tell me, friend Siegfried, is it known to you whose are these
castles and this lordly land?"

Siegfried answered: "I know it well. It is the land and folk of
Brunhild and the fortress Isenstein, as ye heard me say. Fair
ladies ye may still see there to-day. Methinketh good to advise
you heroes that ye be of one single mind, and that ye tell the
selfsame tale. For if we go to-day before Brunhild, in much
jeopardy must we stand before the queen. When we behold the
lovely maiden with her train, then, ye far-famed heroes, must ye
tell but this single tale: that Gunther be my master and I his
man; then what he craveth will come to pass." Full ready they
were for whatever he bade them vow, nor because of pride did any
one abstain. They promised what he would; wherefrom they all
fared well, when King Gunther saw fair Brunhild. (6)

"Forsooth I vow it less for thy sake than for thy sister's, the
comely maid, who is to me as mine own soul and body. Gladly will
I bring it to pass, that she become my wife."


ENDNOTES:
(1) "Isenland" translates here M.H.G. "Islant", which has,
however, no connection with Iceland in spite of the
agreement of the names in German. "Isen lant", the reading
of the MSS. BJh, has been chosen, partly to avoid confusion,
and partly to indicate its probable derivation from
"Isenstein", the name of Brunhild's castle. Boer's
interpretation of "Isen" as 'ice' finds corroboration in
Otfrid's form "isine steina" ('ice stones', i.e. crystals)