as England. And on the land was a battle-array two-fold, and
many banners were flapping on both sides. And before the army of the
landfolk was riding a huge witch-wife upon a wolf; the wolf had a man's
carcase in his mouth, and the blood was dripping and dropping from his
jaws; and when the wolf had eaten up that carcase, the witch-wife threw
another into his jaws; and so, one after another; and the wolf cranched
and swallowed them all. And the witch-wife sang this song:

"The green waving fields
Are hidden behind
The flash of the shields,
And the rush of the banners
That toss in the wind.

But Skade's eagle eyes
Pierce the wall of the steel,
And behold from the skies
What the earth would conceal;
O'er the rush of the banners
She poises her wing,
And marks with a shadow
The brow of the King.

And, in bode of his doom,
Jaw of Wolf, be the tomb
Of the bones and the flesh,
Gore-bedabbled and fresh,
That cranch and that drip
Under fang and from lip.
As I ride in the van
Of the feasters on man,
With the King!

Grim wolf, sate my maw,
Full enow shall there be.
Hairy jaw, hungry maw,
Both for ye and for me!

Meaner food be the feast
Of the fowl and the beast;
But the witch, for her share,
Takes the best of the fare
And the witch shall be fed
With the king of the dead,
When she rides in the van
Of the slayers of man,
With the King."

And King Harold dreamed a dream. And he saw before him his brother, St.
Olave. And the dead, to the Scald-King sang this song:

"Bold as thou in the fight,
Blithe as thou in the hall,
Shone the noon of my might,
Ere the night of my fall!

How humble is death,
And how haughty is life;
And how fleeting the breath
Between slumber and strife!

All the earth is too narrow,
O life, for thy tread!
Two strides o'er the barrow
Can measure the dead.

Yet mighty that space is
Which seemeth so small;
The realm of all races,
With room for them all!"

But Harold Hardrada scorned witch-wife and dream; and his fleets sailed
on. Tostig joined him off the Orkney Isles, and this great armament soon
came in sight of the shores of England. They landed at Cleveland [242],
and at the dread