There was knighted many a squire, / —six hundred or beyond—
In honor of the crowning, / that shall ye understand.
Arose full great rejoicing / in the land of Burgundy
As hand of youthful warrior / did shatter shaft right valiantly.
Then sat in castle casement / maidens fair to see,
And many a shield beneath them / gleamed full brilliantly.
Yet himself had sundered / from all his men the king;
Though joyous every other, / sad-visaged stood he sorrowing.
He and the doughty Siegfried, / how all unlike their mood!
Well wist the thing did grieve him / that noble knight and good.
He went unto the monarch / and straight addressed him so:
"This night how hast thou fared? / In friendship give thou me to know."
To his guest the king gave answer: / "Than shame and scathe I've naught.
The devil's dam I surely / into my house have brought.
When as I thought to have her / she bound me like a thrall;
Unto a nail she bore me / and hung me high upon the wall.
"There hung I sore in anguish / the night through until day
Ere that she would unbind me, / the while she softly lay!
And hast thou friendly pity / know then the grief I bear."
Then spake the doughty Siegfried: / "Such grieves me verily to hear.