And they looked, and they saw yet reeking on the planks of the barge the blood
That welled from the trunk made headless by that swift sweep of the sword;
And a torrent of eager questions anent it on Hagen poured.
Yea also, when King Gunther beheld the hot blood reek,
As within the barge it weltered, he could not choose but speak:
“Prithee, what now, Lord Hagen, hath chanced to the ferryman-wight?
His life, methinks, hath he yielded to thine overmastering might.”
But with lying lips he answered: “Nay, sooth, but the barge I found
By a river-mead, a waste land, and mine hand her hawser unbound.
But as touching ferry-boatmen, this day here saw I none.