The House of the Wolfings
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 dawn-tide; 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