For with many a furious sword-stroke did the king of the Daneland smite;
Yea, this one and that at the bucklers hewed with his uttermost might.
Now their strife was beheld of thirty knights of the king’s war-band:
But or ever these might reach him victor did Siegfried stand.
For with three wide-gaping gashes he made that war-king reel;
They sundered the shining harness, the welded links of steel;
On the great sword’s cleaving lightning swift followed the rain of blood;
Then groaned the king of the Danefolk in bitterness of mood.
For his life must he make supplication: “I will pay for my ransoming,”
He cried, “the land of Denmark! I am Lüdegast the king!”