Nought Sigurd seeth of Regin, and nought he heeds of him,As in watchful might and glory he strides the desert dim,And behind him paceth Greyfell; but he deems the time o'erlongTill he meet the great gold-warden, the over-lord of wrong.So he wendeth midst the silence through the measureless desert place,And beholds the countless glitter with wise and steadfast face,Till him-seems in a little season that the flames grown somewhat wan,And a grey thing glimmers before him, and becomes a mighty man.One-eyed and ancient-seeming, in cloud-grey raiment clad;A friendly man and glorious, and of visage smiling-glad:Then content in Sigurd groweth because of his majesty,And he heareth him speak in the desert as the wind of the winter sea:"Hail Sigurd! Give me thy greeting ere thy ways alone thou wend!"Said Sigurd: "Hail! I greet thee, my friend and my fathers' friend.""Now whither away," said the elder, "with the Steed and the ancient Sword?""To the greedy house," said Sigurd, "and the King of the Heavy Hoard.""Wilt thou smite, O Sigurd, Sigurd?" said the ancient mighty-one."Yea, yea, I shall smite," said the Volsung, "save the Gods have slain the sun.""What wise wilt thou smite," said the elder? "lest the dark devour thy day?""Thou hast praised the sword," said the child, "and the sword shall find a way.""Be learned of me," said the Wise-one, "for I was the first of thy folk."Said the child: "I shall do thy bidding, and for thee shall I strike the stroke."Spake the Wise-one: "Thus shalt thou do when thou wendest hence alone:Thou shalt find a path in the desert, and a road in the world of stone;It is smooth and deep and hollow, but the rain hath riven it not,And the wild wind hath not worn it, for it is but Fafnir's slot,Whereby he wends to the water and the fathomless pool of old,When his heart in the dawn is weary, and he loathes the ancient Gold:There think of the great and the fathers, and bare the whetted Wrath,And dig a pit in the highway, and a grave in the Serpent's path:Lie thou therein, O Sigurd, and thine hope from the glooming hide,And be as the dead for a season, and the living light abide!And so shall thine heart avail thee, and thy mighty fateful hand,And the Light that lay in the Branstock, the well-belovèd brand."Said the child: "I shall do thy bidding, and for thee shall I strike the stroke;For I love thee, friend of my fathers, Wise Heart of the holy folk."So spake the Son of Sigmund, and beheld no man anear,And again was the night the midnight, and the twinkling flames shone clearIn the hush of the Glittering Heath; and alone went Sigmund's sonTill he came to the road of Fafnir, and the highway worn by one,By the drift of the rain unfurrowed, by the windy years unrent,And forth from the dark it came, and into the dark it went.Great then was the heart of Sigurd, for there in the midmost he stayed,And thought of the ancient fathers, and bared the bright blue blade,That shone as a fleck of the day-light, and the night was all around.Fair then was the Son of Sigmund as he tolled and laboured the ground;Great, mighty he was in his working, and the Glittering Heath he clave,And the sword shone blue before him as he dug the pit and the grave:There he hid his hope from the night-tide and lay like one of the dead,And wise and wary he bided; and the heavens hung over his head.Now the night wanes over Sigurd, and the ruddy rings he sees,And his war-gear's fair adornment, and the God-folk's images;But a voice in the desert ariseth, a sound in the waste has birth,A changing tinkle and clatter, as of gold dragged over the earth:O'er Sigurd widens the day-light, and the sound is drawing close,And speedier than the trample of speedy feet it goes;But ever deemeth Sigurd that the sun brings back the day,For the grave grows lighter and lighter and heaven o'erhead is grey.But now, how the rattling waxeth till he may not heed nor hark!And the day and the heavens are hidden, and o'er Sigurd rolls the dark,As the flood of a pitchy river, and heavy-thick is the airWith the venom of hate long hoarded, and lies once fashioned fair:Then a wan face comes from the darkness, and is wrought in manlike wise,And the lips are writhed with laughter and bleared are the blinded eyes;And it wandereth hither and thither, and searcheth through the graveAnd departeth, leaving nothing, save the dark, rolled wave on waveO'er the golden head of Sigurd and the edges of the sword,And the world weighs heavy on Sigurd, and the weary curse of the Hoard:Him-seemed the grave grew straiter, and his hope of life grew chill,And his heart by the Worm was enfolded, and the bonds of the Ancient Ill.Then was Sigurd stirred by his glory, and he strove with the swaddling of Death;He turned in the pit on the highway, and the grave of the Glittering Heath;He laughed and smote with the laughter and thrust up over his head.And smote the venom asunder, and clave the heart of Dread;Then he leapt from the pit and the grave, and the rushing river of blood,And fulfilled with the joy of the War-God on the face of earth he stoodWith red sword high uplifted, with wrathful glittering eyes;And he laughed at the heavens above him for he saw the sun arise,And Sigurd gleamed on the desert, and shone in the new-born light,And the wind in his raiment wavered, and all the world was bright.But there was the ancient Fafnir, and the Face of Terror layOn the huddled folds of the Serpent, that were black and ashen-greyIn the desert lit by the sun; and those twain looked each on each,And forth from the Face of Terror went a sound of dreadful speech:"Child, child, who art thou that hast smitten? bright child, of whence is thy birth?""I am called the Wild-thing Glorious, and alone I wend on the earth.""Fierce child, and who was thy father?—Thou hast cleft the heart of the Foe!""Am I like to the sons of men-folk, that my father I should know?""Wert thou born of a nameless wonder? shall the lies to my death-day cling?""How lieth Sigurd the Volsung, and the Son of Sigmund the King?""O bitter father of Sigurd!—thou hast cleft mine heart atwain!""I arose, and I wondered and wended, and I smote, and I smote not in vain.""What master hath taught thee of murder?—Thou hast wasted Fafnir's day.""I, Sigurd, knew and desired, and the bright sword learned the way.""Thee, thee shall the rattling Gold and the red rings bring to the bane.""Yet mine hand shall cast them abroad, and the earth shall gather again.""I see thee great in thine anger, and the Norns thou heedest not.""O Fafnir, speak of the Norns and the wisdom unforgot!""Let the death-doomed flee from the ocean, him the wind and the weather shall drown.""O Fafnir, tell of the Norns ere thy life thou layest adown!""O manifold is their kindred, and who shall tell them all?There are they that rule o'er men-folk and the stars that rise and fall:—I knew of the folk of the Dwarfs, and I knew their Norns of old;And I fought, and I fell in the morning, and I die afar from the gold:—I have seen the Gods of heaven, and their Norns withal I know:They love and withhold their helping, they hate and refrain the blow;They curse and they may not sunder, they bless and they shall not blend;They have fashioned the good and the evil; they abide the change and the end.""O Fafnir, what of the Isle, and what hast thou known of its name,Where the Gods shall mingle edges with Surt and the Sons of the Flame?""O child, O Strong Compeller! Unshapen is it hight;There the fallow blades shall be shaken and the Dark and the Day shall smite,When the Bridge of the Gods is broken, and their white steeds swim the sea,And the uttermost field is stricken, last strife of thee and me.""What then shall endure, O Fafnir, the tale of the battle to tell?""I am blind, O Strong Compeller, in the bonds of Death and Hell.But thee shall the rattling Gold and the red rings bring unto bane.""Yet the rings mine hand shall scatter, and the earth shall gather again.""Woe, woe! in the days passed over I bore the Helm of Dread,I reared the Face of Terror, and the hoarded hate of the Dead:I overcame and was mighty; I was wise and cherished my heartIn the waste where no man wandered, and the high house builded apart:Till I met thine hand, O Sigurd, and thy might ordained from of old;And I fought and fell in the morning, and I die far off from the Gold."Then Sigurd leaned on his sword, and a dreadful voice went byLike the wail of a God departing and the War-God's misery;And strong words of ancient wisdom went by on the desert wind,The words that mar and fashion, the words that loose and bind;And sounds of a strange lamenting, and such strange things bewailed,That words to tell their meaning the tongue of man hath failed.Then all sank into silence, and the Son of Sigmund stoodOn the torn and furrowed desert by the pool of Fafnir's blood,And the Serpent lay before him, dead, chilly, dull, and grey;And over the Glittering Heath fair shone the sun and the day,And a light wind followed the sun and breathed o'er the fateful place,As fresh as it furrows the sea-plain or bows the acres' face.
Nought Sigurd seeth of Regin, and nought he heeds of him,As in watchful might and glory he strides the desert dim,And behind him paceth Greyfell; but he deems the time o'erlongTill he meet the great gold-warden, the over-lord of wrong.
So he wendeth midst the silence through the measureless desert place,And beholds the countless glitter with wise and steadfast face,Till him-seems in a little season that the flames grown somewhat wan,And a grey thing glimmers before him, and becomes a mighty man.One-eyed and ancient-seeming, in cloud-grey raiment clad;A friendly man and glorious, and of visage smiling-glad:Then content in Sigurd groweth because of his majesty,And he heareth him speak in the desert as the wind of the winter sea:
"Hail Sigurd! Give me thy greeting ere thy ways alone thou wend!"
Said Sigurd: "Hail! I greet thee, my friend and my fathers' friend."
"Now whither away," said the elder, "with the Steed and the ancient Sword?"
"To the greedy house," said Sigurd, "and the King of the Heavy Hoard."
"Wilt thou smite, O Sigurd, Sigurd?" said the ancient mighty-one.
"Yea, yea, I shall smite," said the Volsung, "save the Gods have slain the sun."
"What wise wilt thou smite," said the elder? "lest the dark devour thy day?"
"Thou hast praised the sword," said the child, "and the sword shall find a way."
"Be learned of me," said the Wise-one, "for I was the first of thy folk."
Said the child: "I shall do thy bidding, and for thee shall I strike the stroke."
Spake the Wise-one: "Thus shalt thou do when thou wendest hence alone:Thou shalt find a path in the desert, and a road in the world of stone;It is smooth and deep and hollow, but the rain hath riven it not,And the wild wind hath not worn it, for it is but Fafnir's slot,Whereby he wends to the water and the fathomless pool of old,When his heart in the dawn is weary, and he loathes the ancient Gold:There think of the great and the fathers, and bare the whetted Wrath,And dig a pit in the highway, and a grave in the Serpent's path:Lie thou therein, O Sigurd, and thine hope from the glooming hide,And be as the dead for a season, and the living light abide!And so shall thine heart avail thee, and thy mighty fateful hand,And the Light that lay in the Branstock, the well-belovèd brand."
Said the child: "I shall do thy bidding, and for thee shall I strike the stroke;For I love thee, friend of my fathers, Wise Heart of the holy folk."
So spake the Son of Sigmund, and beheld no man anear,And again was the night the midnight, and the twinkling flames shone clearIn the hush of the Glittering Heath; and alone went Sigmund's sonTill he came to the road of Fafnir, and the highway worn by one,By the drift of the rain unfurrowed, by the windy years unrent,And forth from the dark it came, and into the dark it went.
Great then was the heart of Sigurd, for there in the midmost he stayed,And thought of the ancient fathers, and bared the bright blue blade,That shone as a fleck of the day-light, and the night was all around.Fair then was the Son of Sigmund as he tolled and laboured the ground;Great, mighty he was in his working, and the Glittering Heath he clave,And the sword shone blue before him as he dug the pit and the grave:There he hid his hope from the night-tide and lay like one of the dead,And wise and wary he bided; and the heavens hung over his head.
Now the night wanes over Sigurd, and the ruddy rings he sees,And his war-gear's fair adornment, and the God-folk's images;But a voice in the desert ariseth, a sound in the waste has birth,A changing tinkle and clatter, as of gold dragged over the earth:O'er Sigurd widens the day-light, and the sound is drawing close,And speedier than the trample of speedy feet it goes;But ever deemeth Sigurd that the sun brings back the day,For the grave grows lighter and lighter and heaven o'erhead is grey.
But now, how the rattling waxeth till he may not heed nor hark!And the day and the heavens are hidden, and o'er Sigurd rolls the dark,As the flood of a pitchy river, and heavy-thick is the airWith the venom of hate long hoarded, and lies once fashioned fair:Then a wan face comes from the darkness, and is wrought in manlike wise,And the lips are writhed with laughter and bleared are the blinded eyes;And it wandereth hither and thither, and searcheth through the graveAnd departeth, leaving nothing, save the dark, rolled wave on waveO'er the golden head of Sigurd and the edges of the sword,And the world weighs heavy on Sigurd, and the weary curse of the Hoard:Him-seemed the grave grew straiter, and his hope of life grew chill,And his heart by the Worm was enfolded, and the bonds of the Ancient Ill.
Then was Sigurd stirred by his glory, and he strove with the swaddling of Death;He turned in the pit on the highway, and the grave of the Glittering Heath;He laughed and smote with the laughter and thrust up over his head.And smote the venom asunder, and clave the heart of Dread;Then he leapt from the pit and the grave, and the rushing river of blood,And fulfilled with the joy of the War-God on the face of earth he stoodWith red sword high uplifted, with wrathful glittering eyes;And he laughed at the heavens above him for he saw the sun arise,And Sigurd gleamed on the desert, and shone in the new-born light,And the wind in his raiment wavered, and all the world was bright.
But there was the ancient Fafnir, and the Face of Terror layOn the huddled folds of the Serpent, that were black and ashen-greyIn the desert lit by the sun; and those twain looked each on each,And forth from the Face of Terror went a sound of dreadful speech:
"Child, child, who art thou that hast smitten? bright child, of whence is thy birth?"
"I am called the Wild-thing Glorious, and alone I wend on the earth."
"Fierce child, and who was thy father?—Thou hast cleft the heart of the Foe!"
"Am I like to the sons of men-folk, that my father I should know?"
"Wert thou born of a nameless wonder? shall the lies to my death-day cling?"
"How lieth Sigurd the Volsung, and the Son of Sigmund the King?"
"O bitter father of Sigurd!—thou hast cleft mine heart atwain!"
"I arose, and I wondered and wended, and I smote, and I smote not in vain."
"What master hath taught thee of murder?—Thou hast wasted Fafnir's day."
"I, Sigurd, knew and desired, and the bright sword learned the way."
"Thee, thee shall the rattling Gold and the red rings bring to the bane."
"Yet mine hand shall cast them abroad, and the earth shall gather again."
"I see thee great in thine anger, and the Norns thou heedest not."
"O Fafnir, speak of the Norns and the wisdom unforgot!"
"Let the death-doomed flee from the ocean, him the wind and the weather shall drown."
"O Fafnir, tell of the Norns ere thy life thou layest adown!"
"O manifold is their kindred, and who shall tell them all?There are they that rule o'er men-folk and the stars that rise and fall:—I knew of the folk of the Dwarfs, and I knew their Norns of old;And I fought, and I fell in the morning, and I die afar from the gold:—I have seen the Gods of heaven, and their Norns withal I know:They love and withhold their helping, they hate and refrain the blow;They curse and they may not sunder, they bless and they shall not blend;They have fashioned the good and the evil; they abide the change and the end."
"O Fafnir, what of the Isle, and what hast thou known of its name,Where the Gods shall mingle edges with Surt and the Sons of the Flame?"
"O child, O Strong Compeller! Unshapen is it hight;There the fallow blades shall be shaken and the Dark and the Day shall smite,When the Bridge of the Gods is broken, and their white steeds swim the sea,And the uttermost field is stricken, last strife of thee and me."
"What then shall endure, O Fafnir, the tale of the battle to tell?"
"I am blind, O Strong Compeller, in the bonds of Death and Hell.But thee shall the rattling Gold and the red rings bring unto bane."
"Yet the rings mine hand shall scatter, and the earth shall gather again."
"Woe, woe! in the days passed over I bore the Helm of Dread,I reared the Face of Terror, and the hoarded hate of the Dead:I overcame and was mighty; I was wise and cherished my heartIn the waste where no man wandered, and the high house builded apart:Till I met thine hand, O Sigurd, and thy might ordained from of old;And I fought and fell in the morning, and I die far off from the Gold."
Then Sigurd leaned on his sword, and a dreadful voice went byLike the wail of a God departing and the War-God's misery;And strong words of ancient wisdom went by on the desert wind,The words that mar and fashion, the words that loose and bind;And sounds of a strange lamenting, and such strange things bewailed,That words to tell their meaning the tongue of man hath failed.
Then all sank into silence, and the Son of Sigmund stoodOn the torn and furrowed desert by the pool of Fafnir's blood,And the Serpent lay before him, dead, chilly, dull, and grey;And over the Glittering Heath fair shone the sun and the day,And a light wind followed the sun and breathed o'er the fateful place,As fresh as it furrows the sea-plain or bows the acres' face.
There standeth Sigurd the Volsung, and leaneth on his sword,And beside him now is Greyfell and looks on his golden lord,And the world is awake and living; and whither now shall they wend,Who have come to the Glittering Heath, and wrought that deed to its end?For hither comes Regin the Master from the skirts of the field of death,And he shadeth his eyes from the sunlight as afoot he goeth and saith:"Ah, let me live for a while! for a while and all shall be well,When passed is the house of murder and I creep from the prison of hell."Afoot he went o'er the desert, and he came unto Sigurd and staredAt the golden gear of the man, and the Wrath yet bloody and bared,And the light locks raised by the wind, and the eyes beginning to smile,And the lovely lips of the Volsung, and the brow that knew no guile;And he murmured under his breath while his eyes grew white with wrath:"O who art thou, and wherefore, and why art thou in the path?"Then he turned to the ash-grey Serpent, and grovelled low on the ground,And he drank of that pool of the blood where the stones of the wild were drowned,And long he lapped as a dog; but when he arose again,Lo, a flock of the mountain-eagles that drew to the feastful plain;And he turned and looked on Sigurd, as bright in the sun he stood,A stripling fair and slender, and wiped the Wrath of the blood.But Regin cried: "O Dwarf-kind, O many-shifting folk,O shapes of might and wonder, am I too freed from the yoke,That binds my soul to my body a withered thing forlorn,While the short-lived fools of man-folk so fair and oft are born?Now swift in the air shall I be, and young in the concourse of kings,If my heart shall come to desire the gain of earthly things."And he looked and saw how Sigurd was sheathing the Flame of War,And the eagles screamed in the wind, but their voice came faint from afar:Then he scowled, and crouched and darkened, and came to Sigurd and spake:"O child, thou hast slain my brother, and the Wrath is alive and awake.""Thou sayest sooth," said Sigurd, "thy deed and mine is done:But now our ways shall sunder, for here, meseemeth, the sunHath but little of deeds to do, and no love to win aback."Then Regin crouched before him, and he spake: "Fare on to the wrack!Fare on to the murder of men, and the deeds of thy kindred of old!And surely of thee as of them shall the tale be speedily told.Thou hast slain thy Master's brother, and what wouldst thou say thereto,Were the judges met for the judging and the doom-ring hallowed due?"Then Sigurd spake as aforetime: "Thy deed and mine it was,And now our ways shall sunder, and into the world will I pass."But Regin darkened before him, and exceeding grim was he grown,And he spake: "Thou hast slain my brother, and wherewith wilt thou atone?""Stand up, O Master," said Sigurd, "O Singer of ancient days,And take the wealth I have won thee, ere we wend on the sundering ways.I have toiled and thou hast desired, and the Treasure is surely anear,And thou hast wisdom to find it, and I have slain thy fear."But Regin crouched and darkened: "Thou hast slain my brother," he said."Take thou the Gold," quoth Sigurd, "for the ransom of my head!"Then Regin crouched and darkened, and over the earth he hung;And he said: "Thou hast slain my brother, and the Gods are yet but young."Bright Sigurd towered above him, and the Wrath cried out in the sheath,And Regin writhed against it as the adder turns on death;And he spake: "Thou hast slain my brother, and today shalt thou be my thrall:Yea a King shall be my cook-boy and this heath my cooking-hall."Then he crept to the ash-grey coils where the life of his brother had lain.And he drew a glaive from his side and smote the smitten and slain,And tore the heart from Fafnir, while the eagles cried o'erhead.And sharp and shrill was their voice o'er the entrails of the dead.Then Regin spake to Sigurd: "Of this slaying wilt thou be free?Then gather thou fire together and roast the heart for me,That I may eat it and live, and be thy master and more;For therein was might and wisdom, and the grudged and hoarded lore:——Or else, depart on thy ways afraid from the Glittering Heath."Then he fell abackward and slept, nor set his sword in the sheath,But his hand was red on the hilts and blue were the edges bared,Ash-grey was his visage waxen, and with open eyes he staredOn the height of heaven above him, and a fearful thing he seemed,As his soul went wide in the world, and of rule and kingship he dreamed.But Sigurd took the Heart, and wood on the waste he found,The wood that grew and died, as it crept on the niggard ground,And grew and died again, and lay like whitened bones;And the ernes cried over his head, as he builded his hearth of stones,And kindled the fire for cooking, and sat and sang o'er the roastThe song of his fathers of old, and the Wolflings' gathering host:So there on the Glittering Heath rose up the little flame,And the dry sticks crackled amidst it, and alow the eagles came,And seven they were by tale, and they pitched all round aboutThe cooking-fire of Sigurd, and sent their song-speech out:But nought he knoweth its wisdom, or the word that they would speak:And hot grew the Heart of Fafnir and sang amid the reek.Then Sigurd looketh on Regin, and he deemeth it overlongThat he dighteth the dear-bought morsel, and the might for the Master of wrong,So he reacheth his hand to the roast to see if the cooking be o'er;But the blood and the fat seethed from it and scalded his finger sore,And he set his hand to his mouth to quench the fleshly smart,And he tasted the flesh of the Serpent and the blood of Fafnir's Heart:Then there came a change upon him, for the speech of fowl he knew,And wise in the ways of the beast-kind as the Dwarfs of old he grew;And he knitted his brows and hearkened, and wrath in his heart arose;For he felt beset of evil in a world of many foes.But the hilts of the Wrath he handled, and Regin's heart he saw,And how that the Foe of the Gods the net of death would draw;And his bright eyes flashed and sparkled, and his mouth grew set and sternAs he hearkened the voice of the eagles, and their song began to learn.For the first cried out in the desert: "O mighty Sigmund's son,How long wilt thou sit and tarry now the dear-bought roast is done?"And the second: "Volsung, arise! for the horns blow up to the hall,And dight are the purple hangings, and the King to the feasting should fall."And the third: "How great is the feast if the eater eat arightThe Heart of the wisdom of old and the after-world's delight!"And the fourth: "Yea, what of Regin? shall he scatter wrack o'er the world?Shall the father be slain by the son, and the brother 'gainst brother be hurled?"And the fifth: "He hath taught a stripling the gifts of a God to give:He hath reared up a King for the slaying, that he alone might live."And the sixth: "He shall waken mighty as a God that scorneth at truth;He hath drunk of the blood of the Serpent, and drowned all hope and ruth."And the seventh: "Arise, O Sigurd, lest the hour be overlate!For the sun in the mid-noon shineth, and swift is the hand of Fate:Arise! lest the world run backward and the blind heart have its will,And once again be tangled the sundered good and ill;Lest love and hatred perish, lest the world forget its tale,And the Gods sit deedless, dreaming, in the high-walled heavenly vale."Then swift ariseth Sigurd, and the Wrath in his hand is bare,And he looketh, and Regin sleepeth, and his eyes wide-open glare;But his lips smile false in his dreaming, and his hand is on the sword;For he dreams himself the Master and the new world's fashioning-lord.And his dream hath forgotten Sigurd, and the King's life lies in the pit;He is nought; Death gnaweth upon him, while the Dwarfs in mastery sit.But lo, how the eyes of Sigurd the heart of the guileful behold,And great is Allfather Odin, and upriseth the Curse of the Gold,And the Branstock bloometh to heaven from the ancient wondrous root;The summer hath shone on its blossoms, and Sigurd's Wrath is the fruit:Dread then he cried in the desert: "Guile-master, lo thy deed!Hast thou nurst my life for destruction, and my death to serve thy need?Hast thou kept me here for the net and the death that tame things die?Hast thou feared me overmuch, thou Foe of the Gods on high?Lest the sword thine hand was wielding should turn about and cleaveThe tangled web of nothing thou hadst wearied thyself to weave.Lo here the sword and the stroke! judge the Norns betwixt us twain!But for me, I will live and die not, nor shall all my hope be vain."Then his second stroke struck Sigurd, for the Wrath flashed thin and white,And 'twixt head and trunk of Regin fierce ran the fateful light;And there lay brother by brother a faded thing and wan.But Sigurd cried in the desert: "So far have I wended on!Dead are the foes of God-home that would blend the good and the ill;And the World shall yet be famous, and the Gods shall have their will.Nor shall I be dead and forgotten, while the earth grows worse and worse?With the blind heart king o'er the people, and binding curse with curse."
There standeth Sigurd the Volsung, and leaneth on his sword,And beside him now is Greyfell and looks on his golden lord,And the world is awake and living; and whither now shall they wend,Who have come to the Glittering Heath, and wrought that deed to its end?For hither comes Regin the Master from the skirts of the field of death,And he shadeth his eyes from the sunlight as afoot he goeth and saith:"Ah, let me live for a while! for a while and all shall be well,When passed is the house of murder and I creep from the prison of hell."
Afoot he went o'er the desert, and he came unto Sigurd and staredAt the golden gear of the man, and the Wrath yet bloody and bared,And the light locks raised by the wind, and the eyes beginning to smile,And the lovely lips of the Volsung, and the brow that knew no guile;And he murmured under his breath while his eyes grew white with wrath:
"O who art thou, and wherefore, and why art thou in the path?"
Then he turned to the ash-grey Serpent, and grovelled low on the ground,And he drank of that pool of the blood where the stones of the wild were drowned,And long he lapped as a dog; but when he arose again,Lo, a flock of the mountain-eagles that drew to the feastful plain;And he turned and looked on Sigurd, as bright in the sun he stood,A stripling fair and slender, and wiped the Wrath of the blood.
But Regin cried: "O Dwarf-kind, O many-shifting folk,O shapes of might and wonder, am I too freed from the yoke,That binds my soul to my body a withered thing forlorn,While the short-lived fools of man-folk so fair and oft are born?Now swift in the air shall I be, and young in the concourse of kings,If my heart shall come to desire the gain of earthly things."
And he looked and saw how Sigurd was sheathing the Flame of War,And the eagles screamed in the wind, but their voice came faint from afar:Then he scowled, and crouched and darkened, and came to Sigurd and spake:"O child, thou hast slain my brother, and the Wrath is alive and awake."
"Thou sayest sooth," said Sigurd, "thy deed and mine is done:But now our ways shall sunder, for here, meseemeth, the sunHath but little of deeds to do, and no love to win aback."
Then Regin crouched before him, and he spake: "Fare on to the wrack!Fare on to the murder of men, and the deeds of thy kindred of old!And surely of thee as of them shall the tale be speedily told.Thou hast slain thy Master's brother, and what wouldst thou say thereto,Were the judges met for the judging and the doom-ring hallowed due?"
Then Sigurd spake as aforetime: "Thy deed and mine it was,And now our ways shall sunder, and into the world will I pass."
But Regin darkened before him, and exceeding grim was he grown,And he spake: "Thou hast slain my brother, and wherewith wilt thou atone?"
"Stand up, O Master," said Sigurd, "O Singer of ancient days,And take the wealth I have won thee, ere we wend on the sundering ways.I have toiled and thou hast desired, and the Treasure is surely anear,And thou hast wisdom to find it, and I have slain thy fear."
But Regin crouched and darkened: "Thou hast slain my brother," he said.
"Take thou the Gold," quoth Sigurd, "for the ransom of my head!"
Then Regin crouched and darkened, and over the earth he hung;And he said: "Thou hast slain my brother, and the Gods are yet but young."
Bright Sigurd towered above him, and the Wrath cried out in the sheath,And Regin writhed against it as the adder turns on death;And he spake: "Thou hast slain my brother, and today shalt thou be my thrall:Yea a King shall be my cook-boy and this heath my cooking-hall."
Then he crept to the ash-grey coils where the life of his brother had lain.And he drew a glaive from his side and smote the smitten and slain,And tore the heart from Fafnir, while the eagles cried o'erhead.And sharp and shrill was their voice o'er the entrails of the dead.
Then Regin spake to Sigurd: "Of this slaying wilt thou be free?Then gather thou fire together and roast the heart for me,That I may eat it and live, and be thy master and more;For therein was might and wisdom, and the grudged and hoarded lore:——Or else, depart on thy ways afraid from the Glittering Heath."
Then he fell abackward and slept, nor set his sword in the sheath,But his hand was red on the hilts and blue were the edges bared,Ash-grey was his visage waxen, and with open eyes he staredOn the height of heaven above him, and a fearful thing he seemed,As his soul went wide in the world, and of rule and kingship he dreamed.
But Sigurd took the Heart, and wood on the waste he found,The wood that grew and died, as it crept on the niggard ground,And grew and died again, and lay like whitened bones;And the ernes cried over his head, as he builded his hearth of stones,And kindled the fire for cooking, and sat and sang o'er the roastThe song of his fathers of old, and the Wolflings' gathering host:So there on the Glittering Heath rose up the little flame,And the dry sticks crackled amidst it, and alow the eagles came,And seven they were by tale, and they pitched all round aboutThe cooking-fire of Sigurd, and sent their song-speech out:But nought he knoweth its wisdom, or the word that they would speak:And hot grew the Heart of Fafnir and sang amid the reek.
Then Sigurd looketh on Regin, and he deemeth it overlongThat he dighteth the dear-bought morsel, and the might for the Master of wrong,So he reacheth his hand to the roast to see if the cooking be o'er;But the blood and the fat seethed from it and scalded his finger sore,And he set his hand to his mouth to quench the fleshly smart,And he tasted the flesh of the Serpent and the blood of Fafnir's Heart:Then there came a change upon him, for the speech of fowl he knew,And wise in the ways of the beast-kind as the Dwarfs of old he grew;And he knitted his brows and hearkened, and wrath in his heart arose;For he felt beset of evil in a world of many foes.But the hilts of the Wrath he handled, and Regin's heart he saw,And how that the Foe of the Gods the net of death would draw;And his bright eyes flashed and sparkled, and his mouth grew set and sternAs he hearkened the voice of the eagles, and their song began to learn.
For the first cried out in the desert: "O mighty Sigmund's son,How long wilt thou sit and tarry now the dear-bought roast is done?"
And the second: "Volsung, arise! for the horns blow up to the hall,And dight are the purple hangings, and the King to the feasting should fall."
And the third: "How great is the feast if the eater eat arightThe Heart of the wisdom of old and the after-world's delight!"
And the fourth: "Yea, what of Regin? shall he scatter wrack o'er the world?Shall the father be slain by the son, and the brother 'gainst brother be hurled?"
And the fifth: "He hath taught a stripling the gifts of a God to give:He hath reared up a King for the slaying, that he alone might live."
And the sixth: "He shall waken mighty as a God that scorneth at truth;He hath drunk of the blood of the Serpent, and drowned all hope and ruth."
And the seventh: "Arise, O Sigurd, lest the hour be overlate!For the sun in the mid-noon shineth, and swift is the hand of Fate:Arise! lest the world run backward and the blind heart have its will,And once again be tangled the sundered good and ill;Lest love and hatred perish, lest the world forget its tale,And the Gods sit deedless, dreaming, in the high-walled heavenly vale."
Then swift ariseth Sigurd, and the Wrath in his hand is bare,And he looketh, and Regin sleepeth, and his eyes wide-open glare;But his lips smile false in his dreaming, and his hand is on the sword;For he dreams himself the Master and the new world's fashioning-lord.And his dream hath forgotten Sigurd, and the King's life lies in the pit;He is nought; Death gnaweth upon him, while the Dwarfs in mastery sit.
But lo, how the eyes of Sigurd the heart of the guileful behold,And great is Allfather Odin, and upriseth the Curse of the Gold,And the Branstock bloometh to heaven from the ancient wondrous root;The summer hath shone on its blossoms, and Sigurd's Wrath is the fruit:Dread then he cried in the desert: "Guile-master, lo thy deed!Hast thou nurst my life for destruction, and my death to serve thy need?Hast thou kept me here for the net and the death that tame things die?Hast thou feared me overmuch, thou Foe of the Gods on high?Lest the sword thine hand was wielding should turn about and cleaveThe tangled web of nothing thou hadst wearied thyself to weave.Lo here the sword and the stroke! judge the Norns betwixt us twain!But for me, I will live and die not, nor shall all my hope be vain."
Then his second stroke struck Sigurd, for the Wrath flashed thin and white,And 'twixt head and trunk of Regin fierce ran the fateful light;And there lay brother by brother a faded thing and wan.But Sigurd cried in the desert: "So far have I wended on!Dead are the foes of God-home that would blend the good and the ill;And the World shall yet be famous, and the Gods shall have their will.Nor shall I be dead and forgotten, while the earth grows worse and worse?With the blind heart king o'er the people, and binding curse with curse."
Now Sigurd eats of the heart that once in the Dwarf-king lay,The hoard of the wisdom begrudged, the might of the earlier day.Then wise of heart was he waxen, but longing in him grewTo sow the seed he had gotten, and till the field he knew.So he leapeth aback of Greyfell, and rideth the desert bare.And the hollow slot of Fafnir, that led to the Serpent's lair.Then long he rode adown it, and the ernes flew overhead,And tidings great and glorious, of that Treasure of old they said.So far o'er the waste he wended, and when the night was comeHe saw the earth-old dwelling, the dread Gold-wallower's home:On the skirts of the Heath it was builded by a tumbled stony bent;High went that house to the heavens, down 'neath the earth it went.Of unwrought iron fashioned for the heart of a greedy king:'Twas a mountain, blind without, and within was its plenishingBut the Hoard of Andvari the ancient, and the sleeping Curse unseen,The Gold of the Gods that spared not and the greedy that have been.Through the door strode Sigurd the Volsung, and the grey moon and the swordFell in on the tawny gold-heaps of the ancient hapless Hoard:Gold gear of hosts unburied, and the coin of cities dead,Great spoil of the ages of battle, lay there on the Serpent's bed:Huge blocks from mid-earth quarried, where none but the Dwarfs have mined,Wide sands of the golden rivers no foot of man may findLay 'neath the spoils of the mighty and the ruddy rings of yore:But amidst was the Helm of Aweing that the Fear of earth-folk bore,And there gleamed a wonder beside it, the Hauberk all of gold,Whose like is not in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told:There Sigurd seeth moreover Andvari's Ring of Gain,The hope of Loki's finger, the Ransom's utmost grain;For it shone on the midmost gold-heap like the first star set in the skyIn the yellow space of even when moon-rise draweth anigh.Then laughed the Son of Sigmund, and stooped to the golden land,And gathered that first of the harvest and set it on his hand;And he did on the Helm of Aweing, and the Hauberk all of gold,Whose like is not in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told:Then he praised the day of the Volsungs amid the yellow light,And he set his hand to the labour and put forth his kingly might;He dragged forth gold to the moon, on the desert's face he laidThe innermost earth's adornment, and rings for the nameless made;He toiled and loaded Greyfell, and the cloudy war-steed shoneAnd the gear of Sigurd rattled in the flood of moonlight wan;There he toiled and loaded Greyfell, and the Volsung's armour rangMid the yellow bed of the Serpent: but without the eagles sang:"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! let the gold shine free and clear!For what hath the Son of the Volsungs the ancient Curse to fear?""Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for thy tale is well begun,And the world shall be good and gladdened by the Gold lit up by the sun.""Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! and gladden all thine heart!For the world shall make thee merry ere thou and she depart.""Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for the ways go green below,Go green to the dwelling of Kings, and the halls that the Queen-folk know.""Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for what is there bides by the way,Save the joy of folk to awaken, and the dawn of the merry day?""Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for the strife awaits thine hand,And a plenteous war-field's reaping, and the praise of many a land.""Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! But how shall storehouse holdThat glory of thy winning and the tidings to be told?"Now the moon was dead, and the star-worlds were great on the heavenly plain,When the steed was fully laden; then Sigurd taketh the reinAnd turns to the ruined rock-wall that the lair was built beneath,For there he deemed was the gate and the door of the Glittering Heath,But not a whit moved Greyfell for aught that the King might do;Then Sigurd pondered a while, till the heart of the beast he knew,And clad in all his war-gear he leaped to the saddle-stead,And with pride and mirth neighed Greyfell and tossed aloft his head,And sprang unspurred o'er the waste, and light and swift he went,And breasted the broken rampart, the stony tumbled bent;And over the brow he clomb, and there beyond was the world,A place of many mountains and great crags together hurled.So down to the west he wendeth, and goeth swift and light,And the stars are beginning to wane, and the day is mingled with night;For full fain was the sun to arise and look on the Gold set free,And the Dwarf-wrought rings of the Treasure and the gifts from the floor of the sea.
Now Sigurd eats of the heart that once in the Dwarf-king lay,The hoard of the wisdom begrudged, the might of the earlier day.Then wise of heart was he waxen, but longing in him grewTo sow the seed he had gotten, and till the field he knew.So he leapeth aback of Greyfell, and rideth the desert bare.And the hollow slot of Fafnir, that led to the Serpent's lair.Then long he rode adown it, and the ernes flew overhead,And tidings great and glorious, of that Treasure of old they said.So far o'er the waste he wended, and when the night was comeHe saw the earth-old dwelling, the dread Gold-wallower's home:On the skirts of the Heath it was builded by a tumbled stony bent;High went that house to the heavens, down 'neath the earth it went.Of unwrought iron fashioned for the heart of a greedy king:'Twas a mountain, blind without, and within was its plenishingBut the Hoard of Andvari the ancient, and the sleeping Curse unseen,The Gold of the Gods that spared not and the greedy that have been.
Through the door strode Sigurd the Volsung, and the grey moon and the swordFell in on the tawny gold-heaps of the ancient hapless Hoard:Gold gear of hosts unburied, and the coin of cities dead,Great spoil of the ages of battle, lay there on the Serpent's bed:Huge blocks from mid-earth quarried, where none but the Dwarfs have mined,Wide sands of the golden rivers no foot of man may findLay 'neath the spoils of the mighty and the ruddy rings of yore:But amidst was the Helm of Aweing that the Fear of earth-folk bore,And there gleamed a wonder beside it, the Hauberk all of gold,Whose like is not in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told:There Sigurd seeth moreover Andvari's Ring of Gain,The hope of Loki's finger, the Ransom's utmost grain;For it shone on the midmost gold-heap like the first star set in the skyIn the yellow space of even when moon-rise draweth anigh.Then laughed the Son of Sigmund, and stooped to the golden land,And gathered that first of the harvest and set it on his hand;And he did on the Helm of Aweing, and the Hauberk all of gold,Whose like is not in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told:Then he praised the day of the Volsungs amid the yellow light,And he set his hand to the labour and put forth his kingly might;He dragged forth gold to the moon, on the desert's face he laidThe innermost earth's adornment, and rings for the nameless made;He toiled and loaded Greyfell, and the cloudy war-steed shoneAnd the gear of Sigurd rattled in the flood of moonlight wan;There he toiled and loaded Greyfell, and the Volsung's armour rangMid the yellow bed of the Serpent: but without the eagles sang:
"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! let the gold shine free and clear!For what hath the Son of the Volsungs the ancient Curse to fear?"
"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for thy tale is well begun,And the world shall be good and gladdened by the Gold lit up by the sun."
"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! and gladden all thine heart!For the world shall make thee merry ere thou and she depart."
"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for the ways go green below,Go green to the dwelling of Kings, and the halls that the Queen-folk know."
"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for what is there bides by the way,Save the joy of folk to awaken, and the dawn of the merry day?"
"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! for the strife awaits thine hand,And a plenteous war-field's reaping, and the praise of many a land."
"Bind the red rings, O Sigurd! But how shall storehouse holdThat glory of thy winning and the tidings to be told?"
Now the moon was dead, and the star-worlds were great on the heavenly plain,When the steed was fully laden; then Sigurd taketh the reinAnd turns to the ruined rock-wall that the lair was built beneath,For there he deemed was the gate and the door of the Glittering Heath,But not a whit moved Greyfell for aught that the King might do;Then Sigurd pondered a while, till the heart of the beast he knew,And clad in all his war-gear he leaped to the saddle-stead,And with pride and mirth neighed Greyfell and tossed aloft his head,And sprang unspurred o'er the waste, and light and swift he went,And breasted the broken rampart, the stony tumbled bent;And over the brow he clomb, and there beyond was the world,A place of many mountains and great crags together hurled.So down to the west he wendeth, and goeth swift and light,And the stars are beginning to wane, and the day is mingled with night;For full fain was the sun to arise and look on the Gold set free,And the Dwarf-wrought rings of the Treasure and the gifts from the floor of the sea.
By long roads rideth Sigurd amidst that world of stone,And somewhat south he turneth; for he would not be alone,But longs for the dwellings of man-folk, and the kingly people's speech,And the days of the glee and the joyance, where men laugh each to each.But still the desert endureth, and afar must Greyfell fareFrom the wrack of the Glittering Heath, and Fafnir's golden lair.Long Sigurd rideth the waste, when, lo, on a morning of dayFrom out of the tangled crag-walls, amidst the cloud-land greyComes up a mighty mountain, and it is as though there burnsA torch amidst of its cloud-wreath; so thither Sigurd turns,For he deems indeed from its topmost to look on the best of the earth;And Greyfell neigheth beneath him, and his heart is full of mirth.So he rideth higher and higher, and the light grows great and strange,And forth from the clouds it flickers, till at noon they gather and change,And settle thick on the mountain, and hide its head from sight;But the winds in a while are awakened, and day bettereth ere the night,And, lifted a measureless mass o'er the desert crag-walls high,Cloudless the mountain riseth against the sunset sky,The sea of the sun grown golden, as it ebbs from the day's desire;And the light that afar was a torch is grown a river of fire,And the mountain is black above it, and below is it dark and dun;And there is the head of Hindfell as an island in the sun.Night falls, but yet rides Sigurd, and hath no thought of rest,For he longs to climb that rock-world and behold the earth at its best;But now mid the maze of the foot-hills he seeth the light no more,And the stars are lovely and gleaming on the lightless heavenly floor.So up and up he wendeth till the night is wearing thin;And he rideth a rift of the mountain, and all is dark therein,Till the stars are dimmed by dawning and the wakening world is cold;Then afar in the upper rock-wall a breach doth he behold,And a flood of light poured inward the doubtful dawning blinds:So swift he rideth thither and the mouth of the breach he finds,And sitteth awhile on Greyfell on the marvellous thing to gaze:For lo, the side of Hindfell enwrapped by the fervent blaze,And nought 'twixt earth and heaven save a world of flickering flame,And a hurrying shifting tangle, where the dark rents went and came.Great groweth the heart of Sigurd with uttermost desire,And he crieth kind to Greyfell, and they hasten up, and nigher,Till he draweth rein in the dawning on the face of Hindfell's steep:But who shall heed the dawning where the tongues of that wildfire leap?For they weave a wavering wall, that driveth over the heavenThe wind that is born within it; nor ever aside is it drivenBy the mightiest wind of the waste, and the rain-flood amidst it is nought;And no wayfarer's door and no window the hand of its builder hath wroughtBut thereon is the Volsung smiling as its breath uplifteth his hair,And his eyes shine bright with its image, and his mail gleams white and fair,And his war-helm pictures the heavens and the waning stars behind:But his neck is Greyfell stretching to snuff at the flame-wall blind.And his cloudy flank upheaveth, and tinkleth the knitted mail,And the gold of the uttermost waters is waxen wan and pale.Now Sigurd turns in his saddle, and the hilt of the Wrath he shifts,And draws a girth the tighter; then the gathered reins he lifts,And crieth aloud to Greyfell, and rides at the wildfire's heart;But the white wall wavers before him and the flame-flood rusheth apart,And high o'er his head it riseth, and wide and wild is its roarAs it beareth the mighty tidings to the very heavenly floor:But he rideth through its roaring as the warrior rides the rye,When it bows with the wind of the summer and the hid spears draw anighThe white flame licks his raiment and sweeps through Greyfell's mane,And bathes both hands of Sigurd and the hilts of Fafnir's bane,And winds about his war-helm and mingles with his hair,But nought his raiment dusketh or dims his glittering gear;Then it fails and fades and darkens till all seems left behind,And dawn and the blaze is swallowed in mid-mirk stark and blind.But forth a little further and a little further onAnd all is calm about him, and he sees the scorched earth wanBeneath a glimmering twilight, and he turns his conquering eyes,And a ring of pale slaked ashes on the side of Hindfell lies;And the world of the waste is beyond it; and all is hushed and grey.And the new-risen moon is a-paleing, and the stars grow faint with day.Then Sigurd looked before him and a Shield-burg there he saw,A wall of the tiles of Odin wrought clear without a flaw,The gold by the silver gleaming, and the ruddy by the white;And the blazonings of their glory were done upon them bright,As of dear things wrought for the war-lords new come to Odin's hall.Piled high aloft to the heavens uprose that battle-wall,And far o'er the topmost shield-rim for a banner of fame there hungA glorious golden buckler; and against the staff it rangAs the earliest wind of dawning uprose on Hindfell's faceAnd the light from the yellowing east beamed soft on the shielded place.But the Wrath cried out in answer as Sigurd leapt adownTo the wasted soil of the desert by that rampart of renown;He looked but little beneath it, and the dwelling of God it seemed,As against its gleaming silence the eager Sigurd gleamed:He draweth not sword from scabbard, as the wall he wendeth around,And it is but the wind and Sigurd that wakeneth any sound:But, lo, to the gate he cometh, and the doors are open wide,And no warder the way withstandeth, and no earls by the threshold abideSo he stands awhile and marvels; then the baleful light of the WrathGleams bare in his ready hand as he wendeth the inward path:For he doubteth some guile of the Gods, or perchance some Dwarf-king's snare,Or a mock of the Giant people that shall fade in the morning air:But he getteth him in and gazeth; and a wall doth he behold,And the ruddy set by the white, and the silver by the gold;But within the garth that it girdeth no work of man is set,But the utmost head of Hindfell ariseth higher yet;And below in the very midmost is a Giant-fashioned mound,Piled high as the rims of the Shield-burg above the level ground;And there, on that mound of the Giants, o'er the wilderness forlorn,A pale grey image lieth, and gleameth in the morn.So there was Sigurd alone; and he went from the shielded door.And aloft in the desert of wonder the Light of the Branstock he bore;And he set his face to the earth-mound, and beheld the image wan,And the dawn was growing about it; and, lo, the shape of a manSet forth to the eyeless desert on the tower-top of the world,High over the cloud-wrought castle whence the windy bolts are hurled.Now he comes to the mound and climbs it, and will see if the man be deadSome King of the days forgotten laid there with crownèd head,Or the frame of a God, it may be, that in heaven hath changed his life,Or some glorious heart belovèd, God-rapt from the earthly strife:Now over the body he standeth, and seeth it shapen fair,And clad from head to foot-sole in pale grey-glittering gear,In a hauberk wrought as straitly as though to the flesh it were grown:But a great helm hideth the head and is girt with a glittering crown.So thereby he stoopeth and kneeleth, for he deems it were good indeedIf the breath of life abide there and the speech to help at need;And as sweet as the summer wind from a garden under the sunCometh forth on the topmost Hindfell the breath of that sleeping-one.Then he saith he will look on the face, if it bear him love or hate,Or the bonds for his life's constraining, or the sundering doom of fate.So he draweth the helm from the head, and, lo, the brow snow-white,And the smooth unfurrowed cheeks, and the wise lips breathing light;And the face of a woman it is, and the fairest that ever was born,Shown forth to the empty heavens and the desert world forlorn:But he looketh, and loveth her sore, and he longeth her spirit to move,And awaken her heart to the world, that she may behold him and love.And he toucheth her breast and her hands, and he loveth her passing sore;And he saith; "Awake! I am Sigurd," but she moveth never the more.Then he looked on his bare bright blade, and he said: "Thou—what wilt thou do?For indeed as I came by the war-garth thy voice of desire I knew."Bright burnt the pale blue edges for the sunrise drew anear,And the rims of the Shield-burg glittered, and the east was exceeding clear:So the eager edges he setteth to the Dwarf-wrought battle-coatWhere the hammered ring-knit collar constraineth the woman's throat;But the sharp Wrath biteth and rendeth, and before it fail the rings.And, lo, the gleam of the linen, and the light of golden things:Then he driveth the blue steel onward, and through the skirt, and out.Till nought but the rippling linen is wrapping her about;Then he deems her breath comes quicker and her breast begins to heave,So he turns about the War-Flame and rends down either sleeve,Till her arms lie white in her raiment, and a river of sun-bright hairFlows free o'er bosom and shoulder and floods the desert bare.Then a flush cometh over her visage and a sigh up-heaveth her breast,And her eyelids quiver and open, and she wakeneth into rest;Wide-eyed on the dawning she gazeth, too glad to change or smile,And but little moveth her body, nor speaketh she yet for a while;And yet kneels Sigurd moveless her wakening speech to heed,While soft the waves of the daylight o'er the starless heavens speed,And the gleaming rims of the Shield-burg yet bright and brighter grow,And the thin moon hangeth her horns dead-white in the golden glow.Then she turned and gazed on Sigurd, and her eyes met the Volsung's eyes.And mighty and measureless now did the tide of his love arise,For their longing had met and mingled, and he knew of her heart that she loved,As she spake unto nothing but him and her lips with the speech-flood moved:"O, what is the thing so mighty that my weary sleep hath torn,And rent the fallow bondage, and the wan woe over-worn?"He said: "The hand of Sigurd and the Sword of Sigmund's son,And the heart that the Volsungs fashioned this deed for thee have done."But she said: "Where then is Odin that laid me here alow?Long lasteth the grief of the world, and manfolk's tangled woe!""He dwelleth above," said Sigurd, "but I on the earth abide,And I came from the Glittering Heath the waves of thy fire to ride."But therewith the sun rose upward and lightened all the earth,And the light flashed up to the heavens from the rims of the glorious girth;But they twain arose together, and with both her palms outspread,And bathed in the light returning, she cried aloud and said:"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!"Then they turned and were knit together; and oft and o'er againThey craved, and kissed rejoicing, and their hearts were full and fain.Then Sigurd looketh upon her, and the words from his heart arise:"Thou art the fairest of earth, and the wisest of the wise;O who art thou that lovest? I am Sigurd, e'en as I told;I have slain the Foe of the Gods, and gotten the Ancient Gold;And great were the gain of thy love, and the gift of mine earthly days,If we twain should never sunder as we wend on the changing ways.O who art thou that lovest, thou fairest of all things born?And what meaneth thy sleep and thy slumber in the wilderness forlorn?"She said: "I am she that loveth: I was born of the earthly folk,But of old Allfather took me from the Kings and their wedding yoke:And he called me the Victory-Wafter, and I went and came as he would,And I chose the slain for his war-host, and the days were glorious and good,Till the thoughts of my heart overcame me, and the pride of my wisdom and speech,And I scorned the earth-folk's Framer and the Lord of the world I must teach:For the death-doomed I caught from the sword, and the fated life I slew,And I deemed that my deeds were goodly, and that long I should do and undo.But Allfather came against me and the God in his wrath arose;And he cried: 'Thou hast thought in thy folly that the Gods have friends and foes,That they wake, and the world wends onward, that they sleep, and the world slips back,That they laugh, and the world's weal waxeth, that they frown and fashion the wrack:Thou hast cast up the curse against me; it shall fall aback on thine head;Go back to the sons of repentance, with the children of sorrow wed!For the Gods are great unholpen, and their grief is seldom seen,And the wrong that they will and must be is soon as it had not been.'"Yet I thought: 'Shall I wed in the world, shall I gather grief on the earth?Then the fearless heart shall I wed, and bring the best to birth,And fashion such tales for the telling, that Earth shall be holpen at least,If the Gods think scorn of its fairness, as they sit at the changeless feast.'"Then somewhat smiled Allfather; and he spake: 'So let it be!The doom thereof abideth; the doom of me and thee.Yet long shall the time pass over ere thy waking-day be born:Fare forth, and forget and be weary 'neath the Sting of the Sleepful Thorn!'"So I came to the head of Hindfell and the ruddy shields and white,And the wall of the wildfire wavering around the isle of night;And there the Sleep-thorn pierced me, and the slumber on me fell,And the night of nameless sorrows that hath no tale to tell.Now I am she that loveth; and the day is nigh at handWhen I, who have ridden the sea-realm and the regions of the land,And dwelt in the measureless mountains and the forge of stormy days,Shall dwell in the house of my fathers and the land of the people's praise;And there shall hand meet hand, and heart by heart shall beat,And the lying-down shall be joyous, and the morn's uprising sweet.Lo now, I look on thine heart and behold of thine inmost will,That thou of the days wouldst hearken that our portion shall fulfill;But O, be wise of man-folk, and the hope of thine heart refrain!As oft in the battle's beginning ye vex the steed with the rein,Lest at last in its latter ending, when the sword hath hushed the horn,His limbs should be weary and fail, and his might be over-worn.O be wise, lest thy love constrain me, and my vision wax o'er-clear,And thou ask of the thing that thou shouldst not, and the thing that thou wouldst not hear."Know thou, most mighty of men, that the Norns shall order all,And yet without thine helping shall no whit of their will befall;Be wise! 'tis a marvel of words, and a mock for the fool and the blind,But I saw it writ in the heavens, and its fashioning there did I find:And the night of the Norns and their slumber, and the tide when the world runs back,And the way of the sun is tangled, it is wrought of the dastard's lack.But the day when the fair earth blossoms, and the sun is bright above.Of the daring deeds is it fashioned and the eager hearts of love."Be wise, and cherish thine hope in the freshness of the days,And scatter its seed from thine hand in the field of the people's praise;Then fair shall it fall in the furrow, and some the earth shall speed,And the sons of men shall marvel at the blossom of the deed:But some the earth shall speed not: nay rather, the wind of the heavenShall waft it away from thy longing—and a gift to the Gods hast thou given,And a tree for the roof and the wall in the house of the hope that shall be,Though it seemeth our very sorrow, and the grief of thee and me."Strive not with the fools of man-folk: for belike thou shalt overcome;And what then is the gain of thine hunting when thou bearest the quarry home?Or else shall the fool overcome thee, and what deed thereof shall grow?Nay, strive with the wise man rather, and increase thy woe and his woe;Yet thereof a gain hast thou gotten; and the half of thine heart hast thou wonIf thou may'st prevail against him, and his deeds are the deeds thou hast done:Yea, and if thou fall before him, in him shalt thou live again,And thy deeds in his hand shall blossom, and his heart of thine heart shall be fain."When thou hearest the fool rejoicing, and he saith, 'It is over and past,And the wrong was better than right, and hate turns into love at the last,And we strove for nothing at all, and the Gods are fallen asleep;For so good is the world a growing that the evil good shall reap:'Then loosen thy sword in the scabbard and settle the helm on thine head,For men betrayed are mighty, and great are the wrongfully dead"Wilt thou do the deed and repent it? thou hadst better never been born:Wilt thou do the deed and exalt it? then thy fame shall be outworn:Thou shalt do the deed and abide it, and sit on thy throne on high,And look on today and tomorrow as those that never die."Love thou the Gods—and withstand them, lest thy fame should fail in the end,And thou be but their thrall and their bondsmen, who wert born for their very friend:For few things from the Gods are hidden, and the hearts of men they know,And how that none rejoiceth to quail and crouch alow."I have spoken the words, belovèd, to thy matchless glory and worth;But thy heart to my heart hath been speaking, though my tongue hath set it forth:For I am she that loveth, and I know what thou wouldst teachFrom the heart of thine unlearned wisdom, and I needs must speak thy speech."Then words were weary and silent, but oft and o'er againThey craved and kissed rejoicing, and their hearts were full and fain.Then spake the Son of Sigmund: "Fairest, and most of worth,Hast thou seen the ways of man-folk and the regions of the earth?Then speak yet more of wisdom; for most meet meseems it isThat my soul to thy soul be shapen, and that I should know thy bliss."So she took his right hand meekly, nor any word would say,Not e'en of love or praising, his longing to delay;And they sat on the side of Hindfell, and their fain eyes looked and loved,As she told of the hidden matters whereby the world is moved:And she told of the framing of all things, and the houses of the heaven;And she told of the star-worlds' courses, and how the winds be driven;And she told of the Norns and their names, and the fate that abideth the earth;And she told of the ways of King-folk in their anger and their mirth;And she spake of the love of women, and told of the flame that burns,And the fall of mighty houses, and the friend that falters and turns,And the lurking blinded vengeance, and the wrong that amendeth wrong,And the hand that repenteth its stroke, and the grief that endureth for long:And how man shall bear and forbear, and be master of all that is;And how man shall measure it all, the wrath, and the grief, and the bliss."I saw the body of Wisdom, and of shifting guise was she wrought,And I stretched out my hands to hold her, and a mote of the dust they caught;And I prayed her to come for my teaching, and she came in the midnight dream—And I woke and might not remember, nor betwixt her tangle deem:She spake, and how might I hearken; I heard, and how might I know;I knew, and how might I fashion, or her hidden glory show?All things I have told thee of Wisdom are but fleeting imagesOf her hosts that abide in the heavens, and her light that Allfather sees:Yet wise is the sower that sows, and wise is the reaper that reaps,And wise is the smith in his smiting, and wise is the warder that keeps:And wise shalt thou be to deliver, and I shall be wise to desire;—And lo, the tale that is told, and the sword and the wakening fire!Lo now, I am she that loveth, and hark how Greyfell neighs,And Fafnir's Bed is gleaming, and green go the downward ways,The road to the children of men and the deeds that thou shalt doIn the joy of thy life-days' morning, when thine hope is fashioned anew.Come now, O Bane of the Serpent, for now is the high-noon come,And the sun hangeth over Hindfell and looks on the earth-folk's home;But the soul is so great within thee, and so glorious are thine eyes,And me so love constraineth, and mine heart that was called the wise,That we twain may see men's dwellings and the house where we shall dwell,And the place of our life's beginning, where the tale shall be to tell."So they climb the burg of Hindfell, and hand in hand they fare,Till all about and above them is nought but the sunlit air,And there close they cling together rejoicing in their mirth;For far away beneath them lie the kingdoms of the earth,And the garths of men-folk's dwellings and the streams that water them,And the rich and plenteous acres, and the silver ocean's hem,And the woodland wastes and the mountains, and all that holdeth all;The house and the ship and the island, the loom and the mine and the stall,The beds of bane and healing, the crafts that slay and save,The temple of God and the Doom-ring, the cradle and the grave.Then spake the Victory-Wafter: "O King of the Earthly Age,As a God thou beholdest the treasure and the joy of thine heritage,And where on the wings of his hope is the spirit of Sigurd borne?Yet I bid thee hover awhile as a lark alow on the corn;Yet I bid thee look on the land 'twixt the wood and the silver seaIn the bight of the swirling river, and the house that cherished me!There dwelleth mine earthly sister and the king that she hath wed;There morn by morn aforetime I woke on the golden bed;There eve by eve I tarried mid the speech and the lays of kings;There noon by noon I wandered and plucked the blossoming things;The little land of Lymdale by the swirling river's side,Where Brynhild once was I called in the days ere my father died;The little land of Lymdale 'twixt the woodland and the sea,Where on thee mine eyes shall brighten and thine eyes shall beam on me.""I shall seek thee there," said Sigurd, "when the day-spring is begun,Ere we wend the world together in the season of the sun.""I shall bide thee there," said Brynhild, "till the fulness of the days,And the time for the glory appointed, and the springing-tide of praise."From his hand then draweth Sigurd Andvari's ancient Gold;There is nought but the sky above them as the ring together they hold,The shapen ancient token, that hath no change nor end,No change, and no beginning, no flaw for God to mend:Then Sigurd cries: "O Brynhild, now hearken while I swear,That the sun shall die in the heavens and the day no more be fair,If I seek not love in Lymdale and the house that fostered thee,And the land where thou awakedst 'twixt the woodland and the sea!"And she cried: "O Sigurd, Sigurd, now hearken while I swearThat the day shall die for ever and the sun to blackness wear,Ere I forget thee, Sigurd, as I lie 'twixt wood and seaIn the little land of Lymdale and the house that fostered me!"Then he set the ring on her finger and once, if ne'er again,They kissed and clung together, and their hearts were full and fain.So the day grew old about them and the joy of their desire,And eve and the sunset came, and faint grew the sunset fire,And the shadowless death of the day was sweet in the golden tide;But the stars shone forth on the world, and the twilight changed and died;And sure if the first of man-folk had been born to that starry night,And had heard no tale of the sunrise, he had never longed for the light:But Earth longed amidst her slumber, as 'neath the night she lay,And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day.
By long roads rideth Sigurd amidst that world of stone,And somewhat south he turneth; for he would not be alone,But longs for the dwellings of man-folk, and the kingly people's speech,And the days of the glee and the joyance, where men laugh each to each.But still the desert endureth, and afar must Greyfell fareFrom the wrack of the Glittering Heath, and Fafnir's golden lair.Long Sigurd rideth the waste, when, lo, on a morning of dayFrom out of the tangled crag-walls, amidst the cloud-land greyComes up a mighty mountain, and it is as though there burnsA torch amidst of its cloud-wreath; so thither Sigurd turns,For he deems indeed from its topmost to look on the best of the earth;And Greyfell neigheth beneath him, and his heart is full of mirth.
So he rideth higher and higher, and the light grows great and strange,And forth from the clouds it flickers, till at noon they gather and change,And settle thick on the mountain, and hide its head from sight;But the winds in a while are awakened, and day bettereth ere the night,And, lifted a measureless mass o'er the desert crag-walls high,Cloudless the mountain riseth against the sunset sky,The sea of the sun grown golden, as it ebbs from the day's desire;And the light that afar was a torch is grown a river of fire,And the mountain is black above it, and below is it dark and dun;And there is the head of Hindfell as an island in the sun.
Night falls, but yet rides Sigurd, and hath no thought of rest,For he longs to climb that rock-world and behold the earth at its best;But now mid the maze of the foot-hills he seeth the light no more,And the stars are lovely and gleaming on the lightless heavenly floor.So up and up he wendeth till the night is wearing thin;And he rideth a rift of the mountain, and all is dark therein,Till the stars are dimmed by dawning and the wakening world is cold;Then afar in the upper rock-wall a breach doth he behold,And a flood of light poured inward the doubtful dawning blinds:So swift he rideth thither and the mouth of the breach he finds,And sitteth awhile on Greyfell on the marvellous thing to gaze:For lo, the side of Hindfell enwrapped by the fervent blaze,And nought 'twixt earth and heaven save a world of flickering flame,And a hurrying shifting tangle, where the dark rents went and came.
Great groweth the heart of Sigurd with uttermost desire,And he crieth kind to Greyfell, and they hasten up, and nigher,Till he draweth rein in the dawning on the face of Hindfell's steep:But who shall heed the dawning where the tongues of that wildfire leap?For they weave a wavering wall, that driveth over the heavenThe wind that is born within it; nor ever aside is it drivenBy the mightiest wind of the waste, and the rain-flood amidst it is nought;And no wayfarer's door and no window the hand of its builder hath wroughtBut thereon is the Volsung smiling as its breath uplifteth his hair,And his eyes shine bright with its image, and his mail gleams white and fair,And his war-helm pictures the heavens and the waning stars behind:But his neck is Greyfell stretching to snuff at the flame-wall blind.And his cloudy flank upheaveth, and tinkleth the knitted mail,And the gold of the uttermost waters is waxen wan and pale.
Now Sigurd turns in his saddle, and the hilt of the Wrath he shifts,And draws a girth the tighter; then the gathered reins he lifts,And crieth aloud to Greyfell, and rides at the wildfire's heart;But the white wall wavers before him and the flame-flood rusheth apart,And high o'er his head it riseth, and wide and wild is its roarAs it beareth the mighty tidings to the very heavenly floor:But he rideth through its roaring as the warrior rides the rye,When it bows with the wind of the summer and the hid spears draw anighThe white flame licks his raiment and sweeps through Greyfell's mane,And bathes both hands of Sigurd and the hilts of Fafnir's bane,And winds about his war-helm and mingles with his hair,But nought his raiment dusketh or dims his glittering gear;Then it fails and fades and darkens till all seems left behind,And dawn and the blaze is swallowed in mid-mirk stark and blind.
But forth a little further and a little further onAnd all is calm about him, and he sees the scorched earth wanBeneath a glimmering twilight, and he turns his conquering eyes,And a ring of pale slaked ashes on the side of Hindfell lies;And the world of the waste is beyond it; and all is hushed and grey.And the new-risen moon is a-paleing, and the stars grow faint with day.
Then Sigurd looked before him and a Shield-burg there he saw,A wall of the tiles of Odin wrought clear without a flaw,The gold by the silver gleaming, and the ruddy by the white;And the blazonings of their glory were done upon them bright,As of dear things wrought for the war-lords new come to Odin's hall.Piled high aloft to the heavens uprose that battle-wall,And far o'er the topmost shield-rim for a banner of fame there hungA glorious golden buckler; and against the staff it rangAs the earliest wind of dawning uprose on Hindfell's faceAnd the light from the yellowing east beamed soft on the shielded place.
But the Wrath cried out in answer as Sigurd leapt adownTo the wasted soil of the desert by that rampart of renown;He looked but little beneath it, and the dwelling of God it seemed,As against its gleaming silence the eager Sigurd gleamed:He draweth not sword from scabbard, as the wall he wendeth around,And it is but the wind and Sigurd that wakeneth any sound:But, lo, to the gate he cometh, and the doors are open wide,And no warder the way withstandeth, and no earls by the threshold abideSo he stands awhile and marvels; then the baleful light of the WrathGleams bare in his ready hand as he wendeth the inward path:For he doubteth some guile of the Gods, or perchance some Dwarf-king's snare,Or a mock of the Giant people that shall fade in the morning air:But he getteth him in and gazeth; and a wall doth he behold,And the ruddy set by the white, and the silver by the gold;But within the garth that it girdeth no work of man is set,But the utmost head of Hindfell ariseth higher yet;And below in the very midmost is a Giant-fashioned mound,Piled high as the rims of the Shield-burg above the level ground;And there, on that mound of the Giants, o'er the wilderness forlorn,A pale grey image lieth, and gleameth in the morn.
So there was Sigurd alone; and he went from the shielded door.And aloft in the desert of wonder the Light of the Branstock he bore;And he set his face to the earth-mound, and beheld the image wan,And the dawn was growing about it; and, lo, the shape of a manSet forth to the eyeless desert on the tower-top of the world,High over the cloud-wrought castle whence the windy bolts are hurled.
Now he comes to the mound and climbs it, and will see if the man be deadSome King of the days forgotten laid there with crownèd head,Or the frame of a God, it may be, that in heaven hath changed his life,Or some glorious heart belovèd, God-rapt from the earthly strife:Now over the body he standeth, and seeth it shapen fair,And clad from head to foot-sole in pale grey-glittering gear,In a hauberk wrought as straitly as though to the flesh it were grown:But a great helm hideth the head and is girt with a glittering crown.
So thereby he stoopeth and kneeleth, for he deems it were good indeedIf the breath of life abide there and the speech to help at need;And as sweet as the summer wind from a garden under the sunCometh forth on the topmost Hindfell the breath of that sleeping-one.Then he saith he will look on the face, if it bear him love or hate,Or the bonds for his life's constraining, or the sundering doom of fate.So he draweth the helm from the head, and, lo, the brow snow-white,And the smooth unfurrowed cheeks, and the wise lips breathing light;And the face of a woman it is, and the fairest that ever was born,Shown forth to the empty heavens and the desert world forlorn:But he looketh, and loveth her sore, and he longeth her spirit to move,And awaken her heart to the world, that she may behold him and love.And he toucheth her breast and her hands, and he loveth her passing sore;And he saith; "Awake! I am Sigurd," but she moveth never the more.
Then he looked on his bare bright blade, and he said: "Thou—what wilt thou do?For indeed as I came by the war-garth thy voice of desire I knew."Bright burnt the pale blue edges for the sunrise drew anear,And the rims of the Shield-burg glittered, and the east was exceeding clear:So the eager edges he setteth to the Dwarf-wrought battle-coatWhere the hammered ring-knit collar constraineth the woman's throat;But the sharp Wrath biteth and rendeth, and before it fail the rings.And, lo, the gleam of the linen, and the light of golden things:Then he driveth the blue steel onward, and through the skirt, and out.Till nought but the rippling linen is wrapping her about;Then he deems her breath comes quicker and her breast begins to heave,So he turns about the War-Flame and rends down either sleeve,Till her arms lie white in her raiment, and a river of sun-bright hairFlows free o'er bosom and shoulder and floods the desert bare.
Then a flush cometh over her visage and a sigh up-heaveth her breast,And her eyelids quiver and open, and she wakeneth into rest;Wide-eyed on the dawning she gazeth, too glad to change or smile,And but little moveth her body, nor speaketh she yet for a while;And yet kneels Sigurd moveless her wakening speech to heed,While soft the waves of the daylight o'er the starless heavens speed,And the gleaming rims of the Shield-burg yet bright and brighter grow,And the thin moon hangeth her horns dead-white in the golden glow.
Then she turned and gazed on Sigurd, and her eyes met the Volsung's eyes.And mighty and measureless now did the tide of his love arise,For their longing had met and mingled, and he knew of her heart that she loved,As she spake unto nothing but him and her lips with the speech-flood moved:
"O, what is the thing so mighty that my weary sleep hath torn,And rent the fallow bondage, and the wan woe over-worn?"
He said: "The hand of Sigurd and the Sword of Sigmund's son,And the heart that the Volsungs fashioned this deed for thee have done."
But she said: "Where then is Odin that laid me here alow?Long lasteth the grief of the world, and manfolk's tangled woe!"
"He dwelleth above," said Sigurd, "but I on the earth abide,And I came from the Glittering Heath the waves of thy fire to ride."
But therewith the sun rose upward and lightened all the earth,And the light flashed up to the heavens from the rims of the glorious girth;But they twain arose together, and with both her palms outspread,And bathed in the light returning, she cried aloud and said:
"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!"
Then they turned and were knit together; and oft and o'er againThey craved, and kissed rejoicing, and their hearts were full and fain.
Then Sigurd looketh upon her, and the words from his heart arise:"Thou art the fairest of earth, and the wisest of the wise;O who art thou that lovest? I am Sigurd, e'en as I told;I have slain the Foe of the Gods, and gotten the Ancient Gold;And great were the gain of thy love, and the gift of mine earthly days,If we twain should never sunder as we wend on the changing ways.O who art thou that lovest, thou fairest of all things born?And what meaneth thy sleep and thy slumber in the wilderness forlorn?"
She said: "I am she that loveth: I was born of the earthly folk,But of old Allfather took me from the Kings and their wedding yoke:And he called me the Victory-Wafter, and I went and came as he would,And I chose the slain for his war-host, and the days were glorious and good,Till the thoughts of my heart overcame me, and the pride of my wisdom and speech,And I scorned the earth-folk's Framer and the Lord of the world I must teach:For the death-doomed I caught from the sword, and the fated life I slew,And I deemed that my deeds were goodly, and that long I should do and undo.But Allfather came against me and the God in his wrath arose;And he cried: 'Thou hast thought in thy folly that the Gods have friends and foes,That they wake, and the world wends onward, that they sleep, and the world slips back,That they laugh, and the world's weal waxeth, that they frown and fashion the wrack:Thou hast cast up the curse against me; it shall fall aback on thine head;Go back to the sons of repentance, with the children of sorrow wed!For the Gods are great unholpen, and their grief is seldom seen,And the wrong that they will and must be is soon as it had not been.'
"Yet I thought: 'Shall I wed in the world, shall I gather grief on the earth?Then the fearless heart shall I wed, and bring the best to birth,And fashion such tales for the telling, that Earth shall be holpen at least,If the Gods think scorn of its fairness, as they sit at the changeless feast.'
"Then somewhat smiled Allfather; and he spake: 'So let it be!The doom thereof abideth; the doom of me and thee.Yet long shall the time pass over ere thy waking-day be born:Fare forth, and forget and be weary 'neath the Sting of the Sleepful Thorn!'
"So I came to the head of Hindfell and the ruddy shields and white,And the wall of the wildfire wavering around the isle of night;And there the Sleep-thorn pierced me, and the slumber on me fell,And the night of nameless sorrows that hath no tale to tell.Now I am she that loveth; and the day is nigh at handWhen I, who have ridden the sea-realm and the regions of the land,And dwelt in the measureless mountains and the forge of stormy days,Shall dwell in the house of my fathers and the land of the people's praise;And there shall hand meet hand, and heart by heart shall beat,And the lying-down shall be joyous, and the morn's uprising sweet.Lo now, I look on thine heart and behold of thine inmost will,That thou of the days wouldst hearken that our portion shall fulfill;But O, be wise of man-folk, and the hope of thine heart refrain!As oft in the battle's beginning ye vex the steed with the rein,Lest at last in its latter ending, when the sword hath hushed the horn,His limbs should be weary and fail, and his might be over-worn.O be wise, lest thy love constrain me, and my vision wax o'er-clear,And thou ask of the thing that thou shouldst not, and the thing that thou wouldst not hear.
"Know thou, most mighty of men, that the Norns shall order all,And yet without thine helping shall no whit of their will befall;Be wise! 'tis a marvel of words, and a mock for the fool and the blind,But I saw it writ in the heavens, and its fashioning there did I find:And the night of the Norns and their slumber, and the tide when the world runs back,And the way of the sun is tangled, it is wrought of the dastard's lack.But the day when the fair earth blossoms, and the sun is bright above.Of the daring deeds is it fashioned and the eager hearts of love.
"Be wise, and cherish thine hope in the freshness of the days,And scatter its seed from thine hand in the field of the people's praise;Then fair shall it fall in the furrow, and some the earth shall speed,And the sons of men shall marvel at the blossom of the deed:But some the earth shall speed not: nay rather, the wind of the heavenShall waft it away from thy longing—and a gift to the Gods hast thou given,And a tree for the roof and the wall in the house of the hope that shall be,Though it seemeth our very sorrow, and the grief of thee and me.
"Strive not with the fools of man-folk: for belike thou shalt overcome;And what then is the gain of thine hunting when thou bearest the quarry home?Or else shall the fool overcome thee, and what deed thereof shall grow?Nay, strive with the wise man rather, and increase thy woe and his woe;Yet thereof a gain hast thou gotten; and the half of thine heart hast thou wonIf thou may'st prevail against him, and his deeds are the deeds thou hast done:Yea, and if thou fall before him, in him shalt thou live again,And thy deeds in his hand shall blossom, and his heart of thine heart shall be fain.
"When thou hearest the fool rejoicing, and he saith, 'It is over and past,And the wrong was better than right, and hate turns into love at the last,And we strove for nothing at all, and the Gods are fallen asleep;For so good is the world a growing that the evil good shall reap:'Then loosen thy sword in the scabbard and settle the helm on thine head,For men betrayed are mighty, and great are the wrongfully dead
"Wilt thou do the deed and repent it? thou hadst better never been born:Wilt thou do the deed and exalt it? then thy fame shall be outworn:Thou shalt do the deed and abide it, and sit on thy throne on high,And look on today and tomorrow as those that never die.
"Love thou the Gods—and withstand them, lest thy fame should fail in the end,And thou be but their thrall and their bondsmen, who wert born for their very friend:For few things from the Gods are hidden, and the hearts of men they know,And how that none rejoiceth to quail and crouch alow.
"I have spoken the words, belovèd, to thy matchless glory and worth;But thy heart to my heart hath been speaking, though my tongue hath set it forth:For I am she that loveth, and I know what thou wouldst teachFrom the heart of thine unlearned wisdom, and I needs must speak thy speech."
Then words were weary and silent, but oft and o'er againThey craved and kissed rejoicing, and their hearts were full and fain.
Then spake the Son of Sigmund: "Fairest, and most of worth,Hast thou seen the ways of man-folk and the regions of the earth?Then speak yet more of wisdom; for most meet meseems it isThat my soul to thy soul be shapen, and that I should know thy bliss."
So she took his right hand meekly, nor any word would say,Not e'en of love or praising, his longing to delay;And they sat on the side of Hindfell, and their fain eyes looked and loved,As she told of the hidden matters whereby the world is moved:And she told of the framing of all things, and the houses of the heaven;And she told of the star-worlds' courses, and how the winds be driven;And she told of the Norns and their names, and the fate that abideth the earth;And she told of the ways of King-folk in their anger and their mirth;And she spake of the love of women, and told of the flame that burns,And the fall of mighty houses, and the friend that falters and turns,And the lurking blinded vengeance, and the wrong that amendeth wrong,And the hand that repenteth its stroke, and the grief that endureth for long:And how man shall bear and forbear, and be master of all that is;And how man shall measure it all, the wrath, and the grief, and the bliss.
"I saw the body of Wisdom, and of shifting guise was she wrought,And I stretched out my hands to hold her, and a mote of the dust they caught;And I prayed her to come for my teaching, and she came in the midnight dream—And I woke and might not remember, nor betwixt her tangle deem:She spake, and how might I hearken; I heard, and how might I know;I knew, and how might I fashion, or her hidden glory show?All things I have told thee of Wisdom are but fleeting imagesOf her hosts that abide in the heavens, and her light that Allfather sees:Yet wise is the sower that sows, and wise is the reaper that reaps,And wise is the smith in his smiting, and wise is the warder that keeps:And wise shalt thou be to deliver, and I shall be wise to desire;—And lo, the tale that is told, and the sword and the wakening fire!Lo now, I am she that loveth, and hark how Greyfell neighs,And Fafnir's Bed is gleaming, and green go the downward ways,The road to the children of men and the deeds that thou shalt doIn the joy of thy life-days' morning, when thine hope is fashioned anew.Come now, O Bane of the Serpent, for now is the high-noon come,And the sun hangeth over Hindfell and looks on the earth-folk's home;But the soul is so great within thee, and so glorious are thine eyes,And me so love constraineth, and mine heart that was called the wise,That we twain may see men's dwellings and the house where we shall dwell,And the place of our life's beginning, where the tale shall be to tell."
So they climb the burg of Hindfell, and hand in hand they fare,Till all about and above them is nought but the sunlit air,And there close they cling together rejoicing in their mirth;For far away beneath them lie the kingdoms of the earth,And the garths of men-folk's dwellings and the streams that water them,And the rich and plenteous acres, and the silver ocean's hem,And the woodland wastes and the mountains, and all that holdeth all;The house and the ship and the island, the loom and the mine and the stall,The beds of bane and healing, the crafts that slay and save,The temple of God and the Doom-ring, the cradle and the grave.
Then spake the Victory-Wafter: "O King of the Earthly Age,As a God thou beholdest the treasure and the joy of thine heritage,And where on the wings of his hope is the spirit of Sigurd borne?Yet I bid thee hover awhile as a lark alow on the corn;Yet I bid thee look on the land 'twixt the wood and the silver seaIn the bight of the swirling river, and the house that cherished me!There dwelleth mine earthly sister and the king that she hath wed;There morn by morn aforetime I woke on the golden bed;There eve by eve I tarried mid the speech and the lays of kings;There noon by noon I wandered and plucked the blossoming things;The little land of Lymdale by the swirling river's side,Where Brynhild once was I called in the days ere my father died;The little land of Lymdale 'twixt the woodland and the sea,Where on thee mine eyes shall brighten and thine eyes shall beam on me."
"I shall seek thee there," said Sigurd, "when the day-spring is begun,Ere we wend the world together in the season of the sun."
"I shall bide thee there," said Brynhild, "till the fulness of the days,And the time for the glory appointed, and the springing-tide of praise."
From his hand then draweth Sigurd Andvari's ancient Gold;There is nought but the sky above them as the ring together they hold,The shapen ancient token, that hath no change nor end,No change, and no beginning, no flaw for God to mend:Then Sigurd cries: "O Brynhild, now hearken while I swear,That the sun shall die in the heavens and the day no more be fair,If I seek not love in Lymdale and the house that fostered thee,And the land where thou awakedst 'twixt the woodland and the sea!"
And she cried: "O Sigurd, Sigurd, now hearken while I swearThat the day shall die for ever and the sun to blackness wear,Ere I forget thee, Sigurd, as I lie 'twixt wood and seaIn the little land of Lymdale and the house that fostered me!"
Then he set the ring on her finger and once, if ne'er again,They kissed and clung together, and their hearts were full and fain.
So the day grew old about them and the joy of their desire,And eve and the sunset came, and faint grew the sunset fire,And the shadowless death of the day was sweet in the golden tide;But the stars shone forth on the world, and the twilight changed and died;And sure if the first of man-folk had been born to that starry night,And had heard no tale of the sunrise, he had never longed for the light:But Earth longed amidst her slumber, as 'neath the night she lay,And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day.