"To him are known far kingdoms / and every foreign land,
And if he know these strangers / we soon shall understand."
The king then sent to fetch him: / with his train of men
Unto the king's high presence / in stately gear went he then.

83

What were the king's good pleasure, / asked Hagen grim in war.
"In the court within my castle / are warriors from afar,
And no one here doth know them: / if them thou e'er didst see
In any land far distant, / now shalt thou, Hagen, tell to me."

84

"That will I do, 'tis certain."-- / To a window then he went,
And on the unknown strangers / his keen eye he bent.
Well pleased him their equipment / and the rich dress they wore,
Yet ne'er had he beheld them / in land of Burgundy before.

85

He said that whencesoever / these knights come to the Rhine,
They bear a royal message, / or are of princely line.
"Their steeds are so bedizened, / and their apparel rare:
No matter whence they journey, / high-hearted men in truth they are."

86

Further then spake Hagen: / "As far as goes my ken,
Though I the noble Siegfried / yet have never seen,