Hadst thou never journeyed hither from Worms beyond the Rhine!
The whole land lieth orphaned through thee and those brethren of thine!”
Then in mighty indignation Gunther the hero cried:
“Would ye suffer this deadly hatred even now to be laid aside
In peace with the homeless warriors, for us and for you it were well.
For no guilt of ours is the anger of Etzel the King so fell.”
The King to the guests gave answer: “Not yet made equal they are,
Your sufferings and Etzel’s—the bitter travail of war,
The scathe and the deadly insult that ye have loaded on me—
For these no man of you living cometh forth into liberty!”