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.