HKB
withdrawing it, and then he nimbly leaped into the next pit, followed by a rush of blood, and then through the next, and so on, till he reached safe ground.
When he went back to the first pit, he found the dragon writhing and groaning in its death agony. As soon as it saw him, it cried out, for it still retained the power of human speech:
"Oh! you unlucky one, the gold will prove your ruin as it has mine. A curse is on it. Who has it is accursed!"
Saying this, the creature died.
Then Siegfried carefully cleaned his sword, and replaced it in its sheath, and as he did so, he noticed some blood upon his hand. He licked it off, and no sooner had it touched his tongue, than a strange thing happened. He could understand everything which the birds overhead were saying. He stood still and listened, and what was his astonishment to find that they were actually talking to him!
One told him that Mimi was untrue to him, and was constantly plotting his death; that even at that very moment the dwarf was approaching with a poisoned drink which he would offer to Siegfried, so that he might not have to keep his promise of sharing the Rhine gold. The bird advised him to kill the dwarf.
Sure enough, at that very moment Mimi came forward, praising Siegfried's bravery, and offering him the poisoned drink in the most friendly manner, smiling deceitfully all the while. Our hero turned upon him in anger, and forced him to drain the cup himself, whereupon the wretched dwarf fell to earth, lifeless.
Then the birds told Siegfried to enter the dragon's cave, and get the ring and the tarnhelm, the possession of which would make him all-powerful. This he did, and then he rolled the dragon's enormous body to the entrance of the cave, where the Rhine gold still lay, and sealed up the entrance with it.
As he stood there, wondering what he should do next, he heard the birds singing of a mountain far away, where a maiden named Brunhilda lay in an enchanted sleep, surrounded by a ring of magic flames. Here she must slumber till there should appear a man strong and brave enough to dash through the flames and waken her with a kiss.
Siegfried determined to journey to the mountain. So he returned to the smithy, and saddled Mimi's horse, which was a strong, faithful creature, and then he rode away to seek the sleeping maiden.
Many days and nights he wandered, and at length, early one morning as he ascended the highlands, he saw a rosy glow in the distance, which grew ever brighter and brighter. "The rising sun," he said to himself, but he knew that it was not the rising sun. On and on he rode, and ever brighter and brighter grew the sky, until at length he came upon the flames themselves, and he knew that he had reached his journey's end.
V
THE STORY OF BRUNHILDA
AS SIEGFRIED drew nearer, he could hear the crackling of the flames, and when his horse saw the fire, the animal reared up on its hind legs, and snorted in terror. But Siegfried knew no fear. Putting spurs to his horse, he boldly forced it through the flames, and, lo! both horse and rider passed through unharmed.
Before Siegfried's eyes was a wondrous sight. On the mountain stood a castle, the strangest ever seen, for it was built entirely of green marble, as were all the buildings round it; and there, on the grassy slope before the castle, lay a young warrior, clad in shining armor, with a helmet on his head.