158.
“And you shall hear the reason wherefore I now am sad:
From enemies, by heralds, this message I have had;
That they will, with their armies, assail us, at our door;—
The like no warriors ever did in these lands before.”
159.
“Let not your heart be troubled,” quoth Siegfried, thereunto;
“And calm your anxious spirit, and as I pray you, do!
Leave itto me to win you honour and vantage both,
And bid your thanes come hither to aid you, nothing loth.
160.
“Although your mighty foemen should have at their command
Full thirty thousand swordsmen, yet would I them withstand,
Though I had but a thousand: so leave this all to me.”
“For this,” said Gunther, “ever your debtor I shall be.”
161.
“So let a thousand warriors at my disposal be,
Stace I of mine own following, have only here with me
A dozen knights, all reckoned: thus will I guard your land,
And faithfully at all times shall serve you Siegfried’s hand.
162.
“In this must Hagen help us, his nephew Ortwein too,
Dankwart and Sindold also, all knights beloved of you.
And Volker shall ride with us, Volker the gallant man,
A better one I know not, and he shall lead the van.
163.
“And let the heralds ride back home to their masters’ land;
And that they soon shall see us give them to understand,
That peace within our castles may undisturbéd reign.”
For followers and kinsmen the king then sent amain.
