How should thy word be accomplished, that all we should be slain,
And so through any man’s malice dead at their high-tide stay?”
Then to the knight the story did they clearly and throughly say.
Moreover said one of the mermaids: “Thus is it doomed to betide,
That none shall alive fare homeward of all in your host that ride,
Save one, King Gunther’s chaplain. We verily know this thing,
That unharmed he only returneth to the land of Gunther the King.”
In scornful indignation made answer Hagen the bold:
“And a goodly tale to my masters in sooth were this to be told,
That doomed are we all mid the Hunfolk to pour out our lives in blood!