So measureless-wide the wailing swelled in that dolorous hour,
That with cries of lamentation re-echoed palace and tower;
And the tumult was heard by a warrior of Bern, who was Dietrich’s man,
And bearing the heavy tidings to his lord in haste he ran.
He spake to the princely hero: “Lord Dietrich, hearken my tale:
Through all the years of my life-tide such agony of wail
Never I heard upshrieking, as that I have hearkened but now.
The King himself, even Etzel, hath come unto scathe, I trow.
For what cause else should the people with one voice all make dole?
Of the twain one, Etzel or Kriemhild, is no more a living soul.