ght it to pass that the Hunnish champions tried
again. Men saw full twenty thousand warriors stand before them, who must
perforce march to the fray. Straightway there rose a mighty storming
towards the strangers. Dankwart, Hagen's brother, the doughty knight,
sprang from his lordings' side to meet the foes without the door.
All weened that he were dead, yet forth he stood again unscathed.
The furious strife did last till nightfall brought it to a close. As
befitted good knights, the strangers warded off King Etzel's liegemen
the livelong summer day. Ho, how many a bold knight fell doomed before
them! This great slaughter happed upon midsummer's day, when Lady
Kriemhild avenged her sorrow of heart upon her nearest kin and upon many
another man, so that King Etzel never again gained joy.

The day had passed away, but still they had good cause for fear. They
thought, a short and speedy death were better for them, than to be
longer racked with monstrous pain. A truce these proud and lusty knights
now craved; they begged that men would bring the king to see them. Forth
from the hall stepped the heroes, bloody of hue, and the three noble
kings, stained from their armor. They wist not to whom they should make
plaint of their mighty wounds. Thither both Etzel and Kriemhild went;
the land was theirs and so their band waxed large. He spake to the
strangers: "Pray tell me, what ye will of me? Ye ween to gain here
peace, but that may hardly be. For damage as great as ye have done me,
in my son and in my many kinsmen, whom ye have slain, peace and pardon
shall be denied you quite; it shall not boot you aught, an' I remain
alive."

To this King Gunther answered: "Dire need constrained us; all my
men-at-arms lay dead before thy heroes in the hostel. How did I deserve
such pay? I came to thee in trust, I weened thou wast my friend."

Young Giselher of Burgundy likewise spake: "Ye men of Etzel, who still
do live, what do ye blame me with? What have I done to you, for I rode
in friendly wise into this land of yours."

Quoth they: "From thy friendliness this castle is filled with grief and
the land as well. We should not have taken it ill, in sooth, if thou
hadst never come from Worms beyond the Rhine. Thou and thy brothers have
filled this land with orphans."

Then spake Knight Giselher in angry mood: "And ye will lay aside this
bitter hate and make your peace with us stranger knights, 'twere best
for either side. We have not merite