House of the Wolfings: The William Morris Book that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkiena *s The Lord of the Rings (30 page)

So they brought him his arms; and meanwhile
the Hall-Sun spake to one of the Captains, and he turned and went
away a little space, and then came back, having with him three
strong warriors of the Wolfings, and he brought them before the
Hall-Sun, who said to them:

“Ye three, Steinulf, Athalulf, and Grani the
Grey, I have sent for you because ye are men both mighty in battle
and deft wood-wrights and house-smiths; ye shall follow Thiodolf
closely, when he winneth into the Roman garth, yet shall ye fight
wisely, so that ye be not slain, or at least not all; ye shall
enter the Hall with Thiodolf, and when ye are therein, if need be,
ye shall run down the Hall at your swiftest, and mount up into the
loft betwixt the Middle-hearth and the Women’s-Chamber, and there
shall ye find good store of water in vats and tubs, and this ye
shall use for quenching the fire of the Hall if the foemen fire it,
as is not unlike to be.”

Then Grani spoke for the others and said he
would pay all heed to her words, and they departed to join their
company.

Now was Thiodolf armed; and Arinbiorn,
turning about before he went to his place, beheld him and knit his
brow, and said: “What is this, Thiodolf? Didst thou not swear to
the Gods not to bear helm or shield in the battles of this strife?
yet hast thou Ivar’s helm on thine head and his shield ready beside
thee: wilt thou forswear thyself? so doing shalt thou bring woe
upon the House.”

“Arinbiorn,” said Thiodolf, “where didst
thou hear tell of me that I had made myself the thrall of the Gods?
The oath that I sware was sworn when mine heart was not whole
towards our people; and now will I break it that I may keep what of
good intent there was in it, and cast away the rest. Long is the
story; but if we journey together to-night I will tell it thee.
Likewise I will tell it to the Gods if they look sourly upon me
when I see them, and all shall be well.”

He smiled as he spoke, and Arinbiorn smiled
on him in turn and went his ways to array the host. But when he was
gone Thiodolf was alone in that place with the Hall-Sun, and he
turned to her, and kissed her, and caressed her fondly, and spake
and said:

So fare we, O my daughter, to the sundering
of the ways;

Short is my journey henceforth to the door
that ends my days,

And long the road that lieth as yet before
thy feet.

How fain were I that thy journey from day to
day were sweet

With peace to thee and pleasure; that a
noble warrior’s hand

In its early days might lead thee adown the
flowery land,

And thy children in its noon-tide cling
round about thy gown,

And the wise that thy womb has carried when
the sun is going down,

Be thy happy fellow-farers to tell the tale
of Earth,

But I wot that for no such sweetness did we
bring thee unto birth,

But to be the soul of the Wolfings till the
other days should come,

And the fruit of the kindreds’ harvest with
thee is garnered home.

Yet if for no blithe faring thy life-day is
ordained,

Yet peace that long endureth maybe thy soul
hath gained;

And thy sorrow of this even thy latest grief
shall be,

The grief wherewith thou singest the
death-song over me.

She looked up at him and smiled, though the
tears were on her face; then she said:

Though to-day the grief beginneth yet the
bitterness is done.

Though my body wendeth barren ’neath the
beams of the quickening sun,

Yet remembrance still abideth, and long
after the days of my life

Shall I live in the tale of the morning,
when they tell of the ending of strife;

And the deeds of this little hand, and the
thought conceived in my heart,

And never again henceforward from the folk
shall I fare apart.

And if of the Earth, my father, thou hast
tidings in thy place

Thou shalt hear how they call me the Ransom
and the Mother of happy days.

Then she wept outright for a brief space,
and thereafter she said:

Keep this in thine heart, O father, that I
shall remember all

Since thou liftedst the she-wolf’s nursling
in the oak-tree’s leafy hall.

Yea, every time I remember when hand in hand
we went

Amidst the shafts of the beech-trees, and
down to the youngling bent

The Folk-wolf in his glory when the eve of
fight drew nigh;

And every time I remember when we wandered
joyfully

Adown the sunny meadow and lived a while of
life

’Midst the herbs and the beasts and the
waters so free from fear and strife,

That thy years and thy might and thy wisdom,
I had no part therein;

But thou wert as the twin-born brother of
the maiden slim and thin,

The maiden shy in the feast-hall and blithe
in wood and field.

Thus have we fared, my father; and e’en now
when thou bearest shield,

On the last of thy days of mid-earth, twixt
us ‘tis even so

That the heart of my like-aged brother is
the heart of thee that I know.

Then the bitterness of tears stayed her
speech, and he spake no word more, but took her in his arms a while
and soothed her and fondled her, and then they parted, and he went
with great strides towards the outgoing of the Thing-stead.

There he found the warriors of his House and
of the Bearings and the lesser Houses of Mid-mark, all duly ordered
for wending through the wood. The dawn was coming on apace, but the
wood was yet dark. But whereas the Wolfings led, and each man of
them knew the wood like his own hand, there was no straying or
disarray, and in less than a half-hour’s space Thiodolf and the
first battle were come to the wood behind the hazel-trees at the
back of the hall, and before them was the dawning round about the
Roof of the Kindred; the eastern heavens were brightening, and they
could see all things clear without the wood.

Chapter 28

Of the Storm of Dawning

Then Thiodolf bade Fox and two others steal
forward, and see what of foemen was before them; so they fell to
creeping on towards the open: but scarcely had they started, before
all men could hear the tramp of men drawing nigh; then Thiodolf
himself took with him a score of his House and went quietly toward
the wood-edge till they were barely within the shadow of the
beechwood; and he looked forth and saw men coming straight towards
their lurking-place. And those he saw were a good many, and they
were mostly of the dastards of the Goths; but with them was a
Captain of an Hundred of the Romans, and some others of his
kindred; and Thiodolf deemed that the Goths had been bidden to
gather up some of the night-watchers and enter the wood and fall on
the stay-at-homes. So he bade his men get them aback, and he
himself abode still at the very wood’s edge listening intently with
his sword bare in his hand. And he noted that those men of the foe
stayed in the daylight outside the wood, but a few yards from it,
and, by command as it seemed, fell silent and spake no word; and
the morn was very still, and when the sound of their tramp over the
grass had ceased, Thiodolf could hear the tramp of more men behind
them. And then he had another thought, to wit that the Romans had
sent scouts to see if the Goths yet abided on the vantage-ground by
the ford, and that when they had found them gone, they were minded
to fall on them unawares in the refuge of the Thing-stead and were
about to do so by the counsel and leading of the dastard Goths; and
that this was one body of the host led by those dastards, who knew
somewhat of the woods. So he drew aback speedily, and catching hold
of Fox by the shoulder (for he had taken him alone with him) he
bade him creep along through the wood toward the Thing-stead, and
bring back speedy word whether there were any more foemen near the
wood thereaway; and he himself came to his men, and ordered them
for onset, drawing them up in a shallow half moon, with the bowmen
at the horns thereof, with the word to loose at the Romans as soon
as they heard the war-horn blow: and all this was done speedily and
with little noise, for they were well nigh so arrayed already.

Thus then they waited, and there was more
than a glimmer of light even under the beechen leaves, and the
eastern sky was yellowing to sunrise. The other warriors were like
hounds in the leash eager to be slipped; but Thiodolf stood calm
and high-hearted turning over the memory of past days, and the time
he thought of seemed long to him, but happy.

Scarce had a score of minutes passed, and
the Romans before them, who were now gathered thick behind those
dastards of the Goths, had not moved, when back comes Fox and tells
how he has come upon a great company of the Romans led by their
thralls of the Goths who were just entering the wood, away there
towards the Thing-stead.

“But, War-duke,” says he, “I came also
across our own folk of the second battle duly ordered in the wood
ready to meet them; and they shall be well dealt with, and the sun
shall rise for us and not for them.”

Then turns Thiodolf round to those nighest
to him and says, but still softly:

Hear ye a word, O people, of the wisdom of
the foe!

Before us thick they gather, and unto the
death they go.

They fare as lads with their cur-dogs who
have stopped a fox’s earth,

And standing round the spinny, now chuckle
in their mirth,

Till one puts by the leafage and trembling
stands astare

At the sight of the Wood-wolf’s father
arising in his lair—

They have come for our wives and our
children, and our sword-edge shall they meet;

And which of them is happy save he of the
swiftest feet?

Speedily then went that word along the ranks
of the Kindred, and men were merry with the restless joy of battle:
but scarce had two minutes passed ere suddenly the stillness of the
dawn was broken by clamour and uproar; by shouts and shrieks, and
the clashing of weapons from the wood on their left hand; and over
all arose the roar of the Markmen’s horn, for the battle was joined
with the second company of the Kindreds. But a rumour and murmur
went from the foemen before Thiodolf’s men; and then sprang forth
the loud sharp word of the captains commanding and rebuking, as if
the men were doubtful which way they should take.

Amidst all which Thiodolf brandished his
sword, and cried out in a great voice:

Now, now, ye War-sons!

Now the Wolf waketh!

Lo how the Wood-beast

Wendeth in onset.

E’en as his feet fare

Fall on and follow!

And he led forth joyously, and terrible rang
the long refrained gathered shout of his battle as his folk rushed
on together devouring the little space between their ambush and the
hazel-beset green-sward.

In the twinkling of an eye the half-moon had
lapped around the Roman-Goths and those that were with them; and
the dastards made no stand but turned about at once, crying out
that the Gods of the Kindreds were come to aid and none could
withstand them. But these fleers thrust against the band of Romans
who were next to them, and bore them aback, and great was the
turmoil; and when Thiodolf’s storm fell full upon them, as it
failed not to do, so close were they driven together that scarce
could any man raise his hand for a stroke. For behind them stood a
great company of those valiant spearmen of the Romans, who would
not give way if anywise they might hold it out: and their ranks
were closely serried, shield nigh touching shield, and their faces
turned toward the foe; and so arrayed, though they might die, they
scarce knew how to flee. As they might these thrust and hewed at
the fleers, and gave fierce words but few to the Roman-Goths,
driving them back against their foemen: but the fleers had lost the
cunning of their right hands, and they had cast away their shields
and could not defend their very bodies against the wrath of the
kindreds; and when they strove to flee to the right hand or to the
left, they were met by the horns of the half-moon, and the arrows
began to rain in upon them, and from so close were they shot at
that no shaft failed to smite home.

There then were the dastards slain; and
their bodies served for a rampart against the onrush of the Markmen
to those Romans who had stood fast. To them were gathering more and
more every minute, and they faced the Goths steadily with their
hard brown visages and gleaming eyes above their iron-plated
shields; not casting their spears, but standing closely together,
silent, but fierce. The light was spread now over all the earth;
the eastern heavens were grown golden-red, flecked here and there
with little crimson clouds: this battle was fallen near silent, but
to the North was great uproar of shouts and cries, and the roaring
of the war-horns, and the shrill blasts of the brazen trumpets.

Now Thiodolf, as his wont was when he saw
that all was going well, had refrained himself of hand-strokes, but
was here and there and everywhere giving heart to his folk, and
keeping them in due order, and close array, lest the Romans should
yet come among them. But he watched the ranks of the foe, and saw
how presently they began to spread out beyond his, and might, if it
were not looked to, take them in flank; and he was about to order
his men anew to meet them, when he looked on his left hand and saw
how Roman men were pouring thick from the wood out of all array,
followed by a close throng of the kindreds: for on this side the
Romans were outnumbered and had stumbled unawares into the ambush
of the Markmen, who had fallen on them straightway and disarrayed
them from the first. This flight of their folk the Romans saw also,
and held their men together, refraining from the onset, as men who
deem that they will have enough to do to stand fast.

But the second battle of the Markmen, (who
were of the Nether-mark, mingled with the Mid-mark) fought wisely,
for they swept those fleers from before them, slaying many and
driving the rest scattering, yet held the chase for no long way,
but wheeling about came sidelong on toward the battle of the Romans
and Thiodolf. And when Thiodolf saw that, he set up the whoop of
victory, he and his, and fell fiercely on the Romans, casting
everything that would fly, as they rushed on to the handplay; so
that there was many a Roman slain with the Roman spears that those
who had fallen had left among their foemen.