LITMIR.BIZ

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hour for Sigmund's fellows! they fall like the seeded hay

       Before the brown scythes' sweeping, and there the Isle-king fell

       In the fore-front of his battle, wherein he wrought right well,

       And soon they were nought but foemen who stand upon their feet

       On the isle-strand by the ocean where the grass and the sea-sand meet.

      And now hath the conquering War-king another deed to do,

       And he saith: "Who now gainsayeth King Lyngi come to woo,

       The lord and the overcomer and the bane of the Volsung kin?"

       So he fares to the Isle-king's dwelling a wife of the kings to win;

       And the host is gathered together, and they leave the field of the dead;

       And round as a targe of the Goth-folk the moon ariseth red.

      And so when the last is departed, and she deems they will come not aback,

       Fares Hiordis forth from the thicket to the field of the fateful wrack,

       And half-dead was her heart for sorrow as she waded the swathes of the sword.

       Not far did she search the death-field ere she found her king and lord

       On the heap that his glaive had fashioned: not yet was his spirit past,

       Though his hurts were many and grievous, and his life-blood ebbing fast;

       And glad were his eyes and open as her wan face over him hung,

       And he spake:

       "Thou art sick with sorrow, and I would thou wert not so young;

       Yet as my days passed shall thine pass; and a short while now it seems

       Since my hand first gripped the sword-hilt, and my glory was but in dreams."

      She said: "Thou livest, thou livest! the leeches shall heal thee still."

      "Nay," said he, "my heart hath hearkened to Odin's bidding and will;

       For today have mine eyes beheld him: nay, he needed not to speak:

       Forsooth I knew of his message and the thing he came to seek.

       And now do I live but to tell thee of the days that are yet to come:

       And perchance to solace thy sorrow; and then will I get me home

       To my kin that are gone before me. Lo, yonder where I stood

       The shards of a glaive of battle that was once the best of the good:

       Take them and keep them surely. I have lived no empty days;

       The Norns were my nursing mothers; I have won the people's praise.

       When the Gods for one deed asked me I ever gave them twain;

       Spendthrift of glory I was, and great was my life-days' gain;

       Now these shards have been my fellow in the work the Gods would have,

       But today hath Odin taken the gift that once he gave.

       I have wrought for the Volsungs truly, and yet have I known full well

       That a better one than I am shall bear the tale to tell:

       And for him shall these shards be smithied; and he shall be my son

       To remember what I have forgotten and to do what I left undone.

       Under thy girdle he lieth, and how shall I say unto thee,

       Unto thee, the wise of women, to cherish him heedfully.

       Now, wife, put by thy sorrow for the little day we have had;

       For in sooth I deem thou weepest: The days have been fair and glad:

       And our valour and wisdom have met, and thou knowest they shall not die:

       Sweet and good were the days, nor yet to the Fates did we cry

       For a little longer yet, and a little longer to live:

       But we took, we twain in our meeting, all gifts that they had to give:

       Our wisdom and valour have kissed, and thine eyes shall see the fruit,

       And the joy for his days that shall be hath pierced mine heart to the root.

       Grieve not for me; for thou weepest that thou canst not see my face

       How its beauty is not departed, nor the hope of mine eyes grown base.

       Indeed I am waxen weary; but who heedeth weariness

       That hath been day-long on the mountain in the winter weather's stress,

       And now stands in the lighted doorway and seeth the king draw nigh,

       And heareth men dighting the banquet, and the bed wherein he shall lie?"

      Then failed the voice of Sigmund; but so mighty was the man,

       That a long while yet he lingered till the dusky night grew wan,

       And she sat and sorrowed o'er him, but no more a word he spake.

       Then a long way over the sea-flood the day began to break;

       And when the sun was arisen a little he turned his head

       Till the low beams bathed his eyen, and there lay Sigmund dead.

       And the sun rose up on the earth; but where was the Volsung kin

       And the folk that the Gods had begotten the praise of all people to win?

How King Sigmund the Volsung was laid in mound on the sea-side of the Isle-realm.

      Now Hiordis looked from the dead, and her eyes strayed down to the sea,

       And a shielded ship she saw, and a war-dight company,

       Who beached the ship for the landing: so swift she fled away,

       And once more to the depth of the thicket, wherein her handmaid lay:

       And she said: "I have left my lord, and my lord is dead and gone,

       And he gave me a charge full heavy, and here are we twain alone,

       And earls from the sea are landing: give me thy blue attire,

       And take my purple and gold and my crown of the sea-flood's fire,

       And be thou the wife of King Volsung when men of our names shall ask,

       And I will be the handmaid: now I bid thee to this task,

       And I pray thee not to fail me, because of thy faith and truth,

       And because I have ever loved thee, and thy mother fostered my youth.

       Yea, because my womb is wealthy with a gift for the days to be.

       Now do this deed for mine asking and the tale shall be told of thee."

      So the other nought gainsaith it and they shift their raiment there:

       But well-spoken was the maiden, and a woman tall and fair.

      Now the lord of those new-coming men was a king and the son of a king,

       King Elf the son of the Helper, and he sailed from war-faring

       And drew anigh to the Isle-realm and sailed along the strand;

       For the shipmen needed water and fain would go a-land;

       And King Elf stood hard by the tiller while the world was yet a-cold:

       Then the red sun lit the dawning, and they looked, and lo, behold!

       The wrack of a mighty battle, and heaps of the shielded dead,

       And a woman alive amidst them, a queen with crownèd head,

       And her eyes strayed down to the sea-strand, and she saw that weaponed folk,

       And turned and fled to the thicket: then the lord of the shipmen spoke:

       "Lo, here shall we lack for water, for the brooks with blood shall run,

      

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