Spake Dietrich the noble: “When heroes in each face look for a foe,
And one cometh with rough sharp questions, where a word is like a blow,
Then all too quickly enkindled their smouldering anger is:
Therefore I will not, Wolfhart, that thou question touching this.”
Then he commanded Helfric to go swift-hastening,
And he bade him ask of the matter from the folk of Etzel the King,
Or, as it might be, from the strangers, what hap had befallen there;
For never had such lamentation of a multitude thrilled the air.
So the messenger came, and he questioned: “What thing hath chanced this day?”
And a woeful voice made answer: “All joy hath fled away,