The men that fashioned nothing but the trap to make men toil.

They drew the sword in the cities, they came and struck the stroke

And smote the shield of the Markmen, and point and edge they broke.

They drew the sword in the war-garth, they swore to bring aback

God’s gifts from the Markmen houses where the tables never lack.

O Markmen, take the God-gifts that came on their own feet

O’er the hills through the Mirkwood thicket the Stone of Tyr to meet!”

  Again she stayed her song, which had been loud and joyous, and they who heard her knew that the Kindreds had gained the day, and whilst the Hall-Sun was silent they fell to talking of this fair day of battle and the taking of captives.  But presently she spread out her hands again and they held their peace, and she said:

  “I see, O Wolfing women, and many a thing I see,

But not all things, O elders, this eve shall ye learn of me,

For another mouth there cometh: the thicket I behold

And the Sons of Tyr amidst it, and I see the oak-trees old,

And the war-shout ringing round them; and I see the battle-lord

Unhelmed amidst of the mighty; and I see his leaping sword;

Strokes struck and warriors falling, and the streaks of spears I see,

But hereof shall the other tell you who speaketh after me.

For none other than the Shieldings from out the wood have come,

And they shift the turn with the Daylings to drive the folk-spear home,

And to follow with the Wolfings and thrust the war-beast forth.

And so good men deem the tidings that they bid them journey north

On the feet of a Shielding runner, that Gisli hath to name;

And west of the water he wendeth by the way that the Wolfings came;

Now for sleep he tarries never, and no meat is in his mouth

Till the first of the Houses hearkeneth the tidings of the south;

Lo, he speaks, and the mead-sea sippeth, and the bread by the way doth eat,

And over the Geiring threshold and outward pass his feet;

And he breasts the Burg of the Daylings and saith his happy word,

And stayeth to drink for a minute of the waves of Battleford.

Lone then by the stream he runneth, and wendeth the wild-wood road,

And dasheth through the hazels of the Oselings’ fair abode,

And the Elking women know it, and their hearts are glad once more,

And ye—yea, hearken, Wolfings, for his feet are at the door.”

  CHAPTER XII—TIDINGS OF THE BATTLE IN MIRKWOOD

  As the Hall-Sun made an end they heard in good sooth the feet of the runner on the hard ground without the hall, and presently the door opened and he came leaping over the threshold, and up to the table, and stood leaning on it with one hand, his breast heaving with his last swift run.  Then he spake presently:

  “I am Gisli of the Shieldings: Otter sendeth me to the Hall-Sun; but on the way I was to tell tidings to the Houses west of the Water: so have I done.  Now is my journey ended; for Otter saith: ‘Let the Hall-Sun note the tidings and send word of them by four of the lightest limbed of the women, or by lads a-horseback, both west and east of the Water; let her send the word as it seemeth to her, whether she hath seen it or not.  I will drink a short draught since my running is over.”

  Then a damsel brought him a horn of mead and let it come into his hand, and he drank sighing with pleasure, while the damsel for pleasure of him and his tidings laid her hand on his shoulder.  Then he set down the horn and spake:

  “We, the Shieldings, with the Geirings, the Hrossings, and the Wolfings, three hundred warriors and more, were led into the Wood by Thiodolf the War-duke, beside whom went Fox, who hath seen the Romans.  We were all afoot; for there is no wide way through the Wood, nor would we have it otherwise, lest the foe find the thicket easy.  But many of us know the thicket and its ways; so we made not the easy hard.  I was near the War-duke, for I know the thicket and am light-foot: I am a bowman.  I saw Thiodolf that he was unhelmed and bore no shield, nor had he any coat of fence; nought but a deer-skin frock.”

  As he said that word, the carline, who had drawn very near to him and was looking hard at his face, turned and looked on the Hall-Sun and stared at her till she reddened under those keen eyes: for in her heart began to gather some knowledge of the tale of her mother and what her will was.

  But Gisli went on: “Yet by his side was his mighty sword, and we all knew it for Throng-plough, and were glad of it and of him and the unfenced breast of the dauntless.  Six hours we went spreading wide through the thicket, not always seeing one another, but knowing one another to be nigh; those that knew the thicket best led, the others followed on.  So we went till it was high noon on the plain and glimmering dusk in the thicket, and we saw nought, save here and there a roe, and here and there a sounder of swine, and coneys where it was opener, and the sun shone and the grass grew for a little space.  So came we unto where the thicket ended suddenly, and there was a long glade of the wild-wood, all set about with great oak-trees and grass thereunder, which I knew well; and thereof the tale tells that it was a holy place of the folk who abided in these parts before the Sons of the Goths.  Now will I drink.”

  So he drank of the horn and said: “It seemeth that Fox had a deeming of the way the Romans should come; so now we abided in the thicket without that glade and lay quiet and hidden, spreading ourselves as much about that lawn of the oak-trees as we might, the while Fox and three others crept through the wood to espy what might be toward: not long had they been gone ere we heard a war-horn blow, and it was none of our horns: it was a long way off, but we looked to our weapons: for men are eager for the foe and the death that cometh, when they lie hidden in the thicket.  A while passed, and again we heard the horn, and it was nigher and had a marvellous voice; then in a while was a little noise of men, not their voices, but footsteps going warily through the brake to the south, and twelve men came slowly and warily into that oak-lawn, and lo, one of them was Fox; but he was clad in the raiment of the dastard of the Goths whom he had slain.  I tell you my heart beat, for I saw that the others were Roman men, and one of them seemed to be a man of authority, and he held Fox by the shoulder, and pointed to the thicket where we lay, and something he said to him, as we saw by his gesture and face, but his voice we heard not, for he spake soft.

  “Then of those ten men of his he sent back two, and Fox going between them, as though he should be slain if he misled them; and he and the eight abided there wisely and warily, standing silently some six feet from each other, moving scarce at all, but looking like images fashioned of brown copper and iron; holding their casting-spears (which be marvellous heavy weapons) and girt with the sax.