Then the King bade bring that baron and his knightly train therewithal. Full soon was his lordly presence beheld in Gunther's hall. "For what cause," then spake Hagen, "am I hitherward called of the King?" "Lo, yonder unknown heroes to mine halls come journeying; And no man knoweth to name them. Hast thou haply far away In a strange land looked on their faces? I pray thee, Hagen, say." "That will I," made answer Hagen. To the casement straight did he go, And his glance like the swoop of an eagle flashed o'er those guests below. With the warrior's joy their war-gear and their goodly array he scanned; Howbeit their faces he knew not: they were strangers in the land. And he spake: "Whencesoever the warriors to Rhineflood hitherward fare, Princes are they of a surety, or a message of princes they bear, So goodly are their war-steeds, so royal is their array. Sooth, whencesoe'er they have ridden, great-hearted heroes be they." Then a little pondered Hagen, and he spake: "It is sooth to say, Upon Siegfried's bodily presence have I looked not unto this day: Yet indeed and in truth meseemeth, howsoever the thing may be, That the knight who yonder beareth so princely a port, is he. Great tales shall be told, if it be so, of his coming to this our land. The lion-hearted Niblungs were slain by the hero's hand, Schilbung and Nibelung, scions of the King of the Golden Hoard;-- Marvels he wrought against them when his strong arm swung the sword! { P. 13} For it chanced, when the hero was riding alone with no helpers near, That he found by a misty mountain, as the tale hath been told in mine ear, Enringing the Hoard of King Niblung a throng of fierce-eyed men: He had seen not those strange faces till he lighted on them then. There lay King Niblung's Gold-hoard, haled forth from the dark abyss Of the rifted heart of the mountain--a strange, wild tale is this How the Niblung men were wrangling o'er the treasure's portioning! So came Knight Siegfried upon them, and he marvelled at that strange thing. So nigh he drew unhindered that he saw each battle-lord, And on him looked they: to his fellow a prince spake straightway the word: