Then Alberich the valiant to his mighty kinsmen spake:
“We may nowise refuse this treasure, to yield it to her desire;
’Tis her Gift of the Marriage-morning, and the Queen doth her own require.
Howbeit,” said Alberich, “never had this befallen thus,
Except by chance most evil this too had been lost unto us,
The potent Hood of Darkness, which vanished when Siegfried died,
Which the lord of Kriemhild the lovely had ever by his side.
In an evil hour for Siegfried did the Hero win that prey,
And pluck the Hood of Darkness from the hands of its keepers away,
And therewithal the lordship of all this land did he seize.”