The House of the Wolfings | Page 7

hall; and manifold talk arose among the folk; and of the warriors
some were already dight for the journey, but most not, and a many
went their ways to see to their weapons and horses, and the rest back
again into the hall.
By this time night had fallen, and between then and the dawning would
be no darker hour, for the moon was just rising; a many of the
horse-herds had done their business, and were now making their way
back again through the lanes of the wheat, driving the stallions before
them, who played together kicking, biting and squealing, paying but
little heed to the standing corn on either side. Lights began to glitter
now in the cots of the thralls, and brighter still in the stithies where
already you might hear the hammers clinking on the anvils, as men fell
to looking to their battle gear.
But the chief men and the women sat under their Roof on the eve of
departure: and the tuns of mead were broached, and the horns filled and
borne round by young maidens, and men ate and drank and were merry;
and from time to time as some one of the warriors had done with giving
heed to his weapons, he entered into the hall and fell into the company
of those whom he loved most and by whom he was best beloved; and
whiles they talked, and whiles they sang to the harp up and down that
long house; and the moon risen high shone in at the windows, and there
was much laughter and merriment, and talk of deeds of arms of the old
days on the eve of that departure: till little by little weariness fell on

them, and they went their ways to slumber, and the hall was fallen
silent.
CHAPTER III
--THIODOLF TALKETH WITH THE WOOD-SUN
But yet sat Thiodolf under the Hall-Sun for a while as one in deep
thought; till at last as he stirred, his sword clattered on him; and then he
lifted up his eyes and looked down the hall and saw no man stirring, so
he stood up and settled his raiment on him, and went forth, and so took
his ways through the hall-door, as one who hath an errand.
The moonlight lay in a great flood on the grass without, and the dew
was falling in the coldest hour of the night, and the earth smelled
sweetly: the whole habitation was asleep now, and there was no sound
to be known as the sound of any creature, save that from the distant
meadow came the lowing of a cow that had lost her calf, and that a
white owl was flitting about near the eaves of the Roof with her wild
cry that sounded like the mocking of merriment now silent.
Thiodolf turned toward the wood, and walked steadily through the
scattered hazel-trees, and thereby into the thick of the beech-trees,
whose boles grew smooth and silver-grey, high and close-set: and so on
and on he went as one going by a well-known path, though there was
no path, till all the moonlight was quenched under the close roof of the
beech-leaves, though yet for all the darkness, no man could go there
and not feel that the roof was green above him. Still he went on in
despite of the darkness, till at last there was a glimmer before him, that
grew greater till he came unto a small wood-lawn whereon the turf
grew again, though the grass was but thin, because little sunlight got to
it, so close and thick were the tall trees round about it. In the heavens
above it by now there was a light that was not all of the moon, though it
might scarce be told whether that light were the memory of yesterday
or the promise of to-morrow, since little of the heavens could be seen
thence, save the crown of them, because of the tall tree-tops.
Nought looked Thiodolf either at the heavens above, or the trees, as he

strode from off the husk-strewn floor of the beech wood on to the
scanty grass of the lawn, but his eyes looked straight before him at that
which was amidmost of the lawn: and little wonder was that; for there
on a stone chair sat a woman exceeding fair, clad in glittering raiment,
her hair lying as pale in the moonlight on the grey stone as the barley
acres in the August night before the reaping-hook goes in amongst
them. She sat there as though she were awaiting someone, and he made
no stop nor stay, but went straight up to her, and took her in his arms,
and kissed her mouth and her eyes, and she him again; and then he sat