"To us how high thy favor," / spake Schwemmel, "know we well;
Nor with my best endeavor / might I ever tell
How kindly is the greeting / we bear from Etzel's hand
And from your noble sister, / who doth in highest honor stand.
"Your sometime love and duty / recalleth Etzel's queen,
And how to her devoted / in heart we've ever been,
But first to royal Gunther / do we a message bear,
And pray it be your pleasure / unto Etzel's land to fare.
"To beg of you that favor / commanded o'er and o'er
Etzel mighty monarch / and bids you know the more,
An will ye not your sister / your faces give to see,
So would he know full gladly / wherein by him aggrieved ye be,
"That ye thus are strangers / to him and all his men.
If that his spouse so lofty / to you had ne'er been known,
Yet well he thought to merit / that him ye'd deign to see;
In sooth could naught rejoice him / more than that such thing might be."
Then spake the royal Gunther: / "A sennight from this day
Shall ye have an answer, / whereon decide I may
With my friends in counsel. / The while shall ye repair
Unto your place of lodging, / and right goodly be your fare."