Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/362

304 Grim Wolfhart spake: “And ye will go thither so bare, ye will never fare without upbraiding; ye must return with shame. But if ye go there armed, each will guard against that well.”

Then the wise man armed him, through the counsel of youth. Or ever he was ware, all Dietrich’s warriors had donned their war-weeds and held in their hands their swords. Loth it was to the hero, and he would have gladly turned their mind. He asked whither they would go.

“We will hence with you. Perchance Hagen of Troneg then will dare the less to address him to you with scorn, which full well he knoweth how to use.” When he heard this, the knight vouchsafed them for to go.

Soon brave Folker saw the champions of Berne, the liegemen of Dietrich, march along, well armed, begirt with swords, while in their hands they bare their shields. He told it to his lords from out the Burgundian land. The fiddler spake: “Yonder I see the men of Dietrich march along in right hostile wise, armed cap-à-pie. They would encounter us; I ween ’t will go full ill with us strangers.”

Meanwhile Sir Hildebrand was come. Before his feet he placed his shield, and gan ask Gunther’s men: “Alas, good heroes, what had Rüdeger done you? My Lord Dietrich hath sent me hither to you to say, that if the hand of any among you hath slain the noble margrave, as we are told, we could never stand such mighty dole.”

Then spake Hagen of Troneg: “The tale is true. How gladly could I wish, that the messenger had told