dwelling. When the time which had been set drew near, Mimer,
bearing the sword Balmung, and followed by all his pupils
and apprentices, wended his way towards the place of
meeting. Through the forest they went, and then along the
banks of the sluggish river, for many a league, to the
height of land which marked the line between King Siegmund's
country and the country of the Burgundians. It was in this
place, midway between the shops of Mimer and Amilias, that
the great trial of metal and of skill was to be made. And
here were already gathered great numbers of people from the
Lowlands and from Burgundy, anxiously waiting for the coming
of the champions. On the one side were the wise old Siegmund
and his gentle queen, and their train of knights and
courtiers and fair ladies. On the other side were the three
Burgundian kings, Gunther, Gernot, and Giselher, and a
mighty retinue of warriors, led by grim old Hagen, the uncle
of the kings, and the wariest chief in all Rhineland.

When every thing was in readiness for the contest, Amilias,
clad in his boasted war-coat, went up to the top of the
hill, and sat upon a great rock, and waited for Mimer's
coming. As he sat there, he looked, to the people below,
like some great castle-tower; for he was almost a giant in
size, and his coat of mail, so skilfully wrought, was so
huge that twenty men of common mould might have found
shelter, or hidden themselves, within it. As the smith
Mimer, so dwarfish in stature, toiled up the steep hillside,
Amilias smiled to see him; for he felt no fear of the
slender, gleaming blade that was to try the metal of his
war-coat. And already a shout of expectant triumph went up