The House of the Wolfings: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in VerseMorris, William
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The House of the Wolfings: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse
Morris, William
Fantasy fiction
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:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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