“’I will warn thee, Hagen, thou son of Aldrian;
My aunt has lied unto thee her raiment back to get;
If once thou com’st to Hungary, thou’rt taken in the net.

“’Turn while there’s time for safety, turn, warriors most and least;
For this, and for this only, you’re bidden to the feast,
That you perforce may perish in Etzel’s bloody land. 
Whoever rideth thither, Death has he close at hand.’”
Nibelungenlied (Lettsom’s
tr.).

After adding that the chaplain alone would return alive to Worms, she told Hagen that he would find a ferryman on the opposite side of the river, farther down, but that he would not obey his call unless he declared his name to be Amelrich.

Hagen, after leaving the wise women, soon saw the ferryman’s boat anchored to the opposite shore, and failing to make him come over for a promised reward, he cried out that his name was Amelrich.  The ferryman immediately crossed, but when Hagen sprang into his boat he detected the fraud and began to fight.  Although gigantic in size, this ferryman was no match for Hagen, who, after slaying him, took possession of the boat and skillfully ferried his masters and companions across the river.

In hope of giving the lie to the swan maidens, Hagen paused once in the middle of the stream to fling the chaplain overboard, thinking he would surely drown; but to his surprise and dismay the man struggled back to the shore, where he stood alone and unharmed, and whence he slowly wended his way back to Burgundy.  Hagen now knew that the swan maidens’ prophecy was destined to be fulfilled.  Nevertheless he landed on the opposite shore, where he bade the main part of the troop ride on ahead, leaving him and Dankwart to bring up the rear, for he fully expected that Gelfrat, master of the murdered ferryman, would pursue them to avenge the latter’s death.  These previsions were soon verified, and in the bloody encounter which ensued, Hagen came off victor, with the loss of but four men, while the enemy left more than one hundred dead upon the field.

[Sidenote:  The first warning.] Hagen joined the main body of the army once more, passed on with it to Passau, where Bishop Pilgrim was as glad to see his nephews as he had been to welcome his niece, and from thence went on to the frontiers of Bechlaren.  There they found Eckewart, who had been sent by Ruediger to warn them not to advance any farther, as he suspected that some treachery was afoot.

                                   “Sir Eckewart replied: 

’Yet much, I own, it grieves me that to the Huns you ride. 
You took the life of Siegfried; all hate you deadly here;
As your true friend I warn you; watch well, and wisely fear.’”

          
                                                                  Nibelungenlied (Lettsom’s tr.).