The House of the Wolfings | Page 6

to the washing out of guilt. For thou com'st to the peace of
the Wolfings, and our very guest thou art, And meseems as I behold
thee, that I look on a child of the Hart."
But the man put the horn from him with a hasty hand, and none said
another word to him until he had gotten his breath again; and then he
said:
"All hail ye Wood-Wolfs' children! nought may I drink the wine, For
the mouth and the maw that I carry this eve are nought of mine; And
my feet are the feet of the people, since the word went forth that tide,
'O Elf here of the Hartings, no longer shalt thou bide In any house of
the Markmen than to speak the word and wend, Till all men know the
tidings and thine errand hath an end.' Behold, O Wolves, the token and
say if it be true! I bear the shaft of battle that is four-wise cloven
through, And its each end dipped in the blood-stream, both the iron and
the horn, And its midmost scathed with the fire; and the word that I
have borne Along with this war-token is, 'Wolfings of the Mark
Whenso ye see the war-shaft, by the daylight or the dark, Busk ye to
battle faring, and leave all work undone Save the gathering for the
handplay at the rising of the sun. Three days hence is the hosting, and
thither bear along Your wains and your kine for the slaughter lest the

journey should be long. For great is the Folk, saith the tidings, that
against the Markmen come; In a far off land is their dwelling, whenso
they sit at home, And Welsh {1} is their tongue, and we wot not of the
word that is in their mouth, As they march a many together from the
cities of the South.'"
Therewith he held up yet for a minute the token of the war-arrow
ragged and burnt and bloody; and turning about with it in his hand went
his ways through the open door, none hindering; and when he was gone,
it was as if the token were still in the air there against the heads of the
living men, and the heads of the woven warriors, so intently had all
gazed at it; and none doubted the tidings or the token. Then said
Thiodolf:
"Forth will we Wolfing children, and cast a sound abroad: The mouth
of the sea-beast's weapon shall speak the battle-word; And ye warriors
hearken and hasten, and dight the weed of war, And then to acre and
meadow wend ye adown no more, For this work shall be for the women
to drive our neat from the mead, And to yoke the wains, and to load
them as the men of war have need."
Out then they streamed from the hall, and no man was left therein save
the fair Hall-Sun sitting under the lamp whose name she bore. But to
the highest of the slope they went, where was a mound made higher by
man's handiwork; thereon stood Thiodolf and handled the horn, turning
his face toward the downward course of Mirkwood-water; and he set
the horn to his lips, and blew a long blast, and then again, and yet again
the third time; and all the sounds of the gathering night were hushed
under the sound of the roaring of the war-horn of the Wolfings; and the
Kin of the Beamings heard it as they sat in their hall, and they gat them
ready to hearken to the bearer of the tidings who should follow on the
sound of the war-blast.
But when the last sound of the horn had died away, then said Thiodolf:
"Now Wolfing children hearken, what the splintered War-shaft saith,
The fire scathed blood-stained aspen! we shall ride for life or death, We
warriors, a long journey with the herd and with the wain; But unto this

our homestead shall we wend us back again, All the gleanings of the
battle; and here for them that live Shall stand the Roof of the Wolfings,
and for them shall the meadow thrive, And the acres give their increase
in the harvest of the year; Now is no long departing since the Hall-Sun
bideth here 'Neath the holy Roof of the Fathers, and the place of the
Wolfing kin, And the feast of our glad returning shall yet be held
therein. Hear the bidding of the War-shaft! All men, both thralls and
free, 'Twixt twenty winters and sixty, beneath the shield shall be, And
the hosting is at the Thing-stead, the Upper-mark anigh; And we wend
away to-morrow ere the Sun is noon-tide high."
Therewith he stepped down from the mound, and went his way back to
the