When the skiff had been unloaded of baggage and all the company had been ferried across, Hagen broke it in pieces and cast it into the flood.  When asked wherefore he had done so, and how they were to return from the land of the Huns back to the Rhine, Hagen said: 

“Should we have a coward on this journey who would turn his back on the Huns, when he cometh to this stream he will die a shameful death.”

In passing through Bavaria the Burgundians came into collision with Gelfrat and his brother Else, and Gelfrat was slain.  They were received at Bechlarn by Ruediger, who treated them most hospitably and showered many gifts upon them, bestowing upon Gernot his favourite sword, on Gunther a noble suit of armour, and on Hagen a famous shield.  He accompanied the strangers to the court of Etzel, where they were met first of all by Dietrich of Bern, who warned them that Kriemhild prayed daily for vengeance upon them for the murder of Siegfried.  When Kriemhild beheld Hagen, her archenemy, she wept.  Hagen saw, and “bound his helmet tighter.”

“We have not made a good journey to this feast,” he muttered.

Kriemhild’s Welcome

“Ye are welcome, nobles and knights,” said Kriemhild.  “I greet you not for your kinship.  What bring ye me from Worms beyond the Rhine that ye should be so welcome to me here?  Where have ye put the Nibelung treasure?  It is mine as ye know full well, and ye should have brought it me to Etzel’s court.”

Hagen replied that he had been ordered by his liege lords to sink it in the Rhine, and there must it lie till doomsday.

At this Kriemhild grew wroth.  Hagen went on to say that he had enough to do to carry his shield and breastplate.  The Queen, alarmed, desired that all weapons should be placed in her charge, but to this Hagen demurred, and said that it was too much honour for such a bounteous princess to bear his shield and other arms to his lodging.

Kriemhild lamented, saying that they appeared to think that she planned treachery against them; but to this Dietrich answered in great anger that he had forewarned Gunther and his brothers of her treacherous intentions.  Kriemhild was greatly abashed at this, and without speaking a word she left the company; but ere she went she darted furious glances upon them, from which they well saw with what a dangerous foe they had to deal.  King Etzel then asked who Hagen might be, and was told his name and lineage and that he was a fierce and grim warrior.  Etzel then recognized him as a warrior who had been a hostage with him along with Walthar of Spain and who had done him yeoman service.

Events March

This last passage connects the Nibelungenlied with the Latin poem of Walthar of Aquitaine.  Indeed, the great German epic contains repeated allusions to this work of the ninth or tenth century, which is dealt with later in this book.