the hauberk, and live
and die happy. But if thou sayest that I have deemed aright, and that a
curse goeth with the hauberk, then either for the sake of the folk I will
not wear the gift and the curse, and I shall die in great glory, and
because of me the House shall live; or else for thy sake I shall bear it
and live, and the House shall live or die as may be, but I not helping,
nay I no longer of the House nor in it. How sayest thou?"

Then she said:

"Hail be thy mouth, beloved, for that last word of thine,
And the hope that thine heart conceiveth and the hope that is born in
mine.
Yea, for a man's delivrance was the hauberk born indeed
That once more the mighty warrior might help the folk at need.
And where is the curse's dwelling if thy life be saved to dwell
Amidst the Wolfing warriors and the folk that loves thee well
And the house where the high Gods left thee to be cherished well
therein?

"Yea more: I have told thee, beloved, that thou art not of the kin;
The blood in thy body is blended of the wandering Elking race,
And one that I may not tell of, who in God-home hath his place,
And who changed his shape to beget thee in the wild-wood's leafy roof.
How then shall the doom of the Wolfings be woven in the woof
Which the Norns for thee have shuttled? or shall one man of war
Cast down the tree of the Wolfings on the roots that spread so far?
O friend, thou art wise and mighty, but other men have lived
Beneath the Wolfing roof-tree whereby the folk has thrived."

He reddened at her word; but his eyes looked eagerly on her. She cast
down the hauberk, and drew one step nigher to him. She knitted her
brows, her face waxed terrible, and her stature seemed to grow greater,
as she lifted up her gleaming right arm, and cried out in a great voice.

"Thou Thiodolf the Mighty! Hadst thou will to cast the net
And tangle the House in thy trouble, it is I would slay thee yet;
For 'tis I and I that love them, and my sorrow would I give,
And thy life, thou God of battle, that the Wolfing House might live."

Therewith she rushed forward, and cast herself upon him, and threw her
arms about him, and strained him to her bosom, and kissed his face, and
he her in likewise, for there was none to behold them, and nought but the
naked heaven was the roof above their heads.

And now it was as if the touch of her face and her body, and the
murmuring of her voic