2262.
“Give Rüdeger’s dead body to us from out the hall,
With whom, in very sorrow, our joys are ended all;
And let us now requite him for all that he hath done
For us, in faithful friendship, and many another one.
2263.
“We also here are strangers, like the thane Rüdeger,
Why do ye keep us waiting? Let us his body bear
Away, to him our service e’en after death to give:
Far rather had we done it, whilst he were yet alive!”
2264.
“No service is so worthy,” then the King Gunther spake,
“As that for a dead comrade a friend doth undertake,
And steadfast faith I call it, where’er the same I find.
Ye pay him honour rightly, to you he hath been kind.”
2265.
“How long must we be pleading?” Wolfhart the warrior said:
“Since our best Consolation b by you is stricken dead,
And we, alas! no longer the good thereof may have,
So let us take the chieftain and lay him in his grave.”
2266.
Thereto made answer Volker: “He shall be given by none!
Come to the hall and take him, here where the thane, fordone,
With deadly wounds disfigured, lies in the bloody pool:
That were to do your duty to Rüdeger in full.”
2267.
Thereon bold Wolfhart answer’d: “Sir Minstrel, God doth know
No need have ye to taunt us, ye’ve done us harm enow.
Durst I offend my master, you’d be the worse for this,
But we must pass it over, since strife forbidden us is.”
