And were hewn down there together; nor yet was the slaughter slow.

But some they saved for thralldom, yea, e’en of the fighting men,

Or to quell them with pains; so they stripped them; and this man espying just then

Some chance, I mind not whatwise, from the garth fled out and away.

  “Now many a thing noteworthy of these aliens did he say,

But this I bid you hearken, lest I wear the time for nought,

That still upon the Markmen and the Mark they set their thought;

For they questioned this man and others through a go-between in words

Of us, and our lands and our chattels, and the number of our swords;

Of the way and the wild-wood passes and the winter and his ways.

Now look to see them shortly; for worn are fifteen days

Since in the garth of the Hundings I saw them dight for war,

And a hardy folk and ready and a swift-foot host they are.”

  Therewith Geirmund went down clattering from the Hill and stood with his company.  But a man came forth from the other side of the ring, and clomb the Hill: he was a red-haired man, rather big, clad in a skin coat, and bearing a bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows at his back, and a little axe hung by his side.  He said:

  “I dwell in the House of the Hrossings of the Mid-mark, and I am now made a man of the kindred: howbeit I was not born into it; for I am the son of a fair and mighty woman of a folk of the Kymry, who was taken in war while she went big with me; I am called Fox the Red.

  “These Romans have I seen, and have not died: so hearken! for my tale shall be short for what there is in it.

  “I am, as many know, a hunter of Mirkwood, and I know all its ways and the passes through the thicket somewhat better than most.

  “A moon ago I fared afoot from Mid-mark through Upper-mark into the thicket of the south, and through it into the heath country; and I went over a neck and came in the early dawn into a little dale when somewhat of mist still hung over it.  At the dale’s end I saw a man lying asleep on the grass under a quicken tree, and his shield and sword hanging over his head to a bough thereof, and his horse feeding hoppled higher up the dale.

  “I crept up softly to him with a shaft nocked on the string, but when I drew near I saw him to be of the sons of the Goths.  So I doubted nothing, but laid down my bow, and stood upright, and went to him and roused him, and he leapt up, and was wroth.

  “I said to him, ‘Wilt thou be wroth with a brother of the kindred meeting him in unpeopled parts?’

  “But he reached out for his weapons; but ere he could handle them I ran in on him so that he gat not his sword, and had scant time to smite at me with a knife which he drew from his waist.

  “I gave way before him for he was a very big man, and he rushed past me, and I dealt him a blow on the side of the head with my little axe which is called the War-babe, and gave him a great wound: and he fell on the grass, and as it happened that was his bane.

  “I was sorry that I had slain him, since he was a man of the Goths: albeit otherwise he had slain me, for he was very wroth and dazed with slumber.

  “He died not for a while; and he bade me fetch him water; and there was a well hard by on the other side of the tree; so I fetched it him in a great shell that I carry, and he drank.  I would have sung the blood-staunching song over him, for I know it well.  But he said, ‘It availeth nought: I have enough: what man art thou?’

  “I said, ‘I am a fosterling of the Hrossings, and my mother was taken in war: my name is Fox.’

  “Said he; ‘O Fox, I have my due at thy hands, for I am a Markman of the Elkings, but a guest of the Burgundians beyond the Great River; and the Romans are their masters and they do their bidding: even so did I who was but their guest: and I a Markman to fight against the Markmen, and all for fear and for gold!  And thou an alien-born hast slain their traitor and their dastard!  This is my due.  Give me to drink again.’

  “So did I; and he said; ‘Wilt thou do an errand for me to thine own house?’  ‘Yea,’ said I.

  “Said he, ‘I am a messenger to the garth of the Romans, that I may tell the road to the Mark, and lead them through the thicket; and other guides are coming after me: but not yet for three days or four.  So till they come there will be no man in the Roman garth to know thee that thou art not even I myself.  If thou art doughty, strip me when I am dead and do my raiment on thee, and take this ring from my neck, for that is my token, and when they ask thee for a word say, “No limit”; for that is the token-word.  Go south-east over the dales keeping Broadshield-fell square with thy right hand, and let thy wisdom, O Fox, lead thee to the Garth of the Romans, and so back to thy kindred with all tidings thou hast gathered—for indeed they come—a many of them.  Give me to drink.’

  “So he drank again, and said, ‘The bearer of this token is called Hrosstyr of the River Goths.  He hath that name among dastards.  Thou shalt lay a turf upon my head.  Let my death pay for my life.’

  “Therewith he fell back and died.  So I did as he bade me and took his gear, worth six kine, and did it on me; I laid turf upon him in that dale, and hid my bow and my gear in a blackthorn brake hard by, and then took his horse and rode away.

  “Day and night I rode till I came to the garth of the Romans; there I gave myself up to their watchers, and they brought me to their Duke, a grim man and hard.  He said in a terrible voice, ‘Thy name?’  I said, ‘Hrosstyr of the River Goths.’  He said, ‘What limit?’  I answered, ‘No limit.’  ‘The token!’ said he, and held out his hand.  I gave him the ring.  ‘Thou art the man,’ said he.

  “I thought in my heart, ‘thou liest, lord,’ and my heart danced for joy.

  “Then he fell to asking me questions a many, and I answered every one glibly enough, and told him what I would, but no word of truth save for his hurt, and my soul laughed within me at my lies; thought I, the others, the traitors, shall come, and they shall tell him the truth, and he will not trow it, or at the worst he will doubt them.  But me he doubted nothing, else had he called in the tormentors to have the truth of me by pains; as I well saw afterwards, when they questioned with torments a man and a woman of the hill-folk whom they had brought in captive.

  “I went from him and went all about that garth espying everything, fearing nothing; albeit there were divers woful captives of the Goths, who cursed me for a dastard, when they saw by my attire that I was of their blood.

  “I abode there three days, and learned all that I might of the garth and the host of them, and the fourth day in the morning I went out as if to hunt, and none hindered me, for they doubted me not.

  “So I came my ways home to the Upper-mark, and was guested with the Geirings.  Will ye that I tell you somewhat of the ways of these Romans of the garth?  The time presses, and my tale runneth longer than I would.  What will ye?”

  Then there arose a murmur, “Tell all, tell all.”  “Nay,” said the Fox, “All I may not tell; so much did I behold there during the three days’ stay; but this much it behoveth you to know: that these men have no other thought save to win the Mark and waste it, and slay the fighting men and the old carles, and enthrall such as they will, that is, all that be fair and young, and they long sorely for our women either to have or to sell.