ily at home with your friends. Even
had ye nothing else to feat on here, I could always give you your fill of
one dish--cutlets fried in oil. This is Rumolt's advice, my masters,
since there is danger among the Huns. Never again, I trow, will
Kriemhild be your friend, nor have you and Hagen deserved otherwise.
Stay here, ye knights, else ye may rue it. Ye shall find in the end
that my counsel is not bad: wherefore heed my words. Rich are your
lands. Here you can redeem your pledges better than among the Huns. Who
knoweth how things stand there. Abide where ye are. That is Rumolt's
counsel."

"We will not stay here," said Gernot. "Since my sister and great Etzel
have bidden us so lovingly, why should we refuse? He that will not with
us may tarry at home."

"By my troth," said Rumolt, "I, for one, will never cross the Rhine for
Etzel's hightide. Why should I hazard what I have? I will live while I
may."

"I am of thy mind for that," said knight Ortwin. "I will help thee to
order things at home."

And there were many that would not go, and said, "God guard you among the
Huns."

The king was wroth when he saw they desired to take their ease at home.
"We will go none the less. The prudent are safe in the midst of danger."

Hagen answered, "Be not wroth at my word. Whatever betide, I counsel
thee in good faith to rid strongly armed to the Huns. Since thou wilt
not be turned, summon the best men thou canst find, or knowest of, among
thy vassals, and from among the I will choose a thousand good knights,
that thou come not in scathe by Kriemhild's anger."

"I will do this," said the king straightway. And he bade messengers ride
abroad through the country. Three thousand or more heroes they brought
back with them.

They thought not to meet so grim a doom. Merrily they rode into Gunter's
land. To all them that were to journey to the Huns horses and apparel
were given. The king found many willing. Hagen of Trony bade Dankwart,
his brother, lead eighty of their knights to the Rhine. They came in
proud array, bringing harness and vesture with them. Bold Folker, a
noble minstrel, arrived with thirty of his men for the journey. He told
Gunther that these would also visit the Huns.

I will tell you who Folker was. He was a noble knight, and many good
warriors in Burgundy were his vassals. He was called a minstrel because
he played on the viol.

Hagen chose a thousand that he knew well, and the pr