Then followed they his counsel / and from the hall they bore Seven thousand bodies / and cast them from the door. Adown the mounting stairway / all together fell, Whereat a sound of wailing / did from mourning kinsmen swell. 2014 Many a man among them / so slight wound did bear That he were yet recovered / had he but gentle care, Who yet falling headlong / now surely must be dead. Thereat did grieve their kinsmen / as verily was sorest need. 2015 Then outspake the Fiddler, / Volker a hero bold: "Now do I find how truly / hath to me been told That cowards are the Hun-men / who do like women weep. Rather should be their effort / their wounded kin alive to keep." 2016 These words deemed a margrave / spoken in kindly mood. He saw one of his kinsmen / weltering in his blood. In his arms he clasped him / and thought him thence to bear, But as he bent above him / pierced him the valiant minstrel's spear. 2017 When that beheld the others / all in haste they fled, Crying each one curses / on that same minstrel's head. From the ground then snatched he / a spear with point full keen, That 'gainst him up the stairway / by a Hun had hurled been. 2018 Across the court he flung it / with his arm of might Far above the people. / Then did each Hunnish knight Seek him safer quarters / more distant from the hall. To see his mighty prowess / did fill with fear his foemen all. 2019 As knights full many thousand / far 'fore the palace stood, Volker and Hagen / gan speak in wanton mood "Unto King Etzel, / nor did they aught withhold; Wherefrom anon did sorrow / o'ertake those doughty warriors bold. 2020 "'Twould well beseem," quoth Hagen, / "the people's lofty lord Foremost in storm of battle / to swing the cutting sword, As do my royal masters / each fair example show. Where hew they through the helmets / their swords do make the blood to flow." 2021 To hear such words brave Etzel / snatched in haste his shield. "Now well beware of rashness," / cried Lady Kriemhild, "And offer to thy warriors / gold heaped on shield full high: If yonder Hagen reach thee, / straightway shalt thou surely die." 2022 So high was the king's mettle / that he would not give o'er, Which case is now full seldom / seen in high princes more; They must by shield-strap tugging / him perforce restrain. Grim of mood then Hagen / began him to revile again. 2023 "It was a distant kinship," / spake Hagen, dauntless knight, "That Etzel unto Siegfried / ever did unite, And husband he to Kriemhild / was ere thee she knew. Wherefore, O king faint-hearted, / seek'st thou such thing 'gainst me to do?" 2024 Thereto eke must listen / the noble monarch's spouse, And grievously to hear it / did Kriemhild's wrath arouse. That he 'fore men of Etzel / durst herself upbraid; To urge them 'gainst the strangers / she once more her arts essayed. 2025