Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/300

242 Kriemhild railed at comely Brunbild. ’T is not to be denied, O mighty queen, I alone am to blame for this scathful scathe. Let him avenge it who will, be he wife or man. Unless be I should lie to you, I have done you much of harm.”

Quoth she; “Now hear, ye knights, how he denieth no whit of my wrongs. Men of Etzel, I care not what hap to him from this cause.”

The proud warriors all gazed at one another. Had any begun the fight, it would have come about that men must have given the honors to the two comrades, for they had oft wrought wonders in the fray. What the Huns had weened to do must now needs be left undone through fear.

Then spake one of the men-at-arms: “Why gaze ye thus at me? What I afore vowed, I will now give over. I will lose my life for no man’s gift, Forsooth King Etzel’s wife would fain lead us into wrong.”

Quoth another hard by: “Of the selfsame mind am I. An’ any give me towers of good red gold, I would not match this fiddler, for his fearful glances, the which I have seen him cast. Hagen, too, I have known from his youthful days, wherefore men can tell me little of this knight. I have seen him fight in two and twenty battles, through which woe of heart hath happed to many a dame. He and the knight from Spain trod many a war path, when here at Etzel’s court they waged so many wars in honor of the king. Much this happed, wherefore one must justly honor Hagen. At that time the warrior was of his years a lad. How gray are they who then were young! Now is he come