ed over to the land. Aught but idle was Hagen's hand that day. When
he had carried them all safe across the flood, the doughty knight and
good bethought him of the strange tales which the wild mermaids had told
him afore. For this cause the king's chaplain near lost his life. He
found the priest close by the chapel luggage, leaning with his hand upon
the relics. Little might that boot him. When Hagen spied him, ill fared
it with the hapless priest; he threw him from the skiff in haste. Enow
of them called out: "Hold on, Sir Hagen, hold!"

Giselher, the youth, gan rage, but Hagen let none come between. Then
spake Sir Gernot of Burgundy: "What availeth you now, Hagen, the
chaplain's death? Had another done the deed, 'twould have irked you
sore. For what cause have ye sworn enmity to the priest?"

The clerk (12) now tried to swim with might and main, for he would fain
save his life, if perchance any there would help him. That might not be,
for the stalwart Hagen was wroth of mood. He thrust him to the bottom,
the which thought no one good. When the poor priest saw naught of help,
he turned him back again. Sore was he discomfited, but though he could
not swim, yet did God's hand help him, so that he came safe and sound
to the land again. There the poor clerk stood and shook his robe. Hagen
marked thereby that naught might avail against the tidings which the
wild mermaids told him. Him-thought: "These knights must lose their
lives."

When the liegemen of the three kings unloaded the skiff and had borne
all away which they had upon it, Hagen brake it to pieces and threw it
in the flood, at which the bold knights and good did marvel much.

"Wherefore do ye that, brother," quoth Dankwart, "how shall we come
over, when we ride homeward from the Huns, back to the Rhine?"

Later Hagen told him that might not be. The hero of Troneg spake: "I
do it in the hope that if we have a coward on this journey, who through
faint-heartedness would run away, that in this stream he may die a
shameful death."

They had with them from Burgundy land a hero of his hands, the which
was named Folker. Wisely he spake all his mind. Whatever Hagen did,
it thought the fiddler good. Their steeds were now ready, the sumpters
laden well. On the journey they had taken no harm that irked them, save
the king's chaplain alone. He must needs wander back on foot to the
Rhine again.

ENDNOTES:
(1) "a thousand and sixty". This does not agree with t