Thereto quoth grim Hagen: / "Ye mourn, I know not why:
This same day hath ended / all our anxiety.
Few shall we find henceforward / for fear will give us need,
And well is me that from his / mastery we thus are freed."
"Light thing is now thy vaunting," / did Siegfried then reply.
"Had I e'er bethought me / of this thy infamy
Well had I preservéd / 'gainst all thy hate my life.
Me rueth naught so sorely / as Lady Kriemhild my wife.
"Now may God have mercy / that to me a son was born,
That him alack!, the people / in times to come shall spurn,
That those he nameth kinsmen / have done the murderer's deed.
An had I breath," spake Siegfried, / "to mourn o'er this I well had need."
Then spake, in anguish praying, / the hero doomed to die:
"An wilt thou, king, to any / yet not good faith deny,
In all the world to any, / to thee commended be
And to thy loving mercy / the spouse erstwhile was wed to me.
"Let it be her good fortune / that she thy sister is:
By all the princely virtues, / I beg thee pledge me this.
For me long time my father / and men henceforth must wait:
Upon a spouse was never / wrought, as mine, a wrong so great."