"I would know," said the king, "whence noble Siegfried cometh, and what
he seeketh at Worms by the Rhine."

The guest answered him, "I will tell thee that readily. Word hath
reached me in the land of my father, that, hereby thee, dwell the prowest
ever sworn to king. I have heard much of these, and would know them; for
this I am come hither. Thy knightliness also I hear praised, and am told
that nowhere is a better king. So say the folk throughout the land; and,
till I have proven it, I will not depart hence. I also am a king that
shall wear a crown, and I would have men say of me that the country and
the people are rightly mine. Thereto I pledge both honour and life. If
thou art valiant, as they say, I care not whom it liketh or irketh, I
will take from thee all thou hast, land and castles, and they shall be
mine."

The king and his men marvelled when they heard this strange saying, that
he would take their land; when the warriors understood it they were wroth.

"Wherein have I wronged thee," said Gunther the knight, "that I should
yield to the might of any man what my father ruled so long with honour?
We will show thee to thy hurt that we also are brave knights."

"I will abide by my purpose," said the doughty man. "If thou canst not
hold they land in peace, I will rule it. Also what I have in fee, if
thou overcome, shall be thine. With thy country be it even as with
mine. To the one of us twain that overcometh shall the whole belong,
people and land."

But Hagen and Gernot answered him back straightway. "We desire not,"
said Gernot, "to win new kingdoms at the cost of dead heroes. Our land