The drink-horn in hand,
What task awaits us still?
HAGEN
Gaily carouse
Until tamed by wine:
Drink, that the Gods, duly honoured,
Grace may accord to this marriage.
THE VASSALS
[Burst into ringing laughter.
Good luck and joy
Laugh on the Rhine,
If Hagen, the grim one,
So merrily jests!
To wedding-feasts
Hagen invites;
His prick the hedge-thorn,
Hagen, has lost!
HAGEN
[Who has remained very grave, has come down to the men, and now stands among them.
Now cease from laughing,
Doughty vassals!
Receive Gunther's bride;
Yonder come Brünnhild' and he.
[He points towards the Rhine. Some of the men hurry to the height; others range themselves on the shore to watch the arrival. Hagen goes up to some of the men.