All hail O Day and thy Sons, and thy kin of the coloured things! Hail, following Night, and thy Daughter that leadeth thy wavering wings! Look down with unangry eyes on us today alive, And give us the hearts victorious, and the gain for which we strive! All hail, ye Lords of God-home, and ye Queens of the House of Gold! Hail thou dear Earth that bearest, and thou Wealth of field and fold! Give us, your noble children, the glory of wisdom and speech, And the hearts and the hands of healing, and the mouths and hands that teach! (P. 140.) In order to see just what the art of Morris has done for this poem, let us compare this address with the rendering of the _Sigrdrifumál_, which tell the same story and which Morris and Magnusson have incorporated into their translation of the _Völsunga Saga_. The verses are not in the original saga: Hail to the day come back! Hail, sons of the daylight! Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter! Look with kind eyes a-down, On us sitting here lonely, And give unto us the gain that we long for. Hail to the Æsir, And the sweet Asyniur! Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty! Fair words, wise hearts, Would we win from you, And healing hands while life we hold. To get the full benefit of the comparison of the old and the new, let us set in conjunction with these versions a severely literal translation of the _Edda_ strophes themselves: Hail, O Day, Hail, O Sons of the Day, Hail Night and kinswoman! With unwroth eyes look on us here and give to us sitting ones victory. Hail, O Gods, Hail, O Goddesses, Hail, O bounteous Earth! Speech and wisdom give to us, the excellent twain, and healing hands during life. These stages in the progress of the gold from mine to mint furnish their own commentary. The finished product will pass current with the most exacting of assayers, as well as gladden the hearts of the poor one whose hand seldom touches gold. If the skill of the poet in this case have merited resemblance to that of the refiner of gold, what name less than alchemy can characterize his achievement in the rest of this scene? From the first words of Brynhild's life-story: I am she that loveth; I was born of the earthly folk; to the tender words that tell of the coming of another day: And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day,