Thereto the knight of Burgundy, / the valiant Gernot, said:
"The world may ever rue it / that Helke fair lies dead,
So manifold the virtues / that did her life adorn."
A willing testimony / by Hagen to the words was borne.
Thereto again spake Ruediger / the noble messenger:
"Since thou, O king, dost grant it, / shalt thou now further hear
What message 'tis my master / beloved hath hither sent,
For that since death of Helke / his days he hath in sorrow spent.
"'Tis told my lord that Kriemhild / doth widowed live alone,
And dead is doughty Siegfried. / May now such thing be done,
And wilt thou grant that favor, / a crown she then shall wear
Before the knights of Etzel: / this message from my lord I bear."
Then spake the mighty monarch / —a king he was of grace—
"My will in this same matter / she'll hear, an so she please.
Thereof will I instruct thee / ere three days are passed by—
Ere I her mind have sounded, / wherefore to Etzel this deny?"
Meanwhile for the strangers / bade they make cheer the best
In sooth so were they tended / that Ruediger confessed
He had 'mong men of Gunther / of friends a goodly store.
Hagen full glad did serve him, / as he had Hagen served of yore.