Then said Hagen the stark man, “It may well irk thy knights that he rideth hither as a foeman. Better had he refrained. My masters had never done the like by him.”
Brave Siegfried answered, “If thou like not my words, I will show thee here, in Burgundy, the deeds of my hand.”
“That I will hinder,” said Gernot, and he forbade to his knights their overweening words, for they irked him. Siegfried also thought on the noble maiden.
“Wherefore should we fight with thee?” said Gernot. “Though every knight lay dead thereby, small were our glory and little thine adventure.”
Whereto Siegfried, King Siegmund’s son, answered, “Why do Hagen and Ortwin hang back, and their friends, whereof they have enow in Burgundy?”
But these must needs hold their peace, as Gernot commanded them.
“Thou art welcome,” said Uta’s son; “thou and thy comrades that are with thee. We will serve thee gladly, I and my kinsmen.”
They let pour for them Gunther’s wine, and the host of that land, even Gunther the king, said, “All that is ours, and whatsoever thou mayest with honour desire, is thine to share with us, body and goods.”
Then Siegfried was milder of his mood.
What he and his men had with them was seen to; they gave Siegfried’s knights good quarters and fair lodging; and they rejoiced to see the stranger in Burgundy.