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over Hagen's head (a man of might was he); from this the ferryman of
Else took great harm. Hagen, fierce of mood, seized straightway his
sheath, wherein he found his sword. His head he struck off and cast
it on the ground. Eftsoon these tidings were made known to the proud
Burgundians. At the very moment that he slew the boatman, the skiff gan
drifting down the stream. Enow that irked him. Weary he grew before he
brought it back. King Gunther's liegeman pulled with might and main.
With passing swift strokes the stranger turned it, until the sturdy oar
snapped in his hand. He would hence to the knights out upon the shore.
None other oar he had. Ho, how quickly he bound it with a shield strap,
a narrow band! Towards a wood he floated down the stream, where he found
his sovran standing by the shore.

Many a stately man went down to meet him. The doughty knights and good
received him with a kindly greeting. When they beheld in the skiff the
blood reeking from a gaping wound which he had dealt the ferryman, Hagen
was plied enow with questions by the knights. When that King Gunther
spied the hot blood swirling in the skiff, how quickly he spake:
"Wherefore tell ye me not, Hagen, whither the ferryman be come? I ween
your prowess hath bereft him of his life."

At this he answered craftily: "When I found the skiff hard by a willow
tree, I loosed it with my hand. I have seen no ferryman here to-day, nor
hath harm happed to any one through fault of mine."

Then spake Sir Gernot of Burgundy: "I must needs fear the death of dear
friends to-day. Sith we have no boatmen here at hand, how shall we come
over? Therefore I must perforce stand sad."

Loudly then called Hagen: "Ye footmen, lay the trappings down upon the
grass. I bethink me that once I was the very best of boatmen that one
might find along the Rhine. I trow to bring you all safe across to
Gelfrat's land."

They struck the horses, that these might the sooner come across the
flood; passing well they swam, for the mighty waves bereft them of not
a one. Some few drifted far adown the stream, as did befit their
weariness. Then the knights bare to the skiff their gold and weeds, sith
there was no help for the crossing. Hagen played the steersman, and so
he ferried full many mighty warriors over to the sandy shore, into the
unknown land. First he took across a thousand noble knights, then his
own men-at-arms. Still there were more to come. Nine thousand footmen he
ferri