He overtakes the fugitives on an island, where a bloody conflict takes place, in which many of the bravest warriors die.

Every night, however, a sorceress recalls the dead to life to renew the strife, and to exterminate one another afresh.
The poem "Gudrun," which is probably as old as the Nibelungenlied, and almost rivals it in interest, is one of the most valuable remains of ancient German literature.

It consists of thirty-two songs, in which are related the adventures of three generations of the heroic family of the Hegelings.

Hence it is often termed the "Hegeling Legend." [Sidenote: Kidnaping of Hagen.] The poem opens by telling us that Hagen was the son of Sigeband, King of Ireland, which was evidently a place in Holland, and not the well-known Emerald Isle.

During a great feast, when countless guests were assembled around his father's hospitable board, this prince, who was then but seven years of age, was seized by a griffin and rapidly borne away.
"Young Hagen, loudly crying, was filled with dire dismay; The bird with mighty pinions soared high with him away." _Gudrun_ (Dippold's tr.).
The cries of the child, and the arrows of Sigeband's men at arms, were equally ineffectual in checking the griffin, which flew over land and sea, and finally deposited its prey in its nest on the top of a great cliff on a desert island.