"Now guard thee, Lady Kriemhild, / my word amiss to take,
For not without good reason here / such thing I spake.
Both heard I say together, / when them I first did see,
When that erstwhile the monarch / did work his royal will o'er me,
And when in knightly fashion / my love for him he won,
Then himself said Siegfried / he were the monarch's man.
For liegeman thus I hold him, / since he the same did say."
Then spake fair Lady Kriemhild: / "With me 'twere dealt in sorry way.
"And these my noble brothers, / how could they such thing see,
That I of their own liegeman / e'er the wife should be?
Thus will I beg thee, Brunhild, / as friend to friend doth owe,
That thou, as well befits thee, / shalt further here such words forego."
"No whit will I give over," / spake the monarch's spouse.
"Wherefore should I so many / a knight full valiant lose,
Who to us in service / is bounden with thy man?"
Kriemhild the fair lady / thereat sore to rage began.
"In sooth must thou forego it / that he should e'er to thee
Aught of service offer. / More worthy e'en is he
Than is my brother Gunther, / who is a royal lord.
So shalt thou please to spare me / what I now from thee have heard.