophy hither and cast at my feet his head,
For him the shield of Etzel will I fill with gold to the brim,
Yea also, castles for guerdon and land will I give unto him.”
“I wot not why these falter,” the viol-minstrel said.
“Never have I seen heroes stand so sorely adread,
When offered in all men’s hearing is all that wealth of gold.
Of a truth, never more will Etzel unto these be gracious-souled.
These things of shame and scorning, on the bread of the King they
feed,
And behold, they now forsake him in the stress of his sorest need!
Of such I behold full many: utterly cowed are they—
And they name them heroes!—branded are they with contempt for
aye!”

(C) The heart of Etzel the mighty was shaken with grief and
groan:
For his kin and his perished liegemen did he make bitter moan.
From many a land around him stood knights on every side,
And wept with the King for the sorrow of that heavy festal tide.
(C) Once more the aweless Volker set him to gibe and jeer:
“Warriors I see full many with false tears weeping here;
But little do they for the helping of their king in his evil case.
They eat the bread of their master to their shame and confusion of
face!”
(C) And their best in their hearts acknowledged, “That Volker saith is
truth.”
And of all that throng was no man more stung with shame and ruth
Than Iring, Lord of the Marches, a knight from the land of the Dane;
And in sooth in no long season he proved it in battle-strain.
 XXXV.
How Iring fought and died
Then shouted the Margrave Iring, the lord of the Danefolk’s land:
“Ever on quest of honour have I set mine heart and hand,
And have done my best endeavour where surges of fight tossed
high.
Bring me mine harness! My prowess against yon Hagen I try.”
“Thou shalt do it to thy destruction!” did Hagen scornfully say.
“Thou shouldst better bid these Hunfolk to shrink yet farther away.
Though twain, yea, three of you rushing essay to win this hall,
Back grievously hurt will I send them; adown this stair shall they
fall.”
“Not for thy threats I refrain me!” cried Iring with shining eyes.
“Full oft ere this have I ventured on as perilous emprise.
Alone will I withstand thee, and not with words, but the sword.
What care I for all thy vaunting, O thou tongue-valiant lord?”

Then with speed was the good thane Iring sheathed in knightly
mail
And Irnfried of Thuringia, a heart unused to quail,
And Hawart the strong, with a thousand warriors in battle-array,
Stood eager to go where Iring the hero led the way.
Then looked the viol-minstrel, and beheld that huge war-band
That would press on after Iring, armed all with shield and brand,
And upon their heads had they settled and laced the helmets bright.
Then was the valiant Volker exceeding wroth at the sight.
“Seest thou, friend Hagen,” he shouted, “how Iring cometh on,
He that but now made proffer to meet thee in battle alone?
Is it seemly that heroes be liars? contempt upon such I pour.
Lo, armed at his side come onward a thousand knights or more!”

“Liar me thou no liars!” Hawart’s liegeman replied.

“Unto you did I give a promise, and by that will I abide.
My word shall not be broken for any craven fear!
Be Hagen never so grimly, alone will I meet him here.”
Thereat did Iring bow him at his friends’ and liegemen’s feet:
“Suffer ye me unholpen,” he said, “yon knight to meet.”
Right sorely loth they consented, for known to them well was the
might
Of Hagen the Burgundian, the overweening knight.
So long did he entreat them that at last they needs must yield.
When his friends and his faithful vassals beheld him steadfast-willed,
And marked how he thirsted for honour, at the last they let him go.
Then did begin a grapple most grim ’twixt foe and foe.

Iring the knight of Daneland a casting-spear upswung;

For a fence of his breast the hero his shield before him flung:
Swift to the meeting with Hagen to the door of the hall he sprang;
Then burst forth ’twixt those champions a mighty battle-clang.
The hands of the twain, ere they grappled, sped the javelins’ flight:
They pierced through the strong-knit bucklers, they rang on the
hauberks bright,
That high above their helmets the splintered spear-staves flew;
And swiftly the two grim warriors their swords from the scabbards
drew.
Measureless might had Hagen the dauntless above all men;
Yet starkly did Iring smite him, that the castle rang again:
Through the halls and the towers of the palace did their blows’ wild
echoes thrill.
Yet the Dane with his uttermost striving might compass not his will.

So Iring turned him from Hagen, who was woundless yet of his
blows,
And now with the viol-minstrel in conflict did he close.
He weened, as he hailed grim sword-strokes, he should smite his
foeman down;
But of fence exceeding cunning was that champion of renown.
So starkly smote the minstrel, that the studs were whirled through
the air
By Volker’s strong hand stricken from the shield that Iring bare.
So he left him standing unwounded, for a terrible foe was he:
Then turned he, and leapt upon Gunther, the Lord of Burgundy.
So champion clashed with champion, giants in battle-might,
Gunther and Iring, and starkly each the other they smite;
Yet neither could redden the armour of other with gushing blood,
For the strong-knit links of the harness the edge of the steel
withstood.

From Gunther he swiftly hath turned him, and now upon Gernot
he springs;
He smiteth his mail, and he heweth flashes of flame from the rings.
But Gernot the lord Burgundian with such stark fury fought,
That to death’s sheer brink his prowess the valiant Iring brought.
But he sprang from the Prince—as a panther’s swift was the leap of
the thane—
And four good knights Burgundian with four great strokes hath he
slain;
In the noble host of the vassals from Worms over Rhine they came.
Never ere then so hotly did the wrath of Giselher flame.
“By the living God, Sir Iring,” the young prince Giselher cried,
“Unto me shalt thou make atonement for these that here have died
Even now by thy battle-brand stricken!” He leapt upon his foe,
And he lashed with a stroke so mighty that the Dane reeled back
from the blow:
As hurled from the hands of the smiter, backward he fell in blood,
That it seemed unto all beholders that the warrior stalwart and good
Should never strike in battle another stroke of brand:
Yet Iring the while unwounded lay of Giselher’s hand.
In sooth, so rang his helmet, so clashed the sword on his head,
That stunned he lay, and his senses awhile were utterly fled;
And indeed for a space he knew not whether he yet lived on.
Even this unto him had the prowess of valiant Giselher done.
 When he came to himself, and out of the darkness his soul awoke
From the swoon wherein it had sunken at the falling of that great
stroke,
Then thought he: “Behold, I am living! Moreover, wound have I
none.
Now know I Giselher’s prowess, the might of the valiant one!”
Around him the feet of the foemen he heard, as they moved to and
fro.
Had they known that he lived, right swiftly had they ended him, I
trow!
The voice of Giselher heard he withal as he stood hard by;
And he pondered how from the foemen that ringed him round he
should fly.

From the blood like a very madman upsprang to his feet the
knight—
Well might he thank his fleetness for speeding thence his flight!
As out through the door he darted, lo, there did Hagen stand,
And the Dane hailed blows upon him with swift and sudden hand.
Then Hagen thought: “Thou art surely now in the clutches of death!
Except the Foul Fiend help thee, thou drawest thy latest breath!”
Yet indeed had he wounded Hagen with a stroke through his helm
that clave:
That deed had he done with Waske, a mighty battle-glaive.
When Hagen the grim-hearted of the wound so dealt was ware,
In his grip with tenfold fury his war-glaive hissed through the air
In such wise that Hawart’s liegeman must needs give back from his
face,
And Hagen, as down the stairway he fled, still held him in chase.
Over his head his buckler he swung up, Iring the strong,
To screen him: yet had the stairway been even thrice so long,
No time had Hagen left him to strike one stroke of sword.
Ha, how the red sparks streaming from his ringing helmet poured!

Yet back unto friends and kinsmen unwounded Iring returned;

And so soon as the Lady Kriemhild the wondrous tidings learned
How against Hagen of Troneg her champion had borne him in fight,
For this that Daughter of Princes poured forth her thanks to the
knight:
“Now God reward thee, Iring, thou thane renowned and bold!
To mine heart hast thou brought comfort, and made me joyful-
souled.
Lo, I see on the battle-harness of Hagen a bloody stain!”
And for joy took Kriemhild the buckler herself from the hand of the
thane.
“Small cause wilt thou have to thank him,” cried Hagen in fierce
disdain:
“Let but thy valorous champion essay the deed again;
If alive he win back ever, a hero indeed shall he be;
And as for the wound he hath dealt me, small joy shall it be unto
thee!
For the little scratch I have gotten that mine harness reddeneth,
It hath but enkindled my fury unto many a warrior’s death:
Against the liegeman of Hawart mine anger it doth but whet.
Small scathe thy champion Iring hath done unto Hagen yet!”

For a space in the breeze fresh-blowing stood Iring of Danish land:

He cooled his limbs in his harness, he loosed his helmet-band.
All round him the folk stood praising his might and his chivalry,
And the heart of the Lord of the Marches thereat beat proud and
high.
Then once again spake Iring: “Good friends, I pray you go
And bring new arms: I am purposed again to essay yon foe,
If I haply may still the boaster, and abase the arrogant head.”
Sore hacked was his shield, but a better they gave him in its stead.

Soon stood the knight full-armoured in stronger warrior-gear:

He grasped in his battle-fury a stubborn-shafted spear,
And he set his face unto Hagen to defy him to fight once more;
Then leapt to meet him the hatred of that murder-wolf of war.
For Hagen the thane would wait not for the coming of Iring’s feet,
But hurling javelins before him he sprang his foe to meet
Down all the length of the stairway: his fury was passing great.
Ah, little did Iring’s prowess avail in the hour of fate!
As the swords hewed through the bucklers, it was as a fierce wind
blew
The sparks of a burning forest. Then Hawart’s liegeman true
Gat from the sword of Hagen a wound that bit to the brain
Crashing through buckler and helmet—he was never whole again.
When ware was the good knight Iring of the bite of the sword-edge
keen,
Higher he swung his buckler his rifted helm to screen.
He weened that in that grim sword-gash he had gotten scathe
enow;
But Gunther’s liegeman dealt him a yet more deadly blow:
For Hagen caught at a javelin that lay at his feet on the ground;
At the Daneland hero he hurled it, and his shieldless face it found,
And lo, the quivering spear-shaft stood out from his head behind.
From the hand of Hagen the mighty a grim end did he find.
Back to the ranks of his people staggered the fainting Dane;
But ere they could raise the helmet from the piercèd head of the
thane,
They must needs draw out the spear-shaft:—death’s hand upon him
lay,
And his friends brake forth into weeping: good cause to weep had
they!

Then Kriemhild, Daughter of Princes, to the stricken man drew

nigh,
And she cried over Iring the stalwart an exceeding bitter cry;
Over his wounds sore wept she: her heart was wrung with grief.
Then spake in his kinsmen’s presence that battle-fearless chief:
“Forbear thy lamentation, O Lady royal-born.
What now availeth thy weeping? My life from my limbs is torn:
Out through the wounds I have gotten it fleeteth fast away.
Death putteth an end to my service of Etzel and thee this day.”
Unto Dane he turned and Thuringian, and bespake that warrior-
band:
“The gifts that the Queen hath proffered, take heed that no man’s
hand
Be tempted to earn that guerdon of the shining gold and red;
For if ye encounter Hagen, ye shall look on the place of the dead.”

Bloodless-grey was his visage: the tokens of death showed plain

On the brow of the valiant Iring. Their hearts were wrung with pain
For Hawart’s hero-vassal, brave heart for ever stilled!
Then a sudden fury of battle the Danemark warriors thrilled.
On charged they, Irnfried and Hawart: they leapt to the guarded
door,
And a thousand heroes followed. Then roar on shattering roar
Rang round in crashing echoes unearthly wild and high.
What hail of massy javelins did against the Burgundians fly!

Full on the viol-minstrel did Irnfried the dauntless run,

But bitter scathe his daring from the hand of Volker won;
For he dealt, that noble minstrel, the landgrave such a blow
That it cleft through the firm-knit helmet—in sooth was he grim
enow!
Wounded to death, yet Irnfried smote one mighty stroke,
And the sword through the rings of the hauberk on the breast of the
minstrel broke,
And over his mail fell flashing the links in a fiery rain:—
But now was he sped, and the landgrave fell, by the minstrel slain.

Man against man clashed Hagen and Hawart in grapple of fight;

A tale might he tell of wonders who had looked upon that sight.
Like lashing rain fell swordstrokes from either hero’s hand,
Till slain was the death-doomed Hawart by him of Burgundia-land.
When Danefolk and Thuringians beheld how their lords were slain,
Maddened afront of the palace yet grimmer battle-strain,
As they struggled with mighty hand-strokes to win that portal
through,
And through many a shield and helmet did the flashing steel-edge
hew.
 “Give back from the door,” cried Volker, “and let these enter in!
Ha, but the prize that they look for not a man of them all shall win!
One and all shall they perish—ay, and that full soon.
With death shall they earn their guerdon, Queen Kriemhild’s golden
boon!”
Into the hall of slaughter those men high-hearted pressed,
But soon did many a warrior stoop to the earth his crest.
Fast, fast by the lightning sword-strokes of its warders were they
slain.
Well fought the dauntless Gernot, well Giselher the thane.
Into the great hall thronged they, a thousand men and four;
Then flashed and flickered above them the dancing glaives of war,
Till at last by the grim guests slaughtered one and all they lay.
Well may bards sing the wonders of Burgundia’s vengeance-day!

Then suddenly died the tumult, there was silence in that hall,
Save the sound of the blood-streams pouring through the channels
in the wall
And rushing without down the rain-shutes, the blood of knightly foes
Slain by the men of Rhineland with their swords’ resistless blows.
Then sat them down war-weary the sons of Burgundia-land:
Dropped was the massy buckler and the sword from the red right
hand.
Yet standing before the doorway did the valiant minstrel stay,
And watched, if haply a foeman would yet draw near for the fray.

Sorely the King lamented, and the Queen, with bitter cry;
Sisters and wives were wailing in bereavement’s agony.
Ah, death, I ween, full surely against them an oath had sworn,
For many a warrior’s life-thread by the guests was yet to be shorn.
 XXXVI.
How the Queen bade set fire to the Hall
“Unlace ye now your helmets,” spake Hagen Troneg’s lord.
“I and my comrade Volker will again keep watch and ward;
And if yon vassals of Etzel once more the onset essay,
Straightway will I warn my masters with all the speed I may.”
Then loosed was the band of his helmet by many a warrior good;
And they sat them down on the corpses that lay there in their blood,
Which had come by the hands Burgundian to their death, and
cumbered the floor,
The while with bitter hatred the Hunfolk scowled at the door.

Ere the evening shadows had fallen, the King by hest and prayer,
With Kriemhild the Queen, had persuaded that with hope of fortune
fair
The Huns should essay the onset again: in huge array
They stood, full twenty thousand in ordered ranks for the fray.
Then a wilder battle-tempest against the King’s guests swept.
Dankwart, the brother of Hagen, the mighty warrior, leapt
From beside his lords to the foemen to meet them afront of the hall.
They deemed him verily death-doomed, yet scatheless he won
through all.
Long lasted that stubborn conflict till the shadows darkened down;
And the guests still stood unflinching like heroes of renown
Against the hosts of Etzel through that long summer day.
Ha, what unnumbered heroes in death before them lay!

In the fair midsummer season was that mighty murder wrought,

When Kriemhild for her heart’s anguish revenge so dearly bought
On her own nearest kinsfolk and on many guiltless men,
By reason whereof King Etzel knew never joy again.
(C) But so grim and great a murder had she purposed not at the
first:
Nay, in the strife’s beginning one thought in her breast she nursed,
That Hagen alone by her vengeance to a bloody end should come:—
But therein was the Foul Fiend working to fashion for all one doom.

The day was past: the heroes were now in evil strait.
Weary and famished, it seemed them swift death were a better fate
Than long to linger in torment of hunger and thirst and pain.
Wherefore the knights high-hearted for a truce with their foes were
fain.
They asked that the King might meet them before the feast-hall
door.
Then the heroes with armour-soilure blackened, and red with gore,
Strode forth of the hall, and amidst them stood the Princes three:
But their haggard eyes found nowhere one glance of sympathy.

And now stand Etzel and Kriemhild that place of death before—
Theirs is the whole land, therefore waxeth their host evermore—
Then spake the King to the King’s guests: “Say, what would ye of
me?
Haply for peace ye petition? Hardly this may be
After the wrongs ye have done me, and your ruthless work of death.
Ye shall not in any wise win it so long as I draw breath.
My child whom ye have murdered, and all my friends laid low—
Look ye for peace and forgiveness for these? In sooth, not so!”

“Enforced,” made answer Gunther, “were we by a grievous wrong.

Within their lodging murdered were all mine henchman-throng,
Murdered by thine own heroes!—whereby had I earned such meed?
I came to thee trustful-hearted, I held thee a friend indeed!”
Then spake of the Princes Burgundian the youngest, Giselher:
“Ye warriors of King Etzel which be yet alive, give ear.
What have ye against me, heroes? What have I done unto you,
I, who to this land journeyed with loving heart and true?”
“Thy love!” they replied: “our castles are filled by reason thereof
With mourning, and all our country! We well could have spared thy
love,
Hadst thou never journeyed hither from Worms beyond the Rhine!
The whole land lieth orphaned through thee and those brethren of
thine!”

Then in mighty indignation Gunther the hero cried:

“Would ye suffer this deadly hatred even now to be laid aside
In peace with the homeless warriors, for us and for you it were well.
For no guilt of ours is the anger of Etzel the King so fell.”
The King to the guests gave answer: “Not yet made equal they are,
Your sufferings and Etzel’s—the bitter travail of war,
The scathe and the deadly insult that ye have loaded on me—
For these no man of you living cometh forth into liberty!”

To the King made answer Gernot the stalwart and valorous:

“At the least may God incline thee to do one grace unto us:
Slay us indeed, the homeless; but let us forth unto you
From this prison into the open: for your honour this should ye do.
Whatsoever then may betide us, be it quickly over and done.
Ye have hosts of men unwounded: if they dare one and all set on,
They shall give to the battle-weary death and a soon-won rest.
How long shall we knights linger thus grievously distressed?”

Now the warriors of King Etzel would lightly have done them the
grace
That the heroes forth of the feast-hall should come to the open
space.
But so soon as Kriemhild heard it, in anguish of wrath she cried
Against it; and unto the homeless was this last boon denied.
“Nay, noble knights,” she pleaded, “the thing ye incline unto
Ye never will grant, if ye hearken to faithful counsel and true,
To let these murder-lusters set foot forth of the hall!
If ye do it, many your kinsmen in the pit of death shall fall.
If only three were living, my brethren, Uta’s sons,
And to free air of heaven came forth those mighty ones,
To cool their scalding harness, ye were lost!—not lightly I warn;
For verily braver heroes on earth were never born.”

Spake Giselher the young Prince: “O fairest sister mine,

In an evil hour did I trust thee, at whose word I passed over Rhine
A bidden guest to thy country—nay rather to this sore strait!
What have I done to the Hunfolk to earn me this evil fate?
Unto thee have I kept troth ever; never I wronged thee in aught.
Unto Etzel’s palace riding I came with this one thought
That to me thou wert loving-hearted, O sister cherished of me.
Now show unto us thy mercy: ah, surely so it must be!”

“I show unto you no mercy: no mercy to me was shown!

Unto me hath Hagen of Troneg foul wrong and ruthless done,
And for this is there no atonement, so long as I yet have life;
And for this must ye all pay forfeit!” So spake King Etzel’s wife.
“Yet—yet if Hagen only for hostage to me ye give,
Not utterly will I deny you, I will haply let you live,
Forasmuch as ye be my brethren; sons of my mother ye are:
So will I commune of pardon with these my men of war.”

“Now God in Heaven forbid it!” Gernot indignantly cried.

“Though yet we numbered a thousand, we would all die side by side
—
We who are yet thy kinsmen!—ere one man of us all
Shall be rendered up for a hostage: that shame shall never befall.”
“So then we must needs all perish,” did the young Prince Giselher
say;
“Yet none shall hinder our dying like knights in our war-array.
If any be fain to fight us, ready here we stand.
No friend I forsake, betraying the troth of my right hand!”
Then spake the valiant Dankwart; in the word was his true heart
shown:
“Verily Hagen my brother standeth not here alone.
We asked of them peace: their denial thereof shall work them woe!
Yea, by my troth, to their sorrow they yet shall find it so.”
 Then spake that Daughter of Princes: “O heroes valiant and strong
Go forward unto the stairway, and avenge us of our wrong;
And to you will I aye be beholden, even as is meet and right,
And the insolent outrage of Hagen will I to the full requite.
Let none of all their warriors tarry without the door;
And I will cause yon feast-hall to be fired at its corners four:
So shall I have meet vengeance for all mine anguish of heart!”
Swiftly the warriors of Etzel set them to play their part.
Them that without were standing they drave back through the door
With swords and with hail of javelins: loud rang the battle-roar.
Yet in all that stress the princes and liegemen were sundered not:
From loyal faith to each other never they swerved one jot.

Then the wife of Etzel commanded to set the hall aflame.

Now on the heroes the torment of a fiery furnace came.
The house was enwrapped in the leaping flames by a great wind
blown.
Never, I ween, such anguish by a leaguered host was known!
Within were there voices crying: “Woe’s me for this horror of pain!
Better that dead we were lying in the storm of battle slain!
God upon us have mercy!—how utterly are we lost!
Grimly the Queen is wreaking her vengeance on all this host!”
Cried a voice yet again through the hot reek: “Here must we meet
our doom!
Unto such a festal high-tide did the false King bid us come?
Thirst in this flaming furnace so sore tormenteth me,
That fainteth my life and faileth in this mine agony!”

Then shouted Hagen of Troneg: “O noble knights and good,

Whoso by thirst is tormented, here let him drink of the blood.
In heat thus fiercely scorching better than wine it is:
In this our strait moreover may we find none better than this.”
Then a certain knight which heard him went unto one of the dead;
He bowed him down to the death-gash, he loosed the helm from his
head;
He drank of the blood fresh-flowing, and deep and long he quaffed
Of a cup theretofore untasted, and sweet to his lips was the
draught.
“God guerdon thee, Lord Hagen,” the weary warrior cried,
“For this good drink I have gotten, who took thy counsel for guide!
Never hath cupbearer poured me more soul-refreshing wine.
So long as I live am I bounden to thee for this rede of thine.”
Now when his fellows heard it, that counsel seemed them good,
And behold, there was many another that likewise drank of the
blood:
Therefrom in the frames of the warriors was strength and life
renewed;
By many a wife on the morrow in the death of her lord was it rued.

From the roof great fragments flaming fell heavily all round;
But their heads with the shields they warded, and dashed the brands
to the ground.
The rolling smoke and the scorching tormented them full sore:
Never, I ween, unto heroes befell such pain before.
Then again spake Hagen of Troneg: “Stand ye close to the wall:
Suffer ye not the firebrands on your helmet-bands to fall,
But beneath your feet do ye trample and quench in blood the flame.
Unto an evil high-tide at Kriemhild’s bidding we came!”

Amid such tribulation the night drew on to an end.

And ever the valiant minstrel kept guard with Hagen his friend,
Before the palace-portal on his shield-rim resting a hand,
Aye watching against new onslaughts from the men of Etzel’s land.
(C) Much it advantaged the heroes that the hall was vaulted o’er:
By reason thereof, in the morning there lived so many the more.
Albeit on them at the windows more hotly the flame-tongues played,
Unflinching did they withstand them as valour and honour bade.

Then spake the viol-minstrel: “Now go we into the hall.

These Huns shall deem peradventure that their enemies one and all
Be dead through the fiery torment wherewith we have been beset;
But I ween there be some that in grapple of fight shall close with
them yet.”
Then of the Princes Burgundian the youngest, Giselher, spake:
“Lo now, a cold wind riseth: the day shall, I trow, soon break.
May God in Heaven vouchsafe us that a happier day may dawn!
To an ill high-tide by the bidding of my sister were we drawn!”
Spake after a space another: “Now I discern the day.
Then, seeing nought else remaineth, and for us there is but one
way,
E’en make you ready, my masters, as needeth to be done.
At the least will we die with honour, seeing escape is none.”

Now thought, as he well might, Etzel that the guests by this were
dead,
Forspent with battle-travail and with flames encompassèd;
Yet there six hundred warriors still dauntless stood at bay.
No king on earth had ever better knights than they.
Now the watchers that spied on the strangers full well by this were
ware
That many a guest was living, what grievous scathe soe’er
And torment had been suffered by the kings and their warrior-band.
They beheld in the blackened feast-hall a goodly company stand.
Then one brought word unto Kriemhild that yet lived many a foe.
“Nay,” cried the Queen in amazement, “never can this be so—
Never, that one man living through such a fire could come!
Nay, I must needs think rather that all have found one doom.”

Full fain would Princes and liegemen yet have been spared to live,
Had any been moved by mercy that boon at the last to give.
There was none: they could find no daysman in all the Hunfolk’s
land:
Therefore did they for their slaying avenge them with willing hand.
A sudden greeting received they in the first of the morning-red,
Even a furious onslaught, that the heroes were hardly bestead.
With javelins flying before it rolled up that battle-flood;
Yet ever the knights unquailing with ranks unbroken stood.
 Now were the hosts of Etzel high-wrought and eager-souled,
For they looked to win the guerdon of Kriemhild’s lavished gold;
And they burned to prove them loyal in fulfilling their King’s
command—
But for many an one doom waited, swift death was hard at hand.
Of her gifts and her promises marvels now might the minstrel sing.
She bade men bear upon bucklers the gold bright-glittering;
And on all that desired and would take it freely did she bestow.
Never was wealth so lavished to spur men against a foe.

So a mighty array of warriors all-armed to the door drew near.

Then cried the viol-minstrel: “O yea, yet are we here!
Never so gladly beheld I heroes come to the fight
As these which have taken the treasure of the King to do us
despite.”
Then many a stern voice shouted: “Ye heroes, come more nigh!
Make ye an end of us quickly, seeing we needs must die!
Here shall ye find none waiting save them whom death is to win!”
Soon were the bucklers heavy with the spears that quivered therein.

What shall I more say?—hundreds twelve, with toil and strain

Of mightiest sword-strokes battled to break through once and again;
But with gaping wounds the defenders cooled their fiery mood.
By none could their strife be parted: rushed in torrents the blood
Out of the death-deep gashes: fast, fast men fell and died.
Lamentation for dear friends perished shrieked up on every side.
So fought they, till all those champions of Etzel the mighty fell,
And nought was heard but the wailing of them that loved them well.
 XXXVII.
How the Margrave Rüdiger was slain
That morn had the homeless heroes like battling giants warred.
And now came into the courtyard of the palace Gotlind’s lord;
And he saw what fearful havoc had been wrought unto Hun and to
guest.
Wept Rüdiger the true-hearted with sorrow-burdened breast.
“Alas and alas,” cried the hero, “that I live this day to see!
And none can now put an ending to this calamity!
Fain would I make reconcilement, but now no word of peace
Will the King hear, seeing that ever doth the mischief done him
increase.”
Then Rüdiger the noble sent unto Dietrich of Bern,
If perchance some little relenting he might win from Etzel the stern.
But the Lord of Bern sent answer: “The doom who now may stay?
No man will King Etzel suffer to stand between him and the prey.”

Then a certain man of the Hunfolk saw Rüdiger making dole

With weeping eyes; for long time had he stood there bitter of soul.
And spake to the Queen that scorner: “Behold him idly stand
Whom Etzel and thou have exalted above all else in the land!
Lordships he hath and vassals; to him all minister.
Wherefore be castles so many committed to Rüdiger,
Those stately towers that he holdeth now of the King our Lord?
No knightly blow hath he stricken in this war-storm with his sword.
Meseemeth he recketh little what here unto us may betide,
So himself be full of substance and his greed be satisfied.
Men vaunt him a champion braver than any in all our array:
Little enow hath he proved it in this our evil day!”

In sorrow and wrath the hero, the man of the loyal heart,
Glared on the Hunnish mocker who hurled that slander-dart.
He thought: “For this thou payest! A craven am I, saidst thou?
In the presence of kings too loudly hast thou told thy story now!”
He clenched his fist in his anger; full on the scoffer he ran,
And with such might resistless he smote that Hunnish man,
That down to the earth he dashed him, and dead at his feet did he
lie.
But the sorrow of King Etzel was made but the more thereby.
“Away with thee, vile caitiff!” did the good knight Rüdiger cry.
“Trouble enow and anguish of soul before had I!
What hast thou to do to taunt me that here I have struck no blow?
Of a truth to hate yon strangers reason have I enow.
Yea, now were I striving against them to the uttermost of my might,
Were it not that I was escort hither to prince and knight.
Yea, it was I that convoyed them to my lord Etzel’s land;
Therefore I may not against them uplift my wretched hand.”
Then to the Lord of the Marches did Etzel the great King say:
“Rüdiger, noble hero, how hast thou helped us to-day?
Good sooth, in the land have perished more than enough of my folk:
No more murders are needed! Thou hast stricken an evil stroke.”
But the noble knight made answer: “He angered my spirit sore;
For he taunted me with mine honours and my wealth’s unstinted
store,
With the gifts that with hand ungrudging thou hast heaped upon
me, O King!
Of a truth to the reckless liar was his scoff an evil thing!”

Drew nigh that Daughter of Princes, which also had seen it done,
That deed which the hero’s anger had wrought on the hapless Hun.
Bitterly did she lament it, many a tear she shed;
And unto Rüdiger spake she: “Wherein have we merited
That to me and the King yet further thou shouldst multiply sorrow
and pain?
Thou hast, O Rüdiger, promised unto us, yea, once and again,
That thou wouldst venture thine honour, yea, and thy life for us.
Oft have I heard knights yield thee the prize of the valorous.
Of the oath-plight now I remind thee that thou swarest by thy right
hand,
When, chosen of knights, thou didst woo me to be queen of Etzel’s
land,
That thou wouldst render me service even to our life’s end.
Never—ah me all-hapless!—had I such need of a friend!”

“O Queen, no whit I deny it, an oath unto thee did I take

That my life and my very honour I would venture for thy sake.
But to peril my soul’s salvation!—that have I never sworn.
It was I that brought to this high-tide those princes nobly-born.”
“Rüdiger,” said she, “bethink thee of that thy plighted troth,
How that in all mine affliction—thou didst promise and seal it by
oath—
Aye wouldst thou be mine avenger, in my wrongs wouldst stand by
my side.”
Made answer the Lord of the Marches: “Never yet hath my word
been belied!”

Then did the great King Etzel set him withal to entreat;
And they knelt in supplication, they twain, at the hero’s feet.
Then was the noble Margrave ’neath a burden of sorrow bowed,
And the loyal knight in anguish of spirit cried aloud:
“Woe’s me, the God-forsaken, that I live to see this day!
All my manhood’s honour must I now cast away,
All loyal faith God-given, and all my knightly renown!
Ah God in Heaven, why rather may death not smite me down?
Which deed soever I turn from, to take the other on me,
I play the part of a traitor, I act all evilly.
Though I take the part of neither, still will the world cry shame.
Oh that He now would guide me, from whose fashioning hands I
came!”

They hung upon him so sorely, the King and Kriemhild his wife,
That doomed was many a warrior to cast away his life
By Rüdiger’s right hand smitten, yea, the hero’s self must die.
Now hearken ye to the story of the woe he won thereby.
Well knew he that scathe and sorrow unmixed should be all his gain.
Of a truth unto Etzel and Kriemhild had he denied full fain
Herein to fulfil their pleasure. A dark thought haunted his breast,
That the world would hold him accursèd if he slew one single guest.

Then spake once more unto Etzel that hero battle-bold:

“Lord King, take back, I pray thee, all things that of thee I hold,
My lordships and my castles—I will keep nor wealth nor lands.
Forth on my feet into exile will I fare with empty hands.
(C) Stripped bare of all my possessions thy land will I leave—to be
free!
Only my wife and my daughter will I lead by the hand with me.
I choose this, rather than passing to meet death perjured-souled.
In an evil hour to thy service did I bind me to earn thy gold!”
But answer made King Etzel: “Who then shall mine helper be?
Behold, thy land and thy vassals, all these I committed to thee
To the end that thou mightest avenge me on whoso should do me
despite.
Do this, and next unto Etzel shalt thou reign in kingly might.”

But Rüdiger made answer: “How can I do this thing?

Unto mine house I bade them with friendly welcoming,
With meats and with drinks love-lavished their feast did I array,
And I gave to them gifts at parting—shall I fall on them now and
slay?
What if the world misdeem me, and say that Rüdiger quailed?
At the least in all true service to them have I never failed.
If now I should fall upon them, that were a deed most vile.
I should sorely rue the friendship knit up with these erewhile.
I gave to wife my daughter unto Giselher the thane:
On earth no worthier bridegroom for my dear child could I gain,
Nor in knightly spirit nor honour, nor in faith, nor in this world’s
good.
Never was prince thus youthful so chivalrous of mood.”
 But again made answer Kriemhild: “O Rüdiger, noble chief,
Think also on us; have pity on all our wrongs and our grief,
Upon mine and my Lord King Etzel’s; yea, ponder well thereon.
No host in the wide world ever more pestilent guests hath won.”
Thereat unto Queen Kriemhild did the Lord of the Marches say:
“His life must be rendered in payment by Rüdiger this day
For all the kindness showed me of thee and my Lord the King.
For this must I die: remaineth no space for lingering.
This day I know of a surety my castles and my land
Shall be yielded up, shall be wrested from me by a foeman’s hand.
I commit to your lovingkindness my wife and my fatherless child,
And all mine household abiding in Bechlaren’s halls exiled.”
“Now God reward thee,” answered the King, “O Rüdiger!”—
Even he and the Lady Kriemhild, so glad at heart they were—
“The care of all thy people as a solemn trust we receive.
Yet, as I hope salvation, I look that thyself shalt live.”

So did he set on the hazard both soul and mortal life.

And now brake forth into weeping Kriemhild, Etzel’s wife.
But he said: “I must keep unbroken the oath that I sware unto thee.
Alas for you, friends! Sad-hearted I become your enemy!”
So from King Etzel’s presence he departed heavy of cheer;
And he looked, and behold, his warriors to their lord had now drawn
near.
And he cried: “Ye must forthwith arm you, all ye my faithful ones.
Woe’s me, I must needs do battle with Burgundia’s valiant sons!”
Straightway his warriors shouted, “Ho, bring my battle-gear!”
Then here might ye see a helmet, and a massy buckler here
Across the court borne swiftly by the squires for their lords to don.
Too soon were the evil tidings to the haughty strangers known!

Now Rüdiger stood full-armoured, with his five hundred men:

Twelve knights of Etzel’s war-band joined them withal to him then:
They thirsted to win them glory in the storm of the battle-strain—
But they knew not the end of the story, nor that death should be all
their gain.
Strode forward under helmet the Lord of the Marches there.
Battle-glaives keen-whetted the knights of Rüdiger bare:
Each man gripped by the arm-brace a broad shield burnished bright;
And the viol-minstrel beheld them, and his heart sank down at the
sight.

And behold, his fair bride’s father young Giselher saw come,
On his gallant head his helmet:—what should he divine therefrom
As touching the warrior’s purpose, but the help of a loyal ally?
And his soul went out to meet him, his heart with joy beat high.
“Thank God for such true friendship,” in gladness the young Prince
cried,
“As we won for our help in trouble, when we rode unto this high-
tide!
Now unto us deliverance for my young bride’s sake draws nigh.
By my faith, my heart rejoiceth that wedded to her am I!”
“On a broken reed thou leanest,” the viol-minstrel said.
“When sawest thou heroes so many with helmet laced on head
Draw near for reconcilement, and with swords made bare in the
hand?
Against us he cometh, to render service for castles and land.”

Or ever the viol-minstrel had fully spoken the word,

In front of the great hall-portal men saw that noble lord.
He set his goodly buckler on the earth before his feet,
And he looked on the friends he could help not, on the faces he
might not greet.
Then cried the noble Margrave to the hall, a cry of woe:
“O dauntless men of the Niblungs, now guard you against a foe!
Ye ought to have had mine helping—that debt will never be paid!
We were friends close-knit by troth-plight—to my troth am I
renegade!”
Then sorely aghast at his saying were the warriors hard-bestead.
Their joy for his coming withered, and hope at the birth fell dead.
This friend must battle against them, he whom they loved was their
foe!
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