Hearing that a giant, Grim, and a giantess, Hilde, were committing great depredations in a remote part of his father’s territories, and that no one had been able to rout or slay them, young Dietrich set out with Master Hildebrand to attack them.  They had not ridden long in the forest before they became aware of the presence of a tiny dwarf, Alberich (Alferich, Alpris, or Elbegast), and pouncing upon him, they held him fast, vowing that he should recover his liberty only upon condition of pointing out the giants’ lurking place.

[Sidenote:  The sword Nagelring.] The dwarf not only promised the desired information, but gave Dietrich the magic sword Nagelring, which alone could pierce the giants’ skin.  Then he led both heroes to the cave, where Grim and Hilde were gloating over a magic helmet they had made and called Hildegrim.  Peering through a fissure of the rock, Hildebrand was the first to gaze upon them, and in his eagerness to get at them he braced his shoulder against the huge mass of stone, forced it apart, and thus made a passage for himself and for his impetuous young pupil.

As Nagelring, the magic sword, had been stolen from him, Grim attacked Dietrich with a blazing brand snatched from the fire, while Hildebrand and Hilde wrestled together.  The encounter was short and fierce between the young hero and his gigantic opponent, who soon succumbed beneath Nagelring’s sharp blows.  Then Dietrich, turning, came just in time to save his master from Hilde’s treacherous blade.  But, although one stroke of Nagelring cut her in two, the heroes were dismayed to see the severed parts of her body knit together in a trice, and permit Hilde, whole once more, to renew the attack.

To prevent a repetition of this magical performance, Dietrich, after again cutting her in two, placed his sword between the severed parts, and, knowing that steel annuls magic, left it there until all power to unite was gone and Hilde was really dead.  The two heroes then returned home in triumph with Nagelring and Hildegrim, the two famous trophies, which Dietrich took as his share of the spoil, leaving to Hildebrand an immense treasure of gold which made him the richest man of his day.  This wealth enabled Hildebrand to marry the noble Ute (Uote or Uta), who helped him to bring up Dietrich’s young brother, then but a babe.

Although the young prince of Bern imagined that he had exterminated all the giants in his land, he was soon undeceived; for Sigenot, Grim’s brother, coming down from the Alps to visit him, and finding him slain, vowed to avenge his death.  The brave young prince, hearing that Sigenot was terrorizing all the neighborhood, immediately set out to attack him, followed at a distance by Hildebrand and the latter’s nephew, Wolfhart, who was always ready to undertake any journey, provided there was some prospect of a fight at the end.