Then King Hettel answered: “To Hartmut I would not give,
For his bride, Gu-drun my daughter; for this he now doth strive
To waste with war my kingdom. I know his lands are holden
Of Hagen, her mother’s father; to woo her should his rank not him embolden.
[820]
“To our beleaguered foemen we nought of this must tell,
And to our friends but whisper the ills that us befell;
We then must call our kinsmen hither to be hasting.
Worse could never happen unto good knights at home, from warfare resting.”
[821]