[474]
Then for love he kissed them, both those gray old men;
His eyes had never rested on so glad a sight as then,
Nor on a fairer pasture had fed, with longing fonder.
I ween that never to Hettel was aught so full of bliss and sudden wonder.
[475]
Then spake the aged Wâ-te: No harm to us was done;
But yet a sway so mighty I ne’er before have known,
As this that wild King Hagen over his lands now wieldeth:
His followers bear them proudly, and he himself in strength to no one yieldeth.