The House of the Wolfings
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 Battleford.
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."