In presence of this King’s Daughter, as before us pass her feet;
So render we due honour unto a high-born queen,
And by courtesy do we honour unto ourselves, I ween.”
“Nay,” Hagen replied, “if thou love me, in no wise do this thing.
Yon knights will be puffed up haply with vain imagining
That I did it of failing courage, and were minded to flinch from her face.
But I,—for no soul among them will I rise up from my place.
From such honour to her refrain we; it better beseemeth us so.
What, should I render her homage who hath set her to be my foe?
No, that will I do never so long as endureth my life!