Volume 9 / Act 5 — SCENE IV

Enter UTE softly.

UTE.

Already up, Kriemhild?

KRIEMHILD.

I am amazed That thou art up, for thou hast always slept More soundly after dawn and claimed thy right To have thy daughter wake thee, as thou her So long ago.

UTE.

Today I could not sleep, I heard strange sounds.

KRIEMHILD.

And didst thou mark them too?

UTE.

It was like people trying to be still.

KRIEMHILD.

So I was right?

UTE.

They seemed to hold their breath, Yet dropped a sword that clanged! On tiptoe walked, And yet upset the brazier! Hushed the dog, Yet trod upon his paw.

KRIEMHILD.

They have perhaps Returned.

UTE.

The hunters?

KRIEMHILD.

Once it seemed to me That some one softly crept up to my door. I thought it must be Siegfried. UTE. Didst thou make Some sign that thou wast wakeful?

KRIEMHILD.

No.

UTE.

Indeed It might then have been Siegfried, but 'twould be Almost too soon.

KRIEMHILD.

To me it seems so too! And then he did not knock.

UTE.

The hunt was not, Or so I think, to bring us game for food; They wanted our poor farmers to have peace, Who have been threatening to burn their ploughs Because the wild boar harvests where they sow!

KRIEMHILD.

Was that it?

UTE.

Child, thou art already dressed, Yet hast not any maid with thee?

KRIEMHILD.

I thought That I would learn who woke the first of all. Besides, it was a pastime.

UTE.

Each in turn, My candle in my hand, I gazed upon. For each year brings a different kind of sleep. Fifteen and sixteen sleep like five and six, But seventeen brings dreams, and eighteen, thoughts, And nineteen brings desires—