"If that be known to any, / let him not delay, Where I your royal master / now shall find, to say,-- Gunther, king so mighty / o'er the land of Burgundy." Then told him one amongst them / to whom was known where that might be: 78 "If that the king thou seekest, / right soon may he be found. Within that wide hall yonder / with his good knights around But now I saw him sitting. / Thither do thou repair, And thou may'st find around him / many a stately warrior there." 79 Now also to the monarch / were the tidings told, That within his castle / were knights arrived full bold, All clad in shining armor / and apparelled gorgeously; But not a man did know them / within the land of Burgundy. 80 Thereat the king did wonder / whence were come to him These knights adventure seeking / in dress so bright and trim, And shields adorned so richly / that new and mighty were. That none the thing could tell him / did grieve him sorely to hear. 81 Outspake a knight then straightway, / Ortwein by name was he, Strong and keen as any / well was he known to be: "Since we of them know nothing, / bid some one quickly go And fetch my uncle Hagen: / to him thou shalt the strangers show. 82 "To him are known far kingdoms / and every foreign land, And if he know these strangers / we soon shall understand." The king then sent to fetch him: / with his train of men Unto the king's high presence / in stately gear went he then. 83 What were the king's good pleasure, / asked Hagen grim in war. "In the court within my castle / are warriors from afar, And no one here doth know them: / if them thou e'er didst see In any land far distant, / now shalt thou, Hagen, tell to me." 84 "That will I do, 'tis certain."-- / To a window then he went, And on the unknown strangers / his keen eye he bent. Well pleased him their equipment / and the rich dress they wore, Yet ne'er had he beheld them / in land of Burgundy before. 85 He said that whencesoever / these knights come to the Rhine, They bear a royal message, / or are of princely line. "Their steeds are so bedizened, / and their apparel rare: No matter whence they journey, / high-hearted men in truth they are." 86 Further then spake Hagen: / "As far as goes my ken, Though I the noble Siegfried / yet have never seen, Yet will I say meseemeth, / howe'er the thing may be, This knight who seeks adventure, / and yonder stands so proud, is he. 87 "'Tis some new thing he bringeth / hither to our land. The valiant Nibelungen / fell by the hero's hand, Schilbung and Nibelung, / from royal sire sprung; Deeds he wrought most wondrous / anon when his strong arm he swung. 88 "As once alone the hero / rode without company, Found he before a mountain / --as hath been told to me-- With the hoard of Nibelung / full many stalwart men; To him had they been strangers / until he chanced to find them then. 89