: "Now bide a while, ye must stand
quite still in truth. Wearing my crown, I will go to meet my foes. List
ye to the wrongs that Hagen of Troneg, Gunther's man, hath done me. I
know him to be so haughty that he'll not deny a whit. Little I reek what
hap to him on this account."

Then the fiddler, a bold minstrel, spied the noble queen walk down the
flight of steps that led downward from a house. When bold Folker saw
this, to his comrade-at-arms he spake: "Now behold, friend Hagen, how
she walketh yonder, who hath faithlessly bidden us to this land. I have
never seen with a queen so many men bearing sword in hand march in such
warlike guise. Know ye, friend Hagen, whether she bear you hate? If
so be, I counsel you to guard the better your life and honor. Certes,
methinks this good. They be wroth of mood, as far as I can see, and
some be so broad of chest that he who would guard himself should do so
betimes. I ween there be those among them who wear bright breastplates.
Whom they would attack, I cannot say."

Then, angry of mood, the brave knight Hagen spake: "Well I wot that all
this be done against me, that they thus bear their gleaming swords in
hand. For aught of them, I still may ride to the Burgundian land.
Now tell me, friend Folker, whether ye will stand by me, if perchance
Kriemhild's men would fight me? Pray let me hear that, if so be ye hold
me dear. I'll aid you evermore with faithful service."

"I'll help you surely," spake the minstrel; "and should I see the king
with all his warriors draw near us, not one foot will I yield from fear
in aiding you, the while I live."

"Now may God in heaven requite you, noble Folker; though they strive
against me, what need I more? Sith ye will help me, as I hear you say,
let these warriors come on full-armed."

"Let us rise now from our seats," spake the minstrel. "Let us do her
honor as she passeth by, she is a high-born dame, a queen. We shall
thereby honor ourselves as well."

"For my sake, no," quoth Hagen. "Should I go hence, these knights would
think 'twas through fear. Not for one of them will I ever rise from my
seat. It beseemeth us both better, forsooth, to leave this undone, for
why should I honor one who doth bear me hatred? Nor will I do this, the
while I live; I reck not how King Etzel's wife doth hate me."

Haughty Hagen laid across his knees a gleaming sword from whose pommel
a sparkling jasper, greener than grass, did shine. Its hilt was golden,
its