“Seest thou yonder, my comrade, how beset by a Hunnish rout
Alone my brother standeth, while down on him stark blows rain?
O friend, do thou help my brother, ere sped be the valiant thane.”
Made answer the viol-minstrel: “Yea verily will I so.”
Through the hall he strode to the music of that strange viol-bow,
That sword of the ice-brook’s temper, that rang in his grasp evermore;
And the Rhineland knights as they heard it gave hearty thanks therefor.
Then unto Dankwart Volker the aweless hero said:
“This day hast thou sorely travailed, and now art thou hardly bestead:
Wherefore to me for thine helping did Hagen thy brother appeal.