She spake unto the monarch: / "My lord full dear to me, Now would I pray a favor, / if with thy grace it be, That thou wilt show unto me / if merit such be mine That unto my good kinsmen / truly doth thy heart incline." 1402 The mighty monarch answered / (from guile his heart was free): "Of a truth I tell thee, / if aught of good may be The fortune of thy kinsmen, / --of that I were full fain, For ne'er through love of woman / might I friends more faithful gain." 1403 Thereat again spake Kriemhild: / "That mayst thou well believe, Full high do stand my kinsmen; / the more it doth me grieve That they deign so seldom / hither to take their way. That here I live a stranger, / oft I hear the people say." 1404 Then spake the royal Etzel: / "Beloved lady mine, Seemed not too far the journey, / I'd bid from yond the Rhine Whom thou wouldst gladly welcome / hither unto my land." Thereat rejoiced the lady / when she his will did understand. 1405 Spake she: "Wilt thou true favor / show me, master mine, Then shall thou speed thy messengers / to Worms across the Rhine. Were but my friends acquainted / what thing of them I would, Then to this land came hither / full many a noble knight and good." 1406 He spake: "Whene'er thou biddest, / straight the thing shall be. Thyself mightst ne'er thy kinsmen / here so gladly see, As I the sons of Ute, / high and stately queen. It grieveth me full sorely / that strangers here so long they've been. 1407 "If this thing doth please thee, / beloved lady mine, Then gladly send I thither / unto those friends of thine As messengers my minstrels / to the land of Burgundy." He bade the merry fiddlers / lead before him presently. 1408 Then hastened they full quickly / to where they found the king By side of Kriemhild sitting. / He told them straight the thing, How they should be his messengers / to Burgundy to fare. Full stately raiment bade he / for them straightway eke prepare. 1409 Four and twenty warriors / did they apparel well. Likewise did the monarch / to them the message tell, How that they King Gunther / and his men should bid aright. Them eke the Lady Kriemhild / to secret parley did invite. 1410 Then spake the mighty monarch: / "Now well my words attend. All good and friendly greeting / unto my friends I send, That they may deign to journey / hither to my country. Few be the guests beside them / that were so welcome unto me. 1411 "And if they be so minded / to meet my will in aught, Kriemhild's lofty kinsmen, / that they forego it not To come upon the summer / here where I hold hightide, For that my joy in living / doth greatly with my friends abide." 1412 Then spake the fiddle-player, / Schwemmelein full bold: "When thinkst thou in this country / such high feast to hold, That unto thy friends yonder / tell the same we may?" Thereto spake King Etzel: / "When next hath come midsummer day." 1413