Our knights and our squires together in the hostelry lie slain!”
Cried Hagen to him in answer: “Now who hath done this thing?”
“This was the deed of Blödel and of them of his following:
But dearly he paid for his treason, unto all men here be it said;
For with these mine hands from his shoulders have I hewn the traitor’s head.”
“He hath paid for his wrong too lightly,” Hagen the dauntless cried,
“If men may but say of the traitor as of any knight who hath died,
That stilled by the hands of a hero he hath slept the iron sleep;
Fair ladies for one so smitten shall have less cause to weep.
Make answer to me, dear brother, how art thou thus all red?