Then loosed was the band of his helmet by many a warrior good;
And they sat them down on the corpses that lay there in their blood,
Which had come by the hands Burgundian to their death, and cumbered the floor,
The while with bitter hatred the Hunfolk scowled at the door.
Ere the evening shadows had fallen, the King by hest and prayer,
With Kriemhild the Queen, had persuaded that with hope of fortune fair
The Huns should essay the onset again: in huge array
They stood, full twenty thousand in ordered ranks for the fray.
Then a wilder battle-tempest against the King’s guests swept.
Dankwart, the brother of Hagen, the mighty warrior, leapt