The House of the Wolfings
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.