r men. We have not made a good journey to this
feast." (4)

She spake: "Be welcome to him that be fain to see you; I greet you not
for your kinship. Pray tell me what ye do bring me from Worms beyond the
Rhine, that ye should be so passing welcome to me here?"

"Had I known," quoth Hagen, "that knights should bring you gifts, I had
bethought me better, for I be rich enow to bring you presents hither to
this land."

"Now let me hear the tale of where ye have put the Nibelung hoard? It
was mine own, as ye well know, and ye should have brought me that to
Etzel's land."

"I' faith, my Lady Kriemhild, it is many a day sith I have had the care
of the Nibelung hoard. My lords bade sink it in the Rhine, and there it
must verily lie till doomsday."

Then spake the queen: "I thought as much. Ye have brought full little of
it hither to this land, albeit it was mine own, and I had it whilom in
my care. Therefore have I all time so many a mournful day."

"The devil I'll bring you," answered Hagen. "I have enough to carry with
my shield and breastplate; my helm is bright, the sword is in my hand,
therefore I bring you naught."

Then the queen spake to the knights on every side: "One may not bring
weapons to the hall. Sir Knights, give them to me, I'll have them taken
in charge."

"I' faith," quoth Hagen, "never shall that be done. In sooth I crave not
the honor, O bounteous princess, that ye should bear my shield and other
arms to the lodgings; ye be a queen. This my father did not teach me, I
myself will play the chamberlain."

"Alack for my sorrows," spake Lady Kriemhild. "Why will Hagen and my
brother not let their shields be taken in charge? They be warned, and
wist I, who hath done this, I'd ever plan his death."

To this Sir Dietrich answered in wrath: "'Tis I, that hath warned the
noble and mighty princes and the bold Hagen, the Burgundian liegeman. Go
to, thou she-devil, thou durst not make me suffer for the deed."

Sore abashed was King Etzel's wife, for bitterly she feared Sir
Dietrich. At once she left him, not a word she spake, but gazed with
furious glance upon her foes. Two warriors then grasped each other
quickly by the hand, the one was Sir Dietrich, the other Hagen. With
gentle breeding the lusty hero spake: "Forsooth I rue your coming to the
Huns, because of what the queen hath said."

Quoth Hagen: "There will be help for that."

Thus the two brave men talked together. King Etzel saw this, and
there