Now thronged was many a casement with ladies lovely-eyed,
And a great wind lifted the galley as they shook the white sails wide.
So out on the Rhine they floated, those proud hearts, bound for the sea.
Then answered and spake King Gunther: “Our pilot, who shall he be?”
“Even that will I,” said Siegfried: “from hence on can I steer
Your ship on the flood, stout heroes; thereof have ye no fear;
For the printless paths of the waters unto me be throughly known.”
So are these from the land Burgundian with hearts exultant gone.
Then Siegfried set hand to a massy staff such as shipmen wield,
And the ship at his mighty thrusting out from the wharf-side reeled.