To thee will I tell most gladly what our master said,
When from his land we started, hither to come at his bidding;
For thy dear sake, fair lady, unto thy father’s land and castle speeding.”
She said: “Then tell me freely the errand on which you’re sent
By him you call your master; if my will that way is bent
I shall let you know it truly, before we yet are parted.”
But Horant feared wild Hagen, and began at court to feel himself faint-hearted.
To the lady thus he answered: “To you he sends this word—
That his heart for you is longing; his love alone is stirred.
For him, I beg, fair lady, let now your kindness waken;
He from other women has for your sake his love and longing taken.”
She said: “May God reward him; such love for me he shows.
If he in birth is my fellow, I fain would be his spouse,
If you will deign to sing to me every morn and even.”
He said: “That will I gladly; to this no care by you need e’er be given.”
Quoth he to the queenly Hilda: “Most fair and high-born maid,
There daily live with my master, and long at court have staid,
Twelve minstrels who, before me, earn much higher praises;
But, though sweet their singing, my lord, the king, in song still better pleases.”
She said: “If your loving master in song so skilful be,
Of longing for him, truly, I never can be free;
My best of thanks I give him for the love he now is showing,
And, dared I leave my father, gladly from here would I with you be going.”
Then spake the knightly Morunc: “Lady, with us there are
Warriors full seven hundred: our weal or woe they share,
And each for this is ready; if once in our hands we have you,
Know you nor fear nor sorrow lest we to meet wild Hagen’s wrath should leave you.”
He said: “From Hagen’s kingdom we wish forthwith to go;
Therefore beg your father the kindness to us to show,
Youthful, high-born maiden, that he and your queenly mother
Will deign our bark to look on; and you must also come, e’en if no other.”
“That will I do most gladly, if my father’s leave you have;
Of him and those about him this boon you now must crave,
That I and my maidens also may ride to the shore some morning.
If he shall grant your wishes, three days before, of the time you must give us warning.”
The first of all the chamberlains was wont, and had a right,
Often to be with the maidens. Just then, this very knight
There had come for pastime, and to give to them his greeting;
There found he Horant and Morunc; well might they fear some harm was their lives awaiting.
He said to Lady Hilda: “Who are they sitting here?”
From the lord so hot and hasty was never such wrath to fear.
He said: “Whoe’er allowed you to come into this bower?
Whoso in this hath helped you ne’er showed you falser friendship to this hour.”
She said: “Now soothe your anger: in peace pray let them live.
If to yourself great evil you do not wish to give,
You must unseen by any, them to their rooms be bringing;
It else hath helped but little that his knightly songs the minstrel here was singing.”
“Is this the knight,” he asked her, “they say so well can sing?
E’en such a minstrel know I: never hath any king
Had a braver fighter. My father and his mother
Were children of one father; worthier knight than he there’s not another.”
The maid began to ask him: “Tell me, then, his name.”
He said: “Men call him Horant; from the Danish land he came.
Although no crown he weareth, he yet for one is fitted:
We now know not each other, but once at Hettel’s court our love we plighted.”
When Morunc, too, was telling that erst, in his fatherland,
He also had been outlawed, his heart was sorely pained.
His eyes with tears were welling, and now were overflowing;
Then the queenly lady kindly looked on him, her sorrow showing.
Then saw the chamberlain also how that his eyes were wet.
He said: “Most worthy lady, these friends whom here we meet
I know to be my kinsmen; help now that all goes rightly
With both these worthy champions: most careful will I be to keep them fitly.”
Much for them he sorrowed, and felt heart-pain, forsooth;
“Durst I before my ladies, I would kiss upon the mouth
Each of these knights so worthy. The days indeed are many
Since tidings of King Hettel I could from a Hegeling ask, or learn from any.”
Then spake the maiden further: “Since these thy kinsmen be,
Now so much the dearer are they as guests to me.
Known unto my father thou should’st quickly make them;
They will not then so hastily to their homes afar across the sea betake them.”
A busy talk began they, those two young heroes brave;
Morunc unto the chamberlain his mind most freely gave.
He said for Lady Hilda they came within those borders;
And that their master Hettel to bring her back had sent them, as her warders.
Then said to them the chamberlain: “A twofold care I feel,
As liegeman of my master, and to help you, too, as well.
How could I turn his anger, if he knew you now were seeking
To win his maiden daughter? Never from here could you your way be taking.”
Then spake the knightly Horant: “Hear well what now I say;
In four days’ time to Hagen, we will come, and him will pray
That we may leave his kingdom, if such may be his pleasure.
The king will then make ready gifts for us of clothes, as well as treasure.
“We will ask for nothing further, (help you here must lend,)
But that Hagen shall be willing, as well beseems a friend,
To come to the shore to see us, my lady with him riding—
His wife, the high-born Hilda; there to see the ship in which we’re biding.
“Might we in this be lucky, our toil we well shall spend;
And, with a happy outcome, our sorrows have an end.
If only to the seashore he will ride with his daughter,
We well shall be rewarded at home by our master Hettel, for whom we sought her.”
Then from out the castle they were led by the crafty man,
So that the kingly Hagen mistrusted not their plan.
When, for their floating shelter, they the courtyard quitted,
All they had done for their master should not, I ween, by him at home be slighted.
They told the aged Wâ-te what yet to none was known:
They said the high-born maiden her love did freely own
Unto their master, Hettel, for whom they now had sought her;
They talked with wise old Wâ-te how best to bring her home across the water.
Then spake the aged
