sk-strewn floor of the beech wood on to the scanty
grass of the lawn, but his eyes looked straight before him at that which
was amidmost of the lawn: and little wonder was that; for there on a
stone chair sat a woman exceeding fair, clad in glittering raiment, her
hair lying as pale in the moonlight on the grey stone as the barley acres
in the August night before the reaping-hook goes in amongst them. She
sat there as though she were awaiting someone, and he made no stop nor
stay, but went straight up to her, and took her in his arms, and kissed
her mouth and her eyes, and she him again; and then he sat himself down
beside her. But her eyes looked kindly on him as she said:

"O Thiodolf, hardy art thou, that thou hast no fear to take me in thine
arms and to kiss me, as though thou hadst met in the meadow with a maiden
of the Elkings: and I, who am a daughter of the Gods of thy kindred, and
a Chooser of the Slain! Yea, and that upon the eve of battle and the
dawn of thy departure to the stricken field!"

"O Wood-Sun," he said "thou art the treasure of life that I found when I
was young, and the love of life that I hold, now that my beard is
grizzling. Since when did I fear thee, Wood-Sun? Did I fear thee when
first I saw thee, and we stood amidst the hazelled field, we twain living
amongst the slain? But my sword was red with the blood of the foe, and
my raiment with mine own blood; and I was a-weary with the day's work,
and sick with many strokes, and methought I was fainting into death. And
there thou wert before me, full of life and ruddy and smiling both lips
and eyes; thy raiment clean and clear, thine hands stained with blood:
then didst thou take me by my bloody and weary hand, and didst kiss my
lips grown ashen pale, and thou saidst 'Come with me.' And I strove to
go, and might not; so many and sore were my hurts. Then amidst my
sickness and my weariness was I merry; for I said to myself, This is the
death of the warrior, and it is exceeding sweet. What meaneth it? Folk
said of me; he is over young to meet the foeman; yet am I not over young
to die?"

Therewith he laughed out amid the wild-wood, and his speech became song,
and he said:

"We wrought in the ring of the hazels, and the wine of war we drank:
From the tide when the sun stood highest to the hour wherein she sank:
And three kings came against me, the mightiest of the Huns,
The evil-eyed in battle, the swift-foot wily ones;