Then spake the knight Giselher: / "Hagen here hath wrought
Sore evil to my sister: / permit this thing I'll not.
And were he not my kinsman, / he'd pay it with his life."
Anew did fall aweeping / then the doughty Siegfried's wife.
Then spake the knight Gernot: / "Ere that forever we
Be troubled with this treasure, / let first commanded be
Deep in the Rhine to sink it, / that no man have it more."
In sad manner plaining / Kriemhild stood Giselher before.
She spake: "Belovéd brother, / be mindful thou of me:
What life and treasure toucheth / shalt thou my protector be."
Then spake he to the lady: / "That shall sure betide,
When we again come hither: / now called we are away to ride."
The monarch and his kinsmen / rode from out the land,
And in his train the bravest / ye saw on any hand:
Went all save Hagen only, / and there he stayed for hate,
That he did bear to Kriemhild, / and full gladly did he that.
Ere that the mighty monarch / was thither come again,
In that while had Hagen / all that treasure ta'en.
Where Loch is by the river / all in the Rhine sank he.
He weened thereof to profit, / yet such thing might never be.