Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/217

Rh On the seventh morning the host and his warriors rode forth from Bechelaren. Weapons and clothes a plenty they took with them through the Bavarian land. Seldom did men assail them on the highways for robbery’s sake, and within twelve days they reached the Rhine. Then might the tidings not be hid; men told it to the king and to his liegemen, that stranger guests were come. The host gan say, if any knew them, he should tell him so. One saw their sumpters bear right heavy loads. ’T was seen that they were passing rich.

Anon in the broad town men purveyed them quarters. When that the many strangers had been lodged, these same lords were gazed upon full oft. The people wondered from whence these warriors were come to the Rhine. The host now sent for Hagen, if perchance they might be known to him. Then spake the knight of Troneg: “None of them have I ever seen, but when we now gaze upon them, I can tell you well from whence they ride hither to this land. They must indeed be strangers, an’ I know them not full soon.”

Lodgings were now taken for the guests. The envoy and his fellowship were come in passing costly vesture. To the court they rode wearing good garments, cut in full cunning wise. Then spake the doughty Hagen: “As well as I can tell, for I have not seen the lord long time, they ride as if ’t were Rüdeger from the Hunnish land, a lordly knight and a brave.”

“How can I believe,” spake at once the king, “that the lord of Bechelaren be come to this land?”

When King Gunther had ended his speech, Hagen, the brave, espied the good knight Rüdeger. He and his friends all ran to meet them. Then five hundred