Oh would to God in heaven that to me this deed had been done!”
But they held to their lying story. Then did Kriemhild say:
“He that affirmeth him guiltless may prove it now straightway.
Here in the presence of all men let him go and stand by the bier!
Forthright before all people shall the very truth appear.”
A marvel it is past telling, oft have we known it betide:—
When the slayer murder-polluted is seen by the dead man’s side,
The wounds bleed in witness against him: so did it now befall,
And thereby was the guilt of Hagen made manifest unto all.
For the wound brake forth into bleeding, as freely as at the first.