The child, while the bird was falling, broke from him away

The child, while the bird was falling, broke from him away, And hid among the bushes, a little, lorn estray; Well-nigh was he to starving, ’twas long since food he tasted. Yet on a day long after the hopes of women in Ireland on him rested.

God doth many a wonder, truly one may say. By the craft of the mighty griffin, it came to pass one day, Three daughters fair of princes had been taken thither, And now near by were dwelling. No man can tell how there they lived together,

And how, thro’ days so many, their lives to them were spared, Were it not that God in heaven for them in kindness cared. Hagen now no longer need live without a fellow; Those good and lovely maidens soon found the little waif in a rocky hollow.

When, crawling to his hiding, they the child did see, It might, so thought the maidens, a dwarfish goblin be, Or perhaps it was a water-oaf, from out the sea up-driven; But when the boy came near them, at once a welcome kind to him was given.