Oft thought he, “The life of the hero is well nigh reft by the maid!”
Had he but dared to essay it, he would fain have gone to his aid.
(C) Long, long between those wrestlers endured that desperate strife:
But he slowly at last bare backward to the couch that maiden-wife.
How grimly she fought soever, her strength waxed faint at the last:
But aye through the heart of Gunther a tumult of wild thoughts passed.
Long, long it seemed unto Gunther ere Siegfried tamed her mood.
Her grip on his hands was so mighty that from ’neath his nails the blood
At her terrible crushing spirted, that his soul was wrung with pain:
Yet he wore her down by his stubborn endurance, and forced to refrain