"Then will I counsel," made answer Hagen, "if this must be, That thou make thy request unto Siegfried, that he will bear with thee The burden of this sore travail: this rede remaineth the best, Seeing he hath alone clear knowledge of Brunhild's perilous test." Said the King, "O Siegfried belovèd, mine helper wilt thou fare In my wooing of Brunhild the lovely? Do according to this my prayer, And if for my bride I win her, and crown her my queenly wife, For thee at all times will I venture honour and limb and life." Answered him Siegfried, the scion of Siegmund the Lowland's lord: "This will I do, if thou promise to give me for reward The Lovely, the Queen of Women, Kriemhild thy sister, for bride: For my toil for thee nor guerdon nor thank I desire beside." "Even this do I promise," said Gunther, "O Siegfried, on thine hand; And if Brunhild the lovely cometh hither to this my land, Then will I give thee my sister to wife in requital for this; So mayest thou with thy fair one for ever live in bliss." {P. 46} Then by an oath did they pledge them, those noble warriors twain; But thereof unto both was begotten exceeding toil and strain. Or ever they brought into Rhineland that lady of princely blood, In peril exceeding grievous those valiant heroes stood. (C) Now concerning the tameless Earth-dwarfs this thing have I heard folk say, That they dwell in the mountain-caverns, and about their heads they lay For helmets the Hoods of Darkness, and a strange power floweth thence; For who weareth such on his body, therein hath perfect defence (C) From stroke of sword and from spear-thrust; while resteth on him this pall, No man may in any wise see him, but he heareth and seeth all So much as his soul desireth, yet himself may none behold; And his strength to a giant's waxeth, as the tale in our ears hath been told. Now the Hood of Darkness Siegfried for their help at need hath ta'en, Even that which the valiant warrior had wrested with toil and strain From Alberich, Dwarf of the Mountain, in the stormy days gone by. So these to their journey addressed them in their fearless chivalry. Now whene'er the stalwart Siegfried had donned that Hood of Night, He gat from its overscreening exceeding fulness of might; In twelve men's strength he clad him, as the runes of the old songs run. So it fell, by the Dwarf-lords' cunning that glorious bride was won. Yea, and so wondrous-shapen was that strange cloudy Hood, That a man overpalled by its shrouding might do even that which he would, Yea, after his heart's good pleasure, for of none was he espied: Therewith did he win Queen Brunhild--and through her at the last he died.