So they hailed with gladsome welcome those thanes, Burgundia’s pride.
Then spake the great King Etzel: “O guests, I needs must avow
That nought on the earth more welcome to mine heart could befall me now
Than cometh, O knights, by your presence, for to see you here am I fain;
And thereby hath the Queen’s heart gotten relief from yearning pain.
Sooth, oftentimes had I marvelled wherein I had haply transgressed,
In that, though I had won to my feast-hall many a noble guest,
Yet ye, the chiefest, have never deigned to my land to ride:
But now at the last I behold you, and mine heart is satisfied.”
Answered a knight great-hearted, and Rüdiger made reply: