“What spake ye knights together, ye battle-eager twain,
When a little agone in mine harness ye saw me hard at hand?
Thou saidst that alone in battle against me thou wouldst stand.”
“Ay, no man shall gainsay it!” cried Hagen the void of fear:
“I will prove it by mighty handstrokes upon thy body here,
If so be that the Sword of the Niblungs unshivered fail not me.
I am wroth that thou darest require us to yield us captive to thee!”
Forthright, when Dietrich heard it, the mind of Hagen the grim,
That battle-eager champion caught his shield unto him.
How swiftly adown that stairway to meet him Hagen sprang!