eat a
soft pleasure and joy took hold of him, till again he looked, and saw
there no longer the kine and sheep, and the herd-women tending them, but
the rush and turmoil of that fierce battle, the confused thundering noise
of which was going up to the heavens; for indeed he was now fully awake
again.

So he stood up and looked about; and around him was a ring of the
sorrowful faces of the warriors, who had deemed that he was hurt deadly,
though no hurt could they find upon him. But the Dwarf-wrought Hauberk
lay upon the ground beside him; for they had taken it off him to look for
his hurts.

So he looked into their faces and said: "What aileth you, ye men? I am
alive and unhurt; what hath betided?"

And one said: "Art thou verily alive, or a man come back from the dead?
We saw thee fall as thou wentest leading us against the foe as if thou
hadst been smitten by a thunder-bolt, and we deemed thee dead or
grievously hurt. Now the carles are fighting stoutly, and all is well
since thou livest yet."

So he said: "Give me the point and edges that I know, that I may smite
myself therewith and not the foemen; for I have feared and blenched from
the battle."

Said an old warrior: "If that be so, Thiodolf, wilt thou blench twice? Is
not once enough? Now let us go back to the hard handplay, and if thou
wilt, smite thyself after the battle, when we have once more had a man's
help of thee."

Therewith he held out Throng-plough to him by the point, and Thiodolf
took hold of the hilts and handled it and said: "Let us hasten, while the
Gods will have it so, and while they are still suffering me to strike a
stroke for the kindred."

And therewith he brandished Throng-plough, and went forth toward the
battle, and the heart grew hot within him, and the joy of waking life
came back to him, the joy which but erewhile he had given to a mere
dream.

But the old man who had rebuked him stooped down and lifted the Hauberk
from the ground, and cried out after him, "O Thiodolf, and wilt thou go
naked into so strong a fight? and thou with this so goodly
sword-rampart?"

Thiodolf stayed a moment, and even therewith they looked, and lo! the
Romans giving back before the Goths and the Goths following up the chase,
but slowly and steadily. Then Thiodolf heeded nothing save the battle,
but ran forward hastily, and those warriors followed him, the old man
last of all holding the Hauberk in his hand, and muttering:

"So fares hot