Then Thiodolf bade Fox and two others steal forward, and see what of
foemen was before them; so they fell to creeping on towards the open: but
scarcely had they started, before all men could hear the tramp of men
drawing nigh; then Thiodolf himself took with him a score of his House
and went quietly toward the wood-edge till they were barely within the
shadow of the beech-wood; and he looked forth and saw men coming straight
towards their lurking-place. And those he saw were a good many, and they
were mostly of the dastards of the Goths; but with them was a Captain of
an Hundred of the Romans, and some others of his kindred; and Thiodolf
deemed that the Goths had been bidden to gather up some of the
night-watchers and enter the wood and fall on the stay-at-homes. So he
bade his men get them aback, and he himself abode still at the very
wood's edge listening intently with his sword bare in his hand. And he
noted that those men of the foe stayed in the daylight outside the wood,
but a few yards from it, and, by command as it seemed, fell silent and
spake no word; and the morn was very still, and when the sound of their
tramp over the grass had ceased, Thiodolf could hear the tramp of more
men behind them. And then he had another thought, to wit that the Romans
had sent scouts to see if the Goths yet abided on the vantage-ground by
the ford, and that when they had found them gone, they were minded to
fall on them unawares in the refuge of the Thing-stead and were about to
do so by the counsel and leading of the dastard Goths; and that this was
one body of the host led by those dastards, who knew somewhat of the
woods. So he drew aback speedily, and catching hold of Fox by the
shoulder (for he had taken him alone with him) he bade him creep along
through the wood toward the Thing-stead, and bring back speedy word
whether there were any more foemen near the wood thereaway; and he
himself came to his men, and ordered them for onset, drawing them up in a
shallow half moon, with the bowmen at the horns thereof, with the word to
loose at the Romans as soon as they heard the war-horn blow: and all this
was done speedily and with little noise, for they were well nigh so
arrayed already.
Thus then they waited, and there was more than a glimmer of light even
under the beechen leaves, and the eastern sky was yellowing to sunrise.
The other warriors were like hounds in the leash eager to be slipped; but
Thiodolf stood calm and high-hearted turning over the memory of past
days, and the time he thought of seemed long to him, but happy.
Scarce had a score of minutes passed, and the Romans before them, who
were now gathered thick behind those dastards of the Goths, had not
moved, when back comes Fox and tells how he has come upon a great company
of the Romans led by their thralls of the Goths who were just entering
the wood, away there towards the Thing-stead.
"But, War-duke," says he, "I came also across our own folk of the second
battle duly ordered in the wood ready to meet them; and they shall be
well dealt with, and the sun shall rise for us and not for them."
Then turns Thiodolf round to those nighest to him and says, but still
softly:
"Hear ye a word, O people, of the wisdom of the foe!
Before us thick they gather, and unto the death they go.
They fare as lads with their cur-dogs who have stopped a fox's earth,
And standing round the spinny, now chuckle in their mirth,
Till one puts by the leafage and trembling stands astare
At the sight of the Wood wolf's father arising in his lair--
They have come for our wives and our children, and our sword-edge
shall they meet;
And which of them is happy save he of the swiftest feet?"
Speedily then went that word along the ranks of the Kindred, and men were
merry with the restless joy of battle: but scarce had two minutes passed
ere suddenly the stillness of the dawn was broken by clamour and uproar;
by shouts and shrieks, and the clashing of weapons from the wood on their
left hand; and over all arose the roar of the Markmen's horn, for the
battle was joined with the second company of the Kindreds. But a rumour
and murmur went from the foemen before Thiodolf's men; and then sprang
forth the loud sharp word of the captains commanding and rebuking, as if
the men were doubtful which way they should take.
Amidst all which Thiodolf brandished his sword, and cried out in a great
voice:
"Now, now, ye War-sons!
Now the Wolf waketh!
Lo how the Wood-beast
Wendeth in onset.
E'en as his feet fare
Fall on and follow!"
And he led forth joyously, and terrible rang the long refrained gathered
shout of his battle as his folk rushed on together devouring the little
space between their ambush and the hazel-beset greensward.
In the twinkling of an eye the half-moon had lapped around the
Roman-Goths and those that were with them; and the dastards made no stand
but turned about at once, crying out that the Gods of the Kindreds were
come to aid and none could withstand them. But these fleers thrust
against the band of Romans who were next to them, and bore them aback,
and great was the turmoil; and when Thiodolf's storm fell full upon them,
as it failed not to do, so close were they driven together that scarce
could any man raise his hand for a stroke. For behind them stood a great
company of those valiant spearmen of the Romans, who would not give way
if anywise they might hold it out: and their ranks were closely serried,
shield nigh touching shield, and their faces turned toward the foe; and
so arrayed, though they might die, they scarce knew how to flee. As they
might these thrust and hewed at the fleers, and gave fierce words but few
to the Roman-Goths, driving them back against their foemen: but the
fleers had lost the cunning of their right hands, and they had cast away
their shields and could not defend their very bodies against the wrath of
the kindreds; and when they strove to flee to the right hand or to the
left, they were met by the horns of the half-moon, and the arrows began
to rain in upon them, and from so close were they shot at that no shaft
failed to smite home.
There then were the dastards slain; and their bodies served for a rampart
against the onrush of the Markmen to those Romans who had stood fast. To
them were gathering more and more every minute, and they faced the Goths
steadily with their hard brown visages and gleaming eyes above their iron-
plated shields; not casting their spears, but standing closely together,
silent, but fierce. The light was spread now over all the earth; the
eastern heavens were grown golden-red, flecked here and there with little
crimson clouds: this battle was fallen near silent, but to the North was
great uproar of shouts and cries, and the roaring of the war-horns, and
the shrill blasts of the brazen trumpets.
Now Thiodolf, as his wont was when he saw that all was going well, had
refrained himself of hand-strokes, but was here and there and everywhere
giving heart to his folk, and keeping them in due order, and close array,
lest the Romans should yet come among them. But he watched the ranks of
the foe, and saw how presently they began to spread out beyond his, and
might, if it were not looked to, take them in flank; and he was about to
order his men anew to meet them, when he looked on his left hand and saw
how Roman men were pouring thick from the wood out of all array, followed
by a close throng of the kindreds: for on this side the Romans were
outnumbered and had stumbled unawares into the ambush of the Markmen, who
had fallen on them straightway and disarrayed them from the first. This
flight of their folk the Romans saw also, and held their men together,
refraining from the onset, as men who deem that they will have enough to
do to stand fast.
But the second battle of the Markmen, (who were of the Nether-mark,
mingled with the Mid-mark) fought wisely, for they swept those fleers
from before them, slaying many and driving the rest scattering, yet held
the chase for no long way, but wheeling about came sidelong on toward the
battle of the Romans and Thiodolf. And when Thiodolf saw that, he set up
the whoop of victory, he and his, and fell fiercely on the Romans,
casting everything that would fly, as they rushed on to the handplay; so
that there was many a Roman slain with the Roman spears that those who
had fallen had left among their foemen.
Now the Roman captains perceived that it availed not to tarry till the
men of the Mid and Nether-marks fell upon their flank; so they gave
command, and their ranks gave back little by little, facing their foes,
and striving to draw themselves within the dike and garth, which, after
their custom, they had already cast up about the Wolfing Roof, their
stronghold.
Now as fierce as was the onset of the Markmen, the main body of the
Romans could not be hindered from doing this much before the men of the
second battle were upon them; but Thiodolf and Arinbiorn with some of the
mightiest brake their array in two places and entered in amongst them.
And wrath so seized upon the soul of Arinbiorn for the slaying of Otter,
and his own fault towards him, that he cast away his shield, and heeding
no strokes, first brake his sword in the press, and then, getting hold of
a great axe, smote at all before him as though none smote at him in turn;
yea, as though he were smiting down tree-boles for a match against some
other mighty man; and all the while amidst the hurry, strokes of swords
and spears rained on him, some falling flatwise and some glancing
sideways, but some true and square, so that his helm was smitten off and
his hauberk rent adown, and point and edge reached his living flesh; and
he had thrust himself so far amidst the foe that none could follow to
shield him, so that at last he fell shattered and rent at the foot of the
new clayey wall cast up by the Romans, even as Thiodolf and a band with
him came cleaving the press, and the Romans closed the barriers against
friend and foe, and cast great beams adown, and masses of iron and lead
and copper taken from the smithying-booths of the Wolfings, to stay them
if it were but a little.
Then Thiodolf bestrode the fallen warrior, and men of his House were
close behind him, for wisely had he fought, cleaving the press like a
wedge, helping his friends that they might help him, so that they all
went forward together. But when he saw Arinbiorn fall he cried out:
"Woe's me, Arinbiorn! that thou wouldest not wait for me; for the day is
young yet, and over-young!"
There then they cleared the space outside the gate, and lifted up the
Bearing Warrior, and bare him back from the rampart. For so fierce had
been the fight and so eager the storm of those that had followed after
him that they must needs order their battle afresh, since Thiodolf's
wedge which he had driven into the Roman host was but of a few and the
foe had been many and the rampart and the shot-weapons were close anigh.
Wise therefore it seemed to abide them of the second battle and join with
them to swarm over the new-built slippery wall in the teeth of the Roman
shot.
In this, the first onset of the Morning Battle, some of the Markmen had
fallen, but not many, since but a few had entered outright into the Roman
ranks; and when they first rushed on from the wood but three of them were
slain, and the slaughter was all of the dastards and the Romans; and
afterwards not a few of the Romans were slain, what by Arinbiorn, what by
the others; for they were fighting fleeing, and before their eyes was the
image of the garth-gate which was behind them; and they stumbled against
each other as they were driven sideways against the onrush of the Goths,
nor were they now standing fair and square to them, and they were hurried
and confused with the dread of the onset of them of the two Marks.
As yet Thiodolf had gotten no great hurt, so that when he heard that
Arinbiorn's soul had passed away he smiled and said:
"Yea, yea, Arinbiorn might have abided the end, for ere then shall the
battle be hard."
So now the Wolfings and the Bearings met joyously the kindreds of the
Nether Mark and the others of the second battle, and they sang the song
of victory arrayed in good order hard by the Roman rampart, while
bowstrings twanged and arrows whistled, and sling-stones hummed from this
side and from that.
And of their song of victory thus much the tale telleth:
"Now hearken and hear
Of the day-dawn of fear,
And how up rose the sun
On the battle begun.
All night lay a-hiding,
Our anger abiding,
Dark down in the wood
The sharp seekers of blood;
But ere red grew the heaven we bore them all bare,
For against us undriven the foemen must fare;
They sought and they found us, and sorrowed to find,
For the tree-boles around us the story shall mind,
How fast from the glooming they fled to the light,
Yeasaying the dooming of Tyr of the fight.
"Hearken yet and again
How the night gan to wane,
And the twilight stole on
Till the world was well won!
E'en in such wise was wending
A great host for our ending;
On our life-days e'en so
Stole the host of the foe;
Till the heavens grew lighter, and light grew the world,
And the storm of the fighter upon them was hurled,
Then some fled the stroke, and some died and some stood,
Till the worst of the storm broke right out from the wood,
And the war-shafts were singing the carol of fear,
The tale of the bringing the sharp swords anear.
"Come gather we now,
For the day doth grow.
Come, gather, ye bold,
Lest the day wax old;
Lest not till to-morrow
We slake our sorrow,
And heap the ground
With many a mound.
Come, war-children, gather, and clear we the land!
In the tide of War-father the deed is to hand.
Clad in gear that we gilded they shrink from our sword;
In the House that we builded they sit at the board;
Come, war-children, gather, come swarm o'er the wall
For the feast of War-father to sweep out the Hall!"
Now amidst of their singing the sun rose upon the earth, and gleamed in
the arms of men, and lit the faces of the singing warriors as they stood
turned toward the east.
In this first onset of battle but twenty and three Markmen were slain in
all, besides Arinbiorn; for, as aforesaid, they had the foe at a
disadvantage. And this onset is called in the tale the Storm of Dawning.
CHAPTER XXI--OF THIODOLF'S STORM
The Goths tarried not over their victory; they shot with all the bowmen
that they had against the Romans on the wall, and therewith arrayed
themselves to fall on once more. And Thiodolf, now that the foe were
covered by a wall, though it was but a little one, sent a message to the
men of the third battle, them of Up-mark to wit, to come forward in good
array and help to make a ring around the Wolfing Stead, wherein they
should now take the Romans as a beast is taken in a trap. Meanwhile,
until they came, he sent other men to the wood to bring tree-boles to
batter the gate, and to make bridges whereby to swarm over the wall,
which was but breast-high on the Roman side, though they had worked at it
ceaselessly since yesterday morning.
In a long half-hour, therefore, the horns of the men of Up-mark sounded,
and they came forth from the wood a very great company, for with them
also were the men of the stay-at-homes and the homeless, such of them as
were fit to bear arms. Amongst these went the Hall-Sun surrounded by a
band of the warriors of Up-mark; and before her was borne her namesake
the Lamp as a sign of assured victory. But these stay-at-homes with the
Hall-Sun were stayed by the command of Thiodolf on the crown of the slope
above the dwellings, and stood round about the Speech-Hill, on the
topmost of which stood the Hall-Sun, and the wondrous Lamp, and the men
who warded her and it.
When the Romans saw the new host come forth from the wood, they might
well think that they would have work enough to do that day; but when they
saw the Hall-Sun take her stand on the Speech-Hill with the men-at-arms
about her, and the Lamp before her, then dread of the Gods fell upon
them, and they knew that the doom had gone forth against them.
Nevertheless they were not men to faint and die because the Gods were
become their foes, but they were resolved rather to fight it out to the
end against whatsoever might come against them, as was well seen
afterwards.
Now they had made four gates to their garth according to their custom,
and at each gate within was there a company of their mightiest men, and
each was beset by the best of the Markmen. Thiodolf and his men beset
the western gate where they had made that fierce onset. And the northern
gate was beset by the Elkings and some of the kindreds of the
Nether-mark; and the eastern gate by the rest of the men of Nether-mark;
and the southern gate by the kindreds of Up-mark.
All this the Romans noted, and they saw how that the Markmen were now
very many, and they knew that they were men no less valiant than
themselves, and they perceived that Thiodolf was a wise Captain; and in
less than two hours' space from the Storm of Dawning they saw those men
coming from the wood with plenteous store of tree-trunks to bridge their
ditch and rampart; and they considered how the day was yet very young, so
that they might look for no shelter from the night-tide; and as for any
aid from their own folk at the war-garth aforesaid, they hoped not for
it, nor had they sent any messenger to the Captain of the garth; nor did
they know as yet of his overthrow on the Ridge.
Now therefore there seemed to be but two choices before them; either to
abide within the rampart they had cast up, or to break out like valiant
men, and either die in the storm, or cleave a way through, whereby they
might come to their kindred and their stronghold south-east of the Mark.
This last way then they chose; or, to say the truth, it was their chief
captain who chose it for them, though they were nothing loth thereto: for
this man was a mocker, yet hot-headed, unstable, and nought wise in war,
and heretofore had his greed minished his courage; yet now, being driven
into a corner, he had courage enough and to spare, but utterly lacked
patience; for it had been better for the Romans to have abided one or two
onsets from the Goths, whereby they who should make the onslaught would
at the least have lost more men than they on whom they should fall,
before they within stormed forth on them; but their pride took away from
the Romans their last chance. But their captain, now that he perceived,
as he thought, that the game was lost and his life come to its last hour
wherein he would have to leave his treasure and pleasure behind him, grew
desperate and therewith most fierce and cruel. So all the captives whom
they had taken (they were but two score and two, for the wounded men they
had slain) he caused to be bound on the chairs of the high-seat clad in
their war-gear with their swords or spears made fast to their right
hands, and their shields to their left hands; and he said that the Goths
should now hold a Thing wherein they should at last take counsel wisely,
and abstain from folly. For he caused store of faggots and small wood
smeared with grease and oil to be cast into the hall that it might be
fired, so that it and the captives should burn up altogether; "So," said
he, "shall we have a fair torch for our funeral fire;" for it was the
custom of the Romans to burn their dead.
Thus, then, he did; and then he caused men to do away the barriers and
open all the four gates of the new-made garth, after he had manned the
wall with the slingers and bowmen, and slain the horses, so that the
woodland folk should have no gain of them. Then he arrayed his men at
the gates and about them duly and wisely, and bade those valiant footmen
fall on the Goths who were getting ready to fall on them, and to do their
best. But he himself armed at all points took his stand at the Man's-
door of the Hall, and swore by all the Gods of his kindred that he would
not move a foot's length from thence either for fire or for steel.
So fiercely on that fair morning burned the hatred of men about the
dwellings of the children of the Wolf of the Goths, wherein the children
of the Wolf of Rome were shut up as in a penfold of slaughter.
Meanwhile the Hall-Sun standing on the Hill of Speech beheld it all,
looking down into the garth of war; for the new wall was no hindrance to
her sight, because the Speech-Hill was high and but a little way from the
Great Roof; and indeed she was within shot of the Roman bowmen, though
they were not very deft in shooting.
So now she lifted up her voice and sang so that many heard her; for at
this moment of time there was a lull in the clamour of battle both within
the garth and without; even as it happens when the thunder-storm is just
about to break on the world, that the wind drops dead, and the voice of
the leaves is hushed before the first great and near flash of lightening
glares over the fields.
So she sang:
"Now the latest hour cometh and the ending of the strife;
And to-morrow and to-morrow shall we take the hand of life,
And wend adown the meadows, and skirt the darkling wood,
And reap the waving acres, and gather in the good.
I see a wall before me built up of steel and fire,
And hurts and heart-sick striving, and the war-wright's fierce desire;
But there-amidst a door is, and windows are therein;
And the fair sun-litten meadows and the Houses of the kin
Smile on me through the terror my trembling life to stay,
That at my mouth now flutters, as fain to flee away.
Lo e'en as the little hammer and the blow-pipe of the wright
About the flickering fire deals with the silver white,
And the cup and its beauty groweth that shall be for the people's
feast,
And all men are glad to see it from the greatest to the least;
E'en so is the tale now fashioned, that many a time and oft
Shall be told on the acre's edges, when the summer eve is soft;
Shall be hearkened round the hall-blaze when the mid-winter night
The kindreds' mirth besetteth, and quickeneth man's delight,
And we that have lived in the story shall be born again and again
As men feast on the bread of our earning, and praise the grief-born
grain."
As she made an end of singing, those about her understood her words, that
she was foretelling victory, and the peace of the Mark, and for joy they
raised a shrill cry; and the warriors who were nighest to her took it up,
and it spread through the whole host round about the garth, and went up
into the breath of the summer morning and went down the wind along the
meadow of the Wolfings, so that they of the wain-burg, who were now
drawing somewhat near to Wolf-stead heard it and were glad.
But the Romans when they heard it knew that the heart of the battle was
reached, and they cast back that shout wrathfully and fiercely, and made
toward the foe.
Therewithal those mighty men fell on each other in the narrow passes of
the garth; for fear was dead and buried in that Battle of the Morning.
On the North gate Hiarandi of the Elkings was the point of the Markmen's
wedge, and first clave the Roman press. In the Eastern gate it was
Valtyr, Otter's brother's son, a young man and most mighty. In the South
gate it was Geirbald of the Shieldings, the Messenger.
In the west gate Thiodolf the War-duke gave one mighty cry like the roar
of an angry lion, and cleared a space before him for the wielding of
Ivar's blade; for at that moment he had looked up to the Roof of the
Kindred and had beheld a little stream of smoke curling blue out of a
window thereof, and he knew what had betided, and how short was the time
before them. But his wrathful cry was taken up by some who had beheld
that same sight, and by others who saw nought but the Roman press, and
terribly it rang over the swaying struggling crowd.
Then fell the first rank of the Romans before those stark men and mighty
warriors; and they fell even where they stood, for on neither side could
any give back but for a little space, so close the press was, and the men
so eager to smite. Neither did any crave peace if he were hurt or
disarmed; for to the Goths it was but a little thing to fall in hot blood
in that hour of love of the kindred, and longing for the days to be. And
for the Romans, they had had no mercy, and now looked for none: and they
remembered their dealings with the Goths, and saw before them, as it
were, once more, yea, as in a picture, their slayings and quellings, and
lashings, and cold mockings which they had dealt out to the conquered
foemen without mercy, and now they longed sore for the quiet of the dark,
when their hard lives should be over, and all these deeds forgotten, and
they and their bitter foes should be at rest for ever.
Most valiantly they fought; but the fury of their despair could not deal
with the fearless hope of the Goths, and as rank after rank of them took
the place of those who were hewn down by Thiodolf and the Kindred, they
fell in their turn, and slowly the Goths cleared a space within the
gates, and then began to spread along the wall within, and grew thicker
and thicker. Nor did they fight only at the gates; but made them bridges
of those tree-trunks, and fell to swarming over the rampart, till they
had cleared it of the bowmen and slingers, and then they leaped down and
fell upon the flanks of the Romans; and the host of the dead grew, and
the host of the living lessened.
Moreover the stay-at-homes round about the Speech-Hill, and that band of
the warriors of Up-mark who were with them, beheld the Great Roof and saw
the smoke come gushing out of the windows, and at last saw the red flames
creep out amidst it and waver round the window jambs like little banners
of scarlet cloth. Then they could no longer refrain themselves, but ran
down from the Speech-Hill and the slope about it with great and fierce
cries, and clomb the wall where it was unmanned, helping each other with
hand and back, both stark warriors, and old men and lads and women: and
thus they gat them into the garth and fell upon the lessening band of the
Romans, who now began to give way hither and thither about the garth, as
they best might.
Thus it befell at the West-gate, but at the other gates it was no worser,
for there was no diversity of valour between the Houses; nay, whereas the
more part and the best part of the Romans faced the onset of Thiodolf,
which seemed to them the main onset, they were somewhat easier to deal
with elsewhere than at the West gate; and at the East gate was the place
first won, so that Valtyr and his folk were the first to clear a space
within the gate, and to tell the tale shortly (for can this that and the
other sword-stroke be told of in such a medley?) they drew the death-ring
around the Romans that were before them, and slew them all to the last
man, and then fell fiercely on the rearward of them of the North gate,
who still stood before Hiarandi's onset. There again was no long tale to
tell of, for Hiarandi was just winning the gate, and the wall was cleared
of the Roman shot-fighters, and the Markmen were standing on the top
thereof, and casting down on the Romans spears and baulks of wood and
whatsoever would fly. There again were the Romans all slain or put out
of the fight, and the two bands of the kindred joined together, and with
what voices the battle-rage had left them cried out for joy and fared on
together to help to bind the sheaves of war which Thiodolf's sickle had
reaped. And now it was mere slaying, and the Romans, though they still
fought in knots of less than a score, yet fought on and hewed and thrust
without more thought or will than the stone has when it leaps adown the
hill-side after it has first been set agoing.
But now the garth was fairly won and Thiodolf saw that there was no hope
for the Romans drawing together again; so while the kindreds were busied
in hewing down those knots of desperate men, he gathered to him some of
the wisest of his warriors, amongst whom were Steinulf and Grani the
Grey, the deft wood-wrights (but Athalulf had been grievously hurt by a
spear and was out of the battle), and drave a way through the confused
turmoil which still boiled in the garth there, and made straight for the
Man's-door of the Hall. Soon he was close thereto, having hewn away all
fleers that hindered him, and the doorway was before him. But on the
threshold, the fire and flames of the kindled hall behind him, stood the
Roman Captain clad in gold-adorned armour and surcoat of sea-born purple;
the man was cool and calm and proud, and a mocking smile was on his face:
and he bore his bright blade unbloodied in his hand.
Thiodolf stayed a moment of time, and their eyes met; it had gone hard
with the War-duke, and those eyes glittered in his pale face, and his
teeth were close set together; though he had fought wisely, and for life,
as he who is most valiant ever will do, till he is driven to bay like the
lone wood-wolf by the hounds, yet had he been sore mishandled. His helm
and shield were gone, his hauberk rent; for it was no dwarf-wrought coat,
but the work of Ivar's hand: the blood was running down from his left
arm, and he was hurt in many places: he had broken Ivar's sword in the
medley, and now bore in his hand a strong Roman short-sword, and his feet
stood bloody on the worn earth anigh the Man's-door.
He looked into the scornful eyes of the Roman lord for a little minute
and then laughed aloud, and therewithal, leaping on him with one spring,
turned sideways, and dealt him a great buffet on his ear with his unarmed
left hand, just as the Roman thrust at him with his sword, so that the
Captain staggered forward on to the next man following, which was
Wolfkettle the eager warrior, who thrust him through with his sword and
shoved him aside as they all strode into the hall together. Howbeit no
sword fell from the Roman Captain as he fell, for Thiodolf's side bore it
into the Hall of the Wolfings.
Most wrathful were those men, and went hastily, for their Roof was full
of smoke, and the flames flickered about the pillars and the wall here
and there, and crept up to the windows aloft; yet was it not wholly or
fiercely burning; for the Roman fire-raisers had been hurried and hasty
in their work. Straightway then Steinulf and Grani led the others off at
a run towards the loft and the water; but Thiodolf, who went slowly and
painfully, looked and beheld on the dais those men bound for the burning,
and he went quietly, and as a man who has been sick, and is weak, up on
to the dais, and said:
"Be of good cheer, O brothers, for the kindreds have vanquished the
foemen, and the end of strife is come."
His voice sounded strange and sweet to them amidst the turmoil of the
fight without; he laid down his sword on the table, and drew a little
sharp knife from his girdle and cut their bonds one by one and loosed
them with his blood-stained hands; and each one as he loosed him he
kissed and said to him, "Brother, go help those who are quenching the
fire; this is the bidding of the War-duke."
But as he loosed one after other he was longer and longer about it, and
his words were slower. At last he came to the man who was bound in his
own high-seat close under the place of the wondrous Lamp, the Hall-Sun,
and he was the only one left bound; that man was of the Wormings and was
named Elfric; he loosed him and was long about it; and when he was done
he smiled on him and kissed him, and said to him:
"Arise, brother! go help the quenchers of the fire, and leave to me this
my chair, for I am weary: and if thou wilt, thou mayst bring me of that
water to drink, for this morning men have forgotten the mead of the
reapers!"
Then Elfric arose, and Thiodolf sat in his chair, and leaned back his
head; but Elfric looked at him for a moment as one scared, and then ran
his ways down the hall, which now was growing noisy with the hurry and
bustle of the quenchers of the fire, to whom had divers others joined
themselves.
There then from a bucket which was still for a moment he filled a wooden
bowl, which he caught up from the base of one of the hall-pillars, and
hastened up the Hall again; and there was no man nigh the dais, and
Thiodolf yet sat in his chair, and the hall was dim with the rolling
smoke, and Elfric saw not well what the War-duke was doing. So he
hastened on, and when he was close to Thiodolf he trod in something wet,
and his heart sank for he knew that it was blood; his foot slipped
therewith and as he put out his hand to save himself the more part of the
water was spilled, and mingled with the blood. But he went up to
Thiodolf and said to him, "Drink, War-duke! here hath come a mouthful of
water."
But Thiodolf moved not for his word, and Elfric touched him, and he moved
none the more.
Then Elfric's heart failed him and he laid his hand on the War-duke's
hand, and looked closely into his face; and the hand was cold and the
face ashen-pale; and Elfric laid his hand on his side, and he felt the
short-sword of the Roman leader thrust deep therein, besides his many
other hurts.
So Elfric knew that he was dead, and he cast the bowl to the earth, and
lifted up his hands and wailed out aloud, like a woman who hath come
suddenly on her dead child, and cried out in a great voice:
"Hither, hither, O men in this hall, for the War-duke of the Markmen is
dead! O ye people, Hearken! Thiodolf the Mighty, the Wolfing is dead!"
And he was a young man, and weak with the binding and the waiting for
death, and he bowed himself adown and crouched on the ground and wept
aloud.
But even as he cried that cry, the sunlight outside the Man's-door was
darkened, and the Hall-Sun came over the threshold in her ancient gold-
embroidered raiment, holding in her hand her namesake the wondrous Lamp;
and the spears and the war-gear of warriors gleamed behind her; but the
men tarried on the threshold till she turned about and beckoned to them,
and then they poured in through the Man's-door, their war-gear rent and
they all befouled and disarrayed with the battle, but with proud and
happy faces: as they entered she waved her hand to them to bid them go
join the quenchers of the fire; so they went their ways.
But she went with unfaltering steps up to the dais, and the place where
the chain of the Lamp hung down from amidst the smoke-cloud wavering a
little in the gusts of the hall. Straightway she made the Lamp fast to
its chain, and dealt with its pulleys with a deft hand often practised
therein, and then let it run up toward the smoke-hidden Roof till it
gleamed in its due place once more, a token of the salvation of the
Wolfings and the welfare of all the kindreds.
Then she turned toward Thiodolf with a calm and solemn face, though it
was very pale and looked as if she would not smile again. Elfric had
risen up and was standing by the board speechless and the passion of sobs
still struggling in his bosom. She put him aside gently, and went up to
Thiodolf and stood above him, and looked down on his face a while: then
she put forth her hand and closed his eyes, and stooped down and kissed
his face. Then she stood up again and faced the Hall and looked and saw
that many were streaming in, and that though the smoke was still eddying
overhead, the fire was well nigh quenched within; and without the sound
of battle had sunk and died away. For indeed the Markmen had ended their
day's work before noon-tide that day, and the more part of the Romans
were slain, and to the rest they had given peace till the Folk-mote
should give Doom concerning them; for pity of these valiant men was
growing in the hearts of the valiant men who had vanquished them, now
that they feared them no more.
And this second part of the Morning Battle is called Thiodolf's Storm.
So now when the Hall-Sun looked and beheld that the battle was done and
the fire quenched, and when she saw how every man that came into the Hall
looked up and beheld the wondrous Lamp and his face quickened into joy at
the sight of it; and how most looked up at the high-seat and Thiodolf
lying leaned back therein, her heart nigh broke between the thought of
her grief and of the grief of the Folk that their mighty friend was dead,
and the thought of the joy of the days to be and all the glory that his
latter days had won. But she gathered heart, and casting back the dark
tresses of her hair, she lifted up her voice and cried out till its clear
shrillness sounded throughout all the Roof:
"O men in this Hall the War-duke is dead! O people hearken! for Thiodolf
the Mighty hath changed his life: Come hither, O men, Come hither, for
this is true, that Thiodolf is dead!"
CHAPTER XXX--THIODOLF IS BORNE OUT OF THE HALL AND OTTER IS LAID BESIDE
HIM
So when they heard her voice they came thither flockmeal, and a great
throng mingled of many kindreds was in the Hall, but with one consent
they made way for the Children of the Wolf to stand nearest to the dais.
So there they stood, the warriors mingled with the women, the swains with
the old men, the freemen with the thralls: for now the stay-at-homes of
the House were all gotten into the garth, and the more part of them had
flowed into the feast-hall when they knew that the fire was slackening.
All these now had heard the clear voice of the Hall-Sun, or others had
told them what had befallen; and the wave of grief had swept coldly over
them amidst their joy of the recoverance of their dwelling-place; yet
they would not wail nor cry aloud, even to ease their sorrow, till they
had heard the words of the Hall-Sun, as she stood facing them beside
their dead War-duke.
Then she spake: "O Sorli the Old, come up hither! thou hast been my
fellow in arms this long while."
So the old man came forth, and went slowly in his clashing war-gear up on
to the dais. But his attire gleamed and glittered, since over-old was he
to thrust deep into the press that day, howbeit he was wise in war. So
he stood beside her on the dais holding his head high, and proud he
looked, for all his thin white locks and sunken eyes.
But again said the Hall-Sun: "Canst thou hear me, Wolfkettle, when I bid
thee stand beside me, or art thou, too, gone on the road to Valhall?"
Forth then strode that mighty warrior and went toward the dais: nought
fair was his array to look on; for point and edge had rent it and stained
it red, and the flaring of the hall-flames had blackened it; his face was
streaked with black withal, and his hands were as the hands of a smith
among the thralls who hath wrought unwashen in the haste and hurry when
men look to see the war-arrow abroad. But he went up on to the dais and
held up his head proudly, and looked forth on to the hall-crowd with eyes
that gleamed fiercely from his stained and blackened face.
Again the Hall-Sun said: "Art thou also alive, O Egil the messenger?
Swift are thy feet, but not to flee from the foe: Come up and stand with
us!"
Therewith Egil clave the throng; he was not so roughly dealt with as was
Wolfkettle, for he was a bowman, and had this while past shot down on the
Romans from aloof; and he yet held his bended bow in his hand. He also
came up on to the dais and stood beside Wolfkettle glancing down on the
hall-crowd, looking eagerly from side to side.
Yet again the Hall-Sun spake: "No aliens now are dwelling in the Mark;
come hither, ye men of the kindreds! Come thou, our brother Hiarandi of
the Elkings, for thy sisters, our wives, are fain of thee. Come thou,
Valtyr of the Laxings, brother's son of Otter; do thou for the War-duke
what thy father's brother had done, had he not been faring afar. Come
thou, Geirbald of the Shieldings the messenger! Now know we the deeds of
others and thy deeds. Come, stand beside us for a little!"
Forth then they came in their rent and battered war-gear: and the tall
Hiarandi bore but the broken truncheon of his sword; and Valtyr a
woodman's axe notched and dull with work; and Geirbald a Roman
cast-spear, for his own weapons had been broken in the medley; and he
came the last of the three, going as a belated reaper from the acres.
There they stood by the others and gazed adown the hall-throng.
But the Hall-Sun spake again: "Agni of the Daylings, I see thee now. How
camest thou into the hard handplay, old man? Come hither and stand with
us, for we love thee. Angantyr of the Bearings, fair was thy riding on
the day of the Battle on the Ridge! Come thou, be with us. Shall the
Beamings whose daughters we marry fail the House of the Wolf to-day?
Geirodd, thou hast no longer a weapon, but the fight is over, and this
hour thou needest it not. Come to us, brother! Gunbald of the Vallings,
the Falcon on thy shield is dim with the dint of point and edge, but it
hath done its work to ward thy valiant heart: Come hither, friend! Come
all ye and stand with us!"
As she named them so they came, and they went up on to the dais and stood
altogether; and a terrible band of warriors they looked had the fight
been to begin over again, and they to meet death once more. And again
spake the Hall-Sun:
"Steinulf and Grani, deft are your hands! Take ye the stalks of the war
blossoms, the spears of the kindreds, and knit them together to make a
bier for our War-duke, for he is weary and may not go afoot. Thou Ali,
son of Grey; thou hast gone errands for me before; go forth now from the
garth, and wend thy ways toward the water, and tell me when thou comest
back what thou hast seen of the coming of the wain-burg. For by this
time it should be drawing anigh."
So Ali went forth, and there was silence of words for a while in the
Hall; but there arose the sound of the wood-wrights busy with the wimble
and the hammer about the bier. No long space had gone by when Ali came
back into the hall panting with his swift running; and he cried out:
"O Hall-Sun, they are coming; the last wain hath crossed the ford, and
the first is hard at hand: bright are their banners in the sun."
Then said the Hall-Sun: "O warriors, it is fitting that we go to meet our
banners returning from the field, and that we do the Gods to wit what
deeds we have done; fitting is it also that Thiodolf our War-duke wend
with us. Now get ye into your ordered bands, and go we forth from the
fire-scorched hall, and out into the sunlight, that the very earth and
the heavens may look upon the face of our War-duke, and bear witness that
he hath played his part as a man."
Then without more words the folk began to stream out of the Hall, and
within the garth which the Romans had made they arrayed their companies.
But when they were all gone from the Hall save they who were on the dais,
the Hall-Sun took the waxen torch which she had litten and quenched at
the departure of the host to battle, and now she once more kindled it at
the flame of the wondrous Lamp, the Hall-Sun. But the wood-wrights
brought the bier which they had made of the spear-shafts of the kindred,
and they laid thereon a purple cloak gold-embroidered of the treasure of
the Wolfings, and thereon was Thiodolf laid.
Then those men took him up; to wit, Sorli the Old, and Wolfkettle and
Egil, all these were of the Wolfing House; Hiarandi of the Elkings also,
and Valtyr of the Laxings, Geirbald of the Shieldings, Agni of the
Daylings, Angantyr of the Bearings, Geirodd of the Beamings, Gunbald of
the Vallings: all these, with the two valiant wood-wrights, Steinulf and
Grani, laid hand to the bier.
So they bore it down from the dais, and out at the Man's-door into the
sunlight, and the Hall-Sun followed close after it, holding in her hand
the Candle of Returning. It was an hour after high-noon of a bright
midsummer day when she came out into the garth; and the smoke from the
fire-scorched hall yet hung about the trees of the wood-edge. She looked
neither down towards her feet nor on the right side or the left, but
straight before her. The ordered companies of the kindreds hid the sight
of many fearful things from her eyes; though indeed the thralls and women
had mostly gleaned the dead from the living both of friend and foe, and
were tending the hurt of either host. Through an opening in the ranks
moreover could they by the bier behold the scanty band of Roman captives,
some standing up, looking dully around them, some sitting or lying on the
grass talking quietly together, and it seemed by their faces that for
them the bitterness of death was passed.
Forth then fared the host by the West gate, where Thiodolf had done so
valiantly that day, and out on to the green amidst the booths and lesser
dwellings. Sore then was the heart of the Hall-Sun, as she looked forth
over dwelling, and acre, and meadow, and the blue line of the woods
beyond the water, and bethought her of all the familiar things that were
within the compass of her eyesight, and remembered the many days of her
father's loving-kindness, and the fair words wherewith he had solaced her
life-days. But of the sorrow that wrung her heart nothing showed in her
face, nor was she paler now than her wont was. For high was her courage,
and she would in no wise mar that fair day and victory of the kindreds
with grief for what was gone, whereas so much of what once was, yet
abided and should abide for ever.
Then fared they down through the acres, where what was yet left of the
wheat was yellowing toward harvest, and the rye hung grey and heavy; for
bright and hot had the weather been all through these tidings. Howbeit
much of the corn was spoiled by the trampling of the Roman bands.
So came they into the fair open meadow and saw before them the wains
coming to meet them with their folk; to wit a throng of stout carles of
the thrall-folk led by the war-wise and ripe men of the Steerings. Bright
was the gleaming of the banner-wains, though for the lack of wind the
banners hung down about their staves; the sound of the lowing of the
bulls and the oxen, the neighing of horses and bleating of the flocks
came up to the ears of the host as they wended over the meadow.
They made stay at last on the rising ground, all trampled and in parts
bloody, where yesterday Thiodolf had come on the fight between the
remnant of Otter's men and the Romans: there they opened their ranks, and
made a ring round about a space, amidmost of which was a little mound
whereon was set the bier of Thiodolf. The wains and their warders came
up with them and drew a garth of the wains round about the ring of men
with the banners of the kindreds in their due places.
There was the Wolf and the Elk, the Falcon, the Swan, the Boar, the Bear,
and the Green-tree: the Willow-bush, the Gedd, the Water-bank and the
Wood-Ousel, the Steer, the Mallard and the Roe-deer: all these were of
the Mid-mark. But of the Upper-mark were the Horse and the Spear, and
the Shield, and the Daybreak, and the Dale, and the Mountain, and the
Brook, and the Weasel, and the Cloud, and the Hart.
Of the Nether-mark were the Salmon, and the Lynx, and the Ling worm, the
Seal, the Stone, and the Sea-mew; the Buck-goat, the Apple-tree, the
Bull, the Adder, and the Crane.
There they stood in the hot sunshine three hours after noon; and a little
wind came out of the west and raised the pictured cloths upon the banner-
staves, so that the men could now see the images of the tokens of their
Houses and the Fathers of old time.
Now was there silence in the ring of men; but it opened presently and
through it came all-armed warriors bearing another bier, and lo, Otter
upon it, dead in his war-gear with many a grievous wound upon his body.
For men had found him in an ingle of the wall of the Great Roof, where he
had been laid yesterday by the Romans when his company and the Bearings
with the Wormings made their onset: for the Romans had noted his
exceeding valour, and when they had driven off the Goths some of them
brought him dead inside their garth, for they would know the name and
dignity of so valorous a man.
So now they bore him to the mound where Thiodolf lay and set the bier
down beside Thiodolf's, and the two War-dukes of the Markmen lay there
together: and when the warriors beheld that sight, they could not
forbear, but some groaned aloud, and some wept great tears, and they
clashed their swords on their shields and the sound of their sorrow and
their praise went up to the summer heavens.
Now the Hall-Sun holding aloft the waxen torch lifted up her voice and
said:
"O warriors of the Wolfings, by the token of the flame
That here in my right hand flickers, ye are back at the House of the
Name,
And there yet burneth the Hall-Sun beneath the Wolfing Roof,
And the flame that the foemen quickened hath died out far aloof.
Ye gleanings of the battle, lift up your hearts on high,
For the House of the War-wise Wolfings and the Folk undoomed to die.
But ye kindreds of the Markmen, the Wolfing guests are ye,
And to-night we hold the high-tide, and great shall the feasting be,
For to-day by the road that we know not a many wend their ways
To the Gods and the ancient Fathers, and the hope of the latter days.
And how shall their feet be cumbered if we tangle them with woe,
And the heavy rain of sorrow drift o'er the road they go?
They have toiled, and their toil was troublous to make the days to
come;
Use ye their gifts in gladness, lest they grieve for the Ancient Home!
Now are our maids arraying that fire-scorched Hall of ours
With the treasure of the Wolfings and the wealth of summer flowers,
And this eve the work before you will be the Hall to throng
And purge its walls of sorrow and quench its scathe and wrong."
She looked on the dead Thiodolf a moment, and then glanced from him to
Otter and spake again:
"O kindreds, here before you two mighty bodies lie;
Henceforth no man shall see them in house and field go by
As we were used to behold them, familiar to us then
As the wind beneath the heavens and the sun that shines on men;
Now soon shall there be nothing of their dwelling-place to tell,
Save the billow of the meadows, the flower-grown grassy swell!
Now therefore, O ye kindreds, if amidst you there be one
Who hath known the heart of the War-dukes, and the deeds their hands
have done,
Will not the word be with him, while yet your hearts are hot,
Of our praise and long remembrance, and our love that dieth not?
Then let him come up hither and speak the latest word
O'er the limbs of the battle-weary and the hearts outworn with the
sword."
She held her peace, and there was a stir in the ring of men: for they who
were anigh the Dayling banner saw an old warrior sitting on a great black
horse and fully armed. He got slowly off his horse and walked toward the
ring of warriors, which opened before him; for all knew him for Asmund
the old, the war-wise warrior of the Daylings, even he who had lamented
over the Hauberk of Thiodolf. He had taken horse the day before, and had
ridden toward the battle, but was belated, and had come up with them of
the wain-burg just as they had crossed the water.
CHAPTER XXXI--OLD ASMUND SPEAKETH OVER THE WAR-DUKES: THE DEAD ARE LAID
IN MOUND
Now while all looked on, he went to the place where lay the bodies of the
War-dukes, and looked down on the face of Otter and said:
"O Otter, there thou liest! and thou that I knew of old,
When my beard began to whiten, as the best of the keen and the bold,
And thou wert as my youngest brother, and thou didst lead my sons
When we fared forth over the mountains to meet the arrowy Huns,
And I smiled to see thee teaching the lore that I learned thee erst.
O Otter, dost thou remember how the Goth-folk came by the worst,
And with thee in mine arms I waded the wide shaft-harrowed flood
That lapped the feet of the mountains with its water blent with blood;
And how in the hollow places of the mountains hidden away
We abode the kindreds' coming as the wet night bideth day?
Dost thou remember, Otter, how many a joy we had,
How many a grief remembered has made our high-tide glad?
O fellow of the hall-glee! O fellow of the field!
Why then hast thou departed and left me under shield?
I the ancient, I the childless, while yet in the Laxing hall
Are thy brother's sons abiding and their children on thee call.
"O kindreds of the people! the soul that dwelt herein,
This goodly way-worn body, was keen for you to win
Good days and long endurance. Who knoweth of his deed
What things for you it hath fashioned from the flame of the fire of
need?
But of this at least well wot we, that forth from your hearts it came
And back to your hearts returneth for the seed of thriving and fame.
In the ground wherein ye lay it, the body of this man,
No deed of his abideth, no glory that he wan,
But evermore the Markmen shall bear his deeds o'er earth,
With the joy of the deeds that are coming, the garland of his worth."
He was silent a little as he stood looking down on Otter's face with
grievous sorrow, for all that his words were stout. For indeed, as he
had said, Otter had been his battle-fellow and his hall-fellow, though he
was much younger than Asmund; and they had been standing foot to foot in
that battle wherein old Asmund's sons were slain by his side.
After a while he turned slowly from looking at Otter to gaze upon
Thiodolf, and his body trembled as he looked, and he opened his mouth to
speak; but no word came from it; and he sat down upon the edge of the
bier, and the tears began to gush out of his old eyes, and he wept aloud.
Then they that saw him wondered; for all knew the stoutness of his heart,
and how he had borne more burdens than that of eld, and had not cowered
down under them. But at last he arose again, and stood firmly on his
feet, and faced the folk-mote, and in a voice more like the voice of a
man in his prime than of an old man, he sang:
"Wild the storm is abroad
Of the edge of the sword!
Far on runneth the path
Of the war-stride of wrath!
The Gods hearken and hear
The long rumour of fear
From the meadows beneath
Running fierce o'er the heath,
Till it beats round their dwelling-place builded aloof
And at last all up-swelling breaks wild o'er their roof,
And quencheth their laughter and crieth on all,
As it rolleth round rafter and beam of the Hall,
Like the speech of the thunder-cloud tangled on high,
When the mountain-halls sunder as dread goeth by.
"So they throw the door wide
Of the Hall where they bide,
And to murmuring song
Turns that voice of the wrong,
And the Gods wait a-gaze
For that Wearer of Ways:
For they know he hath gone
A long journey alone.
Now his feet are they hearkening, and now is he come,
With his battle-wounds darkening the door of his home,
Unbyrnied, unshielded, and lonely he stands,
And the sword that he wielded is gone from his hands--
Hands outstretched and bearing no spoil of the fight,
As speechless, unfearing, he stands in their sight.
"War-father gleams
Where the white light streams
Round kings of old
All red with gold,
And the Gods of the name
With joy aflame.
All the ancient of men
Grown glorious again:
Till the Slains-father crieth aloud at the last:
'Here is one that belieth no hope of the past!
No weapon, no treasure of earth doth he bear,
No gift for the pleasure of Godhome to share;
But life his hand bringeth, well cherished, most sweet;
And hark! the Hall singeth the Folk-wolf to greet!'
"As the rain of May
On earth's happiest day,
So the fair flowers fall
On the sun-bright Hall
As the Gods rise up
With the greeting-cup,
And the welcoming crowd
Falls to murmur aloud.
Then the God of Earth speaketh; sweet-worded he saith,
'Lo, the Sun ever seeketh Life fashioned of death;
And to-day as he turneth the wide world about
On Wolf-stead he yearneth; for there without doubt
Dwells the death-fashioned story, the flower of all fame.
Come hither new Glory, come Crown of the Name!'"
All men's hearts rose high as he sang, and when he had ended arose the
clang of sword and shield and went ringing down the meadow, and the
mighty shout of the Markmen's joy rent the heavens: for in sooth at that
moment they saw Thiodolf, their champion, sitting among the Gods on his
golden chair, sweet savours around him, and sweet sound of singing, and
he himself bright-faced and merry as no man on earth had seen him, for as
joyous a man as he was.
But when the sound of their exultation sank down, the Hall-Sun spake
again:
"Now wendeth the sun westward, and weary grows the Earth
Of all the long day's doings in sorrow and in mirth;
And as the great sun waneth, so doth my candle wane,
And its flickering flame desireth to rest and die again.
Therefore across the meadows wend we aback once more
To the holy Roof of the Wolfings, the shrine of peace and war.
And these that once have loved us, these warriors images,
Shall sit amidst our feasting, and see, as the Father sees
The works that men-folk fashion and the rest of toiling hands,
When his eyes look down from the mountains and the heavens above all
lands,
And up from the flowery meadows and the rolling deeps of the sea.
There then at the feast with our champions familiar shall we be
As oft we are with the Godfolk, when in story-rhymes and lays
We laugh as we tell of their laughter, and their deeds of other days.
"Come then, ye sons of the kindreds who hither bore these twain!
Take up their beds of glory, and fare we home again,
And feast as men delivered from toil unmeet to bear,
Who through the night are looking to the dawn-tide fresh and fair
And the morn and the noon to follow, and the eve and its morrow morn,
All the life of our deliv'rance and the fair days yet unborn."
So she spoke, and a murmur arose as those valiant men came forth again.
But lo, now were they dight in fresh and fair raiment and gleaming war-
array. For while all this was a-doing and a-saying, they had gotten them
by the Hall-Sun's bidding unto the wains of their Houses, and had arrayed
them from the store therein.
So now they took up the biers, and the Hall-Sun led them, and they went
over the meadow before the throng of the kindreds, who followed them duly
ordered, each House about its banner; and when they were come through the
garth which the Romans had made to the Man's-door of the Hall, there were
the women of the House freshly attired, who cast flowers on the living
men of the host, and on the dead War-dukes, while they wept for pity of
them. So went the freemen of the Houses into the Hall, following the
Hall-Sun, and the bearers of the War-dukes; but the banners abode without
in the garth made by the Romans; and the thralls arrayed a feast for
themselves about the wains of the kindreds in the open place before their
cots and the smithying booths and the byres.
And as the Hall-Sun went into the Hall, she thrust down the candle
against the threshold of the Man's-door, and so quenched it.
Long were the kindreds entering, and when they were under the Roof of the
Wolfings, they looked and beheld Thiodolf set in his chair once more, and
Otter set beside him; and the chiefs and leaders of the House took their
places on the dais, those to whom it was due, and the Hall-Sun sat under
the wondrous Lamp her namesake.
Now was the glooming falling upon the earth; but the Hall was bright
within even as the Hall-Sun had promised. Therein was set forth the
Treasure of the Wolfings; fair cloths were hung on the walls, goodly
broidered garments on the pillars: goodly brazen cauldrons and
fair-carven chests were set down in nooks where men could see them well,
and vessels of gold and silver were set all up and down the tables of the
feast. The pillars also were wreathed with flowers, and flowers hung
garlanded from the walls over the precious hangings; sweet gums and
spices were burning in fair-wrought censers of brass, and so many candles
were alight under the Roof, that scarce had it looked more ablaze when
the Romans had litten the faggots therein for its burning amidst the
hurry of the Morning Battle.
There then they fell to feasting, hallowing in the high-tide of their
return with victory in their hands: and the dead corpses of Thiodolf and
Otter, clad in precious glistering raiment, looked down on them from the
High-seat, and the kindreds worshipped them and were glad; and they drank
the Cup to them before any others, were they Gods or men.
But before the feast was hallowed in, came Ali the son of Grey up to the
High-seat, bearing something in his hand: and lo! it was Throng-plough,
which he had sought all over the field where the Markmen had been
overcome by the Romans, and had found it at last. All men saw him how he
held it in his hand now as he went up to the Hall-Sun and spake to her.
But she kissed the lad on the forehead, and took Throng-plough, and wound
the peace-strings round him and laid him on the board before Thiodolf;
and then she spake softly as if to herself, yet so that some heard her:
"O father, no more shalt thou draw Throng-plough from the sheath till the
battle is pitched in the last field of fight, and the sons of the
fruitful Earth and the sons of Day meet Swart and his children at last,
when the change of the World is at hand. Maybe I shall be with thee
then: but now and in meanwhile, farewell, O mighty hand of my father!"
Thus then the Houses of the Mark held their High-tide of Returning under
the Wolfing Roof with none to blame them or make them afraid: and the
moon rose and the summer night wore on towards dawn, and within the Roof
and without was there feasting and singing and harping and the voice of
abundant joyance: for without the Roof feasted the thralls and the
strangers, and the Roman war-captives.
But on the morrow the kindreds laid their dead men in mound betwixt the
Great Roof and the Wild-wood. In one mound they laid them with the War-
dukes in their midst, and Arinbiorn by Otter's right side; and Thiodolf
bore Throng-plough to mound with him.
But a little way from the mound of their own dead, toward the south they
laid the Romans, a great company, with their Captain in the midst: and
they heaped a long mound over them not right high; so that as years wore,
and the feet of men and beasts trod it down, it seemed a mere swelling of
the earth not made by men's hands; and belike men knew not how many bones
of valiant men lay beneath; yet it had a name which endured for long, to
wit, the Battle-toft.
But the mound whereunder the Markmen were laid was called Thiodolf's Howe
for many generations of men, and many are the tales told of him; for men
were loth to lose him and forget him: and in the latter days men deemed
of him that he sits in that Howe not dead but sleeping, with
Throng-plough laid before him on the board; and that when the sons of the
Goths are at their sorest need and the falcons cease to sit on the ridge
of the Great Roof of the Wolfings, he will wake and come forth from the
Howe for their helping. But none have dared to break open that Howe and
behold what is therein.
But that swelling of the meadow where the Goths had their overthrow at
the hands of the Romans, and Thiodolf fell to earth unwounded, got a name
also, and was called the Swooning Knowe; and it kept that name long after
men had forgotten wherefore it was so called.
Now when all this was done, and the warriors of the kindreds were
departed each to his own stead, the Wolfings gathered in wheat-harvest,
and set themselves to make good all that the Romans had undone; and they
cleansed and mended their Great Roof and made it fairer than before, and
took from it all signs of the burning, save that they left the charring
and marks of the flames on one tie-beam, the second from the dais, for a
token of the past tidings. Also when Harvest was over the Wolfings, the
Beamings, the Galtings, and the Elkings, set to work with the Bearings to
rebuild their Great Roof and the other dwellings and booths which the
Romans had burned; and right fair was that house.
But the Wolfings throve in field and fold, and they begat children who
grew up to be mighty men and deft of hand, and the House grew more
glorious year by year.
The tale tells not that the Romans ever fell on the Mark again; for about
this time they began to stay the spreading of their dominion, or even to
draw in its boundaries somewhat.
AND THIS IS ALL THAT THE TALE HAS TO TELL CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF THE
WOLFINGS AND THE KINDREDS OF THE MARK.
FOOTNOTES
{1} Welsh with these men means Foreign, and is used for all people of
Europe who are not of Gothic or Teutonic blood.
{2} i.e. Foreigners: see note {1}