Now shalt thou hear: the secret to thine honour and love I reveal.
When from the wounds of the Dragon flowed the hot-reeking blood,
And when in the red pool bathed him that fearless knight and good,
There fell on him ’twixt the shoulders one broad lime-tree leaf
On that spot may he be wounded; and this is my sorrow and grief.”
Answered her Hagen of Troneg: “Thou then with thine own hand sew
On his vesture a little token that to me that spot may show
The which, when we stand in the war-storm, with heed evermore must I shield.”
She thought from peril to save him; but so unto death was he sealed.
She said, “I will sew on his garment with a silken thread spun fine