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Title: The House of the Wolfings
Author: William Morris
Release Date: October, 2001 [Etext #2885]
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Edition: 10
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This etext was prepared from the 1904 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition
by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk.
THE HOUSE OF THE WOLFINGS
by William Morris
Whiles in the early Winter eve
We pass amid the gathering night
Some homestead that we had to leave
Years past; and see its candles bright
Shine in the room beside the door
Where we were merry years agone
But now must never enter more,
As still the dark road drives us on.
E'en so the world of men may turn
At even of some hurried day
And see the ancient glimmer burn
Across the waste that hath no way;
Then with that faint light in its eyes
A while I bid it linger near
And nurse in wavering memories
The bitter-sweet of days that were.
CHAPTER I--THE DWELLINGS OF MID-MARK
The tale tells that in times long past there was a dwelling of men
beside a great wood. Before it lay a plain, not very great, but
which was, as it were, an isle in the sea of woodland, since even
when you stood on the flat ground, you could see trees everywhere in
the offing, though as for hills, you could scarce say that there were
any; only swellings-up of the earth here and there, like the
upheavings of the water that one sees at whiles going on amidst the
eddies of a swift but deep stream.
On either side, to right and left the tree-girdle reached out toward
the blue distance, thick close and unsundered, save where it and the
plain which it begirdled was cleft amidmost by a river about as wide
as the Thames at Sheene when the flood-tide is at its highest, but so
swift and full of eddies, that it gave token of mountains not so far
distant, though they were hidden. On each side moreover of the
stream of this river was a wide space of stones, great and little,
and in most places above this stony waste were banks of a few feet
high, showing where the yearly winter flood was most commonly stayed.
You must know that this great clearing in the woodland was not a
matter of haphazard; though the river had driven a road whereby men
might fare on each side of its hurrying stream. It was men who had
made that Isle in the woodland.
For many generations the folk that now dwelt there had learned the
craft of iron-founding, so that they had no lack of wares of iron and
steel, whether they were tools of handicraft or weapons for hunting
and for war. It was the men of the Folk, who coming adown by the
river-side had made that clearing. The tale tells not whence they
came, but belike from the dales of the distant mountains, and from
dales and mountains and plains further aloof and yet further.
Anyhow they came adown the river; on its waters on rafts, by its
shores in wains or bestriding their horses or their kine, or afoot,
till they had a mind to abide; and there as it fell they stayed their
travel, and spread from each side of the river, and fought with the
wood and its wild things, that they might make to themselves a
dwelling-place on the face of the earth.
So they cut down the trees, and burned their stumps that the grass
might grow sweet for their kine and sheep and horses; and they diked
the river where need was all through the plain, and far up into the
wild-wood to bridle the winter floods: and they made them boats to
ferry them over, and to float down stream and track up-stream: they
fished the river's eddies also with net and with line; and drew drift
from out of it of far-travelled wood and other matters; and the
gravel of its shallows they washed for gold; and it became their
friend, and they loved it, and gave it a name, and called it the
Dusky, and the Glassy, and the Mirkwood-water; for the names of it
changed with the generations of man.
There then in the clearing of the wood that for many years grew
greater yearly they drave their beasts to pasture in the new-made
meadows, where year by year the grass grew sweeter as the sun shone
on it and the standing waters went from it; and now in the year
whereof the tale telleth it was a fair and smiling plain, and no folk
might have a better meadow.
But long before that had they learned the craft of tillage and taken
heed to the acres and begun to grow wheat and rye thereon round about
their roofs; the spade came into their hands, and they bethought them
of the plough-share, and the tillage spread and grew, and there was
no lack of bread.
In such wise that Folk had made an island amidst of the Mirkwood, and
established a home there, and upheld it with manifold toil too long
to tell of. And from the beginning this clearing in the wood they
called the Mid-mark: for you shall know that men might journey up
and down the Mirkwood-water, and half a day's ride up or down they
would come on another clearing or island in the woods, and these were
the Upper-mark and the Nether-mark: and all these three were
inhabited by men of one folk and one kindred, which was called the
Mark-men, though of many branches was that stem of folk, who bore
divers signs in battle and at the council whereby they might be
known.
Now in the Mid-mark itself were many Houses of men; for by that word
had they called for generations those who dwelt together under one
token of kinship. The river ran from South to North, and both on the
East side and on the West were there Houses of the Folk, and their
habitations were shouldered up nigh unto the wood, so that ever
betwixt them and the river was there a space of tillage and pasture.
Tells the tale of one such House, whose habitations were on the west
side of the water, on a gentle slope of land, so that no flood higher
than common might reach them. It was straight down to the river
mostly that the land fell off, and on its downward-reaching slopes
was the tillage, "the Acres," as the men of that time always called
tilled land; and beyond that was the meadow going fair and smooth,
though with here and there a rising in it, down to the lips of the
stony waste of the winter river.
Now the name of this House was the Wolfings, and they bore a Wolf on
their banners, and their warriors were marked on the breast with the
image of the Wolf, that they might be known for what they were if
they fell in battle, and were stripped.
The house, that is to say the Roof, of the Wolfings of the Mid-mark
stood on the topmost of the slope aforesaid with its back to the
wild-wood and its face to the acres and the water. But you must know
that in those days the men of one branch of kindred dwelt under one
roof together, and had therein their place and dignity; nor were
there many degrees amongst them as hath befallen afterwards, but all
they of one blood were brethren and of equal dignity. Howbeit they
had servants or thralls, men taken in battle, men of alien blood,
though true it is that from time to time were some of such men taken
into the House, and hailed as brethren of the blood.
Also (to make an end at once of these matters of kinship and
affinity) the men of one House might not wed the women of their own
House: to the Wolfing men all Wolfing women were as sisters: they
must needs wed with the Hartings or the Elkings or the Bearings, or
other such Houses of the Mark as were not so close akin to the blood
of the Wolf; and this was a law that none dreamed of breaking. Thus
then dwelt this Folk and such was their Custom.
As to the Roof of the Wolfings, it was a great hall and goodly, after
the fashion of their folk and their day; not built of stone and lime,
but framed of the goodliest trees of the wild-wood squared with the
adze, and betwixt the framing filled with clay wattled with reeds.
Long was that house, and at one end anigh the gable was the Man's-
door, not so high that a man might stand on the threshold and his
helmcrest clear the lintel; for such was the custom, that a tall man
must bow himself as he came into the hall; which custom maybe was a
memory of the days of onslaught when the foemen were mostly wont to
beset the hall; whereas in the days whereof the tale tells they drew
out into the fields and fought unfenced; unless at whiles when the
odds were over great, and then they drew their wains about them and
were fenced by the wain-burg. At least it was from no niggardry that
the door was made thus low, as might be seen by the fair and manifold
carving of knots and dragons that was wrought above the lintel of the
door for some three foot's space. But a like door was there anigh
the other gable-end, whereby the women entered, and it was called the
Woman's-door.
Near to the house on all sides except toward the wood were there many
bowers and cots round about the penfolds and the byres: and these
were booths for the stowage of wares, and for crafts and smithying
that were unhandy to do in the house; and withal they were the
dwelling-places of the thralls. And the lads and young men often
abode there many days and were cherished there of the thralls that
loved them, since at whiles they shunned the Great Roof that they
might be the freer to come and go at their pleasure, and deal as they
would. Thus was there a clustering on the slopes and bents betwixt
the acres of the Wolfings and the wild-wood wherein dwelt the wolves.
As to the house within, two rows of pillars went down it endlong,
fashioned of the mightiest trees that might be found, and each one
fairly wrought with base and chapiter, and wreaths and knots, and
fighting men and dragons; so that it was like a church of later days
that has a nave and aisles: windows there were above the aisles, and
a passage underneath the said windows in their roofs. In the aisles
were the sleeping-places of the Folk, and down the nave under the
crown of the roof were three hearths for the fires, and above each
hearth a luffer or smoke-bearer to draw the smoke up when the fires
were lighted. Forsooth on a bright winter afternoon it was strange
to see the three columns of smoke going wavering up to the dimness of
the mighty roof, and one maybe smitten athwart by the sunbeams. As
for the timber of the roof itself and its framing, so exceeding great
and high it was, that the tale tells how that none might see the
fashion of it from the hall-floor unless he were to raise aloft a
blazing faggot on a long pole: since no lack of timber was there
among the men of the Mark.
At the end of the hall anigh the Man's-door was the dais, and a table
thereon set thwartwise of the hall; and in front of the dais was the
noblest and greatest of the hearths; (but of the others one was in
the very midmost, and another in the Woman's-Chamber) and round about
the dais, along the gable-wall, and hung from pillar to pillar were
woven cloths pictured with images of ancient tales and the deeds of
the Wolfings, and the deeds of the Gods from whence they came. And
this was the fairest place of all the house and the best-beloved of
the Folk, and especially of the older and the mightier men: and
there were tales told, and songs sung, especially if they were new:
and thereto also were messengers brought if any tidings were abroad:
there also would the elders talk together about matters concerning
the House or the Mid-mark or the whole Folk of the Markmen.
Yet you must not think that their solemn councils were held there,
the folk-motes whereat it must be determined what to do and what to
forbear doing; for according as such councils, (which they called
Things) were of the House or of the Mid-mark or of the whole Folk,
were they held each at the due Thing-steads in the Wood aloof from
either acre or meadow, (as was the custom of our forefathers for long
after) and at such Things would all the men of the House or the Mid-
mark or the Folk be present man by man. And in each of these steads
was there a Doomring wherein Doom was given by the neighbours chosen,
(whom now we call the Jury) in matters between man and man; and no
such doom of neighbours was given, and no such voice of the Folk
proclaimed in any house or under any roof, nor even as aforesaid on
the tilled acres or the depastured meadows. This was the custom of
our forefathers, in memory, belike, of the days when as yet there was
neither house nor tillage, nor flocks and herds, but the Earth's face
only and what freely grew thereon.
But over the dais there hung by chains and pulleys fastened to a tie-
beam of the roof high aloft a wondrous lamp fashioned of glass; yet
of no such glass as the folk made then and there, but of a fair and
clear green like an emerald, and all done with figures and knots in
gold, and strange beasts, and a warrior slaying a dragon, and the sun
rising on the earth: nor did any tale tell whence this lamp came,
but it was held as an ancient and holy thing by all the Mark-men, and
the kindred of the Wolf had it in charge to keep a light burning in
it night and day for ever; and they appointed a maiden of their own
kindred to that office; which damsel must needs be unwedded, since no
wedded woman dwelling under that roof could be a Wolfing woman, but
would needs be of the houses wherein the Wolfings wedded.
This lamp which burned ever was called the Hall-Sun, and the woman
who had charge of it, and who was the fairest that might be found was
called after it the Hall-Sun also.
At the other end of the hall was the Woman's-Chamber, and therein
were the looms and other gear for the carding and spinning of wool
and the weaving of cloth.
Such was the Roof under which dwelt the kindred of the Wolfings; and
the other kindreds of the Mid-mark had roofs like to it; and of these
the chiefest were the Elkings, the Vallings, the Alftings, the
Beamings, the Galtings, and the Bearings; who bore on their banners
the Elk, the Falcon, the Swan, the Tree, the Boar, and the Bear. But
other lesser and newer kindreds there were than these: as for the
Hartings above named, they were a kindred of the Upper-mark.
CHAPTER II--THE FLITTING OF THE WAR-ARROW
Tells the tale that it was an evening of summer, when the wheat was
in the ear, but yet green; and the neat-herds were done driving the
milch-kine to the byre, and the horseherds and the shepherds had made
the night-shift, and the out-goers were riding two by two and one by
one through the lanes between the wheat and the rye towards the
meadow. Round the cots of the thralls were gathered knots of men and
women both thralls and freemen, some talking together, some
hearkening a song or a tale, some singing and some dancing together;
and the children gambolling about from group to group with their
shrill and tuneless voices, like young throstles who have not yet
learned the song of their race. With these were mingled dogs, dun of
colour, long of limb, sharp-nosed, gaunt and great; they took little
heed of the children as they pulled them about in their play, but lay
down, or loitered about, as though they had forgotten the chase and
the wild-wood.
Merry was the folk with that fair tide, and the promise of the
harvest, and the joy of life, and there was no weapon among them so
close to the houses, save here and there the boar-spear of some
herdman or herd-woman late come from the meadow.
Tall and for the most part comely were both men and women; the most
of them light-haired and grey-eyed, with cheek-bones somewhat high;
white of skin but for the sun's burning, and the wind's parching, and
whereas they were tanned of a very ruddy and cheerful hue. But the
thralls were some of them of a shorter and darker breed, black-haired
also and dark-eyed, lighter of limb; sometimes better knit, but
sometimes crookeder of leg and knottier of arm. But some also were
of build and hue not much unlike to the freemen; and these doubtless
came of some other Folk of the Goths which had given way in battle
before the Men of the Mark, either they or their fathers.
Moreover some of the freemen were unlike their fellows and kindred,
being slenderer and closer-knit, and black-haired, but grey-eyed
withal; and amongst these were one or two who exceeded in beauty all
others of the House.
Now the sun was set and the glooming was at point to begin and the
shadowless twilight lay upon the earth. The nightingales on the
borders of the wood sang ceaselessly from the scattered hazel-trees
above the greensward where the grass was cropped down close by the
nibbling of the rabbits; but in spite of their song and the divers
voices of the men-folk about the houses, it was an evening on which
sounds from aloof can be well heard, since noises carry far at such
tides.
Suddenly they who were on the edges of those throngs and were the
less noisy, held themselves as if to listen; and a group that had
gathered about a minstrel to hear his story fell hearkening also
round about the silenced and hearkening tale-teller: some of the
dancers and singers noted them and in their turn stayed the dance and
kept silence to hearken; and so from group to group spread the
change, till all were straining their ears to hearken the tidings.
Already the men of the night-shift had heard it, and the shepherds of
them had turned about, and were trotting smartly back through the
lanes of the tall wheat: but the horse-herds were now scarce seen on
the darkening meadow, as they galloped on fast toward their herds to
drive home the stallions. For what they had heard was the tidings of
war.
There was a sound in the air as of a humble-bee close to the ear of
one lying on a grassy bank; or whiles as of a cow afar in the meadow
lowing in the afternoon when milking-time draws nigh: but it was
ever shriller than the one, and fuller than the other; for it changed
at whiles, though after the first sound of it, it did not rise or
fall, because the eve was windless. You might hear at once that for
all it was afar, it was a great and mighty sound; nor did any that
hearkened doubt what it was, but all knew it for the blast of the
great war-horn of the Elkings, whose Roof lay up Mirkwood-water next
to the Roof of the Wolfings.
So those little throngs broke up at once; and all the freemen, and of
the thralls a good many, flocked, both men and women, to the Man's-
door of the hall, and streamed in quietly and with little talk, as
men knowing that they should hear all in due season.
Within under the Hall-Sun, amidst the woven stories of time past, sat
the elders and chief warriors on the dais, and amidst of all a big
strong man of forty winters, his dark beard a little grizzled, his
eyes big and grey. Before him on the board lay the great War-horn of
the Wolfings carved out of the tusk of a sea-whale of the North and
with many devices on it and the Wolf amidst them all; its golden
mouth-piece and rim wrought finely with flowers. There it abode the
blowing, until the spoken word of some messenger should set forth the
tidings borne on the air by the horn of the Elkings.
But the name of the dark-haired chief was Thiodolf (to wit Folk-wolf)
and he was deemed the wisest man of the Wolfings, and the best man of
his hands, and of heart most dauntless. Beside him sat the fair
woman called the Hall-Sun; for she was his foster-daughter before
men's eyes; and she was black-haired and grey-eyed like to her
fosterer, and never was woman fashioned fairer: she was young of
years, scarce twenty winters old.
There sat the chiefs and elders on the dais, and round about stood
the kindred intermingled with the thralls, and no man spake, for they
were awaiting sure and certain tidings: and when all were come in
who had a mind to, there was so great a silence in the hall, that the
song of the nightingales on the wood-edge sounded clear and loud
therein, and even the chink of the bats about the upper windows could
be heard. Then amidst the hush of men-folk, and the sounds of the
life of the earth came another sound that made all turn their eyes
toward the door; and this was the pad-pad of one running on the
trodden and summer-dried ground anigh the hall: it stopped for a
moment at the Man's-door, and the door opened, and the throng parted,
making way for the man that entered and came hastily up to the midst
of the table that stood on the dais athwart the hall, and stood there
panting, holding forth in his outstretched hand something which not
all could see in the dimness of the hall-twilight, but which all knew
nevertheless. The man was young, lithe and slender, and had no
raiment but linen breeches round his middle, and skin shoes on his
feet. As he stood there gathering his breath for speech, Thiodolf
stood up, and poured mead into a drinking horn and held it out
towards the new-comer, and spake, but in rhyme and measure:
"Welcome, thou evening-farer, and holy be thine head,
Since thou hast sought unto us in the heart of the Wolfings' stead;
Drink now of the horn of the mighty, and call a health if thou wilt
O'er the eddies of the mead-horn to the washing out of guilt.
For thou com'st to the peace of the Wolfings, and our very guest thou
art,
And meseems as I behold thee, that I look on a child of the Hart."
But the man put the horn from him with a hasty hand, and none said
another word to him until he had gotten his breath again; and then he
said:
"All hail ye Wood-Wolfs' children! nought may I drink the wine,
For the mouth and the maw that I carry this eve are nought of mine;
And my feet are the feet of the people, since the word went forth
that tide,
'O Elf here of the Hartings, no longer shalt thou bide
In any house of the Markmen than to speak the word and wend,
Till all men know the tidings and thine errand hath an end.'
Behold, O Wolves, the token and say if it be true!
I bear the shaft of battle that is four-wise cloven through,
And its each end dipped in the blood-stream, both the iron and the
horn,
And its midmost scathed with the fire; and the word that I have borne
Along with this war-token is, 'Wolfings of the Mark
Whenso ye see the war-shaft, by the daylight or the dark,
Busk ye to battle faring, and leave all work undone
Save the gathering for the handplay at the rising of the sun.
Three days hence is the hosting, and thither bear along
Your wains and your kine for the slaughter lest the journey should be
long.
For great is the Folk, saith the tidings, that against the Markmen
come;
In a far off land is their dwelling, whenso they sit at home,
And Welsh {1} is their tongue, and we wot not of the word that is in
their mouth,
As they march a many together from the cities of the South.'"
Therewith he held up yet for a minute the token of the war-arrow
ragged and burnt and bloody; and turning about with it in his hand
went his ways through the open door, none hindering; and when he was
gone, it was as if the token were still in the air there against the
heads of the living men, and the heads of the woven warriors, so
intently had all gazed at it; and none doubted the tidings or the
token. Then said Thiodolf:
"Forth will we Wolfing children, and cast a sound abroad:
The mouth of the sea-beast's weapon shall speak the battle-word;
And ye warriors hearken and hasten, and dight the weed of war,
And then to acre and meadow wend ye adown no more,
For this work shall be for the women to drive our neat from the mead,
And to yoke the wains, and to load them as the men of war have need."
Out then they streamed from the hall, and no man was left therein
save the fair Hall-Sun sitting under the lamp whose name she bore.
But to the highest of the slope they went, where was a mound made
higher by man's handiwork; thereon stood Thiodolf and handled the
horn, turning his face toward the downward course of Mirkwood-water;
and he set the horn to his lips, and blew a long blast, and then
again, and yet again the third time; and all the sounds of the
gathering night were hushed under the sound of the roaring of the
war-horn of the Wolfings; and the Kin of the Beamings heard it as
they sat in their hall, and they gat them ready to hearken to the
bearer of the tidings who should follow on the sound of the war-
blast.
But when the last sound of the horn had died away, then said
Thiodolf:
"Now Wolfing children hearken, what the splintered War-shaft saith,
The fire scathed blood-stained aspen! we shall ride for life or
death,
We warriors, a long journey with the herd and with the wain;
But unto this our homestead shall we wend us back again,
All the gleanings of the battle; and here for them that live
Shall stand the Roof of the Wolfings, and for them shall the meadow
thrive,
And the acres give their increase in the harvest of the year;
Now is no long departing since the Hall-Sun bideth here
'Neath the holy Roof of the Fathers, and the place of the Wolfing
kin,
And the feast of our glad returning shall yet be held therein.
Hear the bidding of the War-shaft! All men, both thralls and free,
'Twixt twenty winters and sixty, beneath the shield shall be,
And the hosting is at the Thingstead, the Upper-mark anigh;
And we wend away to-morrow ere the Sun is noon-tide high."
Therewith he stepped down from the mound, and went his way back to
the hall; and manifold talk arose among the folk; and of the warriors
some were already dight for the journey, but most not, and a many
went their ways to see to their weapons and horses, and the rest back
again into the hall.
By this time night had fallen, and between then and the dawning would
be no darker hour, for the moon was just rising; a many of the horse-
herds had done their business, and were now making their way back
again through the lanes of the wheat, driving the stallions before
them, who played together kicking, biting and squealing, paying but
little heed to the standing corn on either side. Lights began to
glitter now in the cots of the thralls, and brighter still in the
stithies where already you might hear the hammers clinking on the
anvils, as men fell to looking to their battle gear.
But the chief men and the women sat under their Roof on the eve of
departure: and the tuns of mead were broached, and the horns filled
and borne round by young maidens, and men ate and drank and were
merry; and from time to time as some one of the warriors had done
with giving heed to his weapons, he entered into the hall and fell
into the company of those whom he loved most and by whom he was best
beloved; and whiles they talked, and whiles they sang to the harp up
and down that long house; and the moon risen high shone in at the
windows, and there was much laughter and merriment, and talk of deeds
of arms of the old days on the eve of that departure: till little by
little weariness fell on them, and they went their ways to slumber,
and the hall was fallen silent.
CHAPTER III--THIODOLF TALKETH WITH THE WOOD-SUN
But yet sat Thiodolf under the Hall-Sun for a while as one in deep
thought; till at last as he stirred, his sword clattered on him; and
then he lifted up his eyes and looked down the hall and saw no man
stirring, so he stood up and settled his raiment on him, and went
forth, and so took his ways through the hall-door, as one who hath an
errand.
The moonlight lay in a great flood on the grass without, and the dew
was falling in the coldest hour of the night, and the earth smelled
sweetly: the whole habitation was asleep now, and there was no sound
to be known as the sound of any creature, save that from the distant
meadow came the lowing of a cow that had lost her calf, and that a
white owl was flitting about near the eaves of the Roof with her wild
cry that sounded like the mocking of merriment now silent.
Thiodolf turned toward the wood, and walked steadily through the
scattered hazel-trees, and thereby into the thick of the beech-trees,
whose boles grew smooth and silver-grey, high and close-set: and so
on and on he went as one going by a well-known path, though there was
no path, till all the moonlight was quenched under the close roof of
the beech-leaves, though yet for all the darkness, no man could go
there and not feel that the roof was green above him. Still he went
on in despite of the darkness, till at last there was a glimmer
before him, that grew greater till he came unto a small wood-lawn
whereon the turf grew again, though the grass was but thin, because
little sunlight got to it, so close and thick were the tall trees
round about it. In the heavens above it by now there was a light
that was not all of the moon, though it might scarce be told whether
that light were the memory of yesterday or the promise of to-morrow,
since little of the heavens could be seen thence, save the crown of
them, because of the tall tree-tops.
Nought looked Thiodolf either at the heavens above, or the trees, as
he strode from off the husk-strewn floor of the beech wood on to the
scanty grass of the lawn, but his eyes looked straight before him at
that which was amidmost of the lawn: and little wonder was that; for
there on a stone chair sat a woman exceeding fair, clad in glittering
raiment, her hair lying as pale in the moonlight on the grey stone as
the barley acres in the August night before the reaping-hook goes in
amongst them. She sat there as though she were awaiting someone, and
he made no stop nor stay, but went straight up to her, and took her
in his arms, and kissed her mouth and her eyes, and she him again;
and then he sat himself down beside her. But her eyes looked kindly
on him as she said:
"O Thiodolf, hardy art thou, that thou hast no fear to take me in
thine arms and to kiss me, as though thou hadst met in the meadow
with a maiden of the Elkings: and I, who am a daughter of the Gods
of thy kindred, and a Chooser of the Slain! Yea, and that upon the
eve of battle and the dawn of thy departure to the stricken field!"
"O Wood-Sun," he said "thou art the treasure of life that I found
when I was young, and the love of life that I hold, now that my beard
is grizzling. Since when did I fear thee, Wood-Sun? Did I fear thee
when first I saw thee, and we stood amidst the hazelled field, we
twain living amongst the slain? But my sword was red with the blood
of the foe, and my raiment with mine own blood; and I was a-weary
with the day's work, and sick with many strokes, and methought I was
fainting into death. And there thou wert before me, full of life and
ruddy and smiling both lips and eyes; thy raiment clean and clear,
thine hands stained with blood: then didst thou take me by my bloody
and weary hand, and didst kiss my lips grown ashen pale, and thou
saidst 'Come with me.' And I strove to go, and might not; so many
and sore were my hurts. Then amidst my sickness and my weariness was
I merry; for I said to myself, This is the death of the warrior, and
it is exceeding sweet. What meaneth it? Folk said of me; he is over
young to meet the foeman; yet am I not over young to die?"
Therewith he laughed out amid the wild-wood, and his speech became
song, and he said:
"We wrought in the ring of the hazels, and the wine of war we drank:
From the tide when the sun stood highest to the hour wherein she
sank:
And three kings came against me, the mightiest of the Huns,
The evil-eyed in battle, the swift-foot wily ones;
And they gnashed their teeth against me, and they gnawed on the
shield-rims there,
On that afternoon of summer, in the high-tide of the year.
Keen-eyed I gazed about me, and I saw the clouds draw up
Till the heavens were dark as the hollow of a wine-stained iron cup,
And the wild-deer lay unfeeding on the grass of the forest glades,
And all earth was scared with the thunder above our clashing blades.
"Then sank a King before me, and on fell the other twain,
And I tossed up the reddened sword-blade in the gathered rush of the
rain
And the blood and the water blended, and fragrant grew the earth.
"There long I turned and twisted within the battle-girth
Before those bears of onset: while out from the grey world streamed
The broad red lash of the lightening and in our byrnies gleamed.
And long I leapt and laboured in that garland of the fight
'Mid the blue blades and the lightening; but ere the sky grew light
The second of the Hun-kings on the rain-drenched daisies lay;
And we twain with the battle blinded a little while made stay,
And leaning on our sword-hilts each on the other gazed.
"Then the rain grew less, and one corner of the veil of clouds was
raised,
And as from the broidered covering gleams out the shoulder white
Of the bed-mate of the warrior when on his wedding night
He layeth his hand to the linen; so, down there in the west
Gleamed out the naked heaven: but the wrath rose up in my breast,
And the sword in my hand rose with it, and I leaped and hewed at the
Hun;
And from him too flared the war-flame, and the blades danced bright
in the sun
Come back to the earth for a little before the ending of day.
"There then with all that was in him did the Hun play out the play,
Till he fell, and left me tottering, and I turned my feet to wend
To the place of the mound of the mighty, the gate of the way without
end.
And there thou wert. How was it, thou Chooser of the Slain,
Did I die in thine arms, and thereafter did thy mouth-kiss wake me
again?"
Ere the last sound of his voice was done she turned and kissed him;
and then she said; "Never hadst thou a fear and thine heart is full
of hardihood."
Then he said:
"'Tis the hardy heart, beloved, that keepeth me alive,
As the king-leek in the garden by the rain and the sun doth thrive,
So I thrive by the praise of the people; it is blent with my drink
and my meat;
As I slumber in the night-tide it laps me soft and sweet;
And through the chamber window when I waken in the morn
With the wind of the sun's arising from the meadow is it borne
And biddeth me remember that yet I live on earth:
Then I rise and my might is with me, and fills my heart with mirth,
As I think of the praise of the people; and all this joy I win
By the deeds that my heart commandeth and the hope that lieth
therein."
"Yea," she said, "but day runneth ever on the heels of day, and there
are many and many days; and betwixt them do they carry eld."
"Yet art thou no older than in days bygone," said he. "Is it so, O
Daughter of the Gods, that thou wert never born, but wert from before
the framing of the mountains, from the beginning of all things?"
But she said:
"Nay, nay; I began, I was born; although it may be indeed
That not on the hills of the earth I sprang from the godhead's seed.
And e'en as my birth and my waxing shall be my waning and end.
But thou on many an errand, to many a field dost wend
Where the bow at adventure bended, or the fleeing dastard's spear
Oft lulleth the mirth of the mighty. Now me thou dost not fear,
Yet fear with me, beloved, for the mighty Maid I fear;
And Doom is her name, and full often she maketh me afraid
And even now meseemeth on my life her hand is laid."
But he laughed and said:
"In what land is she abiding? Is she near or far away?
Will she draw up close beside me in the press of the battle play?
And if then I may not smite her 'midst the warriors of the field
With the pale blade of my fathers, will she bide the shove of my
shield?"
But sadly she sang in answer:
"In many a stead Doom dwelleth, nor sleepeth day nor night:
The rim of the bowl she kisseth, and beareth the chambering light
When the kings of men wend happy to the bride-bed from the board.
It is little to say that she wendeth the edge of the grinded sword,
When about the house half builded she hangeth many a day;
The ship from the strand she shoveth, and on his wonted way
By the mountain-hunter fareth where his foot ne'er failed before:
She is where the high bank crumbles at last on the river's shore:
The mower's scythe she whetteth; and lulleth the shepherd to sleep
Where the deadly ling-worm wakeneth in the desert of the sheep.
Now we that come of the God-kin of her redes for ourselves we wot,
But her will with the lives of men-folk and their ending know we not.
So therefore I bid thee not fear for thyself of Doom and her deed,
But for me: and I bid thee hearken to the helping of my need.
Or else--Art thou happy in life, or lusteth thou to die
In the flower of thy days, when thy glory and thy longing bloom on
high?"
But Thiodolf answered her:
"I have deemed, and long have I deemed that this is my second life,
That my first one waned with my wounding when thou cam'st to the ring
of strife.
For when in thine arms I wakened on the hazelled field of yore,
Meseemed I had newly arisen to a world I knew no more,
So much had all things brightened on that dewy dawn of day.
It was dark dull death that I looked for when my thought had died
away.
It was lovely life that I woke to; and from that day henceforth
My joy of the life of man-folk was manifolded of worth.
Far fairer the fields of the morning than I had known them erst,
And the acres where I wended, and the corn with its half-slaked
thirst;
And the noble Roof of the Wolfings, and the hawks that sat thereon;
And the bodies of my kindred whose deliverance I had won;
And the glimmering of the Hall-Sun in the dusky house of old;
And my name in the mouth of the maidens, and the praises of the bold,
As I sat in my battle-raiment, and the ruddy spear well steeled
Leaned 'gainst my side war-battered, and the wounds thine hand had
healed.
Yea, from that morn thenceforward has my life been good indeed,
The gain of to-day was goodly, and good to-morrow's need,
And good the whirl of the battle, and the broil I wielded there,
Till I fashioned the ordered onset, and the unhoped victory fair.
And good were the days thereafter of utter deedless rest
And the prattle of thy daughter, and her hands on my unmailed breast.
Ah good is the life thou hast given, the life that mine hands have
won.
And where shall be the ending till the world is all undone?
Here sit we twain together, and both we in Godhead clad,
We twain of the Wolfing kindred, and each of the other glad."
But she answered, and her face grew darker withal:
"O mighty man and joyous, art thou of the Wolfing kin?
'Twas no evil deed when we mingled, nor lieth doom therein.
Thou lovely man, thou black-haired, thou shalt die and have done no
ill.
Fame-crowned are the deeds of thy doing, and the mouths of men they
fill.
Thou betterer of the Godfolk, enduring is thy fame:
Yet as a painted image of a dream is thy dreaded name.
Of an alien folk thou comest, that we twain might be one indeed.
Thou shalt die one day. So hearken, to help me at my need."
His face grew troubled and he said: "What is this word that I am no
chief of the Wolfings?"
"Nay," she said, "but better than they. Look thou on the face of our
daughter the Hall-Sun, thy daughter and mine: favoureth she at all
of me?"
He laughed: "Yea, whereas she is fair, but not otherwise. This is a
hard saying, that I dwell among an alien kindred, and it wotteth not
thereof. Why hast thou not told me hereof before?"
She said: "It needed not to tell thee because thy day was waxing, as
now it waneth. Once more I bid thee hearken and do my bidding though
it be hard to thee."
He answered: "Even so will I as much as I may; and thus wise must
thou look upon it, that I love life, and fear not death."
Then she spake, and again her words fell into rhyme:
"In forty fights hast thou foughten, and been worsted but in four;
And I looked on and was merry; and ever more and more
Wert thou dear to the heart of the Wood-Sun, and the Chooser of the
Slain.
But now whereas ye are wending with slaughter-herd and wain
To meet a folk that ye know not, a wonder, a peerless foe,
I fear for thy glory's waning, and I see thee lying alow."
Then he brake in: "Herein is little shame to be worsted by the might
of the mightiest: if this so mighty folk sheareth a limb off the
tree of my fame, yet shall it wax again."
But she sang:
"In forty fights hast thou foughten, and beside thee who but I
Beheld the wind-tossed banners, and saw the aspen fly?
But to-day to thy war I wend not, for Weird withholdeth me
And sore my heart forebodeth for the battle that shall be.
To-day with thee I wend not; so I feared, and lo my feet,
That are wont to the woodland girdle of the acres of the wheat,
For thee among strange people and the foeman's throng have trod,
And I tell thee their banner of battle is a wise and a mighty God.
For these are the folk of the cities, and in wondrous wise they dwell
'Mid confusion of heaped houses, dim and black as the face of hell;
Though therefrom rise roofs most goodly, where their captains and
their kings
Dwell amidst the walls of marble in abundance of fair things;
And 'mid these, nor worser nor better, but builded otherwise
Stand the Houses of the Fathers, and the hidden mysteries.
And as close as are the tree-trunks that within the beech-wood thrive
E'en so many are their pillars; and therein like men alive
Stand the images of god-folk in such raiment as they wore
In the years before the cities and the hidden days of yore.
Ah for the gold that I gazed on! and their store of battle gear,
And strange engines that I knew not, or the end for which they were.
Ah for the ordered wisdom of the war-array of these,
And the folks that are sitting about them in dumb down-trodden peace!
So I thought now fareth war-ward my well-beloved friend,
And the weird of the Gods hath doomed it that no more with him may I
wend!
Woe's me for the war of the Wolfings wherefrom I am sundered apart,
And the fruitless death of the war-wise, and the doom of the hardy
heart!"
Then he answered, and his eyes grew kind as he looked on her:
"For thy fair love I thank thee, and thy faithful word, O friend!
But how might it otherwise happen but we twain must meet in the end,
The God of this mighty people and the Markmen and their kin?
Lo, this is the weird of the world, and what may we do herein?"
Then mirth came into her face again as she said:
"Who wotteth of Weird, and what she is till the weird is
accomplished? Long hath it been my weird to love thee and to fashion
deeds for thee as I may; nor will I depart from it now." And she
sang:
"Keen-edged is the sword of the city, and bitter is its spear,
But thy breast in the battle, beloved, hath a wall of the stithy's
gear.
What now is thy wont in the handplay with the helm and the hauberk of
rings?
Farest thou as the thrall and the cot-carle, or clad in the raiment
of kings?"
He started, and his face reddened as he answered:
"O Wood-Sun thou wottest our battle and the way wherein we fare:
That oft at the battle's beginning the helm and the hauberk we bear;
Lest the shaft of the fleeing coward or the bow at adventure bent
Should slay us ere the need be, ere our might be given and spent.
Yet oft ere the fight is over, and Doom hath scattered the foe,
No leader of the people by his war-gear shall ye know,
But by his hurts the rather, from the cot-carle and the thrall:
For when all is done that a man may, 'tis the hour for a man to
fall."
She yet smiled as she said in answer:
"O Folk-wolf, heed and hearken; for when shall thy life be spent
And the Folk wherein thou dwellest with thy death be well content?
Whenso folk need the fire, do they hew the apple-tree,
And burn the Mother of Blossom and the fruit that is to be?
Or me wilt thou bid to thy grave-mound because thy battle-wrath
May nothing more be bridled than the whirl wind on his path?
So hearken and do my bidding, for the hauberk shalt thou bear
E'en when the other warriors cast off their battle-gear.
So come thou, come unwounded from the war-field of the south,
And sit with me in the beech-wood, and kiss me, eyes and mouth."
And she kissed him in very deed, and made much of him, and fawned on
him, and laid her hand on his breast, and he was soft and blithe with
her, but at last he laughed and said:
"God's Daughter, long hast thou lived, and many a matter seen,
And men full often grieving for the deed that might have been;
But here my heart thou wheedlest as a maid of tender years
When first in the arms of her darling the horn of war she hears.
Thou knowest the axe to be heavy, and the sword, how keen it is;
But that Doom of which thou hast spoken, wilt thou not tell of this,
God's Daughter, how it sheareth, and how it breaketh through
Each wall that the warrior buildeth, yea all deeds that he may do?
What might in the hammer's leavings, in the fire's thrall shall abide
To turn that Folks' o'erwhelmer from the fated warrior's side?"
Then she laughed in her turn, and loudly; but so sweetly that the
sound of her voice mingled with the first song of a newly awakened
wood-thrush sitting on a rowan twig on the edge of the Wood-lawn.
But she said:
"Yea, I that am God's Daughter may tell thee never a whit
From what land cometh the hauberk nor what smith smithied it,
That thou shalt wear in the handplay from the first stroke to the
last;
But this thereof I tell thee, that it holdeth firm and fast
The life of the body it lappeth, if the gift of the Godfolk it be.
Lo this is the yoke-mate of doom, and the gift of me unto thee."
Then she leaned down from the stone whereon they sat, and her hand
was in the dewy grass for a little, and then it lifted up a dark grey
rippling coat of rings; and she straightened herself in the seat
again, and laid that hauberk on the knees of Thiodolf, and he put his
hand to it, and turned it about, while he pondered long: then at
last he said:
"What evil thing abideth with this warder of the strife,
This burg and treasure chamber for the hoarding of my life?
For this is the work of the dwarfs, and no kindly kin of the earth;
And all we fear the dwarf-kin and their anger and sorrow and mirth."
She cast her arms about him and fondled him, and her voice grew
sweeter than the voice of any mortal thing as she answered:
"No ill for thee, beloved, or for me in the hauberk lies;
No sundering grief is in it, no lonely miseries.
But we shall abide together, and that new life I gave,
For a long while yet henceforward we twain its joy shall have.
Yea, if thou dost my bidding to wear my gift in the fight
No hunter of the wild-wood at the changing of the night
Shall see my shape on thy grave-mound or my tears in the morning find
With the dew of the morning mingled; nor with the evening wind
Shall my body pass the shepherd as he wandereth in the mead
And fill him with forebodings on the eve of the Wolfings' need.
Nor the horse-herd wake in the midnight and hear my fateful cry;
Nor yet shall the Wolfing women hear words on the wind go by
As they weave and spin the night down when the House is gone to the
war,
And weep for the swains they wedded and the children that they bore.
Yea do my bidding, O Folk-wolf, lest a grief of the Gods should weigh
On the ancient House of the Wolfings and my death o'ercloud its day."
And still she clung about him, while he spake no word of yea or nay:
but at the last he let himself glide wholly into her arms, and the
dwarf-wrought hauberk fell from his knees and lay on the grass.
So they abode together in that wood-lawn till the twilight was long
gone, and the sun arisen for some while. And when Thiodolf stepped
out of the beech-wood into the broad sunshine dappled with the shadow
of the leaves of the hazels moving gently in the fresh morning air,
he was covered from the neck to the knee by a hauberk of rings dark
and grey and gleaming, fashioned by the dwarfs of ancient days.
CHAPTER IV--THE HOUSE FARETH TO THE WAR
Now when Thiodolf came back to the habitations of the kindred the
whole House was astir, both thrall-men and women, and free women
hurrying from cot to stithy, and from stithy to hall bearing the last
of the war-gear or raiment for the fighting-men. But they for their
part were some standing about anigh the Man's-door, some sitting
gravely within the hall, some watching the hurry of the thralls and
women from the midmost of the open space amidst of the habitations,
whereon there stood yet certain wains which were belated: for the
most of the wains were now standing with the oxen already yoked to
them down in the meadow past the acres, encircled by a confused
throng of kine and horses and thrall-folk, for thither had all the
beasts for the slaughter, and the horses for the warriors been
brought; and there were the horses tethered or held by the thralls;
some indeed were already saddled and bridled, and on others were the
thralls doing the harness.
But as for the wains of the Markmen, they were stoutly framed of ash-
tree with panels of aspen, and they were broad-wheeled so that they
might go over rough and smooth. They had high tilts over them well
framed of willow-poles covered over with squares of black felt over-
lapping like shingles; which felt they made of the rough of their
fleeces, for they had many sheep. And these wains were to them for
houses upon the way if need were, and therein as now were stored
their meal and their war-store and after fight they would flit their
wounded men in them, such as were too sorely hurt to back a horse:
nor must it be hidden that whiles they looked to bring back with them
the treasure of the south. Moreover the folk if they were worsted in
any battle, instead of fleeing without more done, would often draw
back fighting into a garth made by these wains, and guarded by some
of their thralls; and there would abide the onset of those who had
thrust them back in the field. And this garth they called the Wain-
burg.
So now stood three of these wains aforesaid belated amidst of the
habitations of the House, their yoke-beasts standing or lying down
unharnessed as yet to them: but in the very midst of that place was
a wain unlike to them; smaller than they but higher; square of shape
as to the floor of it; built lighter than they, yet far stronger; as
the warrior is stronger than the big carle and trencher-licker that
loiters about the hall; and from the midst of this wain arose a mast
made of a tall straight fir-tree, and thereon hung the banner of the
Wolfings, wherein was wrought the image of the Wolf, but red of hue
as a token of war, and with his mouth open and gaping upon the
foemen. Also whereas the other wains were drawn by mere oxen, and
those of divers colours, as chance would have it, the wain of the
banner was drawn by ten black bulls of the mightiest of the herd,
deep-dewlapped, high-crested and curly-browed; and their harness was
decked with gold, and so was the wain itself, and the woodwork of it
painted red with vermilion. There then stood the Banner of the House
of the Wolfings awaiting the departure of the warriors to the
hosting.
So Thiodolf stood on the top of the bent beside that same mound
wherefrom he had blown the War-horn yester-eve, and which was called
the Hill of Speech, and he shaded his eyes with his hand and looked
around him; and even therewith the carles fell to yoking the beasts
to the belated wains, and the warriors gathered together from out of
the mixed throngs, and came from the Roof and the Man's-door and all
set their faces toward the Hill of Speech.
So Thiodolf knew that all was ready for departure, and it wanted but
an hour of high-noon; so he turned about and went into the Hall, and
there found his shield and his spear hanging in his sleeping place
beside the hauberk he was wont to wear; then he looked, as one
striving with thought, at his empty hauberk and his own body covered
with the dwarf-wrought rings; nor did his face change as he took his
shield and his spear and turned away. Then he went to the dais and
there sat his foster-daughter (as men deemed her) sitting amidst of
it as yester-eve, and now arrayed in a garment of fine white wool, on
the breast whereof were wrought in gold two beasts ramping up against
a fire-altar whereon a flame flickered; and on the skirts and the
hems were other devices, of wolves chasing deer, and men shooting
with the bow; and that garment was an ancient treasure; but she had a
broad girdle of gold and gems about her middle, and on her arms and
neck she wore great gold rings wrought delicately. By then there
were few save the Hall-Sun under the Roof, and they but the oldest of
the women, or a few very old men, and some who were ailing and might
not go abroad. But before her on the thwart table lay the Great War-
horn awaiting the coming of Thiodolf to give signal of departure.
Then went Thiodolf to the Hall-Sun and kissed and embraced her
fondly, and she gave the horn into his hands, and he went forth and
up on to the Hill of Speech, and blew thence a short blast on the
horn, and then came all the Warriors flocking to the Hill of Speech,
each man stark in his harness, alert and joyous.
Then presently through the Man's-door came the Hall-Sun in that
ancient garment, which fell straight and stiff down to her ancles as
she stepped lightly and slowly along, her head crowned with a garland
of eglantine. In her right hand also she held a great torch of wax
lighted, whose flame amidst the bright sunlight looked like a
wavering leaf of vermilion.
The warriors saw her, and made a lane for her, and she made her way
through it up to the Hill of Speech, and she went up to the top of it
and stood there holding the lighted candle in her hand, so that all
might see it. Then suddenly was there as great a silence as there
may be on a forenoon of summer; for even the thralls down in the
meadow had noted what was toward, and ceased their talking and
shouting, for as far off as they were, since they could see that the
Hall-Sun stood on the Hill of Speech, for the wood was dark behind
her; so they knew the Farewell Flame was lighted, and that the maiden
would speak; and to all men her speech was a boding of good or of
ill.
So she began in a sweet voice yet clear and far-reaching:
"O Warriors of the Wolfings by the token of the flame
That here in my right hand flickers, come aback to the House of the
Name!
For there yet burneth the Hall-Sun beneath the Wolfing roof,
And this flame is litten from it, nor as now shall it fare aloof
Till again it seeth the mighty and the men to be gleaned from the
fight.
So wend ye as weird willeth and let your hearts be light;
For through your days of battle all the deeds of our days shall be
fair.
To-morrow beginneth the haysel, as if every carle were here;
And who knoweth ere your returning but the hook shall smite the corn?
But the kine shall go down to the meadow as their wont is every morn,
And each eve shall come back to the byre; and the mares and foals
afield
Shall ever be heeded duly; and all things shall their increase yield.
And if it shall befal us that hither cometh a foe
Here have we swains of the shepherds good players with the bow,
And old men battle-crafty whose might is nowise spent,
And women fell and fearless well wont to tread the bent
Amid the sheep and the oxen; and their hands are hard with the spear
And their arms are strong and stalwart the battle shield to bear;
And store of weapons have we and the mighty walls of the stead;
And the Roof shall abide you steadfast with the Hall-Sun overhead.
Lo here I quench this candle that is lit from the Hall-Sun's flame
Which unto the Wild-wood clearing with the kin of the Wolfings came
And shall wend with their departure to the limits of the earth;
Nor again shall the torch be lighted till in sorrow or in mirth,
Overthrown or overthrowing, ye come aback once more,
And bid me bear the candle before the Wolf of War."
As she spake the word she turned the candle downward, and thrust it
against the grass and quenched it indeed; but the whole throng of
warriors turned about, for the bulls of the banner-wain lowered their
heads in the yokes and began to draw, lowing mightily; and the wain
creaked and moved on, and all the men-at-arms followed after, and
down they went through the lanes of the corn, and a many women and
children and old men went down into the mead with them.
In their hearts they all wondered what the Hall-Sun's words might
signify; for she had told them nought about the battles to be, saving
that some should come back to the Mid-mark; whereas aforetime
somewhat would she foretell to them concerning the fortune of the
fight, and now had she said to them nothing but what their own hearts
told them. Nevertheless they bore their crests high as they followed
the Wolf down into the meadow, where all was now ready for departure.
There they arrayed themselves and went down to the lip of Mirkwood-
water; and such was their array that the banner went first, save that
a band of fully armed men went before it; and behind it and about
were the others as well arrayed as they. Then went the wains that
bore their munition, with armed carles of the thrall-folk about them,
who were ever the guard of the wains, and should never leave them
night or day; and lastly went the great band of the warriors and the
rest of the thralls with them.
As to their war-gear, all the freemen had helms of some kind, but not
all of iron or steel; for some bore helms fashioned of horse-hide and
bull-hide covered over with the similitude of a Wolf's muzzle; nor
were these ill-defence against a sword-stroke. Shields they all had,
and all these had the image of the Wolf marked on them, but for many
their thralls bore them on the journey. As to their body-armour some
carried long byrnies of ring-mail, some coats of leather covered with
splinters of horn laid like the shingles of a roof, and some skin-
coats only: whereof indeed there were some of which tales went that
they were better than the smith's hammer-work, because they had had
spells sung over them to keep out steel or iron.
But for their weapons, they bore spears with shafts not very long,
some eight feet of our measure; and axes heavy and long-shafted; and
bills with great and broad heads; and some few, but not many of the
kindred were bowmen, and every freeman was girt with a sword; but of
the swords some were long and two-edged, some short and heavy,
cutting on one edge, and these were of the kind which they and our
forefathers long after called 'sax.' Thus were the freemen arrayed.
But for the thralls, there were many bows among them, especially
among those who were of blood alien from the Goths; the others bore
short spears, and feathered broad arrows, and clubs bound with iron,
and knives and axes, but not every man of them had a sword. Few iron
helms they had and no ringed byrnies, but most had a buckler at their
backs with no sign or symbol on it.
Thus then set forth the fighting men of the House of the Wolf toward
the Thing-stead of the Upper-mark where the hosting was to be, and by
then they were moving up along the side of Mirkwood-water it was
somewhat past high-noon.
But the stay-at-home people who had come down with them to the meadow
lingered long in that place; and much foreboding there was among them
of evil to come; and of the old folk, some remembered tales of the
past days of the Markmen, and how they had come from the ends of the
earth, and the mountains where none dwell now but the Gods of their
kindreds; and many of these tales told of their woes and their wars
as they went from river to river and from wild-wood to wild-wood
before they had established their Houses in the Mark, and fallen to
dwelling there season by season and year by year whether the days
were good or ill. And it fell into their hearts that now at last
mayhappen was their abiding wearing out to an end, and that the day
should soon be when they should have to bear the Hall-Sun through the
wild-wood, and seek a new dwelling-place afar from the troubling of
these newly arisen Welsh foemen.
And so those of them who could not rid themselves of this foreboding
were somewhat heavier of heart than their wont was when the House
went to the War. For long had they abided there in the Mark, and the
life was sweet to them which they knew, and the life which they knew
not was bitter to them: and Mirkwood-water was become as a God to
them no less than to their fathers of old time; nor lesser was the
mead where fed the horses that they loved and the kine that they had
reared, and the sheep that they guarded from the Wolf of the Wild-
wood: and they worshipped the kind acres which they themselves and
their fathers had made fruitful, wedding them to the seasons of seed-
time and harvest, that the birth that came from them might become a
part of the kindred of the Wolf, and the joy and might of past
springs and summers might run in the blood of the Wolfing children.
And a dear God indeed to them was the Roof of the Kindred, that their
fathers had built and that they yet warded against the fire and the
lightening and the wind and the snow, and the passing of the days
that devour and the years that heap the dust over the work of men.
They thought of how it had stood, and seen so many generations of men
come and go; how often it had welcomed the new-born babe, and given
farewell to the old man: how many secrets of the past it knew; how
many tales which men of the present had forgotten, but which yet
mayhap men of times to come should learn of it; for to them yet
living it had spoken time and again, and had told them what their
fathers had not told them, and it held the memories of the
generations and the very life of the Wolfings and their hopes for the
days to be.
Thus these poor people thought of the Gods whom they worshipped, and
the friends whom they loved, and could not choose but be heavy-
hearted when they thought that the wild-wood was awaiting them to
swallow all up, and take away from them their Gods and their friends
and the mirth of their life, and burden them with hunger and thirst
and weariness, that their children might begin once more to build the
House and establish the dwelling, and call new places by old names,
and worship new Gods with the ancient worship.
Such imaginations of trouble then were in the hearts of the stay-at-
homes of the Wolfings; the tale tells not indeed that all had such
forebodings, but chiefly the old folk who were nursing the end of
their life-days amidst the cherishing Kindred of the House.
But now they were beginning to turn them back again to the
habitations, and a thin stream was flowing through the acres, when
they heard a confused sound drawing near blended of horns and the
lowing of beasts and the shouting of men; and they looked and saw a
throng of brightly clad men coming up stream alongside of Mirkwood-
water; and they were not afraid, for they knew that it must be some
other company of the Markmen journeying to the hosting of the Folk:
and presently they saw that it was the House of the Beamings
following their banner on the way to the Thing-stead. But when the
new-comers saw the throng out in the meads, some of their young men
pricked on their horses and galloped on past the women and old men,
to whom they threw a greeting, as they ran past to catch up with the
bands of the Wolfings; for between the two houses was there affinity,
and much good liking lay between them; and the stay-at-homes, many of
them, lingered yet till the main body of the Beamings came with their
banner: and their array was much like to that of the Wolfings, but
gayer; for whereas it pleased the latter to darken all their wargear
to the colour of the grey Wolf, the Beamings polished all their gear
as bright as might be, and their raiment also was mostly bright green
of hue and much beflowered; and the sign on their banner was a green
leafy tree, and the wain was drawn by great white bulls.
So when their company drew anear to the throng of the stay-at-homes
they went to meet and greet each other, and tell tidings to each
other; but their banner held steadily onward amidst their converse,
and in a little while they followed it, for the way was long to the
Thing-stead of the Upper-mark.
So passed away the fighting men by the side of Mirkwood-water, and
the throng of the stay-at-homes melted slowly from the meadow and
trickled along through the acres to the habitations of the Wolfings,
and there they fell to doing whatso of work or play came to their
hands.
CHAPTER V--CONCERNING THE HALL-SUN
When the warriors and the others had gone down to the mead, the Hall-
Sun was left standing on the Hill of Speech, and she stood there till
she saw the host in due array going on its ways dark and bright and
beautiful; then she made as if to turn aback to the Great Roof; but
all at once it seemed to her as if something held her back, as if her
will to move had departed from her, and that she could not put one
foot before the other. So she lingered on the Hill, and the quenched
candle fell from her hand, and presently she sank adown on the grass
and sat there with the face of one thinking intently. Yet was it
with her that a thousand thoughts were in her mind at once and no one
of them uppermost, and images of what had been and what then was
flickered about in her brain, and betwixt them were engendered images
of things to be, but unstable and not to be trowed in. So sat the
Hall-Sun on the Hill of Speech lost in a dream of the day, whose
stories were as little clear as those of a night-dream.
But as she sat musing thus, came to her a woman exceeding old to look
on, whom she knew not as one of the kindred or a thrall; and this
carline greeted her by the name of Hall-Sun and said:
"Hail, Hall-Sun of the Markmen! how fares it now with thee
When the whelps of the Woodbeast wander with the Leafage of the Tree
All up the Mirkwood-water to seek what they shall find,
The oak-boles of the battle and the war-wood stark and blind?"
Then answered the maiden:
"It fares with me, O mother, that my soul would fain go forth
To behold the ways of the battle, and the praise of the warriors'
worth.
But yet is it held entangled in a maze of many a thing,
As the low-grown bramble holdeth the brake-shoots of the Spring.
I think of the thing that hath been, but no shape is in my thought;
I think of the day that passeth, and its story comes to nought.
I think of the days that shall be, nor shape I any tale.
I will hearken thee, O mother, if hearkening may avail."
The Carline gazed at her with dark eyes that shone brightly from
amidst her brown wrinkled face: then she sat herself down beside her
and spake:
"From a far folk have I wandered and I come of an alien blood,
But I know all tales of the Wolfings and their evil and their good;
And when I heard of thy fairness, thereof I heard it said,
That for thee should be never a bridal nor a place in the warrior's
bed."
The maiden neither reddened nor paled, but looking with calm steady
eyes into the Carline's face she answered:
"Yea true it is, I am wedded to the mighty ones of old,
And the fathers of the Wolfings ere the days of field and fold."
Then a smile came into the eyes of the old woman and she said.
"How glad shall be thy mother of thy worship and thy worth,
And the father that begat thee if yet they dwell on earth!"
But the Hall-Sun answered in the same steady manner as before:
"None knoweth who is my mother, nor my very father's name;
But when to the House of the Wolfings a wild-wood waif I came,
They gave me a foster-mother an ancient dame and good,
And a glorious foster-father the best of all the blood."
Spake the Carline.
"Yea, I have heard the story, but scarce therein might I trow
That thou with all thy beauty wert born 'neath the oaken bough,
And hast crawled a naked baby o'er the rain-drenched autumn-grass;
Wilt thou tell the wandering woman what wise it cometh to pass
That thou art the Mid-mark's Hall-Sun, and the sign of the Wolfings'
gain?
Thou shalt pleasure me much by the telling, and there of shalt thou
be fain."
Then answered the Hall-Sun.
"Yea; thus much I remember for the first of my memories;
That I lay on the grass in the morning and above were the boughs of
the trees.
But nought naked was I as the wood-whelp, but clad in linen white,
And adown the glades of the oakwood the morning sun lay bright.
Then a hind came out of the thicket and stood on the sunlit glade,
And turned her head toward the oak tree and a step on toward me made.
Then stopped, and bounded aback, and away as if in fear,
That I saw her no more; then I wondered, though sitting close anear
Was a she-wolf great and grisly. But with her was I wont to play,
And pull her ears, and belabour her rugged sides and grey,
And hold her jaws together, while she whimpered, slobbering
For the love of my love; and nowise I deemed her a fearsome thing.
There she sat as though she were watching, and o'er head a blue-
winged jay
Shrieked out from the topmost oak-twigs, and a squirrel ran his way
Two tree-trunks off. But the she-wolf arose up suddenly
And growled with her neck-fell bristling, as if danger drew anigh;
And therewith I heard a footstep, for nice was my ear to catch
All the noises of the wild-wood; so there did we sit at watch
While the sound of feet grew nigher: then I clapped hand on hand
And crowed for joy and gladness, for there out in the sun did stand
A man, a glorious creature with a gleaming helm on his head,
And gold rings on his arms, in raiment gold-broidered crimson-red.
Straightway he strode up toward us nor heeded the wolf of the wood
But sang as he went in the oak-glade, as a man whose thought is good,
And nought she heeded the warrior, but tame as a sheep was grown,
And trotted away through the wild-wood with her crest all laid adown.
Then came the man and sat down by the oak-bole close unto me
And took me up nought fearful and set me on his knee.
And his face was kind and lovely, so my cheek to his cheek I laid
And touched his cold bright war-helm and with his gold rings played,
And hearkened his words, though I knew not what tale they had to
tell,
Yet fain was my heart of their music, and meseemed I loved him well.
So we fared for a while and were fain, till he set down my feet on
the grass,
And kissed me and stood up himself, and away through the wood did he
pass.
And then came back the she-wolf and with her I played and was fain.
Lo the first thing I remember: wilt thou have me babble again?"
Spake the Carline and her face was soft and kind:
"Nay damsel, long would I hearken to thy voice this summer day.
But how didst thou leave the wild-wood, what people brought thee
away?"
Then said the Hall-Sun:
"I awoke on a time in the even, and voices I heard as I woke;
And there was I in the wild-wood by the bole of the ancient oak,
And a ring of men was around me, and glad was I indeed
As I looked upon their faces and the fashion of their weed.
For I gazed on the red and the scarlet and the beaten silver and
gold,
And blithe were their noble faces and kindly to behold,
And nought had I seen of such-like since that hour of the other day
When that warrior came to the oak glade with the little child to
play.
And forth now he came, with the face that my hands had fondled
before,
And a battle shield wrought fairly upon his arm he bore,
And thereon the wood-wolf's image in ruddy gold was done.
Then I stretched out my little arms towards the glorious shining one
And he took me up and set me on his shoulder for a while
And turned about to his fellows with a blithe and joyous smile;
And they shouted aloud about me and drew forth gleaming swords
And clashed them on their bucklers; but nought I knew of the words
Of their shouting and rejoicing. So thereafter was I laid
And borne forth on the warrior's warshield, and our way through the
wood we made
'Midst the mirth and great contentment of those fair-clad shielded
men.
"But no tale of the wolf and the wild-wood abides with me since then,
And the next thing I remember is a huge and dusky hall,
A world for my little body from ancient wall to wall;
A world of many doings, and nought for me to do,
A world of many noises, and known to me were few.
"Time wore, and I spoke with the Wolfings and knew the speech of the
And was strange 'neath the roof no longer, as a lonely waif therein;
And I wrought as a child with my playmates and every hour looked on
kin,
Unto the next hour's joyance till the happy day was done.
And going and coming amidst us was a woman tall and thin
With hair like the hoary barley and silver streaks therein.
And kind and sad of visage, as now I remember me,
And she sat and told us stories when we were aweary with glee,
And many of us she fondled, but me the most of all.
And once from my sleep she waked me and bore me down the hall,
In the hush of the very midnight, and I was feared thereat.
But she brought me unto the dais, and there the warrior sat,
Who took me up and kissed me, as erst within the wood;
And meseems in his arms I slumbered: but I wakened again and stood
Alone with the kindly woman, and gone was the goodly man,
And athwart the hush of the Folk-hall the moon shone bright and wan,
And the woman dealt with a lamp hung up by a chain aloft,
And she trimmed it and fed it with oil, while she chanted sweet and
soft
A song whose words I knew not: then she ran it up again,
And up in the darkness above us died the length of its wavering
chain."
"Yea," said the carline, "this woman will have been the Hall-Sun that
came before thee. What next dost thou remember?"
Said the maiden:
"Next I mind me of the hazels behind the People's Roof,
And the children running thither and the magpie flitting aloof,
And my hand in the hand of the Hall-Sun, as after the others we went,
And she soberly hearkening my prattle and the words of my intent.
And now would I call her 'Mother,' and indeed I loved her well.
"So I waxed; and now of my memories the tale were long to tell;
But as the days passed over, and I fared to field and wood,
Alone or with my playmates, still the days were fair and good.
But the sad and kindly Hall-Sun for my fosterer now I knew,
And the great and glorious warrior that my heart clung sorely to
Was but my foster-father; and I knew that I had no kin
In the ancient House of the Wolfings, though love was warm therein."
Then smiled the carline and said: "Yea, he is thy foster-father, and
yet a fond one."
"Sooth is that," said the Hall-Sun. "But wise art thou by seeming.
Hast thou come to tell me of what kindred I am, and who is my father
and who is my mother?"
Said the carline: "Art thou not also wise? Is it not so that the
Hall-Sun of the Wolfings seeth things that are to come?"
"Yea," she said, "yet have I seen waking or sleeping no other father
save my foster-father; yet my very mother I have seen, as one who
should meet her in the flesh one day."
"And good is that," said the carline; and as she spoke her face waxed
kinder, and she said:
"Tell us more of thy days in the House of the Wolfings and how thou
faredst there."
Said the Hall-Sun:
"I waxed 'neath the Roof of the Wolfings, till now to look upon
I was of sixteen winters, and the love of the Folk I won,
And in lovely weed they clad me like the image of a God:
And lonely now full often the wild-wood ways I trod,
And I feared no wild-wood creature, and my presence scared them
nought;
And I fell to know of wisdom, and within me stirred my thought,
So that oft anights would I wander through the mead and far away,
And swim the Mirkwood-water, and amidst his eddies play
When earth was dark in the dawn-tide; and over all the folk
I knew of the beasts' desires, as though in words they spoke.
"So I saw of things that should be, were they mighty things or small,
And upon a day as it happened came the war-word to the hall,
And the House must wend to the warfield, and as they sang, and played
With the strings of the harp that even, and the mirth of the war-eve
made,
Came the sight of the field to my eyes, and the words waxed hot in
me,
And I needs must show the picture of the end of the fight to be.
Then I showed them the Red Wolf bristling o'er the broken fleeing
foe;
And the war-gear of the fleers, and their banner did I show,
To wit the Ling-worm's image with the maiden in his mouth;
There I saw my foster-father 'mid the pale blades of the South,
Till aloof swept all the handplay and the hurry of the chase,
And he lay along by an ash-tree, no helm about his face,
No byrny on his body; and an arrow in his thigh,
And a broken spear in his shoulder. Then I saw myself draw nigh
To sing the song blood-staying. Then saw I how we twain
Went 'midst of the host triumphant in the Wolfings' banner-wain,
The black bulls lowing before us athwart the warriors' song,
As up from Mirkwood-water we went our ways along
To the Great Roof of the Wolfings, whence streamed the women out
And the sound of their rejoicing blent with the warriors' shout.
"They heard me and saw the picture, and they wotted how wise I was
grown,
And they loved me, and glad were their hearts at the tale my lips had
shown;
And my body clad as an image of a God to the field they bore,
And I held by the mast of the banner as I looked upon their war,
And endured to see unblenching on the wind-swept sunny plain
All the picture of my vision by the menfolk done again.
And over my Foster-father I sang the staunching-song,
Till the life-blood that was ebbing flowed back to his heart the
strong,
And we wended back in the war-wain 'midst the gleanings of the fight
Unto the ancient dwelling and the Hall-Sun's glimmering light.
"So from that day henceforward folk hung upon my words,
For the battle of the autumn, and the harvest of the swords;
And e'en more was I loved than aforetime. So wore a year away,
And heavy was the burden of the lore that on me lay.
"But my fosterer the Hall-Sun took sick at the birth of the year,
And changed her life as the year changed, as summer drew anear.
But she knew that her life was waning, and lying in her bed
She taught me the lore of the Hall-Sun, and every word to be said
At the trimming in the midnight and the feeding in the morn,
And she laid her hands upon me ere unto the howe she was borne
With the kindred gathered about us; and they wotted her weird and her
will,
And hailed me for the Hall-Sun when at last she lay there still.
And they did on me the garment, the holy cloth of old,
And the neck-chain wrought for the goddess, and the rings of the
hallowed gold.
So here am I abiding, and of things to be I tell,
Yet know not what shall befall me nor why with the Wolfings I dwell."
Then said the carline:
"What seest thou, O daughter, of the journey of to-day?
And why wendest thou not with the war-host on the battle-echoing
way?"
Said the Hall-Sun.
"O mother, here dwelleth the Hall-Sun while the kin hath a dwelling-
place,
Nor ever again shall I look on the onset or the chase,
Till the day when the Roof of the Wolfings looketh down on the girdle
of foes,
And the arrow singeth over the grass of the kindred's close;
Till the pillars shake with the shouting and quivers the roof-tree
dear,
When the Hall of the Wolfings garners the harvest of the spear."
Therewith she stood on her feet and turned her face to the Great
Roof, and gazed long at it, not heeding the crone by her side; and
she muttered words of whose signification the other knew not, though
she listened intently, and gazed ever at her as closely as might be.
Then fell the Hall-Sun utterly silent, and the lids closed over her
eyes, and her hands were clenched, and her feet pressed hard on the
daisies: her bosom heaved with sore sighs, and great tear-drops
oozed from under her eyelids and fell on to her raiment and her feet
and on to the flowery summer grass; and at the last her mouth opened
and she spake, but in a voice that was marvellously changed from that
she spake in before:
"Why went ye forth, O Wolfings, from the garth your fathers built,
And the House where sorrow dieth, and all unloosed is guilt?
Turn back, turn back, and behold it! lest your feet be over slow
When your shields are heavy-burdened with the arrows of the foe;
How ye totter, how ye stumble on the rough and corpse-strewn way!
And lo, how the eve is eating the afternoon of day!
O why are ye abiding till the sun is sunk in night
And the forest trees are ruddy with the battle-kindled light?
O rest not yet, ye Wolfings, lest void be your resting-place,
And into lands that ye know not the Wolf must turn his face,
And ye wander and ye wander till the land in the ocean cease,
And your battle bring no safety and your labour no increase."
Then was she silent for a while, and her tears ceased to flow; but
presently her eyes opened once more, and she lifted up her voice and
cried aloud -
"I see, I see! O Godfolk behold it from aloof,
How the little flames steal flickering along the ridge of the Roof!
They are small and red 'gainst the heavens in the summer afternoon;
But when the day is dusking, white, high shall they wave to the moon.
Lo, the fire plays now on the windows like strips of scarlet cloth
Wind-waved! but look in the night-tide on the onset of its wrath,
How it wraps round the ancient timbers and hides the mighty roof
But lighteth little crannies, so lost and far aloof,
That no man yet of the kindred hath seen them ere to-night,
Since first the builder builded in loving and delight!"
Then again she stayed her speech with weeping and sobbing, but after
a while was still again, and then she spoke pointing toward the roof
with her right hand.
"I see the fire-raisers and iron-helmed they are,
Brown-faced about the banners that their hands have borne afar.
And who in the garth of the kindred shall bear adown their shield
Since the onrush of the Wolfings they caught in the open field,
As the might of the mountain lion falls dead in the hempen net?
O Wolfings, long have ye tarried, but the hour abideth yet.
What life for the life of the people shall be given once for all,
What sorrow shall stay sorrow in the half-burnt Wolfing Hall?
There is nought shall quench the fire save the tears of the Godfolk's
kin,
And the heart of the life-delighter, and the life-blood cast
therein."
Then once again she fell silent, and her eyes closed again, and the
slow tears gushed out from them, and she sank down sobbing on the
grass, and little by little the storm of grief sank and her head fell
back, and she was as one quietly asleep. Then the carline hung over
her and kissed her and embraced her; and then through her closed eyes
and her slumber did the Hall-Sun see a marvel; for she who was
kissing her was young in semblance and unwrinkled, and lovely to look
on, with plenteous long hair of the hue of ripe barley, and clad in
glistening raiment such as has been woven in no loom on earth.
And indeed it was the Wood-Sun in the semblance of a crone, who had
come to gather wisdom of the coming time from the foreseeing of the
Hall-Sun; since now at last she herself foresaw nothing of it, though
she was of the kindred of the Gods and the Fathers of the Goths. So
when she had heard the Hall-Sun she deemed that she knew but too well
what her words meant, and what for love, what for sorrow, she grew
sick at heart as she heard them.
So at last she arose and turned to look at the Great Roof; and strong
and straight, and cool and dark grey showed its ridge against the
pale sky of the summer afternoon all quivering with the heat of many
hours' sun: dark showed its windows as she gazed on it, and stark
and stiff she knew were its pillars within.
Then she said aloud, but to herself: "What then if a merry and
mighty life be given for it, and the sorrow of the people be
redeemed; yet will not I give the life which is his; nay rather let
him give the bliss which is mine. But oh! how may it be that he
shall die joyous and I shall live unhappy!"
Then she went slowly down from the Hill of Speech, and whoso saw her
deemed her but a gangrel carline. So she went her ways and let the
wood cover her.
But in a little while the Hall-Sun awoke alone, and sat up with a
sigh, and she remembered nothing concerning her sight of the
flickering flame along the hall-roof, and the fire-tongues like
strips of scarlet cloth blown by the wind, nor had she any memory of
her words concerning the coming day. But the rest of her talk with
the carline she remembered, and also the vision of the beautiful
woman who had kissed and embraced her; and she knew that it was her
very mother. Also she perceived that she had been weeping, therefore
she knew that she had uttered words of wisdom. For so it fared with
her at whiles, that she knew not her own words of foretelling, but
spoke them out as if in a dream.
So now she went down from the Hill of Speech soberly, and turned
toward the Woman's door of the hall, and on her way she met the women
and old men and youths coming back from the meadow with little mirth:
and there were many of them who looked shyly at her as though they
would gladly have asked her somewhat, and yet durst not. But for
her, her sadness passed away when she came among them, and she looked
kindly on this and that one of them, and entered with them into the
Woman's Chamber, and did what came to her hand to do.
CHAPTER VI--THEY TALK ON THE WAY TO THE FOLK-THING
All day long one standing on the Speech-hill of the Wolfings might
have seen men in their war-array streaming along the side of
Mirkwood-water, on both sides thereof; and the last comers from the
Nether-mark came hastening all they might; for they would not be late
at the trysting-place. But these were of a kindred called the
Laxings, who bore a salmon on their banner; and they were somewhat
few in number, for they had but of late years become a House of the
Markmen. Their banner-wain was drawn by white horses, fleet and
strong, and they were no great band, for they had but few thralls
with them, and all, free men and thralls, were a-horseback; so they
rode by hastily with their banner-wain, their few munition-wains
following as they might.
Now tells the tale of the men-at-arms of the Wolfings and the
Beamings, that soon they fell in with the Elking host, which was
journeying but leisurely, so that the Wolfings might catch up with
them: they were a very great kindred, the most numerous of all Mid-
mark, and at this time they had affinity with the Wolfings. But old
men of the House remembered how they had heard their grandsires and
very old men tell that there had been a time when the Elking House
had been established by men from out of the Wolfing kindred, and how
they had wandered away from the Mark in the days when it had been
first settled, and had abided aloof for many generations of men; and
so at last had come back again to the Mark, and had taken up their
habitation at a place in Mid-mark where was dwelling but a remnant of
a House called the Thyrings, who had once been exceeding mighty, but
had by that time almost utterly perished in a great sickness which
befel in those days. So then these two Houses, the wanderers come
back and the remnant left by the sickness of the Gods, made one House
together, and increased and throve after their coming together, and
wedded with the Wolfings, and became a very great House.
Gallant and glorious was their array now, as they marched along with
their banner of the Elk, which was drawn by the very beasts
themselves tamed to draught to that end through many generations;
they were fatter and sleeker than their wild-wood brethren, but not
so mighty.
So were the men of the three kindreds somewhat mingled together on
the way. The Wolfings were the tallest and the biggest made; but of
those dark-haired men aforesaid, were there fewest amongst the
Beamings, and most among the Elkings, as though they had drawn to
them more men of alien blood during their wanderings aforesaid. So
they talked together and made each other good cheer, as is the wont
of companions in arms on the eve of battle; and the talk ran, as may
be deemed, on that journey and what was likely to come of it: and
spake an Elking warrior to a Wolfing by whom he rode:
"O Wolfkettle, hath the Hall-Sun had any foresight of the day of
battle?"
"Nay," said the other, "when she lighted the farewell candle, she
bade us come back again, and spoke of the day of our return; but that
methinks, as thou and I would talk of it, thinking what would be
likely to befal. Since we are a great host of valiant men, and these
Welshmen {2} most valiant, and as the rumour runneth bigger-bodied
men than the Hun-folk, and so well ordered as never folk have been.
So then if we overthrow them we shall come back again; and if they
overthrow us, the remnant of us shall fall back before them till we
come to our habitations; for it is not to be looked for that they
will fall in upon our rear and prevent us, since we have the thicket
of the wild-wood on our flanks."
"Sooth is that," said the Elking; "and as to the mightiness of this
folk and their customs, ye may gather somewhat from the songs which
our House yet singeth, and which ye have heard wide about in the
Mark; for this is the same folk of which a many of them tell, making
up that story-lay which is called the South-Welsh Lay; which telleth
how we have met this folk in times past when we were in fellowship
with a folk of the Welsh of like customs to ourselves: for we of the
Elkings were then but a feeble folk. So we marched with this folk of
the Kymry and met the men of the cities, and whiles we overthrew and
whiles were overthrown, but at last in a great battle were overthrown
with so great a slaughter, that the red blood rose over the wheels of
the wains, and the city-folk fainted with the work of the slaughter,
as men who mow a match in the meadows when the swathes are dry and
heavy and the afternoon of midsummer is hot; and there they stood and
stared on the field of the slain, and knew not whether they were in
Home or Hell, so fierce the fight had been."
Therewith a man of the Beamings, who was riding on the other side of
the Elking, reached out over his horse's neck and said:
"Yea friend, but is there not some telling of a tale concerning how
ye and your fellowship took the great city of the Welshmen of the
South, and dwelt there long."
"Yea," said the Elking, "Hearken how it is told in the South-Welsh
Lay:
"'Have ye not heard
Of the ways of Weird?
How the folk fared forth
Far away from the North?
And as light as one wendeth
Whereas the wood endeth,
When of nought is our need,
And none telleth our deed,
So Rodgeir unwearied and Reidfari wan
The town where none tarried the shield-shaking man.
All lonely the street there, and void was the way
And nought hindered our feet but the dead men that lay
Under shield in the lanes of the houses heavens-high,
All the ring-bearing swains that abode there to die.'
"Tells the Lay, that none abode the Goths and their fellowship, but
such as were mighty enough to fall before them, and the rest, both
man and woman, fled away before our folk and before the folk of the
Kymry, and left their town for us to dwell in; as saith the Lay:
"'Glistening of gold
Did men's eyen behold;
Shook the pale sword
O'er the unspoken word,
No man drew nigh us
With weapon to try us,
For the Welsh-wrought shield
Lay low on the field.
By man's hand unbuilded all seemed there to be,
The walls ruddy gilded, the pearls of the sea:
Yea all things were dead there save pillar and wall,
But THEY lived and THEY said us the song of the hall;
The dear hall left to perish by men of the land,
For the Goth-folk to cherish with gold gaining hand.'
"See ye how the Lay tells that the hall was bolder than the men, who
fled from it, and left all for our fellowship to deal with in the
days gone by?"
Said the Wolfing man:
"And as it was once, so shall it be again. Maybe we shall go far on
this journey, and see at least one of the garths of the Southlands,
even those which they call cities. For I have heard it said that
they have more cities than one only, and that so great are their
kindreds, that each liveth in a garth full of mighty houses, with a
wall of stone and lime around it; and that in every one of these
garths lieth wealth untold heaped up. And wherefore should not all
this fall to the Markmen and their valiancy?"
Said the Elking:
"As to their many cities and the wealth of them, that is sooth; but
as to each city being the habitation of each kindred, it is
otherwise: for rather it may be said of them that they have
forgotten kindred, and have none, nor do they heed whom they wed, and
great is the confusion amongst them. And mighty men among them
ordain where they shall dwell, and what shall be their meat, and how
long they shall labour after they are weary, and in all wise what
manner of life shall be amongst them; and though they be called free
men who suffer this, yet may no house or kindred gainsay this rule
and order. In sooth they are a people mighty, but unhappy."
Said Wolfkettle:
"And hast thou learned all this from the ancient story lays, O
Hiarandi? For some of them I know, though not all, and therein have
I noted nothing of all this. Is there some new minstrel arisen in
thine House of a memory excelling all those that have gone before?
If that be so, I bid him to the Roof of the Wolfings as soon as may
be; for we lack new tales."
"Nay," said Hiarandi, "This that I tell thee is not a tale of past
days, but a tale of to-day. For there came to us a man from out of
the wild-wood, and prayed us peace, and we gave it him; and he told
us that he was of a House of the Gael, and that his House had been in
a great battle against these Welshmen, whom he calleth the Romans;
and that he was taken in the battle, and sold as a thrall in one of
their garths; and howbeit, it was not their master-garth, yet there
he learned of their customs: and sore was the lesson! Hard was his
life amongst them, for their thralls be not so well entreated as
their draught-beasts, so many do they take in battle; for they are a
mighty folk; and these thralls and those aforesaid unhappy freemen do
all tilling and herding and all deeds of craftsmanship: and above
these are men whom they call masters and lords who do nought, nay not
so much as smithy their own edge-weapons, but linger out their days
in their dwellings and out of their dwellings, lying about in the sun
or the hall-cinders, like cur-dogs who have fallen away from kind.
"So this man made a shift to flee away from out of that garth, since
it was not far from the great river; and being a valiant man, and
young and mighty of body, he escaped all perils and came to us
through the Mirkwood. But we saw that he was no liar, and had been
very evilly handled, for upon his body was the mark of many a stripe,
and of the shackles that had been soldered on to his limbs; also it
was more than one of these accursed people whom he had slain when he
fled. So he became our guest and we loved him, and he dwelt among us
and yet dwelleth, for we have taken him into our House. But
yesterday he was sick and might not ride with us; but may be he will
follow on and catch up with us in a day or two. And if he come not,
then will I bring him over to the Wolfings when the battle is done."
Then laughed the Beaming man, and spake:
"How then if ye come not back, nor Wolfkettle, nor the Welsh Guest,
nor I myself? Meseemeth no one of these Southland Cities shall we
behold, and no more of the Southlanders than their war-array."
"These are evil words," said Wolfkettle, "though such an outcome must
be thought on. But why deemest thou this?"
Said the Beaming: "There is no Hall-Sun sitting under our Roof at
home to tell true tales concerning the Kindred every day. Yet
forsooth from time to time is a word said in our Folk-hall for good
or for evil; and who can choose but hearken thereto? And yestereve
was a woeful word spoken, and that by a man-child of ten winters."
Said the Elking: "Now that thou hast told us thus much, thou must
tell us more, yea, all the word which was spoken; else belike we
shall deem of it as worse than it was."
Said the Beaming: "Thus it was; this little lad brake out weeping
yestereve, when the Hall was full and feasting; and he wailed, and
roared out, as children do, and would not be pacified, and when he
was asked why he made that to do, he said: 'Well away! Raven hath
promised to make me a clay horse and to bake it in the kiln with the
pots next week; and now he goeth to the war, and he shall never come
back, and never shall my horse be made.' Thereat we all laughed as
ye may well deem. But the lad made a sour countenance on us and
said, 'why do ye laugh? look yonder, what see ye?' 'Nay,' said one,
'nought but the Feast-hall wall and the hangings of the High-tide
thereon.' Then said the lad sobbing: 'Ye see ill: further afield
see I: I see a little plain, on a hill top, and fells beyond it far
bigger than our speech-hill: and there on the plain lieth Raven as
white as parchment; and none hath such hue save the dead.' Then said
Raven, (and he was a young man, and was standing thereby). 'And well
is that, swain, to die in harness! Yet hold up thine heart; here is
Gunbert who shall come back and bake thine horse for thee.' 'Nay
never more,' quoth the child, 'For I see his pale head lying at
Raven's feet; but his body with the green gold-broidered kirtle I see
not.' Then was the laughter stilled, and man after man drew near to
the child, and questioned him, and asked, 'dost thou see me?' 'dost
thou see me?' And he failed to see but few of those that asked him.
Therefore now meseemeth that not many of us shall see the cities of
the South, and those few belike shall look on their own shackles
therewithal."
"Nay," said Hiarandi, "What is all this? heard ye ever of a company
of fighting men that fared afield, and found the foe, and came back
home leaving none behind them?"
Said the Beaming: "Yet seldom have I heard a child foretell the
death of warriors. I tell thee that hadst thou been there, thou
wouldst have thought of it as if the world were coming to an end."
"Well," said Wolfkettle, "let it be as it may! Yet at least I will
not be led away from the field by the foemen. Oft may a man be
hindered of victory, but never of death if he willeth it."
Therewith he handled a knife that hung about his neck, and went on to
say: "But indeed, I do much marvel that no word came into the mouth
of the Hall-Sun yestereven or this morning, but such as any woman of
the kindred might say."
Therewith fell their talk awhile, and as they rode they came to where
the wood drew nigher to the river, and thus the Mid-mark had an end;
for there was no House had a dwelling in the Mid-mark higher up the
water than the Elkings, save one only, not right great, who mostly
fared to war along with the Elkings: and this was the Oselings,
whose banner bore the image of the Wood-ousel, the black bird with
the yellow neb; and they had just fallen into the company of the
greater House.
So now Mid-mark was over and past, and the serried trees of the wood
came down like a wall but a little way from the lip of the water; and
scattered trees, mostly quicken-trees grew here and there on the very
water side. But Mirkwood-water ran deep swift and narrow between
high clean-cloven banks, so that none could dream of fording, and not
so many of swimming its dark green dangerous waters. And the day
wore on towards evening and the glory of the western sky was unseen
because of the wall of high trees. And still the host made on, and
because of the narrowness of the space between river and wood it was
strung out longer and looked a very great company of men. And
moreover the men of the eastern-lying part of Mid-mark, were now
marching thick and close on the other side of the river but a little
way from the Wolfings and their fellows; for nothing but the narrow
river sundered them.
So night fell, and the stars shone, and the moon rose, and yet the
Wolfings and their fellows stayed not, since they wotted that behind
them followed a many of the men of the Mark, both the Mid and the
Nether, and they would by no means hinder their march.
So wended the Markmen between wood and stream on either side of
Mirkwood-water, till now at last the night grew deep and the moon
set, and it was hard on midnight, and they had kindled many torches
to light them on either side of the water. So whereas they had come
to a place where the trees gave back somewhat from the river, which
was well-grassed for their horses and neat, and was called Baitmead,
the companies on the western side made stay there till morning. And
they drew the wains right up to the thick of the wood, and all men
turned aside into the mead from the beaten road, so that those who
were following after might hold on their way if so they would. There
then they appointed watchers of the night, while the rest of them lay
upon the sward by the side of the trees, and slept through the short
summer night.
The tale tells not that any man dreamed of the fight to come in such
wise that there was much to tell of his dream on the morrow; many
dreamed of no fight or faring to war, but of matters little, and
often laughable, mere mingled memories of bygone time that had no
waking wits to marshal them.
But that man of the Beamings dreamed that he was at home watching a
potter, a man of the thralls of the House working at his wheel, and
fashioning bowls and ewers: and he had a mind to take of his clay
and fashion a horse for the lad that had bemoaned the promise of his
toy. And he tried long and failed to fashion anything; for the clay
fell to pieces in his hands; till at last it held together and grew
suddenly, not into an image of a horse, but of the Great Yule Boar,
the similitude of the Holy Beast of Frey. So he laughed in his sleep
and was glad, and leaped up and drew his sword with his clay-stained
hands that he might wave it over the Earth Boar, and swear a great
oath of a doughty deed. And therewith he found himself standing on
his feet indeed, just awakened in the cold dawn, and holding by his
right hand to an ash-sapling that grew beside him. So he laughed
again, and laid him down, and leaned back and slept his sleep out
till the sun and the voices of his fellows stirring awakened him.
CHAPTER VII--THEY GATHER TO THE FOLK-MOTE
When it was the morning, all the host of the Markmen was astir on
either side of the water, and when they had broken their fast, they
got speedily into array, and were presently on the road again; and
the host was now strung out longer yet, for the space between water
and wood once more diminished till at last it was no wider than ten
men might go abreast, and looking ahead it was as if the wild-wood
swallowed up both river and road.
But the fighting-men hastened on merrily with their hearts raised
high, since they knew that they would soon be falling in with more of
their people, and the coming fight was growing a clearer picture to
their eyes; so from side to side of the river they shouted out the
cries of their Houses, or friend called to friend across the eddies
of Mirkwood-water, and there was game and glee enough.
So they fared till the wood gave way before them, and lo, the
beginning of another plain, somewhat like the Mid-mark. There also
the water widened out before them, and there were eyots in it with
stony shores crowned with willow or with alder, and aspens rising
from the midst of them.
But as for the plain, it was thus much different from Mid-mark, that
the wood which begirt it rose on the south into low hills, and away
beyond them were other hills blue in the distance, for the most bare
of wood, and not right high, the pastures of the wild-bull and the
bison, whereas now dwelt a folk somewhat scattered and feeble;
hunters and herdsmen, with little tillage about their abodes, a folk
akin to the Markmen and allied to them. They had come into those
parts later than the Markmen, as the old tales told; which said
moreover that in days gone by a folk dwelt among those hills who were
alien from the Goths, and great foes to the Markmen; and how that on
a time they came down from their hills with a great host, together
with new-comers of their own blood, and made their way through the
wild-wood, and fell upon the Upper-mark; and how that there befel a
fearful battle that endured for three days; and the first day the
Aliens worsted the Markmen, who were but a few, since they were they
of the Upper-mark only. So the Aliens burned their houses and slew
their old men, and drave off many of their women and children; and
the remnant of the men of the Upper-mark with all that they had,
which was now but little, took refuge in an island of Mirkwood-water,
where they fenced themselves as well as they could for that night;
for they expected the succour of their kindred of the Mid-mark and
the Nether-mark, unto whom they had sped the war-arrow when they
first had tidings of the onset of the Aliens.
So at the sun-rising they sacrificed to the Gods twenty chieftains of
the Aliens whom they had taken, and therewithal a maiden of their own
kindred, the daughter of their war-duke, that she might lead that
mighty company to the House of the Gods; and thereto was she nothing
loth, but went right willingly.
There then they awaited the onset. But the men of Mid-mark came up
in the morning, when the battle was but just joined, and fell on so
fiercely that the aliens gave back, and then they of the Upper-mark
stormed out of their eyot, and fell on over the ford, and fought till
the water ran red with their blood, and the blood of the foemen. So
the Aliens gave back before the onset of the Markmen all over the
meads; but when they came to the hillocks and the tofts of the half-
burned habitations, and the wood was on their flank, they made a
stand again, and once more the battle waxed hot, for they were very
many, and had many bow-men: there fell the War-duke of the Markmen,
whose daughter had been offered up for victory, and his name was
Agni, so that the tofts where he fell have since been called Agni's
Tofts. So that day they fought all over the plain, and a great many
died, both of the Aliens and the Markmen, and though these last were
victorious, yet when the sun went down there still were the Aliens
abiding in the Upper-mark, fenced by their wain-burg, beaten, and
much diminished in number, but still a host of men: while of the
Markmen many had fallen, and many more were hurt, because the Aliens
were good bowmen.
But on the morrow again, as the old tale told, came up the men of the
Nether-mark fresh and unwounded; and so the battle began again on the
southern limit of the Upper-mark where the Aliens had made their
wain-burg. But not long did it endure; for the Markmen fell on so
fiercely, that they stormed over the wain-burg, and slew all before
them, and there was a very great slaughter of the Aliens; so great,
tells the old tale, that never again durst they meet the Markmen in
war.
Thus went forth the host of the Markmen, faring along both sides of
the water into the Upper-mark; and on the west side, where went the
Wolfings, the ground now rose by a long slope into a low hill, and
when they came unto the brow thereof, they beheld before them the
whole plain of the Upper-mark, and the dwellings of the kindred
therein all girdled about by the wild-wood; and beyond, the blue
hills of the herdsmen, and beyond them still, a long way aloof, lying
like a white cloud on the verge of the heavens, the snowy tops of the
great mountains. And as they looked down on to the plain they saw it
embroidered, as it were, round about the habitations which lay within
ken by crowds of many people, and the banners of the kindreds and the
arms of men; and many a place they saw named after the ancient battle
and that great slaughter of the Aliens.
On their left hand lay the river, and as it now fairly entered with
them into the Upper-mark, it spread out into wide rippling shallows
beset with yet more sandy eyots, amongst which was one much greater,
rising amidmost into a low hill, grassy and bare of tree or bush; and
this was the island whereon the Markmen stood on the first day of the
Great Battle, and it was now called the Island of the Gods.
Thereby was the ford, which was firm and good and changed little from
year to year, so that all Markmen knew it well and it was called
Battleford: thereover now crossed all the eastern companies, footmen
and horsemen, freemen and thralls, wains and banners, with shouting
and laughter, and the noise of horns and the lowing of neat, till all
that plain's end was flooded with the host of the Markmen.
But when the eastern-abiders had crossed, they made no stay, but went
duly ordered about their banners, winding on toward the first of the
abodes on the western side of the water; because it was but a little
way southwest of this that the Thing-stead of the Upper-mark lay; and
the whole Folk was summoned thither when war threatened from the
South, just as it was called to the Thing-stead of the Nether-mark,
when the threat of war came from the North. But the western
companies stayed on the brow of that low hilt till all the eastern
men were over the river, and on their way to the Thing-stead, and
then they moved on.
So came the Wolfings and their fellows up to the dwellings of the
northernmost kindred, who were called the Daylings, and bore on their
banner the image of the rising sun. Thereabout was the Mark somewhat
more hilly and broken than in the Mid-mark, so that the Great Roof of
the Daylings, which was a very big house, stood on a hillock whose
sides had been deft down sheer on all sides save one (which was left
as a bridge) by the labour of men, and it was a very defensible
place.
Thereon were now gathered round about the Roof all the stay-at-homes
of the kindred, who greeted with joyous cries the men-at-arms as they
passed. Albeit one very old man, who sat in a chair near to the edge
of the sheer hill looking on the war array, when he saw the Wolfing
banner draw near, stood up to gaze on it, and then shook his head
sadly, and sank back again into his chair, and covered his face with
his hands: and when the folk saw that, a silence bred of the
coldness of fear fell on them, for that elder was deemed a foreseeing
man.
But as those three fellows, of whose talk of yesterday the tale has
told, drew near and beheld what the old carle did (for they were
riding together this day also) the Beaming man laid his hand on
Wolfkettle's rein and said:
"Lo you, neighbour, if thy Vala hath seen nought, yet hath this old
man seen somewhat, and that somewhat even as the little lad saw it.
Many a mother's son shall fall before the Welshmen."
But Wolfkettle shook his rein free, and his face reddened as of one
who is angry, yet he kept silence, while the Elking said:
"Let be, Toti! for he that lives shall tell the tale to the
foreseers, and shall make them wiser than they are to-day."
Then laughed Toti, as one who would not be thought to be too heedful
of the morrow. But Wolfkettle brake out into speech and rhyme, and
said:
"O warriors, the Wolfing kindred shall live or it shall die;
And alive it shall be as the oak-tree when the summer storm goes by;
But dead it shall be as its bole, that they hew for the corner-post
Of some fair and mighty folk-hall, and the roof of a war-fain host."
So therewith they rode their ways past the abode of the Daylings.
Straight to the wood went all the host, and so into it by a wide way
cleft through the thicket, and in some thirty minutes they came
thereby into a great wood-lawn cleared amidst of it by the work of
men's hands. There already was much of the host gathered, sitting or
standing in a great ring round about a space bare of men, where
amidmost rose a great mound raised by men's hands and wrought into
steps to be the sitting-places of the chosen elders and chief men of
the kindred; and atop the mound was flat and smooth save for a turf
bench or seat that went athwart it whereon ten men might sit.
All the wains save the banner-wains had been left behind at the
Dayling abode, nor was any beast there save the holy beasts who drew
the banner-wains and twenty white horses, that stood wreathed about
with flowers within the ring of warriors, and these were for the
burnt offering to be given to the Gods for a happy day of battle.
Even the war-horses of the host they must leave in the wood without
the wood-lawn, and all men were afoot who were there.
For this was the Thing-stead of the Upper-mark, and the holiest place
of the Markmen, and no beast, either neat, sheep, or horse might
pasture there, but was straightway slain and burned if he wandered
there; nor might any man eat therein save at the holy feasts when
offerings were made to the Gods.
So the Wolfings took their place there in the ring of men with the
Elkings on their right hand and the Beamings on their left. And in
the midst of the Wolfing array stood Thiodolf clad in the dwarf-
wrought hauberk: but his head was bare; for he had sworn over the
Cup of Renown that he would fight unhelmed throughout all that
trouble, and would bear no shield in any battle thereof however
fierce the onset might be.
Short, and curling close to his head was his black hair, a little
grizzled, so that it looked like rings of hard dark iron: his
forehead was high and smooth, his lips full and red, his eyes steady
and wide-open, and all his face joyous with the thought of the fame
of his deeds, and the coming battle with a foeman whom the Markmen
knew not yet.
He was tall and wide-shouldered, but so exceeding well fashioned of
all his limbs and body that he looked no huge man. He was a man well
beloved of women, and children would mostly run to him gladly and
play with him. A most fell warrior was he, whose deeds no man of the
Mark could equal, but blithe of speech even when he was sorrowful of
mood, a man that knew not bitterness of heart: and for all his
exceeding might and valiancy, he was proud and high to no man; so
that the very thralls loved him.
He was not abounding in words in the field; nor did he use much the
custom of those days in reviling and defying with words the foe that
was to be smitten with swords.
There were those who had seen him in the field for the first time who
deemed him slack at the work: for he would not always press on with
the foremost, but would hold him a little aback, and while the battle
was young he forbore to smite, and would do nothing but help a
kinsman who was hard pressed, or succour the wounded. So that if men
were dealing with no very hard matter, and their hearts were high and
overweening, he would come home at whiles with unbloodied blade. But
no man blamed him save those who knew him not: for his intent was
that the younger men should win themselves fame, and so raise their
courage, and become high-hearted and stout.
But when the stour was hard, and the battle was broken, and the
hearts of men began to fail them, and doubt fell upon the Markmen,
then was he another man to see: wise, but swift and dangerous,
rushing on as if shot out by some mighty engine: heedful of all, on
either side and in front; running hither and thither as the fight
failed and the fire of battle faltered; his sword so swift and deadly
that it was as if he wielded the very lightening of the heavens: for
with the sword it was ever his wont to fight.
But it must be said that when the foemen turned their backs, and the
chase began, then Thiodolf would nowise withhold his might as in the
early battle, but ever led the chase, and smote on the right hand and
on the left, sparing none, and crying out to the men of the kindred
not to weary in their work, but to fulfil all the hours of their day.
For thuswise would he say and this was a word of his:
"Let us rest to-morrow, fellows, since to-day we have fought amain!
Let not these men we have smitten come aback on our hands again,
And say 'Ye Wolfing warriors, ye have done your work but ill,
Fall to now and do it again, like the craftsman who learneth his
skill.'"
Such then was Thiodolf, and ever was he the chosen leader of the
Wolfings and often the War-duke of the whole Folk.
By his side stood the other chosen leader, whose name was Heriulf; a
man well stricken in years, but very mighty and valiant; wise in war
and well renowned; of few words save in battle, and therein a singer
of songs, a laugher, a joyous man, a merry companion. He was a much
bigger man than Thiodolf; and indeed so huge was his stature, that he
seemed to be of the kindred of the Mountain Giants; and his bodily
might went with his stature, so that no one man might deal with him
body to body. His face was big; his cheek-bones high; his nose like
an eagle's neb, his mouth wide, his chin square and big; his eyes
light-grey and fierce under shaggy eyebrows: his hair white and
long.
Such were his raiment and weapons, that he wore a coat of fence of
dark iron scales sewn on to horse-hide, and a dark iron helm
fashioned above his brow into the similitude of the Wolf's head with
gaping jaws; and this he had wrought for himself with his own hands,
for he was a good smith. A round buckler he bore and a huge twibill,
which no man of the kindred could well wield save himself; and it was
done both blade and shaft with knots and runes in gold; and he loved
that twibill well, and called it the Wolf's Sister.
There then stood Heriulf, looking no less than one of the forefathers
of the kindred come back again to the battle of the Wolfings.
He was well-beloved for his wondrous might, and he was no hard man,
though so fell a warrior, and though of few words, as aforesaid, was
a blithe companion to old and young. In numberless battles had he
fought, and men deemed it a wonder that Odin had not taken to him a
man so much after his own heart; and they said it was neighbourly
done of the Father of the Slain to forbear his company so long, and
showed how well he loved the Wolfing House.
For a good while yet came other bands of Markmen into the Thing-
stead; but at last there was an end of their coming. Then the ring
of men opened, and ten warriors of the Daylings made their way
through it, and one of them, the oldest, bore in his hand the War-
horn of the Daylings; for this kindred had charge of the Thing-stead,
and of all appertaining to it. So while his nine fellows stood round
about the Speech-Hill, the old warrior clomb up to the topmost of it,
and blew a blast on the horn. Thereon they who were sitting rose up,
and they who were talking each to each held their peace, and the
whole ring drew nigher to the hill, so that there was a clear space
behind them 'twixt them and the wood, and a space before them between
them and the hill, wherein were those nine warriors, and the horses
for the burnt-offering, and the altar of the Gods; and now were all
well within ear-shot of a man speaking amidst the silence in a clear
voice.
But there were gathered of the Markmen to that place some four
thousand men, all chosen warriors and doughty men; and of the thralls
and aliens dwelling with them they were leading two thousand. But
not all of the freemen of the Upper-mark could be at the Thing; for
needs must there be some guard to the passes of the wood toward the
south and the hills of the herdsmen, whereas it was no wise
impassable to a wisely led host: so five hundred men, what of
freemen, what of thralls, abode there to guard the wild-wood; and
these looked to have some helping from the hill-men.
Now came an ancient warrior into the space between the men and the
wild-wood holding in his hand a kindled torch; and first he faced due
south by the sun, then, turning, he slowly paced the whole circle
going from east to west, and so on till he had reached the place he
started from: then he dashed the torch to the ground and quenched
the fire, and so went his ways to his own company again.
Then the old Dayling warrior on the mound-top drew his sword, and
waved it flashing in the sun toward the four quarters of the heavens;
and thereafter blew again a blast on the War-horn. Then fell utter
silence on the whole assembly, and the wood was still around them,
save here and there the stamping of a war-horse or the sound of his
tugging at the woodland grass; for there was little resort of birds
to the depths of the thicket, and the summer morning was windless.
CHAPTER VIII--THE FOLK-MOTE OF THE MARKMEN
So the Dayling warrior lifted up his voice and said:
"O kindreds of the Markmen, hearken the words I say;
For no chancehap assembly is gathered here to-day.
The fire hath gone around us in the hands of our very kin,
And twice the horn hath sounded, and the Thing is hallowed in.
Will ye hear or forbear to hearken the tale there is to tell?
There are many mouths to tell it, and a many know it well.
And the tale is this, that the foemen against our kindreds fare
Who eat the meadows desert, and burn the desert bare."
Then sat he down on the turf seat; but there arose a murmur in the
assembly as of men eager to hearken; and without more ado came a man
out of a company of the Upper-mark, and clomb up to the top of the
Speech-Hill, and spoke in a loud voice:
"I am Bork, a man of the Geirings of the Upper-mark: two days ago I
and five others were in the wild-wood a-hunting, and we wended
through the thicket, and came into the land of the hill-folk; and
after we had gone a while we came to a long dale with a brook running
through it, and yew-trees scattered about it and a hazel copse at one
end; and by the copse was a band of men who had women and children
with them, and a few neat, and fewer horses; but sheep were feeding
up and down the dale; and they had made them booths of turf and
boughs, and were making ready their cooking fires, for it was
evening. So when they saw us, they ran to their arms, but we cried
out to them in the tongue of the Goths and bade them peace. Then
they came up the bent to us and spake to us in the Gothic tongue,
albeit a little diversely from us; and when we had told them what and
whence we were, they were glad of us, and bade us to them, and we
went, and they entreated us kindly, and made us such cheer as they
might, and gave us mutton to eat, and we gave them venison of the
wild-wood which we had taken, and we abode with them there that
night.
"But they told us that they were a house of the folk of the herdsmen,
and that there was war in the land, and that the people thereof were
fleeing before the cruelty of a host of warriors, men of a mighty
folk, such as the earth hath not heard of, who dwell in great cities
far to the south; and how that this host had crossed the mountains,
and the Great Water that runneth from them, and had fallen upon their
kindred, and overcome their fighting-men, and burned their dwellings,
slain their elders, and driven their neat and their sheep, yea, and
their women and children in no better wise than their neat and sheep.
"And they said that they had fled away thus far from their old
habitations, which were a long way to the south, and were now at
point to build them dwellings there in that Dale of the Hazels, and
to trust to it that these Welshmen, whom they called Romans, would
not follow so far, and that if they did, they might betake them to
the wild-wood, and let the thicket cover them, they being so nigh to
it.
"Thus they told us; wherefore we sent back one of our fellowship,
Birsti of the Geirings, to tell the tale; and one of the herdsmen
folk went with him, but we ourselves went onward to hear more of
these Romans; for the folk when we asked them, said that they had
been in battle against them, but had fled away for fear of their
rumour only. Therefore we went on, and a young man of this kindred,
who named themselves the Hrutings of the Fell-folk, went along with
us. But the others were sore afeard, for all they had weapons.
"So as we went up the land we found they had told us the very sooth,
and we met divers Houses, and bands, and broken men, who were fleeing
from this trouble, and many of them poor and in misery, having lost
their flocks and herds as well as their roofs; and this last be but
little loss to them, as their dwellings are but poor, and for the
most part they have no tillage. Now of these men, we met not a few
who had been in battle with the Roman host, and much they told us of
their might not to be dealt with, and their mishandling of those whom
they took, both men and women; and at the last we heard true tidings
how they had raised them a garth, and made a stronghold in the midst
of the land, as men who meant abiding there, so that neither might
the winter drive them aback, and that they might be succoured by
their people on the other side of the Great River; to which end they
have made other garths, though not so great, on the road to that
water, and all these well and wisely warded by tried men. For as to
the Folks on the other side of the Water, all these lie under their
hand already, what by fraud what by force, and their warriors go with
them to the battle and help them; of whom we met bands now and again,
and fought with them, and took men of them, who told us all this and
much more, over long to tell of here."
He paused and turned about to look on the mighty assembly, and his
ears drank in the long murmur that followed his speaking, and when it
had died out he spake again, but in rhyme:
"Lo thus much of my tidings! But this too it behoveth to tell,
That these masterful men of the cities of the Markmen know full well:
And they wot of the well-grassed meadows, and the acres of the Mark,
And our life amidst of the wild-wood like a candle in the dark;
And they know of our young men's valour and our women's loveliness,
And our tree would they spoil with destruction if its fruit they may
never possess.
For their lust is without a limit, and nought may satiate
Their ravening maw; and their hunger if ye check it turneth to hate,
And the blood-fever burns in their bosoms, and torment and anguish
and woe
O'er the wide field ploughed by the sword-blade for the coming years
they sow;
And ruth is a thing forgotten and all hopes they trample down;
And whatso thing is steadfast, whatso of good renown,
Whatso is fair and lovely, whatso is ancient sooth
In the bloody marl shall they mingle as they laugh for lack of ruth.
Lo the curse of the world cometh hither; for the men that we took in
the land
Said thus, that their host is gathering with many an ordered band
To fall on the wild-wood passes and flood the lovely Mark,
As the river over the meadows upriseth in the dark.
Look to it, O ye kindred! availeth now no word
But the voice of the clashing of iron, and the sword-blade on the
sword."
Therewith he made an end, and deeper and longer was the murmur of the
host of freemen, amidst which Bork gat him down from the Speech-Hill,
his weapons clattering about him, and mingled with the men of his
kindred.
Then came forth a man of the kin of the Shieldings of the Upper-mark,
and clomb the mound; and he spake in rhyme from beginning to end; for
he was a minstrel of renown:
"Lo I am a man of the Shieldings and Geirmund is my name;
A half-moon back from the wild-wood out into the hills I came,
And I went alone in my war-gear; for we have affinity
With the Hundings of the Fell-folk, and with them I fain would be;
For I loved a maid of their kindred. Now their dwelling was not far
From the outermost bounds of the Fell-folk, and bold in the battle
they are,
And have met a many people, and held their own abode.
Gay then was the heart within me, as over the hills I rode
And thought of the mirth of to-morrow and the sweet-mouthed Hunding
maid
And their old men wise and merry and their young men unafraid,
And the hall-glee of the Hundings and the healths o'er the guesting
cup.
But as I rode the valley, I saw a smoke go up
O'er the crest of the last of the grass-hills 'twixt me and the
Hunding roof,
And that smoke was black and heavy: so a while I bided aloof,
And drew my girths the tighter, and looked to the arms I bore
And handled my spear for the casting; for my heart misgave me sore,
For nought was that pillar of smoke like the guest-fain cooking-fire.
I lingered in thought for a minute, then turned me to ride up higher,
And as a man most wary up over the bent I rode,
And nigh hid peered o'er the hill-crest adown on the Hunding abode;
And forsooth 'twas the fire wavering all o'er the roof of old,
And all in the garth and about it lay the bodies of the bold;
And bound to a rope amidmost were the women fair and young,
And youths and little children, like the fish on a withy strung
As they lie on the grass for the angler before the beginning of
night.
Then the rush of the wrath within me for a while nigh blinded my
sight;
Yet about the cowering war-thralls, short dark-faced men I saw,
Men clad in iron armour, this way and that way draw,
As warriors after the battle are ever wont to do.
Then I knew them for the foemen and their deeds to be I knew,
And I gathered the reins together to ride down the hill amain,
To die with a good stroke stricken and slay ere I was slain.
When lo, on the bent before me rose the head of a brown-faced man,
Well helmed and iron-shielded, who some Welsh speech began
And a short sword brandished against me; then my sight cleared and I
saw
Five others armed in likewise up hill and toward me draw,
And I shook the spear and sped it and clattering on his shield
He fell and rolled o'er smitten toward the garth and the Fell-folk's
field.
"But my heart changed with his falling and the speeding of my stroke,
And I turned my horse; for within me the love of life awoke,
And I spurred, nor heeded the hill-side, but o'er rough and smooth I
rode
Till I heard no chase behind me; then I drew rein and abode.
And down in a dell was I gotten with a thorn-brake in its throat,
And heard but the plover's whistle and the blackbird's broken note
'Mid the thorns; when lo! from a thorn-twig away the blackbird swept,
And out from the brake and towards me a naked man there crept,
And straight I rode up towards him, and knew his face for one
I had seen in the hall of the Hundings ere its happy days were done.
I asked him his tale, but he bade me forthright to bear him away;
So I took him up behind me, and we rode till late in the day,
Toward the cover of the wild-wood, and as swiftly as we might.
But when yet aloof was the thicket and it now was moonless night,
We stayed perforce for a little, and he told me all the tale:
How the aliens came against them, and they fought without avail
Till the Roof o'er their heads was burning and they burst forth on
the foe,
And were hewn down there together; nor yet was the slaughter slow.
But some they saved for thralldom, yea, e'en of the fighting men,
Or to quell them with pains; so they stripped them; and this man
espying just then
Some chance, I mind not whatwise, from the garth fled out and away.
"Now many a thing noteworthy of these aliens did he say,
But this I bid you hearken, lest I wear the time for nought,
That still upon the Markmen and the Mark they set their thought;
For they questioned this man and others through a go-between in words
Of us, and our lands and our chattels, and the number of our swords;
Of the way and the wild-wood passes and the winter and his ways.
Now look to see them shortly; for worn are fifteen days
Since in the garth of the Hundings I saw them dight for war,
And a hardy folk and ready and a swift-foot host they are."
Therewith Geirmund went down clattering from the Hill and stood with
his company. But a man came forth from the other side of the ring,
and clomb the Hill: he was a red-haired man, rather big, clad in a
skin coat, and bearing a bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows at
his back, and a little axe hung by his side. He said:
"I dwell in the House of the Hrossings of the Mid-mark, and I am now
made a man of the kindred: howbeit I was not born into it; for I am
the son of a fair and mighty woman of a folk of the Kymry, who was
taken in war while she went big with me; I am called Fox the Red.
"These Romans have I seen, and have not died: so hearken! for my
tale shall be short for what there is in it.
"I am, as many know, a hunter of Mirkwood, and I know all its ways
and the passes through the thicket somewhat better than most.
"A moon ago I fared afoot from Mid-mark through Upper-mark into the
thicket of the south, and through it into the heath country; and I
went over a neck and came in the early dawn into a little dale when
somewhat of mist still hung over it. At the dale's end I saw a man
lying asleep on the grass under a quicken tree, and his shield and
sword hanging over his head to a bough thereof, and his horse feeding
hoppled higher up the dale.
"I crept up softly to him with a shaft nocked on the string, but when
I drew near I saw him to be of the sons of the Goths. So I doubted
nothing, but laid down my bow, and stood upright, and went to him and
roused him, and he leapt up, and was wroth.
"I said to him, 'Wilt thou be wroth with a brother of the kindred
meeting him in unpeopled parts?'
"But he reached out for his weapons; but ere he could handle them I
ran in on him so that he gat not his sword, and had scant time to
smite at me with a knife which he drew from his waist.
"I gave way before him for he was a very big man, and he rushed past
me, and I dealt him a blow on the side of the head with my little axe
which is called the War-babe, and gave him a great wound: and he
fell on the grass, and as it happened that was his bane.
"I was sorry that I had slain him, since he was a man of the Goths:
albeit otherwise he had slain me, for he was very wroth and dazed
with slumber.
"He died not for a while; and he bade me fetch him water; and there
was a well hard by on the other side of the tree; so I fetched it him
in a great shell that I carry, and he drank. I would have sung the
blood-staunching song over him, for I know it well. But he said, 'It
availeth nought: I have enough: what man art thou?'
"I said, 'I am a fosterling of the Hrossings, and my mother was taken
in war: my name is Fox.'
"Said he; 'O Fox, I have my due at thy hands, for I am a Markman of
the Elkings, but a guest of the Burgundians beyond the Great River;
and the Romans are their masters and they do their bidding: even so
did I who was but their guest: and I a Markman to fight against the
Markmen, and all for fear and for gold! And thou an alien-born hast
slain their traitor and their dastard! This is my due. Give me to
drink again.'
"So did I; and he said; 'Wilt thou do an errand for me to thine own
house?' 'Yea,' said I.
"Said he, 'I am a messenger to the garth of the Romans, that I may
tell the road to the Mark, and lead them through the thicket; and
other guides are coming after me: but not yet for three days or
four. So till they come there will be no man in the Roman garth to
know thee that thou art not even I myself. If thou art doughty,
strip me when I am dead and do my raiment on thee, and take this ring
from my neck, for that is my token, and when they ask thee for a word
say, "NO LIMIT"; for that is the token-word. Go south-east over the
dales keeping Broadshield-fell square with thy right hand, and let
thy wisdom, O Fox, lead thee to the Garth of the Romans, and so back
to thy kindred with all tidings thou hast gathered--for indeed they
come--a many of them. Give me to drink.'
"So he drank again, and said, 'The bearer of this token is called
Hrosstyr of the River Goths. He hath that name among dastards. Thou
shalt lay a turf upon my head. Let my death pay for my life.'
"Therewith he fell back and died. So I did as he bade me and took
his gear, worth six kine, and did it on me; I laid turf upon him in
that dale, and hid my bow and my gear in a blackthorn brake hard by,
and then took his horse and rode away.
"Day and night I rode till I came to the garth of the Romans; there I
gave myself up to their watchers, and they brought me to their Duke,
a grim man and hard. He said in a terrible voice, 'Thy name?' I
said, 'Hrosstyr of the River Goths.' He said, 'What limit?' I
answered, 'NO LIMIT.' 'The token!' said he, and held out his hand.
I gave him the ring. 'Thou art the man,' said he.
"I thought in my heart, 'thou liest, lord,' and my heart danced for
joy.
"Then he fell to asking me questions a many, and I answered every one
glibly enough, and told him what I would, but no word of truth save
for his hurt, and my soul laughed within me at my lies; thought I,
the others, the traitors, shall come, and they shall tell him the
truth, and he will not trow it, or at the worst he will doubt them.
But me he doubted nothing, else had he called in the tormentors to
have the truth of me by pains; as I well saw afterwards, when they
questioned with torments a man and a woman of the hill-folk whom they
had brought in captive.
"I went from him and went all about that garth espying everything,
fearing nothing; albeit there were divers woful captives of the
Goths, who cursed me for a dastard, when they saw by my attire that I
was of their blood.
"I abode there three days, and learned all that I might of the garth
and the host of them, and the fourth day in the morning I went out as
if to hunt, and none hindered me, for they doubted me not.
"So I came my ways home to the Upper-mark, and was guested with the
Geirings. Will ye that I tell you somewhat of the ways of these
Romans of the garth? The time presses, and my tale runneth longer
than I would. What will ye?"
Then there arose a murmur, "Tell all, tell all." "Nay," said the
Fox, "All I may not tell; so much did I behold there during the three
days' stay; but this much it behoveth you to know: that these men
have no other thought save to win the Mark and waste it, and slay the
fighting men and the old carles, and enthrall such as they will, that
is, all that be fair and young, and they long sorely for our women
either to have or to sell.
"As for their garth, it is strongly walled about with a dyke newly
dug; on the top thereof are they building a wall made of clay, and
burned like pots into ashlar stones hard and red, and these are laid
in lime.
"It is now the toil of the thralls of our blood whom they have taken,
both men and women, to dig that clay and to work it, and bear it to
kilns, and to have for reward scant meat and many stripes. For it is
a grim folk, that laugheth to see others weep.
"Their men-at-arms are well dight and for the most part in one way:
they are helmed with iron, and have iron on their breasts and reins,
and bear long shields that cover them to the knees. They are girt
with a sax and have a heavy casting-spear. They are dark-skinned and
ugly of aspect, surly and of few words: they drink little, and eat
not much.
"They have captains of tens and of hundreds over them, and that war-
duke over all; he goeth to and fro with gold on his head and his
breast, and commonly hath a cloak cast over him of the colour of the
crane's-bill blossom.
"They have an altar in the midst of their burg, and thereon they
sacrifice to their God, who is none other than their banner of war,
which is an image of the ravening eagle with outspread wings; but yet
another God they have, and look you! it is a wolf, as if they were of
the kin of our brethren; a she-wolf and two man-children at her dugs;
wonderful is this.
"I tell you that they are grim; and know it by this token: those
captains of tens, and of hundreds, spare not to smite the warriors
with staves even before all men, when all goeth not as they would;
and yet, though they be free men, and mighty warriors, they endure it
and smite not in turn. They are a most evil folk.
"As to their numbers, they of the burg are hard on three thousand
footmen of the best; and of horsemen five hundred, nowise good; and
of bowmen and slingers six hundred or more: their bows weak; their
slingers cunning beyond measure. And the talk is that when they come
upon us they shall have with them some five hundred warriors of the
Over River Goths, and others of their own folk."
Then he said:
"O men of the Mark, will ye meet them in the meadows and the field,
Or will ye flee before them and have the wood for a shield?
Or will ye wend to their war-burg with weapons cast away,
With your women and your children, a peace of them to pray?
So doing, not all shall perish; but most shall long to die
Ere in the garths of the Southland two moons have loitered by."
Then rose the rumour loud and angry mingled with the rattle of swords
and the clash of spears on shields; but Fox said:
"Needs must ye follow one of these three ways. Nay, what say I?
there are but two ways and not three; for if ye flee they shall
follow you to the confines of the earth. Either these Welsh shall
take all, and our lives to boot, or we shall hold to all that is
ours, and live merrily. The sword doometh; and in three days it may
be the courts shall be hallowed: small is the space between us."
Therewith he also got him down from the Hill, and joined his own
house: and men said that he had spoken well and wisely. But there
arose a noise of men talking together on these tidings; and amidst it
an old warrior of the Nether-mark strode forth and up to the Hill-
top. Gaunt and stark he was to look on; and all men knew him and he
was well-beloved, so all held their peace as he said:
"I am Otter of the Laxings: now needeth but few words till the War-
duke is chosen, and we get ready to wend our ways in arms. Here have
ye heard three good men and true tell of our foes, and this last, Fox
the Red, hath seen them and hath more to tell when we are on the way;
nor is the way hard to find. It were scarce well to fall upon these
men in their garth and war-burg; for hard is a wall to slay. Better
it were to meet them in the Wild-wood, which may well be a friend to
us and a wall, but to them a net. O Agni of the Daylings, thou
warder of the Thing-stead, bid men choose a War-duke if none gainsay
it."
And without more words he clattered down the Hill, and went and stood
with the Laxing band. But the old Dayling arose and blew the horn,
and there was at once a great silence, amidst which he said:
"Children of Slains-father, doth the Folk go to the war?"
There was no voice but shouted "yea," and the white swords sprang
aloft, and the westering sun swept along a half of them as they
tossed to and fro, and the others showed dead-white and fireless
against the dark wood.
Then again spake Agni:
"Will ye choose the War-duke now and once, or shall it be in a while,
after others have spoken?"
And the voice of the Folk went up, "Choose! Choose!"
Said Agni: "Sayeth any aught against it?" But no voice of a
gainsayer was heard, and Agni said:
"Children of Tyr, what man will ye have for a leader and a duke of
war?"
Then a great shout sprang up from amidst the swords: "We will have
Thiodolf; Thiodolf the Wolfing!"
Said Agni: "I hear no other name; are ye of one mind? hath any aught
to say against it? If that be so, let him speak now, and not forbear
to follow in the wheatfield of the spears. Speak, ye that will not
follow Thiodolf!"
No voice gainsaid him: then said the Dayling: "Come forth thou War-
duke of the Markmen! take up the gold ring from the horns of the
altar, set it on thine arm and come up hither!"
Then came forth Thiodolf into the sun, and took up the gold ring from
where it lay, and did it on his arm. And this was the ring of the
leader of the folk whenso one should be chosen: it was ancient and
daintily wrought, but not very heavy: so ancient it was that men
said it had been wrought by the dwarfs.
So Thiodolf went up on to the hill, and all men cried out on him for
joy, for they knew his wisdom in war. Many wondered to see him
unhelmed, but they had a deeming that he must have made oath to the
Gods thereof and their hearts were glad of it. They took note of the
dwarf-wrought hauberk, and even from a good way off they could see
what a treasure of smith's work it was, and they deemed it like
enough that spells had been sung over it to make it sure against
point and edge: for they knew that Thiodolf was well beloved of the
Gods.
But when Thiodolf was on the Hill of Speech, he said:
"Men of the kindreds, I am your War-duke to-day; but it is oftenest
the custom when ye go to war to choose you two dukes, and I would it
were so now. No child's play is the work that lies before us; and if
one leader chance to fall let there be another to take his place
without stop or stay. Thou Agni of the Daylings, bid the Folk choose
them another duke if so they will."
Said Agni: "Good is this which our War-duke hath spoken; say then,
men of the Mark, who shall stand with Thiodolf to lead you against
the aliens?"
Then was there a noise and a crying of names, and more than two names
seemed to be cried out; but by far the greater part named either
Otter of the Laxings, or Heriulf of the Wolfings. True it is that
Otter was a very wise warrior, and well known to all the men of the
Mark; yet so dear was Heriulf to them, that none would have named
Otter had it not been mostly their custom not to choose both War-
dukes from one House.
Now spake Agni: "Children of Tyr, I hear you name more than one
name: now let each man cry out clearly the name he nameth.
So the Folk cried the names once more, but this time it was clear
that none was named save Otter and Heriulf; so the Dayling was at
point to speak again, but or ever a word left his lips, Heriulf the
mighty, the ancient of days, stood forth: and when men saw that he
would take up the word there was a great silence. So he spake:
"Hearken, children! I am old and war-wise; but my wisdom is the
wisdom of the sword of the mighty warrior, that knoweth which way it
should wend, and hath no thought of turning back till it lieth broken
in the field. Such wisdom is good against Folks that we have met
heretofore; as when we have fought with the Huns, who would sweep us
away from the face of the earth, or with the Franks or the
Burgundians, who would quell us into being something worser than they
be. But here is a new foe, and new wisdom, and that right shifty, do
we need to meet them. One wise duke have ye gotten, Thiodolf to wit;
and he is young beside me and beside Otter of the Laxings. And now
if ye must needs have an older man to stand beside him, (and that is
not ill) take ye Otter; for old though his body be, the thought
within him is keen and supple like the best of Welsh-wrought blades,
and it liveth in the days that now are: whereas for me, meseemeth,
my thoughts are in the days bygone. Yet look to it, that I shall not
fail to lead as the sword of the valiant leadeth, or the shaft shot
by the cunning archer. Choose ye Otter; I have spoken over long."
Then spoke Agni the Dayling, and laughed withal: "One man of the
Folk hath spoken for Otter and against Heriulf--now let others speak
if they will!"
So the cry came forth, "Otter let it be, we will have Otter!"
"Speaketh any against Otter?" said Agni. But there was no voice
raised against him.
Then Agni said: "Come forth, Otter of the Laxings, and hold the ring
with Thiodolf."
Then Otter went up on to the hill and stood by Thiodolf, and they
held the ring together; and then each thrust his hand and arm through
the ring and clasped hands together, and stood thus awhile, and all
the Folk shouted together.
Then spake Agni: "Now shall we hew the horses and give the gifts to
the Gods."
Therewith he and the two War-dukes came down from the hill; and stood
before the altar; and the nine warriors of the Daylings stood forth
with axes to hew the horses and with copper bowls wherein to catch
the blood of them, and each hewed down his horse to the Gods, but the
two War-dukes slew the tenth and fairest: and the blood was caught
in the bowls, and Agni took a sprinkler and went round about the ring
of men, and cast the blood of the Gods'-gifts over the Folk, as was
the custom of those days.
Then they cut up the carcases and burned on the altar the share of
the Gods, and Agni and the War-dukes tasted thereof, and the rest
they bore off to the Daylings' abode for the feast to be holden that
night.
Then Otter and Thiodolf spake apart together for awhile, and
presently went up again on to the Speech-Hill, and Thiodolf said:
"O kindreds of the Markmen; to-morrow with the day
We shall wend up Mirkwood-water to bar our foes the way;
And there shall we make our wain-burg on the edges of the wood,
Where in the days past over at last the aliens stood,
The Slaughter Tofts ye call it. There tidings shall we get
If the curse of the world is awakened, and the serpent crawleth yet
Amidst the Mirkwood thicket; and when the sooth we know,
Then bearing battle with us through the thicket shall we go,
The ancient Wood-wolf's children, and the People of the Shield,
And the Spear-kin and the Horse-kin, while the others keep the field
About the warded wain-burg; for not many need we there
Where amidst of the thickets' tangle and the woodland net they fare,
And the hearts of the aliens falter and they curse the fight ne'er
done,
And wonder who is fighting and which way is the sun."
Thus he spoke; then Agni took up the war-horn again, and blew a
blast, and then he cried out:
"Now sunder we the Folk-mote! and the feast is for to-night,
And to-morrow the Wayfaring; But unnamed is the day of the fight;
O warriors, look ye to it that not long we need abide
'Twixt the hour of the word we have spoken, and our fair-fame's
blooming tide!
For then 'midst the toil and the turmoil shall we sow the seeds of
peace,
And the Kindreds' long endurance, and the Goth-folk's great
increase."
Then arose the last great shout, and soberly and in due order,
kindred by kindred, they turned and departed from the Thing-stead and
went their way through the wood to the abode of the Daylings.
CHAPTER IX--THE ANCIENT MAN OF THE DAYLINGS
There still hung the more part of the stay-at-homes round about the
Roof. But on the plain beneath the tofts were all the wains of the
host drawn up round about a square like the streets about a market-
place; all these now had their tilts rigged over them, some white,
some black, some red, some tawny of hue; and some, which were of the
Beamings, green like the leafy tree.
The warriors of the host went down into this wain-town, which they
had not fenced in any way, since they in no wise looked for any onset
there; and there were their thralls dighting the feast for them, and
a many of the Dayling kindred, both men and women, went with them;
but some men did the Daylings bring into their Roof, for there was
room for a good many besides their own folk. So they went over the
Bridge of turf into the garth and into the Great Roof of the
Daylings; and amongst these were the two War-dukes.
So when they came to the dais it was as fair all round about there as
might well be; and there sat elders and ancient warriors to welcome
the guests; and among them was the old carle who had sat on the edge
of the burg to watch the faring of the host, and had shuddered back
at the sight of the Wolfing Banner.
And when the old carle saw the guests, he fixed his eyes on Thiodolf,
and presently came up and stood before him; and Thiodolf looked on
the old man, and greeted him kindly and smiled on him; but the carle
spake not till he had looked on him a while; and at last he fell a-
trembling, and reached his hands out to Thiodolf's bare head, and
handled his curls and caressed them, as a mother does with her son,
even if he be a grizzled-haired man, when there is none by: and at
last he said:
"How dear is the head of the mighty, and the apple of the tree
That blooms with the life of the people which is and yet shall be!
It is helmed with ancient wisdom, and the long remembered thought,
That liveth when dead is the iron, and its very rust but nought.
Ah! were I but young as aforetime, I would fare to the battle-stead
And stand amidst of the spear-hail for the praise of the hand and the
head!"
Then his hands left Thiodolf's head, and strayed down to his
shoulders and his breast, and he felt the cold rings of the hauberk,
and let his hands fall down to his side again; and the tears gushed
out of his old eyes and again he spake:
"O house of the heart of the mighty, O breast of the battle-lord
Why art thou coldly hidden from the flickering flame of the sword?
I know thee not, nor see thee; thou art as the fells afar
Where the Fathers have their dwelling, and the halls of Godhome are:
The wind blows wild betwixt us, and the cloud-rack flies along,
And high aloft enfoldeth the dwelling of the strong;
They are, as of old they have been, but their hearths flame not for
me;
And the kindness of their feast-halls mine eyes shall never see."
Thiodolf's lips still smiled on the old man, but a shadow had come
over his eyes and his brow; and the chief of the Daylings and their
mighty guests stood by listening intently with the knit brows of
anxious men; nor did any speak till the ancient man again betook him
to words:
"I came to the house of the foeman when hunger made me a fool;
And the foeman said, 'Thou art weary, lo, set thy foot on the stool;'
And I stretched out my feet,--and was shackled: and he spake with a
dastard's smile,
'O guest, thine hands are heavy; now rest them for a while!'
So I stretched out my hands, and the hand-gyves lay cold on either
wrist:
And the wood of the wolf had been better than that feast-hall, had I
wist
That this was the ancient pit-fall, and the long expected trap,
And that now for my heart's desire I had sold the world's goodhap."
Therewith the ancient man turned slowly away from Thiodolf, and
departed sadly to his own place. Thiodolf changed countenance but
little, albeit those about him looked strangely on him, as though if
they durst they would ask him what these words might be, and if he
from his hidden knowledge might fit a meaning to them. For to many
there was a word of warning in them, and to some an evil omen of the
days soon to be; and scarce anyone heard those words but he had a
misgiving in his heart, for the ancient man was known to be
foreseeing, and wild and strange his words seemed to them.
But Agni would make light of it, and he said: "Asmund the Old is of
good will, and wise he is; but he hath great longings for the deeds
of men, when he hath tidings of battle; for a great warrior and a
red-hand hewer he hath been in times past; he loves the Kindred, and
deems it ill if he may not fare afield with them; for the thought of
dying in the straw is hateful to him."
"Yea," said another, "and moreover he hath seen sons whom he loved
slain in battle; and when he seeth a warrior in his prime he becometh
dear to him, and he feareth for him."
"Yet," said a third, "Asmund is foreseeing; and may be, Thiodolf,
thou wilt wot of the drift of these words, and tell us thereof."
But Thiodolf spake nought of the matter, though in his heart he
pondered it.
So the guests were led to table, and the feast began, within the hall
and without it, and wide about the plain; and the Dayling maidens
went in bands trimly decked out throughout all the host and served
the warriors with meat and drink, and sang the overword to their
lays, and smote the harp, and drew the bow over the fiddle till it
laughed and wailed and chuckled, and were blithe and merry with all,
and great was the glee on the eve of battle. And if Thiodolf's heart
were overcast, his face showed it not, but he passed from hall to
wain-burg and from wain-burg to hall again blithe and joyous with all
men. And thereby he raised the hearts of men, and they deemed it
good that they had gotten such a War-duke, meet to uphold all hearts
of men both at the feast and in the fray.
CHAPTER X--THAT CARLINE COMETH TO THE ROOF OF THE WOLFINGS
Now it was three days after this that the women were gathering to the
Women's-Chamber of the Roof of the Wolfings a little before the
afternoon changes into evening. The hearts of most were somewhat
heavy, for the doubt wherewith they had watched the departure of the
fighting-men still hung about them; nor had they any tidings from the
host (nor was it like that they should have). And as they were
somewhat down-hearted, so it seemed by the aspect of all things that
afternoon. It was not yet the evening, as is aforesaid, but the day
was worn and worsened, and all things looked weary. The sky was a
little clouded, but not much; yet was it murky down in the south-
east, and there was a threat of storm in it, and in the air close
round each man's head, and in the very waving of the leafy boughs.
There was by this time little doing in field and fold (for the kine
were milked), and the women were coming up from the acres and the
meadow and over the open ground anigh the Roof; there was the grass
worn and dusty, and the women that trod it, their feet were tanned
and worn, and dusty also; skin-dry and weary they looked, with the
sweat dried upon them; their girt-up gowns grey and lightless, their
half-unbound hair blowing about them in the dry wind, which had in it
no morning freshness, and no evening coolness.
It was a time when toil was well-nigh done, but had left its aching
behind it; a time for folk to sleep and forget for a little while,
till the low sun should make it evening, and make all things fair
with his level rays; no time for anxious thoughts concerning deeds
doing, wherein the anxious ones could do nought to help. Yet such
thoughts those stay-at-homes needs must have in the hour of their
toil scarce over, their rest and mirth not begun.
Slowly one by one the women went in by the Women's-door, and the
Hall-Sun sat on a stone hard by, and watched them as they passed; and
she looked keenly at all persons and all things. She had been
working in the acres, and her hand was yet on the hoe she had been
using, and but for her face her body was as of one resting after
toil: her dark blue gown was ungirded, her dark hair loose and
floating, the flowers that had wreathed it, now faded, lying strewn
upon the grass before her: her feet bare for coolness' sake, her
left hand lying loose and open upon her knee.
Yet though her body otherwise looked thus listless, in her face was
no listlessness, nor rest: her eyes were alert and clear, shining
like two stars in the heavens of dawntide; her lips were set close,
her brow knit, as of one striving to shape thoughts hard to
understand into words that all might understand.
So she sat noting all things, as woman by woman went past her into
the hall, till at last she slowly rose to her feet; for there came
two young women leading between them that same old carline with whom
she had talked on the Hill-of-Speech. She looked on the carline
steadfastly, but gave no token of knowing her; but the ancient woman
spoke when she came near to the Hall-Sun, and old as her semblance
was, yet did her speech sound sweet to the Hall-Sun, and indeed to
all those that heard it and she said:
"May we be here to-night, O Hall-Sun, thou lovely Seeress of the
mighty Wolfings? may a wandering woman sit amongst you and eat the
meat of the Wolfings?"
Then spake the Hall-Sun in a sweet measured voice: "Surely mother:
all men who bring peace with them are welcome guests to the Wolfings:
nor will any ask thine errand, but we will let thy tidings flow from
thee as thou wilt. This is the custom of the kindred, and no word of
mine own; I speak to thee because thou hast spoken to me, but I have
no authority here, being myself but an alien. Albeit I serve the
House of the Wolfings, and I love it as the hound loveth his master
who feedeth him, and his master's children who play with him. Enter,
mother, and be glad of heart, and put away care from thee."
Then the old woman drew nigher to her and sat down in the dust at her
feet, for she was now sitting down again, and took her hand and
kissed it and fondled it, and seemed loth to leave handling the
beauty of the Hall-Sun; but she looked kindly on the carline, and
smiled on her, and leaned down to her, and kissed her mouth, and
said:
"Damsels, take care of this poor woman, and make her good cheer; for
she is wise of wit, and a friend of the Wolfings; and I have seen her
before, and spoken with her; and she loveth us. But as for me I must
needs be alone in the meads for a while; and it may be that when I
come to you again, I shall have a word to tell you."
Now indeed it was in a manner true that the Hall-Sun had no authority
in the Wolfing House; yet was she so well beloved for her wisdom and
beauty and her sweet speech, that all hastened to do her will in
small matters and in great, and now as they looked at her after the
old woman had caressed her, it seemed to them that her fairness grew
under their eyes, and that they had never seen her so fair; and the
sight of her seemed so good to them, that the outworn day and its
weariness changed to them, and it grew as pleasant as the first hours
of the sunlight, when men arise happy from their rest, and look on
the day that lieth hopeful before them with all its deeds to be.
So they grew merry, and they led the carline into the Hall with them,
and set her down in the Women's-Chamber, and washed her feet, and
gave her meat and drink, and bade her rest and think of nothing
troublous, and in all wise made her good cheer; and she was merry
with them, and praised their fairness and their deftness, and asked
them many questions about their weaving and spinning and carding;
(howbeit the looms were idle as then because it was midsummer, and
the men gone to the war). And this they deemed strange, as it seemed
to them that all women should know of such things; but they thought
it was a token that she came from far away.
But afterwards she sat among them, and told them pleasant tales of
past times and far countries, and was blithe to them and they to her
and the time wore on toward nightfall in the Women's-Chamber.
CHAPTER XI--THE HALL-SUN SPEAKETH
But for the Hall-Sun; she sat long on that stone by the Women's-door;
but when the evening was now come, she arose and went down through
the cornfields and into the meadow, and wandered away as her feet
took her.
Night was falling by then she reached that pool of Mirkwood-water,
whose eddies she knew so well. There she let the water cover her in
the deep stream, and she floated down and sported with the ripples
where the river left that deep to race over the shallows; and the
moon was casting shadows by then she came up the bank again by the
shallow end bearing in her arms a bundle of the blue-flowering mouse-
ear. Then she clad herself at once, and went straight as one with a
set purpose toward the Great Roof, and entered by the Man's-door; and
there were few men within and they but old and heavy with the burden
of years and the coming of night-tide; but they wondered and looked
to each other and nodded their heads as she passed them by, as men
who would say, There is something toward.
So she went to her sleeping-place, and did on fresh raiment, and came
forth presently clad in white and shod with gold and having her hair
wreathed about with the herb of wonder, the blue-flowering mouse-ear
of Mirkwood-water. Thus she passed through the Hall, and those
elders were stirred in their hearts when they beheld her beauty. But
she opened the door of the Women's-Chamber, and stood on the
threshold; and lo, there sat the carline amidst a ring of the Wolfing
women, and she telling them tales of old time such as they had not
yet heard; and her eyes were glittering, and the sweet words were
flowing from her mouth; but she sat straight up like a young woman;
and at whiles it seemed to those who hearkened, that she was no old
and outworn woman, but fair and strong, and of much avail. But when
she heard the Hall-Sun she turned and saw her on the threshold, and
her speech fell suddenly, and all that might and briskness faded from
her, and she fixed her eyes on the Hall-Sun and looked wistfully and
anxiously on her.
Then spake the Hall-Sun standing in the doorway:
"Hear ye a matter, maidens, and ye Wolfing women all,
And thou alien guest of the Wolfings! But come ye up the hall,
That the ancient men may hearken: for methinks I have a word
Of the battle of the Kindreds, and the harvest of the sword."
Then all arose up with great joy, for they knew that the tidings were
good, when they looked on the face of the Hall-Sun and beheld the
pride of her beauty unmarred by doubt or pain.
She led them forth to the dais, and there were the sick and the
elders gathered and some ancient men of the thralls: so she stepped
lightly up to her place, and stood under her namesake, the wondrous
lamp of ancient days. And thus she spake:
"On my soul there lies no burden, and no tangle of the fight
In plain or dale or wild-wood enmeshes now my sight.
I see the Markmen's wain-burg, and I see their warriors go
As men who wait for battle and the coming of the foe.
And they pass 'twixt the wood and the wain-burg within earshot of the
horn,
But over the windy meadows no sound thereof is borne,
And all is well amongst them. To the burg I draw anigh
And I see all battle-banners in the breeze of morning fly,
But no Wolfings round their banner and no warrior of the Shield,
No Geiring and no Hrossing in the burg or on the field."
She held her peace for a little while, and no one dared to speak;
then she lifted up her head and spake:
"Now I go by the lip of the wild-wood and a sound withal I hear,
As of men in the paths of the thicket, and a many drawing anear.
Then, muffled yet by the tree-boles, I hear the Shielding song,
And warriors blithe and merry with the battle of the strong.
Give back a little, Markmen, make way for men to pass
To your ordered battle-dwelling o'er the trodden meadow-grass,
For alive with men is the wild-wood and shineth with the steel,
And hath a voice most merry to tell of the Kindreds' weal,
'Twixt each tree a warrior standeth come back from the spear-strewn
way,
And forth they come from the wild-wood and a little band are they."
Then again was she silent; but her head sank not, as of one thinking,
as before it did, but she looked straight forward with bright eyes
and smiling, as she said:
"Lo, now the guests they are bringing that ye have not seen before;
Yet guests but ill-entreated; for they lack their shields of war,
No spear in the hand they carry and with no sax are girt.
Lo, these are the dreaded foemen, these once so strong to hurt;
The men that all folk fled from, the swift to drive the spoil,
The men that fashioned nothing but the trap to make men toil.
They drew the sword in the cities, they came and struck the stroke
And smote the shield of the Markmen, and point and edge they broke.
They drew the sword in the war-garth, they swore to bring aback
God's gifts from the Markmen houses where the tables never lack.
O Markmen, take the God-gifts that came on their own feet
O'er the hills through the Mirkwood thicket the Stone of Tyr to
meet!"
Again she stayed her song, which had been loud and joyous, and they
who heard her knew that the Kindreds had gained the day, and whilst
the Hall-Sun was silent they fell to talking of this fair day of
battle and the taking of captives. But presently she spread out her
hands again and they held their peace, and she said:
"I see, O Wolfing women, and many a thing I see,
But not all things, O elders, this eve shall ye learn of me,
For another mouth there cometh: the thicket I behold
And the Sons of Tyr amidst it, and I see the oak-trees old,
And the war-shout ringing round them; and I see the battle-lord
Unhelmed amidst of the mighty; and I see his leaping sword;
Strokes struck and warriors falling, and the streaks of spears I see,
But hereof shall the other tell you who speaketh after me.
For none other than the Shieldings from out the wood have come,
And they shift the turn with the Daylings to drive the folk-spear
home,
And to follow with the Wolfings and thrust the war-beast forth.
And so good men deem the tidings that they bid them journey north
On the feet of a Shielding runner, that Gisli hath to name;
And west of the water he wendeth by the way that the Wolfings came;
Now for sleep he tarries never, and no meat is in his mouth
Till the first of the Houses hearkeneth the tidings of the south;
Lo, he speaks, and the mead-sea sippeth, and the bread by the way
doth eat,
And over the Geiring threshold and outward pass his feet;
And he breasts the Burg of the Daylings and saith his happy word,
And stayeth to drink for a minute of the waves of Battle-ford.
Lone then by the stream he runneth, and wendeth the wild-wood road,
And dasheth through the hazels of the Oselings' fair abode,
And the Elking women know it, and their hearts are glad once more,
And ye--yea, hearken, Wolfings, for his feet are at the door."
CHAPTER XII--TIDINGS OF THE BATTLE IN MIRKWOOD
As the Hall-Sun made an end they heard in good sooth the feet of the
runner on the hard ground without the hall, and presently the door
opened and he came leaping over the threshold, and up to the table,
and stood leaning on it with one hand, his breast heaving with his
last swift run. Then he spake presently:
"I am Gisli of the Shieldings: Otter sendeth me to the Hall-Sun; but
on the way I was to tell tidings to the Houses west of the Water: so
have I done. Now is my journey ended; for Otter saith: 'Let the
Hall-Sun note the tidings and send word of them by four of the
lightest limbed of the women, or by lads a-horseback, both west and
east of the Water; let her send the word as it seemeth to her,
whether she hath seen it or not. I will drink a short draught since
my running is over."
Then a damsel brought him a horn of mead and let it come into his
hand, and he drank sighing with pleasure, while the damsel for
pleasure of him and his tidings laid her hand on his shoulder. Then
he set down the horn and spake:
"We, the Shieldings, with the Geirings, the Hrossings, and the
Wolfings, three hundred warriors and more, were led into the Wood by
Thiodolf the War-duke, beside whom went Fox, who hath seen the
Romans. We were all afoot; for there is no wide way through the
Wood, nor would we have it otherwise, lest the foe find the thicket
easy. But many of us know the thicket and its ways; so we made not
the easy hard. I was near the War-duke, for I know the thicket and
am light-foot: I am a bowman. I saw Thiodolf that he was unhelmed
and bore no shield, nor had he any coat of fence; nought but a deer-
skin frock."
As he said that word, the carline, who had drawn very near to him and
was looking hard at his face, turned and looked on the Hall-Sun and
stared at her till she reddened under those keen eyes: for in her
heart began to gather some knowledge of the tale of her mother and
what her will was.
But Gisli went on: "Yet by his side was his mighty sword, and we all
knew it for Throng-plough, and were glad of it and of him and the
unfenced breast of the dauntless. Six hours we went spreading wide
through the thicket, not always seeing one another, but knowing one
another to be nigh; those that knew the thicket best led, the others
followed on. So we went till it was high noon on the plain and
glimmering dusk in the thicket, and we saw nought, save here and
there a roe, and here and there a sounder of swine, and coneys where
it was opener, and the sun shone and the grass grew for a little
space. So came we unto where the thicket ended suddenly, and there
was a long glade of the wild-wood, all set about with great oak-trees
and grass thereunder, which I knew well; and thereof the tale tells
that it was a holy place of the folk who abided in these parts before
the Sons of the Goths. Now will I drink."
So he drank of the horn and said: "It seemeth that Fox had a deeming
of the way the Romans should come; so now we abided in the thicket
without that glade and lay quiet and hidden, spreading ourselves as
much about that lawn of the oak-trees as we might, the while Fox and
three others crept through the wood to espy what might be toward:
not long had they been gone ere we heard a war-horn blow, and it was
none of our horns: it was a long way off, but we looked to our
weapons: for men are eager for the foe and the death that cometh,
when they lie hidden in the thicket. A while passed, and again we
heard the horn, and it was nigher and had a marvellous voice; then in
a while was a little noise of men, not their voices, but footsteps
going warily through the brake to the south, and twelve men came
slowly and warily into that oak-lawn, and lo, one of them was Fox;
but he was clad in the raiment of the dastard of the Goths whom he
had slain. I tell you my heart beat, for I saw that the others were
Roman men, and one of them seemed to be a man of authority, and he
held Fox by the shoulder, and pointed to the thicket where we lay,
and something he said to him, as we saw by his gesture and face, but
his voice we heard not, for he spake soft.
"Then of those ten men of his he sent back two, and Fox going between
them, as though he should be slain if he misled them; and he and the
eight abided there wisely and warily, standing silently some six feet
from each other, moving scarce at all, but looking like images
fashioned of brown copper and iron; holding their casting-spears
(which be marvellous heavy weapons) and girt with the sax.
"As they stood there, not out of earshot of a man speaking in his
wonted voice, our War-duke made a sign to those about him, and we
spread very quietly to the right hand and the left of him once more,
and we drew as close as might be to the thicket's edge, and those who
had bows the nighest thereto. Thus then we abided a while again; and
again came the horn's voice; for belike they had no mind to come
their ways covertly because of their pride.
"Soon therewithal comes Fox creeping back to us, and I saw him
whisper into the ear of the War-duke, but heard not the word he said.
I saw that he had hanging to him two Roman saxes, so I deemed he had
slain those two, and so escaped the Romans. Maidens, it were well
that ye gave me to drink again, for I am weary and my journey is
done."
So again they brought him the horn, and made much of him; and he
drank, and then spake on.
"Now heard we the horn's voice again quite close, and it was sharp
and shrill, and nothing like to the roar of our battle-horns: still
was the wood and no wind abroad, not even down the oak-lawn; and we
heard now the tramp of many men as they thrashed through the small
wood and bracken of the thicket-way; and those eight men and their
leader came forward, moving like one, close up to the thicket where I
lay, just where the path passed into the thicket beset by the Sons of
the Goths: so near they were that I could see the dints upon their
armour, and the strands of the wire on their sax-handles. Down then
bowed the tall bracken on the further side of the wood-lawn, the
thicket crashed before the march of men, and on they strode into the
lawn, a goodly band, wary, alert, and silent of cries.
"But when they came into the lawn they spread out somewhat to their
left hands, that is to say on the west side, for that way was the
clear glade; but on the east the thicket came close up to them and
edged them away. Therein lay the Goths.
"There they stayed awhile, and spread out but a little, as men
marching, not as men fighting. A while we let them be; and we saw
their captain, no big man, but dight with very fair armour and
weapons; and there drew up to him certain Goths armed, the dastards
of the folk, and another unarmed, an old man bound and bleeding.
With these Goths had the captain some converse, and presently he
cried out two or three words of Welsh in a loud voice, and the nine
men who were ahead shifted them somewhat away from us to lead down
the glade westward.
"The prey had come into the net, but they had turned their faces
toward the mouth of it.
"Then turned Thiodolf swiftly to the man behind him who carried the
war-horn, and every man handled his weapons: but that man
understood, and set the little end to his mouth, and loud roared the
horn of the Markmen, and neither friend nor foe misdoubted the tale
thereof. Then leaped every man to his feet, all bow-strings twanged
and the cast-spears flew; no man forebore to shout; each as he might
leapt out of the thicket and fell on with sword and axe and spear,
for it was from the bowmen but one shaft and no more.
"Then might you have seen Thiodolf as he bounded forward like the
wild-cat on the hare, how he had no eyes for any save the Roman
captain. Foemen enough he had round about him after the two first
bounds from the thicket; for the Romans were doing their best to
spread, that they might handle those heavy cast-spears, though they
might scarce do it, just come out of the thicket as they were, and
thrust together by that onslaught of the kindreds falling on from two
sides and even somewhat from behind. To right and left flashed
Throng-plough, while Thiodolf himself scarce seemed to guide it: men
fell before him at once, and close at his heels poured the Wolfing
kindred into the gap, and in a minute of time was he amidst of the
throng and face to face with the gold-dight captain.
"What with the sweep of Throng-plough and the Wolfing onrush, there
was space about him for a great stroke; he gave a side-long stroke to
his right and hewed down a tall Burgundian, and then up sprang the
white blade, but ere its edge fell he turned his wrist, and drove the
point through that Captain's throat just above the ending of his
hauberk, so that he fell dead amidst of his folk.
"All the four kindreds were on them now, and amidst them, and needs
must they give way: but stoutly they fought; for surely no other
warriors might have withstood that onslaught of the Markmen for the
twinkling of an eye: but had the Romans had but the space to have
spread themselves out there, so as to handle their shot-weapons, many
a woman's son of us had fallen; for no man shielded himself in his
eagerness, but let the swiftness of the Onset of point-and-edge
shield him; which, sooth to say, is often a good shield, as here was
found.
"So those that were unslain and unhurt fled west along the glade, but
not as dastards, and had not Thiodolf followed hard in the chase
according to his wont, they might even yet have made a fresh stand
and spread from oak-tree to oak-tree across the glade: but as it
befel, they might not get a fair offing so as to disentangle
themselves and array themselves in good order side by side; and
whereas the Markmen were fleet of foot, and in the woods they knew,
there were a many aliens slain in the chase or taken alive unhurt or
little hurt: but the rest fled this way and that way into the
thicket, with whom were some of the Burgundians; so there they abide
now as outcasts and men unholy, to be slain as wild-beasts one by one
as we meet them.
"Such then was the battle in Mirkwood. Give me the mead-horn that I
may drink to the living and the dead, and the memory of the dead, and
the deeds of the living that are to be."
So they brought him the horn, and he waved it over his head and drank
again and spake:
"Sixty and three dead men of the Romans we counted there up and down
that oak-glade; and we cast earth over them; and three dead dastards
of the Goths, and we left them for the wolves to deal with. And
twenty-five men of the Romans we took alive to be for hostages if
need should be, and these did we Shielding men, who are not very
many, bring aback to the wain-burg; and the Daylings, who are a great
company, were appointed to enter the wood and be with Thiodolf; and
me did Otter bid to bear the tidings, even as I have told you. And I
have not loitered by the way."
Great then was the joy in the Hall; and they took Gisli, and made
much of him, and led him to the bath, and clad him in fine raiment
taken from the coffer which was but seldom opened, because the cloths
it held were precious; and they set a garland of green wheat-ears on
his head. Then they fell to and spread the feast in the hall; and
they ate and drank and were merry.
But as for speeding the tidings, the Hall-Sun sent two women and two
lads, all a-horseback, to bear the words: the women to remember the
words which she taught them carefully, the lads to be handy with the
horses, or in the ford, or the swimming of the deeps, or in the
thicket. So they went their ways, down the water: one pair went on
the western side, and the other crossed Mirkwood-water at the
shallows (for being Midsummer the water was but small), and went
along the east side, so that all the kindred might know of the
tidings and rejoice.
Great was the glee in the Hall, though the warriors of the House were
away, and many a song and lay they sang: but amidst the first of the
singing they bethought them of the old woman, and would have bidden
her tell them some tale of times past, since she was so wise in the
ancient lore. But when they sought for her on all sides she was not
to be found, nor could anyone remember seeing her depart from the
Hall. But this had they no call to heed, and the feast ended, as it
began, in great glee.
Albeit the Hall-Sun was troubled about the carline, both that she had
come, and that she had gone: and she determined that the next time
she met her she would strive to have of her a true tale of what she
was, and of all that was toward.
CHAPTER XIII--THE HALL-SUN SAITH ANOTHER WORD
It was no later than the next night, and a many of what thralls were
not with the host were about in the feast-hall with the elders and
lads and weaklings of the House; for last night's tidings had drawn
them thither. Gisli had gone back to his kindred and the wain-burg
in the Upper-mark, and the women were sitting, most of them, in the
Women's-Chamber, some of them doing what little summer work needed
doing about the looms, but more resting from their work in field and
acre.
Then came the Hall-Sun forth from her room clad in glittering
raiment, and summoned no one, but went straight to her place on the
dais under her namesake the Lamp, and stood there a little without
speaking. Her face was pale now, her lips a little open, her eyes
set and staring as if they saw nothing of all that was round about
her.
Now went the word through the Hall and the Women's-Chamber that the
Hall-Sun would speak again, and that great tidings were toward; so
all folk came flock-meal to the dais, both thralls and free; and
scarce were all gathered there, ere the Hall-Sun began speaking, and
said:
"The days of the world thrust onward, and men are born therein
A many and a many, and divers deeds they win
In the fashioning of stories for the kindreds of the earth,
A garland interwoven of sorrow and of mirth.
To the world a warrior cometh; from the world he passeth away,
And no man then may sunder his good from his evil day.
By the Gods hath he been tormented, and been smitten by the foe:
He hath seen his maiden perish, he hath seen his speech-friend go:
His heart hath conceived a joyance and hath brought it unto birth:
But he hath not carried with him his sorrow or his mirth.
He hath lived, and his life hath fashioned the outcome of the deed,
For the blossom of the people, and the coming kindreds' seed.
"Thus-wise the world is fashioned, and the new sun of the morn
Where earth last night was desert beholds a kindred born,
That to-morrow and to-morrow blossoms all gloriously
With many a man and maiden for the kindreds yet to be,
And fair the Goth-folk groweth. And yet the story saith
That the deeds that make the summer make too the winter's death,
That summer-tides unceasing from out the grave may grow
And the spring rise up unblemished from the bosom of the snow.
"Thus as to every kindred the day comes once for all
When yesterday it was not, and to-day it builds the hall,
So every kindred bideth the night-tide of the day,
Whereof it knoweth nothing, e'en when noon is past away.
E'en thus the House of the Wolfings 'twixt dusk and dark doth stand,
And narrow is the pathway with the deep on either hand.
On the left are the days forgotten, on the right the days to come,
And another folk and their story in the stead of the Wolfing home.
Do the shadows darken about it, is the even here at last?
Or is this but a storm of the noon-tide that the wind is driving
past?
"Unscathed as yet it standeth; it bears the stormy drift,
Nor bows to the lightening flashing adown from the cloudy lift.
I see the hail of battle and the onslaught of the strong,
And they go adown to the folk-mote that shall bide there over long.
I see the slain-heaps rising and the alien folk prevail,
And the Goths give back before them on the ridge o'er the treeless
vale.
I see the ancient fallen, and the young man smitten dead,
And yet I see the War-duke shake Throng-plough o'er his head,
And stand unhelmed, unbyrnied before the alien host,
And the hurt men rise around him to win back battle lost;
And the wood yield up her warriors, and the whole host rushing on,
And the swaying lines of battle until the lost is won.
Then forth goes the cry of triumph, as they ring the captives round
And cheat the crow of her portion and heap the warriors' mound.
There are faces gone from our feast-hall not the least beloved nor
worst,
But the wane of the House of the Wolfings not yet the world hath
cursed.
The sun shall rise to-morrow on our cold and dewy roof,
For they that longed for slaughter were slaughtered far aloof."
She ceased for a little, but her countenance, which had not changed
during her song, changed not at all now: so they all kept silence
although they were rejoicing in this new tale of victory; for they
deemed that she was not yet at the end of her speaking. And in good
sooth she spake again presently, and said:
"I wot not what hath befallen nor where my soul may be,
For confusion is within me and but dimly do I see,
As if the thing that I look on had happed a while ago.
They stand by the tofts of a war-garth, a captain of the foe,
And a man that is of the Goth-folk, and as friend and friend they
speak,
But I hear no word they are saying, though for every word I seek.
And now the mist flows round me and blind I come aback
To the House-roof of the Wolfings and the hearth that hath no lack."
Her voice grew weaker as she spake the last words, and she sank
backward on to her chair: her clenched hands opened, the lids fell
down over her bright eyes, her breast heaved no more as it had done,
and presently she fell asleep.
The folk were doubtful and somewhat heavy-hearted because of those
last words of hers; but they would not ask her more, or rouse her
from her sleep, lest they should grieve her; so they departed to
their beds and slept for what was yet left of the night.
CHAPTER XIV--THE HALL-SUN IS CAREFUL CONCERNING THE PASSES OF THE
WOOD
In the morning early folk arose; and the lads and women who were not
of the night-shift got them ready to go to the mead and the acres;
for the sunshine had been plenty these last days and the wheat was
done blossoming, and all must be got ready for harvest. So they
broke their fast, and got their tools into their hands: but they
were somewhat heavy-hearted because of those last words of the Hall-
Sun, and the doubt of last night still hung about them, and they were
scarcely as merry as men are wont to be in the morning.
As for the Hall-Sun, she was afoot with the earliest, and was no
less, but mayhap more merry than her wont was, and was blithe with
all, both old and young.
But as they were at the point of going she called to them, and said:
"Tarry a little, come ye all to the dais and hearken to me."
So they all gathered thereto, and she stood in her place and spake.
"Women and elders of the Wolfings, is it so that I spake somewhat of
tidings last night?"
"Yea," said they all.
She said, "And was it a word of victory?"
They answered "yea" again.
"Good is that," she said; "doubt ye not! there is nought to unsay.
But hearken! I am nothing wise in war like Thiodolf or Otter of the
Laxings, or as Heriulf the Ancient was, though he was nought so wise
as they be. Nevertheless ye shall do well to take me for your
captain, while this House is bare of warriors."
"Yea, yea," they said, "so will we."
And an old warrior, hight Sorli, who sat in his chair, no longer
quite way-worthy, said:
"Hall-Sun, this we looked for of thee; since thy wisdom is not wholly
the wisdom of a spae-wife, but rather is of the children of warriors:
and we know thine heart to be high and proud, and that thy death
seemeth to thee a small matter beside the life of the Wolfing House."
Then she smiled and said, "Will ye all do my bidding?"
And they all cried out heartily, "Yea, Hall-Sun, that will we."
She said: "Hearken then; ye all know that east of Mirkwood-water,
when ye come to the tofts of the Bearings, and their Great Roof, the
thicket behind them is close, but that there is a wide way cut
through it; and often have I gone there: if ye go by that way, in a
while ye come to the thicket's end and to bare places where the rocks
crop up through the gravel and the woodland loam. There breed the
coneys without number; and wild-cats haunt the place for that sake,
and foxes; and the wood-wolf walketh there in summer-tide, and hard
by the she-wolf hath her litter of whelps, and all these have enough;
and the bald-head erne hangeth over it and the kite, and also the
kestril, for shrews and mice abound there. Of these things there is
none that feareth me, and none that maketh me afraid. Beyond this
place for a long way the wood is nowise thick, for first grow ash-
trees about the clefts of the rock and also quicken-trees, but not
many of either; and here and there a hazel brake easy to thrust
through; then comes a space of oak-trees scattered about the lovely
wood-lawn, and then at last the beech-wood close above but clear
beneath. This I know well, because I myself have gone so far and
further; and by this easy way have I gone so far to the south, that I
have come out into the fell country, and seen afar off the snowy
mountains beyond the Great Water.
"Now fear ye not, but pluck up a heart! For either I have seen it or
dreamed it, or thought it, that by this road easy to wend the Romans
should come into the Mark. For shall not those dastards and traitors
that wear the raiment and bodies of the Goths over the hearts and the
lives of foemen, tell them hereof? And will they not have heard of
our Thiodolf, and this my holy namesake?
"Will they not therefore be saying to themselves, 'Go to now, why
should we wrench the hinges off the door with plenteous labour, when
another door to the same chamber standeth open before us? This House
of the Wolfings is the door to the treasure chamber of the Markmen;
let us fall on that at once rather than have many battles for other
lesser matters, and then at last have to fight for this also: for
having this we have all, and they shall be our thralls, and we may
slaughter what we will, and torment what we will and deflower what we
will, and make our souls glad with their grief and anguish, and take
aback with us to the cities what we will of the thralls, that their
anguish and our joy may endure the longer.' Thus will they say:
therefore is it my rede that the strongest and hardiest of you women
take horse, a ten of you and one to lead besides, and ride the
shallows to the Bearing House, and tell them of our rede; which is to
watch diligently the ways of the wood; the outgate to the Mark, and
the places where the wood is thin and easy to travel on: and ye
shall bid them give you of their folk as many as they deem fittest
thereto to join your company, so that ye may have a chain of watchers
stretching far into the wilds; but two shall lie without the wood,
their horses ready for them to leap on and ride on the spur to the
wain-burg in the Upper-mark if any tidings befal.
"Now of these eleven I ordain Hrosshild to be the leader and captain,
and to choose for her fellows the stoutest-limbed and heaviest-handed
of all the maidens here: art thou content Hrosshild?"
Then stood Hrosshild forth and said nought, but nodded yea; and soon
was her choice made amid jests and laughter, for this seemed no hard
matter to them.
So the ten got together, and the others fell off from them, and there
stood the ten maidens with Hrosshild, well nigh as strong as men,
clean-limbed and tall, tanned with sun and wind; for all these were
unwearied afield, and oft would lie out a-nights, since they loved
the lark's song better than the mouse's squeak; but as their kirtles
shifted at neck and wrist, you might see their skins as white as
privet-flower where they were wont to be covered.
Then said the Hall-Sun: "Ye have heard the word, see ye to it,
Hrosshild, and take this other word also: Bid the Bearing stay-at-
homes bide not the sword and the torch at home if the Romans come,
but hie them over hither, to hold the Hall or live in the wild-wood
with us, as need may be; for might bides with many.
"But ye maidens, take this counsel for yourselves; do ye each bear
with you a little keen knife, and if ye be taken, and it seem to you
that ye may not bear the smart of the Roman torments (for they be
wise in tormenting), but will speak and bewray us under them, then
thrust this little edge tool into the place of your bodies where the
life lieth closest, and so go to the Gods with a good tale in your
mouths: so may the Almighty God of Earth speed you, and the fathers
of the kindred!"
So she spoke; and they made no delay but each one took what axe or
spear or sword she liked best, and two had their bows and quivers of
arrows; and so all folk went forth from the Hall.
Soon were the horses saddled and bridled, and the maidens bestrode
them joyously and set forth on their way, going down the lanes of the
wheat, and rode down speedily toward the shallows of the water, and
all cried good speed after them. But the others would turn to their
day's work, and would go about their divers errands. But even as
they were at point to sunder, they saw a swift runner passing by
those maidens just where the acres joined the meadow, and he waved
his hand aloft and shouted to them, but stayed not his running for
them, but came up the lanes of the wheat at his swiftest: so they
knew at once that this was again a messenger from the host, and they
stood together and awaited his coming; and as he drew near they knew
him for Egil, the swiftest-footed of the Wolfings; and he gave a
great shout as he came among them; and he was dusty and wayworn, but
eager; and they received him with all love, and would have brought
him to the Hall to wash him and give him meat and drink, and cherish
him in all ways.
But he cried out, "To the Speech-Hill first, to the Speech-Hill
first! But even before that, one word to thee, Hall-Sun! Saith
Thiodolf, Send ye watchers to look to the entrance into Mid-mark,
which is by the Bearing dwelling; and if aught untoward befalleth let
one ride on the spur with the tidings to the Wain-burg. For by that
way also may peril come."
Then smiled some of the bystanders, and the Hall-Sun said: "Good is
it when the thought of a friend stirreth betimes in one's own breast.
The thing is done, Egil; or sawest thou not those ten women, and
Hrosshild the eleventh, as thou camest up into the acres?"
Said Egil; "Fair fall thine hand, Hall-Sun! thou art the Wolfings'
Ransom. Wend we now to the Speech-Hill."
So did they, and every thrall that was about the dwellings, man,
woman, and child fared with them, and stood about the Speech-Hill:
and the dogs went round about the edge of that assembly, wandering in
and out, and sometimes looking hard on some one whom they knew best,
if he cried out aloud.
But the men-folk gave all their ears to hearkening, and stood as
close as they might.
Then Egil clomb the Speech-Hill, and said.
CHAPTER XV--THEY HEAR TELL OF THE BATTLE ON THE RIDGE
"Ye have heard how the Daylings were appointed to go to help Thiodolf
in driving the folk-spear home to the heart of the Roman host. So
they went; but six hours thereafter comes one to Otter bidding him
send a great part of the kindreds to him; for that he had had tidings
that a great host of Romans were drawing near the wood-edge, but were
not entered therein, and that fain would he meet them in the open
field.
"So the kindreds drew lots, and the lot fell first to the Elkings,
who are a great company, as ye know; and then to the Hartings, the
Beamings, the Alftings, the Vallings (also a great company), the
Galtings, (and they no lesser) each in their turn; and last of all to
the Laxings; and the Oselings prayed to go with the Elkings, and this
Otter deemed good, whereas a many of them be bowmen.
"All these then to the number of a thousand or more entered the wood;
and I was with them, for in sooth I was the messenger.
"No delay made we in the wood, nor went we over warily, trusting to
the warding of the wood by Thiodolf; and there were men with us who
knew the paths well, whereof I was one; so we speedily came through
into the open country.
"Shortly we came upon our folk and the War-duke lying at the foot of
a little hill that went up as a buttress to a long ridge high above
us, whereon we set a watch; and a little brook came down the dale for
our drink.
"Night fell as we came thither; so we slept for a while, but abode
not the morning, and we were afoot (for we had no horses with us)
before the moon grew white. We took the road in good order, albeit
our folk-banners we had left behind in the burg; so each kindred
raised aloft a shield of its token to be for a banner. So we went
forth, and some swift footmen, with Fox, who hath seen the Roman war-
garth, had been sent on before to spy out the ways of the foemen.
"Two hours after sunrise cometh one of these, and telleth how he hath
seen the Romans, and how that they are but a short mile hence
breaking their fast, not looking for any onslaught; 'but,' saith he,
'they are on a high ridge whence they can see wide about, and be in
no danger of ambush, because the place is bare for the most part, nor
is there any cover except here and there down in the dales a few
hazels and blackthorn bushes, and the rushes of the becks in the
marshy bottoms, wherein a snipe may hide, or a hare, but scarce a
man; and note that there is no way up to that ridge but by a spur
thereof as bare as my hand; so ye will be well seen as ye wend up
thereto.'
"So spake he in my hearing. But Thiodolf bade him lead on to that
spur, and old Heriulf, who was standing nigh, laughed merrily and
said: 'Yea, lead on, and speedily, lest the day wane and nothing
done save the hunting of snipes.'
"So on we went, and coming to the hither side of that spur beheld
those others and Fox with them; and he held in his hand an arrow of
the aliens, and his face was all astir with half-hidden laughter, and
he breathed hard, and pointed to the ridge, and somewhat low down on
it we saw a steel cap and three spear-heads showing white from out a
little hollow in its side, but the men hidden by the hollow: so we
knew that Fox had been chased, and that the Romans were warned and
wary.
"No delay made the War-duke, but led us up that spur, which was
somewhat steep; and as we rose higher we saw a band of men on the
ridge, a little way down it, not a many; archers and slingers mostly,
who abode us till we were within shot, and then sent a few shots at
us, and so fled. But two men were hurt with the sling-plummets, and
one, and he not grievously, with an arrow, and not one slain.
"Thus we came up on to the ridge, so that there was nothing between
us and the bare heavens; thence we looked south-east and saw the
Romans wisely posted on the ridge not far from where it fell down
steeply to the north; but on the south, that is to say on their left
hands, and all along the ridge past where we were stayed, the ground
sloped gently to the south-west for a good way, before it fell,
somewhat steeply, into another long dale. Looking north we saw the
outer edge of Mirkwood but a little way from us, and we were glad
thereof; because ere we left our sleeping-place that morn Thiodolf
had sent to Otter another messenger bidding him send yet more men on
to us in case we should be hard-pressed in the battle; for he had had
a late rumour that the Romans were many. And now when he had looked
on the Roman array and noted how wise it was, he sent three swift-
foot ones to take stand on a high knoll which we had passed on the
way, that they might take heed where our folk came out from the wood
and give signal to them by the horn, and lead them to where the
battle should be.
"So we stood awhile and breathed us, and handled our weapons some
half a furlong from the alien host. They had no earth rampart around
them, for that ridge is waterless, and they could not abide there
long, but they had pitched sharp pales in front of them and they
stood in very good order, as if abiding an onslaught, and moved not
when they saw us; for that band of shooters had joined themselves to
them already. Taken one with another we deemed them to be more than
we were; but their hauberked footmen with the heavy cast-spears not
so many as we by a good deal.
"Now we were of mind to fall on them ere they should fall on us; so
all such of us as had shot-weapons spread out from our company and
went forth a little; and of the others Heriulf stood foremost along
with the leaders of the Beamings and the Elkings; but as yet Thiodolf
held aback and led the midmost company, as his wont was, and the more
part of the Wolfings were with him.
"Thus we ordered ourselves, and awaited a little while yet what the
aliens should do; and presently a war-horn blew amongst them, and
from each flank of their mailed footmen came forth a many bowmen and
slingers and a band of horsemen; and drew within bowshot, the
shooters in open array yet wisely, and so fell to on us, and the
horsemen hung aback a little as yet.
"Their arrow-shot was of little avail, their bowmen fell fast before
ours; but deadly was their sling-shot, and hurt and slew many and
some even in our main battle; for they slung round leaden balls and
not stones, and they aimed true and shot quick; and the men withal
were so light and lithe, never still, but crouching and creeping and
bounding here and there, that they were no easier to hit than coneys
amidst of the fern, unless they were very nigh.
"Howbeit when this storm had endured a while, and we moved but
little, and not an inch aback, and gave them shot for shot, then was
another horn winded from amongst the aliens; and thereat the bowmen
cast down their bows, and the slingers wound their slings about their
heads, and they all came on with swords and short spears and
feathered darts, running and leaping lustily, making for our flanks,
and the horsemen set spurs to their horses and fell on in the very
front of our folk like good and valiant men-at-arms.
"That saw Heriulf and his men, and they set up the war-whoop, and ran
forth to meet them, axe and sword aloft, terribly yet maybe somewhat
unwarily. The archers and slingers never came within sword-stroke of
them, but fell away before them on all sides; but the slingers fled
not far, but began again with their shot, and slew a many. Then was
a horn winded, as if to call back the horsemen, who, if they heard,
heeded not, but rode hard on our kindred like valiant warriors who
feared not death. Sooth to say, neither were the horses big or good,
nor the men fit for the work, saving for their hardihood; and their
spears were short withal and their bucklers unhandy to wield.
"Now could it be seen how the Goths gave way before them to let them
into the trap, and then closed around again, and the axes and edge
weapons went awork hewing as in a wood; and Heriulf towered over all
the press, and the Wolf's-sister flashed over his head in the summer
morning.
"Soon was that storm over, and we saw the Goths tossing up their
spears over the slain, and horses running loose and masterless adown
over the westward-lying slopes, and a few with their riders still
clinging to them. Yet some, sore hurt by seeming, galloping toward
the main battle of the Romans.
"Unwarily then fared the children of Tyr that were with Heriulf; for
by this time they were well nigh within shot of the spears of those
mighty footmen of the Romans: and on their flanks were the slingers,
and the bowmen, who had now gotten their bows again; and our bowmen,
though they shot well and strong, were too few to quell them; and
indeed some of them had cast by their bows to join in Heriulf's
storm. Also the lie of the ground was against us, for it sloped up
toward the Roman array at first very gently, but afterwards steeply
enough to breathe a short-winded man. Also behind them were we of
the other kindreds, whom Thiodolf had ordered into the wedge-array;
and we were all ready to move forward, so that had they abided
somewhat, all had been well and better.
"So did they not, but straightway set up the Victory-whoop and ran
forward on the Roman host. And these were so ordered that, as
aforesaid, they had before them sharp piles stuck into the earth and
pointed against us, as we found afterwards to our cost; and within
these piles stood the men some way apart from each other, so as to
handle their casting spears, and in three ranks were they ordered and
many spears could be cast at once, and if any in the front were
slain, his fellow behind him took his place.
"So now the storm of war fell at once upon our folk, and swift and
fierce as was their onslaught yet were a many slain and hurt or ever
they came to the piles aforesaid. Then saw they death before them
and heeded it nought, but tore up the piles and dashed through them,
and fell in on those valiant footmen. Short is the tale to tell:
wheresoever a sword or spear of the Goths was upraised there were
three upon him, and saith Toti of the Beamings, who was hurt and
crawled away and yet lives, that on Heriulf there were six at first
and then more; and he took no thought of shielding himself, but
raised up the Wolf's-sister and hewed as the woodman in the thicket,
when night cometh and hunger is on him. There fell Heriulf the
Ancient and many a man of the Beamings and the Elkings with him, and
many a Roman.
"But amidst the slain and the hurt our wedge-array moved forward
slowly now, warily shielded against the plummets and shafts on either
side; and when the Romans saw our unbroken array, and Thiodolf the
first with Throng-plough naked in his hand, they chased not such men
of ours unhurt or little hurt, as drew aback from before them: so
these we took amongst us, and when we had gotten all we might, and
held a grim face to the foe, we drew aback little by little, still
facing them till we were out of shot of their spears, though the shot
of the arrows and the sling-plummets ceased not wholly from us. Thus
ended Heriulf's Storm."
Then he rested from his speaking for a while, and none said aught,
but they gazed on him as if he bore with him a picture of the battle,
and many of the women wept silently for Heriulf, and yet more of the
younger ones were wounded to the heart when they thought of the young
men of the Elkings, and the Beamings, since with both those houses
they had affinity; and they lamented the loves that they had lost,
and would have asked concerning their own speech-friends had they
durst. But they held their peace till the tale was told out to an
end.
Then Egil spake again:
"No long while had worn by in Heriulf's Storm, and though men's
hearts were nothing daunted, but rather angered by what had befallen,
yet would Thiodolf wear away the time somewhat more, since he hoped
for succour from the Wain-burg and the Wood; and he would not that
any of these Romans should escape us, but would give them all to Tyr,
and to be a following to Heriulf the Old and the Great.
"So there we abided a while moving nought, and Thiodolf stood with
Throng-plough on his shoulder, unhelmed, unbyrnied, as though he
trusted to the kindred for all defence. Nor for their part did the
Romans dare to leave their vantage-ground, when they beheld what grim
countenance we made them.
"Albeit, when we had thrice made as if we would fall on, and yet they
moved not, whereas it trieth a man sorely to stand long before the
foeman, and do nought but endure, and whereas many of our bowmen were
slain or hurt, and the rest too few to make head against the shot-
weapons of the aliens, then at last we began to draw nearer and a
little nearer, not breaking the wedge-array; and at last, just before
we were within shot of the cast-spears of their main battle, loud
roared our war-horn: then indeed we broke the wedge-array, but
orderly as we knew how, spreading out from right and left of the War-
duke till we were facing them in a long line: one minute we abode
thus, and then ran forth through the spear-storm: and even therewith
we heard, as it were, the echo of our own horn, and whoso had time to
think betwixt the first of the storm and the handstrokes of the
Romans deemed that now would be coming fresh kindreds for our
helping.
"Not long endured the spear-rain, so swift we were, neither were we
in one throng as betid in Heriulf's Storm, but spread abroad, each
trusting in the other that none thought of the backward way.
"Though we had the ground against us we dashed like fresh men at
their pales, and were under the weapons at once. Then was the battle
grim; they could not thrust us back, nor did we break their array
with our first storm; man hewed at man as if there were no foes in
the world but they two: sword met sword, and sax met sax; it was
thrusting and hewing with point and edge, and no long-shafted weapons
were of any avail; there we fought hand to hand and no man knew by
eyesight how the battle went two yards from where he fought, and each
one put all his heart in the stroke he was then striking, and thought
of nothing else.
"Yet at the last we felt that they were faltering and that our work
was easier and our hope higher; then we cried our cries and pressed
on harder, and in that very nick of time there arose close behind us
the roar of the Markmen's horn and the cries of the kindreds
answering ours. Then such of the Romans as were not in the very act
of smiting, or thrusting, or clinging or shielding, turned and fled,
and the whoop of victory rang around us, and the earth shook, and
past the place of the slaughter rushed the riders of the Goths; for
they had sent horsemen to us, and the paths were grown easier for our
much treading of them. Then I beheld Thiodolf, that he had just
slain a foe, and clear was the space around him, and he rushed
sideways and caught hold of the stirrup of Angantyr of the Bearings,
and ran ten strides beside him, and then bounded on afoot swifter
than the red horses of the Bearings, urging on the chase, as his wont
was.
"But we who were wearier, when we had done our work, stood still
between the living and the dead, between the freemen of the Mark and
their war-thralls. And in no long while there came back to us
Thiodolf and the chasers, and we made a great ring on the field of
the slain, and sang the Song of Triumph; and it was the Wolfing Song
that we sang.
"Thus then ended Thiodolf's Storm."
When he held his peace there was but little noise among the stay-at-
homes, for still were they thinking about the deaths of their kindred
and their lovers. But Egil spoke again.
"Yet within that ring lay the sorrow of our hearts; for Odin had
called a many home, and there lay their bodies; and the mightiest was
Heriulf; and the Romans had taken him up from where he fell, and cast
him down out of the way, but they had not stripped him, and his hand
still gripped the Wolf's-sister. His shield was full of shafts of
arrows and spears; his byrny was rent in many places, his helm
battered out of form. He had been grievously hurt in the side and in
the thigh by cast-spears or ever he came to hand-blows with the
Romans, but moreover he had three great wounds from the point of the
sax, in the throat, in the side, in the belly, each enough for his
bane. His face was yet fair to look on, and we deemed that he had
died smiling.
"At his feet lay a young man of the Beamings in a gay green coat, and
beside him was the head of another of his House, but his green-clad
body lay some yards aloof. There lay of the Elkings a many. Well
may ye weep, maidens, for them that loved you. Now fare they to the
Gods a goodly company, but a goodly company is with them.
"Seventy and seven of the Sons of the Goths lay dead within the Roman
battle, and fifty-four on the slope before it; and to boot there were
twenty-four of us slain by the arrows and plummets of the shooters,
and a many hurt withal.
"But there were no hurt men inside the Roman array or before it. All
were slain outright, for the hurt men either dragged themselves back
to our folk, or onward to the Roman ranks, that they might die with
one more stroke smitten.
"Now of the aliens the dead lay in heaps in that place, for grim was
the slaughter when the riders of the Bearings and the Wormings fell
on the aliens; and a many of the foemen scorned to flee, but died
where they stood, craving no peace; and to few of them was peace
given. There fell of the Roman footmen five hundred and eighty and
five, and the remnant that fled was but little: but of the slingers
and bowmen but eighty and six were slain, for they were there to
shoot and not to stand; and they were nimble and fleet of foot, men
round of limb, very dark-skinned, but not foul of favour."
Then he said:
"There are men through the dusk a-faring, our speech-fiends and our
kin,
No more shall they crave our helping, nor ask what work to win;
They have done their deeds and departed when they had holpen the
House,
So high their heads are holden, and their hurts are glorious
With the story of strokes stricken, and new weapons to be met,
And new scowling of foes' faces, and new curses unknown yet.
Lo, they dight the feast in Godhome, and fair are the tables spread,
Late come, but well-beloved is every war-worn head,
And the God-folk and the Fathers, as these cross the tinkling bridge,
Crowd round and crave for stories of the Battle on the Ridge."
Therewith he came down from the Speech-Hill and the women-folk came
round about him, and they brought him to the Hall, and washed him,
and gave him meat and drink; and then would he sleep, for he was
weary.
Howbeit some of the women could not refrain themselves, but must
needs ask after their speech-friends who had been in the battle; and
he answered as he could, and some he made glad, and some sorry; and
as to some, he could not tell them whether their friends were alive
or dead. So he went to his place and fell asleep and slept long,
while the women went down to acre and meadow, or saw to the baking of
bread or the sewing of garments, or went far afield to tend the neat
and the sheep.
Howbeit the Hall-Sun went not with them; but she talked with that old
warrior, Sorli, who was now halt and grown unmeet for the road, but
was a wise man; and she and he together with some old carlines and a
few young lads fell to work, and saw to many matters about the Hall
and the garth that day; and they got together what weapons there were
both for shot and for the hand-play, and laid them where they were
handy to come at, and they saw to the meal in the hall that there was
provision for many days; and they carried up to a loft above the
Women's-Chamber many great vessels of water, lest the fire should
take the Hall; and they looked everywhere to the entrances and
windows and had fastenings and bolts and bars fashioned and fitted to
them; and saw that all things were trim and stout. And so they
abided the issue.
CHAPTER XVI--HOW THE DWARF-WROUGHT HAUBERK WAS BROUGHT AWAY FROM THE
HALL OF THE DAYLINGS
Now it must be told that early in the morning, after the night when
Gisli had brought to the Wolfing Stead the tidings of the Battle in
the Wood, a man came riding from the south to the Dayling abode. It
was just before sunrise, and but few folk were stirring about the
dwellings. He rode up to the Hall and got off his black horse, and
tied it to a ring in the wall by the Man's-door, and went in
clashing, for he was in his battle-gear, and had a great wide-rimmed
helm on his head.
Folk were but just astir in the Hall, and there came an old woman to
him, and looked on him and saw by his attire that he was a man of the
Goths and of the Wolfing kindred; so she greeted him kindly: but he
said:
"Mother, I am come hither on an errand, and time presses."
Said she: "Yea, my son, or what tidings bearest thou from the south?
for by seeming thou art new-come from the host."
Said he: "The tidings are as yesterday, save that Thiodolf will lead
the host through the wild-wood to look for the Romans beyond it:
therefore will there soon be battle again. See ye, Mother, hast thou
here one that knoweth this ring of Thiodolf's, if perchance men doubt
me when I say that I am sent on my errand by him?"
"Yea," she said, "Agni will know it; since he knoweth all the chief
men of the Mark; but what is thine errand, and what is thy name?"
"It is soon told," said he, "I am a Wolfing hight Thorkettle, and I
come to have away for Thiodolf the treasure of the world, the Dwarf-
wrought Hauberk, which he left with you when we fared hence to the
south three days ago. Now let Agni come, that I may have it, for
time presses sorely."
There were three or four gathered about them now, and a maiden of
them said: "Shall I bring Agni hither, mother?"
"What needeth it?" said the carline, "he sleepeth, and shall be hard
to awaken; and he is old, so let him sleep. I shall go fetch the
hauberk, for I know where it is, and my hand may come on it as easily
as on mine own girdle."
So she went her ways to the treasury where were the precious things
of the kindred; the woven cloths were put away in fair coffers to
keep them clean from the whirl of the Hall-dust and the reek; and the
vessels of gold and some of silver were standing on the shelves of a
cupboard before which hung a veil of needlework: but the weapons and
war-gear hung upon pins along the wall, and many of them had much
fair work on them, and were dight with gold and gems: but amidst
them all was the wondrous hauberk clear to see, dark grey and thin,
for it was so wondrously wrought that it hung in small compass. So
the carline took it down from the pin, and handled it, and marvelled
at it, and said:
"Strange are the hands that have passed over thee, sword-rampart, and
in strange places of the earth have they dwelt! For no smith of the
kindreds hath fashioned thee, unless he had for his friend either a
God or a foe of the Gods. Well shalt thou wot of the tale of sword
and spear ere thou comest back hither! For Thiodolf shall bring thee
where the work is wild."
Then she went with the hauberk to the new-come warrior, and made no
delay, but gave it to him, and said:
"When Agni awaketh, I shall tell him that Thorkettle of the Wolfings
hath borne aback to Thiodolf the Treasure of the World, the Dwarf-
wrought Hauberk."
Then Thorkettle took it and turned to go; but even therewith came old
Asmund from out of his sleeping-place, and gazed around the Hall, and
his eyes fell on the shape of the Wolfing as he was going out of the
door, and he asked the carline.
"What doeth he here? What tidings is there from the host? For my
soul was nought unquiet last night."
"It is a little matter," she said; "the War-duke hath sent for the
wondrous Byrny that he left in our treasury when he departed to meet
the Romans. Belike there shall be a perilous battle, and few hearts
need a stout sword-wall more than Thiodolf's."
As she spoke, Thorkettle had passed the door, and got into his
saddle, and sat his black horse like a mighty man as he slowly rode
down the turf bridge that led into the plain. And Asmund went to the
door and stood watching him till he set spurs to his horse, and
departed a great gallop to the south. Then said Asmund:
"What then are the Gods devising, what wonders do they will?
What mighty need is on them to work the kindreds ill,
That the seed of the Ancient Fathers and a woman of their kin
With her all unfading beauty must blend herself therein?
Are they fearing lest the kindreds should grow too fair and great,
And climb the stairs of God-home, and fashion all their fate,
And make all earth so merry that it never wax the worse,
Nor need a gift from any, nor prayers to quench the curse?
Fear they that the Folk-wolf, growing as the fire from out the spark
Into a very folk-god, shall lead the weaponed Mark
From wood to field and mountain, to stand between the earth
And the wrights that forge its thraldom and the sword to slay its
mirth?
Fear they that the sons of the wild-wood the Loathly Folk shall
quell,
And grow into Gods thereafter, and aloof in God-home dwell?
Therewith he turned back into the Hall, and was heavy-hearted and
dreary of aspect; for he was somewhat foreseeing; and it may not be
hidden that this seeming Thorkettle was no warrior of the Wolfings,
but the Wood-Sun in his likeness; for she had the power and craft of
shape-changing.
CHAPTER XVII--THE WOOD-SUN SPEAKETH WITH THIODOLF
Now the Markmen laid Heriulf in howe on the ridge-crest where he had
fallen, and heaped a mighty howe over him that could be seen from
far, and round about him they laid the other warriors of the
kindreds. For they deemed it was fittest that they should lie on the
place whose story they had fashioned. But they cast earth on the
foemen lower down on the westward-lying bents.
The sun set amidst their work, and night came on; and Thiodolf was
weary and would fain rest him and sleep: but he had many thoughts,
and pondered whitherward he should lead the folk, so as to smite the
Romans once again, and he had a mind to go apart and be alone for
rest and slumber; so he spoke to a man of the kindred named Solvi in
whom he put all trust, and then he went down from the ridge, and into
a little dale on the southwest side thereof, a furlong from the place
of the battle. A beck ran down that dale, and the further end of it
was closed by a little wood of yew trees, low, but growing thick
together, and great grey stones were scattered up and down on the
short grass of the dale. Thiodolf went down to the brook-side, and
to a place where it trickled into a pool, whence it ran again in a
thin thread down the dale, turning aside before it reached the yew-
wood to run its ways under low ledges of rock into a wider dale. He
looked at the pool and smiled to himself as if he had thought of
something that pleased him; then he drew a broad knife from his side,
and fell to cutting up turfs till he had what he wanted; and then he
brought stones to the place, and built a dam across the mouth of the
pool, and sat by on a great stone to watch it filling.
As he sat he strove to think about the Roman host and how he should
deal with it; but despite himself his thoughts wandered, and made for
him pictures of his life that should be when this time of battle was
over; so that he saw nothing of the troubles that were upon his hands
that night, but rather he saw himself partaking in the deeds of the
life of man. There he was between the plough-stilts in the acres of
the kindred when the west wind was blowing over the promise of early
spring; or smiting down the ripe wheat in the hot afternoon amidst
the laughter and merry talk of man and maid; or far away over
Mirkwood-water watching the edges of the wood against the prowling
wolf and lynx, the stars just beginning to shine over his head, as
now they were; or wending the windless woods in the first frosts
before the snow came, the hunter's bow or javelin in hand: or coming
back from the wood with the quarry on the sledge across the snow,
when winter was deep, through the biting icy wind and the whirl of
the drifting snow, to the lights and music of the Great Roof, and the
merry talk therein and the smiling of the faces glad to see the
hunting-carles come back; and the full draughts of mead, and the
sweet rest a night-tide when the north wind was moaning round the
ancient home.
All seemed good and fair to him, and whiles he looked around him, and
saw the long dale lying on his left hand and the dark yews in its
jaws pressing up against the rock-ledges of the brook, and on his
right its windings as the ground rose up to the buttresses of the
great ridge. The moon was rising over it, and he heard the voice of
the brook as it tinkled over the stones above him; and the whistle of
the plover and the laugh of the whimbrel came down the dale sharp and
clear in the calm evening; and sounding far away, because the great
hill muffled them, were the voices of his fellows on the ridge, and
the songs of the warriors and the high-pitched cries of the watch.
And this also was a part of the sweet life which was, and was to be;
and he smiled and was happy and loved the days that were coming, and
longed for them, as the young man longs for the feet of his maiden at
the try sting-place.
So as he sat there, the dreams wrapping him up from troublous
thoughts, at last slumber overtook him, and the great warrior of the
Wolfings sat nodding like an old carle in the chimney ingle, and he
fell asleep, his dreams going with him, but all changed and turned to
folly and emptiness.
He woke with a start in no long time; the night was deep, the wind
had fallen utterly, and all sounds were stilled save the voice of the
brook, and now and again the cry of the watchers of the Goths. The
moon was high and bright, and the little pool beside him glittered
with it in all its ripples; for it was full now and trickling over
the lip of his dam. So he arose from the stone and did off his war-
gear, casting Throng-plough down into the grass beside him, for he
had been minded to bathe him, but the slumber was still on him, and
he stood musing while the stream grew stronger and pushed off first
one of his turfs and then another, and rolled two or three of the
stones over, and then softly thrust all away and ran with a gush down
the dale, filling all the little bights by the way for a minute or
two; he laughed softly thereat, and stayed the undoing of his kirtle,
and so laid himself down on the grass beside the stone looking down
the dale, and fell at once into a dreamless sleep.
When he awoke again, it was yet night, but the moon was getting lower
and the first beginnings of dawn were showing in the sky over the
ridge; he lay still a moment gathering his thoughts and striving to
remember where he was, as is the wont of men waking from deep sleep;
then he leapt to his feet, and lo, he was face to face with a woman,
and she who but the Wood-Sun? and he wondered not, but reached out
his hand to touch her, though he had not yet wholly cast off the
heaviness of slumber or remembered the tidings of yesterday.
She drew aback a little from him, and his eyes cleared of the
slumber, and he saw her that she was scantily clad in black raiment,
barefoot, with no gold ring on her arms or necklace on her neck, or
crown about her head. But she looked so fair and lovely even in that
end of the night-tide, that he remembered all her beauty of the day
and the sunshine, and he laughed aloud for joy of the sight of her,
and said:
"What aileth thee, O Wood-Sun, and is this a new custom of thy
kindred and the folk of God-home that their brides array themselves
like thralls new-taken, and as women who have lost their kindred and
are outcast? Who then hath won the Burg of the Anses, and clomb the
rampart of God-home?"
But she spoke from where she stood in a voice so sweet, that it
thrilled to the very marrow of his bones.
"I have dwelt a while with sorrow since we met, we twain, in the
wood:
I have mourned, while thou hast been merry, who deemest the war-play
good.
For I know the heart of the wilful and how thou wouldst cast away
The rampart of thy life-days, and the wall of my happy day.
Yea I am the thrall of Sorrow; she hath stripped my raiment off
And laid sore stripes upon me with many a bitter scoff.
Still bidding me remember that I come of the God-folk's kin,
And yet for all my godhead no love of thee may win."
Then she looked longingly at him a while and at last could no longer
refrain her, but drew nigh him and took his hands in hers, and kissed
his mouth, and said as she caressed him:
"O where are thy wounds, beloved? how turned the spear from thy
breast,
When the storm of war blew strongest, and the best men met the best?
Lo, this is the tale of to-day: but what shall to-morrow tell?
That Thiodolf the Mighty in the fight's beginning fell;
That there came a stroke ill-stricken, there came an aimless thrust,
And the life of the people's helper lay quenched in the summer dust."
He answered nothing, but smiled as though the sound of her voice and
the touch of her hand were pleasant to him, for so much love there
was in her, that her very grief was scarcely grievous. But she said
again:
"Thou sayest it: I am outcast; for a God that lacketh mirth
Hath no more place in God-home and never a place on earth.
A man grieves, and he gladdens, or he dies and his grief is gone;
But what of the grief of the Gods, and the sorrow never undone?
Yea verily I am the outcast. When first in thine arms I lay
On the blossoms of the woodland my godhead passed away;
Thenceforth unto thee was I looking for the light and the glory of
life
And the Gods' doors shut behind me till the day of the uttermost
strife.
And now thou hast taken my soul, thou wilt cast it into the night,
And cover thine head with the darkness, and turn thine eyes from the
light.
Thou wouldst go to the empty country where never a seed is sown
And never a deed is fashioned, and the place where each is alone;
But I thy thrall shall follow, I shall come where thou seemest to
lie,
I shall sit on the howe that hides thee, and thou so dear and nigh!
A few bones white in their war-gear that have no help or thought,
Shall be Thiodolf the Mighty, so nigh, so dear--and nought."
His hands strayed over her shoulders and arms, caressing them, and he
said softly and lovingly:
"I am Thiodolf the Mighty: but as wise as I may be
No story of that grave-night mine eyes can ever see,
But rather the tale of the Wolfings through the coming days of earth,
And the young men in their triumph and the maidens in their mirth;
And morn's promise every evening, and each day the promised morn,
And I amidst it ever reborn and yet reborn.
This tale I know, who have seen it, who have felt the joy and pain,
Each fleeing, each pursuing, like the links of the draw-well's chain:
But that deedless tide of the grave-mound, and the dayless nightless
day,
E'en as I strive to see it, its image wanes away.
What say'st thou of the grave-mound? shall I be there at all
When they lift the Horn of Remembrance, and the shout goes down the
hall,
And they drink the Mighty War-duke and Thiodolf the old?
Nay rather; there where the youngling that longeth to be bold
Sits gazing through the hall-reek and sees across the board
A vision of the reaping of the harvest of the sword,
There shall Thiodolf be sitting; e'en there shall the youngling be
That once in the ring of the hazels gave up his life to thee."
She laughed as he ended, and her voice was sweet, but bitter was her
laugh. Then she said:
"Nay thou shalt be dead, O warrior, thou shalt not see the Hall
Nor the children of thy people 'twixt the dais and the wall.
And I, and I shall be living; still on thee shall waste my thought:
I shall long and lack thy longing; I shall pine for what is nought."
But he smiled again, and said:
"Not on earth shall I learn this wisdom; and how shall I learn it
then
When I lie alone in the grave-mound, and have no speech with men?
But for thee,--O doubt it nothing that my life shall live in thee,
And so shall we twain be loving in the days that yet shall be."
It was as if she heard him not; and she fell aback from him a little
and stood silently for a while as one in deep thought; and then
turned and went a few paces from him, and stooped down and came back
again with something in her arms (and it was the hauberk once more),
and said suddenly:
"O Thiodolf, now tell me for what cause thou wouldst not bear
This grey wall of the hammer in the tempest of the spear?
Didst thou doubt my faith, O Folk-wolf, or the counsel of the Gods,
That thou needs must cast thee naked midst the flashing battle-rods,
Or is thy pride so mighty that it seemed to thee indeed
That death was a better guerdon than the love of the God-head's
seed?"
But Thiodolf said: "O Wood-Sun, this thou hast a right to ask of me,
why I have not worn in the battle thy gift, the Treasure of the
World, the Dwarf-wrought Hauberk! And what is this that thou sayest?
I doubt not thy faith towards me and thine abundant love: and as for
the rede of the Gods, I know it not, nor may I know it, nor turn it
this way nor that: and as for thy love and that I would choose death
sooner, I know not what thou meanest; I will not say that I love thy
love better than life itself; for these two, my life and my love, are
blended together and may not be sundered.
"Hearken therefore as to the Hauberk: I wot well that it is for no
light matter that thou wouldst have me bear thy gift, the wondrous
hauberk, into battle; I deem that some doom is wrapped up in it;
maybe that I shall fall before the foe if I wear it not; and that if
I wear it, somewhat may betide me which is unmeet to betide a warrior
of the Wolfings. Therefore will I tell thee why I have fought in two
battles with the Romans with unmailed body, and why I left the
hauberk, (which I see that thou bearest in thine arms) in the Roof of
the Daylings. For when I entered therein, clad in the hauberk, there
came to meet me an ancient man, one of the very valiant of days past,
and he looked on me with the eyes of love, as though he had been the
very father of our folk, and I the man that was to come after him to
carry on the life thereof. But when he saw the hauberk and touched
it, then was his love smitten cold with sadness and he spoke words of
evil omen; so that putting this together with thy words about the
gift, and that thou didst in a manner compel me to wear it, I could
not but deem that this mail is for the ransom of a man and the ruin
of a folk.
"Wilt thou say that it is not so? then will I wear the hauberk, and
live and die happy. But if thou sayest that I have deemed aright,
and that a curse goeth with the hauberk, then either for the sake of
the folk I will not wear the gift and the curse, and I shall die in
great glory, and because of me the House shall live; or else for thy
sake I shall bear it and live, and the House shall live or die as may
be, but I not helping, nay I no longer of the House nor in it. How
sayest thou?"
Then she said:
"Hail be thy mouth, beloved, for that last word of thine,
And the hope that thine heart conceiveth and the hope that is born in
mine.
Yea, for a man's delivrance was the hauberk born indeed
That once more the mighty warrior might help the folk at need.
And where is the curse's dwelling if thy life be saved to dwell
Amidst the Wolfing warriors and the folk that loves thee well
And the house where the high Gods left thee to be cherished well
therein?
"Yea more: I have told thee, beloved, that thou art not of the kin;
The blood in thy body is blended of the wandering Elking race,
And one that I may not tell of, who in God-home hath his place,
And who changed his shape to beget thee in the wild-wood's leafy
roof.
How then shall the doom of the Wolfings be woven in the woof
Which the Norns for thee have shuttled? or shall one man of war
Cast down the tree of the Wolfings on the roots that spread so far?
O friend, thou art wise and mighty, but other men have lived
Beneath the Wolfing roof-tree whereby the folk has thrived."
He reddened at her word; but his eyes looked eagerly on her. She
cast down the hauberk, and drew one step nigher to him. She knitted
her brows, her face waxed terrible, and her stature seemed to grow
greater, as she lifted up her gleaming right arm, and cried out in a
great voice.
"Thou Thiodolf the Mighty! Hadst thou will to cast the net
And tangle the House in thy trouble, it is I would slay thee yet;
For 'tis I and I that love them, and my sorrow would I give,
And thy life, thou God of battle, that the Wolfing House might live."
Therewith she rushed forward, and cast herself upon him, and threw
her arms about him, and strained him to her bosom, and kissed his
face, and he her in likewise, for there was none to behold them, and
nought but the naked heaven was the roof above their heads.
And now it was as if the touch of her face and her body, and the
murmuring of her voice changed and soft close to his ear, as she
murmured mere words of love to him, drew him away from the life of
deeds and doubts and made a new world for him, wherein he beheld all
those fair pictures of the happy days that had been in his musings
when first he left the field of the dead.
So they sat down on the grey stone together hand in hand, her head
laid upon his shoulder, no otherwise than if they had been two
lovers, young and without renown in days of deep peace.
So as they sat, her foot smote on the cold hilts of the sword, which
Thiodolf had laid down in the grass; and she stooped and took it up,
and laid it across her knees and his as they sat there; and she
looked on Throng-plough as he lay still in the sheath, and smiled on
him, and saw that the peace-strings were not yet wound about his
hilts. So she drew him forth and raised him up in her hand, and he
gleamed white and fearful in the growing dawn, for all things had now
gotten their colours again, whereas amidst their talking had the
night worn, and the moon low down was grown white and pale.
But she leaned aside, and laid her cheek against Thiodolf's, and he
took the sword out of her hand and set it on his knees again, and
laid his right hand on it, and said:
"Two things by these blue edges in the face of the dawning I swear;
And first this warrior's ransom in the coming fight to bear,
And evermore to love thee who hast given me second birth.
And by the sword I swear it, and by the Holy Earth,
To live for the House of the Wolfings, and at last to die for their
need.
For though I trow thy saying that I am not one of their seed,
Nor yet by the hand have been taken and unto the Father shown
As a very son of the Fathers, yet mid them hath my body grown;
And I am the guest of their Folk-Hall, and each one there is my
friend.
So with them is my joy and sorrow, and my life, and my death in the
end.
Now whatso doom hereafter my coming days shall bide,
Thou speech-friend, thou deliverer, thine is this dawning-tide."
She spoke no word to him; but they rose up and went hand in hand down
the dale, he still bearing his naked sword over his shoulder, and
thus they went together into the yew-copse at the dale's end. There
they abode till after the rising of the sun, and each to each spake
many loving words at their departure; and the Wood-Sun went her ways
at her will.
But Thiodolf went up the dale again, and set Throng-plough in his
sheath, and wound the peace-strings round him. Then he took up the
hauberk from the grass whereas the Wood-Sun had cast it, and did it
on him, as it were of the attire he was wont to carry daily. So he
girt Throng-plough to him, and went soberly up to the ridge-top to
the folk, who were just stirring in the early morning.
CHAPTER XVIII--TIDINGS BROUGHT TO THE WAIN-BURG
Now it must be told of Otter and they of the Wain-burg how they had
the tidings of the overthrow of the Romans on the Ridge, and that
Egil had left them on his way to Wolf-stead. They were joyful of the
tale, as was like to be, but eager also to strike their stroke at the
foe-men, and in that mood they abode fresh tidings.
It has been told how Otter had sent the Bearings and the Wormings to
the aid of Thiodolf and his folk, and these two were great kindreds,
and they being gone, there abode with Otter, one man with another,
thralls and freemen, scant three thousand men: of these many were
bowmen good to fight from behind a wall or fence, or some such cover,
but scarce meet to withstand a shock in the open field. However it
was deemed at this time in the Wain-burg that Thiodolf and his men
would soon return to them; and in any case, they said, he lay between
the Romans and the Mark, so that they had but little doubt; or rather
they feared that the Romans might draw aback from the Mark before
they could be met in battle again, for as aforesaid they were eager
for the fray.
Now it was in the cool of the evening two days after the Battle on
the Ridge, that the men, both freemen and thralls, had been
disporting themselves in the plain ground without the Burg in casting
the spear and putting the stone, and running races a-foot and a-
horseback, and now close on sunset three young men, two of the
Laxings and one of the Shieldings, and a grey old thrall of that same
House, were shooting a match with the bow, driving their shafts at a
rushen roundel hung on a pole which the old thrall had dight. Men
were peaceful and happy, for the time was fair and calm, and, as
aforesaid, they dreaded not the Roman Host any more than if they were
Gods dwelling in God-home. The shooters were deft men, and they of
the Burg were curious to note their deftness, and many were breathed
with the games wherein they had striven, and thought it good to rest,
and look on the new sport: so they sat and stood on the grass about
the shooters on three sides, and the mead-horn went briskly from man
to man; for there was no lack of meat and drink in the Burg, whereas
the kindreds that lay nighest to it had brought in abundant
provision, and women of the kindreds had come to them, and not a few
were there scattered up and down among the carles.
Now the Shielding man, Geirbald by name, had just loosed at the mark,
and had shot straight and smitten the roundel in the midst, and a
shout went up from the onlookers thereat; but that shout was, as it
were, lined with another, and a cry that a messenger was riding
toward the Burg: thereat most men looked round toward the wood,
because their minds were set on fresh tidings from Thiodolf's
company, but as it happened it was from the north and the side toward
Mid-mark that they on the outside of the throng had seen the rider
coming; and presently the word went from man to man that so it was,
and that the new comer was a young man on a grey horse, and would
speedily be amongst them; so they wondered what the tidings might be,
but yet they did not break up the throng, but abode in their places
that they might receive the messenger more orderly; and as the rider
drew near, those who were nighest to him perceived that it was a
woman.
So men made way before the grey horse, and its rider, and the horse
was much spent and travel-worn. So the woman rode right into the
ring of warriors, and drew rein there, and lighted down slowly and
painfully, and when she was on the ground could scarce stand for
stiffness; and two or three of the swains drew near her to help her,
and knew her at once for Hrosshild of the Wolfings, for she was well-
known as a doughty woman.
Then she said: "Bring me to Otter the War-duke; or bring him hither
to me, which were best, since so many men are gathered together; and
meanwhile give me to drink; for I am thirsty and weary."
So while one went for Otter, another reached to her the mead-horn,
and she had scarce done her draught, ere Otter was there, for they
had found him at the gate of the Burg. He had many a time been in
the Wolfing Hall, so he knew her at once and said:
"Hail, Hrosshild! how farest thou?"
She said: "I fare as the bearer of evil tidings. Bid thy folk do on
their war-gear and saddle their horses, and make no delay; for now
presently shall the Roman host be in Mid-mark!"
Then cried Otter: "Blow up the war-horn! get ye all to your weapons
and be ready to leap on your horses, and come ye to the Thing in good
order kindred by kindred: later on ye shall hear Hrosshild's story
as she shall tell it to me!"
Therewith he led her to a grassy knoll that was hard by, and set her
down thereon and himself beside her, and said:
"Speak now, damsel, and fear not! For now shall one fate go over us
all, either to live together or die together as the free children of
Tyr, and friends of the Almighty God of the Earth. How camest thou
to meet the Romans and know of their ways and to live thereafter?"
She said: "Thus it was: the Hall-Sun bethought her how that the
eastern ways into Mid-mark that bring a man to the thicket behind the
Roof of the Bearings are nowise hard, even for an host; so she sent
ten women, and me the eleventh to the Bearing dwelling and the road
through the thicket aforesaid; and we were to take of the Bearing
stay-at-homes whomso we would that were handy, and then all we to
watch the ways for fear of the Romans. And methinks she has had some
vision of their ways, though mayhap not altogether clear.
"Anyhow we came to the Bearing dwellings, and they gave us of their
folk eight doughty women and two light-foot lads, and so we were
twenty and one in all.
"So then we did as the Hall-Sun bade us, and ordained a chain of
watchers far up into the waste; and these were to sound a point of
war upon their horns each to each till the sound thereof should come
to us who lay with our horses hoppled ready beside us in the fair
plain of the Mark outside the thicket.
"To be short, the horns waked us up in the midst of yesternight, and
of the watches also came to us the last, which had heard the sound
amidst the thicket, and said that it was certainly the sound of the
Goths' horn, and the note agreed on. Therefore I sent a messenger at
once to the Wolfing Roof to say what was toward; but to thee I would
not ride until I had made surer of the tidings; so I waited awhile,
and then rode into the wild-wood; and a long tale I might make both
of the waiting and the riding, had I time thereto; but this is the
end of it; that going warily a little past where the thicket thinneth
and the road endeth, I came on three of those watches or links in the
chain we had made, and half of another watch or link; that is to say
six women, who were come together after having blown their horns and
fled (though they should rather have abided in some lurking-place to
espy whatever might come that way) and one other woman, who had been
one of the watch much further off, and had spoken with the furthest
of all, which one had seen the faring of the Roman Host, and that it
was very great, and no mere band of pillagers or of scouts. And,
said this fleer (who was indeed half wild with fear), that while they
were talking together, came the Romans upon them, and saw them; and a
band of Romans beat the wood for them when they fled, and she, the
fleer, was at point to be taken, and saw two taken indeed, and haled
off by the Roman scourers of the wood. But she escaped and so came
to the others on the skirts of the thicket, having left of her skin
and blood on many a thornbush and rock by the way.
"Now when I heard this, I bade this fleer get her home to the
Bearings as swiftly as she might, and tell her tale; and she went
away trembling, and scarce knowing whether her feet were on earth or
on water or on fire; but belike failed not to come there, as no
Romans were before her.
"But for the others, I sent one to go straight to Wolf-stead on the
heels of the first messenger, to tell the Hall-Sun what had befallen,
and other five I set to lurk in the thicket, whereas none could
lightly lay hands on them, and when they had new tidings, to flee to
Wolf-stead as occasion might serve them; and for myself I tarried
not, but rode on the spur to tell thee hereof.
"But my last word to thee, Otter, is that by the Hall-sun's bidding
the Bearings will not abide fire and steel at their own stead, but
when they hear true tidings of the Romans being hard at hand, will
take with them all that is not too hot or too heavy to carry, and go
their ways unto Wolf-stead: and the tidings will go up and down the
Mark on both sides of the water, so that whatever is of avail for
defence will gather there at our dwelling, and if we fall, goodly
shall be the howe heaped over us, even if ye come not in time.
"Now have I told thee what I needs must and there is no need to
question me more, for thou hast it all--do thou what thou hast to
do!"
With that word she cast herself down on the grass by the mound-side,
and was presently asleep, for she was very weary.
But all the time she had been telling her tale had the horn been
sounding, and there were now a many warriors gathered and more coming
in every moment: so Otter stood up on the mound after he had bidden
a man of his House to bring him his horse and war-gear, and abided a
little, till, as might be said, the whole host was gathered: then he
bade cry silence, and spake:
"Sons of Tyr, now hath an Host of the Romans gotten into the Mark; a
mighty host, but not so mighty that it may not be met. Few words are
best: let the Steerings, who are not many, but are men well-tried in
war and wisdom abide in the Burg along with the fighting thralls:
but let the Burg be broken up and moved from the place, and let its
warders wend towards Mid-mark, but warily and without haste, and each
night let them make the wain-garth and keep good watch.
"But know ye that the Romans shall fall with all their power on the
Wolfing dwellings, deeming that when they have that, they shall have
all that is ours with ourselves also. For there is the Hall-Sun
under the Great Roof, and there hath Thiodolf, our War-duke, his
dwelling-place; therefore shall all of us, save those that abide with
the wains, take horse, and ride without delay, and cross the water at
Battleford, so that we may fall upon the foe before they come west of
the water; for as ye know there is but one ford whereby a man wending
straight from the Bearings may cross Mirkwood-water, and it is like
that the foe will tarry at the Bearing stead long enough to burn and
pillage it.
"So do ye order yourselves according to your kindreds, and let the
Shieldings lead. Make no more delay! But for me I will now send a
messenger to Thiodolf to tell him of the tidings, and then speedily
shall he be with us. Geirbald, I see thee; come hither!"
Now Geirbald stood amidst the Shieldings, and when Otter had spoken,
he came forth bestriding a white horse, and with his bow slung at his
back. Said Otter: "Geirbald, thou shalt ride at once through the
wood, and find Thiodolf; and tell him the tidings, and that in nowise
he follow the Roman fleers away from the Mark, nor to heed anything
but the trail of the foemen through the south-eastern heaths of
Mirkwood, whether other Romans follow him or not: whatever happens
let him lead the Goths by that road, which for him is the shortest,
towards the defence of the Wolfing dwellings. Lo thou, my ring for a
token! Take it and depart in haste. Yet first take thy fellow
Viglund the Woodman with thee, lest if perchance one fall, the other
may bear the message. Tarry not, nor rest till thy word be said!"
Then turned Geirbald to find Viglund who was anigh to him, and he
took the ring, and the twain went their ways without more ado, and
rode into the wild-wood.
But about the wain-burg was there plenteous stir of men till all was
ordered for the departure of the host, which was no long while, for
there was nothing to do but on with the war-gear and up on to the
horse.
Forth then they went duly ordered in their kindreds towards the head
of the Upper-mark, riding as swiftly as they might without breaking
their array.
CHAPTER XIX--THOSE MESSENGERS COME TO THIODOLF
Of Geirbald and Viglund the tale tells that they rode the woodland
paths as speedily as they might. They had not gone far, and were
winding through a path amidst of a thicket mingled of the hornbeam
and holly, betwixt the openings of which the bracken grew exceeding
tall, when Viglund, who was very fine-eared, deemed that he heard a
horse coming to meet them: so they lay as close as they might, and
drew back their horses behind a great holly-bush lest it should be
some one or more of the foes who had fled into the wood when the
Romans were scattered in that first fight. But as the sound drew
nearer, and it was clearly the footsteps of a great horse, they
deemed it would be some messenger from Thiodolf, as indeed it turned
out: for as the new-comer fared on, somewhat unwarily, they saw a
bright helm after the fashion of the Goths amidst of the trees, and
then presently they knew by his attire that he was of the Bearings,
and so at last they knew him to be Asbiorn of the said House, a
doughty man; so they came forth to meet him and he drew rein when he
saw armed men, but presently beholding their faces he knew them and
laughed on them, and said:
"Hail fellows! what tidings are toward?"
"These," said Viglund, "that thou art well met, since now shalt thou
turn back and bring us to Thiodolf as speedily as may be."
But Asbiorn laughed and said: "Nay rather turn about with me; or why
are ye so grim of countenance?"
"Our errand is no light one," said Geirbald, "but thou, why art thou
so merry?"
"I have seen the Romans fall," said he, "and belike shall soon see
more of that game: for I am on an errand to Otter from Thiodolf:
the War-duke, when he had questioned some of those whom we took on
the Day of the Ridge, began to have a deeming that the Romans had
beguiled us, and will fall on the Mark by the way of the south-east
heaths: so now is he hastening to fetch a compass and follow that
road either to overtake them or prevent them; and he biddeth Otter
tarry not, but ride hard along the water to meet them if he may, or
ever they have set their hands to the dwellings of my House. And
belike when I have done mine errand to Otter I shall ride with him to
look on these burners and slayers once more; therefore am I merry.
Now for your tidings, fellows."
Said Geirbald: "Our tidings are that both our errands are prevented,
and come to nought: for Otter hath not tarried, but hath ridden with
all his folk toward the stead of thine House. So shalt thou indeed
see these burners and slayers if thou ridest hard; since we have
tidings that the Romans will by now be in Mid-mark. And as for our
errand, it is to bid Thiodolf do even as he hath done. Hereby may we
see how good a pair of War-dukes we have gotten, since each thinketh
of the same wisdom. Now take we counsel together as to what we shall
do; whether we shall go back to Otter with thee, or thou go back to
Thiodolf with us; or else each go the road ordained for us."
Said Asbiorn: "To Otter will I ride as I was bidden, that I may look
on the burning of our roof, and avenge me of the Romans afterwards;
and I bid you, fellows, ride with me, since fewer men there are with
Otter, and he must be the first to bide the brunt of battle."
"Nay," said Geirbald, "as for me ye must even lose a man's aid; for
to Thiodolf was I sent, and to Thiodolf will I go: and bethink thee
if this be not best, since Thiodolf hath but a deeming of the ways of
the Romans and we wot surely of them. Our coming shall make him the
speedier, and the less like to turn back if any alien band shall
follow after him. What sayest thou, Viglund?"
Said Viglund: "Even as thou, Geirbald: but for myself I deem I may
well turn back with Asbiorn. For I would serve the House in battle
as soon as may be; and maybe we shall slaughter these kites of the
cities, so that Thiodolf shall have no work to do when he cometh."
Said Asbiorn; "Geirbald, knowest thou right well the ways through the
wood and on the other side thereof, to the place where Thiodolf
abideth? for ye see that night is at hand."
"Nay, not over well," said Geirbald.
Said Asbiorn: "Then I rede thee take Viglund with thee; for he
knoweth them yard by yard, and where they be hard and where they be
soft. Moreover it were best indeed that ye meet Thiodolf betimes;
for I deem not but that he wendeth leisurely, though always warily,
because he deemeth not that Otter will ride before to-morrow morning.
Hearken, Viglund! Thiodolf will rest to-night on the other side of
the water, nigh to where the hills break off into the sheer cliffs
that are called the Kites' Nest, and the water runneth under them,
coming from the east: and before him lieth the easy ground of the
eastern heaths where he is minded to wend to-morrow betimes in the
morning: and if ye do your best ye shall be there before he is upon
the road, and sure it is that your tidings shall hasten him."
"Thou sayest sooth," saith Geirbald, "tarry we no longer; here sunder
our ways; farewell!"
"Farewell," said he, "and thou, Viglund, take this word in parting,
that belike thou shalt yet see the Romans, and strike a stroke, and
maybe be smitten. For indeed they be most mighty warriors."
Then made they no delay but rode their ways either side. And
Geirbald and Viglund rode over rough and smooth all night, and were
out of the thick wood by day-dawn: and whereas they rode hard, and
Viglund knew the ways well, they came to Mirkwood-water before the
day was old, and saw that the host was stirring, but not yet on the
way. And or ever they came to the water's edge, they were met by
Wolfkettle of the Wolfings, and Hiarandi of the Elkings, and three
others who were but just come from the place where the hurt men lay
down in a dale near the Great Ridge; there had Wolfkettle and
Hiarandi been tending Toti of the Beamings, their fellow-in-arms, who
had been sorely hurt in the battle, but was doing well, and was like
to live. So when they saw the messengers, they came up to them and
hailed them, and asked them if the tidings were good or evil.
"That is as it may be," said Geirbald, "but they are short to tell;
the Romans are in Mid-mark, and Otter rideth on the spur to meet
them, and sendeth us to bid Thiodolf wend the heaths to fall in on
them also. Nor may we tarry one minute ere we have seen Thiodolf."
Said Wolfkettle, "We will lead you to him; he is on the east side of
the water, with all his host, and they are hard on departing."
So they went down the ford, which was not very deep; and Wolfkettle
rode the ford behind Geirbald, and another man behind Viglund; but
Hiarandi went afoot with the others beside the horses, for he was a
very tall man.
But as they rode amidst the clear water Wolfkettle lifted up his
voice and sang:
"White horse, with what are ye laden as ye wade the shallows warm,
But with tidings of the battle, and the fear of the fateful storm?
What loureth now behind us, what pileth clouds before,
On either hand what gathereth save the stormy tide of war?
Now grows midsummer mirky, and fallow falls the morn,
And dusketh the Moon's Sister, and the trees look overworn;
God's Ash tree shakes and shivers, and the sheer cliff standeth white
As the bones of the giants' father when the Gods first fared to
fight."
And indeed the morning had grown mirky and grey and threatening, and
from far away the thunder growled, and the face of the Kite's Nest
showed pale and awful against a dark steely cloud; and a few drops of
rain pattered into the smooth water before them from a rag of the
cloud-flock right over head. They were in mid stream now, for the
water was wide there; on the eastern bank were the warriors
gathering, for they had beheld the faring of those men, and the voice
of Wolfkettle came to them across the water, so they deemed that
great tidings were toward, and would fain know on what errand those
were come.
Then the waters of the ford deepened till Hiarandi was wading more
than waist-deep, and the water flowed over Geirbald's saddle; then
Wolfkettle laughed, and turning as he sat, dragged out his sword, and
waved it from east to west and sang:
"O sun, pale up in heaven, shrink from us if thou wilt,
And turn thy face from beholding the shock of guilt with guilt!
Stand still, O blood of summer! and let the harvest fade,
Till there be nought but fallow where once was bloom and blade!
O day, give out but a glimmer of all thy flood of light,
If it be but enough for our eyen to see the road of fight!
Forget all else and slumber, if still ye let us wake,
And our mouths shall make the thunder, and our swords shall the
lightening make,
And we shall be the storm-wind and drive the ruddy rain,
Till the joy of our hearts in battle bring back the day again."
As he spake that word they came up through the shallow water dripping
on to the bank, and they and the men who abode them on the bank
shouted together for joy of fellowship, and all tossed aloft their
weapons. The man who had ridden behind Viglund slipped off on to the
ground; but Wolfkettle abode in his place behind Geirbald.
So the messengers passed on, and the others closed up round about
them, and all the throng went up to where Thiodolf was sitting on a
rock beneath a sole ash-tree, the face of the Kite's Nest rising
behind him on the other side of a bight of the river. There he sat
unhelmed with the dwarf-wrought hauberk about him, holding Throng-
plough in its sheath across his knees, while he gave word to this and
that man concerning the order of the host.
So when they were come thither, the throng opened that the messengers
might come forward; for by this time had many more drawn near to
hearken what was toward. There they sat on their horses, the white
and the grey, and Wolfkettle stood by Geirbald's bridle rein, for he
had now lighted down; and a little behind him, his head towering over
the others, stood Hiarandi great and gaunt. The ragged cloud had
drifted down south-east now and the rain fell no more, but the sun
was still pale and clouded.
Then Thiodolf looked gravely on them, and spake:
"What do ye sons of the War-shield? what tale is there to tell?
Is the kindred fallen tangled in the grasp of the fallow Hell?
Crows the red cock over the homesteads, have we met the foe too late?
For meseems your brows are heavy with the shadowing o'er of fate."
But Geirbald answered:
"Still cold with dew in the morning the Shielding Roof-ridge stands,
Nor yet hath grey Hell bounden the Shielding warriors' hands;
But lo, the swords, O War-duke, how thick in the wind they shake,
Because we bear the message that the battle-road ye take,
Nor tarry for the thunder or the coming on of rain,
Or the windy cloudy night-tide, lest your battle be but vain.
And this is the word that Otter yestre'en hath set in my mouth;
Seek thou the trail of the Aliens of the Cities of the South,
And thou shalt find it leading o'er the heaths to the beechen-wood,
And thence to the stony places where the foxes find their food;
And thence to the tangled thicket where the folkway cleaves it
through,
To the eastern edge of Mid-mark where the Bearings deal and do."
Then said Thiodolf in a cold voice, "What then hath befallen Otter?"
Said Geirbald:
"When last I looked upon Otter, all armed he rode the plain,
With his whole host clattering round him like the rush of the summer
rain;
To the right or the left they looked not but they rode through the
dusk and the dark
Beholding nought before them but the dream of the foes in the Mark.
So he went; but his word fled from him and on my horse it rode,
And again it saith, O War-duke seek thou the Bear's abode,
And tarry never a moment for ought that seems of worth,
For there shall ye find the sword-edge and the flame of the foes of
the earth.
"Tarry not, Thiodolf, nor turn aback though a new foe followeth on
thine heels. No need to question me more; I have no more to tell,
save that a woman brought these tidings to us, whom the Hall-Sun had
sent with others to watch the ways: and some of them had seen the
Romans, who are a great host and no band stealing forth to lift the
herds."
Now all those round about him heard his words, for he spake with a
loud voice; and they knew what the bidding of the War-duke would be;
so they loitered not, but each man went about his business of looking
to his war-gear and gathering to the appointed place of his kindred.
And even while Geirbald had been speaking, had Hiarandi brought up
the man who bore the great horn, who when Thiodolf leapt to his feet
to find him, was close at hand. So he bade him blow the war-blast,
and all men knew the meaning of that voice of the horn, and every man
armed him in haste, and they who had horses (and these were but the
Bearings and the Warnings), saddled them, and mounted, and from mouth
to mouth went the word that the Romans were gotten into Mid-mark, and
were burning the Bearing abodes. So speedily was the whole host
ready for the way, the Wolfings at the head of all. Then came forth
Thiodolf from the midst of his kindred, and they raised him upon a
great war-shield upheld by many men, and he stood thereon and spake:
"O sons of Tyr, ye have vanquished, and sore hath been your pain;
But he that smiteth in battle must ever smite again;
And thus with you it fareth, and the day abideth yet
When ye shall hold the Aliens as the fishes in the net.
On the Ridge ye slew a many; but there came a many more
From their strongholds by the water to their new-built garth of war,
And all these have been led by dastards o'er the way our feet must
tread
Through the eastern heaths and the beechwood to the door of the
Bearing stead,
Now e'en yesterday I deemed it, but I durst not haste away
Ere the word was borne to Otter and 'tis he bids haste to-day;
So now by day and by night-tide it behoveth us to wend
And wind the reel of battle and weave its web to end.
Had ye deemed my eyes foreseeing, I would tell you of my sight,
How I see the folk delivered and the Aliens turned to flight,
While my own feet wend them onwards to the ancient Father's Home.
But belike these are but the visions that to many a man shall come
When he goeth adown to the battle, and before him riseth high
The wall of valiant foemen to hide all things anigh.
But indeed I know full surely that no work that we may win
To-morrow or the next day shall quench the Markmen's kin.
On many a day hereafter shall their warriors carry shield;
On many a day their maidens shall drive the kine afield,
On many a day their reapers bear sickle in the wheat
When the golden wind-wrought ripple stirs round the feast-hall's
feet.
Lo, now is the day's work easy--to live and overcome,
Or to die and yet to conquer on the threshold of the Home."
And therewith he gat him down and went a-foot to the head of the
Wolfing band, a great shout going with him, which was mingled with
the voice of the war-horn that bade away.
So fell the whole host into due array, and they were somewhat over
three thousand warriors, all good and tried men and meet to face the
uttermost of battle in the open field; so they went their ways with
all the speed that footmen may, and in fair order; and the sky
cleared above their heads, but the distant thunder still growled
about the world. Geirbald and Viglund joined themselves to the
Wolfings and went a-foot along with Wolfkettle; but Hiarandi went
with his kindred who were second in the array.
CHAPTER XX--OTTER AND HIS FOLK COME INTO MID-MARK
Otter and his folk rode their ways along Mirkwood-water, and made no
stay, except now and again to breathe their horses, till they came to
Battleford in the early morning; there they baited their horses, for
the grass was good in the meadow, and the water easy to come at.
So after they had rested there a short hour, and had eaten what was
easy for them to get, they crossed the ford, and wended along
Mirkwood-water between the wood and the river, but went slower than
before lest they should weary their horses; so that it was high-noon
before they had come out of the woodland way into Mid-mark; and at
once as soon as the whole plain of the Mark opened out before them,
they saw what most of them looked to see (since none doubted
Hrosshild's tale), and that was a column of smoke rising high and
straight up into the air, for the afternoon was hot and windless.
Great wrath rose in their hearts thereat, and many a strong man
trembled for anger, though none for fear, as Otter raised his right
hand and stretched it out towards that token of wrack and ruin; yet
they made no stay, nor did they quicken their pace much; because they
knew that they should come to Bearham before night-fall, and they
would not meet the Romans way-worn and haggard; but they rode on
steadily, a terrible company of wrathful men.
They passed by the dwellings of the kindreds, though save for the
Galtings the houses on the east side of the water between the
Bearings and the wild-wood road were but small; for the thicket came
somewhat near to the water and pinched the meadows. But the Galtings
were great hunters and trackers of the wild-wood, and they of the
Geddings, the Erings and the Withings, which were smaller Houses,
lived somewhat on the take of fish from Mirkwood-water (as did the
Laxings also of the Nether-mark), for thereabout were there goodly
pools and eddies, and sun-warmed shallows therewithal for the
spawning of the trouts; as there were eyots in the water, most of
which tailed off into a gravelly shallow at their lower ends.
Now as the riders of the Goths came over against the dwellings of the
Withings, they saw people, mostly women, driving up the beasts from
the meadow towards the garth; but upon the tofts about their
dwellings were gathered many folk, who had their eyes turned toward
the token of ravage that hung in the sky above the fair plain; but
when these beheld the riding of the host, they tossed up their arms
to them and whatever they bore in them, and the sound of their shrill
cry (for they were all women and young lads) came down the wind to
the ears of the riders. But down by the river on a swell of the
ground were some swains and a few thralls, and among them some men
armed and a-horseback; and these, when they perceived the host coming
on turned and rode to meet them; and as they drew near they shouted
as men overjoyed to meet their kindred; and indeed the fighting-men
of their own House were riding in the host. And the armed men were
three old men, and one very old with marvellous long white hair, and
four long lads of some fifteen winters, and four stout carles of the
thralls bearing bows and bucklers, and these rode behind the swains;
so they found their own kindred and rode amongst them.
But when they were all jingling and clashing on together, the dust
arising from the sun-dried turf, the earth shaking with the thunder
of the horse-hoofs, then the heart of the long-hoary one stirred
within him as he bethought him of the days of his youth, and to his
old nostrils came the smell of the horses and the savour of the sweat
of warriors riding close together knee to knee adown the meadow. So
he lifted up his voice and sang:
"Rideth lovely along
The strong by the strong;
Soft under his breath
Singeth sword in the sheath,
And shield babbleth oft
Unto helm-crest aloft;
How soon shall their words rise mid wrath of the battle
Into wrangle unheeded of clanging and rattle,
And no man shall note then the gold on the sword
When the runes have no meaning, the mouth-cry no word,
When all mingled together, the war-sea of men
Shall toss up the steel-spray round fourscore and ten.
"Now as maids burn the weed
Betwixt acre and mead,
So the Bearings' Roof
Burneth little aloof,
And red gloweth the hall
Betwixt wall and fair wall,
Where often the mead-sea we sipped in old days,
When our feet were a-weary with wending the ways;
When the love of the lovely at even was born,
And our hands felt fair hands as they fell on the horn.
There round about standeth the ring of the foe
Tossing babes on their spears like the weeds o'er the low.
"Ride, ride then! nor spare
The red steeds as ye fare!
Yet if daylight shall fail,
By the fire-light of bale
Shall we see the bleared eyes
Of the war-learned, the wise.
In the acre of battle the work is to win,
Let us live by the labour, sheaf-smiting therein;
And as oft o'er the sickle we sang in time past
When the crake that long mocked us fled light at the last,
So sing o'er the sword, and the sword-hardened hand
Bearing down to the reaping the wrath of the land."
So he sang; and a great shout went up from his kindred and those
around him, and it was taken up all along the host, though many knew
not why they shouted, and the whole host quickened its pace, and went
a great trot over the smooth meadow.
So in no long while were they come over against the stead of the
Erings, and thereabouts were no beasts a-field, and no women, for all
the neat were driven into the garth of the House; but all they who
were not war-fit were standing without doors looking down the Mark
towards the reek of the Bearing dwellings, and these also sent a cry
of welcome toward the host of their kindred. But along the river-
bank came to meet the host an armed band of two old men, two youths
who were their sons, and twelve thralls who were armed with long
spears; and all these were a-horseback: so they fell in with their
kindred and the host made no stay for them, but pressed on over-
running the meadow. And still went up that column of smoke, and
thicker and blacker it grew a-top, and ruddier amidmost.
So came they by the abode of the Geddings, and there also the neat
and sheep were close in the home-garth: but armed men were lying or
standing about the river bank, talking or singing merrily none
otherwise than though deep peace were on the land; and when they saw
the faring of the host they sprang to their feet with a shout and gat
to their horses at once: they were more than the other bands had
been, for the Geddings were a greater House; they were seven old men,
and ten swains, and ten thralls bearing long spears like to those of
the Erings; and no sooner had they fallen in with their kindred, than
the men of the host espied a greater company yet coming to meet them:
and these were of the folk of the Galtings; and amongst them were ten
warriors in their prime, because they had but of late come back from
the hunting in the wood and had been belated from the muster of the
kindreds; and with them were eight old men and fifteen lads, and
eighteen thralls; and the swains and thralls all bore bows besides
the swords that they were girt withal, and not all of them had
horses, but they who had none rode behind the others: so they joined
themselves to the host, shouting aloud; and they had with them a
great horn that they blew on till they had taken their place in the
array; and whereas their kindred was with Thiodolf, they followed
along with the hinder men of the Shieldings.
So now all the host went on together, and when they had passed the
Galting abodes, there was nothing between them and Bearham, nor need
they look for any further help of men; there were no beasts afield
nor any to herd them, and the stay-at-homes were within doors
dighting them for departure into the wild-wood if need should be:
but a little while after they had passed these dwellings came into
the host two swains of about twenty winters, and a doughty maid,
their sister, and they bare no weapons save short spears and knives;
they were wet and dripping with the water, for they had just swum
Mirkwood-water. They were of the Wolfing House, and had been
shepherding a few sheep on the west side of the water, when they saw
the host faring to battle, and might not refrain them, but swam their
horses across the swift deeps to join their kindred to live and die
with them. The tale tells that they three fought in the battles that
followed after, and were not slain there, though they entered them
unarmed, but lived long years afterwards: of them need no more be
said.
Now, when the host was but a little past the Galting dwellings men
began to see the flames mingled with the smoke of the burning, and
the smoke itself growing thinner, as though the fire had over-
mastered everything and was consuming itself with its own violence;
and somewhat afterwards, the ground rising, they could see the
Bearing meadow and the foemen thereon: yet a little further, and
from the height of another swelling of the earth they could see the
burning houses themselves and the array of the Romans; so there they
stayed and breathed their horses a while. And they beheld how of the
Romans a great company was gathered together in close array betwixt
the ford and the Bearing Hall, but nigher unto the ford, and these
were a short mile from them; but others they saw streaming out from
the burning dwellings, as if their work were done there, and they
could not see that they had any captives with them. Other Romans
there were, and amongst them men in the attire of the Goths, busied
about the river banks, as though they were going to try the ford.
But a little while abode Otter in that place, and then waved his arm
and rode on and all the host followed; and as they drew nigher,
Otter, who was wise in war, beheld the Romans and deemed them a great
host, and the very kernel and main body of them many more than all
his company; and moreover they were duly and well arrayed as men
waiting a foe; so he knew that he must be wary or he would lose
himself and all his men.
So he stayed his company when they were about two furlongs from them,
and the main body of the foe stirred not, but horsemen and slingers
came forth from its sides and made on toward the Goths, and in three
or four minutes were within bowshot of them. Then the bowmen of the
Goths slipped down from their horses and bent their bows and nocked
their arrows and let fly, and slew and hurt many of the horsemen, who
endured their shot but for a minute or two and then turned rein and
rode back slowly to their folk, and the slingers came not on very
eagerly whereas they were dealing with men a-horseback, and the
bowmen of the Goths also held them still.
Now turned Otter to his folk and made them a sign, which they knew
well, that they should get down from their horses; and when they were
afoot the leaders of tens and hundreds arrayed them, into the wedge-
array, with the bowmen on either flank: and Otter smiled as he
beheld this adoing and that the Romans meddled not with them, belike
because they looked to have them good cheap, since they were but a
few wild men.
But when they were all arrayed he sat still on his horse and spake to
them short and sharply, saying:
"Men of the Goths, will ye mount your horses again and ride into the
wood and let it cover you, or will ye fight these Romans?" They
answered him with a great shout and the clashing of their weapons on
their shields. "That is well," quoth Otter, "since we have come so
far; for I perceive that the foe will come to meet us, so that we
must either abide their shock or turn our backs. Yet must we fight
wisely or we are undone, and Thiodolf in risk of undoing; this have
we to do if we may, to thrust in between them and the ford, and if we
may do that, there let us fight it out, till we fall one over
another. But if we may not do it, then will we not throw our lives
away but do the foemen what hurt we may without mingling ourselves
amongst them, and so abide the coming of Thiodolf; for if we get not
betwixt them and the ford we may in no case hinder them from
crossing. And all this I tell you that ye may follow me wisely, and
refrain your wrath that ye may live yet to give it the rein when the
time comes."
So he spake and got down from his horse and drew his sword and went
to the head of the wedge-array and began slowly to lead forth; but
the thralls and swains had heed of the horses, and they drew aback
with them towards the wood which was but a little way from them.
But for Otter he led his men down towards the ford, and when the
Romans saw that, their main body began to move forward, faring slant-
wise, as a crab, down toward the ford; then Otter hastened somewhat,
as he well might, since his men were well learned in war and did not
break their array; but now by this time were those burners of the
Romans come up with the main battle, and the Roman captain sent them
at once against the Goths, and they advanced boldly enough, a great
cloud of men in loose array who fell to with arrows and slings on the
wedge-array and slew and hurt many: yet did not Otter stay his folk;
but it was ill going for them, for their unshielded sides were turned
to the Romans, nor durst Otter scatter his bowmen out from the wedge-
array, lest the Romans, who were more than they, should enter in
amongst them. Ever he gazed earnestly on the main battle of the
Romans, and what they were doing, and presently it became clear to
him that they would outgo him and come to the ford, and then he
wotted well that they would set on him just when their light-armed
were on his flank and his rearward, and then it would go hard but
they would break their array and all would be lost: therefore he
slacked his pace and went very slowly and the Romans went none the
slower for that; but their light-armed grew bolder and drew more
together as they came nigher to the Goths, as though they would give
them an onset; but just at that nick of time Otter passed the word
down the ranks, and, waving his sword, turned sharply to the right
and fell with all the wedge-array on the clustering throng of the
light-armed, and his bowmen spread out now from the right flank of
the wedge-array, and shot sharp and swift and the bowmen on the left
flank ran forward swiftly till they had cleared the wedge-array and
were on the flank of the light-armed Romans; and they, what between
the onset of the swordsmen and spearmen of the Goths, and their sharp
arrows, knew not which way to turn, and a great slaughter befell
amongst them, and they of them were the happiest who might save
themselves by their feet.
Now after this storm, and after these men had been thrust away, Otter
stayed not, but swept round about the field toward the horses; and
indeed he looked to it that the main-battle of the Romans should
follow him, but they did not, but stayed still to receive the fleers
of their light-armed. And this indeed was the goodhap of the Goths;
for they were somewhat disordered by their chase of the light-armed,
and they smote and spared not, their hearts being full of bitter
wrath, as might well be; for even as they turned on the Romans, they
beheld the great roof of the Bearings fall in over the burned hall,
and a great shower of sparks burst up from its fall, and there were
the ragged gables left standing, licked by little tongues of flame
which could not take hold of them because of the clay which filled
the spaces between the great timbers and was daubed over them. And
they saw that all the other houses were either alight or smouldering,
down to the smallest cot of a thrall, and even the barns and booths
both great and little.
Therefore, whereas the Markmen were far fewer in all than the Roman
main-battle, and whereas this same host was in very good array, no
doubt there was that the Markmen would have been grievously handled
had the Romans fallen on; but the Roman Captain would not have it so:
for though he was a bold man, yet was his boldness that of the wolf,
that falleth on when he is hungry and skulketh when he is full. He
was both young and very rich, and a mighty man among his townsmen,
and well had he learned that ginger is hot in the mouth, and though
he had come forth to the war for the increasing of his fame, he had
no will to die among the Markmen, either for the sake of the city of
Rome, or of any folk whatsoever, but was liefer to live for his own
sake. Therefore was he come out to vanquish easily, that by his fame
won he might win more riches and dominion in Rome; and he was well
content also to have for his own whatever was choice amongst the
plunder of these wild-men (as he deemed them), if it were but a fair
woman or two. So this man thought, It is my business to cross the
ford and come to Wolfstead, and there take the treasure of the tribe,
and have a stronghold there, whence we may slay so many of these
beasts with little loss to us that we may march away easily and with
our hands full, even if Maenius with his men come not to our aid, as
full surely he will: therefore as to these angry men, who be not
without might and conduct in battle, let us remember the old saw that
saith 'a bridge of gold to a fleeing foe,' and let them depart with
no more hurt of Romans, and seek us afterwards when we are fenced
into their stead, which shall then be our stronghold: even so spake
he to his Captains about him.
For it must be told that he had no tidings of the overthrow of the
Romans on the Ridge; nor did he know surely how many fighting-men the
Markmen might muster, except by the report of those dastards of the
Goths; and though he had taken those two women in the wastes, yet had
he got no word from them, for they did as the Hall-Sun bade them,
when they knew that they would be questioned with torments, and
smiting themselves each with a little sharp knife, so went their ways
to the Gods.
Thus then the Roman Captain let the Markmen go their ways, and turned
toward the ford, and the Markmen went slowly now toward their horses.
Howbeit there were many of them who murmured against Otter, saying
that it was ill done to have come so far and ridden so hard, and then
to have done so little, and that were to-morrow come, they would not
be led away so easily: but now they said it was ill; for the Romans
would cross the water, and make their ways to Wolfstead, none
hindering them, and would burn the dwellings and slay the old men and
thralls, and have away the women and children and the Hall-Sun the
treasure of the Markmen. In sooth, they knew not that a band of the
Roman light-armed had already crossed the water, and had fallen upon
the dwellings of the Wolfings; but that the old men and younglings
and thralls of the House had come upon them as they were entangled
amidst the tofts and the garths, and had overcome them and slain
many.
Thus went Otter and his men to their horses when it was now drawing
toward sunset (for all this was some while adoing), and betook them
to a rising ground not far from the wood-side, and there made what
sort of a garth they might, with their horses and the limbs of trees
and long-shafted spears; and they set a watch and abode in the garth
right warily, and lighted no fires when night fell, but ate what meat
they had with them, which was but little, and so sleeping and
watching abode the morning. But the main body of the Romans did not
cross the ford that night, for they feared lest they might go astray
therein, for it was an ill ford to those that knew not the water: so
they abode on the bank nigh to the water's edge, with the mind to
cross as soon as it was fairly daylight.
Now Otter had lost of his men some hundred and twenty slain or
grievously hurt, and they had away with them the hurt men and the
bodies of the slain. The tale tells not how many of the Romans were
slain, but a many of their light-armed had fallen, since the Markmen
had turned so hastily upon them, and they had with them many of the
best bowmen of the Mark.
CHAPTER XXI--THEY BICKER ABOUT THE FORD
In the grey of the morning was Otter afoot with the watchers, and
presently he got on his horse and peered over the plain, but the mist
yet hung low on it, so that he might see nought for a while; but at
last he seemed to note something coming toward the host from the
upper water above the ford, so he rode forward to meet it, and lo, it
was a lad of fifteen winters, naked save his breeches, and wet from
the river; and Otter drew rein, and the lad said to him: "Art thou
the Warduke?" "Yea," said Otter.
Said the lad, "I am Ali, the son of Grey, and the Hall-Sun hath sent
me to thee with this word: 'Are ye coming? Is Thiodolf at hand?
For I have seen the Roof-ridge red in the sunlight as if it were
painted with cinnabar.'"
Said Otter, "Art thou going back to Wolfstead, son?"
"Yea, at once, my father," said Ali.
"Then tell her," said Otter, "that Thiodolf is at hand, and when he
cometh we shall both together fall upon the Romans either in crossing
the ford or in the Wolfing meadow; but tell her also that I am not
strong enough to hinder the Romans from crossing."
"Father," said Ali, "the Hall-Sun saith: Thou art wise in war; now
tell us, shall we hold the Hall against the Romans that ye may find
us there? For we have discomfited their vanguard already, and we
have folk who can fight; but belike the main battle of the Romans
shall get the upper hand of us ere ye come to our helping: belike it
were better to leave the hall, and let the wood cover us."
"Now is this well asked," said Otter; "get thee back, my son, and bid
the Hall-Sun trust not to warding of the Hall, for the Romans are a
mighty host: and this day, even when Thiodolf cometh hither, shall
be hard for the Gothfolk: let her hasten lest these thieves come
upon her hastily; let her take the Hall-Sun her namesake, and the old
men and children and the women, and let those fighting folk she hath
be a guard to all this in the wood. And hearken moreover; it will,
maybe, be six hours ere Thiodolf cometh; tell her I will cast the
dice for life or death, and stir up these Romans now at once, that
they may have other things to think of than burning old men and women
and children in their dwellings; thus may she reach the wood
unhindered. Hast thou all this in thine head? Then go thy ways."
But the lad lingered, and he reddened and looked on the ground and
then he said: "My father, I swam the deeps, and when I reached this
bank, I crept along by the mist and the reeds toward where the Romans
are, and I came near to them, and noted what they were doing; and I
tell thee that they are already stirring to take the water at the
ford. Now then do what thou wilt."
Therewith he turned about, and went his way at once, running like a
colt which has never felt halter or bit.
But Otter rode back hastily and roused certain men in whom he
trusted, and bid them rouse the captains and all the host and bid men
get to horse speedily and with as little noise as might be. So did
they, and there was little delay, for men were sleeping with one eye
open, as folk say, and many were already astir. So in a little while
they were all in the saddle, and the mist yet stretched low over the
meadow; for the morning was cool and without wind. Then Otter bade
the word be carried down the ranks that they should ride as quietly
as may be and fare through the mist to do the Romans some hurt, but
in nowise to get entangled in their ranks, and all men to heed well
the signal of turning and drawing aback; and therewith they rode off
down the meadow led by men who could have led them through the dark
night.
But for the Romans, they were indeed getting ready to cross the ford
when the mist should have risen; and on the bank it was thinning
already and melting away; for a little air of wind was beginning to
breathe from the north-east and the sunrise, which was just at hand;
and the bank, moreover, was stonier and higher than the meadow's
face, which fell away from it as a shallow dish from its rim:
thereon yet lay the mist like a white wall.
So the Romans and their friends the dastards of the Goths had well
nigh got all ready, and had driven stakes into the water from bank to
bank to mark out the safe ford, and some of their light-armed and
most of their Goths were by now in the water or up on the Wolfing
meadow with the more part of their baggage and wains; and the rest of
the host was drawn up in good order, band by band, waiting the word
to take the water, and the captain was standing nigh to the river
bank beside their God the chief banner of the Host.
Of a sudden one of the dastards of the Goths who was close to the
Captain cried out that he heard horse coming; but because he spake in
the Gothic tongue, few heeded; but even therewith an old leader of a
hundred cried out the same tidings in the Roman tongue, and all men
fell to handling their weapons; but before they could face duly
toward the meadow, came rushing from out of the mist a storm of
shafts that smote many men, and therewithal burst forth the sound of
the Markmen's war-horn, like the roaring of a hundred bulls mingled
with the thunder of horses at the gallop; and then dark over the wall
of mist showed the crests of the riders of the Mark, though scarce
were their horses seen till their whole war-rank came dark and
glittering into the space of the rising-ground where the mist was but
a haze now, and now at last smitten athwart by the low sun just
arisen.
Therewith came another storm of shafts, wherein javelins and spears
cast by the hand were mingled with the arrows: but the Roman ranks
had faced the meadow and the storm which it yielded, swiftly and
steadily, and they stood fast and threw their spears, albeit not with
such good aim as might have been, because of their haste, so that few
were slain by them. And the Roman Captain still loth to fight with
the Goths in earnest for no reward, and still more and more believing
that this was the only band of them that he had to look to, bade
those who were nighest the ford not to tarry for the onset of a few
wild riders, but to go their ways into the water; else by a sudden
onrush might the Romans have entangled Otter's band in their ranks,
and so destroyed all. As it was the horsemen fell not on the Roman
ranks full in face, but passing like a storm athwart the ranks to the
right, fell on there where they were in thinnest array (for they were
gathered to the ford as aforesaid), and slew some and drave some into
the deeps and troubled the whole Roman host.
So now the Roman Captain was forced to take new order, and gather all
his men together, and array his men for a hard fight; and by now the
mist was rolling off from the face of the whole meadow and the sun
was bright and hot. His men serried their ranks, and the front rank
cast their spears, and slew both men and horses of the Goths as those
rode along their front casting their javelins, and shooting here and
there from behind their horses if occasion served, or making a shift
to send an arrow even as they sat a-horseback; then the second rank
of the Romans would take the place of the first, and cast in their
turn, and they who had taken the water turned back and took their
place behind the others, and many of the light-armed came with them,
and all the mass of them flowed forward together, looking as if it
might never be broken. But Otter would not abide the shock, since he
had lost men and horses, and had no mind to be caught in the sweep of
their net; so he made the sign, and his Company drew off to right and
left, yet keeping within bow-shot, so that the bowmen still loosed at
the Romans.
But they for their part might not follow afoot men on untired horses,
and their own horse was on the west side with the baggage, and had it
been there would have been but of little avail, as the Roman Captain
knew. So they stood awhile making grim countenance, and then slowly
drew back to the ford under cover of their light-armed who shot at
the Goths as they rode forward, but abode not their shock.
But Otter and his folk followed after the Romans again, and again did
them some hurt, and at last drew so nigh, that once more the Romans
stormed forth, and once more smote a stroke in the air; nor even so
would the Markmen cease to meddle with them, though never would Otter
suffer his men to be mingled with them. At the last the Romans,
seeing that Otter would not walk into the open trap, and growing
weary of this bickering, began to take the water little by little,
while a strong Company kept face to the Markmen; and now Otter saw
that they would not be hindered any longer, and he had lost many men,
and even now feared lest he should be caught in the trap, and so lose
all. And on the other hand it was high noon by now, so that he had
given respite to the stay-at-homes of the Wolfings, so that they
might get them into the wood. So he drew out of bowshot and bade his
men breathe their horses and rest themselves and eat something; and
they did so gladly, since they saw that they might not fall upon the
Romans to live and die for it until Thiodolf was come, or until they
knew that he was not coming. But the Romans crossed the ford in good
earnest and were soon all gathered together on the western bank
making them ready for the march to Wolfstead. And it must be told
that the Roman Captain was the more deliberate about this because
after the overthrow of his light-armed there the morning before, he
thought that the Roof was held by warriors of the kindreds, and not
by a few old men, and women, and lads. Therefore he had no fear of
their escaping him. Moreover it was this imagination of his, to wit
that a strong band of warriors was holding Wolf-stead, that made him
deem there were no more worth thinking about of the warriors of the
Mark save Otter's Company and the men in the Hall of the Wolfings.
CHAPTER XXII--OTTER FALLS ON AGAINST HIS WILL
It was with the same imagination working in him belike that the Roman
Captain set none to guard the ford on the westward side of Mirkwood-
water. The Romans tarried there but a little hour, and then went
their ways; but Otter sent a man on a swift horse to watch them, and
when they were clean gone for half an hour, he bade his folk to
horse, and they departed, all save a handful of the swains and
elders, who were left to tell the tidings to Thiodolf when he should
come into Mid-mark.
So Otter and his folk crossed the ford, and drew up in good order on
the westward bank, and it was then somewhat more than three hours
after noon. He had been there but a little while before he noted a
stir in the Bearing meadow, and lo, it was the first of Thiodolf's
folk, who had gotten out of the wood and had fallen in with the men
whom he had left behind. And these first were the riders of the
Bearings, and the Wormings, (for they had out-gone the others who
were afoot). It may well be thought how fearful was their anger when
they set eyes on the smouldering ashes of the dwellings; nor even
when those folk of Otter had told them all they had to tell could
some of them refrain them from riding off to the burnt houses to seek
for the bodies of their kindred. But when they came there, and
amidst the ashes could find no bones, their hearts were lightened,
and yet so mad wroth they were, that some could scarce sit their
horses, and great tears gushed from the eyes of some, and pattered
down like hail-stones, so eager were they to see the blood of the
Romans. So they rode back to where they had left their folk talking
with them of Otter; and the Bearings were sitting grim upon their
horses and somewhat scowling on Otter's men. Then the foremost of
those who had come back from the houses waved his hand toward the
ford, but could say nought for a while; but the captain and chief of
the Bearings, a grizzled man very big of body, whose name was
Arinbiorn, spake to that man and said; "What aileth thee Sweinbiorn
the Black? What hast thou seen?"
He said:
"Now red and grey is the pavement of the Bearings' house of old:
Red yet is the floor of the dais, but the hearth all grey and cold.
I knew not the house of my fathers; I could not call to mind
The fashion of the building of that Warder of the Wind.
O wide were grown the windows, and the roof exceeding high!
For nought there was to look on 'twixt the pavement and the sky.
But the tie-beam lay on the dais, and methought its staining fair;
For rings of smoothest charcoal were round it here and there,
And the red flame flickered o'er it, and never a staining wight
Hath red earth in his coffer so clear and glittering bright,
And still the little smoke-wreaths curled o'er it pale and blue.
Yea, fair is our hall's adorning for a feast that is strange and
new."
Said Arinbiorn: "What sawest thou therein, O Sweinbiorn, where sat
thy grandsire at the feast? Where were the bones of thy mother
lying?"
Said Sweinbiorn:
"We sought the feast-hall over, and nought we found therein
Of the bones of the ancient mothers, or the younglings of the kin.
The men are greedy, doubtless, to lose no whit of the prey,
And will try if the hoary elders may yet outlive the way
That leads to the southland cities, till at last they come to stand
With the younglings in the market to be sold in an alien land."
Arinbiorn's brow lightened somewhat; but ere he could speak again an
ancient thrall of the Galtings spake and said:
"True it is, O warriors of the Bearings, that we might not see any
war-thralls being led away by the Romans when they came away from the
burning dwellings; and we deem it certain that they crossed the water
before the coming of the Romans, and that they are now with the stay-
at-homes of the Wolfings in the wild-wood behind the Wolfing
dwellings, for we hear tell that the War-duke would not that the
Hall-Sun should hold the Hall against the whole Roman host."
Then Sweinbiorn tossed up his sword into the air and caught it by the
hilts as it fell, and cried out: "On, on to the meadow, where these
thieves abide us!" Arinbiorn spake no word, but turned his horse and
rode down to the ford, and all men followed him; and of the Bearings
there were an hundred warriors save one, and of the Wormings eighty
and seven.
So rode they over the meadow and into the ford and over it, and
Otter's company stood on the bank to meet them, and shouted to see
them; but the others made but little noise as they crossed the water.
So when they were on the western bank Arinbiorn came among them of
Otter, and cried out: "Where then is Otter, where is the War-duke,
is he alive or dead?"
And the throng opened to him and Otter stood facing him; and
Arinbiorn spake and said: "Thou art alive and unhurt, War-duke, when
many have been hurt and slain; and methinks thy company is little
minished though the kindred of the Bearings lacketh a roof; and its
elders and women and children are gone into captivity. What is this?
Was it a light thing that gangrel thieves should burn and waste in
Mid-mark and depart unhurt, that ye stand here with clean blades and
cold bodies?"
Said Otter: "Thou grievest for the hurt of thine House, Arinbiorn;
but this at least is good, that though ye have lost the timber of
your house ye have not lost its flesh and blood; the shell is gone,
but the kernel is saved: for thy folk are by this time in the wood
with the Wolfing stay-at-homes, and among these are many who may
fight on occasion, so they are safe as for this time: the Romans may
not come at them to hurt them."
Said Arinbiorn: "Had ye time to learn all this, Otter, when ye fled
so fast before the Romans, that the father tarried not for the son,
nor the son for the father?"
He spoke in a loud voice so that many heard him, and some deemed it
evil; for anger and dissension between friends seemed abroad; but
some were so eager for battle, that the word of Arinbiorn seemed good
to them, and they laughed for pride and anger.
Then Otter answered meekly, for he was a wise man and a bold: "We
fled not, Arinbiorn, but as the sword fleeth, when it springeth up
from the iron helm to fall on the woollen coat. Are we not now of
more avail to you, O men of the Bearings, than our dead corpses would
have been?"
Arinbiorn answered not, but his face waxed red, as if he were
struggling with a weight hard to lift: then said Otter:
"But when will Thiodolf and the main battle be with us?"
Arinbiorn answered calmly: "Maybe in a little hour from now, or
somewhat more."
Said Otter: "My rede is that we abide him here, and when we are all
met and well ordered together, fall on the Romans at once: for then
shall we be more than they; whereas now we are far fewer, and
moreover we shall have to set on them in their ground of vantage."
Arinbiorn answered nothing; but an old man of the Bearings, one
Thorbiorn, came up and spake:
"Warriors, here are we talking and taking counsel, though this is no
Hallowed Thing to bid us what we shall do, and what we shall forbear;
and to talk thus is less like warriors than old women wrangling over
the why and wherefore of a broken crock. Let the War-duke rule here,
as is but meet and right. Yet if I might speak and not break the
peace of the Goths, then would I say this, that it might be better
for us to fall on these Romans at once before they have cast up a
dike about them, as Fox telleth is their wont, and that even in an
hour they may do much."
As he spake there was a murmur of assent about him, but Otter spake
sharply, for he was grieved.
"Thorbiorn, thou art old, and shouldest not be void of prudence. Now
it had been better for thee to have been in the wood to-day to order
the women and the swains according to thine ancient wisdom than to
egg on my young warriors to fare unwarily. Here will I abide
Thiodolf."
Then Thorbiorn reddened and was wroth; but Arinbiorn spake:
"What is this to-do? Let the War-duke rule as is but right: but I
am now become a man of Thiodolf's company; and he bade me haste on
before to help all I might. Do thou as thou wilt, Otter: for
Thiodolf shall be here in an hour's space, and if much diking shall
be done in an hour, yet little slaying, forsooth, shall be done, and
that especially if the foe is all armed and slayeth women and
children. Yea if the Bearing women be all slain, yet shall not Tyr
make us new ones out of the stones of the waste to wed with the
Galtings and the fish-eating Houses?--this is easy to be done
forsooth. Yea, easier than fighting the Romans and overcoming them!"
And he was very wrath, and turned away; and again there was a murmur
and a hum about him. But while these had been speaking aloud,
Sweinbiorn had been talking softly to some of the younger men, and
now he shook his naked sword in the air and spake aloud and sang:
"Ye tarry, Bears of Battle! ye linger, Sons of the Worm!
Ye crouch adown, O kindreds, from the gathering of the storm!
Ye say, it shall soon pass over and we shall fare afield
And reap the wheat with the war-sword and winnow in the shield.
But where shall be the corner wherein ye then shall abide,
And where shall be the woodland where the whelps of the bears shall
hide
When 'twixt the snowy mountains and the edges of the sea
These men have swept the wild-wood and the fields where men may be
Of every living sword-blade, and every quivering spear,
And in the southland cities the yoke of slaves ye bear?
Lo ye! whoever follows I fare to sow the seed
Of the days to be hereafter and the deed that comes of deed."
Therewith he waved his sword over his head, and made as if he would
spur onward. But Arinbiorn thrust through the press and outwent him
and cried out:
"None goeth before Arinbiorn the Old when the battle is pitched in
the meadows of the kindred. Come, ye sons of the Bear, ye children
of the Worm! And come ye, whosoever hath a will to see stout men
die!"
Then on he rode nor looked behind him, and the riders of the Bearings
and the Wormings drew themselves out of the throng, and followed him,
and rode clattering over the meadow towards Wolfstead. A few of the
others rode with them, and yet but a few. For they remembered the
holy Folk-mote and the oath of the War-duke, and how they had chosen
Otter to be their leader. Howbeit, man looked askance at man, as if
in shame to be left behind.
But Otter bethought him in the flash of a moment, "If these men ride
alone, they shall die and do nothing; and if we ride with them it may
be that we shall overthrow the Romans, and if we be vanquished, it
shall go hard but we shall slay many of them, so that it shall be the
easier for Thiodolf to deal with them."
Then he spake hastily, and bade certain men abide at the ford for a
guard; then he drew his sword and rode to the front of his folk, and
cried out aloud to them:
"Now at last has come the time to die, and let them of the Markmen
who live hereafter lay us in howe. Set on, Sons of Tyr, and give not
your lives away, but let them be dearly earned of our foemen."
Then all shouted loudly and gladly; nor were they otherwise than
exceeding glad; for now had they forgotten all other joys of life
save the joy of fighting for the kindred and the days to be.
So Otter led them forth, and when he heard the whole company
clattering and thundering on the earth behind him and felt their
might enter into him, his brow cleared, and the anxious lines in the
face of the old man smoothed themselves out, and as he rode along the
soul so stirred within him that he sang out aloud:
"Time was when hot was the summer and I was young on the earth,
And I grudged me every moment that lacked its share of mirth.
I woke in the morn and was merry and all the world methought
For me and my heart's deliverance that hour was newly wrought.
I have passed through the halls of manhood, I have reached the doors
of eld,
And I have been glad and sorry, but ever have upheld
My heart against all trouble that none might call me sad,
But ne'er came such remembrance of how my heart was glad
In the afternoon of summer 'neath the still unwearied sun
Of the days when I was little and all deeds were hopes to be won,
As now at last it cometh when e'en in such-like tide,
For the freeing of my trouble o'er the fathers' field I ride."
Many men perceived that he sang, and saw that he was merry, howbeit
few heard his very words, and yet all were glad of him.
Fast they rode, being wishful to catch up with the Bearings and the
Wormings, and soon they came anigh them, and they, hearing the
thunder of the horse-hoofs, looked and saw that it was the company of
Otter, and so slacked their speed till they were all joined together
with joyous shouting and laughter. So then they ordered the ranks
anew and so set forward in great joy without haste or turmoil toward
Wolfstead and the Romans. For now the bitterness of their fury and
the sourness of their abiding wrath were turned into the mere joy of
battle; even as the clear red and sweet wine comes of the ugly
ferment and rough trouble of the must.
CHAPTER XXIII--THIODOLF MEETETH THE ROMANS IN THE WOLFING MEADOW
It was scarce an hour after this that the footmen of Thiodolf came
out of the thicket road on to the meadow of the Bearings; there saw
they men gathered on a rising ground, and they came up to them and
saw how some of them were looking with troubled faces towards the
ford and what lay beyond it, and some toward the wood and the coming
of Thiodolf. But these were they whom Otter had bidden abide
Thiodolf there, and he had sent two messengers to them for Thiodolf's
behoof that he might have due tidings so soon as he came out of the
thicket: the first told how Otter had been compelled in a manner to
fall on the Romans along with the riders of the Bearings and the
Wormings, and the second who had but just then come, told how the
Markmen had been worsted by the Romans, and had given back from the
Wolfing dwellings, and were making a stand against the foemen in the
meadow betwixt the ford and Wolfstead.
Now when Thiodolf heard of these tidings he stayed not to ask long
questions, but led the whole host straightway down to the ford, lest
the remnant of Otter's men should be driven down there, and the
Romans should hold the western bank against him.
At the ford there was none to withstand them, nor indeed any man at
all; for the men whom Otter had set there, when they heard that the
battle had gone against their kindred, had ridden their ways to join
them. So Thiodolf crossed over the ford, he and his in good order
all afoot, he like to the others; but for him he was clad in the
Dwarf-wrought Hauberk, but was unhelmeted and bare no shield.
Throng-plough was naked in his hand as he came up all dripping on to
the bank and stood in the meadow of the Wolfings; his face was stern
and set as he gazed straight onward to the place of the fray, but he
did not look as joyous as his wont was in going down to the battle.
Now they had gone but a short way from the ford before the noise of
the fight and the blowing of horns came down the wind to them, but it
was a little way further before they saw the fray with their eyes;
because the ground fell away from the river somewhat at first, and
then rose and fell again before it went up in one slope toward the
Wolfing dwellings.
But when they were come to the top of the next swelling of the
ground, they beheld from thence what they had to deal with; for there
round about a ground of vantage was the field black with the Roman
host, and in the midst of it was a tangle of struggling men and
tossing spears, and glittering swords.
So when they beheld the battle of their kindred they gave a great
shout and hastened onward the faster; and they were ordered into the
wedge-array and Thiodolf led them, as meet it was. And now even as
they who were on the outward edge of the array and could see what was
toward were looking on the battle with eager eyes, there came an
answering shout down the wind, which they knew for the voice of the
Goths amid the foemen, and then they saw how the ring of the Romans
shook and parted, and their array fell back, and lo the company of
the Markmen standing stoutly together, though sorely minished; and
sure it was that they had not fled or been scattered, but were ready
to fall one over another in one band, for there were no men
straggling towards the ford, though many masterless horses ran here
and there about the meadow. Now, therefore, none doubted but that
they would deliver their friends from the Romans, and overthrow the
foemen.
But now befel a wonder, a strange thing to tell of. The Romans soon
perceived what was adoing, whereupon the half of them turned about to
face the new comers, while the other half still withstood the company
of Otter: the wedge-array of Thiodolf drew nearer and nearer till it
was hard on the place where it should spread itself out to storm down
on the foe, and the Goths beset by the Romans made them ready to fall
on from their side. There was Thiodolf leading his host, and all men
looking for the token and sign to fall on; but even as he lifted up
Throng-plough to give that sign, a cloud came over his eyes and he
saw nought of all that was before him, and he staggered back as one
who hath gotten a deadly stroke, and so fell swooning to the earth,
though none had smitten him. Then stayed was the wedge-array even at
the very point of onset, and the hearts of the Goths sank, for they
deemed that their leader was slain, and those who were nearest to him
raised him up and bore him hastily aback out of the battle; and the
Romans also had beheld him fall, and they also deemed him dead or
sore hurt, and shouted for joy and loitered not, but stormed forth on
the wedge-array like valiant men; for it must be told that they, who
erst out-numbered the company of Otter, were now much out-numbered,
but they deemed it might well be that they could dismay the Goths
since they had been stayed by the fall of their leader; and Otter's
company were wearied with sore fighting against a great host.
Nevertheless these last, who had not seen the fall of Thiodolf (for
the Romans were thick between him and them) fell on with such
exceeding fury that they drove the Romans who faced them back on
those who had set on the wedge-array, which also stood fast
undismayed; for he who stood next to Thiodolf, a man big of body, and
stout of heart, bight Thorolf, hove up a great axe and cried out
aloud:
"Here is the next man to Thiodolf! here is one who will not fall till
some one thrusts him over, here is Thorolf of the Wolfings! Stand
fast and shield you, and smite, though Thiodolf be gone untimely to
the Gods!"
So none gave back a foot, and fierce was the fight about the wedge-
array; and the men of Otter--but there was no Otter there, and many
another man was gone, and Arinbiorn the Old led them--these stormed
on so fiercely that they cleft their way through all and joined
themselves to their kindred, and the battle was renewed in the
Wolfing meadow. But the Romans had this gain, that Thiodolf's men
had let go their occasion for falling on the Romans with their line
spread out so that every man might use his weapons; yet were the
Goths strong both in valiancy and in numbers, nor might the Romans
break into their array, and as aforesaid the Romans were the fewer,
for it was less than half of their host that had pursued the Goths
when they had been thrust back from their fierce onset: nor did more
than the half seem needed, so many of them had fallen along with
Otter the War-duke and Sweinbiorn of the Bearings, that they seemed
to the Romans but a feeble band easy to overcome.
So fought they in the Wolfing meadow in the fifth hour after high-
noon, and neither yielded to the other: but while these things were
a-doing, men laid Thiodolf adown aloof from the battle under a
doddered oak half a furlong from where the fight was a-doing, round
whose bole clung flocks of wool from the sheep that drew around it in
the hot summer-tide and rubbed themselves against it, and the ground
was trodden bare of grass round the bole, and close to the trunk was
worn into a kind of trench. There then they laid Thiodolf, and they
wondered that no blood came from him, and that there was no sign of a
shot-weapon in his body.
But as for him, when he fell, all memory of the battle and what had
gone before it faded from his mind, and he passed into sweet and
pleasant dreams wherein he was a lad again in the days before he had
fought with the three Hun-Kings in the hazelled field. And in these
dreams he was doing after the manner of young lads, sporting in the
meadows, backing unbroken colts, swimming in the river, going a-
hunting with the elder carles. And especially he deemed that he was
in the company of one old man who had taught him both wood-craft and
the handling of weapons: and fair at first was his dream of his
doings with this man; he was with him in the forge smithying a sword-
blade, and hammering into its steel the thin golden wires; and
fishing with an angle along with him by the eddies of Mirkwood-water;
and sitting with him in an ingle of the Hall, the old man telling a
tale of an ancient warrior of the Wolfings hight Thiodolf also: then
suddenly and without going there, they were in a little clearing of
the woods resting after hunting, a roe-deer with an arrow in her
lying at their feet, and the old man was talking, and telling
Thiodolf in what wise it was best to go about to get the wind of a
hart; but all the while there was going on the thunder of a great
gale of wind through the woodland boughs, even as the drone of a bag-
pipe cleaves to the tune. Presently Thiodolf arose and would go
about his hunting again, and stooped to take up his spear, and even
therewith the old man's speech stayed, and Thiodolf looked up, and
lo, his face was white like stone, and he touched him, and he was
hard as flint, and like the image of an ancient god as to his face
and hands, though the wind stirred his hair and his raiment, as they
did before. Therewith a great pang smote Thiodolf in his dream, and
he felt as if he also were stiffening into stone, and he strove and
struggled, and lo, the wild-wood was gone, and a white light empty of
all vision was before him, and as he moved his head this became the
Wolfing meadow, as he had known it so long, and thereat a soft
pleasure and joy took hold of him, till again he looked, and saw
there no longer the kine and sheep, and the herd-women tending them,
but the rush and turmoil of that fierce battle, the confused
thundering noise of which was going up to the heavens; for indeed he
was now fully awake again.
So he stood up and looked about; and around him was a ring of the
sorrowful faces of the warriors, who had deemed that he was hurt
deadly, though no hurt could they find upon him. But the Dwarf-
wrought Hauberk lay upon the ground beside him; for they had taken it
off him to look for his hurts.
So he looked into their faces and said: "What aileth you, ye men? I
am alive and unhurt; what hath betided?"
And one said: "Art thou verily alive, or a man come back from the
dead? We saw thee fall as thou wentest leading us against the foe as
if thou hadst been smitten by a thunder-bolt, and we deemed thee dead
or grievously hurt. Now the carles are fighting stoutly, and all is
well since thou livest yet."
So he said: "Give me the point and edges that I know, that I may
smite myself therewith and not the foemen; for I have feared and
blenched from the battle."
Said an old warrior: "If that be so, Thiodolf, wilt thou blench
twice? Is not once enough? Now let us go back to the hard handplay,
and if thou wilt, smite thyself after the battle, when we have once
more had a man's help of thee."
Therewith he held out Throng-plough to him by the point, and Thiodolf
took hold of the hilts and handled it and said: "Let us hasten,
while the Gods will have it so, and while they are still suffering me
to strike a stroke for the kindred."
And therewith he brandished Throng-plough, and went forth toward the
battle, and the heart grew hot within him, and the joy of waking life
came back to him, the joy which but erewhile he had given to a mere
dream.
But the old man who had rebuked him stooped down and lifted the
Hauberk from the ground, and cried out after him, "O Thiodolf, and
wilt thou go naked into so strong a fight? and thou with this so
goodly sword-rampart?"
Thiodolf stayed a moment, and even therewith they looked, and lo! the
Romans giving back before the Goths and the Goths following up the
chase, but slowly and steadily. Then Thiodolf heeded nothing save
the battle, but ran forward hastily, and those warriors followed him,
the old man last of all holding the Hauberk in his hand, and
muttering:
"So fares hot blood to the glooming and the world beneath the grass;
And the fruit of the Wolfings' orchard in a flash from the world must
pass.
Men say that the tree shall blossom in the garden of the folk,
And the new twig thrust him forward from the place where the old one
broke,
And all be well as aforetime: but old and old I grow,
And I doubt me if such another the folk to come shall know."
And he still hurried forward as fast as his old body might go, so
that he might wrap the safeguard of the Hauberk round Thiodolf's
body.
CHAPTER XXIV--THE GOTHS ARE OVERTHROWN BY THE ROMANS
Now rose up a mighty shout when Thiodolf came back to the battle of
the kindreds, for many thought he had been slain; and they gathered
round about him, and cried out to him joyously out of their hearts of
good-fellowship, and the old man who had rebuked Thiodolf, and who
was Jorund of the Wolfings, came up to him and reached out to him the
Hauberk, and he did it on scarce heeding; for all his heart and soul
was turned toward the battle of the Romans and what they were a-
doing; and he saw that they were falling back in good order, as men
out-numbered, but undismayed. So he gathered all his men together
and ordered them afresh; for they were somewhat disarrayed with the
fray and the chase: and now he no longer ordered them in the wedge
array, but in a line here three deep, here five deep, or more, for
the foes were hard at hand, and outnumbered, and so far overcome,
that he and all men deemed it a little matter to give these their
last overthrow, and then onward to Wolf-stead to storm on what was
left there and purge the house of the foemen. Howbeit Thiodolf
bethought him that succour might come to the Romans from their main-
battle, as they needed not many men there, since there was nought to
fear behind them: but the thought was dim within him, for once more
since he had gotten the Hauberk on him the earth was wavering and
dream-like: he looked about him, and nowise was he as in past days
of battle when he saw nought but the foe before him, and hoped for
nothing save the victory. But now indeed the Wood-Sun seemed to him
to be beside him, and not against his will, as one besetting and
hindering him, but as though his own longing had drawn her thither
and would not let her depart; and whiles it seemed to him that her
beauty was clearer to be seen than the bodies of the warriors round
about him. For the rest he seemed to be in a dream indeed, and, as
men do in dreams, to be for ever striving to be doing something of
more moment than anything which he did, but which he must ever leave
undone. And as the dream gathered and thickened about him the foe
before him changed to his eyes, and seemed no longer the stern brown-
skinned smooth-faced men under their crested iron helms with their
iron-covered shields before them, but rather, big-headed men, small
of stature, long-bearded, swart, crooked of body, exceeding foul of
aspect. And he looked on and did nothing for a while, and his head
whirled as though he had been grievously smitten.
Thus tarried the kindreds awhile, and they were bewildered and their
hearts fell because Thiodolf did not fly on the foemen like a falcon
on the quarry, as his wont was. But as for the Romans, they had now
stayed, and were facing their foes again, and that on a vantage-
ground, since the field sloped up toward the Wolfing dwelling; and
they gathered heart when they saw that the Goths tarried and forbore
them. But the sun was sinking, and the evening was hard at hand.
So at last Thiodolf led forward with Throng-plough held aloft in his
right hand; but his left hand he held out by his side, as though he
were leading someone along. And as he went, he muttered: "When will
these accursed sons of the nether earth leave the way clear to us,
that we may be alone and take pleasure each in each amidst of the
flowers and the sun?"
Now as the two hosts drew near to one another, again came the sound
of trumpets afar off, and men knew that this would be succour coming
to the Romans from their main-battle, and the Romans thereon shouted
for joy, and the host of the kindreds might no longer forbear, but
rushed on fiercely against them; and for Thiodolf it was now come to
this, that so entangled was he in his dream that he rather went with
his men than led them. Yet had he Throng-plough in his right hand,
and he muttered in his beard as he went, "Smite before! smite behind!
and smite on the right hand! but never on the left!"
Thus then they met, and as before, neither might the Goths sweep the
Romans away, nor the Romans break the Goths into flight; yet were
many of the kindred anxious and troubled, since they knew that aid
was coming to the Romans, and they heard the trumpets sounding nearer
and more joyous; and at last, as the men of the kindreds were growing
a-wearied with fighting, they heard those horns as it were in their
very ears, and the thunder of the tramp of footmen, and they knew
that a fresh host of men was upon them; then those they had been
fighting with opened before them, falling aside to the right and the
left, and the fresh men passing between them, fell on the Goths like
the waters of a river when a sluice-gate is opened. They came on in
very good order, never breaking their ranks, but swift withal,
smiting and pushing before them, and so brake through the array of
the Goth-folk, and drave them this way and that way down the slopes.
Yet still fought the warriors of the kindred most valiantly, making
stand and facing the foe again and again in knots of a score or two
score, or maybe ten score; and though many a man was slain, yet
scarce any one before he had slain or hurt a Roman; and some there
were, and they the oldest, who fought as if they and the few about
them were all the host that was left to the folk, and heeded not that
others were driven back, or that the Romans gathered about them,
cutting them off from all succour and aid, but went on smiting till
they were felled with many strokes.
Howbeit the array of the Goths was broken and many were slain, and
perforce they must give back, and it seemed as if they would be
driven into the river and all be lost.
But for Thiodolf, this befell him: that at first, when those fresh
men fell on, he seemed, as it were, to wake unto himself again, and
he cried aloud the cry of the Wolf, and thrust into the thickest of
the fray, and slew many and was hurt of none, and for a moment of
time there was an empty space round about him, such fear he cast even
into the valiant hearts of the foemen. But those who had time to see
him as they stood by him noted that he was as pale as a dead man, and
his eyes set and staring; and so of a sudden, while he stood thus
threatening the ring of doubtful foemen, the weakness took him again,
Throng-plough tumbled from his hand, and he fell to earth as one
dead.
Then of those who saw him some deemed that he had been striving
against some secret hurt till he could do no more; and some that
there was a curse abroad that had fallen upon him and upon all the
kindreds of the Mark; some thought him dead and some swooning. But,
dead or alive, the warriors would not leave their War-duke among the
foemen, so they lifted him, and gathered about him a goodly band that
held its own against all comers, and fought through the turmoil
stoutly and steadily; and others gathered to them, till they began to
be something like a host again, and the Romans might not break them
into knots of desperate men any more.
Thus they fought their way, Arinbiorn of the Bearings leading them
now, with a mind to make a stand for life or death on some vantage-
ground; and so, often turning upon the Romans, they came in array
ever growing more solid to the rising ground looking one way over the
ford and the other to the slopes where the battle had just been.
There they faced the foe as men who may be slain, but will be driven
no further; and what bowmen they had got spread out from their flanks
and shot on the Romans, who had with them no light-armed, or slingers
or bowmen, for they had left them at Wolf-stead. So the Romans stood
a while, and gave breathing-space to the Markmen, which indeed was
the saving of them: for if they had fallen on hotly and held to it
steadily, it is like that they would have passed over all the bodies
of the Markmen: for these had lost their leader, either slain, as
some thought, or, as others thought, banned from leadership by the
Gods; and their host was heavy-hearted; and though it is like that
they would have stood there till each had fallen over other, yet was
their hope grown dim, and the whole folk brought to a perilous and
fearful pass, for if these were slain or scattered there were no more
but they, and nought between fire and the sword and the people of the
Mark.
But once again the faint-heart folly of the Roman Captain saved his
foes: for whereas he once thought that the whole power of the
Markmen lay in Otter and his company, and deemed them too little to
meddle with, so now he ran his head into the other hedge, and deemed
that Thiodolf's company was but a part of the succour that was at
hand for the Goths, and that they were over-big for him to meddle
with.
True it is also that now dark night was coming on, and the land was
unknown to the Romans, who moreover trusted not wholly to the
dastards of the Goths who were their guides and scouts: furthermore
the wood was at hand, and they knew not what it held; and with all
this and above it all, it is to be said that over them also had
fallen a dread of some doom anear; for those habitations amidst of
the wild-woods were terrible to them as they were dear to the Goths;
and the Gods of their foemen seemed to be lying in wait to fall upon
them, even if they should slay every man of the kindreds.
So now having driven back the Goths to that height over the ford,
which indeed was no stronghold, no mountain, scarce a hill even,
nought but a gentle swelling of the earth, they forebore them; and
raising up the whoop of victory drew slowly aback, picking up their
own dead and wounded, and slaying the wounded Markmen. They had with
them also some few captives, but not many; for the fighting had been
to the death between man and man on the Wolfing Meadow.
CHAPTER XXV--THE HOST OF THE MARKMEN COMETH INTO THE WILD-WOOD
Yet though the Romans were gone, the Goth-folk were very hard bested.
They had been overthrown, not sorely maybe if they had been in an
alien land, and free to come and go as they would; yet sorely as
things were, because the foeman was sitting in their own House, and
they must needs drag him out of it or perish: and to many the days
seemed evil, and the Gods fighting against them, and both the
Wolfings and the other kindreds bethought them of the Hall-Sun and
her wisdom and longed to hear of tidings concerning her.
But now the word ran through the host that Thiodolf was certainly not
slain. Slowly he had come to himself, and yet was not himself, for
he sat among his men gloomy and silent, clean contrary to his wont;
for hitherto he had been a merry man, and a joyous fellow.
Amidst of the ridge whereon the Markmen now abode, there was a ring
made of the chief warriors and captains and wise men who had not been
slain or grievously hurt in the fray, and amidst them all sat
Thiodolf on the ground, his chin sunken on his breast, looking more
like a captive than the leader of a host amidst of his men; and that
the more as his scabbard was empty; for when Throng-plough had fallen
from his hand, it had been trodden under foot, and lost in the
turmoil. There he sat, and the others in that ring of men looked
sadly upon him; such as Arinbiorn of the Bearings, and Wolfkettle and
Thorolf of his own House, and Hiarandi of the Elkings, and Geirbald
the Shielding, the messenger of the woods, and Fox who had seen the
Roman Garth, and many others. It was night now, and men had lighted
fires about the host, for they said that the Romans knew where to
find them if they listed to seek; and about those fires were men
eating and drinking what they might come at, but amidmost of that
ring was the biggest fire, and men turned them towards it for counsel
and help, for elsewhere none said, "What do we?" for they were heavy-
hearted and redeless, since the Gods had taken the victory out of
their hands just when they seemed at point to win it.
But amidst all this there was a little stir outside that biggest
ring, and men parted, and through them came a swain amongst the
chiefs, and said, "Who will lead me to the War-duke?"
Thiodolf, who was close beside the lad, answered never a word; but
Arinbiorn said; "This man here sitting is the War-duke: speak to
him, for he may hearken to thee: but first who art thou?"
Said the lad; "My name is Ali the son of Grey, and I come with a
message from the Hall-Sun and the stay-at-homes who are in the
Woodland."
Now when he named the Hall-Sun Thiodolf started and looked up, and
turning to his left-hand said, "And what sayeth thy daughter?"
Men did not heed that he said THY daughter, but deemed that he said
MY daughter, since he was wont as her would-be foster-father to call
her so. But Ali spake:
"War-duke and ye chieftains, thus saith the Hall-Sun: 'I know that
by this time Otter hath been slain and many another, and ye have been
overthrown and chased by the Romans, and that now there is little
counsel in you except to abide the foe where ye are and there to die
valiantly. But now do my bidding and as I am bidden, and then
whosoever dieth or liveth, the kindreds shall vanquish that they may
live and grow greater. Do ye thus: the Romans think no otherwise
but to find you here to-morrow or else departed across the water as
broken men, and they will fall upon you with their whole host, and
then make a war-garth after their manner at Wolf-stead and carry fire
and the sword and the chains of thralldom into every House of the
Mark. Now therefore fetch a compass and come into the wood on the
north-west of the houses and make your way to the Thing-stead of the
Mid-mark. For who knoweth but that to-morrow we may fall upon these
thieves again? Of this shall ye hear more when we may speak together
and take counsel face to face; for we stay-at-homes know somewhat
closely of the ways of these Romans. Haste then! let not the grass
grow over your feet!
"'But to thee, Thiodolf, have I a word to say when we meet; for I wot
that as now thou canst not hearken to my word.' Thus saith the Hall-
Sun."
"Wilt thou speak, War-duke?" said Arinbiorn. But Thiodolf shook his
head. Then said Arinbiorn; "Shall I speak for thee?" and Thiodolf
nodded yea. Then said Arinbiorn: "Ali son of Grey, art thou going
back to her that sent thee?"
"Yea," said the lad, "but in your company, for ye will be coming
straightway and I know all the ways closely; and there is need for a
guide through the dark night as ye will see presently."
Then stood up Arinbiorn and said: "Chiefs and captains, go ye
speedily and array your men for departure: bid them leave all the
fires burning and come their ways as silently as maybe; for now will
we wend this same hour before moonrise into the Wild-wood and the
Thing-stead of Mid-mark; thus saith the War-duke."
But when they were gone, and Arinbiorn and Thiodolf were left alone,
Thiodolf lifted up his head and spake slowly and painfully:
"Arinbiorn, I thank thee: and thou dost well to lead this folk:
since as for me that is somewhat that weighs me down, and I know not
whether it be life or death; therefore I may no longer be your
captain, for twice now have I blenched from the battle. Yet command
me, and I will obey, set a sword in my hand and I will smite, till
the God snatches it out of my hand, as he did Throng-plough to-day."
"And that is well," said Arinbiorn, "it may be that ye shall meet
that God to-morrow, and heave up sword against him, and either
overcome him or go to thy fathers a proud and valiant man."
So they spake, and Thiodolf stood up and seemed of better cheer. But
presently the whole host was afoot, and they went their ways warily
with little noise, and wound little by little about the Wolfing
meadow and about the acres towards the wood at the back of the
Houses; and they met nothing by the way except an out-guard of the
Romans, whom they slew there nigh silently, and bore away their
bodies, twelve in number, lest the Romans when they sent to change
the guard, should find the slain and have an inkling of the way the
Goths were gone; but now they deemed that the Romans might think
their guard fled, or perchance that they had been carried away by the
Gods of the woodland folk.
So came they into the wood, and Arinbiorn and the chiefs were for
striking the All-men's road to the Thing-stead and so coming thither;
but the lad Ali when he heard it laughed and said:
"If ye would sleep to-night ye shall wend another way. For the Hall-
Sun hath had us at work cumbering it against the foe with great trees
felled with limbs, branches, and all. And indeed ye shall find the
Thing-stead fenced like a castle, and the in-gate hard to find; yet
will I bring you thither."
So did he without delay, and presently they came anigh the Thing-
stead; and the place was fenced cunningly, so that if men would enter
they must go by a narrow way that had a fence of tree-trunks on each
side wending inward like the maze in a pleasance. Thereby now wended
the host all afoot, since it was a holy place and no beast must set
foot therein, so that the horses were left without it: so slowly and
right quietly once more they came into the garth of the Thing-stead;
and lo, a many folk there, of the Wolfings and the Bearings and other
kindreds, who had gathered thereto; and albeit these were not
warriors in their prime, yet were there none save the young children
and the weaker of the women but had weapons of some kind; and they
were well ordered, standing or sitting in ranks like folk awaiting
battle. There were booths of boughs and rushes set up for shelter of
the feebler women and the old men and children along the edges of the
fence, for the Hall-Sun had bidden them keep the space clear round
about the Doom-ring and the Hill-of-Speech as if for a mighty folk-
mote, so that the warriors might have room to muster there and order
their array. There were some cooking-fires lighted about the
aforesaid booths, but neither many nor great, and they were screened
with wattle from the side that lay toward the Romans; for the Hall-
Sun would not that they should hold up lanterns for their foemen to
find them by. Little noise there was in that stronghold, moreover,
for the hearts of all who knew their right hands from their left were
set on battle and the destruction of the foe that would destroy the
kindreds.
Anigh the Speech-Hill, on its eastern side, had the bole of a slender
beech tree been set up, and at the top of it a cross-beam was nailed
on, and therefrom hung the wondrous lamp, the Hall-Sun, glimmering
from on high, and though its light was but a glimmer amongst the
mighty wood, yet was it also screened on three sides from the sight
of the chance wanderer by wings of thin plank. But beneath her
namesake as beforetime in the Hall sat the Hall-Sun, the maiden, on a
heap of faggots, and she was wrapped in a dark blue cloak from under
which gleamed the folds of the fair golden-broidered gown she was
wont to wear at folk-motes, and her right hand rested on a naked
sword that lay across her knees: beside her sat the old man Sorli,
the Wise in War, and about her were slim lads and sturdy maidens and
old carles of the thralls or freedmen ready to bear the commands that
came from her mouth; for she and Sorli were the captains of the stay-
at-homes.
Now came Thiodolf and Arinbiorn and other leaders into the ring of
men before her, and she greeted them kindly and said:
"Hail, Sons of Tyr! now that I behold you again it seemeth to me as
if all were already won: the time of waiting hath been weary, and we
have borne the burden of fear every day from morn till even, and in
the waking hour we presently remembered it. But now ye are come,
even if this Thing-stead were lighted by the flames of the Wolfing
Roof instead of by these moonbeams; even if we had to begin again and
seek new dwellings, and another water and other meadows, yet great
should grow the kindreds of the Men who have dwelt in the Mark, and
nought should overshadow them: and though the beasts and the Romans
were dwelling in their old places, yet should these kindreds make new
clearings in the Wild-wood; and they with their deeds should cause
other waters to be famous, that as yet have known no deeds of man;
and they should compel the Earth to bear increase round about their
dwelling-places for the welfare of the kindreds. O Sons of Tyr,
friendly are your faces, and undismayed, and the Terror of the
Nations has not made you afraid any more than would the onrush of the
bisons that feed adown the grass hills. Happy is the eve, O children
of the Goths, yet shall to-morrow morn be happier."
Many heard what she spake, and a murmur of joy ran through the ranks
of men: for they deemed her words to forecast victory.
And now amidst her speaking, the moon, which had arisen on Mid-mark,
when the host first entered into the wood, had overtopped the tall
trees that stood like a green wall round about the Thing-stead, and
shone down on that assembly, and flashed coldly back from the arms of
the warriors. And the Hall-Sun cast off her dark blue cloak and
stood up in her golden-broidered raiment, which flashed back the grey
light like as it had been an icicle hanging from the roof of some
hall in the midnight of Yule, when the feast is high within, and
without the world is silent with the night of the ten-weeks' frost.
Then she spake again: "O War-duke, thy mouth is silent; speak to
this warrior of the Bearings that he bid the host what to do; for
wise are ye both, and dear are the minutes of this night and should
not be wasted; since they bring about the salvation of the Wolfings,
and the vengeance of the Bearings, and the hope renewed of all the
kindreds."
Then Thiodolf abode a while with his head down cast; his bosom
heaved, and he set his left hand to his swordless scabbard, and his
right to his throat, as though he were sore troubled with something
he might not tell of: but at last he lifted up his head and spoke to
Arinbiorn, but slowly and painfully, as he had spoken before:
"Chief of the Bearings, go up on to the Hill of Speech, and speak to
the folk out of thy wisdom, and let them know that to-morrow early
before the sun-rising those that may, and are not bound by the Gods
against it, shall do deeds according to their might, and win rest for
themselves, and new days of deeds for the kindreds."
Therewith he ceased, and let his head fall again, and the Hall-Sun
looked at him askance. But Arinbiorn clomb the Speech-Hill and said:
"Men of the kindreds, it is now a few days since we first met the
Romans and fought with them; and whiles we have had the better, and
whiles the worse in our dealings, as oft in war befalleth: for they
are men, and we no less than men. But now look to it what ye will
do; for we may no longer endure these outlanders in our houses, and
we must either die or get our own again: and that is not merely a
few wares stored up for use, nor a few head of neat, nor certain
timbers piled up into a dwelling, but the life we have made in the
land we have made. I show you no choice, for no choice there is.
Here are we bare of everything in the wild-wood: for the most part
our children are crying for us at home, our wives are longing for us
in our houses, and if we come not to them in kindness, the Romans
shall come to them in grimness. Down yonder in the plain, moreover,
is our wain-burg slowly drawing near to us, and with it is much
livelihood of ours, which is a little thing, for we may get more; but
also there are our banners of battle and the tokens of the kindred,
which is a great thing. And between all this and us there lieth but
little; nought but a band of valiant men, and a few swords and
spears, and a few wounds, and the hope of death amidst the praise of
the people; and this ye have to set out to wend across within two or
three hours. I will not ask if ye will do so, for I wot that even so
ye will; therefore when I have done, shout not, nor clash sword on
shield, for we are no great way off that house of ours wherein dwells
the foe that would destroy us. Let each man rest as he may, and
sleep if he may with his war-gear on him and his weapons by his side,
and when he is next awakened by the captains and the leaders of
hundreds and scores, let him not think that it is night, but let him
betake himself to his place among his kindred and be ready to go
through the wood with as little noise as may be. Now all is said
that the War-duke would have me say, and to-morrow shall those see
him who are foremost in falling upon the foemen, for he longeth
sorely for his seat on the days of the Wolfing Hall."
So he spake, and even as he bade them, they made no sound save a
joyous murmur; and straightway the more part of them betook
themselves to sleep as men who must busy themselves about a weighty
matter; for they were wise in the ways of war. So sank all the host
to the ground save those who were appointed as watchers of the night,
and Arinbiorn and Thiodolf and the Hall-Sun; they three yet stood
together; and Arinbiorn said:
"Now it seems to me not so much as if we had vanquished the foe and
were safe and at rest, but rather as if we had no foemen and never
have had. Deep peace is on me, though hitherto I have been deemed a
wrathful man, and it is to me as if the kindreds that I love had
filled the whole earth, and left no room for foemen: even so it may
really be one day. To-night it is well, yet to-morrow it shall be
better. What thine errand may be, Thiodolf, I scarce know; for
something hath changed in thee, and thou art become strange to us.
But as for mine errand, I will tell it thee; it is that I am seeking
Otter of the Laxings, my friend and fellow, whose wisdom my
foolishness drave under the point and edge of the Romans, so that he
is no longer here; I am seeking him, and to-morrow I think I shall
find him, for he hath not had time to travel far, and we shall be
blithe and merry together. And now will I sleep; for I have bidden
the watchers awaken me if any need be. Sleep thou also, Thiodolf!
and wake up thine old self when the moon is low." Therewith he laid
himself down under the lee of the pile of faggots, and was presently
asleep.
CHAPTER XXVI--THIODOLF TALKETH WITH THE WOOD-SUN
Now were Thiodolf and the Hall-Sun left alone together standing by
the Speech-Hill; and the moon was risen high in the heavens above the
tree-tops of the wild-wood. Thiodolf scarce stirred, and he still
held his head bent down as one lost in thought.
Then said the Hall-Sun, speaking softly amidst the hush of the camp:
"I have said that the minutes of this night are dear, and they are
passing swiftly; and it may be that thou wilt have much to say and to
do before the host is astir with the dawning. So come thou with me a
little way, that thou mayst hear of new tidings, and think what were
best to do amidst them."
And without more ado she took him by the hand and led him forth, and
he went as he was led, not saying a word. They passed out of the
camp into the wood, none hindering, and went a long way where under
the beech-leaves there was but a glimmer of the moonlight, and
presently Thiodolf's feet went as it were of themselves; for they had
hit a path that he knew well and over-well.
So came they to that little wood-lawn where first in this tale
Thiodolf met the Wood-Sun; and the stone seat there was not empty now
any more than it was then; for thereon sat the Wood-Sun, clad once
more in her glittering raiment. Her head was sunken down, her face
hidden by her hands; neither did she look up when she heard their
feet on the grass, for she knew who they were.
Thiodolf lingered not; for a moment it was to him as if all that past
time had never been, and its battles and hurry and hopes and fears
but mere shows, and the unspoken words of a dream. He went straight
up to her and sat down by her side and put his arm about her
shoulders, and strove to take her hand to caress it; but she moved
but little, and it was as if she heeded him not. And the Hall-Sun
stood before them and looked at them for a little while; and then she
fell to speech; but at the first sound of her voice, it seemed that
the Wood-Sun trembled, but still she hid her face. Said the Hall-
Sun:
"Two griefs I see before me in mighty hearts grown great;
And to change both these into gladness out-goes the power of fate.
Yet I, a lonely maiden, have might to vanquish one
Till it melt as the mist of the morning before the summer sun.
O Wood-Sun, thou hast borne me, and I were fain indeed
To give thee back thy gladness; but thou com'st of the Godhead's
seed,
And herein my might avails not; because I can but show
Unto these wedded sorrows the truth that the heart should know
Ere the will hath wielded the hand; and for thee, I can tell thee
nought
That thou hast not known this long while; thy will and thine hand
have wrought,
And the man that thou lovest shall live in despite of Gods and of
men,
If yet thy will endureth. But what shall it profit thee then
That after the fashion of Godhead thou hast gotten thee a thrall
To be thine and never another's, whatso in the world may befall?
Lo! yesterday this was a man, and to-morrow it might have been
The very joy of the people, though never again it were seen;
Yet a part of all they hoped for through all the lapse of years,
To make their laughter happy and dull the sting of tears;
To quicken all remembrance of deeds that never die,
And death that maketh eager to live as the days go by.
Yea, many a deed had he done as he lay in the dark of the mound;
As the seed-wheat plotteth of spring, laid under the face of the
ground
That the foot of the husbandman treadeth, that the wind of the winter
wears,
That the turbid cold flood hideth from the constant hope of the
years.
This man that should leave in his death his life unto many an one
Wilt thou make him a God of the fearful who live lone under the sun?
And then shalt thou have what thou wouldedst when amidst of the
hazelled field
Thou kissed'st the mouth of the helper, and the hand of the people's
shield,
Shalt thou have the thing that thou wouldedst when thou broughtest me
to birth,
And I, the soul of the Wolfings, began to look on earth?
Wilt thou play the God, O mother, and make a man anew,
A joyless thing and a fearful? Then I betwixt you two,
'Twixt your longing and your sorrow will cast the sundering word,
And tell out all the story of that rampart of the sword!
I shall bid my mighty father make choice of death in life,
Or life in death victorious and the crowned end of strife."
Ere she had ended, the Wood-Sun let her hands fall down, and showed
her face, which for all its unpaled beauty looked wearied and
anxious; and she took Thiodolf's hand in hers, while she looked with
eyes of love upon the Hall-Sun, and Thiodolf laid his cheek to her
cheek, and though he smiled not, yet he seemed as one who is happy.
At last the Wood-Sun spoke and said:
"Thou sayest sooth, O daughter: I am no God of might,
Yet I am of their race, and I think with their thoughts and see with
their sight,
And the threat of the doom did I know of, and yet spared not to lie:
For I thought that the fate foreboded might touch and pass us by,
As the sword that heweth the war-helm and cleaveth a cantle away,
And the cunning smith shall mend it and it goeth again to the fray;
If my hand might have held for a moment, yea, even against his will,
The life of my beloved! But Weird is the master still:
And this man's love of my body and his love of the ancient kin
Were matters o'er mighty to deal with and the game withal to win.
Woe's me for the waning of all things, and my hope that needs must
fade
As the fruitless sun of summer on the waste where nought is made!
And now farewell, O daughter, thou mayst not see the kiss
Of the hapless and the death-doomed when I have told of this;
Yet once again shalt thou see him, though I no more again,
Fair with the joy that hopeth and dieth not in vain."
Then came the Hall-Sun close to her, and knelt down by her, and laid
her head upon her knees and wept for love of her mother, who kissed
her oft and caressed her; and Thiodolf's hand strayed, as it were, on
to his daughter's head, and he looked kindly on her, though scarce
now as if he knew her. Then she arose when she had kissed her mother
once more, and went her ways from that wood-lawn into the woods
again, and so to the Folk-mote of her people.
But when those twain were all alone again, the Wood-Sun spoke: "O
Thiodolf canst thou hear me and understand?"
"Yea," he said, "when thou speakest of certain matters, as of our
love together, and of our daughter that came of our love."
"Thiodolf," she said, "How long shall our love last?"
"As long as our life," he said.
"And if thou diest to-day, where then shall our love be?" said the
Wood-Sun.
He said, "I must now say, I wot not; though time was I had said, It
shall abide with the soul of the Wolfing Kindred."
She said: "And when that soul dieth, and the kindred is no more?"
"Time agone," quoth he, "I had said, it shall abide with the Kindreds
of the Earth; but now again I say, I wot not."
"Will the Earth hide it," said she, "when thou diest and art borne to
mound?"
"Even so didst thou say when we spake together that other night,"
said he; "and now I may say nought against thy word."
"Art thou happy, O Folk-Wolf?" she said.
"Why dost thou ask me?" said he; "I know not; we were sundered and I
longed for thee; thou art here; it is enough."
"And the people of thy Kindred?" she said, "dost thou not long for
them?"
He said; "Didst thou not say that I was not of them? Yet were they
my friends, and needed me, and I loved them: but by this evening
they will need me no more, or but little; for they will be victorious
over their foes: so hath the Hall-Sun foretold. What then! shall I
take all from thee to give little to them?"
"Thou art wise," she said; "Wilt thou go to battle to-day?"
"So it seemeth," said he.
She said: "And wilt thou bear the Dwarf-wrought Hauberk? for if thou
dost, thou wilt live, and if thou dost not, thou wilt die."
"I will bear it," said he, "that I may live to love thee."
"Thinkest thou that any evil goes with it?" said she.
There came into his face a flash of his ancient boldness as he
answered: "So it seemed to me yesterday, when I fought clad in it
the first time; and I fell unsmitten on the meadow, and was shamed,
and would have slain myself but for thee. And yet it is not so that
any evil goes with it; for thou thyself didst say that past night
that there was no evil weird in it."
She said: "How then if I lied that night?"
Said he; "It is the wont of the Gods to lie, and be unashamed, and
men-folk must bear with it."
"Ah! how wise thou art!" she said; and was silent for a while, and
drew away from him a little, and clasped her hands together and wrung
them for grief and anger. Then she grew calm again, and said:
"Wouldest thou die at my bidding?"
"Yea," said he, "not because thou art of the Gods, but because thou
hast become a woman to me, and I love thee."
Then was she silent some while, and at last she said, "Thiodolf, wilt
thou do off the Hauberk if I bid thee?"
"Yea, yea," said he, "and let us depart from the Wolfings, and their
strife, for they need us not."
She was silent once more for a longer while still, and at last she
said in a cold voice; "Thiodolf, I bid thee arise, and put off the
Hauberk from thee."
He looked at her wondering, not at her words, but at the voice
wherewith she spake them; but he arose from the stone nevertheless,
and stood stark in the moonlight; he set his hand to the collar of
the war-coat, and undid its clasps, which were of gold and blue
stones, and presently he did the coat from off him and let it slide
to the ground where it lay in a little grey heap that looked but a
handful. Then he sat down on the stone again, and took her hand and
kissed her and caressed her fondly, and she him again, and they spake
no word for a while: but at the last he spake in measure and rhyme
in a low voice, but so sweet and clear that it might have been heard
far in the hush of the last hour of the night:
"Dear now are this dawn-dusk's moments as is the last of the light
When the foemen's ranks are wavering, and the victory feareth night;
And of all the time I have loved thee of these am I most fain,
When I know not what shall betide me, nor what shall be my gain.
But dear as they are, they are waning, and at last the time is come
When no more shall I behold thee till I wend to Odin's Home.
Now is the time so little that once hath been so long
That I fain would ask thee pardon wherein I have done thee wrong,
That thy longing might be softer, and thy love more sweet to have.
But in nothing have I wronged thee, there is nought that I may crave.
Strange too! as the minutes fail me, so do my speech-words fail,
Yet strong is the joy within me for this hour that crowns the tale."
Therewith he clipped her and caressed her, and she spake nothing for
a while; and he said; "Thy face is fair and bright; art thou not
joyous of these minutes?"
She said: "Thy words are sweet; but they pierce my heart like a
sharp knife; for they tell me of thy death and the ending of our
love."
Said he; "I tell thee nothing, beloved, that thou hast not known: is
it not for this that we have met here once more?"
She answered after a while; "Yea, yea; yet mightest thou have lived."
He laughed, but not scornfully or bitterly and said:
"So thought I in time past: but hearken, beloved; If I fall to-day,
shall there not yet be a minute after the stroke hath fallen on me,
wherein I shall know that the day is won and see the foemen fleeing,
and wherein I shall once again deem I shall never die, whatever may
betide afterwards, and though the sword lieth deep in my breast? And
shall I not see then and know that our love hath no end?"
Bitter grief was in her face as she heard him. But she spake and
said: "Lo here the Hauberk which thou hast done off thee, that thy
breast might be the nearer to mine! Wilt thou not wear it in the
fight for my sake?"
He knit his brows somewhat, and said:
"Nay, it may not be: true it is that thou saidest that no evil weird
went with it, but hearken! Yesterday I bore it in the fight, and ere
I mingled with the foe, before I might give the token of onset, a
cloud came before my eyes and thick darkness wrapped me around, and I
fell to the earth unsmitten; and so was I borne out of the fight, and
evil dreams beset me of evil things, and the dwarfs that hate
mankind. Then I came to myself, and the Hauberk was off me, and I
rose up and beheld the battle, that the kindreds were pressing on the
foe, and I thought not then of any past time, but of the minutes that
were passing; and I ran into the fight straightway: but one followed
me with that Hauberk, and I did it on, thinking of nought but the
battle. Fierce then was the fray, yet I faltered in it; till the
fresh men of the Romans came in upon us and broke up our array. Then
my heart almost broke within me, and I faltered no more, but rushed
on as of old, and smote great strokes all round about: no hurt I
got, but once more came that ugly mist over my eyes, and again I fell
unsmitten, and they bore me out of battle: then the men of our folk
gave back and were overcome; and when I awoke from my evil dreams, we
had gotten away from the fight and the Wolfing dwellings, and were on
the mounds above the ford cowering down like beaten men. There then
I sat shamed among the men who had chosen me for their best man at
the Holy Thing, and lo I was their worst! Then befell that which
never till then had befallen me, that life seemed empty and worthless
and I longed to die and be done with it, and but for the thought of
thy love I had slain myself then and there.
"Thereafter I went with the host to the assembly of the stay-at-homes
and fleers, and sat before the Hall-Sun our daughter, and said the
words which were put into my mouth. But now must I tell thee a hard
and evil thing; that I loved them not, and was not of them, and
outside myself there was nothing: within me was the world and nought
without me. Nay, as for thee, I was not sundered from thee, but thou
wert a part of me; whereas for the others, yea, even for our
daughter, thine and mine, they were but images and shows of men, and
I longed to depart from them, and to see thy body and to feel thine
heart beating. And by then so evil was I grown that my very shame
had fallen from me, and my will to die: nay, I longed to live, thou
and I, and death seemed hateful to me, and the deeds before death
vain and foolish.
"Where then was my glory and my happy life, and the hope of the days
fresh born every day, though never dying? Where then was life, and
Thiodolf that once had lived?
"But now all is changed once more; I loved thee never so well as now,
and great is my grief that we must sunder, and the pain of farewell
wrings my heart. Yet since I am once more Thiodolf the Mighty, in my
heart there is room for joy also. Look at me, O Wood-Sun, look at
me, O beloved! tell me, am I not fair with the fairness of the
warrior and the helper of the folk? Is not my voice kind, do not my
lips smile, and mine eyes shine? See how steady is mine hand, the
friend of the folk! For mine eyes are cleared again, and I can see
the kindreds as they are, and their desire of life and scorn of
death, and this is what they have made me myself. Now therefore
shall they and I together earn the merry days to come, the winter
hunting and the spring sowing, the summer haysel, the ingathering of
harvest, the happy rest of midwinter, and Yuletide with the memory of
the Fathers, wedded to the hope of the days to be. Well may they bid
me help them who have holpen me! Well may they bid me die who have
made me live!
"For whereas thou sayest that I am not of their blood, nor of their
adoption, once more I heed it not. For I have lived with them, and
eaten and drunken with them, and toiled with them, and led them in
battle and the place of wounds and slaughter; they are mine and I am
theirs; and through them am I of the whole earth, and all the
kindreds of it; yea, even of the foemen, whom this day the edges in
mine hand shall smite.
"Therefore I will bear the Hauberk no more in battle; and belike my
body but once more: so shall I have lived and death shall not have
undone me.
"Lo thou, is not this the Thiodolf whom thou hast loved? no
changeling of the Gods, but the man in whom men have trusted, the
friend of Earth, the giver of life, the vanquisher of death?"
And he cast himself upon her, and strained her to his bosom and
kissed her, and caressed her, and awoke the bitter-sweet joy within
her, as he cried out:
"O remember this, and this, when at last I am gone from thee!"
But when they sundered her face was bright, but the tears were on it,
and she said: "O Thiodolf, thou wert fain hadst thou done a wrong to
me so that I might forgive thee; now wilt thou forgive me the wrong I
have done thee?"
"Yea," he said, "Even so would I do, were we both to live, and how
much more if this be the dawn of our sundering day! What hast thou
done?"
She said: "I lied to thee concerning the Hauberk when I said that no
evil weird went with it: and this I did for the saving of thy life."
He laid his hand fondly on her head, and spake smiling: "Such is the
wont of the God-kin, because they know not the hearts of men. Tell
me all the truth of it now at last."
She said:
"Hear then the tale of the Hauberk and the truth there is to tell:
There was a maid of the God-kin, and she loved a man right well,
Who unto the battle was wending; and she of her wisdom knew
That thence to the folk-hall threshold should come back but a very
few;
And she feared for her love, for she doubted that of these he should
not be;
So she wended the wilds lamenting, as I have lamented for thee;
And many wise she pondered, how to bring her will to pass
(E'en as I for thee have pondered), as her feet led over the grass,
Till she lifted her eyes in the wild-wood, and lo! she stood before
The Hall of the Hollow-places; and the Dwarf-lord stood in the door
And held in his hand the Hauberk, whereon the hammer's blow
The last of all had been smitten, and the sword should be hammer now.
Then the Dwarf beheld her fairness, and the wild-wood many-leaved
Before his eyes was reeling at the hope his heart conceived;
So sorely he longed for her body; and he laughed before her and
cried,
'O Lady of the Disir, thou farest wandering wide
Lamenting thy beloved and the folkmote of the spear,
But if amidst of the battle this child of the hammer he bear
He shall laugh at the foemen's edges and come back to thy lily breast
And of all the days of his life-time shall his coming years be best.'
Then she bowed adown her godhead and sore for the Hauberk she prayed;
But his greedy eyes devoured her as he stood in the door and said;
'Come lie in mine arms! Come hither, and we twain the night to wake!
And then as a gift of the morning the Hauberk shall ye take.'
So she humbled herself before him, and entered into the cave,
The dusky, the deep-gleaming, the gem-strewn golden grave.
But he saw not her girdle loosened, or her bosom gleam on his love,
For she set the sleep-thorn in him, that he saw, but might not move,
Though the bitter salt tears burned him for the anguish of his greed;
And she took the hammer's offspring, her unearned morning meed,
And went her ways from the rock-hall and was glad for her warrior's
sake.
But behind her dull speech followed, and the voice of the hollow
spake:
'Thou hast left me bound in anguish, and hast gained thine heart's
desire;
Now I would that the dewy night-grass might be to thy feet as the
fire,
And shrivel thy raiment about thee, and leave thee bare to the flame,
And no way but a fiery furnace for the road whereby ye came!
But since the folk of God-home we may not slay nor smite,
And that fool of the folk that thou lovest, thou hast saved in my
despite,
Take with thee, thief of God-home, this other word I say:
Since the safeguard wrought in the ring-mail I may not do away
I lay this curse upon it, that whoso weareth the same,
Shall save his life in the battle, and have the battle's shame;
He shall live through wrack and ruin, and ever have the worse,
And drag adown his kindred, and bear the people's curse.'
"Lo, this the tale of the Hauberk, and I knew it for the truth:
And little I thought of the kindreds; of their day I had no ruth;
For I said, They are doomed to departure; in a little while must they
wane,
And nought it helpeth or hindreth if I hold my hand or refrain.
Yea, thou wert become the kindred, both thine and mine; and thy birth
To me was the roofing of heaven, and the building up of earth.
I have loved, and I must sorrow; thou hast lived, and thou must die;
Ah, wherefore were there others in the world than thou and I?"
He turned round to her and clasped her strongly in his arms again,
and kissed her many times and said:
"Lo, here art thou forgiven; and here I say farewell!
Here the token of my wonder which my words may never tell;
The wonder past all thinking, that my love and thine should blend;
That thus our lives should mingle, and sunder in the end!
Lo, this, for the last remembrance of the mighty man I was,
Of thy love and thy forbearing, and all that came to pass!
Night wanes, and heaven dights her for the kiss of sun and earth;
Look up, look last upon me on this morn of the kindreds' mirth!"
Therewith he arose and lingered no minute longer, but departed, going
as straight towards the Thing-stead and the Folk-mote of his kindred
as the swallow goes to her nest in the hall-porch. He looked not
once behind him, though a bitter wailing rang through the woods and
filled his heart with the bitterness of her woe and the anguish of
the hour of sundering.
CHAPTER XXVII--THEY WEND TO THE MORNING BATTLE
Now when Thiodolf came back to the camp the signs of dawn were plain
in the sky, the moon was low and sinking behind the trees, and he saw
at once that the men were stirring and getting ready for departure.
He looked gladly and blithely at the men he fell in with, and they at
him, and scarce could they refrain a shout when they beheld his face
and the brightness of it. He went straight up to where the Hall-Sun
was yet sitting under her namesake, with Arinbiorn standing before
her amidst of a ring of leaders of hundreds and scores: but old
Sorli sat by her side clad in all his war-gear.
When Thiodolf first came into that ring of men they looked doubtfully
at him, as if they dreaded somewhat, but when they had well beheld
him their faces cleared, and they became joyous.
He went straight up to Arinbiorn and kissed the old warrior, and said
to him, "I give thee good morrow, O leader of the Bearings! Here now
is come the War-duke! and meseems that we should get to work as
speedily as may be, for lo the dawning!"
"Hail to thine hand, War-duke!" said Arinbiorn joyously; "there is no
more to do but to take thy word concerning the order wherein we shall
wend; for all men are armed and ready."
Said Thiodolf; "Lo ye, I lack war-gear and weapons! Is there a good
sword hereby, a helm, a byrny and a shield? For hard will be the
battle, and we must fence ourselves all we may."
"Hard by," said Arinbiorn, "is the war-gear of Ivar of our House, who
is dead in the night of his hurts gotten in yesterday's battle: thou
and he are alike in stature, and with a good will doth he give them
to thee, and they are goodly things, for he comes of smithying blood.
Yet is it a pity of Throng-plough that he lieth on the field of the
slain."
But Thiodolf smiled and said: "Nay, Ivar's blade shall serve my turn
to-day; and thereafter shall it be seen to, for then will be time for
many things."
So they went to fetch him the weapons; but he said to Arinbiorn,
"Hast thou numbered the host? What are the gleanings of the Roman
sword?"
Said Arinbiorn: "Here have we more than three thousand three hundred
warriors of the host fit for battle: and besides this here are
gathered eighteen hundred of the Wolfings and the Bearings, and of
the other Houses, mostly from over the water, and of these nigh upon
seven hundred may bear sword or shoot shaft; neither shall ye hinder
them from so doing if the battle be joined."
Then said Thiodolf: "We shall order us into three battles; the
Wolfings and the Bearings to lead the first, for this is our
business; but others of the smaller Houses this side the water to be
with us; and the Elkings and Galtings and the other Houses of the
Mid-mark on the further side of the water to be in the second, and
with them the more part of the Nether-mark; but the men of Up-mark to
be in the third, and the stay-at-homes to follow on with them: and
this third battle to let the wood cover them till they be needed,
which may not be till the day of fight draws to an end, when all
shall be needed: for no Roman man must be left alive or untaken by
this even, or else must we all go to the Gods together. Hearken,
Arinbiorn. I am not called fore-sighted, and yet meseems I see
somewhat how this day shall go; and it is not to be hidden that I
shall not see another battle until the last of all battles is at
hand. But be of good cheer, for I shall not die till the end of the
fight, and once more I shall be a man's help unto you. Now the first
of the Romans we meet shall not be able to stand before us, for they
shall be unready, and when their men are gotten ready and are
fighting with us grimly, ye of the second battle shall hear the war-
token, and shall fall on, and they shall be dismayed when they see so
many fresh men come into the fight; yet shall they stand stoutly; for
they are valiant men, and shall not all be taken unawares. Then, if
they withstand us long enough, shall the third battle come forth from
the wood, and fall on either flank of them, and the day shall be won.
But I think not that they shall withstand us so long, but that the
men of Up-mark and the stay-at-homes shall have the chasing of them.
Now get me my war-gear, and let the first battle get them to the
outgate of the garth."
So they brought him his arms; and meanwhile the Hall-Sun spake to one
of the Captains, and he turned and went away a little space, and then
came back, having with him three strong warriors of the Wolfings, and
he brought them before the Hall-Sun, who said to them:
"Ye three, Steinulf, Athalulf, and Grani the Grey, I have sent for
you because ye are men both mighty in battle and deft wood-wrights
and house-smiths; ye shall follow Thiodolf closely, when he winneth
into the Roman garth, yet shall ye fight wisely, so that ye be not
slain, or at least not all; ye shall enter the Hall with Thiodolf,
and when ye are therein, if need be, ye shall run down the Hall at
your swiftest, and mount up into the loft betwixt the Middle-hearth
and the Women's-Chamber, and there shall ye find good store of water
in vats and tubs, and this ye shall use for quenching the fire of the
Hall if the foemen fire it, as is not unlike to be."
Then Grani spoke for the others and said he would pay all heed to her
words, and they departed to join their company.
Now was Thiodolf armed; and Arinbiorn, turning about before he went
to his place, beheld him and knit his brow, and said: "What is this,
Thiodolf? Didst thou not swear to the Gods not to bear helm or
shield in the battles of this strife? yet hast thou Ivar's helm on
thine head and his shield ready beside thee: wilt thou forswear
thyself? so doing shalt thou bring woe upon the House."
"Arinbiorn," said Thiodolf, "where didst thou hear tell of me that I
had made myself the thrall of the Gods? The oath that I sware was
sworn when mine heart was not whole towards our people; and now will
I break it that I may keep what of good intent there was in it, and
cast away the rest. Long is the story; but if we journey together
to-night I will tell it thee. Likewise I will tell it to the Gods if
they look sourly upon me when I see them, and all shall be well."
He smiled as he spoke, and Arinbiorn smiled on him in turn and went
his ways to array the host. But when he was gone Thiodolf was alone
in that place with the Hall-Sun, and he turned to her, and kissed
her, and caressed her fondly, and spake and said:
"So fare we, O my daughter, to the sundering of the ways;
Short is my journey henceforth to the door that ends my days,
And long the road that lieth as yet before thy feet.
How fain were I that thy journey from day to day were sweet
With peace to thee and pleasure; that a noble warrior's hand
In its early days might lead thee adown the flowery land,
And thy children in its noon-tide cling round about thy gown,
And the wise that thy womb has carried when the sun is going down,
Be thy happy fellow-farers to tell the tale of Earth,
But I wot that for no such sweetness did we bring thee unto birth,
But to be the soul of the Wolfings till the other days should come,
And the fruit of the kindreds' harvest with thee is garnered home.
Yet if for no blithe faring thy life-day is ordained,
Yet peace that long endureth maybe thy soul hath gained;
And thy sorrow of this even thy latest grief shall be,
The grief wherewith thou singest the death-song over me."
She looked up at him and smiled, though the tears were on her face;
then she said:
"Though to-day the grief beginneth yet the bitterness is done.
Though my body wendeth barren 'neath the beams of the quickening sun,
Yet remembrance still abideth, and long after the days of my life
Shall I live in the tale of the morning, when they tell of the ending
of strife;
And the deeds of this little hand, and the thought conceived in my
heart,
And never again henceforward from the folk shall I fare apart.
And if of the Earth, my father, thou hast tidings in thy place
Thou shalt hear how they call me the Ransom and the Mother of happy
days."
Then she wept outright for a brief space, and thereafter she said:
"Keep this in thine heart, O father, that I shall remember all
Since thou liftedst the she-wolf's nursling in the oak-tree's leafy
hall.
Yea, every time I remember when hand in hand we went
Amidst the shafts of the beech-trees, and down to the youngling bent
The Folk-wolf in his glory when the eve of fight drew nigh;
And every time I remember when we wandered joyfully
Adown the sunny meadow and lived a while of life
'Midst the herbs and the beasts and the waters so free from fear and
strife,
That thy years and thy might and thy wisdom, I had no part therein;
But thou wert as the twin-born brother of the maiden slim and thin,
The maiden shy in the feast-hall and blithe in wood and field.
Thus have we fared, my father; and e'en now when thou bearest shield,
On the last of thy days of mid-earth, twixt us 'tis even so
That the heart of my like-aged brother is the heart of thee that I
know."
Then the bitterness of tears stayed her speech, and he spake no word
more, but took her in his arms a while and soothed her and fondled
her, and then they parted, and he went with great strides towards the
outgoing of the Thing-stead.
There he found the warriors of his House and of the Bearings and the
lesser Houses of Mid-mark, all duly ordered for wending through the
wood. The dawn was coming on apace, but the wood was yet dark. But
whereas the Wolfings led, and each man of them knew the wood like his
own hand, there was no straying or disarray, and in less than a half-
hour's space Thiodolf and the first battle were come to the wood
behind the hazel-trees at the back of the hall, and before them was
the dawning round about the Roof of the Kindred; the eastern heavens
were brightening, and they could see all things clear without the
wood.
CHAPTER XXVIII--OF THE STORM OF DAWNING
Then Thiodolf bade Fox and two others steal forward, and see what of
foemen was before them; so they fell to creeping on towards the open:
but scarcely had they started, before all men could hear the tramp of
men drawing nigh; then Thiodolf himself took with him a score of his
House and went quietly toward the wood-edge till they were barely
within the shadow of the beechwood; and he looked forth and saw men
coming straight towards their lurking-place. And those he saw were a
good many, and they were mostly of the dastards of the Goths; but
with them was a Captain of an Hundred of the Romans, and some others
of his kindred; and Thiodolf deemed that the Goths had been bidden to
gather up some of the night-watchers and enter the wood and fall on
the stay-at-homes. So he bade his men get them aback, and he himself
abode still at the very wood's edge listening intently with his sword
bare in his hand. And he noted that those men of the foe stayed in
the daylight outside the wood, but a few yards from it, and, by
command as it seemed, fell silent and spake no word; and the morn was
very still, and when the sound of their tramp over the grass had
ceased, Thiodolf could hear the tramp of more men behind them. And
then he had another thought, to wit that the Romans had sent scouts
to see if the Goths yet abided on the vantage-ground by the ford, and
that when they had found them gone, they were minded to fall on them
unawares in the refuge of the Thing-stead and were about to do so by
the counsel and leading of the dastard Goths; and that this was one
body of the host led by those dastards, who knew somewhat of the
woods. So he drew aback speedily, and catching hold of Fox by the
shoulder (for he had taken him alone with him) he bade him creep
along through the wood toward the Thing-stead, and bring back speedy
word whether there were any more foemen near the wood thereaway; and
he himself came to his men, and ordered them for onset, drawing them
up in a shallow half moon, with the bowmen at the horns thereof, with
the word to loose at the Romans as soon as they heard the war-horn
blow: and all this was done speedily and with little noise, for they
were well nigh so arrayed already.
Thus then they waited, and there was more than a glimmer of light
even under the beechen leaves, and the eastern sky was yellowing to
sunrise. The other warriors were like hounds in the leash eager to
be slipped; but Thiodolf stood calm and high-hearted turning over the
memory of past days, and the time he thought of seemed long to him,
but happy.
Scarce had a score of minutes passed, and the Romans before them, who
were now gathered thick behind those dastards of the Goths, had not
moved, when back comes Fox and tells how he has come upon a great
company of the Romans led by their thralls of the Goths who were just
entering the wood, away there towards the Thing-stead.
"But, War-duke," says he, "I came also across our own folk of the
second battle duly ordered in the wood ready to meet them; and they
shall be well dealt with, and the sun shall rise for us and not for
them."
Then turns Thiodolf round to those nighest to him and says, but still
softly:
"Hear ye a word, O people, of the wisdom of the foe!
Before us thick they gather, and unto the death they go.
They fare as lads with their cur-dogs who have stopped a fox's earth,
And standing round the spinny, now chuckle in their mirth,
Till one puts by the leafage and trembling stands astare
At the sight of the Wood wolf's father arising in his lair -
They have come for our wives and our children, and our sword-edge
shall they meet;
And which of them is happy save he of the swiftest feet?"
Speedily then went that word along the ranks of the Kindred, and men
were merry with the restless joy of battle: but scarce had two
minutes passed ere suddenly the stillness of the dawn was broken by
clamour and uproar; by shouts and shrieks, and the clashing of
weapons from the wood on their left hand; and over all arose the roar
of the Markmen's horn, for the battle was joined with the second
company of the Kindreds. But a rumour and murmur went from the
foemen before Thiodolf's men; and then sprang forth the loud sharp
word of the captains commanding and rebuking, as if the men were
doubtful which way they should take.
Amidst all which Thiodolf brandished his sword, and cried out in a
great voice:
"Now, now, ye War-sons!
Now the Wolf waketh!
Lo how the Wood-beast
Wendeth in onset.
E'en as his feet fare
Fall on and follow!"
And he led forth joyously, and terrible rang the long refrained
gathered shout of his battle as his folk rushed on together devouring
the little space between their ambush and the hazel-beset green-
sward.
In the twinkling of an eye the half-moon had lapped around the Roman-
Goths and those that were with them; and the dastards made no stand
but turned about at once, crying out that the Gods of the Kindreds
were come to aid and none could withstand them. But these fleers
thrust against the band of Romans who were next to them, and bore
them aback, and great was the turmoil; and when Thiodolf's storm fell
full upon them, as it failed not to do, so close were they driven
together that scarce could any man raise his hand for a stroke. For
behind them stood a great company of those valiant spearmen of the
Romans, who would not give way if anywise they might hold it out:
and their ranks were closely serried, shield nigh touching shield,
and their faces turned toward the foe; and so arrayed, though they
might die, they scarce knew how to flee. As they might these thrust
and hewed at the fleers, and gave fierce words but few to the Roman-
Goths, driving them back against their foemen: but the fleers had
lost the cunning of their right hands, and they had cast away their
shields and could not defend their very bodies against the wrath of
the kindreds; and when they strove to flee to the right hand or to
the left, they were met by the horns of the half-moon, and the arrows
began to rain in upon them, and from so close were they shot at that
no shaft failed to smite home.
There then were the dastards slain; and their bodies served for a
rampart against the onrush of the Markmen to those Romans who had
stood fast. To them were gathering more and more every minute, and
they faced the Goths steadily with their hard brown visages and
gleaming eyes above their iron-plated shields; not casting their
spears, but standing closely together, silent, but fierce. The light
was spread now over all the earth; the eastern heavens were grown
golden-red, flecked here and there with little crimson clouds: this
battle was fallen near silent, but to the North was great uproar of
shouts and cries, and the roaring of the war-horns, and the shrill
blasts of the brazen trumpets.
Now Thiodolf, as his wont was when he saw that all was going well,
had refrained himself of hand-strokes, but was here and there and
everywhere giving heart to his folk, and keeping them in due order,
and close array, lest the Romans should yet come among them. But he
watched the ranks of the foe, and saw how presently they began to
spread out beyond his, and might, if it were not looked to, take them
in flank; and he was about to order his men anew to meet them, when
he looked on his left hand and saw how Roman men were pouring thick
from the wood out of all array, followed by a close throng of the
kindreds: for on this side the Romans were outnumbered and had
stumbled unawares into the ambush of the Markmen, who had fallen on
them straightway and disarrayed them from the first. This flight of
their folk the Romans saw also, and held their men together,
refraining from the onset, as men who deem that they will have enough
to do to stand fast.
But the second battle of the Markmen, (who were of the Nether-mark,
mingled with the Mid-mark) fought wisely, for they swept those fleers
from before them, slaying many and driving the rest scattering, yet
held the chase for no long way, but wheeling about came sidelong on
toward the battle of the Romans and Thiodolf. And when Thiodolf saw
that, he set up the whoop of victory, he and his, and fell fiercely
on the Romans, casting everything that would fly, as they rushed on
to the handplay; so that there was many a Roman slain with the Roman
spears that those who had fallen had left among their foemen.
Now the Roman captains perceived that it availed not to tarry till
the men of the Mid and Nether-marks fell upon their flank; so they
gave command, and their ranks gave back little by little, facing
their foes, and striving to draw themselves within the dike and
garth, which, after their custom, they had already cast up about the
Wolfing Roof, their stronghold.
Now as fierce as was the onset of the Markmen, the main body of the
Romans could not be hindered from doing this much before the men of
the second battle were upon them; but Thiodolf and Arinbiorn with
some of the mightiest brake their array in two places and entered in
amongst them. And wrath so seized upon the soul of Arinbiorn for the
slaying of Otter, and his own fault towards him, that he cast away
his shield, and heeding no strokes, first brake his sword in the
press, and then, getting hold of a great axe, smote at all before him
as though none smote at him in turn; yea, as though he were smiting
down tree-boles for a match against some other mighty man; and all
the while amidst the hurry, strokes of swords and spears rained on
him, some falling flatwise and some glancing sideways, but some true
and square, so that his helm was smitten off and his hauberk rent
adown, and point and edge reached his living flesh; and he had thrust
himself so far amidst the foe that none could follow to shield him,
so that at last he fell shattered and rent at the foot of the new
clayey wall cast up by the Romans, even as Thiodolf and a band with
him came cleaving the press, and the Romans closed the barriers
against friend and foe, and cast great beams adown, and masses of
iron and lead and copper taken from the smithying-booths of the
Wolfings, to stay them if it were but a little.
Then Thiodolf bestrode the fallen warrior, and men of his House were
close behind him, for wisely had he fought, cleaving the press like a
wedge, helping his friends that they might help him, so that they all
went forward together. But when he saw Arinbiorn fall he cried out:
"Woe's me, Arinbiorn! that thou wouldest not wait for me; for the day
is young yet, and over-young!"
There then they cleared the space outside the gate, and lifted up the
Bearing Warrior, and bare him back from the rampart. For so fierce
had been the fight and so eager the storm of those that had followed
after him that they must needs order their battle afresh, since
Thiodolf's wedge which he had driven into the Roman host was but of a
few and the foe had been many and the rampart and the shot-weapons
were close anigh. Wise therefore it seemed to abide them of the
second battle and join with them to swarm over the new-built slippery
wall in the teeth of the Roman shot.
In this, the first onset of the Morning Battle, some of the Markmen
had fallen, but not many, since but a few had entered outright into
the Roman ranks; and when they first rushed on from the wood but
three of them were slain, and the slaughter was all of the dastards
and the Romans; and afterwards not a few of the Romans were slain,
what by Arinbiorn, what by the others; for they were fighting
fleeing, and before their eyes was the image of the garth-gate which
was behind them; and they stumbled against each other as they were
driven sideways against the onrush of the Goths, nor were they now
standing fair and square to them, and they were hurried and confused
with the dread of the onset of them of the two Marks.
As yet Thiodolf had gotten no great hurt, so that when he heard that
Arinbiorn's soul had passed away he smiled and said:
"Yea, yea, Arinbiorn might have abided the end, for ere then shall
the battle be hard."
So now the Wolfings and the Bearings met joyously the kindreds of the
Nether Mark and the others of the second battle, and they sang the
song of victory arrayed in good order hard by the Roman rampart,
while bowstrings twanged and arrows whistled, and sling-stones hummed
from this side and from that.
And of their song of victory thus much the tale telleth:
"Now hearken and hear
Of the day-dawn of fear,
And how up rose the sun
On the battle begun.
All night lay a-hiding,
Our anger abiding,
Dark down in the wood
The sharp seekers of blood;
But ere red grew the heaven we bore them all bare,
For against us undriven the foemen must fare;
They sought and they found us, and sorrowed to find,
For the tree-boles around us the story shall mind,
How fast from the glooming they fled to the light,
Yeasaying the dooming of Tyr of the fight.
"Hearken yet and again
How the night gan to wane,
And the twilight stole on
Till the world was well won!
E'en in such wise was wending
A great host for our ending;
On our life-days e'en so
Stole the host of the foe;
Till the heavens grew lighter, and light grew the world,
And the storm of the fighter upon them was hurled,
Then some fled the stroke, and some died and some stood,
Till the worst of the storm broke right out from the wood,
And the war-shafts were singing the carol of fear,
The tale of the bringing the sharp swords anear.
"Come gather we now,
For the day doth grow.
Come, gather, ye bold,
Lest the day wax old;
Lest not till to-morrow
We slake our sorrow,
And heap the ground
With many a mound.
Come, war-children, gather, and clear we the land!
In the tide of War-father the deed is to hand.
Clad in gear that we gilded they shrink from our sword;
In the House that we builded they sit at the board;
Come, war-children, gather, come swarm o'er the wall
For the feast of War-father to sweep out the Hall!"
Now amidst of their singing the sun rose upon the earth, and gleamed
in the arms of men, and lit the faces of the singing warriors as they
stood turned toward the east.
In this first onset of battle but twenty and three Markmen were slain
in all, besides Arinbiorn; for, as aforesaid, they had the foe at a
disadvantage. And this onset is called in the tale the Storm of
Dawning.
CHAPTER XXI--OF THIODOLF'S STORM
The Goths tarried not over their victory; they shot with all the
bowmen that they had against the Romans on the wall, and therewith
arrayed themselves to fall on once more. And Thiodolf, now that the
foe were covered by a wall, though it was but a little one, sent a
message to the men of the third battle, them of Up-mark to wit, to
come forward in good array and help to make a ring around the Wolfing
Stead, wherein they should now take the Romans as a beast is taken in
a trap. Meanwhile, until they came, he sent other men to the wood to
bring tree-boles to batter the gate, and to make bridges whereby to
swarm over the wall, which was but breast-high on the Roman side,
though they had worked at it ceaselessly since yesterday morning.
In a long half-hour, therefore, the horns of the men of Up-mark
sounded, and they came forth from the wood a very great company, for
with them also were the men of the stay-at-homes and the homeless,
such of them as were fit to bear arms. Amongst these went the Hall-
Sun surrounded by a band of the warriors of Up-mark; and before her
was borne her namesake the Lamp as a sign of assured victory. But
these stay-at-homes with the Hall-Sun were stayed by the command of
Thiodolf on the crown of the slope above the dwellings, and stood
round about the Speech-Hill, on the topmost of which stood the Hall-
Sun, and the wondrous Lamp, and the men who warded her and it.
When the Romans saw the new host come forth from the wood, they might
well think that they would have work enough to do that day; but when
they saw the Hall-Sun take her stand on the Speech-Hill with the men-
at-arms about her, and the Lamp before her, then dread of the Gods
fell upon them, and they knew that the doom had gone forth against
them. Nevertheless they were not men to faint and die because the
Gods were become their foes, but they were resolved rather to fight
it out to the end against whatsoever might come against them, as was
well seen afterwards.
Now they had made four gates to their garth according to their
custom, and at each gate within was there a company of their
mightiest men, and each was beset by the best of the Markmen.
Thiodolf and his men beset the western gate where they had made that
fierce onset. And the northern gate was beset by the Elkings and
some of the kindreds of the Nether-mark; and the eastern gate by the
rest of the men of Nether-mark; and the southern gate by the kindreds
of Up-mark.
All this the Romans noted, and they saw how that the Markmen were now
very many, and they knew that they were men no less valiant than
themselves, and they perceived that Thiodolf was a wise Captain; and
in less than two hours' space from the Storm of Dawning they saw
those men coming from the wood with plenteous store of tree-trunks to
bridge their ditch and rampart; and they considered how the day was
yet very young, so that they might look for no shelter from the
night-tide; and as for any aid from their own folk at the war-garth
aforesaid, they hoped not for it, nor had they sent any messenger to
the Captain of the garth; nor did they know as yet of his overthrow
on the Ridge.
Now therefore there seemed to be but two choices before them; either
to abide within the rampart they had cast up, or to break out like
valiant men, and either die in the storm, or cleave a way through,
whereby they might come to their kindred and their stronghold south-
east of the Mark.
This last way then they chose; or, to say the truth, it was their
chief captain who chose it for them, though they were nothing loth
thereto: for this man was a mocker, yet hot-headed, unstable, and
nought wise in war, and heretofore had his greed minished his
courage; yet now, being driven into a corner, he had courage enough
and to spare, but utterly lacked patience; for it had been better for
the Romans to have abided one or two onsets from the Goths, whereby
they who should make the onslaught would at the least have lost more
men than they on whom they should fall, before they within stormed
forth on them; but their pride took away from the Romans their last
chance. But their captain, now that he perceived, as he thought,
that the game was lost and his life come to its last hour wherein he
would have to leave his treasure and pleasure behind him, grew
desperate and therewith most fierce and cruel. So all the captives
whom they had taken (they were but two score and two, for the wounded
men they had slain) he caused to be bound on the chairs of the high-
seat clad in their war-gear with their swords or spears made fast to
their right hands, and their shields to their left hands; and he said
that the Goths should now hold a Thing wherein they should at last
take counsel wisely, and abstain from folly. For he caused store of
faggots and small wood smeared with grease and oil to be cast into
the hall that it might be fired, so that it and the captives should
burn up altogether; "So," said he, "shall we have a fair torch for
our funeral fire;" for it was the custom of the Romans to burn their
dead.
Thus, then, he did; and then he caused men to do away the barriers
and open all the four gates of the new-made garth, after he had
manned the wall with the slingers and bowmen, and slain the horses,
so that the woodland folk should have no gain of them. Then he
arrayed his men at the gates and about them duly and wisely, and bade
those valiant footmen fall on the Goths who were getting ready to
fall on them, and to do their best. But he himself armed at all
points took his stand at the Man's-door of the Hall, and swore by all
the Gods of his kindred that he would not move a foot's length from
thence either for fire or for steel.
So fiercely on that fair morning burned the hatred of men about the
dwellings of the children of the Wolf of the Goths, wherein the
children of the Wolf of Rome were shut up as in a penfold of
slaughter.
Meanwhile the Hall-Sun standing on the Hill of Speech beheld it all,
looking down into the garth of war; for the new wall was no hindrance
to her sight, because the Speech-Hill was high and but a little way
from the Great Roof; and indeed she was within shot of the Roman
bowmen, though they were not very deft in shooting.
So now she lifted up her voice and sang so that many heard her; for
at this moment of time there was a lull in the clamour of battle both
within the garth and without; even as it happens when the thunder-
storm is just about to break on the world, that the wind drops dead,
and the voice of the leaves is hushed before the first great and near
flash of lightening glares over the fields.
So she sang:
"Now the latest hour cometh and the ending of the strife;
And to-morrow and to-morrow shall we take the hand of life,
And wend adown the meadows, and skirt the darkling wood,
And reap the waving acres, and gather in the good.
I see a wall before me built up of steel and fire,
And hurts and heart-sick striving, and the war-wright's fierce
desire;
But there-amidst a door is, and windows are therein;
And the fair sun-litten meadows and the Houses of the kin
Smile on me through the terror my trembling life to stay,
That at my mouth now flutters, as fain to flee away.
Lo e'en as the little hammer and the blow-pipe of the wright
About the flickering fire deals with the silver white,
And the cup and its beauty groweth that shall be for the people's
feast,
And all men are glad to see it from the greatest to the least;
E'en so is the tale now fashioned, that many a time and oft
Shall be told on the acre's edges, when the summer eve is soft;
Shall be hearkened round the hall-blaze when the mid-winter night
The kindreds' mirth besetteth, and quickeneth man's delight,
And we that have lived in the story shall be born again and again
As men feast on the bread of our earning, and praise the grief-born
grain."
As she made an end of singing, those about her understood her words,
that she was foretelling victory, and the peace of the Mark, and for
joy they raised a shrill cry; and the warriors who were nighest to
her took it up, and it spread through the whole host round about the
garth, and went up into the breath of the summer morning and went
down the wind along the meadow of the Wolfings, so that they of the
wain-burg, who were now drawing somewhat near to Wolf-stead heard it
and were glad.
But the Romans when they heard it knew that the heart of the battle
was reached, and they cast back that shout wrathfully and fiercely,
and made toward the foe.
Therewithal those mighty men fell on each other in the narrow passes
of the garth; for fear was dead and buried in that Battle of the
Morning.
On the North gate Hiarandi of the Elkings was the point of the
Markmen's wedge, and first clave the Roman press. In the Eastern
gate it was Valtyr, Otter's brother's son, a young man and most
mighty. In the South gate it was Geirbald of the Shieldings, the
Messenger.
In the west gate Thiodolf the War-duke gave one mighty cry like the
roar of an angry lion, and cleared a space before him for the
wielding of Ivar's blade; for at that moment he had looked up to the
Roof of the Kindred and had beheld a little stream of smoke curling
blue out of a window thereof, and he knew what had betided, and how
short was the time before them. But his wrathful cry was taken up by
some who had beheld that same sight, and by others who saw nought but
the Roman press, and terribly it rang over the swaying struggling
crowd.
Then fell the first rank of the Romans before those stark men and
mighty warriors; and they fell even where they stood, for on neither
side could any give back but for a little space, so close the press
was, and the men so eager to smite. Neither did any crave peace if
he were hurt or disarmed; for to the Goths it was but a little thing
to fall in hot blood in that hour of love of the kindred, and longing
for the days to be. And for the Romans, they had had no mercy, and
now looked for none: and they remembered their dealings with the
Goths, and saw before them, as it were, once more, yea, as in a
picture, their slayings and quellings, and lashings, and cold
mockings which they had dealt out to the conquered foemen without
mercy, and now they longed sore for the quiet of the dark, when their
hard lives should be over, and all these deeds forgotten, and they
and their bitter foes should be at rest for ever.
Most valiantly they fought; but the fury of their despair could not
deal with the fearless hope of the Goths, and as rank after rank of
them took the place of those who were hewn down by Thiodolf and the
Kindred, they fell in their turn, and slowly the Goths cleared a
space within the gates, and then began to spread along the wall
within, and grew thicker and thicker. Nor did they fight only at the
gates; but made them bridges of those tree-trunks, and fell to
swarming over the rampart, till they had cleared it of the bowmen and
slingers, and then they leaped down and fell upon the flanks of the
Romans; and the host of the dead grew, and the host of the living
lessened.
Moreover the stay-at-homes round about the Speech-Hill, and that band
of the warriors of Up-mark who were with them, beheld the Great Roof
and saw the smoke come gushing out of the windows, and at last saw
the red flames creep out amidst it and waver round the window jambs
like little banners of scarlet cloth. Then they could no longer
refrain themselves, but ran down from the Speech-Hill and the slope
about it with great and fierce cries, and clomb the wall where it was
unmanned, helping each other with hand and back, both stark warriors,
and old men and lads and women: and thus they gat them into the
garth and fell upon the lessening band of the Romans, who now began
to give way hither and thither about the garth, as they best might.
Thus it befell at the West-gate, but at the other gates it was no
worser, for there was no diversity of valour between the Houses; nay,
whereas the more part and the best part of the Romans faced the onset
of Thiodolf, which seemed to them the main onset, they were somewhat
easier to deal with elsewhere than at the West gate; and at the East
gate was the place first won, so that Valtyr and his folk were the
first to clear a space within the gate, and to tell the tale shortly
(for can this that and the other sword-stroke be told of in such a
medley?) they drew the death-ring around the Romans that were before
them, and slew them all to the last man, and then fell fiercely on
the rearward of them of the North gate, who still stood before
Hiarandi's onset. There again was no long tale to tell of, for
Hiarandi was just winning the gate, and the wall was cleared of the
Roman shot-fighters, and the Markmen were standing on the top
thereof, and casting down on the Romans spears and baulks of wood and
whatsoever would fly. There again were the Romans all slain or put
out of the fight, and the two bands of the kindred joined together,
and with what voices the battle-rage had left them cried out for joy
and fared on together to help to bind the sheaves of war which
Thiodolf's sickle had reaped. And now it was mere slaying, and the
Romans, though they still fought in knots of less than a score, yet
fought on and hewed and thrust without more thought or will than the
stone has when it leaps adown the hill-side after it has first been
set agoing.
But now the garth was fairly won and Thiodolf saw that there was no
hope for the Romans drawing together again; so while the kindreds
were busied in hewing down those knots of desperate men, he gathered
to him some of the wisest of his warriors, amongst whom were Steinulf
and Grani the Grey, the deft wood-wrights (but Athalulf had been
grievously hurt by a spear and was out of the battle), and drave a
way through the confused turmoil which still boiled in the garth
there, and made straight for the Man's-door of the Hall. Soon he was
close thereto, having hewn away all fleers that hindered him, and the
doorway was before him. But on the threshold, the fire and flames of
the kindled hall behind him, stood the Roman Captain clad in gold-
adorned armour and surcoat of sea-born purple; the man was cool and
calm and proud, and a mocking smile was on his face: and he bore his
bright blade unbloodied in his hand.
Thiodolf stayed a moment of time, and their eyes met; it had gone
hard with the War-duke, and those eyes glittered in his pale face,
and his teeth were close set together; though he had fought wisely,
and for life, as he who is most valiant ever will do, till he is
driven to bay like the lone wood-wolf by the hounds, yet had he been
sore mishandled. His helm and shield were gone, his hauberk rent;
for it was no dwarf-wrought coat, but the work of Ivar's hand: the
blood was running down from his left arm, and he was hurt in many
places: he had broken Ivar's sword in the medley, and now bore in
his hand a strong Roman short-sword, and his feet stood bloody on the
worn earth anigh the Man's-door.
He looked into the scornful eyes of the Roman lord for a little
minute and then laughed aloud, and therewithal, leaping on him with
one spring, turned sideways, and dealt him a great buffet on his ear
with his unarmed left hand, just as the Roman thrust at him with his
sword, so that the Captain staggered forward on to the next man
following, which was Wolfkettle the eager warrior, who thrust him
through with his sword and shoved him aside as they all strode into
the hall together. Howbeit no sword fell from the Roman Captain as
he fell, for Thiodolf's side bore it into the Hall of the Wolfings.
Most wrathful were those men, and went hastily, for their Roof was
full of smoke, and the flames flickered about the pillars and the
wall here and there, and crept up to the windows aloft; yet was it
not wholly or fiercely burning; for the Roman fire-raisers had been
hurried and hasty in their work. Straightway then Steinulf and Grani
led the others off at a run towards the loft and the water; but
Thiodolf, who went slowly and painfully, looked and beheld on the
dais those men bound for the burning, and he went quietly, and as a
man who has been sick, and is weak, up on to the dais, and said:
"Be of good cheer, O brothers, for the kindreds have vanquished the
foemen, and the end of strife is come."
His voice sounded strange and sweet to them amidst the turmoil of the
fight without; he laid down his sword on the table, and drew a little
sharp knife from his girdle and cut their bonds one by one and loosed
them with his blood-stained hands; and each one as he loosed him he
kissed and said to him, "Brother, go help those who are quenching the
fire; this is the bidding of the War-duke."
But as he loosed one after other he was longer and longer about it,
and his words were slower. At last he came to the man who was bound
in his own high-seat close under the place of the wondrous Lamp, the
Hall-Sun, and he was the only one left bound; that man was of the
Wormings and was named Elfric; he loosed him and was long about it;
and when he was done he smiled on him and kissed him, and said to
him:
"Arise, brother! go help the quenchers of the fire, and leave to me
this my chair, for I am weary: and if thou wilt, thou mayst bring me
of that water to drink, for this morning men have forgotten the mead
of the reapers!"
Then Elfric arose, and Thiodolf sat in his chair, and leaned back his
head; but Elfric looked at him for a moment as one scared, and then
ran his ways down the hall, which now was growing noisy with the
hurry and bustle of the quenchers of the fire, to whom had divers
others joined themselves.
There then from a bucket which was still for a moment he filled a
wooden bowl, which he caught up from the base of one of the hall-
pillars, and hastened up the Hall again; and there was no man nigh
the dais, and Thiodolf yet sat in his chair, and the hall was dim
with the rolling smoke, and Elfric saw not well what the War-duke was
doing. So he hastened on, and when he was close to Thiodolf he trod
in something wet, and his heart sank for he knew that it was blood;
his foot slipped therewith and as he put out his hand to save himself
the more part of the water was spilled, and mingled with the blood.
But he went up to Thiodolf and said to him, "Drink, War-duke! here
hath come a mouthful of water."
But Thiodolf moved not for his word, and Elfric touched him, and he
moved none the more.
Then Elfric's heart failed him and he laid his hand on the War-duke's
hand, and looked closely into his face; and the hand was cold and the
face ashen-pale; and Elfric laid his hand on his side, and he felt
the short-sword of the Roman leader thrust deep therein, besides his
many other hurts.
So Elfric knew that he was dead, and he cast the bowl to the earth,
and lifted up his hands and wailed out aloud, like a woman who hath
come suddenly on her dead child, and cried out in a great voice:
"Hither, hither, O men in this hall, for the War-duke of the Markmen
is dead! O ye people, Hearken! Thiodolf the Mighty, the Wolfing is
dead!"
And he was a young man, and weak with the binding and the waiting for
death, and he bowed himself adown and crouched on the ground and wept
aloud.
But even as he cried that cry, the sunlight outside the Man's-door
was darkened, and the Hall-Sun came over the threshold in her ancient
gold-embroidered raiment, holding in her hand her namesake the
wondrous Lamp; and the spears and the war-gear of warriors gleamed
behind her; but the men tarried on the threshold till she turned
about and beckoned to them, and then they poured in through the
Man's-door, their war-gear rent and they all befouled and disarrayed
with the battle, but with proud and happy faces: as they entered she
waved her hand to them to bid them go join the quenchers of the fire;
so they went their ways.
But she went with unfaltering steps up to the dais, and the place
where the chain of the Lamp hung down from amidst the smoke-cloud
wavering a little in the gusts of the hall. Straightway she made the
Lamp fast to its chain, and dealt with its pulleys with a deft hand
often practised therein, and then let it run up toward the smoke-
hidden Roof till it gleamed in its due place once more, a token of
the salvation of the Wolfings and the welfare of all the kindreds.
Then she turned toward Thiodolf with a calm and solemn face, though
it was very pale and looked as if she would not smile again. Elfric
had risen up and was standing by the board speechless and the passion
of sobs still struggling in his bosom. She put him aside gently, and
went up to Thiodolf and stood above him, and looked down on his face
a while: then she put forth her hand and closed his eyes, and
stooped down and kissed his face. Then she stood up again and faced
the Hall and looked and saw that many were streaming in, and that
though the smoke was still eddying overhead, the fire was well nigh
quenched within; and without the sound of battle had sunk and died
away. For indeed the Markmen had ended their day's work before
noontide that day, and the more part of the Romans were slain, and to
the rest they had given peace till the Folk-mote should give Doom
concerning them; for pity of these valiant men was growing in the
hearts of the valiant men who had vanquished them, now that they
feared them no more.
And this second part of the Morning Battle is called Thiodolf's
Storm.
So now when the Hall-Sun looked and beheld that the battle was done
and the fire quenched, and when she saw how every man that came into
the Hall looked up and beheld the wondrous Lamp and his face
quickened into joy at the sight of it; and how most looked up at the
high-seat and Thiodolf lying leaned back therein, her heart nigh
broke between the thought of her grief and of the grief of the Folk
that their mighty friend was dead, and the thought of the joy of the
days to be and all the glory that his latter days had won. But she
gathered heart, and casting back the dark tresses of her hair, she
lifted up her voice and cried out till its clear shrillness sounded
throughout all the Roof:
"O men in this Hall the War-duke is dead! O people hearken! for
Thiodolf the Mighty hath changed his life: Come hither, O men, Come
hither, for this is true, that Thiodolf is dead!"
CHAPTER XXX--THIODOLF IS BORNE OUT OF THE HALL AND OTTER IS LAID
BESIDE HIM
So when they heard her voice they came thither flockmeal, and a great
throng mingled of many kindreds was in the Hall, but with one consent
they made way for the Children of the Wolf to stand nearest to the
dais. So there they stood, the warriors mingled with the women, the
swains with the old men, the freemen with the thralls: for now the
stay-at-homes of the House were all gotten into the garth, and the
more part of them had flowed into the feast-hall when they knew that
the fire was slackening.
All these now had heard the clear voice of the Hall-Sun, or others
had told them what had befallen; and the wave of grief had swept
coldly over them amidst their joy of the recoverance of their
dwelling-place; yet they would not wail nor cry aloud, even to ease
their sorrow, till they had heard the words of the Hall-Sun, as she
stood facing them beside their dead War-duke.
Then she spake: "O Sorli the Old, come up hither! thou hast been my
fellow in arms this long while."
So the old man came forth, and went slowly in his clashing war-gear
up on to the dais. But his attire gleamed and glittered, since over-
old was he to thrust deep into the press that day, howbeit he was
wise in war. So he stood beside her on the dais holding his head
high, and proud he looked, for all his thin white locks and sunken
eyes.
But again said the Hall-Sun: "Canst thou hear me, Wolfkettle, when I
bid thee stand beside me, or art thou, too, gone on the road to
Valhall?"
Forth then strode that mighty warrior and went toward the dais:
nought fair was his array to look on; for point and edge had rent it
and stained it red, and the flaring of the hall-flames had blackened
it; his face was streaked with black withal, and his hands were as
the hands of a smith among the thralls who hath wrought unwashen in
the haste and hurry when men look to see the war-arrow abroad. But
he went up on to the dais and held up his head proudly, and looked
forth on to the hall-crowd with eyes that gleamed fiercely from his
stained and blackened face.
Again the Hall-Sun said: "Art thou also alive, O Egil the messenger?
Swift are thy feet, but not to flee from the foe: Come up and stand
with us!"
Therewith Egil clave the throng; he was not so roughly dealt with as
was Wolfkettle, for he was a bowman, and had this while past shot
down on the Romans from aloof; and he yet held his bended bow in his
hand. He also came up on to the dais and stood beside Wolfkettle
glancing down on the hall-crowd, looking eagerly from side to side.
Yet again the Hall-Sun spake: "No aliens now are dwelling in the
Mark; come hither, ye men of the kindreds! Come thou, our brother
Hiarandi of the Elkings, for thy sisters, our wives, are fain of
thee. Come thou, Valtyr of the Laxings, brother's son of Otter; do
thou for the War-duke what thy father's brother had done, had he not
been faring afar. Come thou, Geirbald of the Shieldings the
messenger! Now know we the deeds of others and thy deeds. Come,
stand beside us for a little!"
Forth then they came in their rent and battered war-gear: and the
tall Hiarandi bore but the broken truncheon of his sword; and Valtyr
a woodman's axe notched and dull with work; and Geirbald a Roman
cast-spear, for his own weapons had been broken in the medley; and he
came the last of the three, going as a belated reaper from the acres.
There they stood by the others and gazed adown the hall-throng.
But the Hall-Sun spake again: "Agni of the Daylings, I see thee now.
How camest thou into the hard hand-play, old man? Come hither and
stand with us, for we love thee. Angantyr of the Bearings, fair was
thy riding on the day of the Battle on the Ridge! Come thou, be with
us. Shall the Beamings whose daughters we marry fail the House of
the Wolf to-day? Geirodd, thou hast no longer a weapon, but the
fight is over, and this hour thou needest it not. Come to us,
brother! Gunbald of the Vallings, the Falcon on thy shield is dim
with the dint of point and edge, but it hath done its work to ward
thy valiant heart: Come hither, friend! Come all ye and stand with
us!"
As she named them so they came, and they went up on to the dais and
stood altogether; and a terrible band of warriors they looked had the
fight been to begin over again, and they to meet death once more.
And again spake the Hall-Sun:
"Steinulf and Grani, deft are your hands! Take ye the stalks of the
war blossoms, the spears of the kindreds, and knit them together to
make a bier for our War-duke, for he is weary and may not go afoot.
Thou Ali, son of Grey; thou hast gone errands for me before; go forth
now from the garth, and wend thy ways toward the water, and tell me
when thou comest back what thou hast seen of the coming of the wain-
burg. For by this time it should be drawing anigh."
So Ali went forth, and there was silence of words for a while in the
Hall; but there arose the sound of the wood-wrights busy with the
wimble and the hammer about the bier. No long space had gone by when
Ali came back into the hall panting with his swift running; and he
cried out:
"O Hall-Sun, they are coming; the last wain hath crossed the ford,
and the first is hard at hand: bright are their banners in the sun."
Then said the Hall-Sun: "O warriors, it is fitting that we go to
meet our banners returning from the field, and that we do the Gods to
wit what deeds we have done; fitting is it also that Thiodolf our
War-duke wend with us. Now get ye into your ordered bands, and go we
forth from the fire-scorched hall, and out into the sunlight, that
the very earth and the heavens may look upon the face of our War-
duke, and bear witness that he hath played his part as a man.
Then without more words the folk began to stream out of the Hall, and
within the garth which the Romans had made they arrayed their
companies. But when they were all gone from the Hall save they who
were on the dais, the Hall-Sun took the waxen torch which she had
litten and quenched at the departure of the host to battle, and now
she once more kindled it at the flame of the wondrous Lamp, the Hall-
Sun. But the wood-wrights brought the bier which they had made of
the spear-shafts of the kindred, and they laid thereon a purple cloak
gold-embroidered of the treasure of the Wolfings, and thereon was
Thiodolf laid.
Then those men took him up; to wit, Sorli the Old, and Wolfkettle and
Egil, all these were of the Wolfing House; Hiarandi of the Elkings
also, and Valtyr of the Laxings, Geirbald of the Shieldings, Agni of
the Daylings, Angantyr of the Bearings, Geirodd of the Beamings,
Gunbald of the Vallings: all these, with the two valiant wood-
wrights, Steinulf and Grani, laid hand to the bier.
So they bore it down from the dais, and out at the Man's-door into
the sunlight, and the Hall-Sun followed close after it, holding in
her hand the Candle of Returning. It was an hour after high-noon of
a bright midsummer day when she came out into the garth; and the
smoke from the fire-scorched hall yet hung about the trees of the
wood-edge. She looked neither down towards her feet nor on the right
side or the left, but straight before her. The ordered companies of
the kindreds hid the sight of many fearful things from her eyes;
though indeed the thralls and women had mostly gleaned the dead from
the living both of friend and foe, and were tending the hurt of
either host. Through an opening in the ranks moreover could they by
the bier behold the scanty band of Roman captives, some standing up,
looking dully around them, some sitting or lying on the grass talking
quietly together, and it seemed by their faces that for them the
bitterness of death was passed.
Forth then fared the host by the West gate, where Thiodolf had done
so valiantly that day, and out on to the green amidst the booths and
lesser dwellings. Sore then was the heart of the Hall-Sun, as she
looked forth over dwelling, and acre, and meadow, and the blue line
of the woods beyond the water, and bethought her of all the familiar
things that were within the compass of her eyesight, and remembered
the many days of her father's loving-kindness, and the fair words
wherewith he had solaced her life-days. But of the sorrow that wrung
her heart nothing showed in her face, nor was she paler now than her
wont was. For high was her courage, and she would in no wise mar
that fair day and victory of the kindreds with grief for what was
gone, whereas so much of what once was, yet abided and should abide
for ever.
Then fared they down through the acres, where what was yet left of
the wheat was yellowing toward harvest, and the rye hung grey and
heavy; for bright and hot had the weather been all through these
tidings. Howbeit much of the corn was spoiled by the trampling of
the Roman bands.
So came they into the fair open meadow and saw before them the wains
coming to meet them with their folk; to wit a throng of stout carles
of the thrall-folk led by the war-wise and ripe men of the Steerings.
Bright was the gleaming of the banner-wains, though for the lack of
wind the banners hung down about their staves; the sound of the
lowing of the bulls and the oxen, the neighing of horses and bleating
of the flocks came up to the ears of the host as they wended over the
meadow.
They made stay at last on the rising ground, all trampled and in
parts bloody, where yesterday Thiodolf had come on the fight between
the remnant of Otter's men and the Romans: there they opened their
ranks, and made a ring round about a space, amidmost of which was a
little mound whereon was set the bier of Thiodolf. The wains and
their warders came up with them and drew a garth of the wains round
about the ring of men with the banners of the kindreds in their due
places.
There was the Wolf and the Elk, the Falcon, the Swan, the Boar, the
Bear, and the Green-tree: the Willow-bush, the Gedd, the Water-bank
and the Wood-Ousel, the Steer, the Mallard and the Roe-deer: all
these were of the Mid-mark. But of the Upper-mark were the Horse and
the Spear, and the Shield, and the Daybreak, and the Dale, and the
Mountain, and the Brook, and the Weasel, and the Cloud, and the Hart.
Of the Nether-mark were the Salmon, and the Lynx, and the Ling worm,
the Seal, the Stone, and the Sea-mew; the Buck-goat, the Apple-tree,
the Bull, the Adder, and the Crane.
There they stood in the hot sunshine three hours after noon; and a
little wind came out of the west and raised the pictured cloths upon
the banner-staves, so that the men could now see the images of the
tokens of their Houses and the Fathers of old time.
Now was there silence in the ring of men; but it opened presently and
through it came all-armed warriors bearing another bier, and lo,
Otter upon it, dead in his war-gear with many a grievous wound upon
his body. For men had found him in an ingle of the wall of the Great
Roof, where he had been laid yesterday by the Romans when his company
and the Bearings with the Wormings made their onset: for the Romans
had noted his exceeding valour, and when they had driven off the
Goths some of them brought him dead inside their garth, for they
would know the name and dignity of so valorous a man.
So now they bore him to the mound where Thiodolf lay and set the bier
down beside Thiodolf's, and the two War-dukes of the Markmen lay
there together: and when the warriors beheld that sight, they could
not forbear, but some groaned aloud, and some wept great tears, and
they clashed their swords on their shields and the sound of their
sorrow and their praise went up to the summer heavens.
Now the Hall-Sun holding aloft the waxen torch lifted up her voice
and said:
"O warriors of the Wolfings, by the token of the flame
That here in my right hand flickers, ye are back at the House of the
Name,
And there yet burneth the Hall-Sun beneath the Wolfing Roof,
And the flame that the foemen quickened hath died out far aloof.
Ye gleanings of the battle, lift up your hearts on high,
For the House of the War-wise Wolfings and the Folk undoomed to die.
But ye kindreds of the Markmen, the Wolfing guests are ye,
And to-night we hold the high-tide, and great shall the feasting be,
For to-day by the road that we know not a many wend their ways
To the Gods and the ancient Fathers, and the hope of the latter days.
And how shall their feet be cumbered if we tangle them with woe,
And the heavy rain of sorrow drift o'er the road they go?
They have toiled, and their toil was troublous to make the days to
come;
Use ye their gifts in gladness, lest they grieve for the Ancient
Home!
Now are our maids arraying that fire-scorched Hall of ours
With the treasure of the Wolfings and the wealth of summer flowers,
And this eve the work before you will be the Hall to throng
And purge its walls of sorrow and quench its scathe and wrong."
She looked on the dead Thiodolf a moment, and then glanced from him
to Otter and spake again:
"O kindreds, here before you two mighty bodies lie;
Henceforth no man shall see them in house and field go by
As we were used to behold them, familiar to us then
As the wind beneath the heavens and the sun that shines on men;
Now soon shall there be nothing of their dwelling-place to tell,
Save the billow of the meadows, the flower-grown grassy swell!
Now therefore, O ye kindreds, if amidst you there be one
Who hath known the heart of the War-dukes, and the deeds their hands
have done,
Will not the word be with him, while yet your hearts are hot,
Of our praise and long remembrance, and our love that dieth not?
Then let him come up hither and speak the latest word
O'er the limbs of the battle-weary and the hearts outworn with the
sword."
She held her peace, and there was a stir in the ring of men: for
they who were anigh the Dayling banner saw an old warrior sitting on
a great black horse and fully armed. He got slowly off his horse and
walked toward the ring of warriors, which opened before him; for all
knew him for Asmund the old, the war-wise warrior of the Daylings,
even he who had lamented over the Hauberk of Thiodolf. He had taken
horse the day before, and had ridden toward the battle, but was
belated, and had come up with them of the wain-burg just as they had
crossed the water.
CHAPTER XXXI--OLD ASMUND SPEAKETH OVER THE WAR-DUKES: THE DEAD ARE
LAID IN MOUND
Now while all looked on, he went to the place where lay the bodies of
the War-dukes, and looked down on the face of Otter and said:
"O Otter, there thou liest! and thou that I knew of old,
When my beard began to whiten, as the best of the keen and the bold,
And thou wert as my youngest brother, and thou didst lead my sons
When we fared forth over the mountains to meet the arrowy Huns,
And I smiled to see thee teaching the lore that I learned thee erst.
O Otter, dost thou remember how the Goth-folk came by the worst,
And with thee in mine arms I waded the wide shaft-harrowed flood
That lapped the feet of the mountains with its water blent with
blood;
And how in the hollow places of the mountains hidden away
We abode the kindreds' coming as the wet night bideth day?
Dost thou remember, Otter, how many a joy we had,
How many a grief remembered has made our high-tide glad?
O fellow of the hall-glee! O fellow of the field!
Why then hast thou departed and left me under shield?
I the ancient, I the childless, while yet in the Laxing hall
Are thy brother's sons abiding and their children on thee call.
"O kindreds of the people! the soul that dwelt herein,
This goodly way-worn body, was keen for you to win
Good days and long endurance. Who knoweth of his deed
What things for you it hath fashioned from the flame of the fire of
need?
But of this at least well wot we, that forth from your hearts it came
And back to your hearts returneth for the seed of thriving and fame.
In the ground wherein ye lay it, the body of this man,
No deed of his abideth, no glory that he wan,
But evermore the Markmen shall bear his deeds o'er earth,
With the joy of the deeds that are coming, the garland of his worth."
He was silent a little as he stood looking down on Otter's face with
grievous sorrow, for all that his words were stout. For indeed, as
he had said, Otter had been his battle-fellow and his hall-fellow,
though he was much younger than Asmund; and they had been standing
foot to foot in that battle wherein old Asmund's sons were slain by
his side.
After a while he turned slowly from looking at Otter to gaze upon
Thiodolf, and his body trembled as he looked, and he opened his mouth
to speak; but no word came from it; and he sat down upon the edge of
the bier, and the tears began to gush out of his old eyes, and he
wept aloud. Then they that saw him wondered; for all knew the
stoutness of his heart, and how he had borne more burdens than that
of eld, and had not cowered down under them. But at last he arose
again, and stood firmly on his feet, and faced the folk-mote, and in
a voice more like the voice of a man in his prime than of an old man,
he sang:
"Wild the storm is abroad
Of the edge of the sword!
Far on runneth the path
Of the war-stride of wrath!
The Gods hearken and hear
The long rumour of fear
From the meadows beneath
Running fierce o'er the heath,
Till it beats round their dwelling-place builded aloof
And at last all up-swelling breaks wild o'er their roof,
And quencheth their laughter and crieth on all,
As it rolleth round rafter and beam of the Hall,
Like the speech of the thunder-cloud tangled on high,
When the mountain-halls sunder as dread goeth by.
"So they throw the door wide
Of the Hall where they bide,
And to murmuring song
Turns that voice of the wrong,
And the Gods wait a-gaze
For that Wearer of Ways:
For they know he hath gone
A long journey alone.
Now his feet are they hearkening, and now is he come,
With his battle-wounds darkening the door of his home,
Unbyrnied, unshielded, and lonely he stands,
And the sword that he wielded is gone from his hands -
Hands outstretched and bearing no spoil of the fight,
As speechless, unfearing, he stands in their sight.
"War-father gleams
Where the white light streams
Round kings of old
All red with gold,
And the Gods of the name
With joy aflame.
All the ancient of men
Grown glorious again:
Till the Slains-father crieth aloud at the last:
'Here is one that belieth no hope of the past!
No weapon, no treasure of earth doth he bear,
No gift for the pleasure of Godhome to share;
But life his hand bringeth, well cherished, most sweet;
And hark! the Hall singeth the Folk-wolf to greet!'
"As the rain of May
On earth's happiest day,
So the fair flowers fall
On the sun-bright Hall
As the Gods rise up
With the greeting-cup,
And the welcoming crowd
Falls to murmur aloud.
Then the God of Earth speaketh; sweet-worded he saith,
'Lo, the Sun ever seeketh Life fashioned of death;
And to-day as he turneth the wide world about
On Wolf-stead he yearneth; for there without doubt
Dwells the death-fashioned story, the flower of all fame.
Come hither new Glory, come Crown of the Name!'"
All men's hearts rose high as he sang, and when he had ended arose
the clang of sword and shield and went ringing down the meadow, and
the mighty shout of the Markmen's joy rent the heavens: for in sooth
at that moment they saw Thiodolf, their champion, sitting among the
Gods on his golden chair, sweet savours around him, and sweet sound
of singing, and he himself bright-faced and merry as no man on earth
had seen him, for as joyous a man as he was.
But when the sound of their exultation sank down, the Hall-Sun spake
again:
"Now wendeth the sun westward, and weary grows the Earth
Of all the long day's doings in sorrow and in mirth;
And as the great sun waneth, so doth my candle wane,
And its flickering flame desireth to rest and die again.
Therefore across the meadows wend we aback once more
To the holy Roof of the Wolfings, the shrine of peace and war.
And these that once have loved us, these warriors images,
Shall sit amidst our feasting, and see, as the Father sees
The works that menfolk fashion and the rest of toiling hands,
When his eyes look down from the mountains and the heavens above all
lands,
And up from the flowery meadows and the rolling deeps of the sea.
There then at the feast with our champions familiar shall we be
As oft we are with the Godfolk, when in story-rhymes and lays
We laugh as we tell of their laughter, and their deeds of other days.
"Come then, ye sons of the kindreds who hither bore these twain!
Take up their beds of glory, and fare we home again,
And feast as men delivered from toil unmeet to bear,
Who through the night are looking to the dawn-tide fresh and fair
And the morn and the noon to follow, and the eve and its morrow morn,
All the life of our deliv'rance and the fair days yet unborn."
So she spoke, and a murmur arose as those valiant men came forth
again. But lo, now were they dight in fresh and fair raiment and
gleaming war-array. For while all this was a-doing and a-saying,
they had gotten them by the Hall-Sun's bidding unto the wains of
their Houses, and had arrayed them from the store therein.
So now they took up the biers, and the Hall-Sun led them, and they
went over the meadow before the throng of the kindreds, who followed
them duly ordered, each House about its banner; and when they were
come through the garth which the Romans had made to the Man's-door of
the Hall, there were the women of the House freshly attired, who cast
flowers on the living men of the host, and on the dead War-dukes,
while they wept for pity of them. So went the freemen of the Houses
into the Hall, following the Hall-Sun, and the bearers of the War-
dukes; but the banners abode without in the garth made by the Romans;
and the thralls arrayed a feast for themselves about the wains of the
kindreds in the open place before their cots and the smithying booths
and the byres.
And as the Hall-Sun went into the Hall, she thrust down the candle
against the threshold of the Man's-door, and so quenched it.
Long were the kindreds entering, and when they were under the Roof of
the Wolfings, they looked and beheld Thiodolf set in his chair once
more, and Otter set beside him; and the chiefs and leaders of the
House took their places on the dais, those to whom it was due, and
the Hall-Sun sat under the wondrous Lamp her namesake.
Now was the glooming falling upon the earth; but the Hall was bright
within even as the Hall-Sun had promised. Therein was set forth the
Treasure of the Wolfings; fair cloths were hung on the walls, goodly
broidered garments on the pillars: goodly brazen cauldrons and fair-
carven chests were set down in nooks where men could see them well,
and vessels of gold and silver were set all up and down the tables of
the feast. The pillars also were wreathed with flowers, and flowers
hung garlanded from the walls over the precious hangings; sweet gums
and spices were burning in fair-wrought censers of brass, and so many
candles were alight under the Roof, that scarce had it looked more
ablaze when the Romans had litten the faggots therein for its burning
amidst the hurry of the Morning Battle.
There then they fell to feasting, hallowing in the high-tide of their
return with victory in their hands: and the dead corpses of Thiodolf
and Otter, clad in precious glistering raiment, looked down on them
from the High-seat, and the kindreds worshipped them and were glad;
and they drank the Cup to them before any others, were they Gods or
men.
But before the feast was hallowed in, came Ali the son of Grey up to
the High-seat, bearing something in his hand: and lo! it was Throng-
plough, which he had sought all over the field where the Markmen had
been overcome by the Romans, and had found it at last. All men saw
him how he held it in his hand now as he went up to the Hall-Sun and
spake to her. But she kissed the lad on the forehead, and took
Throng-plough, and wound the peace-strings round him and laid him on
the board before Thiodolf; and then she spake softly as if to
herself, yet so that some heard her:
"O father, no more shalt thou draw Throng-plough from the sheath till
the battle is pitched in the last field of fight, and the sons of the
fruitful Earth and the sons of Day meet Swart and his children at
last, when the change of the World is at hand. Maybe I shall be with
thee then: but now and in meanwhile, farewell, O mighty hand of my
father!"
Thus then the Houses of the Mark held their High-tide of Returning
under the Wolfing Roof with none to blame them or make them afraid:
and the moon rose and the summer night wore on towards dawn, and
within the Roof and without was there feasting and singing and
harping and the voice of abundant joyance: for without the Roof
feasted the thralls and the strangers, and the Roman war-captives.
But on the morrow the kindreds laid their dead men in mound betwixt
the Great Roof and the Wild-wood. In one mound they laid them with
the War-dukes in their midst, and Arinbiorn by Otter's right side;
and Thiodolf bore Throng-plough to mound with him.
But a little way from the mound of their own dead, toward the south
they laid the Romans, a great company, with their Captain in the
midst: and they heaped a long mound over them not right high; so
that as years wore, and the feet of men and beasts trod it down, it
seemed a mere swelling of the earth not made by men's hands; and
belike men knew not how many bones of valiant men lay beneath; yet it
had a name which endured for long, to wit, the Battle-toft.
But the mound whereunder the Markmen were laid was called Thiodolf's
Howe for many generations of men, and many are the tales told of him;
for men were loth to lose him and forget him: and in the latter days
men deemed of him that he sits in that Howe not dead but sleeping,
with Throng-plough laid before him on the board; and that when the
sons of the Goths are at their sorest need and the falcons cease to
sit on the ridge of the Great Roof of the Wolfings, he will wake and
come forth from the Howe for their helping. But none have dared to
break open that Howe and behold what is therein.
But that swelling of the meadow where the Goths had their overthrow
at the hands of the Romans, and Thiodolf fell to earth unwounded, got
a name also, and was called the Swooning Knowe; and it kept that name
long after men had forgotten wherefore it was so called.
Now when all this was done, and the warriors of the kindreds were
departed each to his own stead, the Wolfings gathered in wheat-
harvest, and set themselves to make good all that the Romans had
undone; and they cleansed and mended their Great Roof and made it
fairer than before, and took from it all signs of the burning, save
that they left the charring and marks of the flames on one tie-beam,
the second from the dais, for a token of the past tidings. Also when
Harvest was over the Wolfings, the Beamings, the Galtings, and the
Elkings, set to work with the Bearings to rebuild their Great Roof
and the other dwellings and booths which the Romans had burned; and
right fair was that house.
But the Wolfings throve in field and fold, and they begat children
who grew up to be mighty men and deft of hand, and the House grew
more glorious year by year.
The tale tells not that the Romans ever fell on the Mark again; for
about this time they began to stay the spreading of their dominion,
or even to draw in its boundaries somewhat.
AND THIS IS ALL THAT THE TALE HAS TO TELL CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF THE
WOLFINGS AND THE KINDREDS OF THE MARK.
Footnotes:
{1} Welsh with these men means Foreign, and is used for all people of
Europe who are not of Gothic or Teutonic blood.
{2} i.e. Foreigners: see note {1}
End of Project Gutenberg's The House of the Wolfings, by William Morris