The House of the Wolfings
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