A running-match to the well-head. If this shall of us be done,
Whoso is first, account we him our fleetest one.”
“Good, let us thereof make trial,” made answer Hagen the thane.
Then again spake Siegfried the stalwart: “If ye pass me, either of twain,
Then on the grass my body before your feet will I fling.”
How blithe to hear that promise was Gunther the traitor king!
Then spake that fearless hero: “This too unto you will I say:
I will bear on my body my raiment and all my war-array,
My boar-spear, yea, and my buckler, and all mine hunter’s weed.”
Therewithal with his sword and his quiver he girded himself with speed.