To put this was her custom / after trial with the spear. Thereat the men of Burgundy / began to quake with fear. "Alack! Alack!" quoth Hagen, / "what seeks the king for bride? Beneath in hell 'twere better / the Devil had her by his side!" 451 On her white arms the flowing / sleeves she backward flung, Then with grasp of power / the shield in hand she swung, And spear poised high above her. / So did the contest start. Gunther and Siegfried / saw Brunhild's ire with falling heart. 452 And were it not that Siegfried / a ready help did bring, Surely then had perished / beneath her hand the king. There went he unperceived / and the king's hand did touch. Gunther at his cunning / artifice was troubled much. 453 "What is that hath touched me?" / thought the monarch keen. Then gazed he all around him: / none was there to be seen. A voice spake: "Siegfried is it, / a friend that holds thee dear. Before this royal maiden / shall thy heart be free from fear. 454 "Thy shield in hand now give me / and leave it me to bear, And do thou rightly mark thee / what thou now shalt hear. Now make thyself the motions, / --the power leave to me." When he did know him rightly, / the monarch's heart was filled with glee. 455 "Now secret keep my cunning, / let none e'er know the same: Then shall the royal maiden / here find but little game Of glory to win from thee, / as most to her is dear. Behold now how the lady / stands before thee void of fear." 456 The spear the stately maiden / with might and main did wield, And huge and broad she hurled it / upon the new-made shield, That on his arm did carry / the son of Siegelind; From the steel the sparks flew hissing / as if were blowing fierce the wind. 457 The mighty spear sharp-pointed / full through the shield did crash, That ye from off the mail-rings / might see the lightning flash. Beneath its force they stumbled, / did both those men of might; But for the sightless mantle / they both were killed there outright. 458 From mouth of the full doughty / Siegfried burst the blood. Full soon he yet recovered; / then seized the warrior good The spear that from her strong arm / thus his shield had rent, And back with force as came it / the hand of doughty Siegfried sent. 459 He thought: "To pierce the maiden / were but small glory earned," And so the spear's sharp edges / backward pointing turned; Against her mail-clad body / he made the shaft to bound, And with such might he sent it / full loud her armor did resound. 460 The sparks as if in stormwind / from mail-rings flew around. So mightily did hurl it / the son of Siegmund That she with all her power / could not the shaft withstand. In sooth it ne'er was speeded / so swiftly by King Gunther's hand. 461 But to her feet full sudden / had sprung Brunhild fair. "A shot, O noble Gunther, / befitting hero rare." She weened himself had done it, / and all unaided he, Nor wot she one far mightier / was thither come so secretly. 462