"To pass without the portal / let not one at all, For at its four corners / I'll bid ignite the hall. So will I fullest vengeance / take for all my woe." Straightway the thanes of Etzel / ready stood her hest to do. 2110 Who still without were standing / were driven soon within By sword and spear upon them, / that made a mighty din. Yet naught might those good warriors / from their masters take, By their faith would never / each the other's side forsake. 2111 To burn the hall commanded / Etzel's wife in ire, And tortured they those warriors / there with flaming fire; Full soon with wind upon it / the house in flames was seen. To any folk did never / sadder plight befall, I ween. 2112 Their cries within resounded: / "Alack for sorest need! How mickle rather lay we / in storm of battle dead. 'Fore God 'tis cause for pity, / for here we all must die! Now doth the queen upon us / vengeance wreak full grievously." 2113 Among them spake another: / "Our lives we here must end. What now avails the greeting / the king to us did send? So sore this heat oppresseth / and parched with thirst my tongue, My life from very anguish / I ween I must resign ere long." 2114 Then quoth of Tronje Hagen: / "Ye noble knights and good, Whoe'er by thirst is troubled, / here let him drink the blood. Than wine more potent is it / where such high heat doth rage, Nor may we at this season / find us a better beverage." 2115 Where fallen knight was lying, / thither a warrior went. Aside he laid his helmet, / to gaping wound he bent, And soon was seen a-quaffing / therefrom the flowing blood. To him though all unwonted, / yet seemed he there such drinking good. 2116 "Now God reward thee, Hagen," / the weary warrior said, "That I so well have drunken, / thus by thy teaching led. Better wine full seldom / hath been poured for me, And live I yet a season / I'll ever faithful prove to thee." 2117 When there did hear the others / how to him it seemed good, Many more beheld ye / eke that drank the blood. Each thereby new vigor / for his body won, And eke for lover fallen / wept many a buxom dame anon. 2118 The flaming brands fell thickly / upon them in the hall, With upraised shields they kept them / yet scatheless from their fall, Though smoke and heat together / wrought them anguish sore. Beset were heroes never, / I ween, by so great woe before. 2119 Then spake of Tronje Hagen: / "Stand nigh unto the wall, Let not the brands all flaming / upon your helmets fall. Into the blood beneath you / tread them with your feet. In sooth in evil fashion / us doth our royal hostess greet." 2120 In trials thus endured / ebbed the night away. Still without the portal / did the keen Fiddler stay And Hagen his good fellow, / o'er shield their bodies leant; They deemed the men of Etzel / still on further mischief bent. 2121