That champion is so uplifted with overweening pride,
That I fear, I fear me sorely lest his malice bring us to bane
If we woo that high-born maiden, the Lady of Disdain.”
“Shall the pride of the haughty thwart us?” hot-hearted Siegfried cried.
“If they mock at the speech of friendship, if I be with scorn denied,
Then will I do my wooing with the strength of mine own right hand;
Yea, I will wrest from the proud ones their vassals and their land!”
Then answered and spake King Siegmund: “Woe’s me for this word of thine!
For if haply this thy defiance should be told by the waters of Rhine,
Never couldst thou thereafter to the land of Gunther ride;—