With a huge boat-pole—so starkly, that wholly asunder it brake—
On the head of Hagen the hero. A giant was he in might;
But thereof came his own destruction on Elsè’s ferry-wight.
In sternness of fury Hagen caught with sudden hand
At his side where hung the sword-sheath, and he flashed thereout the brand;
He smote his head from his shoulders, that adown the bank it rolled.
Soon mid the proud Burgundians the tale thereof was told.
But in that selfsame moment when he laid the ferryman low,
The barge slid down the current, which cost him travail enow:
Yea, ere he could right her, weary he was with labour sore.